B2B Reads: Enhance Your Brand, A Non-Designer’s Guide, & Missing Deadlines

In addition to our Sunday App of the Week feature, we also summarize some of our favorite B2B sales & marketing posts from around the web each week. We’ll miss a ton of great stuff, so if you found something you think is worth sharing please add it to the comments below.

Enhance your brand with these 4 marketing hacks
Branding, it’s the cornerstone of every marketer’s mission. Yet, it’s harder to achieve than it seems. Thank you, Rashan Dixon, for the helpful tips.

Improving Sales Productivity Is Never A One-And-Done Effort
To get the most value from sales productivity — and to sustain it’s value — sales leaders need to continuously look for opportunities to fine-tune. This is essential as the buyer landscape, sales processes, and technologies continue to evolve. Thank you for the great read, Phil Harrell.

How Marketers Can Create Better Sales Content
Collaboration is key. Even with the best intentions, a lot of content that marketers create can be misunderstood or kicked under the rug, leading to more work on both marketing and sales—with fewer results. Thank you, Wayne St. Amand, for the insightful read.

Beyond the Basics of B2B Reviews
We’ve seen B2C companies turn reviews into brand propelling, revenue-generating, loyalty demanding engines that fuel the growth, trust, and recognition. But B2B (software) reviews are still relatively in an infancy stage. Thank you, Gina Carr, for covering what the future of B2B reviews looks like.

A Non-Designer’s Guide to Visual Hierarchy
Ever click on a website, take one look and say “Hm, that’s going to be a no” while you look for the exit button? For me, it’s usually because of three reasons: the site looks outdated, crowded, or hard to navigate. Bad design can keep your target audience from gaining any interest in your brand. Thank you for the helpful tips, Martina Bretous.

What Did They Buy It For?
We focus on what we are selling, perhaps why they should buy from us and not a competitor. We talk about the superiority of our solution and regale them with endless lists of features and functions that are supposed to differentiate our offerings. But we don’t know what they are buying it for, or what it means to them and how we make them successful–personally and organizationally. Thank you for the insightful read, David Brock.

6 Content Calendar Strategies That Work Better Than Waiting for Inspiration
You have a documented content marketing strategy. You’ve outlined your quarterly plan, aligning your messages and goals with demand gen, sales, customer success, and other teams. But you still have slots to fill in your editorial calendar. Thank you, Kim Moutsos, for the great strategies.

Seven B2B Sales Metrics That Can Help You Plan Your Marketing Strategy
Running a B2B business is challenging when your clients are few and your competition is plenty. Only the best are able to achieve those coveted high conversion rates but here are some B2B sales metrics that can help you crack the coveted 10% conversion rate. Thank you, Ian Loew, for the insight.

Battling the stigma of mental health in sales
A conversation about the stressors, mental health issues, and unique challenges that are rampant in the sales community. For many, these issues became accentuated during the pandemic, as traditional sales models and work environments have been replaced by more remote and hybrid work. Thank you, Natalie Beaulieu, for the thoughtful read.

How To Miss A Deadline
Its great to have strategies and tips to make sure you don’t miss deadlines but sometimes you can’t avoid it.  Here are some ways to deal with missing deadlines. Thank you for the helpful suggestions, Seth Godin.