Relentless - The ReachForce Book Club
Friday, May 30th, 2008My biggest takeaway from this book was that the Japanese see everyone in the company as marketers and that often they do no even employ a marketing department. (Not to self: must find new career if moving to Japan) I think that this can be applied to any B2B company. I know here at ReachForce we have multiple departments working directly with customers and other than writing case studies, I have very little interaction with customers. We do obviously have current customer programs, as evidenced by this book club, but our sales, operations and customer success management teams are really on the front lines and know the most about what our customers and prospects think about us.
As marketers, we should use this to our advantage. We should empower those customer facing teams to know what we are doing in marketing and make sure they are well educated on any upcoming product launches. They can then in turn empower our customers with this information. These teams are also a useful source for gathering feedback. They can be especially helpful in determining new products and features. Developing personaes is very popular right now and they are the best source to tell you about your customers. Knowing as much information as possible about your customers will not only help you to further develop those relationships but to also help you find more prospects that match their profile.
Did you have any takeaways from this chapter or have any personal experience working with Japanese companies?
Don’t Forget About Customer Marketing - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #101
Thursday, May 29th, 2008B2B Marketers spend lots of time and money on trying to acquire new customers. After all, you have sales guys breathing down your backs for new leads all the time and quotas to meet for bookings and new customers acquired. As the drum beat on the recession gets louder, there’s more and more buzz about holding on to what you have, that means current customers. Why is it that in a downturn we worry about keeping our customers happy and not in growth cycles? Have you and your executive team ever taken a step back to see how much of your revenue actually comes from current customers? Or how many customers use you for a year and then choose not to renew because they have been ignored all year? Adding a current customer program has the potential to dramatically increase revenue.
Implementing a current customer program involves much more than just a nice holiday card/gift once a year. You should have programs throughout the year to keep them engaged. Just as in lead generation, current customer programs should be segmented. This can be based on your own parameters: by products purchased, by size, by revenue contribution, by role within the company, etc. Once segmented you will be able to prioritize and focus on their needs with relevance. Also remember that cross-selling a current customer is more than blasting the new message to a current database – ask yourself, is the person (role) of the person in my database the right one for this value proposition/message? Do I need to find the right decision maker for that role?
Here are some ideas to building and maintaining an ongoing relationship with your customers:
- Start a newsletter – be sure to tell them information that they care about not just the latest award you have won
- Ask them for feedback and input; consider asking them “The Ultimate Question” www.theultimatequestion.com
- Create a customer community – you can develop your own or start small with a Facebook or LinkedIn group; the social web has enabled us to keep the conversations going all of the time.
- Send thought leadership – this could be whitepapers or books that are exclusively available to customers, do a survey and share the results, share best practices
- Host a user group conference – this is the most expensive but it is a great opportunity for you to connect with your customers and for them to connect with each other
This year we are making customer retention programs a priority. We’re sharing best practices via The B2B Lead, we’ve started a ReachForce Book Club and included our customers as honorary members and that’s just the beginning….
What percentage (%) of your marketing spend do you focus (or should) on current customer marketing? It’s never too late to get started driving more out of what you already have.
Lead Generation Using Email Marketing- B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #100
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008Since this is our 100th tip I thought I would blog about something I feel like I have been asked about 100 times. I have been a lead generation marketer since before lead generation was cool and even though we are changing what we call it (demand generation) my job is still to deliver more high quality leads to sales. At ReachForce, 70% of new customers come through marketing, so I guess we’re doing something right.
Here’s what we’re doing to drive lead generation. This isn’t rocket science, just targeting the right role-based buyers in the right kinds of companies. It’s what we talk about all the time here so we have to be practicing it too, right? There’s no one blueprint that works for every business. There are basic principles we all subscribe to but different audiences like to be communicated with in different ways. I will preface by saying that lead generation is all about testing and tweaking, so while this is our basic program today, we’re already in the process of adding new tools and tactics to roll out next quarter. All with one goal in mind – Will the real leads please stand up (or out)?!
For us the obvious starting point is the data. We “eat our own dog food” here at ReachForce so I am able to consistently feed programs with fresh role-based contacts that are in our target market sweet spot. And while the data is very important, content is key. Because I know I’m targeting the right buyers, this enables me to laser focus relevant messages that resonate with my specific audiences. Contacts start in a program based on their department role (in our case either being in sales or marketing) and by decision making role (decision maker, influencer or end user). Each program has tailored messaging highlighting pain points these recipients typically experience. All contacts start in a three touch email marketing program that looks like this:
- Email 1 – Education about the pain points RF solves – since this is the first time they will receive a message from us, we want to educate them about what problem we solve and how/why we are different from the competition
- Email 2 – Education about our space – this is an opportunity to reinforce pain points that they might be feeling (and that we solve). A whitepaper or webcast setting up the current ‘state of the union’ is a good offer here.
- Email 3 – Offer – Now that we’ve educated them about the current market and our solutions, we offer a chance for them to see for themselves via a trial or demo.
Between each email touch, our Sales team follows up with all of the responders, those that open but didn’t respond (to offer the best practice piece from the marketing email), and those that click through but didn’t download or fill out the form. I’m not sure having Sales involved so early makes sense for all companies but our business is relatively transactional and a lot of times it just takes 1 hook to get them engaged.
After the email touch cycle, the non responders then move into a non-behavioral lead scoring survey, a few more good leads fall out of this program. We’re about to launch the next piece of this tangled web next month. We’ll keep you posted on what happens next.
For more email marketing call–to-actions check out Tip #56.
Networking with the Affluent - ReachForce Book Club
Friday, May 23rd, 2008While this chapter is obviously more applicable to B2C sales, I think it does have a few tricks that translate to B2B Marketing. One of Thomas Stanley’s forms of networking is called Give Information; Get Clients. Stanley lists 4 steps in this process:
- Focus: For B2B Marketers, this means narrow your targets. Know the industries you are trying to target and the types of companies within those industries. Also, focus on the revenue range, employee size and geographies that are in your sweet spot.
- Enhance your credibility within an industry: Make sure you are in the same places that your prospects go for information and thought leadership. These days that includes more than just industry publications. Be sure you are also commenting on the right blogs (and hopefully have your own), monitoring user communities and posting on Facebook.
- Target the leaders of the affluent group: I would translate this to targeting the leaders in the industry. And you don’t have to create an association like Stanley suggests. Find out who has the hottest blog in the industry or latest book out and try to connect with them. Just be sure that this is a mutually beneficial relationship and not a one way street.
- Recruit top professionals as speakers and network contacts: This doesn’t have to be limited to individuals. Work with your partners as well to create joint webinars or have a top executive from a partner be a guest blogger.
I believe that the more ways you can position yourself/your company as an industry thought leader, the more credibility you will have in the market and ultimately more customers.
Be sure to check in next week when we will be covering chapters 6 and 7.
Another Reason to Hate Trade Shows? - Marketing WTF?
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008The Wall Street Journal is reporting an outbreak of the flu at recent tech conferences. According to the report here.
“The San Francisco Department of Public Heath this week warned of an outbreak of the Norovirus at the Moscone Center, where Sun Microsystems is currently hosting the JavaOne conference. The Norovirus is a highly contagious flu-like virus that causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. A spokesman for the city tells the Business Technology Blog that the warning came after the public-health department received several complaints from attendees at Sun’s conference.”
Seems like there have been quite a few other events afflicted by the outbreaks including the recent RSA Security Conference I attended which was focused on a far different type of virus.
Lead Generation vs. Demand Generation - Marketing WTF?
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008Some may say that lead generation is passé. Today, Marketers have Demand Generation titles and they run demand generation programs. Does the new label mean our roles have changed? And, what was wrong with Lead Generation? It clearly stated our goal – to generate leads for Sales.
At ReachForce we started to transition our content from lead generation to the trendy new demand generation labels, I guess because everyone else was. But as I was searching and replacing I found myself thinking – what does demand generation really mean? Interestingly, Wikipedia has no definition for demand generation.
I know my sales guys could care less about demand. They want leads, real leads that have been warmed up by marketing. I’m wondering, is the new title just a way for Marketers to continue to employ tactics of the past and still not be held accountable for real measurable results?
Leads, now that is something I can measure. With the new analytics tools and automation systems, we as Marketers can now truly generate, nurture and measure LEADS. So at ReachForce, we decided to stay with Lead Generation. I still wonder though…am I missing something?
Our mission at ReachForce is to provide B2B Marketers with the data or fuel for their lead generation initiatives, hence our tagline, Fueling Targeted Lead Generation.
What does Demand Generation mean to you?
Relationship Marketing – Strategies for the Age of the Customer - ReachForce Book Club
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008This chapter had some really good stuff in it.
“Marketing Is Everyone’s Job” I couldn’t agree more. “Marketing is about creating and sustaining relationships with customers and those in the industry’s infrastructure. That means everyone, from salespeople to engineers and production workers, must see themselves as marketers.” As marketers we are expected to define our position in the market as well as our image but we rely on everyone else in our company to uphold it and continue to reinforce it. Here at ReachForce, we run many different lead generation programs to warm up prospects and help move them into the sales funnel, then our sales team takes over and continues to ‘market’ our value. Once we win a new customer, we are dependent on our customer success teams to deliver not only high quality data but also help our customers with best practices. Each group that touches the prospect/customer has a different role within the company but still continues is market to them along the way. It’s important and we believe it’s what makes our customers continue to come back for more.
As I continued on reading I got to the section about Using Word of Mouth as a marketing strategy. “Word-of-mouth testimonials are more believable than any advertising or marketing ploy you can dream up.” This seems so simple, why aren’t more people leveraging it? Here at ReachForce, I spend little to no time on branding. I always say, our branding strategy is to win more customers, continue to make the ones we have happy and hope they will help us spread the word and build the ReachForce brand. But am I being too passive about this, just waiting for it to happen all by itself? In this chapter, author, Regis McKenna, listed a few ideas of places to start a word-of-mouth marketing initiative. I’ve included them below –
- Customers – we’ve got to stay in touch with them and keep them involved so they will help continue to spread our message
- The selling chain – “Training and educating people who meet with customers pays handsomely.”
- Industry watchers – i.e.analysts, consultants – “these people gain their information by word of mouth – they visit plants, attend analysts’ meetings, and talk to people in anyway connected with the industry”
- The press – “More than 90% of major news stories in the business and technical press come from conversations with insiders. Journalists rarely write stories based on press releases, so it’s up to you to engage them directly.”
There’s lots of other great points/messages in this chapter. Anything jump out at you? Please do share.
Make a Memorable First Impression - Marketing WTF?
Monday, May 19th, 2008Check out these amazingly creative business card designs. When it comes to Marketing today, half the battle is just being remembered. These card designs are so effective because they are not only memorable, but relevant. Most of them, anyway. As the “Made to Stick” brothers Chip and Dan Heath describe it – they are “sticky.” They connect with their audience because they are not only unexpected but relevant. They describe it as “unexpected in the service of core messages.”
“The most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns. Figure out what is counterintuitive about the message—i.e., What are the unexpected implications of your core message? Communicate your message in a way that breaks your audiences’ guessing machines.”
“The Demand Ecosystem: Progress and Problems” - Update from the SiriusDecisions Summit 2008
Friday, May 16th, 2008I’m at the SiriusDecisions Summit this week and feeling really energized about all of the great ideas I’m planning to implement when I get back home. Of all of the great presentations today, Tony Jaros (of SiriusDecisions) presentation, ‘The Demand Ecosystem: Progress and Problems’ really stood out, so I thought I’d share. These ideas could have stood out to me because they really reinforced our beliefs at ReachForce. It was nice to hear someone else validate what we’ve been saying all along. If you’re not a ReachForce customer, feel free to call us after reading below. We can help.
- “The Power of your database is what you OWN, not what you RENT.” We at ReachForce couldn’t agree more. We believe B2B marketers are tired of the poor results rented lists deliver. Where did all of these names come from anyway? And how long ago were they collected? ReachForce contact databases are built custom for your business and are yours to keep for continued marketing.
- “Targeting is a function of probability, not possibility.” If we do our homework on the front end by identifying the right companies and the right buying roles within these companies we are increasing the response probability. By not targeting, we are only able to say there is a possibility we may get some responses. I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t bet my job on possibilities.
- If you are marketing to the CXOs, you are more than likely not targeting the right people. “Typically CXOs enter the buying process at the end of the sales process.” Everyone knows that the possibility of getting a CXO to actually respond to a marketing program or pick up the phone to talk to sales guy (they’ve never heard of) is very slim, right?
Lateral Marketing - ReachForce Book Club
Thursday, May 15th, 2008As I was reading Chapter 2, I kept thinking this is interesting but how can I apply this to my day job. As a B2B marketer, innovations in the cereal vertical don’t really translate to my job. Also, we have a whole other group dedicated to product development. The marketing department has some input in new products especially since we are the target audience but it is definitely not what I focus on day in and day out. I did find some useful information from Lateral Marketing that I felt I could translate to B2B. There are the 6 techniques for applying lateral marketing:
- “Substitution consists of removing one or several elements of the product and changing it.
- Combination consists of adding one or several elements to the product or service, maintaining the rest.
- Inversion consists of saying the contrary or adding “no” to an element of the product or service.
- Elimination consists of removing an element of the product or service.
- Exaggeration consists of exaggerating upward or downward one more more elements of a product or service or imagining a perfect product or service.
- Reordering consists of changing the order or sequence of one o more product or service elements.”
While the authors intended these ideas to be implemented in product development. I think these can be a place to start your creativity for your next marketing campaign or event. Combination is just another way of saying integrated marketing campaign. When it comes down to it these are really just ideas for differentiation, and don’t we all want to stand out from the crowd?
Do you have any examples of using one of these techniques, possibly unknowingly?
Be sure to check in next week for our posts on chapters 3-5.
