blog

Picture this.  You are an IT professional.  For the sake of argument, let’s say you are an IT Manager at a medium-sized financial services firm.  You have a desk with one of those little bird weather thingies.  You have an iPad, but not the one with the data plan – rip-off.   A Computer (of course).  A Smartphone (the smartest).  You drink coffee in the morning and then again around 3:00pm.  Maybe a Diet Coke replaces the afternoon cup.  On Tuesday’s you like to pay extra for lunch. Sit down lunch if possible.  The Italian place around the corner has really good chicken parmesan. Steve, the Sys Admin’s Fantasy Football Team is beating yours, but barely.  Your boss is ok, but he spits a little when he talks and should probably wear collar stays.  Also, “Where does he go for two hours every Thursday afternoon,” you wonder… For all intents and purposes you are not that different, give or take a grey hair, from most of your colleagues. Read the rest of this entry »

If you haven’t heard of Augmented Reality yet, go to YouTube and search “Augmented Reality.” After that you’ll probably have no clue what the heck is going on. I know I didn’t. However, when the proverbial light goes on in the attic, a whole world of opportunities for marketing in the IT industry presents itself.

Imagine sending detail-accurate models of new IT hardware to thousands of people for the cost of a postcard per person. Imagine sending your CIO or CEO to stand on people’s  desks and “personally” talk about your solutions and services, or maybe to even invite them to an event. It’s not only possible, its being done.

enter:marketing has recently completed projects that do both of the above, and having gone through the strategy, development and launch of these initiatives, I can tell you that this technology is a game changer for IT marketing.

It’s 2 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon and I, once again, have treated myself to a carb-tacular lunch fit for a king. Fighting to stay alert, my colleagues and I are sitting through yet another presentation so unbearable that somewhere between “…low-hanging fruit…” and “…caught between a rock and a hard place…” I have lost the will to live.

This was me three years ago. And I don’t know if the imminent food coma or the presenter’s ill-fitting suit was the catalyst, but it was that sunny Wednesday afternoon I decided two things: 1) I hated business clichés with every being of my soul and 2) I would make it my mission to try and rid the world of them.

Why? They relegate the offender to the dreaded “generic” category.  For speakers to hold an audience, they have to be engaging, creative and dynamic.

Also, most of them are stupid. What does “the whole nine yards” mean, anyways?  A first down is ten yards.

Just to drive my point home, here are some of the worst clichés of all time, and their actual meanings:

Read the rest of this entry »

The more text there is, the quicker the reader skims through.  Get to the point so your audience absorbs what you are trying to say.  After all, the recipient of your message is likely just as busy as you are.

Let’s face it, people love anything with their name on it. People like attention, and the feeling of something personal. This statement especially holds true in marketing. Rather than receiving a broad-based direct marketing pitch in your inbox or mailbox, it is more luring to receive something that is personal with your name and information tailored to your needs and tastes.

In addition to implementing names in direct marketing efforts, another effective way to gain attention is to implement a call-to-action to visit a Personal URL, otherwise known as PURL. A PURL is a unique URL that adds a name to the URL string (example: www.website.com/JohnDoe). Who doesn’t like a URL with their name in it? It’s personal and highly intriguing.

Studies show using PURLs with pertinent messaging increases response rates over non-personalized URLs. We’ve tested this theory internally here at enter:marketing, and we find that PURLs do in fact increase response.  Driving demand via a direct marketing effort, using a PURL, and a highly targeted personal landing page helps to keep the prospect engaged. Throw in light interactivity and slick design on the landing page, and you’re golden. It’s easier than it sounds, and it works.

Conventional wisdom holds that approaching a net-net prospect is a balancing game: desire to maximize your exposure to the prospect, versus fear of turning the prospect away with a barrage of contact. It’s a tough position; there’s no one right way, since the ideal balance is different for every situation.

At techconnect, we specialize in one very common situation: after contact with a prospect has been made, but before a meeting has taken place. Many people in sales essentially view this period as a void -maybe some research into the prospect, some pre-meeting game planning, but mostly just a lot of waiting for the meeting time to roll around. The old balancing game is prominent in the mind of the salesperson: you’ve already made direct contact with the customer in securing the meeting, and the worry is that further contact before the agreed-upon meeting date would make the customer feel harassed, blowing any opportunity before you even get to meet.

Basically, I think this concern is overrated. It’s not repeated contact customers dislike, but contentless contact. Anybody would be turned off by receiving the same information over and over, but we find that sending customers new, pertinent information in advance of a meeting (say in the form of a whitepaper on their stated interest, or a background on your company, or even a simple introduction to your tech team) not only reinforces the purpose and value of the upcoming meeting to a prospect, it also conveys that you are on the ball and genuinely interested in speaking. Where there is contact between the prospect and the sales rep before the meeting time, we not only see a higher rate of meetings transacting at their first scheduled time, but also higher quality opportunities being uncovered.

Read the rest of this entry »

As new marketing platforms and the agencies that deliver them continue to take quantum leaps of progress and potential, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered the buzz of social and mobile media in your day-to-day life.

What might not be as obvious (yet), is that these marketing tools are ready to be adopted by IT VARs and vendors, and become a standard part of IT marketing strategy.

Augmented reality, QR codes, mobile sites and custom Facebook applications are just a few of the new terms buzzing amongst early adopters who are excited to be bringing these solutions to new and existing customers. These platforms are mobile-friendly, tech-savy and socially aware, and have the potential to host a plethora of customized content and pack a powerful punch with your consumer base in an engaging and ongoing way.

As your customers increasingly work from a range of mobile devices and wireless environments, why not meet them out in the field, wherever they may roam? As we embrace this age of information and self-published online content, you can clearly demonstrate your authority and technology expertise by establishing a presence in social media and a strong blogging voice in your chosen field.

Working with a marketing company that can help you establish that authority, engage with your customers and even inject some personality into your company brand by working with you to provide you with relevant content and even publish it for you.

Consider a marketing solution that reflects the level of technology you offer to your customers and, in doing so, ensure that your presence and customer perceptions in the marketplace are synonymous with the cutting edge technology company that you really are.

When it comes to building a successful lead nurturing program, you must inspire trust. Along with most aspects of life, consistency is key here. But above all, it is the relevance of your message that will ultimately engage prospects in the way that is needed to cultivate an interest to sales.

Successful lead nurturing is a process. Establishing a meaningful dialog by providing valuable education and information to prospects up front is important. It’s not a sales person calling routinely to find out if a prospect is “ready to buy yet.” Rather, it is about delivering insight and solutions in a non-invasive way so that the prospect perceives your company to have a superior level of expertise in the industry.

Is your process showing prospects that you have an understanding of their specific issues? And that your company has the knowledge and expertise to solve them? When your nurture program has a single point of focus on developing trust, you will plant the seeds that will produce more honest conversations with prospects.

Hey, want to know the easiest way to bring in new customers? Directly target their needs by providing resources and services to help them with their projects. Okay, that’s consultative sales 101.

The challenge is, most of high cost sales resources are spent trying to figure out what those needs are and when these resources should be spent on addressing needs. Luckily, today’s marketing capabilities have the power to identify decision makers and their needs very efficiently. Leveraging this information to target buyer needs with value-added resources is a powerful path to net-new customers.

IT buyers are educated, leverage online resources and are always seeking out information. They have the ability and desire to be in control of gaining information for their projects. This is the opportunity. Marketing programs should be designed to connect with these buyers, collect sales intelligence with what they need and lead them into effective sales engagements.

This approach has awesome power in eliminating wasted time for both the sales person and the prospect.  The prospect immediately views the company as a company they want to work with because of their added value and expertise.