Is the blog dead? Marketing gurus have predicted the death of blogging on and off since 2009. In niche industries like optics and photonics, advanced manufacturing, and medical devices, many companies were slow to adopt a content-driven strategy because they believed their customers didn’t read blogs. Now that they’ve seen the ROI of blogging, we question how long it will remain viable. Let’s explore.
Recent posts by Michele Nichols
3 min read
Product Launch & Inbound Strategy: Is the Blog Dead?
Topics: Inbound Marketing Product Launch
3 min read
Reaching Your Customers' Customers: Market Outlook in Additive Manufacturing & Automation
FABTECH in Chicago represents some of the fastest growing segments in U.S. manufacturing today, including laser marking and automation. Attendees are the ultimate users of many of the technologies we work in: laser diodes, optical assemblies, laser steering systems, coating technology, and capital equipment. Yet many of these companies know little about the end application and the users’ needs.
Topics: Business Insights Positioning
1 min read
Coping with Q4 Pressures: Sell More, Spend Less
It's the fourth quarter, and everyone is under pressure to close the year strong. For most companies, that means a mandate to cut spending and close more deals. However, one of those instructions often undermines the other. Marketing budgets are often the first to experience cuts, and these cuts can feel self-defeating. Marketing creates sales, and a healthy marketing and sales pipeline is key to sustainable growth.
Making this argument may not change your Q4 reality, though. Instead, we offer some practical suggestions of marketing and sales activities to stop, and some to start, to meet your budget and sales targets.
Topics: Business Insights Marketing Strategy
3 min read
INBOUND 2017: Marketing Strategies that Keep Up with Changing Customer Behaviors
Members of the Launch team trekked to Boston recently for INBOUND 2017, HubSpot's annual conference on inbound marketing best practices. It was a few team members’ first time attending, but it was a learning experience for all, as well as a chance to visit local Boston clients.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
3 min read
Deep Dive into Emerging Markets: Opportunities for Optics in AR & VR
While virtual reality promised and failed to hit 2016 expectations, market projections still show that augmented reality and virtual reality will reach $108B by 2021. Consumer electronics are a high-volume opportunity for U.S. optical manufacturers, but they often remain elusive due to cost constraints. Does augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) offer some optics and photonics companies a stronghold? Let’s break it down.
3 min read
Eating the Elephant: Marketing Tips for Product Managers
More than a Product Manager
The role of the product manager is increasingly important in industries like medical devices, where time to market is accelerating, and optics and photonics, where emerging markets are driving demand for product innovation.
Topics: Business Insights Marketing Strategy
1 min read
The CEO as Sales Manager: Asking the Right Questions
In growing small and mid-sized companies, the CEO is often the company’s best salesperson. As the company grows, so does the sales team, but the CEO seldom is able to totally abdicate a role in sales.
Topics: Sales
4 min read
What’s Next in Medical Devices, and What Does It Mean for Optics?
The medical device market continues its slow and steady growth—projected at 2.8% annually for the next five years—making it an attractive and sustainable space for optics companies positioned to fill emerging needs. But where exactly does your company fit?
4 min read
5 Questions to Consider When Planning Your Marketing Budget
There's a lot more to budget planning than deciding how much to spend where. For some, it's setting a right-sized investment in marketing to match their growth goals. For others, it's optimizing their marketing budgets by shifting resources to what's working best today—namely, online channels. This shift involves a broadened focus on bringing in leads through websites, targeted social media, regular blogging, opt-in email subscribers, etc.
Topics: Inbound Marketing Marketing Mix Marketing Strategy
2 min read
Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur: Scalable Sales & Marketing Models
At a recent panel discussion, I was asked to share experiences in sales and marketing with an audience of Entrepreneurs’ Organization accelerator founders, along with fellow panelists Don Davis of Empire Automation Systems and Ron Valentine of ITX.
Topics: Business Insights Marketing Strategy Sales
4 min read
How to Sell to Medical Device Companies
Opportunities and Challenges
For optics and other component manufacturers, medical devices represent a strong opportunity—especially for those who need to diversify their revenue base from DoD.
The US medical device market growth rate has slowed in recent years; it’s projected at 6.1% for 2017. There are several factors slowing growth and innovation in US healthcare, including:
- The repeal and reform of the Affordable Care Act, and post-election uncertainty
- Iterative product innovation to speed product launch, reduce FDA hurdles, and reduce risk
Topics: Medical Device Sales
3 min read
Emerging Market Strategy: Market Positioning for UAV
Just back from SPIE’s Defense & Commercial Sensing (DCS) conference in Anaheim, and preparing for XPONENTIAL in Dallas next month, we’re noticing that the emerging drone market presents real promise as well as challenges.
The optics, photonics, and imaging exhibitors at SPIE DCS share a common challenge with XPONENTIAL’s component exhibitors—a great deal of unknowns in:
- UAV adoption curve
- UAV applications to invest in
- Requirements
- Regulatory environment
