(sales x marketing) to the power of technology = extraordinary results

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!