It’s hard to believe it's already Fall. Today we’re looking back on our second Annual GGC Marketing Summer Camp held at our office in August. It was so nice to welcome clients and friends alike, to catch up and learn a thing or two (and eat lots of tacos and ice cream).

Goldstein Group Communications announces the addition of Rachel Kerstetter to its expert team as Marketing Manager. 

With more than seven years of business-to-business marketing communications experience, Kerstetter will help clients with communication strategy, content development, public relations and media relations. 

“We’re glad to have Rachel join our growing team here at GGC,” said agency President Joel Goldstein. “Her previous successes earning high-value coverage for technical organizations will be instrumental in delivering measurable results for our clients.”

Kerstetter earned her bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Mount Union. She is currently serving as vice president and chair of the communications committee for the PRSA Greater Cleveland Chapter.

I’ll admit that I’m a fan of industry studies. Among my favorites are the surveys conducted by publishers to document how engineers learn about new products and where they go to buy them. In an era of growing ecommerce, Amazon and other dramatic shifts in how companies market to engineers and other technical buyers, keeping in front of these trends is rather critical.

So, with gratitude to several engineer-focused publishers who share our interest in digital marketing trends, here are some highlights from a variety of studies we’ve seen recently.

1. Perhaps at the top of the list is the explosive impact Amazon is having in the b-to-b market. We’ve talked about it coming for several years. Now Amazon has gone from no where two years ago to a whopping 38% of electronic engineers reporting they buy products on Amazon for work-related purchases. It’s even more pronounced among younger engineers, as you’d expect: 55% of younger engineers report using Amazon.
   
   What it Means: If you don’t have an Amazon Prime store on Amazon, get one. Before the end of the day.
   
   

One of the common questions our agency is asked is what marketing automation software platform clients should choose. We think they’re all good tools, and certainly add a strong dose of measurability and analytics to the marketing programs being implemented. And we love those analytics.

Today, as we’ve now become one of HubSpot’s newest Platinum Level Value Added Resellers, we thought we’d share a few opinions we have on how Pardot and HubSpot compare. Certainly, we’re a bit biased toward HubSpot, as we’re proud to have achieved Platinum status as one of just 100 VARs out of HubSpot’s 3000+ VAR community. However, we tend to do more HubSpot work more so because the bulk of our clients have chosen that tool, not because we’ve insisted they make that choice.

Everyone hates to do it, and in truth there are few people who are good at it.  And even though an earlier blog post from us talked about the increasing difficulty in selling over the phone, particularly to younger professionals, we do encourage sales organizations to make outreach a part of their strategies for acquiring new accounts.

In fact, one of our clients with a particularly well-oiled sales machine has generated millions of dollars in new account revenue from their targeted cold calling campaigns.

So, with that in mind, I was sent these latest statistics on cold calling and telephone selling recently by sales veteran Tim May, who runs sales at our client N2Net. (Author’s admission:  Tim gives full credit to pulling these from one of his LinkedIn contacts, Emma Marriott, Business Development Manager at Pingala Media!)

Can You Sell to Millennial Engineers on the Phone? 

Recently we’ve had some discussion here at the agency about the use of tele-sales, and whether that time has passed. Is it possible to reach people and sell on the phone anymore?  Is – gasp – cold calling still something to task salespeople to do?

We still believe that cold calling and phone selling has its place. In fact, we know of several clients that use call centers as their primary selling channel.

However, we also believe that cold calling and telesales is the single most costly method of selling.  It reminds me of an old McGraw Hill Publishing ad in which a grumpy prospect looked directly into the camera and asked, “I don’t know your company. I don’t know your products.  I don’t know your reputation.  Now, what was it you wanted to sell me?” 

The point of the ad, of course, is to remind marketers that you can certainly sell to someone who knows nothing about you, but it’s always going to be quite a bit easier to push that boulder up the hill if you walk in the door with some brand awareness and even preference already established.

Still, some companies are making it even harder for marketers to use the phone.  JPMorgan Chase and Coca-Cola recently eliminated voice mail for many employees as part of cost-cutting moves; others are considering similar initiatives. Vonage released a study showing annual declines in the number of voice mails left on their systems, and the number who even listened to their messages fell by 14%. In another story about voice mail, NPR interviewed a 26-year-old who said that “voice mail might evolve into something kind of special and exciting – like a telegram once was.” Oh my god!

Tech Accelerators Will Win the Marketing Battleground 

I was stunned to read this:  Gartner Group reported recently that the technology budget for the Chief Marketing Officer in 2017 will be bigger than the CIO’s tech budget!

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, with the explosion in marketing tools coming to the market.  See the graphic put together by Chiefmartech.com, and you’ll see what I mean.  It’s a dizzying array of tech tools to measure and improve marketing.  No wonder marketing feels so overwhelming these days!

Goldstein Group Communications announced that it has added Kevin Hatgas as social media specialist to its team of marketing communications experts. Hatgas will focus on building client brand and industry exposure to generate leads and grow market share through social media and paid search. 

Hatgas’s career has been spent creating and executing multi-channel marketing plans with a specialization in social media, web, and email marketing. 

“We are excited to add Kevin to our team of marketing professionals,” said agency President Joel Goldstein.  “His expertise will continue our focus on social media and garner the results that our clients deserve.” 

Prior to joining Goldstein Group Communications, Hatgas worked in higher education where he was responsible for marketing communications efforts – both digital and print – for a university and its broad alumni base. 

Goldstein Group Communications announced that it has added Anastasia Fete as marketing manager to its team of marketing communications experts.

Fete will focus on building brands and industry exposure for clients seeking to generate leads and grow market share. Fete’s career has been spent working on the strategy and execution of B-to-B marketing campaigns for both non-profits and privately owned companies.

“Anastasia brings our agency strong capabilities in a wide variety of sales channels important to our client base,” said agency President Joel Goldstein.  “Her deep experience in digital marketing as well as her educational background in cognitive science will be particularly relevant to our clients seeking to find new ways to connect with an increasingly diverse customer base.”

Prior to joining Goldstein Group Communications, Fete worked for a national distributor of health and wellness supplies, where she was responsible for managing its email, advertising, print, and product pipeline initiatives.

Goldstein Group Communications announced that it has added Jennie Ford as digital marketing manager to its team of marketing communications experts. Ford will focus on content syndication and growing client exposure and engagement to generate leads and grow market share by building on the agency’s expertise in manufacturing and engineering-related fields.

Ford joins us from a public relations firm where she served two years as their digital marketing manager. She is an expert in developing and executing award-winning digital programs for various clients including manufacturing, healthcare, government and nonprofit.

“Jennie complements our team by bringing a fresh perspective and her extensive knowledge in optimizing digital marketing channels,” said agency President Joel Goldstein. “Because of her hands-on experience conceptualizing and producing marketing campaigns that tie to a successful sales process, she’ll be able to create powerful and high impact programs for our clients.”

Ford’s early career was spent serving in the United States Army- National Guard as an avionics communication systems repairer. Later she provided digital marketing strategies for local Cleveland businesses to reach new audiences.

More recently, Ford founded her own SEO firm in Northeast Ohio, where she developed optimized content for social media, websites and advertising channels. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Master of Arts in Communication: Applied Theory and Methodology from Cleveland State University.