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We often help clients promote events they’re hosting – from conferences, to executive roundtables, to luncheons, webinars, road shows and more. We use a multi-touch marketing approach to get people to attend these events and raise awareness about a client’s brand or product. Our typical approach to event promotion is using direct mail, email, and social media in a strategic campaign.  We find excellent response rates using a multi-touch approach, and have success growing clients online community. That said, I often see email marketing standing out as a very strong element in drawing attendees to events.

Email marketing may seem like it’s receiving less attention these days, with the savvy technological advances of social media platforms and applications. However, when it comes to reaching someone with a direct message and an exclusive invitation, email can be very effective.  Here at enter:marketing, we have many internal best-practices and tried & true approaches to reaching a strong event RSVP rate.

If you don’t have a database list to send emails to promote your upcoming event, we can provide that service as well. We offer end-to-end event promotion, with strong email creative development,  outbound strategy, and follow-up, using our best practices. Just remember: when promoting an event, always include email marketing to drive your response rate.

“Today we sent out an email and it got a 20% open rate!”

“Our newsletter was forwarded to 20 people!”

“We have a monthly client event at a bar!”

“Our ‘air cover’ marketing strategy is really providing lots of coverage….in the air…..!!!!”

“We’re working on a very important deck showcasing our approach to the strategy we’re considering!”

“The last two videos we put on our YouTube channel have 231 views!”

“We’re spending a lot of time figuring out our social media strategy…”

“We sent out company wall calendars to 300 prospects!”

You get the idea….

Step up to the plate and be committed to marketing systems that are built to drive trackable revenue. Anything other than that doesn’t do our profession any favors.

If you are still measuring your marketing value on a cost per lead or cost per meeting basis, you are not taking advantage of the services and technology available to make true business-relevant marketing decisions.

When you go into a marketing activity, in the least, start with a complete understanding of the following data points:

• Average Opportunity Value
• Average Closed Sales Rate
• Average Sale Value

Start there.

Then figure out how much you are willing to spend to drive one opportunity. Think 10X at least (this is a very rudimentary equation but for illustration purposes let’s go with it). So if your average opportunity is $100k, you should be willing to spend $10k. Then figure out what process will require, wait for it, the LEAST amount of meetings/leads to identify one opportunity. I know, I know. “But Tim,” you say, “that makes my cost per meeting and cost per lead go up!” Yes. Yes it does. Ask your sales team what they’d rather do, go on 10 meetings to get one opportunity or one meeting to get one opportunity. Chase 50 leads for one opportunity or 10 (this assumes you have sales that will even bother with leads). The answer to that is obvious. And,  if they can do their part and turn opportunity into sales, and do so at a decent conversion rate, well my friend, now you are cooking with gas.

When you stop to think about it, we’re conditioned to asses marketing a little bass-akwards and alf-hassed. Break the mold, take the time to approach marketing completely, spend against opportunity and sales measurements, and start seeing real, actual, business building results. Crazy talk I know….

(Note: look for a follow-up post on the obvious-but-ignored flaw in butts-in-seats approach to event marketing.)

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.

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!

“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.

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 »

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?”

Read the rest of this entry »