On the topic of learning, one area that I have been looking at is training. Like the marketing budget, the training budget is often thought of as a discretionary spend that can easily be cut when the going gets tough. Thought best practice encourages businesses to continue to invest in training & development during hard times so that skills are in place when things improve; in practice, this can be hard to justify when revenues and profits are going south.

So how do you assess the return on learning?
Assessing the return on a training course isn't that difficult. After each training course, attendees are given a feedback form which will invariably assess the trainer, the pace, the quality of the materials and so on. This feedback will help trainers and managers understand how much attendees think they will use what they've learnt in the workplace. However, as anyone who has ever been on a training course will know, just because attendees had a great time, loved the trainer and thought the materials were first class, does not mean that it will impact their work performance at all!

To get to the true ROI of training, you need to be able to evaluate the learning that takes place and how much has been applied on the job, something which obviously can't be assessed until weeks or months after the training has finished. This is a much more difficult task, but is really important. 

Knowledge Pool  ran a survey across many different training courses in ten different types of organisations: central government, customer service, engineering, local government, IT Services, manufacturing and media. They received over 1,000 responses and found that 70% of training course attendees do apply their learning to the workplace.

This is encouraging. They also found that if you're a manager, you have a key role to play as 53% of the learners in the survey got line manager support to help apply their learning. The importance of line manager support in the transfer of knowledge to the workplace was also supported by research by the Marketing Leadership Council  who found that manager support is one of three critical priorities for driving learning application. 

Moreover, the Marketing Leadership Council also found that employees of managers who are very effective at development outperform their peers by up to 25% (source: Learning & Development Roundtable). With this in mind, it's no coincidence that the areas that are likely to see an increase in training demand in 2012 are Leadership development and New Manager training.

What are the benefits of training & development
The Marketing Leadership Council  also found that where learning is applied, training results in three main benefits:
-   more engaged and committed employees who perform at a higher level
-   employees who are more likely to stay with the organization, building the knowledge
    pool and reducing the cost of recruiting new staff
-   more confident employees who are able to do their jobs faster and more easily

Encourage sharing will increase the ROI further
One final point to bear in mind when it comes to increasing the return on a training investment, is to encourage those who have benefited from structured training to share their new ideas, tools and techniques with their colleagues. There are many ways to do this from workshops to webcasts, blogs and forums. In today's digital world, sharing is far easier and quicker than ever before.

I spoke this morning at The Funnel Conference outlining RBI's experience of implementing marketing automation to support our new business process.

In case you missed it, the five steps for success were:

Have a vision - in other words know where you're going so you realise when you have arrived. Often we set off in a direction without any clear view of the destination which obviously doesn't get us anywhere.

Map your stakeholders carefully - whilst technology is the great enabler, real change comes from people and there are a number of stakeholder groups to consider: marketing, sales and technologists are the obvious ones, but don't forget those influencers such as sales operations who have the ear of sales!  Marketing automation will impact them and you want them to be advocates.

Speak the same language, in other words define a lead carefully so that you can measure, benchmark and report funnel progress, and focus attention on where improvement is required.

Get your head around lead scoring - this is the functionality that moves marketing automation on from being a tool that can send personalised emails to a tool that can automate the rules around lead qualification. Once you master and embed this functionality, your sales people will be able focus their efforts on the prospects with the propensity to become customers. ICIS, one of RBI's key brands servicing the global chemicals, energy and fertiliser markets have achieved a 16% conversion from lead to sale, thanks to their online nurturing programmes.

Create robust processes and governance to support important tasks such as data acquisition and content creation.

I'll share a link to my slides in due course.

Today, i want to cover the important topic of branding. It's a strategic topic, but get it right and your brand's reputation will make your marketing efforts much easier and your ROI look far more attractive. There's a lot of confusion about what a brand really is, so to start let's be clear on what it isn't. A brand is not a logo, a catchy slogan or a nice design. These visual elements are important aspects of a brand's identity, but a true brand goes far deeper than these things and can be enhanced or destroyed by every single touchpoint that your brand has with the marketplace. That includes the approach your front-line sales and customer service people take; what you customers chose to say about you in social media forums as well as your advertising messaging.

Having a strong brand reputation is important to any size business and in this post, I wanted to share some of the steps we went through when we recently rebranded the hospitality publishing business, Caterer and Hotelkeeper .

The objective of the change was simply to make it far easier for our customers (and ourselves) to understand what Caterer and Hotelkeeper can do for its customers in today's multimedia world, and differentiate the brand from the competition. In total we went through the following 6 steps:

1. Diagnose the problem - speaking to our customers through market research as well as on a day-to-day basis had made it quite clear that both user and advertiser customers still perceived Caterer and Hotelkeeper as a magazine, a single channel providing content to the hospitality community. This was despite the fact that the website associated with the magazine had built an online audience of more than 250k visits per month; that the email social media programmes also reached thousands of people each week. The branding of the group didn't help. The magazine was called Caterer and Hotelkeeper, but the website was called Caterersearch and the whole group was called Caterer Group.

2. Work out where you want to go. To do this, we used external expertise to help us solve our problem. We worked with a branding consultant called Keith Lucas who was able to challenge us on what our current brand perception was and helped us visualize what we'd like it to be in the future.

3. Decision. The next big step was to make a decision on the name and get input from the team. We had a bit of a debate and in the end we all agreed that Caterer and Hotelkeeper should be elevated to group status, replacing The Caterer Group. In addition, CatererSearch didn't help the customer understand the enormous reach of the brand today, so should be rebranded 'CatererandHotelkeeper.com. We also agreed that the sub brands should be part of this overall brand structure, so now we have Caterer and Hotelkeeper jobs, Caterer and Hotelkeeper Directory, Caterer and Hotelkeeper Events as well as the Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine.

4. Design. We already had a logo and didn't want to change that. What we wanted though was to differentiate it with an icon that told a story, a story of a big, sociable marketplace focused on people and conversations. A brief was pulled together and sent to our agency.

That then resulted in some internal debates as we inspected various choices and in the end we all agreed on one icon.

5. Guidelines. The devil is in the detail and any brand needs to be reinforced by consistent communication across touchpoints. People like consistency, but achieving this in a business with multiple touchpoints and many staff is a challenge. A set of guidelines was produced and circulated and the whole story was communicated internally to make sure that everyone understood the rationale for the change and, most importantly, could explain it in their own words to their contacts.

6. Live date & implementation. The final step was agreeing a day that we wanted to make the changes. September the 29th was chosen and then all of the work went into changing the website, writing about the story, creating ads, creating email signatures, changing voicemail messages...a lot of effort.

We are now Caterer and Hotelkeeper, a multimedia business. Of course, this is only the start as a rebrand doesn't mean that customers will understand the changed positioning from day 1, it takes a lot more effort and consistent communication to achieve that.

1. Buyers are using an even greater variety of channels to form an opinion about a brand. 

2. Digital channels are playing an increasingly important role

3. More and more buyers are attending webinars

4. Buyers are becoming more cautious about sharing their data  

You can read the full article and download the Buyersphere report for free on the IDM blog.

If you need help to communicate your brand messages in an increasingly fragmented media world, then don't feel you have to do it all alone. Publishers and agencies can create content assets for you and then promote these across multiple channels, helping you focus on understanding your own customers and optimize your own funnel. 

References:

Reed business information offers creative media solutions to help reach and influence the following business buyers: farmers, hospitality operators, hairdressers, aviation workers, commercial property agents and opticians. Find out more.

'Sin of Fibbing. This sin involves misleading customers about the actual environmental performance of a company's products.

Sin of No Proof. Also known as the sin of "just trust us;" this involves manufacturers being unable to provide proof of their environmental claims.

Sin of Irrelevance. Factually correct, but irrelevant, environmental assessments. Examples include "CFC-free".

Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off. Focusing on one or two environmental facts, but ignoring other significantly more important environmental concern.

Sin of Vagueness. Broad, poorly defined environmental claims (e.g., "100 percent natural"). In the U.S., where "organic" is a label without much regulatory heft, that can sometimes qualify, too.

Sin of Lesser of Two Evils. A product can be the most environmentally preferable product in its class, but still be an inappropriate choice (e.g., "organic cigarettes")'

This was a point of discussion at the IDM's b2b council  on Friday. The context was discussing a new course on b2b marketing that the IDM have developed. I looked at the syllabus and was amazed - it covers all of the key topics that keep me up at night; database marketing; lead nurturing; marketing automation...all of the subjects relevant to a 21st century business to business organisation.

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

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.

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:

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

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

Green segmentation

Green Marketing Communications Agency Noughtilus