Lead Generation from B2B Experts

Generating new business leads used to almost exclusively involve laborious and stressful cold calling, trying to convince a prospect to consider buying something they had no idea that they needed. Today, digital marketing technology has dramatically changed all of that. CRM systems and Web analytics serve up vital clues to what prospects might be interested in, making that initial and follow-up contact much easier and less stressful for all. Earlier this week B2B magazine hosted a unique online digital conference, packed with all kinds of useful info (and not a little pitching by the sponsor companies) for lead generation. Here's a summary and a little analysis/commentary, adapted from Marketo's viewpoint:
1) Website visitors need clear direction on what to do when they arrive on your website. When the campaign finally pays off and a prospect actually arrives on your landing page, is it crystal clear what they need to do? If they came looking for information, do they get a sales pitch right between the eyes? What's the authentic clear call to action?
2) You can do a lot even on a small budget. The key? (according to LinkedIn) Focus on specific targets, implement strategic programs to reach those targets, measure the results and refine the outreach to entice the prospects showing interest. Sounds easy and simplistic, but too few actually do it.
3) Social media is not going away and needs to be embraced by ALL marketers (emphasis the author's). The days of solely relying on Web design, content and SEO to drive prospects are gone. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (or future variations) are here to stay. They all have different audiences and focus, so don't apply the same strategy to each one. Not yet in social media? That means you're officially in catch-up status, so get busy. Consumers and stakeholders now have a digital voice, and they will exercise that voice whether you're participating or not.
4) Direct mail may not be dead. Email is king, but direct mail still works. In fact, receiving a thoughtful letter with accompanying relevant content may well make you stand out. But get the names and title right, please.
5) Offers need to be relevant AND appropriate for the prospect's place in the buying cycle. We often focus on developing great content, but don't pay enough attention to when that content is delivered. Remember, prospects need different types of information, depending on where they are in the sales cycle (E.g., don't "accidentally" re-send introductory information to a prospect who is firmly in your pipeline). Pay attention to your Web analytics - what pages are be viewed by your prospects? Match content to needs.
6) Testing can allow you to enter a new market with little risk. Intuition about markets is great, but committing budgets and resources to non-tested markets can be expensive.
7) Incentives can work really well. Some people really like incentives. Others don't. Take the time to differentiate among your existing prospects and format your pitch to match. That takes time, but what quality work doesn't?
8) It's okay if people who will never buy your product consume your content. Some people want your white papers, but they will never buy your product. That's okay. You can get some priceless word of mouth if they ship it around. Meanwhile, once you follow up and it's a dead end, delete the contact from your active prospects and don't waste any more time on them from a sales and pipeline perspective.
9) An event doesn't have to be on Twitter to be great. Tweets are great. Word of mouth is better.
10) Demand generation is just a piece of the entire Marketing puzzle. What's important? According to Cisco, you should analyze your database, create appropriate and targeted demand generation programs, pay attention to the full execution of those programs, do proper reporting, and test, test, test. The collective of data is important, but the targeted and valid analysis of that data is critical.

Lessons from the Brand Called Obama

Two years in the U.S. Senate and then a seemingly effortless vault into the position of the most powerful person in the world? If nothing else, President Barrack Obama and his team have clearly demonstrated the power of brand development and execution at numerous levels: personal and macro.
How does Obama do it? David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, outlined key steps at the recent Cannes Advertising festival (as reported by ADWEEK's Brian Morrissey). Here's a summary and a few analytical thoughts:
1) Small is the new big. As the McKinsey Quarterly recently pointed out, technology has given the little person a digital voice. Obama validated that voice and paid attention to it, which rewarded him both with 4 million new donors and grassroots support on a magnitude not seen for decades.
2) Word of mouth rules. Obama's campaign energized and used local volunteers to reach out to their communities instead of hired guns and telemarketers. The result? A perception of real authenticity. At a time when trust was crumbling in traditional institutions, neighbors and friends brought a real believability to the campaign at a critical level. How's that working for your company?
3) Conventional paths are dangerous. Obama eschewed the baby-kissing and did different things: acceptance speech in a sports stadium. Took down the issue of Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a high-profile speech (instead of deferring to aides to plant answers and undermine). Travelled abroad to sell top leaders on his leadership promises.
4) Integration and ubiquity. As they say, "coordinate, coordinate, coordinate." Obama's staff synchronized the heavy artillery to drop in firepower to deeply reinforce the message of the day. That meant coordination with volunteers as much as it did ad production and media buys.
5) Traditional Media is still king. With all of the buzz about Obama's social media savvy, traditional TV still played a huge role. With his lack of experience in the U.S. Senate, Obama needed the familiar media to position and introduce his ideas. The 90-minute infomercial two weeks before the election was a masterstroke.

Go Daddy pops up another brain dead ad

Nearly every time I hear of someone blasting the advertising industry for lowering the net IQ level of Americans, for some reason I think of the Go Daddy URL service. ADWEEK today agrees with that assessment, lampooning the current tasteless and moronic Go Daddy "Genie" ad. As ADWEEK columnist David Gianatasio opines, "They [Go Daddy] should've kept this one bottled up. And that lame joke is arguably more amusing than the commercial. I'd always hoped to see more mindless ads with hot babes. Well, this one proves you really should be careful what you wish for."
Whew. The unmitigated onslaught against intellectual American values sloshes forward.

Are blogs influential? Ask the New York Times

Writing in his blog "Buzz Machine" today, Jeff Jarvis responds to New York Times' harsh criticism of how major blogs appear to break unfinished stories and thus foster damaging rumors.
Dubbing current newspaper practices "Product vs. Process" journalism, Jarvis squarely confronts an issue about blogs reporting news that is in transition -- or as they used to say in J-school, "developing." His new process matrix of how news is currently reported appears above.
Here's his take: "The problem: journalism’s myth of perfection. And it’s not just journalism that holds this myth. It is the byproduct of the means and requirements of mass production: If you have just one chance to put out a product and it has to serve everyone the same, you come to believe it’s perfect because it has to be, whether that product is a car (we are the experts, we took six years to tool up, it damned well better be perfect) or government (where, I’m learning, employees have a phobic fear of mistakes - because citizens and journalists will jump on them) or newspapers (we package the world each day in a box with a bow on it - you’re welcome).
"The posse of pros who jumped on me in Twitter this morning will say that they do make mistakes and corrections but first they always try to get it right - perfect - while bloggers instead spread rumors. But that’s where the fundamental misunderstanding comes. It’s a matter of timing, of the order of things, of the process of journalism. Newspaper people see their articles as finished products of their work. Bloggers see their posts as part of the process of learning."
This issue won't go away, especially as newspapers migrate more and more toward online reporting.
One commenter to Jarvis's blog summed it up:
"An excellent hit back to the old-school heavies who think that blogging is destroying journalism, when it’s actually reinventing the way we get our news.
"Sure, stories might come out a bit half baked, but in the end, we will have more truth, more perspective and a greater-encompassing version of the facts.
"For years, we never questioned what papers wrote. Their word was taken at gospel. Even when errors were made, it never mattered, as the retraction was never as prominent as the original story.
"Now we get to question the writer, the sources and the facts. That’s a good thing."

Tapping Influence: PR powers dynamic brands

"Winning companies are increasingly eschewing advertising and instead deploying social and conventional media in ways designed to enhance the perceived value they deliver to customers."
So reads the new white paper on brand building from the Council of PR Firms.
Self-serving tripe?
Hardly.
The Council of PR Firms is by no means alone among industry experts who recognize how truely PR works as the powerhouse brand builder. Consider this example: As he did with a ground-breaking work on the crucial power of positioning a while back, advertising legend Al Ries broke ranks with the advertising elite when he penned The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR a few years ago. Ironically, Ries published this latter work prior to the dramatic onslaught of social media, where consumers now possess a near-equal voice with the so-called experts.
Public relations as a profession has long been about extending an "invitation" to consider a point of view or sample an attribute. PR focuses on authenticity and credibility, which in the past has often been the function of media relations, where a PR professional must first convince a reporter of the truth and relevance of a client's position. In theory, the reporter would then reward the client or company by writing or airing a story that independently verified the claims first initiated by the PR professional.
Today, with the explosion of tweets, blogs and e-mail, that has largely changed. A credible voice can instantly appear and influence millions on Youtube, a market-changing message can appear in a matter of minutes on an unstoppable viral platform and be passed first by hundreds, then by thousands, then by millions.
All of that is nowhere as important as its influence on brand execution and sustainment, as a brand in its most powerful form represents a believable "promise." If that "promise" holds true, then today's consumer (whether of ideas, products or information) will not only reward the originating company by buying its product (or more importantly - buying into the idea behind the brand), that same consumer can cast a highly influential vote of sorts in the digital Word of Mouth marketplace. Want more? Go here.