Do you use LinkedIn effectively or shy away from it because you don’t know what to do, or even personally dislike social media?

Are you a leader who is always looking forward at your ‘things to do’ list? There’s a mountain to climb, so many things to do, not enough time or people to make it happen?

Are events a part of your marketing mix?  This post is for you especially if you are sponsoring or exhibiting, but also some tips even if you are simply an attendee. 

A ‘workation’ is a combination of work and vacation. I’ve seen definitions range from “a pleasurable business trip” to “a working vacation”, which is more of what I was aiming at.

Having a plan is one thing, but making it happen is a different thing altogether… maybe that’s why so many of our actual ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ fall off so early. 

We had a small, but engaged group at the April Tech Marketers Group event in Christchurch which was hosted by Lucy Pink of Contented AI in the beautiful surrounds of the Arts Centre.

This is a selection of the interesting current and, not-too-way-in-the distant, trends which I have tried to pick as relevant to scaling Kiwi tech and innovation companies.

A marketing engine is a set of systems, tools and processes which help you to run your marketing operation. In some organisations there are whole teams dedicated just to marketing operations, but that is not the reality for many with tighter budgets, or earlier on their journey.

Talking to your customers isn't just about sales, asking for confirmation of your next innovation, or resolving an issue; it's about genuine feedback and insight. 

Even marketing professionals often get distracted by being busy pumping out content, but it's often tactical and not as effective in driving your business objectives. 

Whether you are creating your ideal customer persona, developing your marketing messaging, updating your website, or briefing your sales team - don’t forget to think about the personal drivers of the people you are trying to persuade.

One of the most common issues I come across is the disconnect between the sales and marketing teams.  It creates a disjointed experience for customers and costs organisations money, both in lost opportunities and wasted staff time.   

By analysing and really understanding what is causing the slowdown you can make decisions and formulate a plan based on fact and evidence, rather than gut-feel.

Unless you have an endless budget for paid advertising or sales people, good content is a great tool to have in your business' toolbox.  

I thought I'd share some of the things I've been experimenting with here and I'd love to hear what you have had successes and struggles with.

It seems amazing to me that in today’s environment we still have to say “the customer needs to be at the centre” of what we do as a business, yet I still have these conversations on a regular basis.  

Last week I headed to Auckland for the annual New Zealand Tech Marketers Group (TMG) Conference: The Future Of Tech Marketing.

I thought it would be useful to share some examples of the companies that continued marketing during previous downturns so you can see what the impact was for them. This will hopefully help you in your own decision-making.

In the light of a potential recession - should we squirrel our marketing expenditure away and stop spending, or should we go out and aggressively spend?

Gartner predicts that by 2025, 30% of outbound marketing content will be produced using AI.