Sharing knowledge is important. Give your knowledge an energy boost. Read all of our blogs below. Always informative.
Subscribe to our update and be the first to receive our latest publications.
Discover 20 powerful ChatGPT prompts for content, email, SEO and social media marketing. In the dynamic world of digital marketing, ChatGPT is the key to innovative strategies. Let artificial intelligence help you capture attention, increase engagement and drive conversions through ChatGPT prompts.
Stay current in the lightning-fast world of social media. Discover the essential social media dimensions for profile pictures, cover photos and posts in 2024 with our handy infographics. Avoid grainy images and plan your social media content with the right dimensions for 2024.
Optimize your LinkedIn company page for new business opportunities, valuable connections and a strong professional presence. Whether you want to increase your customer base, discover new business opportunities or simply strengthen your online presence, optimizing your business page is crucial. Discover essential steps, such as fully populating your page, SEO strategies, content marketing, and the latest features for 2024.
LinkedIn is constantly changing. Until a year ago, the platform was purely focused on personal contacts. But more and more attention is being paid to organizations. There are more and more opportunities within LinkedIn, both for individuals and organizations. To bring you up to date, we’re giving you an overview so you’re up to speed in the new year.
We often use personas in marketing. Personas are constructed representations of ideal audiences, and their proper application makes communication more targeted. This blog explores what personas are, why they are so powerful and how they can be successfully applied in communication strategies.
It’s that time of year again when we look ahead to what the next year has in store. Plans have been forged, budgets have been prepared, and hopefully you’ve already set your budget for 2024. Everything is set for a great year, and we are ready! So, what specifically are we going to focus on in 2024?
A good LinkedIn profile can open the doors to new career opportunities, business connections and valuable professional relationships. Whether you are looking for a new job, want to expand your network or simply improve your online presence, crafting an effective LinkedIn profile is essential. Here are some steps to help you create an attractive and informative LinkedIn profile.
It will happen to you: suddenly your company is in the news. And people come with questions. Staff involved. Suppliers. Or members of your association Sometimes even journalists. Who are sometimes trained to make you say the one-liners you don’t actually want in the paper. And yet you want to be transparent. In this blog, 17 (!) tips to prepare for that interview.
Embedding a video in an email can be an attractive idea because it adds an interactive element that can engage recipients more effectively. However, there are both pros and cons to consider before you decide to embed a video in an email.
In the dynamic world of marketing, using marketing automation software is a crucial step to increase efficiency, provide personalized communication and ultimately achieve better results.
In the ever-evolving world of marketing, segmentation has proven to be a powerful tool for creating effective strategies that are more targeted and successful.
In a post on LinkedIn, Chris Walker, CEO of Refine Labs shares his analysis of META’s (Facebook) dataset on paid advertising for B2B companies. Dutch B2B companies have also been trying for years to figure out whether it is a good idea to invest in these types of campaigns. His results confirm what he (and we) have long suspected.
A staffing agency has two main commercial sides: developing careers for professionals and providing quality staff to organizations. It is important to understand the unique needs of professionals and organizations. Companies and candidates are becoming more discerning. That requires personalized solutions. Fortunately, we can automate these well, reducing the workload for your intercessors and recruiters.
Thorough keyword research is essential for success in the world of digital marketing. By understanding your target audience’s keywords, you increase your online visibility and create targeted content that meets their needs. In this article, we will discuss the steps to perform effective keyword research and optimize your online presence.
In the Dutch manufacturing industry, the focus is often on product development, technical expertise and innovation. In the process, sales and marketing are sometimes overlooked or considered less important. In this blog, we discuss why sales and marketing are essential for technical manufacturing companies and refute some common misconceptions.
The average company writes abysmally bad job ads. And most websites look like it’s especially not fun to join an organization.
If this does not apply to your business, you could skip this blog. You probably don’t have any major personnel problems. But there is a chance that you are still looking for good workers. And we can make sure that potential employees enjoy coming to talk to you.
Diversity is vital for organizations. It not only helps solve staffing shortages, but also offers strategic benefits, such as better positioning to your target audience. By embracing diversity, you benefit from improved performance, innovation and customer satisfaction.
A communication plan is essential for young entrepreneurs. It ensures consistent and authentic messages, strengthens internal communications, builds strong relationships and provides a solid approach during crises. Feedback and improvements will keep you growing and successful.
AI revolutionizes sales processes by analyzing data, generating valuable insights and enabling targeted marketing. It improves lead generation and qualification, automates tasks, improves customer service and predicts sales results. By using AI strategically, companies gain a competitive advantage, make data-driven decisions, increase efficiency and provide a personalized customer experience. The added value of AI in sales processes enables companies to achieve better results and thrive in a dynamic market.
A communications plan is essential for successful corporate communications. It ensures consistent and coherent messages, strengthens internal communications, builds strong external relationships and provides a solid approach during crises. Through feedback and continuous improvement, communication remains effective and targeted.
At first glance, it seems logical to embed videos directly into your emails. Instead of dropping a clickable video thumbnail and forcing someone to take action and click to view the whole thing, wouldn’t it be easier if the email recipient could easily access the video content within the email itself?
Is it the holy grail for your corporate communications? Or does it flatten everything into unrecognizable boring propositions? In this blog, we share an article by Gys-Walt van Egdom and had Chat GPT write a response.
In a previous article we described the problem that business owners often sell better than their staff members, In this blog we provide some solutions.
A familiar problem. You hire a vendor. Then it turns out that it costs more and acquires customers harder than you do yourself. And marketing costs are also rising. in this blog list 5 causes of that cost increase. (in a future blog how to solve that)
We get the question more often: As my company grows (sometimes with our contribution), how do I get good people? For this we use the professional term “employer branding. 7 things you can do to recruit good colleagues.
A familiar problem. Are you that smart, or….? Still, we’re not going to prevent you from converting the fastest. But even with you, there are only 25 hours in a day. So you have to put salespeople in position. In this blog we tell you the causes, in the next blog how to solve it.
It’s always something: You have enough customers; you’re short on staff. Recruiting requires a slightly different tone than customer recruitment. How do you write a good text?
For clients. And also for potential employees. Because the market demands more. And if you want to deliver, you have to pay as much attention to finding good people to execute it as you do to finding customers.
We make marketing simple. Therefore, we are developing a matrix that you can use to create your own communication plan. With lots of advice and plenty of room to properly develop your plan for your product or service.
Then you finally have visitors to your website. Hundreds. But they don’t convert into customers. Then something is not right. Are you offering your visitors enough good CTAs?
It’s January 1. The day I get to once again reflect on how we are doing, without worrying about audiences, optimization and goals.
It is a question of every generation. And now we have Gen Z, which is now almost 30% of your target audience. How do we reach them?
You want to know more about your customers’ motivations. Or from your prospects. To improve your service. Then you have to ask questions. To retrieve information. This can be done in three ways. By listening in person, having the target audience call or through a digital survey. There is a relationship between the quality (which is decreasing) the quantity (which is increasing) and the cost per interview conducted.
The fact is. People like to talk. We have a lot of knowledge and we share it. You too. So does your company. About your services. Your products. We talk a lot. In this blog, I tell you (!) what you can use to make your relationship with your customers sustainable. By listening. So don’t hook off. Read. Discover the value of the question.
Product differentiation. It’s a long word. Apologies. The definition is even slightly longer: “Differentiation is the act of distinguishing a product or service from that of its competitors.” We explain the value of product differentiation in this blog. Then you can judge whether it’s going to contribute to your bottom line.
Do you want your texts to be read? That what you have to say has impact on those around you. Then read this blog on attractive writing. So that your sound is heard. Experience that small adjustments are enough to create well-read texts.
You communicate with your (internal) customers. You do that in your own way. It is good to have an understanding of your own attitude. Maybe even in the attitude of your interlocutor.
An important question in acquisition: "What stage is my customer in?" It defines the content you need to deliver. In this regard, "The hero's journey" is a fine tool. He shows that people have different content needs at each stage. That goes for epic stories like the...
We create websites. For more complex products we provide customization, for most commercial sites we choose Wordpress with Divi Builder.
During corona, supervising interns was quite a challenge. Fortunately, Roland van Dijke started at the end of the measures. So as a result, we were able to work a lot together and he finished his internship with a passing grade. That tasted like more, so Roland decided to make the last year of his studies “dual” by continuing to work with us. We welcome his fresh perspective. Time for five questions to our boxer from the Green Heart.
As we do every January, we share our plans for the new year. Whereas December is the month of reflection and planning with us, January is the month of execution. We are again bursting with new plans. We are happy to share those with you.
For consultants, sales training doesn’t work. Still, you want your consultants to communicate well with the client. Seeing opportunities. Making clients more beautiful and bigger.
2021 was the year when a lot happened. We have learned that expectations do not always come true, that life is not engineerable and that we must solve major challenges together.
Even if you are satisfied with your existing sales, you also know that you will eventually need to acquire new customers again. Follow this roadmap to achieve more customers and more sales in the short or long term based on two questions.
An effective sales budget is critical to making other important business decisions that affect your sales team and business operations as a whole.
An effective sales budget is critical to making other important business decisions that affect your sales team and the business as a whole.
It’s the time of year as a marketer to convince your executive to invest in the company’s marketing efforts again next year. After all, you are convinced that your department contributes to the long-term success of your company and its products, now it’s a matter of convincing your colleagues of that as well.
Everyone maintains customer relationships. Anyone? Yes, everyone! Everyone, both privately and professionally, comes into conversation with people you want to achieve something with. Whether it’s your partner, neighbor, a police officer, a colleague, a (potential) customer, if you want to achieve something with people you should always take stock of where their needs lie.
Now that we’ve defined brand perception and shown what it brings to your organization, we’ll go into more detail on how to implement these three components. In doing so, we focus on practical tips that balance costs and results. This blog answers the question of how to increase your awareness.
“It doesn’t matter what they say about you, as long as you are talked about.” It’s a comment you’ve probably heard before, hopefully from someone who doesn’t understand commerce.
You adapt your product or service to the needs of the market. For many entrepreneurs, the entire market is too big a step, simply because it takes a lot of money behind it to reach the entire market. One way to get ahead of the part of the market that belongs to you is to communicate your brand promise.
By seeing the marketing and sales process as a production process, you can easily identify areas for improvement and improve. But what does this process look like? In this blog, we explore this in more detail.
The service provided by Eagle’s Flight Benelux is personal and substantive. In addition to written content, it is important that potential customers are also triggered by a personal touch.
As with all communication tools within your organization, your website needs a new look from time to time. The world changes, your business changes, or you enter new markets. Time for a new website? We do that in a maximum of five steps!
With all that has changed in the past year, a few things , thankfully, are permanent. For example, Christmas always falls on December 25 and 26, and the new (book) year begins on January 1. Older and wiser, after a tumultuous year, we start 2021 with great energy and ambition and, above all, with every effort to contribute to the success of our clients.
With all that has changed in the past year, a few things , thankfully, are permanent. For example, Christmas always falls on December 25 and 26, the new (book) year begins on January 1, and the team at Client Factory is also ready to help entrepreneurs and managers with their communication, marketing and sales issues. For now, all that remains to be said is: we wish you happy holidays and, especially now, a healthy 2021!
In March, the corona crisis caused plans for 2020 to be binned. A crisis like this puts a lot of pressure on the creativity of entrepreneurs to adapt their businesses to circumstances. Therefore, during the webinar planning for 2021, we engaged with fellow entrepreneurs about what measures they have taken during the crisis and what measures they can still take. What measures these are we are happy to share.
In March, the corona crisis caused plans for 2020 to be binned. In recent months, we have also seen that this crisis has accelerated and slowed a number of trends. Therefore, during the webinar planning for 2021, we engaged with fellow entrepreneurs about what trends they see. What trends these are we are happy to share.
The most frequently asked question: how exactly do you guys do it? In this video, we answer.
It has become a tradition that we publish a blog after cabinet press conferences in which we provide some tips that you, as a business owner, can take advantage of. Not today.
There are those moments when you experience how your clients feel when you put their new website live. In the months before, you will be busy together developing the strategy, working it out into images and talking a lot with clients and prospects.
With the administration tightening the reins for our society for the second time this year, it is time to evaluate the adjustments we have made within our organizations over the past six months and plan for the future. In this blog, once again, some tips for this phase that will put you back on edge.
A blog is an important communication tool in B2B. I regularly, as part of commercial training, give people “blog-lessons,” so I thought it would be helpful to explain this part properly.
We are increasingly using video for discussions. The checklist below is what I use when I get to interview people remotely. It is also quite handy to use for a video call to make sure you make a good impression.
Everyone who has a Web site wants to be found by the search engines. And that’s important too because search traffic is only growing. We find with many clients that they often can’t see the forest for the trees when it comes to search engine optimization. Using the right tools helps when you want to improve your website yourself. But what are the good tools?
The Corona crisis is steadily closing around the economy. Economists predict major consequences, with losses reaching billions of dollars. As an SME entrepreneur, how do you ensure that the crisis harms you as little as possible? Under the motto “Never waste a good Crisis,” we are publishing three blogs with tips that will help your organization emerge stronger from the crisis.
The Corona crisis is steadily closing around the economy. Economists predict major consequences, with losses reaching billions of dollars. As an SME entrepreneur, how do you ensure that the crisis harms you as little as possible? Under the motto “Never waste a good Crisis,” we publish some blogs with tips that will help your organization emerge stronger from the crisis.
In this guide, we provide 11 tips on how to properly use keywords on your page or blog. When you apply these SEO techniques you are going to be better found in the major search engines. In fact, by using the right keywords, your content is going to get more value for the visitor by giving them answers to their specific question.
It’s a familiar fact: You’ve received a memo or article that you think “I’ll just put that away to read this afternoon.” Then you plunge back into the delusion of the day and the next morning that article is still there, unread. And that could go on for a while. Here are some tips for scoring fast. You’ll read it in two minutes.
That the world around us is changing rapidly and that successful companies are adapting to it has been discussed enough by now. That leaves open the question of how these companies manage that. If we look closely at successful businesses we see three factors that determine that success: Money, chance and knowledge. Ideally, in reverse order.
An important channel to connect with existing and new relationships is an event. Besides all the wonderful aspects of this event, there are some pitfalls you can fall into. Pitfalls that you avoid by having your event organized not by your secretary, but by an event professional. Five skills your secretary doesn’t have, but our event organizers do.
Content marketing is an important part of companies’ communication strategy. Every business does content marketing. Sometimes without even noticing it themselves. Product sheets, project information, trade literature: They are all parts of your content marketing strategy. Apparently, as a business, it is important to offer quality content to help potential customers make a sound choice. But how do you create quality (unique) content and build an audience?
We deny it all too often: To market your product or service, you regularly face competition. A good sales strategy helps to always be one step ahead of that competition and ultimately capture the flag. A well-trained sales team can compete.
Digitization has changed the business landscape more in a few years than in all the centuries before. Sales as a profession has not changed; after all, people still do business with people but the path to the order has evolved and technology and online retrieval of information has made certain steps in the sales process different.
No commercial entrepreneur likes to lose customers, except a funeral director. Still, you occasionally find yourself in the position of saying goodbye to each other. It’s a moment you want to delay as far as possible. You can, if you do the right things before, during and after the relationship.
The cost of acquiring new customers is rising and the average value per customer is falling. This process has been going on for several years, and it does not look like it will improve anytime soon. Rather than tire you here with a story about the causes behind that trend, I will explain in a three-part section how a company ensures that there is a regulated influx of new clients at an acceptable cost. In this first blog, I describe the frameworks, because what exactly is acquisition?
Les McKeown identifies seven life stages in the life cycle of any organization. Once you get to Stage 4, you need to stay alert. The pendulum will always move to stage three or to stage five. In practice, the various management forces and egos are constantly fighting with each other. For example, the visionary and the maleputter want their freedom back and are trying to work the processor out. Therefore, make sure there is someone who can act as a connecting link in your team.
Ebay commissioned a study of the effectiveness of clicks purchased through Adwords, and it turns out that they are of little benefit. Does that apply to other businesses now, or do SEO and Adwords deliver results for SMEs?
Going on vacation is not a fundamental human right, but still very nice to give yourself an energetic boost to be able to go at it again with fresh courage and creativity after your vacation. Do you run out of the building on the last day of work, while shouting some handover information to your colleague and sprinting home to throw all sorts of things into your suitcase? With these tips, things will be a lot more relaxed!
These days, every marketer talks about content marketing. But why is content marketing important? What is good content? And what should you consider when creating a content marketing strategy? Based on these questions, I will explain how to simply develop a content marketing strategy.
A product market combination is a unique combination of a product for a specific group of customers. Each company provides a set of services or products. These services/products can fill different needs of different types of customers. But how do you come up with a good product-market combination?
Marketing Automation refers to software platforms that help companies automate their marketing processes to generate more leads, convert more leads into sales and optimize ROI.
Creating segments or lists for each channel is an important part of setting up marketing automation. With this, you ensure that you approach a broad audience in a much more personal way and get the right message to the right person at the right time.
Sales is an expensive business for many companies. Time is lost in interactions with people who are not yet ready to buy. To make the sales process effective, you want to know what stage your prospects are in so you can have salespeople and marketers do their work at the right time. In this blog, we describe how to see what stage your (potential) customers are in.
Customer Factory processes data for clients. In the processing agreement, we record what data that is and what we do with it. We enter into equivalent agreements with our partners, closing the chain and being fully transparent to our clients, their prospects and their customers.
Entrepreneurs, salespeople (and marketers) are too often telling stories, when in fact their core job is to ask questions. This creates long acquisition processes and the company invests a lot of time and money in pointless bids. Ask these three questions of a prospect and determine in one conversation whether you will ever get to business.
We conduct research on marketing trends within b2b. The purpose of the survey is to find out what challenges b2b companies have in the marketing field. The examination takes an average of 5 minutes. Busy loading...
It’s a recognizable situation: You’ve managed to set an appointment with a potential client and during that appointment the prospect is immediately excited about your product or service. The prospect and the salesperson shake hands, agree on an offer and agree on a quick order. No big deal, you think.
Seventeen tips? Yes indeed! And that may not be all that is possible, but we have to start somewhere. This is THE list of ABM tips to help set up your Account Based Marketing Plan, at the interface of marketing and sales. Reach and engage your prospects and customers, fill the funnels and create fans and ambassadors for your product and/or service.
Changing times call for recalibrating your value proposition. Because if your business is fit for the future, it is also important to keep your product and market in balance. In this article, we describe the do’s and don’ts of value propositions, so that you can regain clarity on where you stand and what benefits can be gained.
Anyone who looks at the fields of Marketing and Sales over the years will see that there is a traditional battle between the two fields. Smaller companies tend to be sales driven and within larger companies there is almost always a healthy tension between “them of sales” and “them of marketing.”
In the projects that I have had the privilege of carrying out for clients over the past ten years, I have been struck time and again by how little attention Dutch companies pay to the cost of sales, not to mention the revenue from sales. I find that strange, because the cost of sales is probably between eight and 15 percent (CMO survey, 2017. p 22) of your revenue, and with relatively simple interventions, a higher return can be realized from your sales process.
Senior Business Developer Annegien Blokpoel discusses the benefits of having a strong brand.
Gijsbert van der Meulen (adhoc data) discusses the entrepreneurial side of the new privacy legislation and provides a roadmap on how you can prepare your company.
Joachim van Vlijmen (Broeseliske van Vlijmen advocaten) discusses the legal side of the new privacy law and gives 3 tips on how to prepare your company for the AVG.
Summer vacation is just around the corner. A quiet period for many businesses. We call it “cucumber time,” the Norwegians “saure gurkenzeit” and the Americans “gooseberry time. Your prospects’ attention spans, buying behavior and office hours will be different during the summer. Nevertheless, even during this time, it is important to continue to reach out to your target audience … because your competition is also on vacation.
At the latest edition of the Directors Network annual event, we provided classic Brabant sausage rolls from Houben. Why? Watch the video!
Blogging is the cod liver oil of the 21st century. You know it’s good for you, but you have to go through a resistance to start it. Still, a blog is the best way to get the attention of the right audience. For inspiration, here are seven arguments for picking up the pen again.
Marketing Automation is the automated (online) guiding of prospects in their buying process by regularly offering relevant content and aims to increase the conversion rate from prospect to customer.
When we look at online marketing land, our Western friends in America are always a few steps ahead of us. We have several cultural differences with our neighbors on the other side of the ocean. Thus, they have extreme individualism, shouting to be the best is very effective and “the bigger the better” is the motto. Despite the cultural differences, we adopt almost all of their trends, although there are often several years in between.
To tell a good story, you need to know what your organization is and what you stand for. For a good story, you need a clear corporate identity. But what is that your corporate identity? How can you find out?
Storytelling is very important for your business, but why and what is storytelling? What should a good story meet? How can storytelling be used to attract new customers?
A picture says more than a thousand words, so 24 pictures per second say even more. This makes a video an extremely effective tool for giving visitors to your site a good idea of your business. And just as importantly, the use of a video often makes your website finish higher in Google’s search results.
Color plays an important role in creating a strong corporate identity. Choosing the right colors for your brand ensures that your company is recognizable and has the right appeal to your target audience. In this blog, we explain the value of using color.
Within the recruitment industry, we like to do business with large companies. Rightly so, because these are companies where many personnel changes take place, a flexible shell is a permanent part of the personnel policy and is thought of more in budget than in cost. Unfortunately, this is the pond in which many secondment companies fish and your distinctiveness as a specialist is undervalued. I suggest looking for family businesses.
Many entrepreneurs have to deal with it. So how do we effectively organize as many quality appointments as possible? if The search to actually optimize appointment generation 100% is similar to the search for a top commercial programmer with excellent vision of marketing and image. Yet we can often go a long way by having experience with the market, knowledge of marketing & sales and by thinking logically.
This blog is about differentiating repair, installation and maintenance companies. In doing so, I run the risk of writing a boring blog, because the differentiation is usually in the service. So how do you show a potential customer that your company is just that little bit better than your competitor’s?
In recent years, many methods have been added to do your online and offline marketing. Let’s have it or 1 of the old online ways. Email marketing, among all the strategies companies use to sell online or generate leads (SEO, social media, content, ads, adwords, email), where do you think email marketing stands in its use and effectiveness? At the bottom? Or somewhere in the middle?
Part of the SalesMachinepilot is the newsletter. Very important because with it we test the value proposition defined by the customer. How this is done, we are happy to explain.
Those who know our history also know that the Netherlands has been a trading nation since the early Middle Ages. It started with wood from Scandinavia, and the ships we built with that wood traveled all over the world to bring supply and demand together. Whether we can be very proud of “the VOC mentality” depends on the times in which we live, but I note that it has not hurt us.
Accountants and accounting firms often have the same answer when asked for whom they work: for everyone!
At the lower end of the SME (up to +- 50 FTEs), we often talk to entrepreneurs who have sweated and toiled to get the business they run to where it is today. Often they have the same need: new customers. There is always a need for new customers. The only question is how do they come to me?
Many also think they are there then. They have a website so they are well marketed, right? No, generally they don’t know what kind of websites are out there and what kind of website best suits their industry.
A major pillar of the Dutch economy is its high-end manufacturing industries. Often small to medium-sized companies that specialize in a technical feat and find a suitable clientele to go with it.
The digital revolution is mainly characterized by the rise of websites. We can hardly live without it. We all like to have an online business card of the company we run or represent. In fact, it is so common that nowadays in college education, having a website up and running is a requirement for starting one’s own business, under the guidance of the program.
After the slump of recent years, the staffing industry is recovering. The feeling about that market is summed up with a deep sigh by most companies that survived the crisis by saying, “We’re still here.”
There is often talk of a company’s value proposition. However, there is confusion about what is meant by it and why it may be the most important thing in your business.
Every business has a website. Good decision if you choose to invest in this! A website is now more than an online business card and is widely used as a marketing communication tool. Yet many companies barely use the website and simply write off the investment without actually making any black and white returns.
In the late 1960s, the volkswagen beetle was hugely popular. This was due in part to a campaign deployed by Volkswagen in the mid-1960s. Instead of highlighting only the best traits, they emphasized the traits that were not so good and were extremely honest about the lesser traits.
In the past, before the digital age, people were very fond of privacy. Nowadays, people just cry out loudly that they value their privacy.
Google Analytics is an important tool for collecting website data. For this, we are going to write a series of blogs to tell a little more about this. We will help you install it, and give examples of what it can do.
Online marketing has become an integral part of your organization’s marketing strategy. One-person operation and multinational, profit or non-profit; everyone is looking for that “unoccupied spot in the meadow” where they stand out. Whatever product or service we are looking for; if it is not in our network, we look for it online.
You can. Then we’ll make it for you. Need to tell us what about. Please mention a topic via our contact form or whatsapp.
