What Works, What Doesn't

The Recovery Starts...Here?

Guarded hopefulness was the theme at last week’s XSITE (XconomySummit on Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship) at Boston University. The theme of the one-day event showcasing Boston-area startups and VCs was “The Recovery Starts Here.” But the talk in the hallways was instead of a long, slow slog back to anything resembling normal business conditions.

Initial results of a survey done by the Xconomy Web publication showed only 24 percent of attendees felt the US gross national product would increase by the fourth quarter. But, as someone told me the other day, in today’s economy “’Flat’ is the new ‘up”.”

The day was nothing if not eclectic: Presentations by start-ups promising everything from a cure for Alzheimer’s to a “roadable airplane” (not a “flying car” but an airplane that can hit the road if the weather is bad or the pilot needs ground transportation.) Perhaps the biggest “innovation” in view, though, was a new model of fund-raising in which corporations such as EMC fund or direct research at the area’s colleges that otherwise might have been done by privately-funded startups. The vendors get low-cost research; the universities get much-needed revenue. Whatever works, especially in a funding environment one venture-capitalist called “horrific.”

Collaboration with federal and state governments was also a major theme. oMohamad Ali, Massachusetts Senior State Executive for IBM, told the conference IBM is working with New York State to seek funding to develop interoperable standards for medical health records. He said Massachusetts companies need to get on the standards bandwagon, as companies seeking to cash in on the federal government’s drive to digitize medical records will only locate in, and bring jobs to, areas that have health records standards on which they can build.

While there was plenty of evidence of a tough economy, there were also glimmers of hope, especially for Massachusetts companies. One speaker said that Massachusetts still has a number of small manufacturing firms geared to producing very high-quality, small-volume production runs of specialized components for military systems – production capacity that is well-geared to biomedical devices. And panelists at a session on health care said the federal push to records digitization could spur demand for everything from security to data mining to cloud-based storage and data analysis. Another possible growth area: Consultants to help small medical practices make the jump from paper to digital records.

The highlight of the show was inventor DEKA founder Dean Kamen, of Segue fame (infamy?), who slouched on stage muttering he was speaking “under protest” but wound up getting a standing ovation for a call for technologists to support his F.I.R.S.T. nonprofit, aimed at making science and engineering as exciting to young people (especially women and minorities) as “the NBA, NFL or Hollywood.” A Brandeis University study shows students who took part in the program were more than three times as likely to major in engineering than those who did not, and more than twice as likely to expect to pursue a career in science and technology. Kamen’s message is that, with our exploding national debt and increasing competition from other countries, we need to draw far more people into engineering and the sciences than we now are. If even one of them builds something like the robotic arm Kamen built for injured veterans it will all have been worth it.  

Geeks Use Social Media -- Wisely

Still think social media is only for teenagers or ditsy trend-followers? Check out this story from B2B on how even very technical, engineering-driven companies are using social media to engage and motivate customers. What’s as interesting as the fact they ARE using social media is how they are rigorously measuring the impact of social media, and optimizing various social media channels for different types of customers.

At telecom equipment vendor Avaya, Global Managing Director of Services and Social Marketing Paul Dunay has focused an existing flood of blogs and Tweets on four objectives: listening (to conversations), supporting (customers), energizing (the community), spreading (Avaya’s vision) and embracing (product ideas). “We’re using Twitter as a ‘teaser’ channel, Facebook as a hub of information, forums as a type of help desk and blogs as our corporate voice,” Dunay says.

At semiconductor firm Analog Devices, director-marketing for the GP DSP division Robert DeRobertis measures the effectiveness of social media so carefully that “My CFO knows that if he cuts one key element in my plan, it will have an impact on revenue.” He also says his program closely tracks the customer buying process, “staying abreast of important influencers who guide these processes and aggressively featuring offers.”

And at specialty alloy developer Indium Corp., Director of Marketing Communications Rick Short posts casual photos of employees at work and simple, content-rich video product demonstrations and tests aimed at a highly technical customer base. Not only are customers enthusiastic, he says, but Indium employees have responded as well – with white paper output by Indium employees increasing 50% per year for the past three years.

That in and of itself could pay for your social media efforts right there – assuming your engineers are good enough writers. If they're not, there’s always us ink-stained wretches still looking for work

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Economist Delivers Numbers to Prove Strategy

Quick follow-up: We recently showed you what you can learn from the Economist’s success in an otherwise dying market for print publications. The lessons: That print isn’t dead, that people always want in-depth analysis, and that strong, consistent marketing can differentiate you even in a commodity market. Today’s proof: The Economist Group (that includes The Economist and CFO) reported a 26% boost in operating profit for the fiscal year ended March 31^st. The firm attributed the increase to “strong circulation growth” for The Economist (to record levels). Not bad when everyone from the Boston Globe to Time and Newsweek are busy shrinking and re-thinking themselves enough just to keep the lights on.  

What B2B Marketers Can Learn From The Economist

As a former ink-stained wretch (reporter) I've followed the deaths of not only daily newspapers, but newsweeklies such as Time and Newsweek with despair. I, for one, looked forward to Newsweek giving me a once-a-week in-depth review of the stories and trends daily papers could only touch on.

Now, alas, both Newsweek and Time (struggling under a free-fall in ad revenues) have abandoned the weekly "summarize and explain" model and have redesigned themselves as a cross between The Atlantic Monthly/Harper's (long format, deep dive stories into important or offbeat topics) and The Economist, the upscale British-based pub which purports to tell you all you need to know about the entire world.

A story in this month's Atlantic does a splendid job of describing how the print version of The Economist isthriving while its competitors gasp for breath, by marketing itself as "a true global digest for an age when the amount of undigested, undigestible information online continues to metastasize." With virtually no online strategy, the story says, the Economist's circulation and ad revenues are rising while its rivals virtually implode.

How did they do this, and what on earth does this have to do with B2B marketing? This:

    People will always value well-written content that analyzes (or convincingly purports to analyze)
    complex trends, .

    Print media that readers can enjoy without a screen and power cord is not obsolete, but may even         stand out in an age of everywhere, all-the-time information overload and finally

    Strong, consistent positioning in a market niche (the niche being readers who think they're smart and     exclusive by reading The Economist) can sustain premium sales and profit margins even in a                 commoditized market. 

Before you try to out-blog, out-Tweet, out-YouTube and out mobile-market your competition, make sure you have your market position down cold, focus your messaging like a laser on your target market, and execute flawlessly on the content front. And don't be afraid to offer readers old-fashioned ink on paper to show your stuff is worth sitting down and focusing on.

Survey of PR/Marketing Firms: Hanging on, For Now

Joke: An elderly businessman is hit by a car and is being comforted by a paramedic, who asks him if he’s comfortable. “Comfortable?” the businessman shrugs philosophically. “No. But I get by...”

That kind of sums up life in the PR/marketing business as we reach mid-year. One quarter of respondents to my recent survey said “business is rebounding nicely” with only 13 percent saying they’re still in the dumps. But a full 50% responded with “other” responses ranging from “cautiously optimistic” to “still functioning, thankfully” to “very modest” or “small” rebound.

Twice as many (12%) said their clients are more likely to keep PR/marketing writing projects in-house to hold down costs than to outsource such work because their internal staffs are burned out. But the biggest category was, again “other” with respondents saying their clients are still “outsourcing when it makes sense” to “outsourcing to smaller agencies” or “Doubling up on Prozac.” (Hey, I’ll tell the jokes here.)

I also asked readers what they thought about “content marketing” (the use of white papers, case studies and social media to engage and sell to prospects.) A full third agreed it was “an incredibly valuable service I hope to offer my clients. But nearly half (49% asked “What’s content marketing?” One (maybe the one who doubled up on Prozac) said it was “Just like the source of the best milk – content cows” and another admitted it was an “incredibly vague buzzword I bulls**hit about constantly.”

Finally, I asked about the biggest challenges PR and marketing facing. One in four said getting new clients, narrowly outnumbered by those who said “Keeping up with changes in the PR/marketing industry” The biggest category, yet again, was “other.” Two respondents said their biggest challenge is hiring good capable staff (either for now or the next upturn), with others mentioning “managing smaller budgets” or – ouch – “getting paid at all.”

All this tracks pretty well with my own experience, which is that there‘s a big upturn in queries for new projects, but more delay – and price negotiations – before closing deals. I for one am ready, willing and able to work with you and your clients to reach your PR/marketing goals on budget, and to help you build out your content marketing strategy. As always, feel free to call or email to brainstorm.

Virtual Guest Blog: Six Reasons to Target Case Studies

It's not too often that I just post through to another blog entry, but this post on how and why to target case studies to specific customer types was too good to pass up. Most of my clients are so thrilled to get a customer to sit still to be interviewed they barely think about what to focus on in the case study, or have a list of questions focused around the vendor's messaging, not the user's story.

This post clearly explains why, with case studies as with any other collateral, you should begin by thinking of the reader (technical or non-technical? focused on usability or ROI) along with good suggestions on when to ask a customer for a case study, and the all-important and often-overlooked promotion after the case study is done.

Read and enjoy...

First Rule of Behavorial Marketing: Do Nothing Creepy

An excellent commentary from Kara Trivunovic, senior director of strategic services at StrongMail

Systems, highlights the need to not be "creepy" when using behavioral tracking (what a prospect clicks on or downloads) to decide what follow-up offers or info to send to them.

Among other things, Kara recommends being careful about being too literal around interpeting clickstream data at a very granular level, such as blindly spamming a prospect with information on a line of shirts just because they looked at one shirt. However, he says, "if you are able to piece together some inference around a categorical interest, you have more footing and can then send an offer supporting that category."

Has anyone out there build such inferences for B2B sales (especially in the IT space)? If so, what "chain of content" has worked for you, and what tools did you use to build the inferences?

Content Marketing: No Free Lunch

In the past two weeks, I’ve been having more and more conversations with clients about actual (not theoretical) content marketing initiatives. These range from producing their own blogs to their own coverage of trade shows or just summaries of conversations with interesting customers. The aim: To educate, engage and motivate prospects to consider and buy their products.

It’s good seeing vendors realize they need to be their own publishers. But many vendors don’t understand is that creating quality content (meaning useful information outweighs sales blather) requires taking on a lot of the work, and the costs, of the trade pubs they used to subsidize through their ad dollars. Unlike a trade pub, online content marketing doesn’t require a printing press, postage and expensive full-time people soaking up office space. But it does require:

              Ideas – new, interesting, relevant ideas, observations or comments.

             The judgment to see an idea, or a pattern of events, and to know it is newsworthy.

             The ability to explain these ideas clearly and concisely (which ranges from writing to editing, formatting and design) and finally

            The experience to avoid common mistakes like assuming the reader understands common jargon, or "burying the lead" in paragraphs of introductory throat-clearing.

I’m not saying a vendor has to hire full-timers, or even an outsider like me, to fill all these needs. With the right mix of talent in-house, they can produce quality content on their own – some companies already are. But vendors need to realize there are real costs to producing content that actually educates, engages and motivates customers. They can pay those costs in internal staff time or outside consulting fees (usually a combination of both) but with content, as with everything, you get what you pay for.

Cutting the Middleman Between Vendors, Resellers

Ouch! As if trade pubs weren’t getting cut out of enough loops, a British marketing firm has neatly snipped them out of the role they used to play communicating product and other information between vendors and resellers.

Mktg Digital, a marketing services firm with offices in both the UK and France, develops and deploys Web portals for technology vendors such as Plantronics. These portals hold not only all the marketing collateral a vendor has developed for a specific product, but can tailor the content based on the type of collateral the reseller has viewed in the past.  Resellers can also download high- or low-resolution copies of the collateral for use on their own Web site or for the print use. Through pre-arrangements with print-on-demand Web sites), resellers to print only the collateral they need, when they need it, customized with their own logo and contact information. This alone can cut 20 to 30 percent from a vendor’s physical mailing costs, no small deal when you’ve got prospect lists with hundreds of thousands of names.

The portal has workflow capabilities that let a vendor control, for example, whether the vendor will pay for such printing out of its own co-marketing budget or let the reseller foot the bill. It can also require a reseller to, for example, pass a test showing they understand how to sell and support a new product before allowing them to download collateral about it.

I find their approach interesting, combining content management capabilities with a certain level of marketing workflow to control what marketers can do. I also like the idea of combining outside content, such as reviews from Amazon.com, on the vendor’s content portal. Right now, there’s no link back to sales systems to determine what specific resellers sell and no customizing of content based on which problems resellers are having, but those are possibilities for the future.  

Managing Director David Long declined to say how much the typical portal costs, but says “We would anticipate a client would experience a (return on investment) within the first 12 months.” Just another example of how every vendor is now (or should be) a publisher, and can be with innovative content management/workflow/publishing tools from vendors large and small.

Two B2B Blogs Done Right

Many B2B companies struggle with what to blog about. I recently came across two examples that work well because they lead with information, ideas and insights and only indirectly tout themselves.

The first is a trip report of TM Forum Management World by Bill Ahlstrom, a vice president in CA’s Infrastructure Management and Data Center unit. He did a good, complete job recapping not only the speeches and sessions, but the buzz among the service provider audience. Like a good reporter, he didn’t gloss over bad news, but used a “best of times/worst of time” theme to quote attendees on the challenges they face from the recession and the fact virtualization and cloud computing (apps and other services delivered over the Internet) are creating new competitors like Amazon.com.

Among the best things he did was sharing an especially thought-provoking prediction he heard, that in the future “IT groups will morph into Platform Services Groups, buying and providing everything as a service…(which)  will feed a firestorm of creativity and agility unlike anything seen before - even more than the wave of creativity spawned by the Internet itself. “

Speaking of keeping the sales pitch low-key, Bill may have gone overboard by mentioning CA only at the end, saying “There was considerable interest in CA's virtualization and cloud initiatives…(and that) as we follow up with customers and partners, CA's role in these two interlinked major trends will become both clearer, and more important.” Without going into marketing mode, he could have provided valuable insight and indirectly promoted CA by saying “Two pain points we kept hearing from prospects were managing virtual machine sprawl and sharing security attributes across public and private clouds. Look for news from us on both those fronts soon…” A tease like that also prompts readers to subscribe to his blog or follow him on Twitter.

The second example comes from a China-based professional services firm, Symbio Group (who is a client, but no, I didn’t write this post.) It is a rebuttal to a story in The Economist claiming many Chinese firms simply copy business models from other countries without tweaking them for the Chinese market. The post described several customers who, with Symbio’s help, had indeed customized outside business models for the China market, and predicted that as China matures it will eventually develop business models that will be exported worldwide.

This post was effective because it clearly pointed out how Symbio helped its clients, but kept the focus not on Symbio’s contributions but on how their clients succeeded, and how the success of those clients bolsters the main point: That Chinese firms can do more than copy outside business models. Very importantly, they also cited other examples that were not Symbio clients.

What’s neat in each case is that the subject matter came from activities executives do anyway – attending trade shows, talking to prospects, reading, thinking and arguing about industry trends. You can always hire someone like me to polish their writing (there’s my understated pitch) but your people already have the subject matter. You just have to ask them to share it.