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Innovation: Are you a Picasso or a Cezanne?

I just attended the Women President's Organization Annual Conference in Boston, where Malcolm was the opening keynote speaker.  The focus of this year's conference was innovation.

Malcolm Gladwell is this very articulate guy with wild hair -- just to give you a visual.  He's written Tipping Point and Blink, and has another book due out soon -- and he writes a column in the New Yorker magazine. Here are some of his thoughts about innovation:

When thinking about innovation, he recently read a book by David Galenson, called "Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The two life cycles of Artistic Creativity" -- and pulled some of his concepts from this book.

He asserted that innovation comes in two forms:  Conceptual Innovators and Experimental Innovators.  He likened the first (conceptual innovator) to Picasso, who had bold  revolutionary ideas that he conceptualized, and then executed swiftly and efficiently.  He likened the Experimental Innovators to Cezanne, they sort of poke around, can't really talk about what the end result will be, learns through trial and error, does lots of research, and gets better and better until becomes genius.

Picasso had moments of brilliance, while Cezanne never had moments of brilliance -- and their careers were profoundly different.  Picasso produced his most famous (and now most expensive) work while in his twenties.  The Cubist movement in art was accomplished within the 10 years following that.  While Cezanne produced his most notable work (and most expensive) in his 50's, after toiling his entire life on his art.

Malcolm asserted that Innovation takes two forms -- as outlined by Picasso and Cezanne.  He said that businesses and investors like the Conceptual Innovator because you can talk about and outline exactly what you are going to do, how it's going to turn out, etc., and then execute it.  They don' like the Experimental Innovator, precisely because they have a vision of what's possible, but cannot really talk about it -- they don't really know what exactly it will look like when they get there, and they just start out experimenting and learning through trial and error.

He also said that is why some industries are in trouble today.  There is value in recognizing the different forms of innovation.  He spoke a little about his distaste for some of our educational methods that expect children are either good at math instantly or they never will be as discounting and in fact not even recognizing the possibility of the "late bloomer" (i.e. Cezanne).

He brought up Fleetwood Mac -- and their most famous album, Rumors.  He asked us how many albums Fleetwood Mac produced before producing Rumors (which is the top all-time selling album in history)?  Most of us thought it was their second, possibly third album -- nope -- it was their 16th!  Then he took us through the Fleetwood Mac history - they started in the mid-1960's, it took them 10 years, they had 16 different people come and go from that band before they got it right.  They switched genres many times.  And they had someone in the industry that stood by them, who believed in them -- and that paid off BIG with Rumors.  But that wouldn't happen in today's music industry; an artist gets ONE single -- it makes it or it doesn't, and if not, they are history.  That industry only rewards the conceptual innovator.

Why are we so biased towards Picasso rather than Cezanne?
1.  Picasso people can describe what they're doing before they start.
2.  Cezanne people can never tell you what they're doing.

Then he related information about drug research and how this approach has impacted those endeavors: they discovered if you can understand the nature of something, you can describe the solution and then target your research efforts. This is how the pharmaceutical industry now does its research and that sounds like a good plan, except most things aren't that cut and dried.  There are all kinds of stuff you discover that you never can predict.  The best discoveries happen by accident.

Gladwell says we need patience to buckle down and do the tough work.  Some of the very best innovation takes time.  There are a certain class of problems that cannot be solved overnight, and that patience is sorely lacking in business today.  While both types of innovation are necessary, you can't have a successful world when you're only following or allowing for one.

Which are you?  Can you be a blend of both?  Are Picasso and Cezanne two ends of the same "innovation" continuum?  Which gets fostered more?

Visit Malcolm Gladwell's website at http://www.gladwell.com/ for links to his writings.

What constitutes "opt-in"?

I've been curious lately about what actually constitutes an opt-in. 

As marketers, the fact is that email has become the dominant and preferred communication vehicle (in the B2B space) and we are interested in reaching those folks who are interested in what we have to say -- not in bugging folks who have no interest in our message or offerings.  But isn't there an awful lot of hoopla over "opt-in", "double opt-in/confirmed opt-in"? 

Think about the junk mail that ends up in our physical mailboxes at home; the majority of that paper ends up in the garbage -- and there is NO way to opt-out of receiving it, mostly because the U.S. Postal Service offers blanketing by zip code. I tried to return a Lands End Kids catalog to my mailman (because the person doesn't live at my address), who looked at it and pointed out the "or current resident" portion of the address label.  She wouldn't take it back. We don't like it, but we're just resigned to it.  Have you ever seen an exhibit about what a single year's contribution of waste that is to our landfills and recycling plants?  It's ENORMOUS!  The Minnesota State Fair had such an exhibit last year -- and it's amazing that we haven't become more up in arms about that!  What if folks who wanted to send things to our physical address had to have us on a list?  What if we could choose whether we received all that junk or not?  What a savings to our landfills! 

And how do you feel about junk calls on the telephone?  As I was writing this, my office phone rang, and I happened to be the person who picked it up.  There is no response to my, "Good Afternoon, Einsof" greeting.  But about three seconds after that, I hear, "Hello?  Is this Einsof? Sorry, it's hard for me to hear you... Can I please speak to the person in charge of customer service?".  I respond, "I am the person in charge of customer service."  The person launches into her spiel, something she's reading to me over the phone and begins taking a survey.  She asked me what were my biggest customer service challenges, and gave me some options.  I told her that those were not on my mind at the moment. However, the fact that I received an unsolicited call that put me on hold, and then came on and proceeded to ask me about customer service, is not a company that I want to hear anything about, or be helpful to.  I asked to be put on their do not call list, thanked her, and hung up.  How about opt-in lists for any telephone calls that get made? 

I belong to a professional organization, and I asked them how can I work with them to engage those members who are in the target market for our products.  Their response was that I could not email them but I could send them mail through the postal system. 

Given that these are all B2B companies, and given that studies show the preferred method of communication is through email (not phone, not mail), not to mention the landfill issue, what is the restrictive email environment about?

I know, it's a silly question -- look at all the junk email you already get every day.  I'm right there with you.  But believe it or not, it still remains my single, preferred, method of communication.  If I don't want any more of what you send me, I unsubscribe.  Easy.  Businesses respect that.  The "spam" that I get offers me no way to unsubscribe, and continues to come through with Viagra offers, software offers, and that guy from Nigeria that has $10 mil to launder in the U.S., and will I help.  Luckily, the vast majority of those go directly into my spam box, which I scan periodically and clean out, but it's manageable.

So that brings me back to my original question, "what constitutes an "opt-in"?

When you are visiting a website and you choose to provide your email so you'll get their newsletter, or have access to a whitepaper you are interested in, doesn't that constitute giving your permission?  There are those that say, yes.  And there are those that say, no.  The ones that say no, say it needs to be a 'confirmed' or 'double opt-in' -- meaning that once you provide your email address (and other information) and say you want to receive it by submitting your information, now that site needs to send you an email, and have you click a link confirming that you actually meant to complete that form and provide your consent to receive the newsletter. 

To me, that's annoying.  Didn't you hear me the first time?  It's like calling your credit card company, providing your account information, last 4 digits of your SSN, your PIN, and then when you get through to a human being, they ask you for all that information all over again, including your last name, your first name, and your mothers maiden name.  Sure, we put up with it because it's our finances they are protecting.  But why do we want to put that in place with email?

I did a search on "confirmed opt in" and that brought me to the Wiki on the subject.  Its definitions are about listservs -- the traditional mailing lists where you send an email to subscribe to the list.  This is very different from the web-based sign-ups that folks go through today. 

The wiki makes these arguments against "unconfirmed" opt-in:

• "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." OK -- how about just including a "confirm your email address" field.  So they have to type it twice.  A lot of website sign-ups make you do this.  Would that suffice to solve this and act as a "confirmed" opt-in?
• "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."  But this argument just doesn't really apply to most business email and sign-up forms in use today.  This concern harkens back to the days when Listserv was the way you put together a mailing list.  When was the last time someone maliciously added your email to a newsletter sign up?

Shouldn't we update the way we look at and approach the web-based sign-up and forms used in the web 2.0 world?  Isn't all of this stress over opt-in a little bit much?  Responsible businesses that are sending email communications have unsubscribe capabilities -- not all of them are CAN-SPAM compliant in the sense that they require you to complete a form, sometimes a long one, to actually get off a list -- but if I don't want to receive any further emails - I can take care of it, and voila, they no longer get sent to me. 

Let's take a look at just a couple of common business practices that companies are using for demand generation, and growing their lead list:

• Co-Sponsor a white paper/research report with a leading analyst organization.  It costs right around $20K to do this, and the white paper goes out to their mailing list, which is great.  And then whoever comes in from that mailing and downloads the whitepaper, is on the list of folks that we get to follow up with, and that means by email, phone, or direct mail.  We get all the information.  And in exchange, people get to download the whitepaper.
• Publish a white paper with Tech Target or Knowledgestorm.  Our white paper gets featured on their website and sent to their mailing list.  Again, same story as above, those who download it, we get the list -- that was the agreement when we paid them to publicize the whitepaper.
• Sponsor or Host a Webinar with a thought leader in your area of expertise.  Doing so garners you all the information on the folks who sign up to attend the webinar.  They get access to the thought leader, and you get their information.  Again, not a bad swap.

Are these opt-ins?  There are those who say, "no".  They would not be considered a "confirmed "opt-in"  - hence if you email them, that would be considered 'spam'.  I disagree.  I do not think that sending them an email would constitute spamming them'. They've willingly exchanged their information for the analyst report, your whitepaper, or to attend the webinar, and if you send them an email, they can unsubscribe -- a definite communication, right?  But so far, without much argument or disagreement, you can call them, which is what happened to me lately - the rep said, "I see that you requested information about our products." and I said, "well, I downloaded a whitepaper on best practices, but I didn't request any further information."  She said, "are you in the market for an email solution?"  I said, "Not at this time."  She said, "will you be soon?"  At that point, I thanked her for the call, and told her all I wanted was the white paper. 

What would have been easier, going through that call?  or just unsubscribing if they sent me an email follow up that I wasn't interested in? 

I think businesses are grappling with and more interested in figuring out a target of interest and attempting to provide relevant information to that target, and then improving their ability to be relevant as they see how people respond and what they show interest in. 

I'm clearly on the side of email being a much more manageable and less intrusive medium than receiving phone calls, having a ton of voicemail messages that I have to sift through one at a time and delete.  Email is just easier to manage.  From an email, I can go through at my leisure, and unsubscribe from those that I don't want to hear from.  With voicemail, I can't say, "please put me on your do not call list."  And who likes going through their household or office mail and tossing 95% of it into the garbage?  The B2B community has weighed in on that one, and direct mail spending by B2B organizations has shrunk dramatically, as these organizations move to much more effective online marketing tactics.

So what do you think?  What constitutes an 'opt-in'?

Marketing's New Currency: Influence

I'm currently reading Kevin Lee's book, "The Eyes Have It", learning all about the history and practice of paid search as opposed to the Madison Ave. world of Advertising.  In the playground of opportunity that the online marketing world is, marketers need to think about not just how to reach consumers, but how to engage them.  I've posted about that a lot, talking about being relevant and providing relevant content that your audience is interested in.

But there exists now, in the world of online marketing, something that is only becoming available through the advent and application of technology -- something never before possible in a practical way.  And that is enhanced targeting.  As Kevin Lee writes, "Super niche targeting has the ability to deliver what is nearly unheard of in mainstream advertising: relevance.  When responsive and willing consumers notice ad messages, engage with Web content, and interact with brands within a ... website, that's the Holy Grail of marketing." 

"Relevancy is now the governing value.  [marketing] is no longer the act of just blasting out your message to bombard enough consumers until you probably hit some of the right ones." 

More and more evidence is mounting up to confirm the fact (and just look in your own life) that "consumers engage in and are influenced by advertising in direct proportion to the targeting and relevance of that advertising." 

While paid search and search engine optimization strategies and practices will become dominant in terms of demand generation and getting new prospects 'in the door', your ongoing ability to segment your leads, based upon their interest and activity with you directly, and provide relevant messaging and content to them ongoingly, will determine the success and failure of your online activities.  From a B2B perspective, unless you have a very short sales cycle, lead acquisition must be followed up with a lead nurturing program that resonates with your lead -- to continue to gain their interest and trust, until they are ready to purchase.

Influence will be determined by relevancy and superior targeting.  So how prepared are you to engage in this world? 

• First, do you have an integrated lead database? 
• Second, can you segment your leads not just by the demographic information, but also their activity and interest profile? 
• And third, can you present and provide content that is relevant and interesting to that segment in a way that will nurture their interest until they are ready to buy?

Managing top priority online marketing activities

Here's some more food for thought on the need to develop relevant content for your market segments, and how to spend time on your most important online marketing activities.

"Digital content will continue to expand exponentially as new marketing channels surface. This makes effective management and efficient use of content essential to maximizing return on marketing investment." -- Aberdeen Research

As I have said a lot recently -- Content Is King!  Creating and managing that content and using it in relevant ways is going to get even more important.  Paying attention to the content is of vital importance to the long-term effectiveness of your marketing investment.  Tools that allow you to be nimble and responsive in your online marketing activities, and where you publish your "relevant content" are key to achieving success with your marketing investment. When your technology makes your life easier, you can naturally give content the high priority attention it deserves.

In case you have been wondering what online marketing activities should be focused on, and how much time should be spent on these activities as a percentage of a work week, I ran across an interesting article at SEOMoz.org, entitled, "Time Distribution for Effective Online Marketing".  It has a great pie chart that outlines the following activities (not suprisingly, content is at the top of the list). These are based on a 40 hour work-week:

1. Building Viral-Worthy, Authoritative Content (40%) - 16 hours/wk
2. Developing New Features/Designs (25%) - 10 hours/wk
3. Keyword, Industry, & Competitive Research (10%) - 4 hours/wk
4. Participating in Online Communities (10%) - 4 hours/wk
5. Testing/Refining Based on Visitor Data (10%) - 4 hours/wk
6. Manual Link Building (5%) - 2 hours/wk

How many of these do you focus on?  What is your time distribution focus?  How are you doing building relevant content for your target segments? Can you think of changes to your technology that would free up more mindshare to create great content?

The Power of Microsites To Your Lead Nurturing Program

I attended the beginning of the Marketing Profs B2B Online Tradeshow this morning, and listened to the keynote presented by David Meerman Scott, author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" (well worth the read!).  As I listened to the shifting realities that Marketing Departments face in effectively using the Internet for marketing activities, there are several ideas that converged for me. These are important for companies looking at getting started with effective Lead Nurturing programs.  Here are a few questions and thoughts:

1.  How easy is it for you to update and post content to your corporate site?  If you cannot easily (within minutes) update that site and its content, it's not a good candidate to house the thought leadership content necessary for an effective Lead Nurturing program.  If you find yourself in this camp, think about how a microsite (with its own domain name, or a sub-domain of your corporate domain) might work to your benefit --without all the hassles and political hot-potato scenarios that surround your corporate site.  The Marketing Interactions Blog talks about how Microsites make a difference with Lead Nurturing campaigns and the necessity to be responsive.  To check out that article, click here.

2.  Do you have a way to easily create and publish a Microsite?  Not just a landing page, which many of the lead nurturing vendors offer -- but a full blown, specific domain name, SEO capable, microsite -- that will allow you to easily publish and host content for your Lead Nurturing program.  And easily create and modify the content on the pages, allow for downloads of PDF's (for those eBooks and whitepapers), etc. 

3.  As David's presentation said -- it's all about the content. But the perspective of that content is important -- it's no longer marketing-speak content (which he labels Gobbledigook), but content that your prospects (buyer personas) will understand and relate to -- that is meaningful to THEM.

But in order to use effective content, you've got to have a place where you can easily make it available -- in this new world of Online Marketing, it's about publishing content that is valuable to your target markets and audiences.  Plus you need to optimize that content so that it can be found. In the Google-it mindset that people have today you have to enabling them to find you rather than interrupting a mass audience and begging for attention.

4.  Can you produce valuable content that matters to your buyer personas (target markets)?  If you feel challenged in this regard, there are people who can help -- folks that aren't just copywriters, but folks with a journalist and story-telling background, who understand how to write compelling content, and who you could work with to produce the sort of content necessary for an effective Lead Nurturing program.

Joe Pulizzi, at Junta42, is putting together a new offering, that I mentioned in my last blog post -- but he is connecting folks who need content, with folks who can deliver it -- and since this new world of Online Marketing is all about the content, having access to folks who can help is something that will help ensure you are successful. The Junta42 blog has an article that talks about content and microsites - and having a content strategy that enables the success of the microsite.  David Meerman Scott's recent blog post on understanding an audience and creating great content is also something to check out -- click here.

For those of you interested in establishing an effective Lead Nurturing content strategy, consider attending the webinar, "Create a Content Strategy for Lead Momentum" by Ardath Albee (www.marketinginteractions.com) on March 26th.  You can register for it at www.on24.com

With shrinking Marketing budgets and more scrutinized investments in what is still seen as a risky investment, having an easy way to create and publish a microsite, that can also easily be search engine optimized, is quickly becoming an imperative.  To that end, Einsof is forming a strategic partnership with a new company, Genoo (of which I am one of the founders) -- that will launch in April. Genoo will offer an integrated set of marketing tools at your fingertips including the ability to easily and affordably create and publish Microsites.   If you want to check out Genoo's prelaunch marketing site, go to www.genoo.com -  more of the functionality will be revealed each week.  After all, the tools and technology should be easy, and the 'relevant' content should get the focus -- as that is what will ultimately determine the success of your Lead Nurturing program. 

Online Marketing Summit - It's All About Being Relevant

Yes, content is still king!  I attended many sessions on Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search, Microsite development, even Social Media sessions, and one theme rang through-out the entire set of sessions:

It's all about relevancy!  If you write targeted, relevant content -- that hits your audience on the mark, then search engine optimization, driving conversions, etc., will be much more effective. 

So, it's all still about the content.  But it isn't about you, your organizations, or your products.  It's about your customer -- whatever you write, it MUST be relevant to your audience.  It must be understandable and valuable to THEM.  That should be your measure.

I met a cool guy at the Summit, Joe Pulizzi - who runs Junta42 - which is all about Content Marketing.  His site also has a list of the top content blogs, where you can find out the latest on putting together relevent content that works.  Joe also has his own blog -- and a good post announcing Junta42Match, which might be perfect for helping you with writing content for your targeted segments (see my previous post here)!

Online Marketing Summit - Harnessing Social Media

Before attending the Online Marketing Summit, I found and began reading the book, "Join The Conversation" by Joseph Jaffe.  It was a terrific preparation, because at the Summit, there were several excellent sessions on how to harness social media -- and from both the book and the sessions, there were a few common threads that really stand out, namely:

• To engage effectively, you must be willing to give up control of the message and be authentic and real in your communications.
• Start with listening.  Locate the conversations happening in your market or about your company, and listen to what is getting said -- good, bad, ugly.  Just like in life, be appropriate when you "join" a conversation - so get a feel for it. 
• When you do start participating, don't ever defend yourself -- just like in life, it's just not very effective, and in most cases, worsens a situation.
• There may be no single department within your organization that "owns" the social media space.
• The reality of engagement is much different than the fears that are stopping most companies today. 
• You don't have to be perfect to participate -- don't be afraid of people who say bad things about you - just listen, engage, and be authentic.  Quit trying to spin everything.  Quit pushing for an outcome that fits your pictures (like getting people to buy something from you).
• The team you have pay attention and participate in the social media realm may not be anyone you've got today -- it might be Interns who enjoy the social media realm and understand it, rather than your PR group or Marketing Communications who are too busy 'spinning' to be authentic. 

Think about this: by the year 2010, 100% of high school grads will have spent a portion of every day of their school life online.

Are you exploring any of the social media sites yet?  LinkedIn or FaceBook?  Did you know that FaceBook allows you to publish a business page specifically?  If not, what's stopping you?  If you are interested in how to harness the power of social media for your business, you're going to have to find the time to engage with it yourself.

If you're curious where you or your organization might be showing up or getting talked about, set up a Google Alert, so you will get notified when it happens, so you can track it.

There's also a good post on Jaffe Juice about a specific Chapter of "Join The Conversation", that's all about getting started -- you might enjoy some  of those insights.

Online Marketing Summit - The Ability to Segment is Critical

I've been attending the Online Marketing Summit for the last few days in San Diego -- kudos to Aaron Kahlow and the team at BusinessOnline who put this event together.  It is an excellent educational opportunity for everyone engaged in effective online marketing initiatives.

I will be posting some of the insights gleaned from those two and a half days, as the dust settles from all the input and interactions.

One of the top items, as I attended different sessions -- from Content, Search Engine Optimization, Lead Nurturing, and the effective use of Microsites, is the need and requirement for effective Segmentation.

Obviously, this requires a true knowledge of your audience and speaks to persona development as well -- which ClickZ has a good article, entitled "Persona Development and the Law of Averages", which in it's way highlights the need for segmentation.

Marketing folks then shriek, "I don't have time or resources for this!", because it's just plain easier to "batch and blast" - even if that approach, and studies back it up, don't produce the kind of returns you need or could be getting if you were to take on the segmenting and targeting challenge.  Consider this statistic, presented in one of the sessions: you can get 389% better results from segementing your list. (I'll put the specific info about that study once I get the powerpoint from the presentation).

Which brings me to the question of technology and tools.  Are you able to segment your leads beyond basic demographic information?  Do your tools allow you to create lists based on activity and interest data that you've been capturing for those leads in your system?  Can you create "dynamic lists" that can be used with an ongoing email strategy for folks who fit particular criteria, so you can continue to be relevant as your demand generation strategies drive traffic to your site and capture leads into your system?  Because with the right tools in place, segmenting doesn't have to be as challenging as you think.

With the right segmenting, you might actually send out FEWER emails than you do today, and get HIGHER returns and conversions.  Now that is something worth looking at!

Authenticity: the foundation of great Marketing

In my recent reading a book title caught my eye: “Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want.” The book itself is about consumers gravitating toward purchasing experiences where they feel they’re having a genuine experience and focuses on B2C companies like Starbucks. I was tempted to pick it up just to see that title staring back to me from my bookshelf.

In my experience, in B2B sales authenticity is also very much in demand. We live in such an over-hyped world that customers of any size are immune to being bombarded with benefit messages. A prospect or customer wants to have a feel for who your company is and what you stand for that saturates all levels of their interaction with you.

This is why it’s important to align Sales’ customer contact with Marketing’s messages. On the surface one off-message email isn’t that bad, but it does give a prospect the nagging sense that your company has two faces.

There’s often a misconception that Marketing is about making companies and products sound better than they are. In fact for many companies the true job of Marketing is to express the authentic face of the company and to keep it consistent even when that company is comprised of thousands of individuals.

Both the prospect and your organization are more inspired and more likely to work together when they experience something real and true in that relationship.

Helping Sales Sell

Too often the bond between Sales and Marketing is rife with bickering and finger-pointing. I’ve heard Marketing people say they can’t be blamed for Sales’ failure to sell. It’s more accurate to say that no one should be blamed. However, Marketing always has the opportunity to take responsibility for their organization’s ability to sell and in many great organizations this is exactly what happens.

There’s another bottleneck, however, in addition to historical enmity between the two departments, and this bottleneck is entirely due to technology or the lack of it. Too often some crucial percentage of Marketing’s good work does not make it to the Sales side of the organization in time or at the right time for Sales to use it.

Marketing is creating valuable information, based in market research and expertise, that can help move prospects along the pipeline. But in some organizations this information is only used to attract a prospect at the start of the relationship at which point that prospect is tossed over the wall to Sales.

This only works for the very best sales people who have capacity to take a prospect from introduction to close on their own. There are many more mid-level sales people in every organization who need and want help, but may not know it’s available. Similarly, there are plenty of marketing people who would like to see their messages used more often (what marketing person doesn’t want to see their messages used!) but don’t have a good way to send them to Sales.

A CRM for Marketing system handles that internal divide by creating a pool of marketing messages and value propositions. Allowing Sales easy access to them, along with a lead’s activity profile and other information can make the difference in creating valuable, meaningful conversations.

For mid-level sales people, useful and timely marketing messages can make the difference in upping their performance. That will go directly to the bottom line!