Louis Foong

— Because he did not like what I told him he should do or have done months ago

Last week I had lunch with the CEO of a Information Technology company. We met at a fine dining Japanese restaurant in downtown Toronto. Being a true blue foodie, I have in my mind a single test for the quality of food at a Japanese restaurant. So I always order deep-fried, soft shell crab. There are a few very important criteria the dish must meet. The crab must be just the right size—not too big, not too small; must have the right amount of batter, should we well-tempered. Overall, it must taste DIVINE. And this one did. It really was very good. So, my CEO friend and I both enjoyed a delicious meal. And yet, it was probably the most disappointing lunch meeting he had in recent times.

The reason I disappointed this CEO was because he was looking for a magic potion to

Do you remember the Avis Car Rental advertising campaign in the early sixties? The one that said “We Are Number Two But We Try Harder”? The company still uses the “We Try Harder” part of that tagline. The campaign put Avis back in the black after being in the red for over a decade. This is a classic example of a winning brand positioning strategy where the company is truthful (that they are not number one, but number two) and yet makes a compelling statement of why customers should choose them over other players (because “we try harder”).

Why am I bringing this legendary campaign into my blog article? Because I believe that close to fifty years later, the same fundamentals of marketing stand true; especially in B2B marketing.

• Don’t pretend to be something/someone you are not.
• Be the best that you can be—and tell your target audience what you are doing to become better every day.
• Most importantly, CONNECT with your customers...

Proven Steps for B2B Marketers to Secure, Engage and Convert Quality Leads

In the world of marketing, we all live in relentless pursuit of finding more prospects and converting more customers. Now here’s a recent study that declares “on average, 57% of a purchase decision is complete before a customer contacts a supplier.”

Given the statistic mentioned and show in the chart above, it really should be quite simple to...

I’m a self-professed “foodie”—passionate about tasting new cuisine styles, adventurous about experimenting with everything, from Sushi to barbecues to Tapas, and totally unabashed with my zany streak when it comes to gastronomic delights. Now that’s fairly easy to do, and definitely low-risk if you always have a good digestive or a nice bottle of Angostura bitters. In business and marketing, on the other hand, I am certainly a lot more cautious. I observe, I analyze, I try out, I test, I measure and only then do I commit to incorporating a new tool or method into marketing strategy. Not saying I am less passionate or less adventurous—but I do stir in sufficient testing and measurement mechanisms as key ingredients of B2B marketing.

It was with this measured, strategically crafted rather than tactical approach that we started our digital marketing journey about 2 years ago. So let me share with you a quick summary of The ALEA Group’s SEO (search engine optimization) and...