Marketing in a Downturn

"Content Marketing is turning your insight and advice into campaigns that change people's minds and incite action."

2009 was the year that marketers became publishers and the whole area of content marketing took off. Some of my team ran a workshop to share learning across our organisation as white papers are relatively cheap to produce if you know how and can be used effectively to generate marketing qualified leads.

Here are a few tips:
* Look what content you have so that you can repurpose content that already exists (articles, blog posts etc)
* The hotter the topic, the more popular the content will be
* Understand your personals so that the content is relevant and
engaging
* Rotate white paper content frequently to maintain credibility audience engagement
* Create a white paper template to speed up the creation process (a process that may have once taken months, can be reduced to days)
* Turn the white paper into other forms of content - webinar, case studies or vice versa - make our content 'work harder'. More about this
* Promote white papers via the usual channels - email, online, social media
* Make it easy for people to share (through social media) white paper landing pages
* Look into ways of letting people, who have downloaded a white paper, comment and rate them (this will give us an understanding on what topics are working)
* Build an asset library of all content

Useful resources
1 Content marketing
2 Content Marketing Playbook (examples & benefits of different types of content)
3 The B2B content Marketing Workbook

Interesting piece of research from Cyance and the IDM shows that social media usage is becoming more and more important to the b2b industry. Twitter (33%) and LinkedIn (28%) were both ranked top for the one site b2b marketers would turn to for their social media activity. The survey also shows that Facebook (18%) is seen as an opportunity for the b2b
market with 18.5% stating this is the one site they would use for social media.

Additionally, while some companies are mastering various emerging elements of best practice, such as buzz tracking and lead-source analysis, it is clear that there are problems for many organisations at a strategic level. Lack of experience and strategy is now more likely to be regarded by company respondents as a significant barrier to effective results.'

View the full results here. 

   I was at an interesting internal workshop yesterday which focused on Apps - what they are, how you can build one how you can make them successful. Here are 7 key takeaways:

1. There are 140k Apps which are downloaded 3bn times. This is a big number but includes EVERTHING!

2. You can build apps for the iPhone, Blackberry as well as some other mobile devices

3. Some Apps are paid for, some are free. Think about apps as an extension of your website

4. To create an app, follow the standard steps you would do with any product development:

   a. Who - determine who will use it and why. The more acute problem it solves, the more likely they will be to use it. Find out what the penetration of iPhones, Blackberries is in your niche sector?

   b. Who else - research the competition to ensure yours has a clear differentiated usp

   c. How -what will it look like (draw it out using tools ); will users be able to interact with the app;

   d. Write brief for developers - you can find a global network of freelance developers at www.elance.com

   e. Business model - will users pay or not?

5. Benefits of apps include: brand awareness, user engagement, visitors to you website, potential conversions and revenue - but they're not cheap, so think through the business case

6. Building an app will cost £6k for iPhones, android apps - £5k and just £1k for Blackberry

7. You can generate advertising revenue from Admob who can host your own advertising or their own, although these will be broad consumer ads. Advertising sits on top of the app, so it can be added after the app has been created

   I watched an interesting webinar on B2B Website Effectiveness organised by the Marketing Leadership Council. You can access a few of the more interesting slides here. The key point is that websites are now a critical part of the b2b purchasing process. Many buyers will be looking at an organisation's website to help them through their purchasing process, often consuming content without any human contact. As a result, marketers need to ensure that their website's organisation and content help to steward the purchasing process to positively shape buyers' perceptions. As with product development, the foundation of a successful website is a deep understanding and insight into the buyer's mindset and behaviour. Within the slide deck, you'll also find a case study showing how Dell has brought the principles of good website design and content alive as well as 10 things buyers hate about supplier sites

      Here's a comprehensive list of tips for designing and building a website that works. It's from Approved Index who can also help take the hassle out of finding good quality suppliers in various categories.

1.  Identify Your Target Audience  : Who is going to be interested in your offering? Is there a clear USP for your business versus the competitors in the same space? Is there enough room in the market for a "me too" model? A marketing company will work with you to answer these questions and provide a clear marketing strategy for your business. 
2. Develop A Clear Business Model : Have you considered all options for your business model and decided on a clear winner? A well thought out business plan based on tangible metrics will help you succeed. Options include selling products, monetising visits via third party, providing information in return for high value customer data or by generating sales leads for a high value product or service.
3. Make Sure Your Website Meets Your Business Needs : It's likely that you will want to update your website regularly with fresh content. If this is the case then ensure you have a suitable content management system  to allow for this. Likewise, if you are planning on selling products you must have a secure and reliable payment system in place to make this viable. Using the right specialist or website designer for the job will help you to produce a site that fits your business requirements.
4. Design Your Site To Attract Free Traffic : More than 47 million new websites were created in 2009 alone, so you need to think carefully about how you're going to attract visitors to your site. If it's a new site then you have the opportunity to get it built with SEO in mind and attract some free traffic, so make sure you get some recommendations from an SEO company and benefit long-term.
5. Increase Visits With Targeted Paid Methods : PPC (paid search) can generate instant visits to your site. However it can be easy to blow a lot of cash on clicks that fail to turn into revenue so it's important to get an expert on board. Email and direct mail are perfect for one-off blasts to a targeted audience and are designed to quickly pull in new customers.
6. Think About Your Brand : When you're setting up a new site in a competitive space then it's essential that your brand communicates how you stand out from the crowd and conveys the values that your company encompasses.  Your target audience may be over 50s, but your brand may appeal to the under 35s.Branding companies can help you to get this right by developing a brand that fits with your offering, plus provide you with guidelines to help you keep your branding consistent across all marketing mediums.
7. Ensure Your Website Is Focused On Your Conversion Point : You've spent time creating a website that fits your brand values and you're satisfied with the overall look and feel. The question is does the site encourage visitors to do what underpins the success of your business? For example, is it easy for them to view and purchase a product? Is it clear what information they need to provide before being able to access password protected content? Are they encouraged to consume more content? A website designer or e-commerce web designer will help you to achieve this.
8. Use CRM Tools To Increase Sales And Build Relationships :Good CRM(Customer Relationship Management) allows you to know your customers inside out and tailor your service to them. CRM software collects data about your customers, tracking their preferences, decisions and responses at every stage of the buying cycle. Studies have shown that a tailored CRM system can increase your sales by 40-50 percent.
9. Use A Telemarketing Company To Set Appointments Or Find Contacts : Whether you're looking to have appointments set or simply find the right person to contact, a telemarketing company can handle your contact generation and you can keep your sales people doing what they do best: selling.
10. Use Web Analytics Tools To Track Visits And Conversions : If you don't have access to web analytics data for your site then you're effectively driving blind. Web analytics can help you to gain answers and solve problems. Answers can include, where your visitors are coming from, how visitors are responding to your site, and if visitors are exiting the site before reaching your money pages. There are lots of packages to choose from - some paid, some free. Google Analytics is a good package to use if you're just starting out. 
    

       The Marketing Leadership Council have published some useful principles for successfully incorporating social media into you mix.

1. Savvy social media-ites can cite their business objective clearly and succinctly. All members of the social media team know what their efforts are designed to achieve.
2. You've made principled decisions on your target audience. You know which customer segment to pursue and what social media vehicles they've adopted.
3. You know your customers' outcomes and how social media facilitates the achievement of those outcomes <https://mlc.executiveboard.com/Members/ResearchAndTools/Abstract.aspx?cid=100159003>  better, faster, and cheaper than other methods.
4. You act on the intersection of customer outcomes and your organization's broader unique strengths, creating strategic social media advantage within your competitive set.
5. Fast-cycle test-and-learn experiments comprise your tactical social media endeavors. Each experiment is hypothesis-led.
6. The team holds hands and pre-commits to next steps based on each social media experiment's result. This facilitates buy-in upfront and limits time lost to analysis paralysis post-experiment.
7. Teams lay out required resources for each experiment to boost transparency for budget owners and pave the way for measurement clarity.
8. With ROI still a mirage for many, social media winners link transactional metrics to attitudinal and behavioral objectives that the broader organization knows have an impact on financial performance.
9. Social media teams don't hide the ball. They are upfront with the risks each project faces, and utilize RACI methods to mitigate them.
10. Social media teams tell other marketing teams how much more fun they're having working on this topic. What, you thought all ten were going to be serious? And I'm only somewhat kidding.'

   The results of the second wave of the B2B Barometer study are out. The study tracks the thoughts and priorities of B2B marketers in the UK, providing a good insight into the key issues and trends in the industry.

The headline results from the executive summary are:

* Despite gloom about the economic situation, a majority of B2B marketers remained confident about the outlook for their own organizations.

* 'Newer' media accounted for nearly 40% of marketing spend and looking ahead B2B marketers believed that social media in particular would become increasingly important.

* Despite pressures on marketing budgets and the need to justify marketing investment, only around one half actually measured ROI

 Key marketing priorities identified by B2B marketers were:

* Strengthening their online presence

* Deriving the maximum value from budgets given recent constraints

* Improving database
 

I'm sure you relate to many of these. View the full report here.

It's been a while since I've written an entry as I have been traveling 
around Australia - where the recession doesn't seem to have happened at  
all! Now I'm back, I've been wondering whether to rename this  
blog 'Marketing in an Upturn' as hopefully that's what we'll all be focused  
on. Certainly the UK economy grew in the last quarter of 2008, albeit by  
the smallest amount, and as long as the black numbers keep coming, the goal  
of us all is now to benefit from the recovery, without losing the good  
principles of marketing through a downturn:

Be clear what you want to achieve and agree a clear set of KPIs so that you  
can measure progress

Focus on key customers - acquisition costs more than retention. Get to know  
them (or people like them) so that you can see the world from their eyes

Focus on key brands - make sure they are clearly differentiated and have  
compelling stories

Use technology to improve efficiency and productivity - it doesn't all cost  
the earth

Test, test and then test again - lots of variables to test

Watch, but don't necessarily copy competitors

Inspire yourself from case studies of how other marketers dealt with a  
similar problem to you'


...finally, remember ultimately we're trying to sell stuff, so keep your  
eyes on the money coming in as well as going out!

I was looking at the Winners of B2B Marketing Magazine's awards. The categories are all very channel focused and include areas such as: 'Best Integrated Campaign; Best use of Direct Mail; Best use of Email; Best use of Search; Best PR Campaign; Best Live Initiative; Best use of Data; Best use of creative; Best Product launch; Best lead generation campaign; Best lead nurturing initiative and Best internal campaign. There was also, as you'd expect in these tough economic times, a 'Best limited budget campaign which was won by Cushman & Wakefield who spent £28,274 and generated in excess of £1.5 million worth of business and increased its database of occupiers by 35%!

I found the chairman of the judging panel's comments interesting:

'Many entries had one thing in common. Prudence. Or put another way, a lack of innovation. One was left with the distinct impression that some clients and agencies alike were responding to the downturn by keeping their heads down. Very few showed a willingness to adapt and innovate to find new ways to cut through. Consequently, whilst some entries stood out, much of what was seen lacked sizzle, was uninspiring, soberly treated and conservatively dressed. Under those circumstances one would think a focus would be given to measuring results. But it rarely was. Surprisingly few companies demonstrably put in place robust and consistent mechanisms that tracked and monitored success'

You can see the full list of winners here.

I saw the the US-based sales Lead Management Association announced the 50 most influential sales lead management professionals. One to keep for reference. It includes people from software providers such as Salesforce.com and Eloqua; publications such as BtoB magazine and consultancy firms such InTouch