April 11th, 2011 - Posted in General by Kory Kendziora
It was back in 1991 when the famous Bill Swerski’s Superfans skit aired on Saturday Night Live. Good ole’ Chris Farley sporting Chicago Bears gear and a memorable accent expressing how delicious Chicago’s “Saasage” is. Marketing is a whole new ball game today than it was twenty years ago. We still connect with basic marketing methods such as direct mail, but can they actually be more effective now that social media has created continuous exposure of marketing advertisements? Social media is clearly an effective method of marketing, but if you could actually place a piece of direct mail in the hands of your target market, wouldn’t that be ideal? We make that happen. The first step is becoming a Superfan of our clients.
When you take on the role of “Superfan” there is a responsibility to uphold. As an IT marketing company, we commit to being a Superfan of each one of our clients. Putting ourselves in our clients’ shoes allows us to dig deeply into exactly what their customers are looking for and how we can generate individualized and focused campaigns to reach those customers. More specifically, we create effective questions to ask our clients’ customers using tailored, attention-getting strategies to reach net-new leads. We hit them with a 1-2 punch. First, we line up a marketing program that will have a large number of target customers holding in their hands a marketing piece with information that draws the customer to an online survey. The second punch comes after they answer a few questions – Do you have a problem with XYZ? Yes? BAM! Here’s a solution! Let’s set up a call to discuss.
Yes, it takes the dedication of a client Superfan to drive success. No, we have not attempted to obtain the Chicago Bears as a client…yet.
Oh, yeah…Da Bears!
March 9th, 2011 - Posted in General by Manpreet Jassal
“A guy don’t walk on the lot lest he wants to buy..” That line has been stuck in my head ever since I heard Alec Baldwin say it in the movie Glenngary Glen Ross. Then I thought to myself a prospect does not take our surveys and answers positively if they don’t want to buy. All of the questions we ask on our surveys always have an option of “N/A” so they can choose that option 100% of the time but many of them don’t.
The sales data that gets generated should be intelligent enough to let us know where the customer is in the buying cycle. Every sales persons dream is to know if the prospect is thinking about buying. Let’s take this scenario..
MJ: How have your leads been so far?
VAR: They have been mediocre, I mean we know what type of equipment they have but no luck in knowing what they need right now.
MJ: What would you say if I can get you fully verified leads with pain points they are experiencing in their IT environment and what stage of the buying cycle they are in, what would you think of that?
VAR: Where do I sign?!
What I do everyday is produce Glenngary Glen Ross leads! I think I am going to watch that movie again this weekend.
February 23rd, 2011 - Posted in Strategy by Jeff Warnock
I am sure that most people can relate to an interrupting phone or a persistent daily email solicitation. I actually received a telemarketing call during the Super Bowl for a newspaper subscription. That’s got to be a tough job. Speaking of the Super Bowl, was that a Chatter.com social networking TV add?
Being a director of business development for a leading B2B IT marketing agency, I work with leading manufacturers, distributors, and resellers in the IT space driving demand and sales opportunities. Many of these companies have limited marketing resources, technology infrastructure, and variance in their marketing approach and effectiveness. Our charter is to serve as a virtual marketing department and our focus is the scarcest resource in business today, net new customers. It’s a fast paced environment where the race to find sales leads and engagements never ends, budgets and funds are elusive, and success is measured in the short term.
In a presentation last week, I was asked by a regional reseller what I thought were the most important keys to successful demand generation marketing. It’s a great question and one that will yield a variety of answers. There is certainly a lot to consider given the volume of marketing messages prospects receive, the growing number of marketing channels available, and all the interactive media buzz. Read the rest of this entry »
February 15th, 2011 - Posted in Social Media Marketing, Strategy by Tim Freestone
As enter:marketing moves forward into 2011 and looks to expand how our clients connect with and sell to their customers – one thing is glaringly obvious: Social Media. In particular, Facebook is a frontier that is critical for our clients to conquer.
That said, we’re facing resistance in our discussions of the value of Facebook marketing. I’m not surprised though. The unknown makes people uncomfortable. The majority of marketing and sales professionals in IT are not familiar with strategies in this space – after all, it’s not an event at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse. Because of this unfamiliarity, most are not willing to make the leap. A couple primary objections pervade most of my conversations: 1) “I don’t think Facebook is for IT businesses; and 2) “Custom what?”
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February 8th, 2011 - Posted in Strategy by Tim Freestone
Look – I realize I’m asking quite a lot of people. Perseverance is not a trait that pervades the IT industry. If there were a guild of actors of short-attention-span theater, this industry would certainly hold the annual convention. Also, I’m not making a directed statement – it’s a fairly universal trait across all players – sales, marketing, CEO’s, engineers – no favoritism here. I’m also not blaming anyone. I’m simply calling a spade a spade. We all function in a system where products mutate and migrate faster than Madonna’s wardrobe changes in an early nineties concert at Madison Square Garden. So it’s no wonder that the shadow (marketing and sales) of such an unruly beast be also A.D.D.
Again, I’m not bitter, simply painting a clear picture of reality before I lay out a sentiment for how to truly stand out as competent, dare I say exceptional, in a sea of deer-in-headlights mediocrity.
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January 26th, 2011 - Posted in General, Strategy by Tim Freestone
First, lets define “success.” Actually, let’s define the antithesis of success. Success is NOT pretty pictures or cool designs. Yes, sometimes marketers can smoke and mirror their way through life, but tricks are for kids (someone wise once said that). Success in demand generation marketing is NOT the number of leads. The definition of good vs. bad leads is too subjective and wildly unpredictable. Success is NOT the number of meetings. Unless you are charging the prospect a fee to attend the meeting, a meeting in and of itself is nothing more than two people talking. So what is success in demand generation? It’s simple. Success is the amount of revenue you enable a sales executive to identify from the targets in your programs. I’ll say it again. Success is the amount of revenue you enable a sales executive to identify from the targets in your programs.
The reason I define success in such a manner is because it’s at this point at which the marketer begins to lose direct control of the actual sales process. The marketer still has influence and indirect control (helping provide reps with data sheets, case studies, and other sales tools to aid them in their journey with the prospect) but it’s still the point in that process where the 80/20 rule of control flips. As long as you have at least 80% control, you have the ball. Its where that responsibility ends, where you “make the hand off” that you need to hold yourself accountable, and where the metric for success should be defined. Read the rest of this entry »
January 3rd, 2011 - Posted in Solution Provider Services by Tim Freestone
What makes success difficult for email marketing campaigns? For B2B marketing professionals, several factors can impede progress, but targeting recipients is at the top of the list. Let’s take a look at the top six challenges B2B email marketers face:
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December 29th, 2010 - Posted in Solution Provider Services by Tim Freestone
Email marketing has been around for a while, and many marketers have clear thoughts on the value it provides. Respondents to a recent MarketingSherpa survey indicated a variety of perspectives on email marketing, ROI and investment, though almost all surveyed indicated seeing the value of this approach.
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December 22nd, 2010 - Posted in Solution Provider Services by Tim Freestone
Is email marketing a priority for your company? Nothing answers that question quite like your budget. After all, how you allocate your marketing capital is the truest indicator of what’s important to your business. According to the latest survey by MarketingSherpa, it looks like email marketing means different things to different companies.
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December 13th, 2010 - Posted in Strategy by Tim Freestone
B2B marketing operations may be more mature than you think.
It’s easy to look in the mirror and get frustrated. After all, you have to balance your commitment to marketing against your core business operations (such as sales and services fulfillment), and it always feels like you’re leaving a marketing opportunity on the table. I’ve spoken with many IT solution provider marketers over the past few years, and I’m rarely surprised to hear sentences that start with, “I’d like to …” and have “but” somewhere in there.
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