Bad Marketing

To Control, or Not Control your Brand That is the Question

The "Bad" - allowing employees to build their own brand at the expense of the company brand

 
The leading analyst firm Forrester announced last week that their analysts can no longer have stand-alone "off-site" blogs but rather need to blog on Forrester's official blogs.  There is a lot of chatter about this decision and Josh Bernoff provided a semi-official response on the popular Groundswell blog.  In summary, as an intellectual property company, Forrester believes blogging is an extension of their product which is intellectual property, and which they pay the analysts to create.  Therefore it is sub-optimal to have popular analysts build their own brand which they can then easily take with them should they decide to quit Forrester.

I am facing the exact same situation in my company and am struggling with the decision.  Should I allow all our field personnel to create their own blogs and market themselves under their own names?  Or should I get them to blog on our platform under the company brand?   There are pros and cons of each approach but I think I'm coming to the same conclusion as Forrester.  These folks are under our employment and as such are paid to promote the company and differentiate us from the competition.  The little brand benefit we get from all of their individual promotion is offset by confusion created in the market by 500 different brand voices. 

I need to explore a solution in more depth but my initial thought is that we need to create a standard company branded platform from which the field representatives can market themselves.  This is the approach that many real estate and financial services firms take.  I'm not saying it is perfect but the pros appear to outweigh the cons.  Let me know how you dealt with this issue. 

MarketingSherpa does it again!

The "Good" - collecting and assembling hundreds of marketing best practices and lessons learned, then sharing them for free

 The good folks at MarketingSherpa just released their 7th annual edition of the 'Wisdom Report'.  Quoting their intro, "...this report compiles the shiniest gems of wisdom chosen by Sherpa's editorial team from hundreds of submissions by your colleagues. Many of these words of wisdom are not big-sky ideas.  Many are simple and straightforward tips you can plug into your marketing plans right now."

I am honored that they selected one of my submissions on building a simple, inexpensive dashboard to measure PR and Media Relations effectiveness (page 70). I originally wrote about our homegrown dashboard in this post last year. It has been a very useful tool that I would be happy to share so shoot me an email if you'd like a copy.

To push or not to push, that is the question

The “Good”– shifting from “push” marketing to “missing link” marketing – meeting the modern customer’s expectation of finding the right information at the right place at the right time.

 

Check out the article “Beyond Targeting in the Age of the Modern Consumer” by Augustine Fouin ClickZ.   It focuses on consumer advertising and targeting but the lessons definitely apply in the B2B space.   Fou points out the futility of the push or interruption model, even when the target is very narrowly defined. 

 

“So in a simple game of odds, if the advertiser starts with a small target and intersects that with near zero recall or very low response rates, the probability of success (driving the sale) is a rounding error to zero.”

 

This point really hit home with me since a while back we realized our team’s traditional direct marketing model was no longer working.  We sell enterprise security to a very select group of IT executives in F1000 companies (e.g. CIOs in top banks).  While we created some very strong integrated marketing campaigns to reach these highly sought after customers, the messages were probably never received  since our targets have stopped reading emails, answering calls, attending events, reading trade journals and opening mail.  Even in the few cases where we did get their attention, I’m sure we were quickly forgotten in the crush of other marketing messages.  Given this new market reality we shifted the majority of our marketing efforts from traditional direct marketing to what Fou calls missing link marketing-- delivering the right bit of information to the right person at the right time through the right medium (when they're searching for it). This solves many of push marketing’s shortcomings since the customer finds information that is relevant to them at their particular stage of the buying cycle. 

 

For example, we put this approach into practice in our marketing efforts to the aforementioned IT execs in large banks.  One of their primary pain points is compliance with identity theft regulations (FFIEC, Red Flags, etc.).  Rather than bombarding them with direct mail/email/calls about our products, we created unique content for each stage of the decision-making process:  a whitepaper on the issue, a podcast, a buyer’s guide to help customers write their RFP, and a webinar with a customer testimonial.  We placed that content on our websiteand on key banking industry portals.   Of course we drove visibility of the content with PR, blogging, SEO, Google Adwords and sponsored links on keywords associated with those regulations.

 

Now we aren’t hitting every single prospect over the head with our messages, but instead are getting the right information to the few who are actively researching solutions in our space.  And I’ll take quality over quantity any day!

B2B Marketing Then and Now

The "Good" - looking back to see how you've evolved and learned over the years

In the spirit of New Year's and being retrospective, I took a quick look back at my 8 years at Entrust and how we approached marketing then and now.  We've certainly learned a lot since 2001 and are more effective than ever...I just wish we had the same budget as back then ;)  I couldn't figure out how to create a table in this new TypePad editor so you'll need to click on the graphic to view the lessons in larger format.

 

Holiday eCards - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It's that time of year again when we are inundated with the the good, the bad, and the ugly Holiday eCards.  Here are some I've received in reverse order....

The "Ugly" – creating negative brand perception with a holiday eCard so unimaginative and uninspired that it turns people off.  I’ve received a lot of these this year so maybe the cost-cutting started with creative departments.  I’ll spare you the pain of seeing all of them and use MS&L’s card as the poster child for “ugly” marketing.  Clearly they get paid by the word, but do people really want to read about arcane renaming updates in a holiday card.  I expect a top tier global PR firm to be savvier than this.

 

The "Bad" – wasting the time and money to produce a boring holiday eCard.  The companies in this group at least put some effort into their cards, but clearly not enough to make them enjoyable.  They want to do a nice card but just don’t put enough creative energy into making it a positive brand experience for the recipient.  The card from lead-gen firm Madison Logic exemplifies a “bad” card with no music and some scrolling images of the staff…yawn!  Check out the screen shot below, or if for some masochistic reason, you want to see the “live” card then click here.

The "Good" – using imagination and creativity to make a holiday eCard that entertains the recipients and conveys a good impression of your company.  My favorite in this group is the one from The Loomis Agency which uses sock puppets singing a parody of The Carol of Bells.  PMSI created a cool card by mixing holiday tunes and a sketch artist drawing Santa. Check it out here.   And Eisenberg Associates offers up a simple but fun game in their card. 

The folly of the old B2B marketing approach

The "Good" -  using a song parody to explain that old ways of marketing don't work

Credit to HubSpot and Rebecca Corliss for this highly entertaining parody of Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know."  Check out the video on YouTube and the lyrics below.

 

If I make one more call
I might go punch a wall.
No one understands
That this doesn't work.

They hang up cause I'm a creep.
The mail I send they don't read.
They always find a way to
Ignore me.
I'm interrupting their lives
So they threaten me with knives.
I didn't think that marketing was like torture.

Cause the calls, direct mail
TV ads, they all fail.
And they aren't getting me anywhere. They don't work.
No!
And every time I try to sell
'Didja know that I'm told I should go to hell?
Then I cry. Then I cry.
And you wonder why.

I want leads
To come to me.
Fix our SEO
Get some inbound links.
RSS
Let's get blogging.
Why don't we just use inbound marketing?
You. You. You. Oughta know.

Get my page rank up.
Tag my content.
Fix my landing page.
Let them come to me.

Now I can blog I can tweet
Publish things you will read.
Won't have to bug you in the middle of dinner.
Google me organically
Search results one two and three.
You need my products? Uh huh. Yeah you'll find me.

Cause the calls, direct mail
TV ads, they all failed.
And they weren't getting me anywhere. They don't work.
No!
And every time I tried to sell
'Didja know I was told I should go to hell.
Then I cried. Then I cried.
And you wondered why.

Now my leads
They come to me
Fixed our SEO
Got some inbound links
RSS
Now we're blogging
Thank god now we use inbound marketing.
You. You. You. Oughta know.

The Launch and Marketing of Microsoft Vista

The "Good" - developing and executing the marketing plan for one of the biggest new product introductions in history ... WOW ;)

I attended an interesting presentation about how Microsoft launched Vista and Office 2007. John Roskill, Microsoft's US Business and Marketing Officer gave an overview of the marketing plan (audio, video and slides can be found here).  As you can imagine with a launch of this magnitude the marketing team faced many challenges including:

• Reaching and persuading an incredibly wide range of customers from novice consumers to developers, IT gurus and business decision makers in the largest enterprises and governments. (B2C, B2G, and B2B)
• Covering a wide range of product lines with an extremely broad value-proposition (Windows Vista, Office desktop, Office System Server, and others).
• Managing the timing of multiple staggered launches on a global basis.
• Competing against a large and determined group including Apple, Open Office, Apache/Linux.
• Overcoming the "good enough" mentality of current Windows owners.
• Managing a wide array of partners including hardware vendors, software developers, systems integrators, VARs and resellers.
• Changing market perceptions such as "its been a long time coming" and "weak security."

The launch objectives are similar to what you and I have written in numerous marketing plans ... Ready the channel, Build awareness, Create enthusiastic advocates, Generate revenue opportunities / sales pipeline, and drive partner-customer connections.  However, the execution of the plan was anything but business as usual as they "touched" over 100 million consumers in less than a month in the U.S. alone and developed 15 million enthusiastic advocates that spread the message. 

Mr. Roskill shared great insights on the strategy which are too lengthy to describe here, but one thing that I took away was the need to move beyond transactional marketing to relationship marketing.  Microsoft has finally gotten it and this launch marked their shift from...

• Point in Time Marketing to Continuous Conversion
• Single Product to Solution Stack
• Hitting the Masses to Targeting/Sub-segmenting/Measuring
• Generic Call-to-Action to Customized Call-to-Action
• Disconnected from Sales to Connected with Sales/Partners/Services
• Offline to Online (blogs, wikis, reviews, etc.)

These are good points to keep in mind as we develop our own marketing plans. Its easy to stay true to the old way of doing things, especially since relationship marketing is a lot more work.  But, as professionals we must continually look for ways to take our game to the next level.  If we don't, our competitors will!

Great List of B2B Blogs

The "Good" -  keeping up-to-date with the latest thinking in B2B marketing

Thought I'd post a quick hit about this comprehensive list of B2B marketing blogs on Jon Miller's "Modern B2B Marketing" blog.  Covers nearly all B2B topics from high-level strategy down to fine-grained tactical advice. 

Top 10 B2B Lead Generation Marketing Mistakes

The “Bad” – being a lazy marketer who doesn't focus on the details of execution and doesn't regularly  test/tweak  to improve effectiveness and ROI.       

I just re-read this great report by MarketingSherpa and thought I’d share the list of “bad marketing” as a public service.  The full 10-page report is available for free (note the short reg form).  I've listed their ten mistakes below and added my commentary ...

1. Calling a monthly email newsletter a “nurturing program.” Leads are so valuable that you should score the newest/best ones and contact them personally versus just sending them a generic one-size-fits-all newsletter.
2. Phoning leads to qualify them … days later. Leads go cold so fast that you need to call them the same day, and even within an hour if possible which is when your product is on their mind. If your company has enough lead volume you’ll need to hire a dedicated phone rep but the ROI will be worth it.
3. Big booths at the big national shows. The bottom line is that the ROI is terrible. At my last company I tracked big show leads for years and can honestly say I never saw one of them convert into revenue. You are much better off sponsoring a dinner off-premises or conducting a regional series of breakfast briefings with key customers/prospects.
4. Using a free trial or free demo as your mainstay offer. You need to have other offers for people who are further up the funnel and not ready for a free trial. Though boring, I’ve found issue-focused whitepapers and guided presentations get great conversions.
5. We, us, our. If your collateral or web copy uses these words then you are talking too much about yourself and not enough about the customer. I’ve seen this when a marketer takes the easy way out and relies too heavily on the product manager for content.
6. Art-Director-Itis (stock photos, hard to read type). Rather than boring stock photos, why not use some decent pictures of your own lab, your own people and your own customers. Take some yourself for cheap or hire a pro, but either way your materials and your brand will be more authentic. And, there is no excuse for having small, unreadable fonts, but it happens all the time when agencies get caught up in trying to be stylish (e.g. I’ve seen lots of grey fonts lately). Don’t let them put form over function.
7. Not working referrals. Everyone is talking about word-of-mouth marketing these days but very few B2B companies are doing anything about it. Why not poll your user group for referrals? How about having customer service reps and CRMs ask for referrals if the situation is right?
8. Lack of investment in PR. Prospects trust trade journals and analysts way more than any ad or direct piece you can ever put out. Don’t spend too much time on press releases since they mean very little to customers. Instead focus on getting speaking slots at major shows, mentions in influential blogs, articles in trade pubs, product reviews in magazines and best of all mentions in analyst reports.
9. Blocking search engines from your best content. This is a no brainer.  You probably have tons of older whitepapers, technical docs and recorded webinars that are behind registration forms. Why? Take away the form and pump up your Google rankings. Moreover, isn’t it better to have satisfied prospects who got what they were looking for with minimal hassle? They just might become leads later!
10. Registration forms that appear daunting or too time-consuming. Do you really need all that info or can you get it later after you engage the prospect? Test a short form for 30 days and I’ll bet your abandon rate drops significantly. Wouldn’t you rather have more leads?

The 3-Legged Stool of Sales & Marketing Effectiveness

The "Bad" - developing and implementing marketing plans/programs with product-focused messaging and one-size-fits-all sales tools.

The American Marketing Association just launched a great new resource focused on driving higher sales and marketing effectiveness. The Marketing and Sales Alignment (MSA) Forum is divided into three practice areas: demand generation, sales effectiveness and customer messaging. I really like the AMA’s structure since it represents three-legged stool of great B2B execution.  I’ve seen too many excellent marketing strategies collapse due to failure to execute on one or more of these areas.

· Demand Generation – In my experience, this is a B2B marketer’s primary objective (driving revenue) and is also the primary concern from sales reps, who always want more leads and higher quality leads. Therefore, it is essential for marketers to partner with sales/sales operations to jointly create a lead management system. And critical to that system is Sales defining their EXACT criteria for targeting and their EXACT criteria for an A lead vs. a B lead vs. an inquiry.

· Customer Messaging – Foundational to all great marketing and sales programs is the right message.  I’ve seen too many marketers that develop inward-focused, product-centric messages that talk about how great they are, how well their stuff works, and why it’s better than the competition. Instead, they need to create messaging that shows the customer how they can help them accomplish a goal, solve a problem or meet a need.  Customer focused messaging is essential to power compelling Sales meetings/proposals and compelling demand generation campaigns.

· Sales Effectiveness – Hitting revenue goals requires that marketing properly equip the sales force to build customer solutions, communicate value, and clearly differentiate from the competition.  As described above, standard product brochures and presentations are a complete waste of time. Marketing has to develop tools that the sales force will actually want to use! For starters, marketing must develop a library of presentations that addresses each of the top pains customers have (i.e. helping them solve a problem). In conjunction, there should be a well-written business case for each pain, including a customizable section where the sales rep can leverage an interactive TCO / ROI calculator to model the customer’s unique situation. The icing on the cake is proof-proof-proof in the form of customer case studies and video testimonials.

These three areas might not be as sexy as branding, advertising or viral marketing, but they are where B2B marketers should spend the bulk of their time if they want to impact the top and bottom line.