The B2B Marketing Challenge

Following last month’s social media case studies with B2B and B2C strategies and some recent client interactions along the same theme, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this topic. What I’m about to say will resonate with some and aggravate others, but let me add this disclosure: I’m speaking the truth!

B2B marketing isn’t as “sexy” as B2C.

And there you have it. It often involves the cutting edge tactics with a little bit of fun thrown in (like these). But if you know me at all this will probably not be a surprise, I don’t really mind the B2B stuff. I think the added layer of challenges and parameters is “fun” and “sexy.” Sometimes this puts me in the position of having a tough conversation with a client about realigning their tactics to be friendlier with their business type (B2B or B2C). And sometimes that conversation is more like an argument, but it’s all in the name of getting the best results for the company’s bottom line. A lot of times, I fall back on research and analytics to help the company as they transition to where they need to be. When it comes to B2B marketing, one of the greatest tools to have is a content marketing strategy.

But what is CONTENT MARKETING, and how is it done? It isn’t as complicated as the moniker would allude, and companies that “get it” will be among the next wave of successful B2B organizations.

At the core of content marketing lies the concept of “thought leadership.” Basically, this is what companies do to look smart, create trust with prospects and clients and to become a resource for information. And, it all begins with creating quality, organic, strategic content.

Content might come in the form of white papers that would live on your company’s website, a blog that welcomes feedback from readers, a workshop or seminar series that offers helpful information, and the list could go on and on! What’s important is that this content be

• Planned – Identify topics and channels and timelines
• Directed at your audience – What do they want to hear? What are they looking for?
• Consistent – Keep the information coming!
• Distributed by technology that people are already using – Common social tools
• Promoted – No one will read your content if they don’t know it is there!

As a part of our DIG programming, our speakers in March addressed 13 steps to effective content marketing. Please check out their presentation to learn more about content marketing, and as always, let us know if you have feedback. We’re all ears…  I challenge you to do your own content marketing plan and then, measure your own results. What should you expect to see?

• Improved search rankings
• Other sites linked to your content (in-bound links improve SEO)
• Increased web traffic when users come to your site and use it as a resource

Social Marketing – Follow-Up Questions

This topic always leaves me marinating on a set of new ideas. Currently, I am reflecting on some of the questions asked by the participants in this month’s DIG session “Social Marketing: One Size Doesn’t Fit All.” So, here is a summary of my thoughts in the last few days and questions the audience raised.

Q: Should companies handle their social marketing internally or outsource the work?
A: I think the real answer to this question may lie somewhere in the middle. In the early social marketing days (think 2007), there wasn’t a choice. If a company really wanted to play on Facebook or Twitter, they did it themselves. Even agencies weren’t ready to make social their business, but the pendulum on this issue has swung in the other direction. Now, marketers have access to networks of social “experts,” tried-and-true best practices and their own bumps and bruises and can base recommendations to clients on real experience. This benefit of working with a social pro or agency may drive earlier results to client-users because strategies can be discussed up front. We don’t just have to be reactive anymore. Now, do I think that companies should only outsource their social marketing? Absolutely not. No one knows the tone, message and goals of a company better than an internal source, but finding a balance of internal and external collaboration seems to be the ticket in the environment right this minute.

Q: Is it possible that folks who “like” my businesses page are missing my posts due to the new News Feed filter settings in Facebook?
A: Unfortunately, yes, some of your Page followers may be missing your posts if they haven’t changed this default setting. According to Social Media Examiner, “Users now have more control over what appears in their news feed. They can filter their feed to show `Friends and pages you interact with most’ or `All of your friends and pages.’ The default setting is the former, and given that default settings usually go unchanged, brands may more frequently be filtered from news feeds when users don’t interact with their posts in their news feed when the user may actually still want to keep up with the brand’s news.” Read more.

It’s also good to remember that they can “hide” your posts from their News Feed at any time. This doesn’t remove them from “like” status though. Posts on your business’s page should have analytics next to them showing how impressions the post had, and those can give you an idea of how many of your followers are seeing your message. This is akin to the “unsubscribe” of email marketing. TIP: Keep your messages interesting and relevant, and make sure you’re not over-posting.

Also check out what Facebook has to say and check your settings: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=878.

Q: How do you segment a geographic niche using social marketing?
A: You can start with groups and events that are in a target geographic area. If one doesn’t exist, you can always create one. It’s a great low-pressure tactic to bring people together. For example, our fictitious company from this month’s presentation, Bark Bark Organic Dog Food, might create a website for people to find their local dog park. When dog owners show interest in a particular park, Bark Bark knows which stores to put their products in. In addition, they can
work with the store to send coupons to local dog owners.

Q: Is it better to have a large amount of irrelevant fans or a smaller group of more qualified people that may be leads?
A: When you check your monthly analytics, don’t focus on the percent of growth. Keep an eye on where the growth came from. Are they the consumers you wanted? It’s better to have a smaller group of committed followers of your brand. It’s the old quality vs. quantity adage. The same goes for who you follow.

Q: Are Facebook ads that can target your demographic a good tool and use of resources for B2B?
A: Facebook ads are best for B2C companies, unless you can target a trade group. See slide 10 for the best social media tools for B2B.

Q: How is social e-commerce changing how we purchase?
A: Good grief! I have no idea! Facebook credits (and similar) are allowing us to purchase products where we are versus having to go the extra step to shop on another site, or (gasp) even have to leave our homes to find what we need. I’m going to be looking at this more closely to study how consumers are reacting to the new shopping trend and what it means for B2C companies in particular.

Q: If you use Facebook Connect for visitors to your sites, are you able to capture their info for future marketing?
A: Great question. Facebook Connect allows you to use data while the visitor is logged into the site. For more info, review the Facebook privacy policy here http://www.facebook.com/terms.php.

Q: Now that Verizon has the iPhone, what will this do to the mobile market? And, will text marketing see another revival?
A: Still marinating on this one. If you have an opinion, or a resource for this information. Comment here!

Social Marketing – One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Using the Marketing Measuring Tape

Marketing Planning for 2011

Two DIGs, two days, two cities and many friendly faces – that pretty much sums up the last few days for me! As usual, it was a pleasure to dig in to a marketing topic with friends, but considering that this month was about marketing planning, I am particularly satisfied. As the “head brain in charge of marketing plans” at Werkshop, (I don’t plan to change my title, by the way), it is imperative that I not only stay current and follow marketing trends, but it is equally as important that I not lose sight of the basics of what we do. If you attended the DIG this week, you experienced a solid refresher course in marketing strategy 101. We discussed everything from the relevance of mission statements, knowing who your company really is (what are those core values again?), to goal setting.

The presentation from this week’s DIG can be found below.

What to take away from this week’s lesson?

1. Think about your marketing plan in a two parts: First, it is a repository of information from the history of your company and what you learned from those activities and secondly, it is a road map for what you want to accomplish in the next period of time.

2. Anchor your plan in “big ideas” – but not every tactic has to be a big idea.

3. Measure, measure, measure. If you can’t measure it, don’t put it in the plan.

4. Don’t plan alone. Form a committee who will hold you accountable and challenge your opinions.

5. Be consistent. If you start 2011 with a good plan, it will be simple to refresh in 2012, and beyond. Just get started.

Apps as a Marketing Tool

At Werkshop, we have been at this “DIG business” for a long time. For almost two years, we have been working to deliver interesting and informative marketing conversation in the form of the DIG events. We love doing it, and sessions like the one that we held today makes every second we spend building the educational arm of the agency – the Werkshop Institute -  worth it.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Marketing as a discipline has changed over the past eighteen months. We’ve moved from a static box of tools to an ever-evolving menu of marketing options. And now, as marketers, we have added smart phone “Apps” as a powerful and engaging option. Apps aren’t effective if they are used all on their own, but if incorporated into a well-planned marketing recipe – they can deliver a beautiful result.

In today’s session, we covered App basics, the App Economy and discussed how developers are making money. Knowing that there are more than 270,000 Apps in the AppStore proves the point that with a crowded market comes the need for marketing attention and a solid strategy behind their development. The concept that Apps can be used to market brands and products is widely accepted, but the concept that Apps must be marketed to be successfully received may not be occurring to developers and marketers alike. I hope today’s talk clarified both topics for the participants.

I want to thank today’s guest speaker, Brian Cauble of Appsolute Genius. His company is a great ally, and his knowledge makes us better!

In closing, I want to call attention to my thoughts about things to consider before creating an App for your company.

1.  Does developing and promoting an app help my company meet certain objectives?
2.  What business model is right for meeting our goals?
3.  What partnerships are possible that might make my app more appealing, or easier to market?
4.  What is my plan for marketing the app once it is built? (note: PR isn’t enough)
5.  How will I measure the app’s effectiveness and ROI?
6.  Is my app sustainable?
7.  How long do I have in the marketplace before a competitor surfaces?

View the presentation below.

Holly

Social Media: Risk or Reward?

This week’s DIG was a tiny step away from the traditionally “marketing” focused content that our monthly gatherings are known for. But the topic of how Social Media (Marketing) is affecting the employee/employer relationship was fascinating!! I’m not sure that as marketers we could have known that the creation of the marketing platforms and social networks that have been so fanatically adopted would have the dramatic affect that it IS having on the world (and specifically, the world of Human Resources).

The experts from the Nashville office of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart spoke to our group and shared a presentation full of anecdotes, laws, best practices and a heaping dose of a wake up call about the risks and reward of social marketing in the work place. The talk that Jennifer Rusie and Jonathan Harris delivered applied to all of us – those who hire, and those who are seeking to be hired.

My takeaway from the DIG? To be careful, and to document. While our agency has a sound social media policy for our staffers, we also have to manage social marketing for our clients. We need to encourage them to adopt simple, but structured policies to keep things on the up and up. The mere use of social networking in the workplace isn’t the primary issue, it is HOW it is being used, and what is being said that matters.

On hiring, I learned that if we choose (and it is a choice to consider seriously) to narrow candidates for an open position by looking at their online activity, that we need to proceed cautiously. It is perfectly legal to look at FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn or personal but public blogs, but as a prospective employer, we need to disclose that we are doing so. It’s fair, and it keeps the candidate from being able to say that they intended that information to be private – even though it may be publicly available.

Jenn and Jon’s presentation left me with some other things to consider as well – Do we need to consider a policy where managers are prohibited from “friending” their subordinates on FaceBook? How, and should we be monitoring text messages and tweets? Being a small shop, these actions are easier to manage because we can communicate directly with each employee about our expectations and rules of engaging in the social universe. It was also tremendously helpful to understand what larger employers, including our clients, may be faced with.

I know that the next time I am reading my FaceBook or Twitter feeds, I’ll think differently about what my own friends are posting – and how dancing the line between social and professional can be a risky balance.

View the presentation below.

Holly

An Ode to the Early Adopters of Social Marketing

I have a confession. I am not an “early adopter.” I said it out loud! I am NOT AN EARLY ADOPTER!!! I’m not sure WHAT to call myself, because professionally, I am a studier, predictor, strategy finder and lover of our early adopting friends. I know them, understand them and appreciate how they, as consumers of our client’s goods and services, keep us marketing types on our toes. They surprise us, and cause us to innovate. I “heart” them.

This group of trend setters has served as the engine behind the ever evolving discipline of social marketing. They have survived a million Google BETA tests and continue to be vocal when FaceBook screws up again. To them, I say, “Adopt on, my friends.” I’ll be watching, learning and once you have it all figure out, I’ll download the app.

For a more cerebral version of my “Ode to Social Marketing and the Early Adopters who we have to give thanks,” see the presentation below.

The Business of Sports

Yesterday’s DIG in Nashville was a special treat. My friend and client, Rob Bironas, was our special guest. Rob and I spent the 90 minutes talking about the business of football. We broke down the “org chart” of the NFL and even talked about how the athletes make money. Rob talked about the ins and outs of the “Franchise Tag” and about roster bonuses, but also about why he made the decision to handle his career with a plan in mind. Rob not only has a degree in Marketing from Auburn, but he understands that there is life after football. Check out his “Top 10 List” for insight into how he approaches his career and marketing his image.

March BG DIG: Marketing Planning 101

Oh, how I love to DIG in! Today’s content was about meat and potatoes. Obviously, not literally, about meat and potatoes, but when you live and breathe marketing planning for a living, teaching Marketing Planning 101 is my version of soul food. I shared the basic principles of marketing strategy and walked through the steps – one at a time. The group reviewed a sample marketing plan and chuckled together as they saw common pitfalls and road bumps and identified with them!

The takeaway? Marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. As a matter of fact, the simplest strategies can be the most effective. If you do your homework, and plan tactics that fit your brand, you’re on your way to meeting you goals, and a big sense of satisfaction.

While I’ve given this presentation a few times, it has been given a few updates and a face-lift. Look below to review. And, use it as a resource for your own planning, and of course, call on us if you need a hand.

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