Terminologie (en)

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategic form of b2b marketing. Relevant corporate customers, so-called “target accounts”, are considered. These are identified, qualified and approached in a personalised manner. ABM is usually applied to win large and medium-sized companies as customers.
Account-based marketing makes sense when clearly defined target groups are to be addressed with high-priced products or services. The early identification of relevant new customers by means of appropriate techniques (intent detection) as well as optimally coordinated marketing and sales activities are prerequisites for success.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) refers to all methods aimed at optimising the visibility of a brand, company or expertise in generative search engines and AI-based assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, etc.).

GEO focuses on making a brand stand out in the responses generated by artificial intelligence models, where the user no longer gets a list of links, but a summary, a recommendation or a direct response.

In this new paradigm, generative engines no longer simply index pages: they interpret, cross-reference, prioritise and reformulate information. Being visible is no longer enough: you need to be understandable, credible, structured and cited by these systems.

GEO therefore aims to position your company as a legitimate reference source, capable of feeding the responses produced by AI on your key topics, expertise and markets.

GEO becomes strategic as your audience increasingly informs itself via AI assistants rather than through traditional search.

Programmatic advertising refers to a form of digital marketing in which online advertising spaces are auctioned off fully automatically and individualised and played with advertising that is precisely tailored to the user’s profile. This form of data-driven advertising is gaining great importance, especially for b2b advertisers.
In b2b markets, programmatic advertising is easiest via social networks. The desired user profile can be specified based on demographic information such as age, place of residence or gender, but also profession, company, function, seniority, interests, similarity to other profiles etc. Over time, target group profiles of extraordinary power can be built up in this way. By means of retargeting and remarketing, these are addressed repeatedly via different channels and with little wastage.

Advertising in b2b markets has a bad reputation: expensive, inefficient and dry as dust. It is true that b2b advertising is a challenging topic. Because unlike in B2C markets, the value proposition is often technical in nature and not always easily accessible. The result is campaigns that are rich in detail but lacking in emotion. But this does not have to be the case.
Advertising has a great future, especially in b2b markets (above all programmatic advertising). However, an efficient campaign does not develop in an empty space. A clear problem definition, courage and commitment are decisive ingredients in the creative process.

Graphic Design promotes the comprehensibility of content and encourages its acceptance. Whether print or digital, good graphic design always pays off. However, it is not a matter of making content pleasing through decorative measures and gratuitous elements, but of giving the content a form that makes sense in every respect. This results in a functional aesthetic as propagated by the famous Bauhaus, for example.

In b2b marketing, sales enablement means digital presentation aids to support the sales team. A laptop with a sales presentation is about as chic today as a binder with presentation slides was twenty years ago: frontal, slow, outdated.
Technical development has not passed by the sales function without a trace. Today, a tablet-based sales enablement app enables elegant presentations that engage the customer also tactilely. The content is created centrally by marketing and distributed worldwide in the blink of an eye. Booting up the computer, searching for files, establishing a connection, making room: a thing of the past. Just put the tablet on the table.

Image banks are an essential element of branding. We live in an age of instant communication where visual content grabs attention and therefore takes precedence over the written word. Evolution has trained us to decode and respond to visual information quickly. Images are processed by the brain much faster than words. And unlike words, they directly trigger the lower levels of the brain where emotions reside. It’s no coincidence that the most popular social media channels are visual.
Whether it’s a website, brochure, email or social media post, a photo brings it to life. A photo library that is aligned with the brand is therefore an essential part of effective communication, across all media.

A picture is worth a thousand words. This sentence applies literally. Pictures work without language and without translation, worldwide. Our brain processes visual information in fractions of a second, much faster than language. This is why a picture can tell a whole story. Composition, colours, people, facial expressions… we take all this in and “paint our picture”. This is also how emotions get readily involved.
No wonder, then, that image worlds are of crucial importance for brand management. A coherent design of entire image worlds defines a brand like hardly any other instrument of brand management. An image world is the totalit.

SEA stands for Search Engine Advertising, another sub-discipline of SEM (Search Engine Marketing). It refers to the placement of paid text ads in search engines (Google, Bing, Baidu, etc.). Essentially, it is about defining certain keywords. As soon as these are called up on the internet, a text ad appears in the search results, Google willing and budget permitting.
In reality, however, the matter is a little more complicated. Inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, extensions, target groups, bids, data management, etc. make search engine advertising an incredibly challenging area of digital b2b marketing.

The terms industry marketing and b2b marketing are often used interchangeably. However, industrial marketing is specifically about industrial processes, products and services, as well as raw materials, for example. The products are often technically complex, durable and capital-intensive. They require detailed knowledge of the market context and rather technical communication. The sales cycle is usually long and markets are globalized.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a sub-discipline of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and very important in the context of B2B-marketing. Since the Yellow Pages are out, search engines are in. Today, everyone searches the internet, essentially via Google. But when does Google (or Bing or …) show a page? Or to put it another way, how can I increase the probability that my page will be displayed (and not that of the competition)?
This is what search engine optimisation, or SEO for short, is for. SEO pursues the goal of having relevant content appear in prominent positions in the search results. Search engine optimisation can be carried out for various search engines. However, one is well advised to start with the most important one. This is undoubtedly Google.

A brand without content is like a theatre without drama. Brand content confirms the brand identity. It makes the brand tangible and thus brings it to life. Brand content can take various forms (text, image, sound, video, games, …) and be directly or loosely connected to the brand.
In B2B marketing, the concept of brand content has gained importance through so-called inbound or content marketing. The underlying idea is that cleverly designed brand content will be accessed on the internet and therefore draws attention and demand to the brand. The aim is not necessarily to sell a product, but to get an audience to commit to the brand.

Without motivation, a company is not viable. While in the past extrinsic motivation was often the main focus (salary, bonuses, status, …), modern companies progressively rely on intrinsic motivation factors. These include teamwork, pride in achievements, personal recognition from peers and the feeling of making a meaningful contribution to a common cause.
Companies must pay attention to this paradigm shift in internal communication. In doing so, however, they must not be trapped by propaganda-like pronouncements beyond reality, but on the contrary shall closely align communication with the brand identity.

Social Media Marketing, abbreviated SMM, is a category of digital marketing in which social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. are used for tactical and strategic corporate communication. It aims at, for example, increasing brand awareness, cultivating brand image, generating leads or develop the employer brand.
In case it is a matter of maintaining the company’s own accounts and their users, it is called community management. If, on the other hand, it is about the active distribution of advertising to specific target groups, it is called social media advertising (SMA).

Brand identity is more than a name and logo. It builds on a solid brand platform and thus becomes the unmistakable face of the brand personality. In this regard, aesthetics is only one aspect among many others. The fit is much more important: in the fierce competition, only a tailor-made brand identity really serves its purpose. Besides the logo, brand manuals, imagery and design guidelines are indispensable elements of a well-managed b2b brand today.

Lean management has become widely accepted in the production organisation of industrial companies (and beyond). It is an integrated socio-technical system that only promises success if it can be holistically integrated into the corporate culture. In this context, employee motivation and internal communication play a decisive role in the introduction and sustained implementation of lean management (Kaizen, 5S, Six Sigma, etc.).
As in all other areas of internal communication, intrinsic motivation must be at the forefront today in order to get staff on board. It is also important to take into account any negative reservations that are often wrongly associated with lean management.

The value proposition describes the benefits that a company promises its customers with a certain product or service. It answers the following question: What problem or need of the user will be solved by this product or service?
These needs are often not only functional, but also emotional or social. Especially in industrial and B2B markets, emotional or social arguments often play a more important role in the purchase decision than one might initially think. Therefore, the holistic approach in the value proposition is important.

The brand platform summarises the groundworks on which brand management decisions are made. It is the foundation on which the brand stands stable and can grow. The brand platform must be both aspirational and realistic. Whitewashing and wishful thinking do not help. A good brand platform is neither pretentious nor fashionable, but well thought-out, self-evident and thus credible.

Motion design stands for the audiovisual design (animation) of moving images through typography, graphic design but also video. Motion design has become widespread in content marketing and advertising. Thanks to computer-aided animation techniques, even complex image sequences can now be created with standard software. Depending on the purpose and target group, animation can be designed in two or three dimensions. Three-dimensional design, however, requires much more effort because the objects to be animated must first be modelled three-dimensionally before they can be moved in space.

Webdesign deals with the design of websites, applications and – in general – user interfaces. Ergonomics and technology naturally play a major role. Good user guidance needs to be well thought out beforhand. Clear, simple and concise navigation is crucial for the customer experience. Less is often more. It is no coincidence that flat design has become generally accepted today.

Brand management is a bit like psychoanalysis: you can’t move forward on your own, because your view of the essentials is obscured by your own fantasies. To free yourself from this, you need external perception. Only in the mirror of good advisors does it become clear what really makes us as a brand. But it can get even better. In the interplay of internal and external forces during a brand workshop, collective intelligence can unfold and thus make a decisive contribution to convincing brand management.

A child needs a name! What is true in life is also true in marketing. Your company name characterises the first impression you make on potential customers (and applicants). The same applies to products and services. The name is part of the identity. That is why finding a name is particularly important in the brand context. It’s not just about any name, but about an apt association with the value proposition. Sometimes, however, a single name is not enough; a systematic nomenclature is required to consistently characterise an entire product range.
In practice, this is often a difficult endeavour. A company lacks the necessary detachment to be able to reliably assess name ideas and their effect. The name should also be memorable. And everyone should be able to pronounce it. It must be available and stand out from the competition

Webinars are ubiquitous in B2B marketing today. They are a great way to engage with remote audiences. And they offer the potential to collect valuable new leads and get direct feedback. Webinars can therefore be an important step on the way to face-to-face contact. And they are significantly cheaper than a video or even a trade fair participation. No wonder webinars have exploded in popularity during the pandemic. However, this is often also their weak point: poor technology, boring presentation, monotonous lecture style and lack of interactivity lead to drop-out. Those who book few participants due to lack of preparation then quickly find themselves alone on the call.
Virtual fairs and tech days go beyond the more frontal webinar and offer the opportunity to engage participants in an interactive course.

Buyer Intent Detection or Intent Recignition is a relatively new and specific tool for digital b2b marketing. Who wouldn’t like to know whether the potential new customer has already taken the bait and is perhaps currently searching intensively for additional information on your website? For account-based-marketing, this information is even crucial for success: the earlier it is available, the sooner the sales team can take action. But new customers like to keep a low profile. They want to continue their decision-making process anonymously and rarely fall into the carefully prepared form traps.
That’s why today there are service providers who check the IP address and other invisible signatures of website visitors against comprehensive databases. From this, it is often (but not always) possible to deduce which company the visitor belongs to and how great his interest really is (scoring). And the sales team is thus quite a bit further ahead in its detective work.

Occupational safety is not just a question of organisation. Appropriate communication is crucial for safe and efficient work processes. Communication takes place at different levels: Training, toolbox talks, signage, policies and procedures, etc.
However, repeated requests to observe the rules of occupational safety are mostly ignored and are therefore ineffective. Also, warnings about accidents hardly elicit any reaction, especially in companies that already meet high safety standards and therefore report few accidents. It is more promising to appeal to the intrinsic motivation of employees. Pride in good work is a universal motivation that can be used in this regard.
More important still is the permanent anchoring of safety in the company’s working culture, as described by the Bradley-Dupont curve. In this context, continuously motivating employees is a major challenge, especially when a high level of safety has already been achieved.

Employer branding aims to present a company as an attractive employer and to distinguish it positively from other competitors in the labour market. In this respect, employer branding differs from corporate image, which is more historical shaped and influenced by the media.
Employer branding has emerged as a reaction to the shortage of talented and qualified specialists and managers in many industries. It essentially consists of permanently increasing the efficiency of personnel recruitment as well as the quality of applicants. In addition, qualified and committed employees are to be bound to the company in the long term through a higher level of identification and the development of an emotional bond.

Performance marketing refers to a data-driven, results-oriented approach to digital marketing, in which marketing activities are optimised on the basis of measurable actions and return on investment. Unlike traditional brand management, performance marketing focuses on achieving specific results, such as generating leads, accelerating the sales pipeline and retaining customers.
Performance marketing generally integrates several digital channels, such as:

• advertising on social media (SMM, push campaigns targeting decision-makers)
• search engine advertising (SEA, pull strategies with intent-based search)
• email marketing and automation (nurturing leads along the conversion funnel)
• content marketing and SEO (precursor role and demand generation).
• account-based marketing (ABM, targeting specific high-value accounts)