May 2011 Archives

A useful post from Hubspot on how sales and marketing departments can work more effectively. As well as best practice advice to, for instance, put an SLA in place, here are 5 tips that a marketer can do to increase value:  

Tip #1: Communicate Campaigns

Let your sales team know what campaigns are running and who they're going to. The sales reps are the ones connecting with your leads and having conversations, so they need to know any background information of what information their leads are downloading.

Tip #2: Provide Soundbites

As the marketer, you know your content and offers infinitely better than anyone in your organization. Help your sales team understand how to take a lead opt-in to a productive conversation by providing follow up soundbites. If someone downloaded a particular ebook, what does that say about a particular problem they're trying to solve? At HubSpot, the marketing team sends an email every week to the sales team about what are this week's active campaigns with a one-line description of what's included and a follow up soundbite that helps start off that sales conversation.

Tip #3: Share Results

Sometimes we assume that sales don't care about what campaigns the marketing team is doing. Just get me my leads, and more of them, we might think they're going to say. But sharing results is a key step to ensure marketing success. Sharing the results of your campaigns - what worked and what didn't - can give you and your sales team insight into which topics are hot in your industry at that moment. These learnings may surprise you! Also, sharing your results shows that you are constantly experimenting with different campaigns, learning and improving. Marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it job and you should share what you're learning through your marketing experiments.

Tip #4: Score Leads

If you're doing all the right things, you're generating lots of leads for your sales team. But your sales team has limited time and they need help prioritizing their time. You know best which lead behaviors are good buying signals, and you should use this intelligence to score your leads so that your sales team can first focus on your hottest leads. In the meantime you can continue to nurture your lower quality leads so that they become even more sales-ready.

Tip #5: Ask for Feedback

Gather qualitative feedback from your sales team by asking what they thought of lead quality and lead quantity. This helps you understand the perception of the leads you're generating for your sales team and may also give you early indicators of marketing campaign results. As a marketer, you typically have to wait for the data to come in - total response rates, conversion rates, etc. But a sales person can call their first 5 leads and if all 5 are terrible or if all 5 are fantastic, you can get some early indicators of your campaign's success to react even faster.

These steps are essential to establish a productive and open relationship between sales and marketing. And you need to rely on each other to make effective use of each other's time. Unless you're a fully ecommerce company with no sales team, these two roles need to work together to achieve business goals.

Further reference

Huddling

 

 

The new branding of the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) was unveiled yesterday at their annual B2B Marketing Conference.

I was part of a panel, tasked with discussing the key skills and knowledge that a b2b marketer will need for the future. 

The starting point and the backdrop for the whole event was that b2b marketing today is more complex than ever before. Technology has changed how customers research & buy and the range of tools and channels that a b2b marketers has at their disposal. 

So what knowledge and skills are required for today and tomorrow's marketer? 

Initially the panel answered the question from the perspective of a business, arguing that to be able to compete effectively in the future, they need to have access to a whole range of marketing skills: people who understand how customers interact in a digital world, are comfortable with data and analytics and are able to think laterally. The discussion ended with a summary of both the top 10 skills and expertise as well as some resources that can be used. See what you think:

1. Get the basics right - know how to write well, count, plan, organise, communciate and prioritise. 

2. Integrated marketing communication. Understand and be passionate about how digital channels work both independently and together to deliver an impactful message and decent ROI. Appreciate that digital also exists in an offline world and be open to new technologies and ideas.

3. Social media - there's a lot of hype about social media, but it can't be ignored and is an important part of a conversion marketing strategy.

4. Marketing Automation - personalised landing pages, trigger marketing, lead nurturing - all possible with marketing automation tools. Skills in this space will be in increasing demand over the coming years.

5. Content marketing - this term was only invented a few years ago, but it's now a key part of a B2B Marketer's armory, particularly for brand alignment and lead generation objectives. It's can be a costly exercise and  you need to be able to think like a publisher and also be resourceful, able to adapt content assets for multiple use becomes very handy. 

6.  Data Insight & analytics - we've always had the challenge of analyzing databases, but now we can analyse engagement too. Thanks to an ever increasing range of web analytics tools, you can gain and share insights that were previously impossible. These insights will enable you to have fact-based discussions with stakeholders.

7. Testing - marketing is becoming as much a Science as an art which requires a scientific approach - create a hypotheses, devise experiments, test & learn, iterate, scale up. This experimental approach is required at all levels of the organisation.

 8. Internal communication - maybe you don't need to put much effort into this as there's only three of you in the office! However, don't underestimate the importance of talking to colleagues. Many opportunities are lost, simply because a brief was misunderstood or someone wasn't aware. Marketers play a pivotol role in an organisation and are dependent on other functions and agencies delivering for success.

9. Creative thinking - creativity of course gives life to the marketing department. It's less about writing catching tag lines and more about thinking laterally about how things can be done differently using technology, for instance, to benefit both the customer and the business. 

10. Thirst for knowledge - there's so much happening around you which, thanks to digital, you can now access really easily. Free web tools such as Evernote and Remember the milk; smartphones and tablets definitely make this task much more efficient.

11. Customer focused - think of this as a healthy curiosity to find out about your customers; what their issues are; which are their most painful problems and most importantly how they buy. There are many ways to do this ranging from industry events to web analytics, with formal research methodologies in the middle. The persona is a useful tool to help ensure there's a shared learning. 

So there we have it, 11 areas to think about. Clearly, whilst the panel made the point that it's very important that you, as a b2b marketer, take responsibility for your own career and make the time to enhance your skills, an organization also has a responsibility to create the right environment to support their people's growth and development.

Further information

Knowledge Resources

1. Structured learning programmes: training courses, qualifications eg IDM.

2. Online resources: blogs, twitter (follow some favourite writers such as Brian Carroll, Marketing Sherpa, Seth Godin, B2b Marketing, The IDM), RSS feeds, Google Alerts (a great way to get sent content about a topic you wish to keep abreast of), plenty of free webinars on the web

3 Live events: Conferences, seminars, round tables. The value here is much more than just the speakers - it's also the other attendees and the opportunity to network. 

4. Professional publications: magazines, white papers, reports

5. Internal events: working groups, conferences, sharing sessions

Whatever your views on green issues, one thing is clear, the expectation for companies to be more sustainable is not going away.

According to Forrester's new report, 'How Green is your brand', consumer demand for environmentally responsible products is now mainstream and green marketing is naturally on the increase as is the associated scrutiny. This increase in consumer demand can be felt across industries from the automotive industry to the restaurant business. For example, a recent survey by Caterer & Hotelkeeper  showed that 43% of restaurant owners believe that their customers are showing much more interest in their business commitment to sustainability than 12 months ago.

If you're struggling to figure out what level of green engagement is appropriate for your brand, here are some tips that may help:

1. Segment your target customers. When it comes to green issues, both companies and consumers fit into a number of segments based on their attitudes to green issues - from zero involvement to a full commitment to behaving in a more sustainable way.

2. Review your marketing activities. B2b Marketing magazine , for example, outlined 5 steps that a brand could take to communicate a more sustainable focus, including reducing output and using greener suppliers.

3. Be sincere. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from pretending to be something you're not as consumers will easily see through deceptive marketing tactics known as green washing.

4. Incentivise your staff and customers to chose sustainable products.

For example, and I need to declare an interest here, one company, Green Rewards, offers companies the opportunity to reward their customers and staff with Green Points  that can be exchanged for a range of products and services that have all been vetted by a sustainability panel.

Further information:

Green Rewards

Practical steps that a restaurant can take to reduce their carbon footprint

How Green Does Your Brand Need To Be

My Carbon Footprint App - proctor & gamble

JetBlue's "One Thing That's Green" pledge:

Target's eco-conscious "Refresh Your Nest" home makeover sweepstakes'

Green segmentation

Green Marketing Communications Agency Noughtilus 

As marketing automation tools become more commonplace, one area often underestimated is the amount of time required to create content. Whether producing a white paper, video, ebook or other content asset, producing content of a quality that will both boost brand value and generate leads, requires editorial skills that are not always readily available in marketing departments. Here's a useful article from Hubspot on how you can get more value from the content you create.

I was also reading this morning how, according to research, 85% of b2b marketers are now turning to publishers to provide content marketing services which include creating the content itself and then promoting it via digital channels. Given that content creation and sector knowledge are a publisher's core competences, this makes perfect sense.

Further information:
5 marketing service offerings for publishers

 

 

Here's a very useful list of some industry resources available . It's organized into sections: General, New Media, Social Media, Brand, SEO, Direct Marketing and Online Marketing and includes both paid and free resources such as:

Reed Business Information recently conducted a piece of research to find out the confidence levels of b2b marketers in a number of sectors which we operate in.  The majority of the research was for internal purposes, but I wanted to share the results of a couple of questions from the second wave with you to help with your own business planning:

 Q. Approximately what proportion of your marketing budget do you expect to be allocated to each  of the following media over next 12 months?

 

	Outsell*  Dec  2009	Wave 1 Mar 2010 (107)	Wave 2 Nov  2010 (122)
Print	35%	38%	44%
Online	31%	42%	39%
Events	12%	11%	6%
PR	5%	5%	7%
TV, Radio, Cinema, Other	18%	4%	5%

Base: Those stating an answer

 * N.B Outsell Annual Advertising and Marketing Study 2010  includes a mix of consumer and B2B marketeers (157 B2B, 107 consumer).

   Ø  After the worse of the recession in 2009, levels of  increased optimism were high in early 2010, but had leveled off by late 2010.  

Ø  In line with this, a third of b2b marketing budgets increased from 2009 to 2010, compared to only around 1 in 10 from 2010 to 2011.  This is in line with the recent B2B Barometer Study 

Ø  80% of respondents will be keeping their budget the same for 2011

 

Q. Which of the following methods do you expect to use to market your products and services over the next 12 months?

Green = increase Red = Decrease	Wave 1 Mar 2010 (107)	Wave 2 Nov  2010 (122)
B2B/Other Publications	100%	97%
National Newspapers	16%	18%
Local Newspapers	23%	38%
B2B/Other Websites	85%	88%
Search Marketing	53%	53%
E - Newsletters/Bulletins	30%	42%
Email Marketing	57%	34%
Social Media	31%	38%
Company's own website	75%	88%
Mobile Applications	N/A	28%
Direct mail	42%	35%
Trade shows/events	80%	63%
Sponsorships	38%	41%
PR	53%	70%

 Ø  Enewsletter bulletins, social media,  companies own websites and PR will take a 
     larger share of budgets, at the expense of trade show/events and direct mail

 

Methodology

The second wave of this research into the views and opinions of b2b marketers took place in November 2010. Each wave consisted of approximately 150 telephone interviews amongst clients (100) and agencies (50) across several UK business to business markets.

 

Further Information

Enewsletter promotional opportunities

Enewsletters are powerful tools to support both lead generation and customer retention objectives. RBI has a large porfolio of niche email newsletters to help you target business decision-makers working in the following industries: Hospitality, Agriculture, Aviation, Commercial Property, Hairdressing, Electronics

 

For more information visit: http://www.reedbusiness.co.uk/emailnewsletters/index.html