Specialty Coffee Industry Marketing

Forget About B2B Or B2C. The Future Of Marketing is H2H.

SOS DirectAll this marketing technology is nothing without a strategy

With the rise of digital channels and platforms, there are more marketing technology solutions available than ever before, more than 5,000 software solutions available for marketers in 2018.

But all this marketing technology is nothing without a strategy. Ultimately, a marketer’s goal is to increase sales and drive customer retention.

The biggest challenge is aligning new technology with your marketing strategy to connect with the people you want to buy from your company. If you’re a business owner, you need to consider how this technology is going to help drive customer engagement at each stage of the buyer’s journey and customer experience. Adding a new tool isn’t useful unless you know how it will work to drive new revenue.

At the end of the day, regardless of whether you’re in marketing for a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) business, it’s about creating human-to-human (H2H) connections.

Here are six reasons the future of marketing is human-to-human (H2H).

1. Engagement is the new “contact form.”

Less than 1% of leads ever become revenue-generating customers. Continue reading

What illy Knows About Trade Shows

“Get 2 really top pieces of new business rather than 100 minor orders”

illy Caffé, established in 1933 in Trieste, Italy is a global leader in premium espresso coffee, available in over 60 countries.

While a favorite with home espresso machine users, illy has built a successful multi-channel food service business. From the very beginning, they developed a simple, effective, and unique trade show strategy built around their equally unique brand.

illy Trade Show Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics:
Objectives:

  1. To be visible within the marketplace
  2. To demonstrate illy’s success and leadership within its own marketplace
  3. To meet and retain existing clients
  4. To identify new leads that will generate long-term business
  5. To maintain consistency against competitors that exhibit sporadically or infrequently
  6. To occasionally launch new products – launching at a show is best

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Why Your Trade Ads Don’t Work

It has nothing to do with the magazine or Facebook or Google, or any other form of media.

It has to do with what you have to say and how you say it.

Here are a few samples of headlines from recent coffee industry ads: “The Finest Coffee On Earth”, ”Absolutely Brilliant Coffee Brewers”, or my favorite “Create The Ultimate Vanilla Latte”. Continue reading