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It’s almost time to pop the champagne and turn our calendars to 2018. And while we’re anticipating the countdown to the new year, we wanted to take a look back at what 2017 brought to all of us at OMS. From exciting new areas of interest in the B2B marketing world to trendy technology and data galore, it’s been a wild ride this year! Our last TMI post of 2017 is a testament to all of the craziness happening in our everchanging marketing world – check it out if you haven’t already!

We’ve also been working hard to keep abreast of everything that’s going on in our customers’ industries, including healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, retail, software and so much more. This year, we saw our clients benefiting from focus group and workshop facilitation – and embracing industry insights has truly helped many of them move the needle!

Marketing teams are continually looking to us to provide even deeper and integrated content strategy, and we’ve been focusing on elevating our clients’ position in the market to support their long-term success, particularly through more marketing and sales-aligned strategy and sales enablement and training. We saw many of our clients putting more of a focus on demand gen and brand awareness and a large amount of growth in our customer engagement practice – particularly when it comes to social! We also saw some great growth in international customers launching products in the U.S. through our partner Technical Associates. If you haven’t already, check out our updated Services Page for the inside scoop on everything we now provide to our clients.

Insightful Thought Leadership Content is Powering Our Blog!

Here on the blog, we’ve heard from each and every OMSer on a topic of interest to him or her – and there have been some great insights shared as a result! Check out some of the highlights:

  • Why B2B Marketers Need to Talk Less and Listen More: Actively listening in a world where you’re constantly bombarded with information isn’t easy. It definitely takes some effort, but with a little bit of practice, these five tips can help you become a better, more active listener!
  • 10 Steps to Driving a Successful Customer Advisory Board: Many of our clients have, or are in the process of, creating a customer advisory board (CAB) to shape their vision through the lens of key buyers and decision-makers. And whether you’re creating a CAB for the first time or managing one that’s already underway, here are a few best practices that can help steer its success long-term.
  • Work as a Means to Facilitate Quality of Life: As leaders, we need to communicate to people that their job and workplace should “Facilitate their Quality of Life (FQoL).” The company for which they work is not an extension of who they are as people. Instead, the focus should be on the ability to help FQoL, thereby putting the employee first and foremost, which can ultimately translate to the success of the company. This one is straight from the desk of our CEO!
  • Sales, I’m Not Sold: An Open Letter of Concern to My Sales Colleagues: We get a lot of sales emails! And many sales professionals may not realize: we do read your emails and listen to your messages, and very often, at least initially respond back. But here is why you’re not getting our serious attention, respect or ultimately the sale – and what you can do about it next time.

Helping Our Clients Look Ahead, At Home and On the Road

We’ve also been proud to help many of our clients move strategically through a number of critical M&A activities. For example, our client Transplace went through a major equity event this year, announcing their selection of TPG Capital, the global private equity platform of alternative asset firm TPG, as their new equity partner. And according to Transplace, these industry equity events are a trend that is here to stay.

And as the technology buying process continues to evolve, we worked on some insightful LinkedIn Tech research that revealed a few surprising generational alignments among today’s technology buying committee. As younger Millennials, older Millennials and Gen X professionals hold increasingly influential roles for purchasing, the data actually shows that these groups really aren’t that different after all! To help promote the fascinating results of the research, we worked with LinkedIn Tech to develop a research eBook, crafted blog content for sales leaders and marketers and conducted media outreach.

We also continue to enjoy supporting many of our clients at their important events and national tradeshows. This year, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) tradeshow in NYC in January, we worked with client Brother Mobile Solutions (BMS) on a variety of marketing programs to build awareness and lead generation opportunities designed to showcase mobile printing technology that supports an innovative eGrocery application. We also attended the Marketo Road Show in Chicago – where we learned about incorporating AI into marketing strategy, best practices for marketing and sales partnership, the latest on account-based marketing (ABM) and more.

Giving Back in 2017 and Beyond

In addition to our regular client projects, we’ve been privileged to help out with a number of nonprofit efforts. This year, we were proud to make donations to the Children’s Advocacy Center of North and Northwest Cook County, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the National Parkinson Foundation. We were also able to help Chicago-based Watts of Love, a global nonprofit dedicated to bringing safe and renewable solar lighting to the 1.3 billion people living without basic access to electricity. To further spread their message and mission, OMS secured a media segment for the organization with ABC7’s Windy City Live program. Founder Nancy Economou appeared on the show to discuss how the organization is working to change lives through the power of solar light.

It was a terrific year for us here at OMS, and it would not have been possible without our incredible clients, employees and partners. Thank you all for the opportunity to work side by side with you every day, it means we’re always learning and keeps our jobs fun and exciting!

Happy New Year to all, and cheers to more great things to come in 2018! Stay tuned here on the blog for more from us in the new year.

How are you looking to improve your marketing strategy in 2018 and beyond? Tell us in the comments or via Twitter @OutlookMktg, LinkedIn or Facebook.

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Author: Audrey Pennisi, Senior Account Manager, Outlook Marketing Services

 

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