So, why does the IT sector still use all these events for marketing? That’s easy: it’s what they’ve always done. For some companies, there’s a shortage of marketing resources and experience, which makes it hard to do anything that hasn’t been done before. For others, it’s a way to spend MDF, which often becomes an end in itself.

The problem isn’t with marketing events: they can be very effective. Rather, IT solution providers need to figure out how to turn them into lead generation activities. Here are three ways you can make your IT marketing events more compelling (and productive):

1. The event is not the objective
Instead, the marketing event is how you plan to reach your objective, which is to drive sales. You need to fill the room — in order to have someone to market to. Once everyone is seated, the marketing effort really begins. Ask yourself, “What is my marketing strategy for attendees while I have them in the audience?” Figure out how to turn their presence into your gain.

2. Identify pain points
This is Sales 101, right? You want to find out how you can help. Develop a series of pain points that the solution you’re presenting addresses, and focus on them throughout the event. Turn it into an actual list — on paper — and hand it out to your guests, with a checkbox next to each. This is sales intelligence, fodder for your next conversation.

3. The end of the event is the beginning of sales
Follow up with everyone who RSVPed, not just those who attended. Use the pain point surveys to open the conversation, and make each call specific to the person on the other end. For prospects who weren’t able to make it to the event, offer to do one-on-one recaps.

The event itself is a means to an end. Keep your marketing efforts focused on driving new business, and you’ll see how events can become a demand generation engine.

Are you looking at e-mail open rates as a success metric? Well, it’s time to get past that. While this measure does provide some indication of interest in your newsletter, it still doesn’t get the recipient into the sales cycle … and that’s what matters most! Of course, there is still some value to open rate, as it helps gauge interest in your message, but it’s only a first step, and you need to track the entire set of results.

As you can see, there’s a funnel in play, here. For B2B e-mail marketers, 23 percent of recipients (depending on how the metric is defined) open an e-mail, with 11 percent clicking through and 3 percent converting. So, while open rates give you a sense of how successful your newsletter is, you need to manage subsequent milestones, as well.

[Source: MarketingSherpa]

Long sales cycles are frustrating not only because it delays revenue but because they also introduce the risk that you won’t. The longer it takes to bring a prospect from the mouth of the funnel to a closed deal, the greater the likelihood is that you either won’t finalize the relationship or that it will come in at a much lower amount than you expected.

And for the marketing department: removing these risks is your responsibility.

Not every prospect that you or your sales team identifies will be ready to buy right away. According to MarketingSherpa, only 17 percent of leads close within one month, with a total of 57 percent closing within 90 days. Twenty-one percent of leads can take a year or longer to close.

When you think about the different close rates, which obviously vary with industry and solution, you need to consider what you can do to keep a prospect engaged along the way. It may be a multi-step marketing campaign, targeted white paper offers or simply value-added sales calls (“consultations”) that you can use to help advance a prospect through the sales cycle. What you do in the third month of a six-month sales cycle can protect not just the odds of closure but also the expected deal size.

We use a carefully planned lead cultivation process to address this. Give us a shout if you want to learn more about it.

[Source: MarketingSherpa]

And just when you were getting comfortable, it’s all about to change again.

According to Mashable, Twitter is piloting a “Twitter Media” setting, “strongly suggesting that the company will soon embed videos and photos in the stream.” Users will have the ability to opt out of this feature.

It doesn’t look like Twitter is ready to invite any hype over this, though. Mashable reports that Twitter has removed the Twitter Media setting but does get confirmation from Twitter “that it is testing inline media”:

“We’re constantly exploring features and settings. What you saw was a small test of a potential consumption setting for inline media. We show inline media on our own iPhone and Android apps.”

via Mashable

Follow @entermarketing on Twitter >>

It’s all about moving resources around … prudently.

Let’s assume your solution can cut TCO for a particular platform by 50 percent in dollars and two full-time employee equivalents. That’s a savings — great! Now, your client needs to know what to do with the “leftover” resources. Raise the issue of redeploying both the cash and the bodies to initiatives that will advance the company in the marketplace. The cost savings becomes fuel for a growth engine.

And, it becomes a new sales opportunity.

With this approach, you can fill the cost savings void and help your prospect retain the “saved” people and budget. By adding ROI to a TCO-driven pitch, you get two sales calls for the price of one, while your prospect saves and gains simultaneously.

Want to make your corporate blog – and Facebook page and Twitter presence – a success? Here are four crucial objectives to focus on:

1. Publishing regularly: this may seem counter-intuitive, as it deals with your company, not your market. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find that both sides of the equation are affected. Without regular content, your market has no reason to engage. Further, it’s challenging to create interesting and useful content regularly, so you need to make that a clear goal.

Objective to set: frequency of publication

2. Engaging high-quality readers: what’s important is “high-quality,” not “high-volume.” You want readers who are likely to connect with you and use that as a first step in your sales cycle. A corporate blog should be intended, ultimately, to advance your business.

Objective to set: percentage of readers coming from companies in your target market, especially key accounts or targets

3. Leads are what matters: having the right readers is important, but you need to do something with them. If you can’t convert readers into qualified leads, your corporate blog is an exercise in talking at your market – not to it.

Objective to set: monthly/quarterly targets for demand generation

4. Mind your message: even though quantifiable business growth is crucial, as it is with any new business development endeavor, part of the purpose of a corporate blog is to position your company in the marketplace, which can help you generate leads in the future and make it easier to close sales. Use your blog to address the most important issues your clients face, and bolster your brand and reputation in the process.

Objective to set: create content that speaks to your market and positions your company as a genuine “solution” provider

The cost and return benefits associated with conventional IT solutions are inherently constrained. They are known quantities, innovation that has become standard. To provide outsized value, you need to introduce your client’s to what hasn’t become widely adopted yet, and implement technology that will keep them ahead of the game.

How does this work?

Leading-edge technology adopters gain magnified ROI early on, when the chasm between present and next is widest. When the competition finally implements what the early adopters already have, the early adopters have already mastered what the followers are still trying to figure out.

Now is the time to introduce your clients to clod computing and the latest virtualization developments. You’ll offer up a far greater competitive advantage to them when everyone else is playing catch-up. This is value with a long life in front of it.

Unless you’ve already dipped a toe in the blogging pond, the entire experience can seem overwhelming. Since any corporate marketing initiative comes with a lead time – consisting of everything from design and development to legal approvals – the best first step is to start a blog of your own. As your company is going through the necessary machinations, you can take the time to get a feel for what blogging is.

This may seem like a big step, but it’s actually rather tame. Don’t spend too much time planning (or worrying about what you’ll write). Just head over to WordPress, register and look around.

While approval processes and messaging are being negotiated, you can discover what it takes to write, post an image, embed a video and publish a blog post. You’ll learn what the various buttons do, how to make the most of the different features available and generally become more comfortable with the technology involved in blogging.

Though you may find you enjoy blogging while embarking on this pre-corporate experiment, what’s more important is that you’ll demystify the process for yourself. You won’t have to guess as to how bloggers come up with ideas or turn raw text into posts that the entire world can read – you’ll actually be doing it. The magic will disappear, and you’ll become much, much more comfortable.

Eventually, of course, the corporate blogging initiative will be approved, your environment will be ready and you’ll graduate from the minors to the big leagues. When this happens, you won’t have to scramble to figure out how posts are scheduled or how to tag your articles effectively.

Does it work?

Before I had the enter:marketing blog – or any of the other corporate blogs I’ve worked on – I had my personal blog. Not only did it help me learn the basics (and some tricks along the way), but it’s become a great test bed. I played with Twitter integrations, the WordPress reblog feature and tag clouds on my personal blog before making decisions about these features (and others) on the corporate blogs I’ve managed.

Seeing how a particular plugin or design element can play out over time can make a profound difference in how you move forward, especially since you can act from a position of knowledge instead of waiting to see how decisions work out once they’re live.

Know something about your new corporate blog before you launch it. Start and maintain a personal blog, even if you don’t update it regularly. The insights you gain will help your company with its early steps into social media marketing, and you’ll have more confidence in every step you take.

[Originally published on Technorati]

Here are three ways you can keep up with the market:

1. Use your commute: if you take the train, scan the headlines from trade publications. Don’t just read the big stories; take time to look at press releases and announcements, where you’ll find great sales fodder. Driving? Listen to podcasts for the same information.

2. Hit the manufacturers’ blogs: most IT manufacturers have them. These blogs are marketing tools, and you should use them as such. You’re selling to their end users, so the content is likely to be a great fit.

3. Block out time for white papers: reading these materials may be time-intensive, but it’s worth it. You’ll probably run into new sales tools, and you won’t have to rely on the same dated pieces you’ve been using all year (or longer). Current is better.

1. Study what you have: we give our clients detailed sales intelligence for every appointment. Read it carefully, and collaborate with colleagues for additional insights.

2. Read between the lines: is there something the prospect isn’t saying? Sometimes, a handful of pain points can suggest a greater underlying problem.

3. Hit the web: learn more about both the person and the company … Google exists for a reason! Check LinkedIn for the prospect’s background; you may learn something useful.

4. Gather materials: pull white papers, brochures and other tools that align closely with the prospect’s pain points. It’s great to have something to leave behind.