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Webcast: The Multichannel Marketer

Next BtoB Webcast: The Multichannel Marketer

Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. PT
Duration: 60 Minutes

The best kept secrets in direct marketing live in customer data. Savvy marketers are embracing search marketing, database marketing, and online research to reach their target audience. But even with their best efforts, a great deal is missing.

To be successful, marketers must optimize the way they collect and qualify sales information and close opportunities. This webcast will help you:

• Enhance your customer database
• Gain market insight and intelligence
• Qualify and rank leads
• Generate new qualified leads

Moderated by BtoB’s editor Ellis Booker and sponsored by DM2-DecisionMaker, this webcast will provide you with the strategies and techniques that will help you gather leads and refine your prospect database.

This webcast will feature presentations by:

• Theresa Kushner, Director of Customer Intelligence, Cisco
• Joan Ritter, SVP Direct and Relationship Marketing, Slack Barshinger
• Parin Mody, Director of Product Marketing , DM2-DecisionMaker

Register

Webinar: Lead Gen - 8 Critical Success Factors

The best webinars I have seen so far on Lead Generation are with Brian Carroll - don't miss the next one:

On Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 1:00 PM CST, Brian Carroll, CEO of
InTouch and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale will be
presenting part two of his five part webinar series on lead generation.
Part two focuses on the eight critical success factors that are needed
to develop high quality and high volume lead generation programs. During
the webinar you'll learn:

- How to align sales and marketing to optimize the number of leads
- How to avoid lulls in the sales cycle
- How to develop a universal lead definition and an ideal customer
profile
- How to build, maintain and grow your database

8 Critical Success Factors in Developing High Volume, High Quality Lead
Generation Programs
http://www.startwithalead.com/article.asp?ARTICLEID=284

Top 100 Most Influential People in IT

Baseline Magazine has posted a list of the Top 100 Most Influential People in IT. I started at #1 and went backwards. If you can resist the temptation to do what I did - start here.

Here's how they were ranked. One famous person is missing (hint: his first name rhymes with Phil).

Baseline Magazine is one of my favourite industry magazines because it gives me a high level understanding of IT business issues and solutions.  Aside from news, each issue includes a case study, project planner, primer, and vendor dossier. They have great charts, interesting facts, and statistics! View articles online or apply for the hard copy.

I get excited about when I see Baseline arrive on my desk (unlike a lot of other things).

Corporate Blogging: Smarter Conversation

Seth Godin pointed to a fantastic post - food for thought, about corporate blogging and humanification - from gapingvoid. Once in awhile, a post like this comes along, and rises above all the clutter.

My friend, who read Seth's blog post first and sent it over said "Seth Finds the Best", I couldn't agree more.
 

Explore B2B Branding

I just read Jon Miller's post on B2B branding, interesting. And ironically, I was reading about B2B branding on my 5 minute subway ride home.  It was an article from BtoB Magazine called "Emotional connection with brand is important" and it discussed presentations at  a recent ISMB B2B conference.

The article mentioned Philip Kotler, who is a well known marketing professor (Kellog School of Management), author, and strategist. Kotler has written a new book called B2B Brand Management.

The book explores the advantages of strong brand, such as higher prices (or margins), lower customer churn, as well as lower employee turnover.  Another speaker at the conference, John Fleming, principal of Gallup Organization, made a very interesting point. He said that "Satisfying customers is not sufficient", and notes that customers that are "passionate" about a brand deliver two times profitability of average customers. Fleming added that branding is not only important to customers but to employees. Employees need to be emotionally connected to the company brand so that the company can reach top performance.  This point makes a lot of sense to me. Sales people, probably engage more with customers when they love their company brand (not just the products) and customers pick up on this energy.  I'm sure it goes beyond sales/marketing positions, it applies to the whole company.

B2B brand is often neglected especially by small companies. I mentioned in my last post how Sun Microsystems changed their brand from high end server to a real systems company. That is a big company example, but still relevant.

Big or small, I think all B2B companies should continue to explore the importance of brand, and especially look at web 2.0 (if they haven't already) and how it impacts  or could impact their brand.

For more information, please read Jon's post (as well, he has two more sections planned on B2B branding). As well find a related post at Marketing Interactions blog. And don't miss this fantastic article from gapingvoid.

Embracing Web 2.0 - Sun Microsystems

I've been looking for an IT B2B company that has really embraced and found success using web 2.0. This podcast really resonated with me - The B2B Marketing Podcast » B2B003 - Ingrid Van Den Hoogen, SVP, Sun Microsystems. I knew about Sun's employee blogging, but I learned about other initiatives such as Second Life.

Here is an image of Sun's Pavilion in Second Life - view larger images at www.b2bmarketingpodcast.com.  Ingrid also mentions how Jonathan's Schwartz's blog is one of the top CEO blogs. Another interesting point mentioned in this podcast, is how Sun Microsystems has changed their brand from high end server to a real systems company.

Also, I posted previously about a keynote presentation from David Suzuki and since then, I've been more aware of corporate eco-responsibility. This podcast talks about the UltraSPARC T1 Processor which uses less energy and benefits the customer in energy and cooling cost savings. It seems like a win-win situation for the customer and the environment.

This is one of the best podcasts I have heard lately.

 

Got a great B2B presentation to share?

Guy Kawasaki mentioned a contest today in his blog, called the World's Best Presentation Contest. The comments in the blog brought up the point  - how can you judge a presentation without the presenter?  The contest and site slideshare (it is like a youtube for presentations) is worth visiting. If you have a good presentation, take a shot, you'll get some views and there are also some cool prizes :)

Guy's 10/20/30 rule which I wrote about previously, has greatly improved our sales presentations but I still feel like I'm continuously trying to improve presentations. I don't give them much, but I prepare them for events and our sales folks. I've found some good information on Presentation Zen. I've been looking for a book about presenting information visually for marketing and sales (more from the concept side rather than how-to in powerpoint). I recently ordered Envisioning Information by Tufte. If you know of any good books on this, please let me know.

Benefit from better copywriting (8 tips)

“Good writers are always visible just behind their words”

William Zinsser from On Writing Well

 
In 2004 I had a very memorable guest speaker in my copywriting course. I often find myself going back to his tips (now more than ever, since I started this blog). I believe that all marketers could benefit from better copywriting skills, why?

The guest speaker was John Ellis, an Associate Creative Director from McDonnell Haynes.  These were his 8 tips:

1. Don’t be a copywriter, be a writer who writes copy

2. Find a voice and make it your own. (he mentioned great voices such as William Zinsser, David Sedaris, I add to this list Seth Godin. Speaking of voice and David Sedaris, you’ll either love it or hate it, it  is the exact same voice that comes through in his books)

3. Learn to interview (like a reporter)

4. Live in this world. (he was referring to a campaign that no longer resonated with the target market because times had changed, however I also interpreted this as be a part of today’s world, explore it, find inspiration from it).

5. Build a network - with other writers  (this is so relevant to blogging,  he also mentioned creating our own reference resources, online and good old-fashioned books)

6. Be versatile

7. Read more than you write

8. Learn to work fast when you have to

A couple of  blogs on copywriting:
Excess Voice – Nick Usborne 
Bob Bly Blog
Copyblogger

For those in Toronto, a few copywriting courses:
CMA Direct Marketing Copywriting Seminar (John Ellis is one of the teachers!)
UofT Continuing Education Copywriting that Sells (the course I took)

Top 6 List of B2B Sales & Marketing Resources

Jon Miller references a great resource site Rain Today in his recent post about How to Use Thought Leadership to Build Brands and Nurture Leads.

Speaking of thought leadership - here's my top 6 list of B2B Sales & Marketing resources:

1. Rain Today- resources for selling and marketing professional services, they have a free newsletter and lots of articles, and summaries of the reports that they publish
2. Miller Heiman - a sales performance consulting company, they publish a well known sales best practices report,  and also have a free newsletter, visit their knowledge center for more info
3. SiriusDecisions  - well known and widely referenced sales and marketing research and consulting company,  you can subscribe to their free montly newsletter called SiriusPerspectives
4. Babcock & Jenkins - direct and relationship marketing agency, a lot of good content here, in fact the whole site is presented as a resource site with articles and a rss feed
5. MarketingSherpa - Resource that publishes useful news, case studies, and best practices data about internet and integrated marketing. Content is available freely for a certain amount of time, as well you can find summaries of their research reports
6. B2B related Blogs, that often go beyond the research and provide individual experiences and insight (often missing from some of the high level research)

Webcast: Making the Most of your IT Marketing Dollar

Here's an upcoming BtoB/TechTarget webcast featuring Brian Carroll, author, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale and Marilou Barsam, senior vice president of client consulting, TechTarget.

Title: Making the Most of your IT Marketing Dollar
Date: Thursday, March 15, 2007
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. PT
Duration: 60 Minutes

With more pressure on marketers to prove the ROI of their marketing dollar, many marketers are achieving measurable results in innovative ways. These marketers are employing e-mail campaigns, online media buys, webcasts, social media, blogs, and other strategies to attract prospects and convert them into sales.

Focusing on information technology, we will present examples of innovative ideas and how savvy IT marketers are using them to create dynamic campaigns that get results. What’s more, we will show you how to nurture the customers you have, and identify those prospects who have the potential to become profitable.  Register

Register for other upcoming B2B webcasts at  On24

PodCamp Toronto Media Archive

I was out of town during PodCamp Toronto, and missed it. However, I am happy to see (and hear) there is a media archive of the event. It takes a little bit of time to start the movies (be patient). I have previously seen Mitch Joel and Michael Seaton present live and I highly recommend watching their presentations:

Building Your Personal Brand Through Podcasting - Mitch Joel
Although this is about "personal branding",  his ideas transcend to all branding. Mitch's podcasts can be found at TwistImage.

Banking on a Podcast - Michael Seaton
Michael shares insight on corporate podcasting through his experiences with Scotiabank's "The Money Clip"

As well check out Bill Sweetman's related post Eight Tips I Picked Up at PodCamp Toronto 2007

Here's a list of upcoming podcamps

• Podcamp Atlanta - March 16-18, 2007 at Emory University
• Podcamp NYC at The New School - April 7. Our hotline: 888-273-7912.
• PodCamp Minnesota - late Spring 2007
• Podcasters Across Borders and PodCamp Canada at Kingston - June 23-24, 2007
• PodCamp Munich - June 2007
• PodCampMidWest - July 27-29, 2007, Kansas City
• PodCamp Pittsburgh 2! - August 2007!
• PodCamp Boston 2 - October 26 - 28, 2007 before VON Boston

For a full list and updated information, visit the PodCamp Wiki.

An expected B2B presenter - David Suzuki

I had been greatly anticipating the CMA B2B Conference 2007. It was my first time attending this conference and I thought I’d come back with fresh new ideas and perspectives. Either my expectation was off, or something was amiss. I spoke to a few other attendees during lunch and our comments were:  learned nothing new, no practical information, failed to engage or inspire, irrelevant content, and felt like we were being sold to.

So was it a big miss? Well almost -- there was an unexpected surprise. It was the keynote speech (which ironically didn't seem to have relevance to B2B) by David Suzuki, who is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. I was excited to see him, mainly because I remember him from my childhood days when I used to watch “The Nature of Things”. He is currently on a cross Canada tour, and spoke to us about the environmental crisis. An issue that as of late I have been putting aside, thinking that it is a big unsolvable global problem that even if I did do something about, would be too small to make a difference.  It was a mind blowing presentation and here’s why:

1. He told us an incredible story
2. In terms we could understand (if the world were a basketball, then the biosphere would be like  a thin sheet of plastic wrap)
3. He evoked emotion and thought
4. He backed up his story with interesting facts
5. His passion was undeniable and authentic
6. He inspired us to learn more and act

By the end of the speech, people were lining up to buy one of his books and get it autographed. A lot of people were eager to sign up for the Nature Challenge which are a few changes we can make in our daily life to make a difference.

So while I didn’t come back with new B2B strategies, it didn’t seem to matter…because I walked away with something completely different and unexpected, and moving. I also have a new book to read, and I've signed up for the Nature Challenge.

In terms of B2B,  think about the above 6 things in terms of your communications or events (I know I will).  If I had to name a 7^th, it would be relevance.  After the conference, I  came across an article , that explained the relevance between B2B and David Suzuki. I am a little more aware and "greener" than when I woke up this morning, and it turns out that I got the fresh perspective I was looking for after all.

A List of B2B Marketing Blogs

Jon Miller of Marketo has created a fantastic resource of over 50 B2B Marketing Blogs.  I am humbled to be mentioned along with so many great sites. It has given me a burst of energy to keep at this thing :)

Have a peak to see what others are saying about B2b Marketing and Sales.