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Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Monday, July 19th, 2010
 I often ask marketers to tell me about the integrated marketing campaigns they are running. Here are a few common responses:
- We’ve been running a Google Adwords campaign for the past 2 years.
- We’ve got a new PR campaign kicking off next week.
- Our print advertising campaign has been reduced to 3 insertions due to budge cuts.
These answers highlight a common misunderstanding of the word “campaign.” Is the “campaign” a singular tactic? Or, is it something more? Are there lots of campaigns, or only a few? When it comes to integrated marketing, there are strategic as well as tactical connotations concerning this key word. When the context of the word “campaign” is misunderstood, it can lead to some heartburn.
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Tags: Integrated Marketing, integrated marketing campaign planning, lead funnel, marcom mix, marketing automation, marketing blueprints, marketing programs
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Lately, I’ve been asked for recommendations for a streamlined go-to-market plan template. This is a great request because I continue to see a lot of marketing teams get wrapped around the axle of a “10-step marketing plan” or some other beastly exercise. Now, please don’t mis-understand me: marketing planning is a serious, critical, and worthwhile exercise. Comprehensive planning exercises can be of great value. Yet, sometimes, a short-cut is needed.
Here’s the punch line:
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Tags: go-to-market, Integrated Marketing, integrated marketing campaign planning, marketing planning, marketing strategy, Plan
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Friday, May 14th, 2010
 Shortening the sales cycle produces “more sales in the same amount of time,” according to Janet Gregory in her article Shorten That Sales Cycle, and “accelerates every function in the company that touches customers.” In this blog post, I focus on the sales process of qualifying to shorten the sales cycle. Often times we refer to “qualifying” as a single step in the sales process. In fact, qualifying should happen continually. By constantly assessing the fit between a customer’s need and your product or service offering, and only pursuing those opportunities that are mutually beneficial, you can increase productivity and shorten the sales cycle. Sales reps can fall into the trap of continuing discussions if the prospect returns phone calls or their pipeline is weak. But results will suffer. Let’s take a look at how qualifying fits at each stage of a typical B2B sales process:
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Tags: qualifying, sales cycle, sales stages, shorten sales cycle
Posted in Marketing, Sales | No Comments »
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Conceptually, the theories of persona-building, positioning, and messaging are easy to understand. However, sometimes it’s helpful for a marketing team to critique a real example and then discuss the parallels to their own business. An example that everyone can easily relate to, and that is separate from the business you represent, is also an effective way to diffuse any emotion that may hinder folks from seeing the lessons associated with trying to execute a poor go-to-market strategy.
The following is a true story: the case of a better mousetrap. In 1955, an eager entrepreneur introduced a revolutionary new product that was destined to change the world of “rodent control”. In addition to producing leaflets, promoting through friends and family, this ad (click on the link below) ran in a variety of publications at the time.
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Tags: Integrated Marketing, marketing programs, personas, positioning, strategy
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Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
 The other day I was interested enough in a demo on a company’s website that I filled out a form to view it. Next day, I received a call from a very personable sales rep offering to answer my questions. Smart! They know that a person who checks out a demo is interested and perhaps a prospective buyer. And that’s the kind of lead that Sales wants — a prospect with a high likelihood of buying in the near term.
The demo was a piece of Content. We marketers have been talking about the importance of content in drawing prospective buyers in to the sales funnel. When I wrote newsletter articles about Content and about Inbound Marketing, I encouraged marketers to post digital content suited to different phases of the sales cycle and apply relevant tags and keywords so the content can be found via Search. And of course, we don’t leave it there; we use Social Media to invite people to view the content, because if it’s really good, people will share it with their friends and followers, increasing the volume of interested buyers who visit your website.
Nice! But once the visitor reaches your website and views the content, what’s next? How does a visitor become a buyer? Let’s consider some ways to keep the sales momentum going.
Different content for different stages in the sales cycle
Consider which stage of the sales cycle is served best by each piece of content. Here are some digital content types:
• Blog posts – May be generated by Marketing or by someone else in your organization
• Customer reviews – This type is generated by outsiders on other sites.
• Proprietary research reports
• Tools – ROI calculators and/or other self-qualifier tools
• Video – demos, customer stories
• White papers
Each must carry searchable keywords and tags and a URL pointing to more content. At some point, a prospect may drop from pursuing further information, probably because they have gathered enough for where they are in the buying process. But they know you better now and know how to get back to you when they’re ready.
Different types of content are more useful at different stages in the buying cycle. The vast majority of marketing messages aimed at people do not “reach” them because they are not seen at the right time in the individual’s buying processes. The beauty of Inbound Marketing is that, rather than trying to grab buyers’ attention, you draw their attention at the time when they are already curious, and you lead them to content that explains what they need to know at that stage in the cycle.
• Attention – Content that is useful at the earliest phases of the buying cycle needs to be educational. Avoid being too promotional at this stage. You’re just helping the buyer sort out your qualifications, attributes and special capabilities. Consider using a White Paper here.
• Consideration/Interest – Help your prospects identify the attributes that best meet their most important requirements. At this point, a demo video that shows buyers how they can use your product can elevate the prospect to the Desire stage.
• Desire/Decision – Here is the time to bring in an honest competitive product comparison. Or offer compelling customer testimonials (in text or video, if you can get it). Because this is high value information, require them to register to reach it.
• Action/Purchase – Provide a Call to Action and link to a landing page where the buyer can take action — buy (e-commerce) or be contacted by Sales. Set up a situation where the prospect can move on the decision. At this point, a promotional offer can seal the deal.
Registration forms – When is it a good idea to ask a visitor to register to see your content? Not until you pass the Attention (education) stage and, at the earliest, at the Interest stage. But keep it simple. Ask for too much information and you discourage people from looking at your content. Definitely gather information at the Decision stage.
Closing the loop – Make sure there is a “next” place for someone who is ready to go on. Use:
- A Call to Action – Include a “Contact Us” or “More…” link on every bit of content, even if you believe it is early in the buying cycle. Make sure the page or email you offer helps visitors move forward in the buying process if they’re ready.
- Share Buttons – Add a Share widget that let’s your readers share the content via email or on their social networks. It gives visitors an easy way to automatically include the URL.
Make sure your content is never a dead end. Make it easy for your prospects to move on to the next step, and always with appropriate content. If you don’t have relevant content for all the stages of the sales cycle, your first job, right now, today, is to make sure to produce and post it and make it abundantly available via SEO and social media.
Tags: content marketing, inbound marketing, lead funnel, SEO, Social Media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Monday, April 12th, 2010
Last week I attended a SalesCraft roundtable hosted by Sharon Little, Director of Global Field Communications at VMware. SalesCraft is a forum for Silicon Valley sales leaders to talk about strategies and trends for empowering successful sales teams. The topic: “PlayBooks – A Top Trend for 2010.” Presenters included Larry Ball, Sr. Director of Global Sales Development at POLYCOM, and Jenine Young, Sr. Manager of Field Enablement at VMware. Here is a brief recap of how these two Silicon Valley companies are deploying PlayBooks to arm their sales teams with information, processes and best practices to drive productivity and revenue.
POLYCOM, a global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions, is a $1B public company with over 700 sales representatives.
- Sales Enablement Challenge:
- Improve consistency among its sales organization and implement a more prescriptive selling approach.
- PlayBook Vendor:
- POLYCOM selected Kadient – an on-demand sales enablement application that combines Sales Playbooks, Dynamic Sales Content, and Sales Performance Analytics—all embedded within a CRM system.
- PlayBook Implementation:
- POLYCOM had an aggressive schedule, launching Kadient with 12 PlayBooks in just 3 months. Each PlayBook has either a vertical market or strategic partnership focus. Content is organized around the company’s selling stages and links to content stored in an online portal. Partners view the content in a separate partner portal.
- PlayBook Benefits:
- Drives repeatability in the sales process
- Pushes content at the right time based on the sales stage and vertical market or product focus
- Includes “check-points” within each sales stage that reps should complete before moving to the next stage
- Integrates into the Salesforce.com Opportunities tab
- Provides management with visibility into the selling/buying process through standard Salesforce.com reports and dashboards
- Learnings:
- Identify content owners to oversee and manage the content. POLYCOM is unique that it has a VP of Marketing, and owner of content, reporting into the Sn. VP Global Sales.
- Develop templates to keep content consistent – down to the font size
- Roll-out and reinforce the PlayBooks through ongoing training, communication and top-down executive mandates
- Be prepared to revisit or revise corporate and product positioning and messaging and the sales process. In POLYCOM’s case, the project forced them to quickly develop solution-based content versus product-based.
- Results:
- Although just released in February 2010, the PlayBooks have helped align sales and marketing and have become an invaluable tool for sales – especially in ramping new hires and getting reps up to speed on new solutions and competitive issues.
VMware, provider of solutions for business infrastructure virtualization that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes, had revenues of $2B in 2009.
- Sales Enablement Challenge:
- With over 2,100 field reps and roughly one acquisition per month, VMware was looking for ways to help reps sell newly-acquired products and solutions outside their comfort zone. It started by consolidating content from over 700 SharePoint sites into one sales portal to make it easier for sales reps to find the information they needed to drive deals. The project was such a success that the Sales Enablement team rallied management support to develop PlayBooks as a next step in making the content more actionable and relevant based on the sales process.
- Playbook Vendor:
- VMware selected SAVO, a sales enablement application that allows salespeople to be more efficient.
- PlayBook Implementation:
- VMware implemented five PlayBooks based on product areas. The content is organized by sales stage. The solution is not currently integrated into a CRM system as the company is transitioning from Siebel to Salesforce.com.
- PlayBook Benefits:
- Provides the most relevant and up-to-date content for a given sales opportunity
- Flexible – content and layout are easily modified using HTML
- Sales “Flight Plans” or summaries of key selling strategies are featured in each PlayBook
- Learnings:
- Involve the sales organization in building the Playbook. VMware selected 10 successful reps to serve as a beta group to suggest content and identify content gaps. This “built by sales for sales” concept has also paid off during rollout and training to boost user adoption.
- Set guidelines on the amount and length of content with content owners.
- Have a solid rollout, training and communication plan. VMware’s process has included podcasts from the VP Sales, VMware Radio spots by Geo heads, discussions via conference call with regional sales teams, and newsletters.
- Results:
- Feedback from the beta team has been very positive. Reps appreciate the structure and content and offer suggestions to make the PlayBooks even more useful.
Although POLYCOM and VMware have implemented PlayBooks in different ways, these two leading Silicon Valley companies are demonstrating that the days of the Sales PlayBook in a binder (that is out-dated as soon as it’s published) are over. Leading companies will continue to experiment with online PlayBooks that give sales the information they need when they need it so they can have meaningful conversations with prospects and ultimately, drive productivity and revenue.
Tags: sales enablement, sales guides, sales operations, sales play books, sales playbook, sales tools, sales training
Posted in Marketing, Sales, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
For years I’ve talked about transitioning in tech from Sales through Product Management and ultimately to Outbound Marketing. But lately, I’ve been talking about inbound marketing and am frequently met with puzzled looks. People inquire, “What is inbound marketing?”
In fact, the term “inbound marketing” has been around at least since 2007. The earliest mention I can find is in a January 2007 Forrester Report, How Technology Enables Inbound Marketing by Suresh Vittal. It spoke of using interaction management software and real-time analytics and was technology-focused.
Later in 2007 a company called HubSpot (founded in 2006) began using the term Inbound Marketing and branded their product Inbound Marketing Software. They pointed out how customer buying habits had changed. It was time, they said, for companies to begin “getting found” by potential buyers when they are already looking at products or services in your industry. In the past businesses began shopping by visiting trade shows; now it starts on Google.
A Venn diagram in a post from HubSpot blogger, Rick Burnes, really brought the concept to life for me. It shows how three of today’s familiar marketing techniques overlap and interact to create an integrated inbound marketing approach:
Image from HubSpot blog
- Content marketing – Content is the collection of interesting and relevant information that attracts potential customers to your site or to your business.
- Search engine optimization – SEO makes it easier for buyers to find your content.
- Social media marketing – Use of social networks (SMM) extends the reach, spreads and amplifies the impact of your content.
Rather than finding customers as traditional outbound marketing has done, inbound marketing helps customers find you. You need not interrupt your target customers to get their attention. They’ll be looking for you when they’re considering a purchase, although they may not even know who you are yet when they start looking.
When they search (SEO) on a search engine or on their social network using phrases you use to label your content (content marketing), you’ll be findable. Social networks (SMM) serve to spread and amplify the message to a broader audience.
Inbound marketing uses the magnet approach (pull) vs. the bullhorn approach (push) of traditional outbound marketing. The intent is different, and so is the result. It’s a different way of growing demand.
For more on inbound marketing and how to use different types of content to reach potential buyers at different stages of the buying cycle, see Inbound Marketing: Just Another Marketing Buzz Phrase? in the KickStart Accelerator.
Why inbound marketing?
- Value – Inbound marketing is less costly. Freely placed content can be as attractive and successful as Pay-Per-Click, and when found organically via search engines is less expensive. The 2010 HubSpot survey reports that inbound marketing is 60% less expensive per lead than outbound marketing.
- Effectiveness – Outbound marketing messages are becoming less effective because, a) buyers are bombarded by a high volume of messages each day and either blocking them or turned off by them, and b) people trust social sources more than paid sources of product information.
- Self-qualifying – Rather than marketing trying to guess who might become a customer, potential buyers identify themselves. Inbound marketing’s messages reach prospects at the time when they are considering a purchase and are most receptive to marketing messages.
Beyond inbound marketing
Social media is not just for marketers. Other areas where your business should be using social media are:
- PR – Remember, there are two sides to social media — what you say about your business and what others say about your business. Reputation management belongs in PR (as in Public Relations!). Someone should be monitoring and responding to what various communities are saying about your organization, positive and negative. The rest of the world pays attention to how companies react to customer complaints that surface in social media.
- Customer service – A number of companies (notably Comcast, with @ComcastCares on Twitter) are putting social media to good use in their Customer Service operations.
Involve other functions besides Marketing in your company’s larger perspective on social media. Establish a Social Media Council in your organization that represents all the other functions that touch customers and the public, and make sure your company’s message and policies are reflected throughout their conversations on social media.
And finally…
…no, I do not work for HubSpot. I just believe their approach is very much to the point. The individual components of inbound marketing are just that — components. Together they are far more powerful than their sum.
Tags: content marketing, inbound marketing, SEO, Social Media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
The DMA Northern California (DMANC) recently hosted a presentation by Scott K. Wilder, former GM of Intuit’s Small Business Online Communities. The topic: “Getting Closer to the Customer Using Social Media: A Case Study from Intuit.” Here are a few key “take-aways” from Scott’s presentation.
Leading companies, like Intuit, have a relentless drive to understand their customers. Intuit’s founder, Scott Cook, started the “follow me home” program in 1989 to observe real customers using Intuit products in their home environment. It is part of Intuit’s culture to use every interaction with prospects and customers as a learning opportunity and to ask the “5 WHYS” – drilling down to the root of problems.
Based on this culture, it was natural for Intuit to embrace online communities with their customers. In 2003, Intuit started a Small Business online community then added Facebook and LinkedIN in 2008. In 2009 the company built community right into their products. Users have become company ambassadors and today, 70% of users get their answers from the community site versus customer support – significantly driving down support costs. Intuit is also leveraging Twitter and observing customer-created videos on YouTube that showcase Intuit’s products.
Before you launch into your Voice of the Customer initiatives, consider Scott’s “Top 10″ list of tips:
- Ask “what problem are you trying to solve?” Use objectives and metrics to build a business case. Be open to the unexpected.
- Have a clearly defined learning plan including how feedback will be shared and used. Scott’s team reported on customer issues to cross-functional teams as well as externally on the community site. They captured the issue, a quote from the customer, a link to the customer’s post, the action taken and the learnings.
- Look at qualitative as well as quantitative feedback.
- Understand technology adoption curve of your customers.
- Understand how your products or services are being used in the customers’ environment (ie: in their office)
- Understand the ecosystem and persona of different types of users – their title, their job function, the type of company they work for, what’s important to them, how you can help them succeed.
- Strive for continuous improvement in products and processes. Go for the unexpected “wow.” Scott often met with customers to have them help prioritize new product features by asking “tell me how to spend your money.”
- Understand the difference between what customers “say” and “do.” Intuit uses Omniture to observe behavior as well as Radian6, Buzzmetrics and Google searches (which are free) to monitor what people are saying about the company.
- Start simple. Don’t try to build every feature possible.
- Learning can happen at any time. Learn => teach => learn.
At the end of the day, the best advice to truly understand your customer is to be humble and let the customer lead. According to Scott, “It is important to start simple adding only a few features at a time– and to be in a constant learning state of mind, listening to what the customer says, how they say it and the language they use.”
Scott recently accepted a new position as SVP and Social Media Architect at Edelman Digital. Edelman is the world’s leading independent public relations firm, with more than 3,500 employees in 51 offices worldwide. You can follow Scott on Twitter at skwilder.
Tags: DMAnc, intuit, Scott K. Wilder, Social Media, VOC, voice of the customer
Posted in Customer Advisory Boards, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, February 5th, 2010
If you are selling to CIOs or IT strategists, you may find this post of interest.
Human perception is a tricky thing, for although teams may share a common understanding of their product portfolio, people often have a different idea of who they are selling to. And these differences may be slight, or they may be substantial. The Persona Exercise is one of the most effective (and fun) ways to ensure team alignment regarding the target audience.
Honing in on the bullseye
I was working with a cross-functional marketing team tasked to launch a new product on a very short runway. During a meeting to discuss messaging I asked about the the target audience. I got 5 different answers ranging from network engineers to CIOs in various size companies and industries. There was no time, nor budget, to entertain multiple target audiences, so we focused our discussion to find the sweet spot.
 Focusing on the sweet spot helps marketers avoid the trap of trying to be all things to all people. What target audience subsegment offers the best chance for success? Where will it be easiest to win sales quickly and consistently? By the end of our discussion, we painted bullseye picture similar to that shown in figure 1. The sweet spot was not limited to job title or company size. Instead, the sweet spot focused on people who shared a common responsibility of managing today’s IT network while planning for the future.
Personas go beyond traditional market segmentation
The next step was to build a persona. There was a lot of good discussion that answered questions like:
- What is the persona’s pain point? What keeps them up at night?
- What is the persona actually buying from us? (We know what we’re selling, but what are they buying? Hint: you won’t find this on the itemized price list)
- What 3 words best describe this person?
 Portrait of a senior IT manager responsible for the current and future network architecture, and who's afraid of making a bad purchase decision. By the end of the discussion, we painted the persona shown in Figure 2. We had given life to the “Skeptical Futurist” — the embodiment to senior IT managers who are responsible for architecting their network, and who are troubled by fear of making a bad (or wrong) purchase decision.
Drafting the Skeptical Futurist was an “Aha!” moment for the team.
With the bullseye and persona in hand, 10 sales enablement tools took form — from “How-to-sell” presentations, to the corporate pitch, to the Competitive Quick Reference Guides, to the sales simulation training module.
Tags: Integrated Marketing, persona
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Landing pages reside outside the normal navigation of your website and are used to capture leads from various channels, such as email marketing, banner ads, pay-per-click ads or search engine optimization (SEO). Landing pages serve a singular purpose – to fulfill the offer advertised. To drive up conversions (leads captured via submitted forms), follow these best practices.
- Match the look and feel of the ad or email that drives traffic to the landing page. Keep it simple. A cluttered page with too much content will confuse prospects and they will likely bail.
- Target your audience with relevant messages and content. Focus on the benefits of the offer – what prospects will learn, how it can impact their business, etc. Make sure the headline and value proposition match what is in the ad. Consider adding a testimonial from a satisfied customer or quote from an analyst that supports your product or services offering.
- Include a single call to action/offer that is available once the prospect submits a form. The best offers for B2B continue to be free educational content such as white papers, case studies and product comparisons. Pull some key points from the content so viewers can get a taste of what they’ll receive once they obtain the offer.
- Only ask for a few pieces of information in the form – name, company and email should be mandatory for B2B programs. Include an option for the viewer to receive a phone call if they prefer not to submit the form.
- Do not include links to other content or web pages on the landing page. The goal is to have the person fill in their information in the form, submit it and retrieve the offer.
- Do include a “thank you” page with links to additional content and your company’s contact information.
- Test, test, test. Try different offers, layout and messaging to measure what drives the most conversions. Don’t overlook other elements such as buttons and button copy.
According to Fireclick, conversion rates for email marketing in the software industry is only in the .03%-.04% range. Benchmark for yourself what your average conversion rates are for ads, emails, or other channels and then test until you are satisfied with the results. Check out marketingexperiments.com for more tips and examples of optimized landing pages. And let me know what’s working for your B2B campaigns.
Tags: B2B landing page optimization, conversion rate, online marketing
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
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