B2B Sales & Marketing Knowledge Sharing

Will the Rise of Daily Deals Signal the Decline of Brand Advertising?

2012-02-20T20:23:00.000-05:00

Hotel ads featuring palm trees and white sandy beaches start to look very appealing during the winter months. However, according to recent research, the imagery and copy does little to motivate travelers to book hotel rooms

Hawk Partners research on Hotel Channel Usage find that 65% of travelers who booked a recent stay are most likely to have used Online Review sites, such as Trip Advisor to select their hotel rather than those picturesque ads of beach scenes. 74% of the 1200 travelers surveyed said that Advertising (defined as TV and Print) had no impact on their selection.

Asked to comment about which channels had the most influence on hotel selection, travelers responded with Promotions (Groupon, Living Social, Reward Sites) and Social Media ranking highest, with advertising coming in a distant forth.

Has the struggling economy and the rise of daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social given rise to a new breed of consumers who put a premium on price over brand? Bryan Gernert, CEO of Resonate Networks states that “It depends on what consumer segments you’re looking to target [however]…and as this is election year you may even want to think about their party affiliation.

For example: consumers who identify themselves as Republicans 35-44 are 41% less likely to buy based on brand, and 38% more likely to buy on price, compared to boomers. Boomers, on the other hand, still value brands regardless of political affiliation. Consumers 55-64 are 35% more likely to buy on brand than any other consumer segment.“ The trend was mirrored in the Hawk Partners research, which found travelers under 45 to be more influenced by promotions.

Brand does still matter and so does price. As channels continue to expand and evolve, marketers need to have deeper insights into audience behaviors and influences, in order to understand which segment to target with what offer. As a result, the Digital Advertising Alliance has just launch a new campaign promoting the benefits of “interest based advertising” and companies, like Resonate Networks, are providing deeper insights into buyers psyche based on their attitudes, beliefs, and values.

Why is that important? Because consumer behaviors are constantly changing, often shaped by new technologies and channels. While the study findings only apply to the travel and hospitality industry, the data could be a signal for a broader trend worth following. Specifically, the surprising find that Promotions’ channels are impacting what have traditionally been considered key brand advertising oriented metrics.

Those travelers using promotional channels for selecting hotel brands are more likely to recall that brand top of mind on an unaided basis than guests who used other channels. Additional, they are also more likely to stay at the hotel again and recommend that brand to friends, compared to those who used other channels.

“What we may be seeing is a “halo” effect of the deal” says Rob Duboff, CEO of Hawk Partners, “Consumers like the deal, and as a result, the brand.” And that is significant, because personal recommendations (77%) and online review sites, (65%) which are shaped by personal experiences, have the largest impact on influencing hotel selection.

As the authors of the research note, advertising has “significantly more influence than guest give it credit” which has long been the case. Brand advertising does provide a lift effect that has always been hard to quantify, but given the importance being placed on ROI, the impact of Promotional channels is worth noting and watching…as well as, the consumers who use them.

The Two Most Important Factors in Selecting a Teleservices Vendor

2012-01-20T11:24:00.002-05:00

For the last couple of years, the buzz in our business has been on the demand creation side. Conversion is sometimes lost in the conversation given the advent of new tools to experiment and validate the power of Search. Recent focus on performance and ROI may shift this paradigm back to conversion.

As Google integrates phone numbers into Search algorithms, a phone call through online is now just a click away. And for many companies, that 800 number routes the call to a teleservice vendor. Picking the tele partner can mean difference between getting the pay off for your hard earned - hopefully wisely spent - marketing dollars, and having to answer for poor program performance results.

Over the last 15 years, I’ve built telechannel programs for companies such as Xerox, ADP and Merck. I’ve helped companies like Lilly and IBM assess their own programs. Prior to that work, I was in the business of outsourcing call centers.

What I’ve learned over that time is that of all the variables that can be used to evaluate vendors there are two (actually two and half), that matter most: 1) Senior Management Engagement and 2) Corporate Culture & Core Competency.

Senior Management Engagement

Program performance of a teleservice provider is directly impacted by the engagement of the leadership team in client service delivery. Often times, the senior management team is involved early in the sales process but then “throws” the account over the “wall” to the execution team when the account is won.

As a result, what gets promised and what gets delivered can differ and negatively impact the program performance. To help ensure that you are selecting the right vendor, ask the senior executives to define their role(s) in managing client programs and not just the clients themselves. Be prepared to ask them specific questions related to the KPI’s of your program to test their knowledge of your industry, customers, and products.

Keep in mind, that if you are targeting a larger partner, the more likely you will not see that CEO again. There was a time when bigger was better, but that is not necessarily the case today. Instead, focus on vendors who are tightly aligned to your industry, customer segment, and the specific task you are outsourcing.

Corporate Culture & Core Competency

Teleservice vendors often provide multiple lines of service to clients. This a natural progression of evolving core competencies to match and align to emerging client needs.

Providing service “adjacencies” such as the customer service group expanding to handle a help desk program is common and can be executed at a high level. Where vendors struggle is developing new services that require different workflows, hiring profiles, and performance metrics. An example would be an inbound customer service vendor trying to provide outbound telesales services.

As a client, you want to match your needs with a vendor’s core competency. Complete a site visit as part of your due diligence process, it is the most important step in the evaluation process.

For more information on finding a vendor visit the American Teleservices Association. For additional research on the industry please click here.

The Best Digital Campaign of 2011

2011-12-20T07:47:00.000-05:00

It’s that time of the year when the “best of” lists start coming out, so here’s another one to add to the group. While I’m no authority on all things digital, working at an Agency provides me more exposure to campaigns than most folks.

The opinion for best digital campaign is my own and based on what I have seen this past year. I’m sure that I’ve missed a few, so please feel free to suggest your favorite in the comment section. There is no “science” to the process. The criteria for selection came down to four key components:

Boldness – How big was the objective of the campaign? How significant was the insight?
Innovation – How unique or innovative was the application of the technology
Value Proposition – How compelling?
Impact – Was it significant? A Game changing? Will it have a lasting impact on the industry, consumer and marketers?

Overall, 2011 was good year. We saw companies becoming more humanly relevant with their messaging, like the Microsoft ad in my last post. And the use of new digital technology was everywhere; Adidas and Hyundai wowed us with the use of 3D Building Projection Mapping.

Intel launched their new Core i5 chip through a well-crafted video experience in the form of a short film highlighting the chip’s power for gaming and social media use. And integrated social media campaigns, such as Volkswagen and Heineken became commonplace.

However, based on the criteria above, my vote for the digital campaign of the year goes to Tesco for a campaign executed in South Korea. It had a big, bold and aspirational objective -- takeover the leadership position in the market from the domestic competitor with more retail stores. And in its wake, left the retail industry rethinking the shopping experience.

But the part of the campaign that truly separated it from the competition was the compelling value proposition. Using technology platforms to improve what I’ll call the “utility of time.” For marketers, this is an unexplored gold mine of opportunity. Finding and exploiting “unused or wasted” time by giving it purpose or utility, and going beyond just putting an ad in front of eyeballs to engaging consumers in a meaningful way.

Home Life (Tesco) customers are, well, busy. South Korean productivity is near the highest in the world, so “freeing up time for them” is a true value-add. Tesco took commuters wait time for a train, and turned it into something useful…shopping for groceries; a task that is viewed as a chore and conducted during a consumer’s precious weekend time.

Tesco creates the opportunity for commuters to use “low value” wait time, for what they believe to be a “low value” task, in the process freeing up “high valued” personal time to be used at their discretion.

Earlier this month, Pew Research Center released the results of a study that tracked young adults online behavior over the last 11 years. In 2000, 16 percent of young adults went online for amusement or to “pass the time.”

On any given day in 2011, 53% of young adults, and a third of adults, said that they went online for “no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time.” The takeaway for marketers is that people are looking to fill their time, so give them something useful and meaningful to do with it.

And don’t settle for the safe and small next year; push your teams to go beyond Facebook “likes” as a metric. Aim high, go after what might seem unattainable, and dream big. Dare to change your industry, redefine the buyer journey, and/or challenge the conventional wisdom.

Have a great holiday season and go BIG in 2012!

Guest Article: Using Search and Social to Win Business

2011-12-14T10:58:00.001-05:00

The following post is written by gyro client Jeff Vail of Siemens Enterprise Communication.

When I started at Siemens Enterprise Communications, we took broad-brush strokes with search and social advertising for “impression” purposes. This approach tended to align with the traditional view of search and social marketing that served as an awareness and consideration builder for top-of-the-funnel activities. However, as a field marketer who owns search, I was interested in using it for more tangible results.

To put this idea into action, Siemens Enterprise Communications turned to the experts at gyro to develop and execute the plan to push search and social “down the funnel” and align it against supporting an identified opportunity. Instead of focusing on getting in the consideration set, we set our sights on developing a program to help influence decision-makers at the point of purchase.

: Driving Search Down the Funnel

Click here to continue.

Microsoft Finally Kinects with its Audience

2011-11-30T08:13:00.000-05:00

With the Christmas shopping season fully upon us, Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing game device is expected to be at the top of the gift list for many consumers. Last year, Microsoft sold 1 million Kinect devices for its Xbox 360 in 10 days, and in a recent poll it was at the top of the wish list for children 13 and older. But what you might not expect is that some of those orders are going to be coming from businesses.

Early this month, Microsoft launched Kinect for Windows SDK with a brilliant, new ad called “Kinect Effect.”

Microsoft is pushing Kinect hardware for Windows SDK for business applications. As staff writer Jason Kennedy fromPCWorld states: “SDK will make it possible for programmers and dreamers from the world over to tinker with the system and make it do things Microsoft hadn’t thought of, and push the development of NUI [natural user interfaces] to the next level.”

What is noteworthy about the Kinect Effect ad is what it took for Microsoft to make it. Six years ago, in an interview with CMO magazine, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confessed to a problem long known by many consumers of Microsoft products:

"During Microsoft’s climb to the top of the software industry, rapid-fire product cycles often happened without much front-end input from the folks in marketing. Engineers would develop new software, pack it with bells and whistles, decide on an acceptable number of bugs and toss it over to marketing for a press release and a launch event."

At the time, Microsoft had set out to change that course through an expansive and expensive relationship marketing initiative. Internally, it aligned marketing with product groups, created a "mea culpa" marketing campaign to reach out to past customers, and targeted loyalists hoping to turn them into advocates.

But because of its past transgressions, and a perception that many of its products were “necessaries” with little to pique the desire of consumers, Microsoft struggled with finding an ignition point, or something to connect customers with the brand and ignite their passions.

Well, those days appear to be over. With the Kinect Effect, the tech titan proves that it can be relevant, even desirable, with a campaign that is expansive, inspiring and incredibly human. The campaign asks audiences to dream about how they might use Kinect by inspiring them with images of people playing air instruments, a doctor flipping through X-rays, and a student deconstructing DNA with only hand motions.

The expansiveness of the idea allows Microsoft to successful reach, and hopefully inspire, all three of its targeted audiences, including consumers/users, businesses and developers. Any one group can have the dream, but all three are needed for it to become reality.

Perhaps the most significant point of the ad is that it is evidence that the relationship marketing effort was worth it, Microsoft now understands the strategic importance of the "front end" as Ballmer calls it. The appeal of the ad is not the "bells and whistles" of Kinect but rather what Kinect can enable, which is virtually unlimited as long as there are dreamers.

If Microsoft can continue this connection with the customer while retail store openings continue into 2012, it could transition itself from the company that makes the “have to have” product to the company that is the “want to have” brand.

Click Here for a Social Media ROI

2011-11-01T12:38:00.001-04:00

Everybody knows – or thinks they know intuitively – that social elements add value to marketing. But just how, exactly?

Like anything in business, it comes down to return on investment. Social media is not a strategy and it’s not an end in itself. Unless your business objective (and I’d check with your shareholders on this) is only about gaining page views and follows, marketers need to understand how social adds value to everything else in your toolkit.

So how do you find the “sweetspot” for developing an ROI for social media? Well, start by viewing the tools at their most basic level, as vehicles for sharing; photo’s, thoughts, content, etc. Consider them “levers” for improving the performance of known activities that have produced a ROI.

Years ago, we assessed the effectiveness of demand generation campaigns for a client. Because the firm was in the hi-tech industry they had a heavily reliance on content marketing for their campaigns. They spent months designing and building them, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in execution only to see diminishing results.

The audit revealed that their campaign effectiveness (related to lead production) lasted roughly 36 hours after launch (see below). Meaning that the majority of the leads were being created within the first three days of launch, regardless of how long they left the campaign in the market (this is not uncommon).

Today, social media has the potential to create a long tail effect, extending the life of expensive campaigns, ultimately improving ROI, and along the way creating and deepening the relationship with the audience.

I’ll use myself as an example: A blog post of mine titled, The End of Blogs (and Websites) as We Know Them recently ran on Forbes CMO Network (see below). It received no special promotion; in fact, you could say the deck was stacked against it. Posted on a Friday, the slowest traffic day of the workweek, at midnight (EST) when most of the blog readers at home or are in bed. By prime blog viewing time (10 am) it had almost dipped below the fold.

But on the following Monday it took off, almost doubling the views of Friday, and continued to build momentum ending the week as the 3^rd most popular post of the day. The following week it was the most popular post on Wednesday. So what happened?

Social took over. Without a significant additional investment in promoting it, social sharing accelerated and extended the life of the post, even as it fell off the first, second and third page of the site. Readers engaged and went from passive viewers to active promoters.

Readers were tweeting their own thoughts and comments about their insights, not just retweeting the post title. They placed it into Linkedin groups and added their comments on the impact of the technology (the topic of the post) to their particular area of interest or role. They were actively engaging in sharing their “discover” with others.

That is the power and the value of social media for content marketing.

The post no longer needed to be pushed because it was being endorsed, and in some ways validated by readers -- the most trusted source of information.

The potential of social media is intriguing, but to determine its true value, companies will need to experiment. Using social media to support your content marketing efforts is a prudent choice, but keep this in mind: It will only be effective if the audience/community finds value in the content and part of that value is defined by those who pass it along.

This post appears today on the Forbes CMO Network.

The End of Blogs (and Maybe Websites) as We Know It

2011-10-07T09:13:00.008-04:00

I started this blog five years ago as an experiment. Over the years, I built a decent following, got listed on a few “best of’s”, and built up a solid bank of content. I never wrote a post for money or allowed advertising; I was in full control of the site and the content.

That changed last week when Blogger rolled out its new Dynamic Views template. Almost instantly, I saw the future and it was an eye opener. The new technology is a “game changer” and has the potential for causing a SIGNIFICANT “rethink” for marketers. There are two features in particular that make this innovation noteworthy.

The first is that you, the reader, can change the layout of the site. Although dynamic content and websites have been around for years, this is the first tool that I’ve seen that has the potential to turn complete control of the user experience to the visitor. It allows readers to organize the blog in seven different layouts (click on the tabs above).

The second, and most concerning, is the “Flipcard” view (click that tab). In a sense, it allows you to “flatten” my website. Suddenly, the majority of my content (good and bad) is visible above the fold and can be scanned in about 8 seconds (the average time spent to view a web page). Readers can quickly sort through thumbnail images or blog titles searching for relevant content.

This new disruptive innovation arrives at a time when corporations are just now beginning to appreciate and understand the value of content marketing and blogging.

According to Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing report, nearly 40% of US companies are now using blogs for marketing purposes. And for good reason, B2B companies that blog generate 55% more traffic, and 67% more leads per month than those who do not.

Those blogs are reaching an ever-growing population of readers. The global population of readers grew 65% last year, according to Hubspot. And they are consuming more, 46% said that they were reading blogs more than one a day.

To keep pace, more content is being produced. Emarketer reports that there are 31% more bloggers today than there were three years ago, creating an estimated 160 million blogs on the Internet at the end of 2010.

What does this mean for the content marketer?

The speed at which audiences move around online will get faster. They will be more difficult to connect with, engage and keep. Further we are going to have to be prepared to give control to readers in order to be successful. Based on my experience, here are a few things marketers need to consider:

Flag post – An average reader spends 86 seconds on a blog. To “stop” a visitor who is on the express train to “contentville,” we will have to rethink the titles and images used in posts, and we’ll probably have to live with higher bounce rates. Suddenly, getting the reader’s attention is just as important as getting them to engage.
Relevancy - Turning control of the site over to the visitor also comes with the reality that we are now writing content the visitor wants to read and not, necessarily, just espousing our opinions or services. Communicating the company point of view is still important, but now it has to be done using the audience’s language.
Understanding the reader - Google Analytics gives us the demographics but that longer will be enough. We’ll need to understand what appeals to the reader by monitoring comments, how they’re sharing links, and where they’ve come from, and where they are headed. We’re merely a morning stop along the way and to get to engage we have to know how to get their attention.
Content production – Producing good quality content has long been a challenge. Now with the ability to flatten sites the lack of content will be visible in an instant. Marketers will have to create a content calendar and rely on trustworthy sources for output.
Timing – According to Hubspot research, link-sharing among blog readers reaches a peak at 7 am. Comments on blogs top out at 8 am, and by 10 am blog reading begins to decline. As the data suggest, when content is posted and distributed matters. New internal processes will have to catch up with external audience preferences.

The real “game changer” is that this technology will quickly make its way into corporate website design. And for years we have tried to figure out the “user experience.” Visitors can now create their own unique experience, actually seven of them, and do it in real time. It is a great opportunity, as well as a great challenge, and it’s one that Marketers can’t afford to miss.

This post appears today on Forbes.com.

CIOs Are More Than Just IT Buyers

2011-09-23T08:21:00.001-04:00

Even if you believe in love at first sight, the likelihood of a marriage proposal on the first date is highly unlikely. Committing yourself to someone without getting to know him or her first is a ridiculous idea. Yet far too often companies are asking audiences to “commit” at the hint of an interaction despite knowing little about each other.

Why?

In the tech industry and according to author Tom Grant, Ph.D, companies desire early commitment, due to the industry’s “voracious appetite for leads.” As Grant explains in his report, Tech Marketers Pursue Antiquated Marketing Strategies, the “high-speed innovation” rate drives a hyperfocus on product marketing and lead generation compared to other industries.

Developing a relationship with an audience takes time and resources and can often be perceived as a distraction to the task of finding “ready to marry” prospects. This outward-in view of marketing ignores audience needs and assumes that all audiences are the same and that all searches must indicate intent.

However, the key to driving demand and lead generation in today’s economy is not being more aggressive and pushing harder, but rather, taking time to develop and nurture relationships. Audiences, like dates, can sense desperation. Perhaps the way to go faster is by slowing down and shifting the focal point from the conversion to the conversation.

We have long known that relevancy drives conversion and that conversion drives revenue. Getting to relevancy requires us to engage with the audience to understand their unique needs and motivations. As a result, our role changes from dictating to facilitating and understanding that it’s now on the buyer’s timeframe, not ours.

New technologies, such as Bizo allow us to know who the audience is at the first interaction. We also know where they’ve been for 30 days (who they’ve been dating) before the conversion point, via Google Analytics new Multichannel Funnels.

We can serve up custom content through re-targeting based on audience profiles, adapt for whatever device they are using, and deepen engagement by providing specific product or brand messages that align with their journey.

“95% of prospects on your website are not yet ready to talk with a sales rep” Source: 2011 MECLABS research

We no longer have to interrupt a buyer’s journey to gauge their interest level. We no longer have to call a prospect to qualify them. This can, and will happen, at the buyer’s choosing, if we let it.

By providing something of value (e.g. relevant and personal) buyers will share their interests, desires and needs, but only if we listen, nurture and respect the relationship. According to Forrester, this intimate information is critical to creating real opportunity (leads) for the sales force.

In the Technology Buyer Insight Study, Forrester found that, although tech has done a good job of equipping their sales force to discuss their products, they have failed to provide reps with insight into buyer’s roles and responsibilities. Only 29% of CIO’s said that sales reps could “relate to their role”, less than a quarter (24%) of business leaders said that reps were “knowledgeable about their business.”

Still too touchy feely for you? Consider Harte Hanks’ report, Mapping the Technology Buyer’s Journey which states that the relationship with the vendor is still a top 5 consideration driver. The first and second most important drivers are what you’d expect: 1) Meets all needs, and 2) Cost.

Competitors can match your price, but they can’t necessary match your understanding of the buyer’s need or the relationship developed through that journey.

This post is featured on Forbes.com

Top 5 Ways PR Can Support Sales

2011-09-16T14:49:00.013-04:00

This post was also featured on PR News.
For the most part, sales and marketing view PR/Corporate Communications’ role to be high in the funnel. Some would even say that its focus is on “above the funnel” activities. But if used strategically, PR activities can be very effective in playing a critical role in supporting sales. Below are five ways PR can help the sales organization:

Creating an impression – Typically thought of as a primary role of PR, but the ability to create a perception that the company plays in a “space” gets the company in the consideration set and the sales force in the door. A few years ago, we did some research on the key consideration drivers in Tech. The research showed that relationship with the rep was not a driver…meaning, if the customer perception is that you don’t have product/solution for their need, the rep is not getting a call.
Damage control – As “they” say, “things happen”, and how the company handles it may be the difference between losing and retaining a customer. PR can help get out in front of an issue, explain the company’s position, and help the sales force navigate what can be a difficult conversation. Ford’s handling of the corporate bailout was masterful. As Alan Mullaly’s peers from GM and Chrysler were taking their corporate jets to Washington to ask for a hand out, he and his team were driving from Detroit. They said “no” to the handout and walked out with consumer confidence, which later turned into market share gains.
Checking a competitor – A huge concern for sales is having a competitor leapfrog ahead with a new solution or product. PR can create the impression that the company has a similar product or solution when in reality it may not. Large established companies, like GE and Cisco, turn up the noise to drown out fast moving smaller competitors.
Building momentum– There’s nothing better for a salesperson than a product that “sells itself.” Creating excitement in the market for a product or solution helps generate inbound leads, which have the highest close rates. Do you really think that the new IPhone 5 went missing…again? It’s all about creating a buzz.
Enabling and managing Social Media – In certain industries, such as hi-tech, Social Media is owned by PR/Corporate Communication. This important channel for engaging with customers can provide sales with new insights into customer behaviors, needs, and motivations, but that insight has to be carefully managed as to how it is used.

And for a bonus example – Virtual Coverage - years ago, I conducted research on how well a medical equipment company was covering small customers. The results showed that their sales force visited customers about once every three months while a competitive sales force came by about twice as much.
The company couldn't afford to increase the field sales force but could ramp up corporate communications. A year later when we did the same research, this time customers said that the reps were showing up twice as often. They weren't, but the increased communication resulted in the perception that they were seeing the reps more often.

The Social Media Squeeze in Hi-Tech

2011-08-29T08:59:00.004-04:00

After much internal debate and in-fighting among departments you finally decide to put Social Media in PR. Well, don’t get too comfortable. The risk, according to recent research on the technology industry, is that PR may get pressured to turn a vehicle for engaging in genuine conversations into a broadcast channel for generating leads.

According to research from ExactTarget, close to 40% of Facebook users said that they “like” a brand to share their support of that brand with friends.

Why users “like” brands:

40% to receive discounts and promotions
39% to show my support for the company to others
36% to get a “freebie”
34% to stay informed about the activities of the company
33% to get updates on future products

63% of FB users reported that they would “unlike” a brand if postings become excessive, and in particular, if they are too promotional or repetitive. 52% of Twitters users would stop following a brand if their tweets became repetitive or boring. This is where the danger for hi-tech marketers exists.

In a report titled Tech Marketers Pursue Antiquated Marketing Strategies, Forrester found that 42% of hi-tech companies have handed over Social Media to PR and Corporate Marketing.

The research also showed that 76% hi-tech marketers say that lead generation was one of the two most important priorities for marketing compared to 53% of non-tech companies. Non-tech companies also list customer relationship management to be a priority at 52% versus only 22% of tech companies.

Because of the pressure for leads, tech has a tendency to want to turn any interaction into a sales conversation, by doing so it risk alienating what could be its best sales voice, the brand advocate. It doesn't mean that PR organizations in tech can’t successfully execute social media programs, in fact, many of the best practices come from the industry. But if not carefully monitored and controlled, PR and MarCom will be under pressure to use social media as a one way outbound spam machine aimed at anyone who hints at liking a technology brand.

That squeeze will come from the product organization, which has P&L targets that will be made or missed according to the marketing team’s ability to produce leads. Forrester found that Product Development and Engineering (35%) has the most influence of any business function in the hi-tech industry.

To put that into perspective, only 4% answered Marketing. So you can expect Product to bring the heat.

Where should social media sit?

The Forrester report went on to say that other industry respondents believe social media plays an important part in other marketing activities, as a result, it could be owned by a corporate marketing/PR (24%), web/interactive group (22%) or a brand or product marketing group (16%).

If you are in hi-tech and PR manages social media remember this - the top measurable benefit of social media, according to a recent McKinsey survey, is that it increases the speed to access knowledge; specifically, to understand the external environment, find new ideas, and experts which has resulted in improved marketing effectiveness. Note that these activities are collecting information, not distributing.

Are Existing Customers 8 Times More Valuable than New Customers?

2011-08-10T16:48:00.001-04:00

It’s conventional wisdom that it is “six to seven times more expensive to gain a new customer than to retain an existing customers.” Given today’s economic uncertainty, could the inverse also be true? Could existing customers be six, seven or even eight times more valuable in terms of revenue and growth than new ones?

Frederick Reinchheld of Bain & Company coined the phase based his research on customer retention and acquisition in a study published in the Havard Business Review in 2001. He would later go on to develop the Net Promoter score, measuring the impact and importance of “loyal enthusiasts” on a company’s performance.

So for many companies, existing customers are a bellwether investment – such as gold – in times of instability and uncertainty. But what the research does not address is the potential existing customers represent. Many are a goldmine of opportunity for incremental revenue growth that is often missed.

For example, a financial services company found that because it focused on promoting and selling new products, the majority of new customers acquired in the last 2 years had high penetration of new products (75%) and low penetration of older products (40%).

The inverse was also true: Customers for more than 10 years had high penetration rates of products older than 10 years at 65%, while new customers had penetration of 37% for those same products.

Marketing promotions, and sales compensation incented behaviors that led to new customers only being exposed to new products. With existing customers, the company focused on retention and spent little time on trying to sell new products. As a result, the company discovered a host of cross-sell and up-sell opportunities as a result of this segmentation … opportunities that may exist in many other organizations. I would recommend segmenting your customers by date acquired, and the age of the product they own or use to discover your own goldmine.

This incremental revenue potential, combined with the value a customer represents as a brand advocate (Reinchheld’s Net Promoter Score) powered by social media raises the stakes even further. It is a solid argument for suggesting that existing customers are in fact, even more valuable than Bain originally suggested ten years ago.

Don’t get me wrong; new products, markets and customers are critical for growth. I’m not advocating that a company abandon these pursuits, however I am suggesting that given the current situation there might be an overlooked, low-cost opportunity for growth right in the backyard.

You just need to mine it.

Need another reason? At this writing, an ounce of gold is trading at about $1,700.. Two years ago, it traded at $1014, appreciating 68% over this period.

Treat customers like gold and you might see the same kind of return.

A Communication Company that Lost the Ability to Communicate

2011-08-02T11:07:00.005-04:00

When a life-changing event occurs - like the USA’s Olympic hockey team’s Miracle on Ice- many people remember where they were or what they were doing. I was on the couch when I lost my Fios. It was a Sunday morning (10:02 am to be exact) July 3^rd and I was flipping back and forth between watching the Tour de France team time trial (my favorite stage) and the final of Wimbledon between Nadel and Djokovic (also a favorite sporting event).

While I was enjoying the tour, my neighbor was in his backyard sinking a shovel into my Fios fiber optic cable, cutting the line. His single move was a triple punch; he took out my TV, landline and the Internet (I also happened to be finalizing the details for our vacation the following week).

Following the disruption, I immediately checked all the known causes and determined it was outside of the house and outside of my expertise. Verizon said that because of the holiday, the soonest they could send out a Tech person would be Tuesday, July 5^th. It’s now August 1^st and I’m still dealing with this issue. I tried hard not to write this post, but the temporary cable that is still in my backyard is a constant reminder of how this “communications company” has lost the ability to communicate with it’s customers.

Without boring you with the detail of this mess, what I learned is that the company originally built on providing phone service has forgotten how to use the phone.

Service Tech reps no longer talk with customers - Instead reps send you a text message when they are on the way or when they missed you. And timing of those texts is also not in sync. Our rep told us that he was at our house at 9:06 am. However, my wife got a text message at 10:20 am saying that our service was scheduled between 8-12 pm.
Customer service cannot talk to the Tech reps – The people scheduling your service cannot directly talk with the reps. We waited for the service tech to engage us in their version of an instant messaging.
Customers cannot talk to the dispatcher or the Tech rep – After the rep said he came back in the afternoon and no one was home (that is if you don’t count me staring out the window waiting for him), I was desperate to hunt him down, thinking that he was going to the wrong address.
One division cannot talk to another – After I called back to reschedule the third time, my call was accidently routed to Verizon Wireless. The rep told me he could not route my call back to Verizon Fios because “we’re another company.”
Contractors cannot talk to the service department – The tech rep placed a temporary cable through my neighbor’s backyard to restore our service, telling us a contractor would come to sink the line. The contractor did sink the line, however, he left the temporary line in my backyard (partially chewed up by my 9 month old puppy and the lawn mover).

In my opinion, the reason for the communication loss is directly related to efficiency and scale. Verizon has now grown so large that it no longer has to care. Similar to Sprint in the golden days of wireless, it has momentum on the front end (acquisition) and is trying to make the backend (service) as efficient as possible to bring down the cost to service those customers.

We were one of the first neighborhoods in the country to receive the Fios service. Direct mail promoted the service and sales reps went door-to-door signing up customers if they didn’t already get you via telesales. Cost was not an issue and customer service would do anything to make customers happy while it worked out the bugs in its game-changing product.

But today, Verizon, like Sprint at its peak (which just recorded it’s 16^th consecutive quarter of losing more customers than it has acquired), appears to be driving as much cost out of operations as possible by placing efficiency ahead of effectiveness.

I can attest to the fact that using text, IM and other non-personal communication vehicles may be efficient, but certainly not effective. Customers feel the pain and companies have no way to sense it because they have removed the person.

This quest for scalable efficiency also relates to the way technology is configured. For example, during this ordeal my DVR cable box went out. I called the service department to report the cable box and to request (again) that they send someone out to remove the cable from my backyard. The box arrived a few days later, however, the technician did not.

When I called Verizon to find out what happened, they said that they could only enter one trouble ticket per call. This is another area where efficiency breaks down. Complex problems with multiple steps do not easily follow a service process designed for speed. Reps have to work with customers to solve problems and many times it involves multiple steps. If reps are compensated for how many calls they take, talk time (as little as possible with customers), and one call resolution, reps will pass on anything they view as time consuming.

The lesson I learned is that bigger is not necessarily better. I have 3 wireless phones, Internet, TV and a landline with Verizon. It’s inconvenient and would be somewhat painful for me to switch (and for some services I’m contractually obligated to pay fees if I cancel). All this gives Verizon leverage. While I enjoy paying one bill, I don’t like being treated as a number.

Just as Sprint learned the painful lesson of being too big to care, so will Verizon. And I look forward to that day, but until then, Verizon get your damn cable out of my backyard.

Why Sex Sells

2011-07-25T10:18:00.004-04:00

This post is featured on Forbes.com
Years ago some colleagues of mine built what we thought at the time was the “holy grail” of business marketing. A sophisticated analytical tool that could tell a marketer where to invest, why, and what the return would be in sales productivity. It could also tell them where to cut dollars, why and what the impact would be on the business.

It was an incredible feat of analytical modeling and technology. Built for one of the most respected and well known companies in the world, so the CMO could answer with absolute certainty the CEO’s question: “What am I getting for my marketing spend?” We thought that it was our ticket to the big time and the rocket to ride to explosive growth, but that was not the case.

To continue reading click here.

5 Ways Marketers Lose Credibility with the C-Suite

2011-07-18T13:36:00.006-04:00

As featured on Forbes.com

Here is a hypothesis: Given the greater focus on ROI, marketing automation tools, and enhanced tracking of results, marketing is now more of a science than ever, therefore, marketers ability to defend and validate their value among peers should be easier than ever before. So why does the latest study by Fournaise state that CMO’s still lack credibility with CEO’s?

To continue reading click here

Social is Intriguing, However Search is Proven

2011-07-08T14:34:00.006-04:00

It’s tough to know anything for certain nowadays; there are so many sources of the “truth.” Questions abound about the value of social media and how much to invest time and resources. You would think that having a “sure thing” would be a welcome relief. So here it is….

Recent research by Base One, 2011 Annual Survey of B2B Buyer Behavior, as well as others, continues to show that although social media adoption and usage will continue to grow, no absolute conclusions can be made as to its effectiveness in B2B marketing efforts.

The real insight in the report is the growth in importance/usefulness of what they referred to as "Traditional online" in the buying process. Search and Corporate (Supplier) Websites “Traditional online,” will grow 2-3X in comparison with "New online/social media." And that growth is seen at each stage of the buying process.

"The nearer the buyer gets to signing on the dotted line, the more influential the information sources become."

The conclusion, social media warrants experimentation. And I suspect to understand it’s true value companies will have to discover their own “killer application” just like they’ve done with other new technologies.

However, with limited time and money, business marketers need to cover off the basics, and that is “traditional online.” Don’t let social media distract the focus from getting your corporate website, and search, both organic (SEO) and paid (PPC), optimized. Social may pay off in the future, but Search is a sure bet today.

The Top 200 Brands Ad Budgets

2011-06-24T09:48:00.002-04:00

Ad Age kindly sent me this interesting graphic of ad budgets by brand. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so, enough said. Enjoy the view.

Designed by Marketing Degree, to see the research please click here

B2B Marketers Take Their Seat at the Table

2011-06-17T12:09:00.000-04:00

This post appears on Forbes CMO Network today. I'll be writing a monthly post for the site.

In 2004, I was part of research project with a professor at the Kellogg School of Management and the CMO Council that sought to understand what CMO’s believed to be critical for their success. The most common response was a seat at the table with other senior executives.

Four years ago, I was part of another research effort focused on the CMO’s top priorities, and number one on the list was to be viewed by their peers as strategic thinkers. Finally, I believe the day has come for that to happen. To continue reading click here

Apple Killed the Radio Star

2011-06-16T14:24:00.004-04:00

When MTV launched on August 1, 1981, the first video played was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. It was a warning shot across the bow of the “establishment” that the world was about to change. I still remember where I was that day; at beach week with a bunch of other high school knuckleheads, wasting our day watching MTV instead of being on the beach. It was our “big thing,” as we were to become the “MTV generation.”

Last week, Apple basically made the same statement when they announced ICloud. Steve Jobs proclaimed: “We’re going to demote the PC and Mac to just be a device…is equivalent to saying the “Cloud Killed the PC Star.” An amazing comment coming from the company that helped create the personal computer segment with the Apple I and Apple II in 70’s & early 80’s.

How is it that Apple - a company that was almost out of business 15 years ago - produces home run after home run, and now threatens to cannibalizing one of its core products, the MacBook? What has changed over the last decade and a half? Besides the obvious, including culture, resources, and talent, there are four key drivers of their success.

1. Learning from the past – Apple has learned that it no longer has to be the innovator of the technology; a learned behavior I attribute to observing the success of Microsoft. Apple’s strategy has shifted to creating innovative products built off existing technology. For example, the IPod was a better MP3 player (or DAP). The IPhone is a better Smartphone. The IPad – is an infinitely better version of a Netbook. And the Cloud, not exactly born yesterday.

2. Timing the market – Apple now allows others (similar to Microsoft) to create the market. They model the adoption curve and introduce products just as consumer adoption is about to take off (typical 2-4 years after the technology is introduced). This allows them to learn from consumer usage and hit the market at the right time with a better product.

3. It’s the App + the cool device – Apple learned this lesson early and probably applied it better than anyone in the industry. Not only do they design a great looking product but they also get how consumers want to use it. And their open-source platform allows troves of software programmers and developers to create programs to be used and loved by the masses, further increasing the desirability to own their hardware. Enabling that functionality also happens to create incredibly scalable revenue streams.

4. Being held accountable and challenged by customers– this is perhaps the most important success driver for Apple. Each year Jobs knows he has to go in front of thousands of rabid Apple fans with something new. There is no time to rest or to be complicit with their current success; Apple fans want to know what‘s next and desire to be wowed by it. As a result, Apple has to constantly be in “innovation” mode. This creates, maintains, and nurtures their culture. We all know that often times, we produce our best work or solution for our most difficult customers and clients. Apple embraces this and uses it to fuel future product development unlike any of their competitors or any other company for that matter.

So what’s the next big thing for Apple? Well, if you follow the formula above just track new technology innovations, give it 2-3 years and voila…a new Apple product. In the meantime, look for the IPAD to take over the world. My kids will be probably be known as the “IPAD generation.”

Why Measuring Customer Lifetime Value Matters for Lead Generation

2011-06-06T13:05:00.012-04:00

Post is featured on MarketingProfs.com

This month BtoB magazine published the Lead Generation Guide 2011. The special issue is filled with articles focused on all facets of lead generation written by marketing experts and journalist over the last two years.

The final section titled, “Data” contains charts with assorted research findings. One of the most interesting is a slide from a Benchmark report produced by ITSMA. The graph show the metrics regularly used to measure the success of lead-generation activities.

The top responses are what one would expect; Number of Qualified Leads (68%), Number of Closed Deals (63%), Revenue Growth (54%). The metrics that ranked lowest are far more interesting: Cost per Customer Acquired (15%) and Lifetime Value of Customers Acquired (19%).

If you are a tactical marketer, I can understand why those metrics ranked the lowest since the data is hard for marketing to track, it may not be marketing’s responsibility, and/or the calculation is too complicated. However, if you are a strategic marketer, capturing and tracking these metrics is very important.

Years ago, I consulted for a research division within a professional services firm. The company sold primary research and custom reports that typically cost between $80,000 – $150,000 Acquiring new customers was largely a transactional effort. As a result, it relied heavily on marketing and new business activities to fill the pipeline. Increased revenue targets meant that it required increased marketing budgets to meet corporate goals.

I was tasked to find a solution since the model was unsustainable. The key to unlocking the answer came from calculating their Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Almost immediately the analysis pointed to issues with their average price point, YOY churn rate (retention) and average account size. Not surprisingly, the company had a negative CLV, but no one was measuring it or analyzing it.

Even though the symptom of the problem manifested itself as marketing, this was not only a marketing issue. The challenges reached across the organization and into the product and sales groups as well. Of course, understanding the cost envelop for acquiring customers helped guide future marketing investments and activities, but fixing this problem was not only about cutting or right sizing the marketing budget.

As a result of the analysis, the firm set on a course to build and implement other areas of improvement:

An upsell and cross sell program.
Complimentary products that could be sold as follow on/add on
Enhanced products to drive a higher initial (01) price points
An account management and retention program
Account managers

By implementing the aforementioned items, the company was able to correct the problem and generate a profitable CLV, which became a key performance indicator (KPI).

While it is not commonly used, CLV is one of my favorite metrics to track because it is a “process” metric. It can help guide sales and marketing performance by ensuring that profitability, acquisition cost, and retention rates are being properly measured. Marketers tracking CLV have an early warning system that can indicate:

Targeting the wrong audience - too small, short term focused, etc.
Creating the wrong type of leads – clients may only be interested in the initial offer and are not interested in a longer term relationship (see the next point for more). The value of the lead is not worth the cost.
Promoting the wrong offer – the offer may be incenting the wrong behaviors - this especially true with discounts associated with individual purchases such as retail store cards that offer 10% off the first purchase if a customer opens an account.
Setting the wrong price point – the true cost of sale may not have been considered or known.
Having a retention and/or account management issue – this will show up quickly (the “leaky bucket”).

Marketers that ignore this important metric are in danger of missing out on an early indicator of top line performance measures. While CLV may not be included in the performance report, it is important to track and understand the CLV goal or baseline.

As illustrated in the case study, the symptom may show up in marketing, however these issues will cut across the organization. Budget cutting will not fix the problem. Marketers need to be able to point to other parts of the equation that are contributing to the issues, which is good for the other CLV: Career Lifetime Value.

The World's Most Famous Press Release

2011-05-31T13:40:00.013-04:00

Post was featured on Forbes.com on July 4th.
It was written over 230 years ago, 200-300 copies were printed for towns up and down the east coast, and a few made their way to Europe. Contrary to popular belief it contained no signatures and what it promoted was completely unique, new, and flawed.

The Declaration of Independence is arguably the “world’s most famous press release”, according the curator at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where it was written and approved in its final form (unsigned) on July 4^th, 1776. The signed copy we are familiar with was created in August for ceremonial purposes.

I found it interesting to hear one of the world’s most famous and important documents being referred to as a “press release” during a class field trip with my son. The curator used the analogy because he said that there is confusion regarding the purpose of the Declaration; “...the goal of the document was to only articulate “What” and “Why,” not “How.”

As a marketing guy in the audience, I found this history lesson to be an interesting “best practice” from the founding fathers; focus on effectively communicating ONLY “what “and “why.” How many times have you written and/or read a press release that tried to say too much, and/or lacked clarity on its intended objective?

Another interesting point gathered during our visit was the struggle to form a new federal government (the “How”) under the Articles of Confederation. At the time, the new federal government had no revenue source (taxation), and no real authority over the states.

The states operated as their own “countries” deciding on their own currency, religion, and diplomacy with other countries. Again the marketer in me saw the similarity to the power struggle between corporate marketing and other sales/marketing organizations (Product, Field, Region, etc.). Would history provide another lesson for marketers?

Congress struggled with governing under the Articles. Instead of revising the existing document, the Federal Convention decided to draft an entirely new frame of government. According to the curator, three key issues hung up the approval of the Articles;

Religion
Slavery
The power given to the federal government, which many saw coming at the expense of the states.

Addressing the religious issue was easy; they left it out of the U.S. Constitution. It was later covered under the Bill of Rights. On slavery, they reached a compromise by outlawing slave trade in 1808, twenty years in the future. But the single most important change was the shift from states to the individual in granting the federal government its power.

“We the people…do ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States.” The federal government now answered to citizens and not the states. State representatives and congressman now represented the views and best interests of the people within their districts. By putting citizens first, the founding fathers established a focal point that transcended state interest.

Could this be the time for a B2B marketing revolution? With the rise in social media adoption, marketers can now better gauge the needs and desires of their customers. Customers for their part are showing a willingness to engage like never before.

As a result, marketers are now presented with an opportunity to shift focus from solely addressing and satisfying internal “states” needs to anticipating, engaging, and serving the needs of customers.

Although I'm a proud Virginian, I'm no Patrick Henry but I say marketers, it's time for our own declaration...marketing by the people, for the people!

How Many Channels Does it Take to Sell a Phone?

2011-05-16T14:08:00.002-04:00

My daughter’s phone stopped working (at least that’s what she told us) and we decided to get her a new smartphone for her birthday. The problem was that the contract ran until August, which meant we would have to pay full price for the handset.

According to the customer service agent, since my daughter’s phone is on my wife’s plan – and my wife was eligible for an upgrade – we could apply the upgrade to my daughter’s account. In order to avoid a $20 charge to transfer the upgrade, I needed to complete the transaction online by first registering the account.

A relatively simple task of inputting basic account information became a complex headache. The information I was inputting didn’t match existing information that the wireless providers had on file and the customer service rep couldn’t tell me what was incorrect. Frustrated and irritated by what should have been a quick transaction, I was now headed for a local retail location (sales channel #3 if you’re keeping track).

I explained my situation to the store associate who said I could only get the upgrade by going online, so off to the in-store kiosk we went. She figured out the registration issue, but then ran into another problem trying to use the upgrade promotion. That prompted a call to telesales and another in-store sales associate who overheard the conversation to join in.

All three sales channels were now all involved with an existing customer’s “rebuy” transaction; a textbook example of “channel stacking.” Two retail reps, a telesales rep, and the web working on converting an “upgrade” that was intended to be a web transaction completed by the customer.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that they are putting the customer first and saved me the $20 fee, plus another $50 rebate on the phone (which was another promotion that complicated the deal), but this is the kind of situation that makes a CFO’s head spin.

A multi-channel sales model is essential in today’s environment, both for businesses and consumers. The problem in this situation was that the offer did not fit the channel. And this is a critical point for effectively and efficiently managing a multi-channel approach.

The promotion upgrade, phone rebate and price were available only as online offers. And that’s fine, unique offers aligned to single channels entice customers to use them. The offers on there own were simple but when combined they became too complex for the channel that carried them. When that happens customers will cross channels when given the opportunity.

To effectively use a multi-channel sales model you must:

Align the product, offer and/or both to fit the channel - In the case of the web that means simplifying them. The web is intended to be a self-directed user channel. If you can’t simplify the product or offer, then it’s the wrong channel.
Map the customer buying process – learn, shop, buy and support. This will help define the user experience, which will be helpful for the next step.
Anticipate user issues - add coaching points and/or use existing customer information to auto-populate fields. This will require testing...it's worth it.

The phone arrives today. Remember I couldn’t get it at the store because it was an online promotion. It will add $20 per month to our monthly bill. The contract is for 24 months. The total value of the transaction is $580 -- $480 in fees, plus the $100 for the phone. Total cost of the transaction to the service provider…they don’t want to know; it’s not good for the CFO’s health.

The Rise of New Competition

2011-05-10T10:39:00.009-04:00

Clayton Christensen, in his best selling book “The Innovators Dilemma” explains why companies - despite having leading edge technologies and market share - fail over time. He states “It was as if the leading firms were held captive by their customers, enabling attacking entrant firms to topple the incumbent industry leaders each time a disruptive technology emerged.”

Christensen uses the disk drive industry as an example and explains: “When the best firms subsequently failed, it was for the same reasons--they listened responsively to their customers and invested aggressively in the technology, products, and manufacturing capabilities that satisfied their customers' next-generation needs. This is one of the innovator's dilemmas: Blindly following the maxim that good managers should keep close to their customers can sometimes be a fatal mistake.”

The pursuit of ever increasing profits causes companies to increase their prices and innovate to bigger and better. As a result, they alienate and/or under-serve smaller customers along the way, opening the door to new competitors who serve those neglected customers with simple and inexpensive technologies. After winning the customer’s loyalty, the new entrants innovate their way up to larger customer segments along the way taking market share.

Last year US companies reported record earnings, up 37% in the fourth quarter. Most of those gains have been made through productivity improvements as a result of the “jobless recovery.” First quarter earnings for 2011 were a modest 11% because of inflationary pressure coming from oil, commodities and transportation.

Similar to the disk drive manufacturers highlighted in Clayton’s book, big companies who performed extremely well last year will be under pressure this year to maintain profits. The challenge this year is that cost are rising and companies have little room to absorb it. As a result, they are passing these costs to customers, which we have already begun to see.

Although confidence is slowly improving, consumers haven’t recovered fully from the recession. Wages have not kept pace with inflation. And according to a study by McKinsey, consumers have also learned to appreciate and enjoy lower cost products. When taking all this into consideration, we have a perfect storm gathering for new competition to enter at the low-end of the market.

What industries and companies are most likely to be squeezed? Let’s first start with who probably won’t: Industries with very little transportation and manufacturing needs; like the service sector; and media. Retail banking, financial information and professional services also come off the list. Business in industries that are somewhat shielded from inflation pressure, and/or can easily pass it along to consumers, like Healthcare and Utilities, also are likely to not feel the pressure.

Using that same logic companies in industries that rely heavily on transportation and commodities are top targets. Airlines, grocery chains, and manufacturing expect to see new low cost competitors with unique business models. Companies with high gross margins will also be especially rip for picking.

Where will the competition come from? Hopefully, new, innovative US companies but the best bet is probably China. They’ll use their low cost producer advantage, along with the fact that China controls more than 90% of the rare earth elements. Those minerals are used in your IPAD, IPhone and electric motors...given that fact, let’s add hi-tech to the list.

The good news is that time is right for disruptive innovation. New companies should mean job growth, as long as the credit markets continue to improve. And if you’re in an industry mentioned above, hopefully, innovation is top of the list of company priorities.

Coming out of the recession we are, most likely, very attuned to our biggest customers. But as Christensen warns us, to stay competitive we need to avoid being held “captive” by them. Perhaps while we are on the look out for new competitors, we might also want to keep an eye out for new customers.

Using Content Curation Tools for B2B Thought Leadership

2011-04-22T11:49:00.008-04:00

Years ago, I ran marketing for a professional services firm. As with most consulting firms, our demand generation efforts were based on thought leadership. Getting the content for those programs was a long and painful process, worse than pulling teeth because, most of the time we had to fabricate the teeth and then pull them out.

One would think that with the rise of social media and the focus at the corporate level on blogging, that content creation would not be a problem. However, according to a recent HiveFire research poll, the challenges I encountered ten years ago still exist today; finding, developing and producing high quality content. Could the latest content curation tools be the answer?

Content Curation tools like Scoop.it, and Storify, are the next generation digital content tools having evolved from content aggregation (gathering links, like Google News) and social bookmarketing tools (like Delicious and Digg). The key difference in this evolution being the human “curator.” To this point, those tools have been aimed at consumers to help them manage and sort through the vast spaces of web content.

The latest version of these tools, Curata (a HiveFire company, the sponsor of the research) and Curation Station are aimed at B2B. With a value proposition focused on their ability to drive awareness by improving organic search, and providing organizations with an opportunity to build thought leadership.

The curator is an editor who sorts through the content to find the information relevant to them and/or their audience. They are not content creators. And this is where I think the challenge lies in using the tools for thought leadership.

First, creating a content farm on a “hot” topic will not improve a company’s organic search results (Google has already figured this out). It also will not establish an organization “thought leadership” in a area on its own.

As the survey referenced, Marketers stated that “Creating Original Content” was the number one challenge; companies must establish a point of view, not just aggregated content on a particular subject. So what value do these new tools offer?

To understand that it's helpful to first understand how thought leadership content is developed. For example, the process I used in the past involved five steps:

Deciding on a issues set
Developing a point of view
Conducting research to validate the POV
Summarizing the research and drawing out insights
Writing and publishing a content piece

Challenges related to this process involved:

Limited time and/or resources…often both
Limited view on the issue – often our only perspective was through our existing clients lenses
Drawing out insights – sometimes the research didn’t reveal anything new and/or enlightening
Distributing content – after all the effort the distribution of the content often fell short of expectations
Maintaining the program – continuing to create content beyond the initial launch

By taking these opportunities and challenges into light, we can begin to see where the tools provide value. Using this as a framework, the tools can add value by:

Reducing the time required to collect research for developing the issue set
Providing a real-time, broad view into top issues and/or hotpoints on a subject area
Integrating multiple content formats (tweets, video, etc.)
Creating leverage for staff on content creation and management
Being a ready made vehicle for distributing and measuring content

Content curation tools are enablers, not end solutions. To fully realize their potential, they will need the human elements of curation and creation. It will require staff (#4 on the challenge list), and time (#2 on the list). The good news is with these tools it will require less of it to be successful.

Keep in mind, thought leadership must be established. It’s not a campaign...it is a program. It’s also not something you say you have, but rather something others recognize that you provide.

For more information on the subject, Susan McKittrick has written an excellent white paper on the subject.

5 Steps for Driving Growth

2011-03-30T13:50:00.012-04:00

The good news is that economy is on the mend; consumer and customers are buying again. The bad news is that many companies will struggle to capture that opportunity.

Changes made as a result of the recession may now restrict companies from growing. During the recession, marketing budgets were cut and the sales force chased any customer willing to buy -- at any price. Most likely, sales territories, products in the bag, etc. were expanding, either as a result of downsizing the sales force, and/or expanding opportunities so that they could have a chance to make quota…either way they have a lot of ground to cover.

The question facing many organizations today is how to align sales and marketing activities, investments and resources, against the biggest growth opportunities while still covering the expanding set of customers and products. How can the sales force, and/or our marketing resources to do more? The classic -- do more with less scenario.

Well, the answer this time is you can’t. The reason is that the recession lasted so long (20 months) that everything that could be stretched…has been stretched. It’s now time to reset sales and marketing strategy. Here are five steps to get you started:

Move the "low hanging fruit" – During the downturn many organizations allowed sales organization to count EVERYTHING towards quota. It’s now time to start moving inbound orders (rebuys) and sales of a certain size (small) somewhere else (most likely telesales) to free up sales force time. Move it quickly, consider incenting them during the first 6 months to migrate transactions to insides sales or partners. Capacity needs to be freed so that it can be redirected to growth. If you are concerned about not being able to move fast enough, just stop paying commission on small or inbound deals and/or do not count them towards quota…nature will run its course.

Relocate and recondition small customers – Along with small orders, small customers (who often require more than their share of attention) need to move as well. They may have grown accustomed to the special attention they’ve received as a result of the downturn. However, it’s now time to ‘right size’ the cost to manage them with the opportunity they represent. You may want to incent them to self-service via the web or transfer the relationship to a business partner. Do your homework by evaluating customer profitability and set a new higher target.

Push Sales into bigger deals – After you’ve freed up Sales’ time, focus on increasing the pipeline and average deal size.  Turn marketing back on to help (see my post on the Pipeline).  It’s also time to ramp up your analytics, segmentation and data mining operations.   Build models to help identify opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell products and customers. Corporate Marketing will need to update corporate positioning and the messaging architecture to align with where the market and customers exist. Product marketing has to develop solutions and messaging to drive larger deals.

Increase price points – This is related to the point above: stop discounting products and services immediately. Wind down incentive pricing, and start developing new offers with customer, and market aligned value propositions. This will be a challenge to manage as the sales force and customers have become conditioned to expect a “good deal," despite the fact that it has been shown to be ineffective.  Invest in research to determine how their expectations have been impacted because of this practice.

Expand your channels – this will be important to several reasons. First, a new “home” for small transactions and customers is needed.   The second is that you may not be able to reach or capture the market because it has shifted (e.g. new technology/innovation, competitors, etc.).   Invest ahead of the curve as good sales people are hard to find and there is going to be a run on them. Along with reps, get your partners up and running now, and grow into full productivity later.

Lastly, don’t over look the need for change management. According to the Corporate Executive Board, 25% of high performers indicated that they are interested in changing companies as the economy recovers. Invest time in evaluating the impact of implementing the steps mentioned inside your organizations.

Customer and rep behaviors have changed, as well as markets. The recession was one of the longest in our history. It’s a mistake to just snap back to the way it was. Be smart and invest in research on your customers, competitors and markets. Set a three year plan to double revenues, price points, etc. Create aspirational goals and get the organization excited again…it’s been a long time coming.

Legacy Thinking: How We Define “At Work”

2011-03-16T10:32:00.006-04:00

What do you think of when someone says they are “at work”? An office building? A typical work day (9am -5pm or 8am-6pm)? A typical the work week (Monday-Friday)? How about the workplace (an office with a desk and a computer)?

We still hold on to these perceptions of work, despite research and our intuition telling us that this is no longer true. Management workers are increasingly working outside the office and spending more time in that capacity - 16% of the work week on average.

These “knowledge workers,” as Peter Drucker coined them, are also increasing the time they work at home. 38% of managers, information workers, and professionals spending some portion of their time at home during the workday, and 34% spend time on the weekend working (an average of 3.75 hrs).

The workplace, office hours, and work week are changing and will continue to change, so as marketers how should we be thinking about this change? I recently spoke with the head of a customer analytics company who mentioned that one of his clients discovered that targeting customers at their home address was more effective than reaching them at their office location.

Knowledge workers are also more likely to be business decision makers. In addition to logging time from their home, they are also the ones who are most likely to be mobile. As a result, they are heavy technology users: 93% saying that mobile technology makes them more productive. So is that the answer? Do we try to reach these business buyers on their smart phones and shift to mobile advertising?

Not so, according to Nielson in a McKinsey Quarterly report that found that it would take “a technology breakthrough to make mobile screens a more inviting environment for direct marketing and wireless commerce.”

Although technology will need to evolve, and it will, we should recognize that we are in middle of a significant change. The mobile movement is on, but it hasn’t reached critical mass yet. Behaviors are changing, but it isn’t a majority. The era of Business-to-Person (B2P) is evolving, but it’s also being viewed as a distraction.

As these technologies and work habits continue to evolve, what is certain is that businesses will continue to lose control over the message, the channel, the engagement, and the timeframe.

Customers can and do, decide on what and where they want to consume information. Americans now consume five times the information they did in 1980, averaging 11.8 hours a day. According to a recent Harvard Business Review article we’re now able to pack in, thanks to multitasking, 12 hours of media usage into 9 hours (think watching TV and surfing the net at the same time).

Our world is changing. The concept of “work” is no longer defined by a physical location, title or time, but rather it is a state of mind. Businesses are no longer an entity, but rather, a trusted individual. Legacy thinking is the idea of a business targeting a business buyer (by a title), at a business address, during “business hours.”

In this new world, sophisticated marketers have to embrace this change by understanding how to identify unique behavior segments of decision makers and influencers, where they congregate and how they want to consumer information, and that includes who they want it from, and when.