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What to expect in 2022? After the last two years, we are prepared for anything! There are ongoing changes to privacy regulation and management that will impact what you can measure, and what you should expect in the year to come.

Traditional thinking dictates that a venture capitalist’s first step after investment is to strip out overhead cost and create efficiencies. But in recent years, we’ve noticed a shift in the conversation  - new leadership is now focused on leveraging and positioning the existing brand. We are working with investors and CEOs to:

According to McKinsey, marketing’s holy grail is digital personalization at scale because “personalization can reduce acquisition costs by as much as 50%, lift revenues by 5-15%, and increase the efficiency of marketing spend by 10-30%.”

Another year at Photonics West, the leading event for photonics and laser companies, is in the books! With over 5,000 presentations and 1,300 exhibiting companies, the consensus so far is that traffic was down and quality was up. After months preparing client booths, websites, collateral pieces, and campaigns, we're excited to share a few favorites!

Whether you are in a start-up or second stage growth, taking your current size into consideration is important in evaluating and prioritizing marketing tactics and spend. In a recent webinar, Launch Team’s President Michele Nichols discussed the many approaches to developing your marketing mix and how companies in the technology space can help find leads and connect with potential customers. She also elaborated on:

• Specific types of tactics that are working for customers
• How to identify what tactics are advantageous and what are outdated.

For the first time in over 100 years, there are four generations in the workforce. Differences in communication styles among these groups can have real implications for your marketing.

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.

You know that guy at the party who is having a one-way conversation? Here's how to avoid being that guy.

As we near the halfway point in the year, it’s worth taking a fresh look at your current marketing plan to identify what’s working and what might need adjusting. It’s OK to retire events, ads, and tactics that aren’t delivering great ROI and instead focus on those that are.

Recently we spoke with Jeff Nichols, sales manager at PennWell, the organization that publishes Laser Focus World. Trade publications are valuable in reaching niche audiences like optics, photonics and lasers. Jeff is well regarded in these industries for being both practical and strategic in creating advertising plans. Though Jeff and Launch Team President Michele Nichols are not related, they have served many of the same companies, working to meet their advertising and marketing needs. Enjoying a craft beer (see below), they talked through trends in the optics industry right now.

Typewriters, boom boxes, floppy disks. What we thought would never be replaced, well, have been. Technology and media are constantly changing, and inevitably so are customers’ buying behaviors.

MTOTW #41: Using video as part of your content marketing can help you tell your brand story or explain a product application. But poor production can detract from even the most compelling story. Here are some tips to improve video quality.