It’s 2018, and there are still an assortment of print publications distributed throughout the Dynamics community. A number of Dynamics ISVs still regularly allocate budget to display print ads in them. Given the digital age we live in, does advertising in a print publication, even a relatively niche one, still make sense? Or is it…
These are challenging times for trade shows. Attendance is off at many, meaning sponsors aren’t getting the traffic they expected. Reduced traffic leads to a reduction in the number and quality of sales leads, and a much lower-than-expected ROI. In this digital climate, where people can access information immediately, and marketers are savvier than ever…
The buying process for Dynamics users is shifting rapidly to a situation where marketers have less and less control over user decision-making. What this means is that ISVs need to learn to “think like a customer,” asserts Rich Hanna, a business professor at Babson College in Wellesley, MA, and an expert in digital marketing who…
The ISV CEO stood off to the side of his company’s glitzy, and costly, exhibit booth near the conclusion of a recent three-day Dynamics conference. He was speaking to an old friend he had just met up with at the event, and was lamenting the dismal marketing production of the fancy booth. “Not a single…
Whether in geometry, or online marketing, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The most efficient way to generate sales leads online is to go straight to your prospects, on sites they frequent, rather than taking roundabout, often inconsistent, approaches. We like to call this most-efficient approach straight-line marketing. Because it is…
Imagine an event where you’re placed in a massive room surrounded by as many as 200 other vendors, some of whom are your competitors. Attendees are scrambling down the aisles, searching either for the bar or the vendors they wish to visit. A vendor’s only hope for getting a leg up on the competition to…
Dynamics conference season is winding down. That means it’s time to calculate what you got for the big bucks you invested in your sponsorships. In other words, it’s time for marketers to answer these questions: What’s my cost-per-lead (CPL) for each event? How does that CPL compare to the CPL I’m achieving through non-conference activities?…
Over the past ten years, we’ve attended many Dynamics-focused trade shows, and each year we see lots of the same exhibitors placed within massive exhibit halls, lost in a sea of other sponsors. They get mixed ROI results at best, and more often than not don’t even know their ROI in terms of high-quality sales leads.…
Content creation is often thought of as one of those “soft” areas of online marketing for Dynamics ISVs and partners. You throw it out there—on your web site or on industry blogs—and it’s assumed it will help bring in sales leads. But no one seems to know for sure exactly how productive it is. Except…
After posting my recent blog entry on Data Masons, I received several interesting comments and questions from clients. Virtually all of them thought it was obvious what the next step should be to close the leads who indicated their purchase timeframe would be less than 3 months–namely, assign those leads to internal telemarketers to follow up on,…
We recently ran a thought leadership webinar on how to build a highly productive content strategy and portfolio. One of the key recommendations: make sure you have enough relevant content to target your key audiences as well as your vertical industries. More specifically, we reviewed how essential it is to have content to run online that relates to a…
Dynamics ISVs and partners like to post their white papers, case studies, product brochures, and other types of content on MSDynamicsWorld.com (MSDW) frequently, because they generate results. But which type of content works best for attracting serious sales leads? And how can you, as an ISV or partner, improve the chances of your content catching…
Are you tired of paying big bucks to sponsor Dynamics conferences where you are treated as an afterthought? So are we, which is why MSDynamicsWorld.com (MSDW) is proud and excited to introduce a new type of event experience: The new 2017 Innovation Expo, is the first and only large-scale, live virtual event in the Dynamics ERP…
We hear the complaint over and over: We’re not generating enough sales leads, especially when you consider the huge amounts we spend on exhibiting at Dynamics trade shows. Now, there’s quantitative data indicating the problem isn’t unique to Dynamics ISVs. A Canadian marketing firm, 360Leads, discovered in an international survey that although 78.5% of surveyed…
As Dynamics ISVs plan their 2017 marketing strategy, the conference circuit is the elephant in the room for many of them. And for good reason: It’s the elephant in the room for companies of all sizes and industries around the country. Consider the staggering size and scope of events marketing in the U.S.: About 225…
You’re having your weekly marketing meeting, and the main question on your agenda is determining which two or three Microsoft Dynamics conferences to exhibit at from the dozen or more up for grabs. The decision is an important one for your company, since you’ve become accustomed to generating the majority of your annual sales leads…
For ISVs that target specific segments of the Microsoft Dynamics user base, this year’s conference season is sure to be a challenge. Microsoft has shifted its own event planning, it has transformed Convergence into Envision, a destination for C-level executives. With the other marquee events designed for IT, developers, and partners, there is, as our…
Microsoft has done an admirable job expanding the Dynamics marketplace over the last decade, to an estimated 200,000-plus organizations and growing . In the process it has helped create a thriving community of add-on sellers, partners, and consultants. For ISVs selling into this market, the most readily available route has been an old-time marketing vehicle:…
Convergence was a unique and powerful marketing event for many ISVs and partners for many years. It gathered in one place thousands of people from all walks of Microsoft Dynamics life– users, partners, programmers, and Microsoft execs– for several days of networking and learning. Friends catching up, ISVs launching new products, partners making product presentations,…
Over the years, Search Engine Optimization, more commonly known as SEO, has become a “go to” online investment for ISVs and other technology marketers. Many studies have shown that, along with sponsorship at conferences, budgets for SEO marketing rank the highest when it comes to online spending. When asked why this is so, marketers’ responses…