Why “Scientific” Marketing Services?

March 26, 2019 No Comments

While attending PittCon 2019 last week in Philadelphia, I experienced a flood of professional nostalgia. Forty years ago my father, Robert Norton, founded Scientific Marketing Services, Inc. to address the specific marketing needs of companies in the scientific marketplaces. He saw an opportunity to service clients with a unique structure that quoted on a project-by-project … Read More

Wading Into the Web: Transitioning Into Digital Marketing

February 27, 2019 No Comments

As advertising and brand building goes from print to the web, many B2B companies are feeling increasing pressure to reallocate marketing resources towards the new digital frontier. The company website – once a place to promote the company’s message and capabilities – is now a dynamic and sensitive marketing tool. With the advent of search … Read More

The Three Most Important Web Marketing Moves for 2019

December 31, 2018 No Comments

Over the past year, this blog has covered many digital marketing methods and concepts for the high-tech, industrial and manufacturing marketplaces. With the new year upon us, I thought I would identify the three most important for growing your business in 2019. Website Optimization. Without question, a responsive website with your company’s key message and … Read More

Media Buying: Only Getting What You Pay For?

November 28, 2018 No Comments

When it comes to integrated marketing services, the range of programs can run the gamut depending on your company’s budget and its primary markets. For the high-tech and industrial B-2-B community, the mix of traditional and digital marketing methods continues to hover somewhere around a fifty-fifty split. This is partially a result of the narrow … Read More

Technology and The Value-Added Partnership

November 14, 2018 No Comments

When SMS was founded by Bob Norton in 1979, it was partially built on the idea that a full-service agency that understood the language and unique challenges of the B-2-B scientific and high-tech industrial marketplaces would more efficiently turn marketing budgets into increased market share. Most agencies at the time (and now) operated from a … Read More

Online Surveys: Letting Them Tell You What They Want

October 31, 2018 No Comments

A shorter one this week as it’s Halloween and I have to hit my neighborhood up for candy. Maybe I can use the holiday as an analogy and hopefully it’ll be a treat for everyone. When it’s time for a client to update the design of their website, collateral literature or some other marketing tool, … Read More

Staying In-Touch: Mobile Apps and Industrial Marketing

October 17, 2018 No Comments

For the most part, apps that live on your mobile devices satisfy personal, social and recreational needs. These are generally monetization models, notably paid-for and in-game purchasing distractions like Candy Crush and Clash of Clans, transport position tracking services like Uber and Lyft, and interfaces for downloading and streaming music like iTunes and Spotify. We’ve … Read More

Outrunning the Bear: The Importance of Competitor Analysis

August 8, 2018 No Comments

So you’re hiking with a couple of friends in the woods. It’s a nice enough day and things are fairly jovial when suddenly you come upon a mother bear and her cubs. You realize in that moment that you’re in danger, and no amount of playing dead is going to help. Momma ain’t happy and … Read More

Buzz Word Watch: Conversion Rate Optimization

June 27, 2018 No Comments

Helping industrial B-2-B marketers keep up with evolving digital marketing methods, terms and technology is mostly what this blog is about. Intermittently, I like to highlight certain SMS projects that I think are interesting or required solutions that some might find helpful, and every once in awhile there are announcements and musings about staff comings … Read More

Content: Defining the King

June 13, 2018 No Comments

For the past several years, whenever anyone was in a serious discussion about web or digital marketing, eventually someone would exclaim, “Content is king!”. All sides would nod sharply in agreement, and often the discussion would peter out. What more was there to say about successfully marketing your website? You could have the most glorious … Read More