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July 1, 2014
in Blog, Events, Tell Your Story News
by Annie Beard

BMA14: Looking Back at B2B Marketing’s Most Valuable Lessons

At the end of May, the Tell Your Story team attended the three-day BMA14 Conference in Chicago, the largest B2B marketing conference in the world. We joined over 1,000 B2B marketers from over 400 firms to learn the latest trends, thinking, best practices and more about a wide variety of B2B marketing topics. Our team was on-site for the duration of the conference, working to share the most valuable takeaways with our audience through a series of blog posts and live-tweets. Check out our dispatches from BMA14 below!   You Should be Proud of your BMA Chapter Leaders    By: George Rafeedie       Tell Your Story Wins Business Marketing Association B2 Award of Excellence   By: Ellen DePodesta   #BMA14 From Afar   By: Angi Day   Mobile Marketing Lessons from Facebook at #BMA14   By: Amanda Pollard   Business-to-Business is not Boring-to-Boring   By: Erin Neal   The Art of Social Selling #BMA14   By: Erin Neal   Taking Marketing from a Cost Center to a Revenue Center   By: Ellen DePodesta   Tripling Down at #BMA14   By: George Rafeedie   Watch...

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June 27, 2014
in Blog, Interesting Things, Tell Your Story News
by Annie Beard

A Word from our Intern

Hi, everyone, Annie Beard here! I am a Senior Strategic Communication major at Ohio University, and I am interning with Tell Your Story this summer.  I met George while he was spending time at Ohio U. as the Visiting Professional of Public Relations at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. After a few weeks of follow-up emails and calls, I found myself in Chicago working alongside the amazing Tell Your Story team!   It has been great so far, and I have already learned so much from these PR Pros. I have gotten a lot of hands-on experience with social media, blog writing, competitive audits, press releases and writing content for newsletters—basically everything that a PR nerd, like myself, could hope for!  I have also been working closely with George on CoWorkers, the co-working space he co-founded. (That’s a lot of co’s).  It has been a lot of fun getting to know...

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June 27, 2014
in Blog, Interesting Things, Tell Your Story News
by Annie Beard

Tell Your Story Staffing Up to Tell More Stories

  In recent months, Tell Your Story has welcomed two new team members - Ellen DePodesta and Erin Neal. We can’t be more excited to have their expertise complement what we’re up to at Tell Your Story. And our clients agree.   Ellen DePodesta    Ellen has more than 20 years of experience in the B2B PR and marketing world with agencies in Chicago, Los Angeles and Cincinnati.From this experience and her work with heaps of clients, she has plenty to show for it. She has placed client stories in dozens of top-tier media outlets and news websites, and her clients have presented at national and global conferences and received honors and awards in workplace environment, business ethics, marketing campaigns and product innovation. Ellen has earned APR professional accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America, following in her parents’ footsteps, both accredited members of PRSA. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism...

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May 30, 2014
in Blog, Events, Business Marketing Association
by Nicole Benzer

Emotions and the Customer Buying Process

Dispatches from BMA14: a Series of Short Reports from the Tell Your Story Team at #BMA14 in Chicago   [caption id="attachment_2041" align="alignright" width="100"] Karen Walker, SVP of Cisco[/caption] Karen Walker, SVP of Cisco, presented on the art and science of creating emotional connections with customers this morning. As the b2b buying process continues to change, emotions are playing an integral role in the customer journey. Karen noted that nearly 60% of b2b buyers go to social communities to find information on a brand or product and nearly 85% use social media during the buying process.   A brand is really an emotional connection someone has with a product or service and surprisingly, b2b buyers are more emotionally connected to brands than b2c customers. This makes sense when you consider the risk, time, money and overall consequences involved in a b2b purchase.   What does this mean for marketers? Many things but the bottom line: we need to...

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May 30, 2014
in Blog, Events, Business Marketing Association
by Amanda Pollard

#IamGenC

Dispatches from BMA14: Series of Short Reports from the Tell Your Story Team at #BMA14 in Chicago Yesterday, twelve young b2b pros capped off Day 2 of BMA14 with a fantastic presentation on Gen C. If you think Gen C is just another term for Millennials, think again. Gen C, also referred to as the YouTube generation, is not defined by your birthdate, but rather your mindset (yes Baby Boomers you can be a Gen C'er too!). The C stands for connection, creation, community and curation. The YP presenters painted a vivid picture of who Gen C is and how you can reach them. Here are a few highlights:   They create 100x more content than you can. So hand over the microphone and listen up! They know more about you than you think. So be found! They check reviews and with their peers before making a buying decision. What will they find...

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May 29, 2014
in Blog, Events, Business Marketing Association
by Ellen DePodesta

Taking Marketing From a Cost Center to a Revenue Center

Dispatches from BMA14: a Series of Short Reports from the Tell Your Story Team at #BMA14 in Chicago   More and more marketers are being asked to prove the impact marketing has on both the top and bottom lines. At BMA14 today, one of the 15-minute “Firestarter” sessions addressed the challenge of transforming marketing from a cost center to a revenue center.   [caption id="attachment_1987" align="alignleft" width="162"] Debbie Qaqish[/caption] Debbie Qaqish is principal and chief strategy officer of the Pedowitz Group and author of “The Rise of the Revenue Marketer.” She told the audience of 900+ b2b marketers what it takes to lead this kind of transformation. There are specific behaviors to address in order to affect this change, said Debbie, and she likened the transition to her own personal transformation through her passion for Crossfit and health and fitness habits.   The behaviors to transform marketing from a cost to a revenue center fall into five areas:   1)  Change management: Debbie...

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May 29, 2014
in Blog, Events, Business Marketing Association
by Erin Neal

The Art of Social Selling #BMA14

[caption id="attachment_1976" align="alignleft" width="233"] #SocialSelling expert Jill Rowley[/caption] Dispatches from BMA14: Series of Short Reports from the Tell Your Story Team at #BMA14 in Chicago   Social selling expert Jill Rowley rocked the #BMA14 crowd this morning and discussed how we can do a better job communicating with prospects using social media. Her presentation was excellent as she kept emphasizing,  “It isn’t always about closing, it is about always being connected.”   The biggest change in the market is using social media channels to engage with your audience.  Stop trying to be a “quota crusher,” she implored sales professionals. Rather, connect with your audience in a meaningful way.  She supported this with a great stat: 78 percent of sales professionals who use social media to build connections outsell their peers.   She also reviewed a bit of research that shows that it takes approximately 8 cold calls to reach a prospect, and of those people reached, only 2%...

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May 28, 2014
in Blog, Events, Business Marketing Association
by Erin Neal

Business to Business is not Boring to Boring #BMA14

Dispatches from BMA14: Series of Short Reports from the Tell Your Story Team at #BMA14 in Chicago   When I was in college, all of the advertising classes were focused on the sex appeal of consumer marketing.  There wasn’t a focus on business-to-business marketing; I didn’t even know it existed.  Fast forward a certain number of years, and here I sit, attending a global business-marketing event – BMA14. BMA14 kicked off today with a huge statement – there are almost 1,000 attendees, making this the largest Business-to-Business marketing conference in the globe!   The presenters have been fantastic.  I’ve seen a variety of companies present, from USG to Airbus to Facebook.  I have learned so much, and one of the biggest things that I was reminded of was summarized by a quote from Beth Comstock, CMO of GE: “BtoB does not stand for Boring to Boring.” How right she is.   A few highlights that piqued my...

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May 28, 2014
in Blog, Events, Business Marketing Association
by Amanda Pollard

Mobile Marketing Lessons from Facebook at #BMA14

Dispatches from BMA14: Series of Short Reports from the Tell Your Story Team at #BMA14 in Chicago If there’s any company to take mobile marketing advice from, it’s Facebook. As of last month, Facebook surpassed 1 billion active users on mobile— way more than their desktop version will ever get. CMO of Facebook Gary Briggs gave an awesome presentation at BMA14 demonstrating just how important mobile should be in our overall marketing strategy.   When Facebook first launched its mobile app it was fraught with problems. It was too slow, had poor quality (and low ratings and reviews) and it was unprofitable. Then they completely changed the way they did business.   Here are a few of the lessons Gary shared with us:   Make it Fast First, Facebook completely re-built their apps. Gary said speed was the most important thing to think of when building an app. Now the Facebook app is updated every four weeks, if...

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May 28, 2014
in Blog, Events, Business Marketing Association
by Angi Day

#BMA14 From Afar

Dispatches from BMA14: Series of Short Reports from the Tell Your Story Team at #BMA14 in Chicago   Since the Tell Your Story team is staffing the 2014 Global BMA Conference media room, my colleagues are front and center for BMA14. As a remote team member, I’m taking part from hundreds of miles away. It really says something when your eyes simply cannot keep up with your Twitter feed. Follow #BMA14, the official event hashtag, and watch your feed explode with quotes, observations, photos and real-time session takeaways. There is always much anticipation and excitement surrounding the annual BMA conference, the largest b2b marketing conference in the entire world, and this year is no different. The buzz is palpable, even if you aren’t there in person. ...

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