ReachForce Book Club - The New Rules of Marketing and PR
Thursday, July 31st, 2008We started the ReachForce Book Club as a way to continue our relationship with our current customers. In today’s online world there are many more options for B2B Marketers to stay connected to their customers like through social networks and online communities. At ReachForce, we decided to mix a little old school with some new school and start a book club with a twist. Instead of meeting at a local coffee shop to discuss the book, we will be discussing it here on The B2B Lead. If you are a ReachForce customer, you should expect to receive your book soon, if not already. If you are not a customer, click here to buy it online.
Our second book is The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. It promises to teach us “how to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing & online media to reach buyers directly.” Each week, Leigh Anne and I will share our perspectives to get the conversation started but will rely on you to join in to share your thoughts, opinions and ideas. We will begin the conversation next week in order to give everyone a little time to get started. Next week we’ll be reading and chatting about chapters 1, 2 & 3.
Happy reading!
Opting Out of Opt-In - B2B marketing and Sales Tip #131
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008Something I have been asked about lately is opt-in emails. There seems to be a battle between what is the best marketing practice. I will be first to admit that opt-in is always best, but for a new or growing company, building an opt-in list can be a difficult and lengthy process.
First things first, here is Wikipedia’s definition of Opt-in email:
Opt in e-mail is a term used when someone is given the option to receive “bulk” e-mail, that is, e-mail that is sent to many people at the same time. Typically, this is some sort of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising. Obtaining permission before sending e-mail is critical because without it, the e-mail is Unsolicited Bulk Email, better known as spam.
There are several common forms of opt-in e-mail:
Unconfirmed opt-in
A new subscriber first gives his/her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page), but no steps are taken to make sure that this address actually belongs to the person. This can cause e-mail from the mailing list to be considered spam because simple typos of the email address can cause the email to be sent to someone else. Malicious subscriptions are also possible, as are subscriptions that are due to spammers forging email addresses that are sent to the e-mail address used to subscribe to the mailing list.
Confirmed opt-in (COI)
A new subscriber asks to be subscribed to the mailing list, but unlike unconfirmed opt-in, a confirmation e-mail is sent to verify it was really them. Many believe the person must not be added to the mailing list unless an explicit step is taken, such as clicking a special web link or sending back a reply e-mail. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. Mail system administrators and non-spam mailing list operators refer to this as confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in.
I want you to repeat after me, “I cannot buy and opt-in list.” For an email list to be truly opt-in, the subscriber needs to have signed-up to receive communication from you. If a company is selling an opt-in list, they are selling the names and emails of someone who has agreed to receive emails from affiliates. (We have all signed up for these when ordering a magazine or joining a new website) Many recipients on these “opt-in” lists still consider these affiliate messages to be SPAM.
Some marketers think that they can only email opt-in lists to avoid being a SPAMer. When actually, you just have to include a way for recipients to opt out. There are a few other rules you can read about on the Federal Trade Commission’s website, but currently there is no requirement for the opt-ins. If you are emailing internationally, be aware that each country has different laws for email marketing. Some countries in Europe have much stricter laws than in the US.
Really the best way to avoid being a SPAMer is to deliver relevant content to those you are emailing. Highly targeted and segmented campaigns with compelling content that speaks to the audience and their pain points. We have found that after we deliver new content to our prospects, they sign up for continued communication.
If you are looking to expand your opt-in list, check out Vertical Response’s Umpteen Ways to Build Your Email List.
Make Marketing Decisions by Using Surveys - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #130
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008On the B2B Lead we have discussed using surveys to score leads but surveys are also a useful tool for getting to know your prospective buyers. Do you really know your target market? Are there shifting trends you don’t know about but should? By understanding a prospect’s business environment and specific business initiatives, marketing and sales teams can further refine their approach for targeting them. Surveys can be especially useful when launching a new product or entering a new market.
As B2B marketers are increasing their spend on social media, a survey may be an opportunity to find out where your customers and prospects are going online. If all of your customers/prospects are either on Facebook or LinkedIn, don’t bother with creating a MySpace page (on a side note, it seems to be fairly unanimous that MySpace is pretty much worthless for B2B).
As marketing budgets are being tightened, costly events are being cut. It can be difficult to decide which events to keep and which to drop especially if your product has a long sales cycle so ROI cannot be measured before it is time to sign a contract again. A show may be timed poorly this year, like on Election Day (sorry, I am calling you out salesforce.com), which could cause lower attendance. Ask your prospects which events they will be attending.
Things to consider when creating surveys:
- How long?
- Shorter is always better
- Ask only what you need to know
- Try to keep it to 5 minutes or less
- To offer an incentive or not?
- If you are doing a longer survey, a incentive is a must
- If you are offering a incentive tell the participant upfront
- Could the information you are gathering be useful to the participants. If the answer is yes, have the incentive be to give them the info you gathered. Remember people love reports on industry trends.
- Types of questions
- Multiple choice are the easiest and fastest to answer
- Free response may give you more qualitative info but is more difficult to get participants to fill out
Once you have completed surveying your prospects, use this information to segment your contact database and create different targeted messages for each segment. You may also find that different segments respond to different marketing mediums. If you are entering a new industry, be sure to find out if prospects are better reached by email, direct mail, events, etc.
Some good online survey tools include SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang. These are both free for basic functionality and are easy to use. I have used both. I personally liked the reporting better through Zommerang but SurveyMonkey offered better functionality in designing the survey questions. I haven’t used it yet, but VerticalResponse also recently added surveys to their offering.
Google Gets a Worthy New Competitor? Cuil or Not Cuil? - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #129
Monday, July 28th, 2008Search engine marketing just got a little bit more complicated. According to a story in the New York Times today, former Google employees have just launched a new competitive search engine called “Cuil” which is pronounced “cool” that is supposed to be easier to use and more comprehensive than the search giant. If this takes off according to expectations, B2B Marketers could have another search engine to consider when optimizing their websites. With Google’s domination of the search market, it seems unlikely to be a huge threat, but many experts are touting its advantages. According to the Times story:
“This is the most promising thing I’ve seen in a while,” said Danny Sullivan, who has followed the online search business for more than a decade and is the editor of Search Engine Land. “Whether they are going to threaten Microsoft, much less Google, that’s another story.”
Mr. Costello, a former researcher at Stanford, said that with 120 billion Web pages, Cuil’s search index is larger than any other. The company uses a form of data mining to group Web pages by content, which makes the search engine more efficient, he said. Instead of showing results as short snippets of text and images with links, it displays longer entries and uses more pictures. It also provides tools to help users further refine their queries.
I think Cuil has many nice things going for it although my initial attempts to use it yielded mixed results – poor recognition of long-tail terms, and some performance delays (probably a result of the New York Times article and subsequent load.) But the things I like most about it are the categorization and formatting of results, the 3 column view and the ability to configure it. What’s more, BreakingPoint’s SEO seems to be working on Cuil as our rankings seem to be fine (unlike our leading competitors). Maybe that bodes well for the future of our SEO efforts. I hope so, as I am certain the complete lack of advertising on the site will appeal to my target audience so SEO will be the only option.
Overall, I’m happy to have another streamlined, high performance option for search and hope that Google will get a bit of competition. So, despite the fact that Google is a pervasive presence in my life, I think I’ll continue to use it despite the un-cool name.
What do you think? Will this be good or bad for Marketing and SEO?
Drive Revenue from Customer Events - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #128
Friday, July 25th, 2008In a previous life when I was VP of Marketing at a high tech software company we had thousands of customers with huge upsell and cross selling opportunities. Since many of these customers were long time customers we decided a live event would not only give us the opportunity to update them on our additional products and services but would also allow us some face time for further relationship building. Our overall goal for the event was to drive more revenue from our current customer base. As we were brainstorming on the event details we wanted to be sure we had a 3-D view on everything we did. We wanted to be sure we were educating our customers, building customer loyalty and get a better understanding how we were going to continue to monetize these relationships. I’ve included a few tips below for each of these components.
Education –
- Make sure your agenda for the event is not biased towards your company and what your company has going on, but instead show interest to solving THEIR business problems and what really impacts them.
- Think about what you want them to take back from this event?
- Consider bringing in industry leaders or analysts to speak on their experiences in the marketplace
- give away an educational book or take home information they could share with others
- Add a panel of happy customers to discuss their experiences and results from working with you
Loyalty –
- Make each customer feel like they are your #1 customer
- Treat them to a nice venue, easy transportation and great food to start.
- Most importantly, make your customers feel they are part of the inner circle and by being at the event they are privy to information others aren’t. For example, show an exclusive demo of new or upcoming product releases.
Monetize –
- Hold your sales team responsible to have the right customers at the event. Ones who bring the most money, ones who have problems, ones that would benefit the most from being there.
- While at the event, set up customer face-to-face meetings with key executives. I had a spreadsheet with everyone I was meeting and knew their problems going into the conversation so I could bring the solutions. This was key.
Even though the event ended on a high note, we would have to wait another year for this type of customer interaction. Today, we wouldn’t have to wait another year to catch up with our customers. Companies like BD Metrics have already started to tackle this obstacle. BD Metrics’ You-Based™ personalization technology for leading tradeshows and associations to help make sure once people leave an event, all is not forgotten. I’m sure there are others out there also helping extend the momentum of live events. What have you seen or used? How are you staying in touch with your customers 365 days a year?
Here’s another continuing customer event idea for you to ponder… ideas
Doing More with Less - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #127
Thursday, July 24th, 2008It only makes sense that if we are able to get the right message to the right buyers in the right kinds of companies we will increase Marketing ROI and accelerate Sales cycles. So why don’t we actually do just that?
By segmenting our leads database into smaller groups with similar characteristics, we are able to create very targeted programs that enable us to highlight exact pain points and specific solutions for those points. These more focused groups also enable us to very direct with our content and offers. We no longer have to generalize or discuss issues from 10,000 ft up.
Also, consider this – wouldn’t you consider a responder to a very direct message a more qualified lead than one that bites on a general offer? Also, wouldn’t your Sales team prefer fewer, more qualified leads to buckets of names of people who you don’t know what they do on a day to day basis?
Here are a couple of different ways I segment our leads for targeted programs here at ReachForce.
We slice leads by:
- Geography
- Industry
- Prospect title
- Prospect role (i.e. end user, decision maker, key influencer, etc.)
- Special interest group (i.e. event attendees, customers of salesforce.com, etc)
- Company size
- Company revenue
- Product line offerings
- Customers’ competitors
- People who acted on a specific call to action
- People who downloaded Product/Service Info.
- People who took a demo
- People in the sales pipeline that are stuck
Can you think of any more?
ROI Up Yours - Marketing WTF?
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008Would you be offended if you got an email with ROI - Up Yours as the subject line? Personally I think I’d giggle and check it out. If nothing else to see who is sticking their neck out there like this.
Well, we tried it here at ReachForce. The email content was all about Upping your ROI, so we were being relevant. We got mixed results on our risky move. We had about ½ dozen people email us to tell us we had offended them. Not many but it made us wonder how many more people we might have offended that just chose to delete the message instead of responding back.
On the flip side we had about dozen people reply back that they “loved” the subject line.
So where exactly is the line on going to far to get some attention?
For us, my Sales team asked for the subject line to be changed, so we did it but I must say that campaign doesn’t deliver near the results it used to…
Building and Measuring Lead Nurturing Programs - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #126
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008As we acquire new leads and market to them we quickly see leads move into smaller, more segmented groups. Some take the hook you’ve put out there and ask for more, there’s some that act interested but don’t commit to anything, and there’s those that are radio silent and give you no indication of real life.
Each group now needs a different kind of follow up. The first group is ready for another targeted marketing program offering them another opportunity to engage. And those that didn’t respond might be ready for a slower moving nurture program. Maybe your message missed with these people, a nurture program is a good place to test messaging. Or maybe you are targeting the wrong person and they don’t care what you have to say or what we you are offering. (You’re wasting your time with these people but you don’t know it yet. )
Here are a few tips to building and measuring segmented lead nurturing programs.
(If you’re lost, don’t worry there’s marketing automation folks like Vtrenz, Eloqua, Marketo and Manticore that can help you automate the execution of all of these different programs.)
- Make sure Marketing and Sales have a clear understanding of what a lead is and what a sales-ready lead is. You have to start here. Marketing needs to know what they are looking for and Sales wants to know what they are getting.
- Divide your marketing database into 2 initial groups, active leads (people who have responded or engaged in the past) and inactive leads (people that have never responded to any outreach communication from your company). If you are an Eloqua customer, they have a report that will give you this information. Understand if there are any patterns among those that are active, if so, be sure to consider this when building out your nurture programs. Remember the goal of nurturing is to move currently active leads to the top of the sales funnel and move inactive leads to an active status.
- Measure and track movement in the nurturing cycles. As leads/prospects respond, use this data to determine next steps. You can confirm interest by reaching out to them again with a similar message and different offer or call to action. If they respond again, they might be ready for the next step in your nurturing cycle. If they don’t respond, continue to try different offers or messaging.
- Develop a scoring system that enables you to determine when leads are sales ready. Assign different values to each kind of touch. For example, a conversation had by telemarketing that better qualifies a lead might get a score of 10 while an opened email might get a 3. Once a lead reaches a score agreed upon by Sales, then the lead is ready to be passed on.
- Don’t forget about the ones that have moved on. Sometimes a prospect gives off all the right signals that they are ready to engage on a different level but once handed over to Sales they clam up. Make sure these people don’t get lost in the shuffle. It’s ok for a lead/prospect to move back and forth between Sales and Marketing.
- Determine when it’s time to throw in the towel. There are people in every marketing database that continue to hang around for no reason. What are we holding on to here? Before completely throwing these people out, try and determine why they aren’t responding to you.
- Are they the right buyer for your product or service?
- How long ago was this lead created? Has the person possibly moved up or on?
- Are they not a good fit for your offering?
Remember - keeping your nurturing programs focused on the most suitable prospects will help to ensure the success of your program.
Ten Tips for Using Webinars for Lead Generation - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #125
Monday, July 21st, 2008Webinars have become increasingly popular in the last couple of years. Not sure if that’s because the cost to travel to live events has sky rocketed or if it’s because webinars can now be re-purposed into a variety of onDemand events that can have multiple uses and draws. The biggest challenge still exists though, regardless of the event being live or online - getting people to give up their time and actually show up.
At ReachForce we are gearing up for our own webinar series and have been doing a lot of research on best practices we want to be sure to implement. I’ve read a lot of great information so I thought I’d share what I’ve found and will be sure to implement…
Getting people “there” –
1. Get their attention from the beginning with an eye catching event title
It always amazes me how little time is spent on naming Webinars. The right Webinar title can immediately elevate your Webinar to a “must attend” event.
How do you decide on a Webinar title that stands out in the inbox?
Start with your Sales team/s. Find out what they are hearing out in the marketplace and ask them to help identify hot buttons you should consider for your title.
Other details - Be sure the Webinar titles run no longer than 30 characters, and consider using words like “Webcast” or “you’re invited”.
2. Format Invites for Maximum Engagement
People just don’t read anymore so you have to be sure to get to the point quickly. People seem to read the first sentence and then look for things like photos of your speaker/s, bullet points or other images included.
3. Make It Easy to Register
Seems like a given, right? We’ve all tried to sign up for Webinars that took us to multiple landing pages or asked us to fill out a form that was just too long and wanted too much information. Keep it simple and map out a plan to collect more information from registrants as you continue to follow up with event reminders.
4. Sell Your Event, Not your Products or Services
Remember to sell the benefits of your offering in the context of the event. Here’s an example – Instead of saying, “Our solutions accelerate sales cycles by 2X,” say, “Join us for a free webinar and learn how to accelerate your sales cycle by 2X”.
5. Call to Action: Front and center
Don’t wait until the end of your invite to ask people to register for your event. Remember lots of people scan/view emails in the preview pane. Include clickable links or buttons in the header or headline and in the body of the email at least twice. It may seem like overkill but your goal is to get them to register, don’t make them hunt for the right buttons to do so.
6. Remind them why they are there, on your landing page that is
Recent tests have shown tests that B2B prospects prefer more detailed information on Webinar landing pages. They want more information on what to expect from your webinar and what is going to be discussed before they commit. Don’t forget to include your speaker bios here too. People like to know more about who they are signing up to listen to.
7. Consider a personalized landing page (PURL) and pre-populated forms
In a recent test, more than 75% of Webinar registrations came from PURL recipients. People like the idea that the invite and information is being customized for them. Most marketing automation systems have this capability, be sure you’re using it.
8. Add links to additional information or content in your landing page
This specific webinar may not be of interest to your prospect but that doesn’t mean all of your offerings and/or content aren’t of interest to them. Offer additional information in different formats, maybe a previous webcast, a podcast, whitepapers or eBooks.
9. Offer an OnDemand Recording of the Presentation
Somewhere between 33% and 50% of the people who register for your Webinar will actually show up. So be sure to offer an onDemand recording of your event for those that can’t make it and remember to tell them it’s out there. This is a great excuse for follow up with those that didn’t attend and those that did. People that did attend may want to forward the onDemand version on to others in the decision making unit. That way, people can view your content at a time that works best for them.
10. Say Thank You
Don’t forget your common courtesy. Remember people took time out of their busy schedule to hear what you had to say. Follow up with a thank you and be sure to include links to more applicable information. Follow those click-throughs for laser targeting your next message.
Have we missed anything here? What has helped you drive more leads out of your webinars?
How to Get 3,190 People to Watch a Demo at a Tradeshow - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #124
Friday, July 18th, 2008Written by Andrea Stout, ReachForce Customer and Event Marketer at NetQoS
After my last guest post on Getting More Traffic to your Trade Show Booth I thought I would share an inside look at the success behind NetQoS’s trade show marketing. I turned up the heat on Cisco Networkers this year with a party at the Hard Rock Hotel.
Every year, companies spend millions of dollars on tradeshows worldwide. At NetQoS, there is one show each year that produces the best leads. Cisco Networkers Live is an event that brings together thousands of networking professionals for four days of training.
As with any exhibition, the key to success is knowing your audience. With many booths to choose from, it’s hard to get prospects interested in visiting you. In January, the NetQoS marketing communications team met to discuss the overall strategy for the June Cisco show. Knowing that we had to choose a theme, we identified the most important characteristics of our target market. They are as follows:
- Male
- Aged 25-45
- Works in the IT field – most are responsible for the performance of their organizations network
- Unlikely to be elected “Prom King” in high school
With songs like “Party Like A Rockstar” by Shop Boyz and “I Want to be a Rockstar” by Nickelback ruling the radio, we decided that we should treat our prospects and customers like they are rockstars – network rockstars. With this theme, we were able to select promotions for the booth and plan a large customer party.
Each year, we hand out t-shirts in our booth. We decided to design a shirt that fits in with the vintage shirts that are popular today. In addition, we purchased blinking guitar pins that contain our corporate logo. We have found that anything that with a flashing LED light attached to it is a huge item at tradeshows. As a general rule of thumb, if it can’t be stored on a desk or given to a child, it’s trash.
For our party, we designed a landing page where customers and prospects could register online. We asked them to print off their confirmation and stop by our booth during the show to pick up their VIP backstage pass. This awarded us a lot of attention as other tradeshow attendees noticed the exclusive passes being worn around the show by our customers.
Fitting with our theme, we booked the Hard Rock Hotel as our party venue. We passed out Elvis glasses as attendees walked down the red carpet. We set up Guitar Hero and Rock Band in the corner of the room which was a huge hit. In the past we learned that our guests don’t like loud music so we nixed the band this year and opted for a DJ. Also, never skimp on food. If your audience is mostly male, feed them well. We hired a photographer from Event Mall to take pictures of our guests and print copies on site. In addition, we hired two celebrity impersonators to entertain the crowd – Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osborne.
The Results:
For the first time, we ran out of all 3,500 t-shirts we had printed before the show was over. On the first night alone, we scanned 931 badges in two hours. We had 3,190 people sit through product demonstrations in our booth during the show. We handed out 3,000 blinking guitar pins in two days. At the party, we had 400 guests who have given us nothing but positive feedback.
Check out examples of everything below:
Hard Rock Party Landing Page: http://www.netqos.com/seo_promo/hardrock/
Flickr Photos Page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/netqos/
T-shirts:
Front:
Back:
Guitar Pins:
Backstage Passes:
