I haven't been up for air in weeks. Somehow, despite the economic downturn, SocialRep is humming. I've been awash in social media tracking scans for customers and prospects, and new inquiries are coming in daily.
So how can I account for the uptick in energy despite the gloomy market? I'm starting to see my theory about natural selection play out.
Over the past couple of months, SocialRep has been tracking a massive swath of online dialog about marketing. Not surprisingly, the trends in dialog are overwhelmingly focused on the impact of the economic downturn, with various flavors of speculation, panic and punditry. Some examples:
- A few weeks ago, various reports on budget planning for 2009 highlighted a marked migration in marketing spend from traditional to digital media. The nearly universal read on this move is that online marketing is more measureable than offline, but there was surprisingly little citical analysis of the challenges with online metrics, and how those challenges are being addressed.
- As the economic crisis deepened, the panic did too. Sequoia Capital stoked the flames with a presentation they posted online telling their entrepreneurs to "get real or go home". The presentation went massively viral, spreading the talking points for belt tightening and death pool speculation for various startup sectors, but few specifics on the tactics companies should pursue to refine their market approach.
- As if in response to the panic--and mindful of the bloodbath marketing usually suffers in a downturn--marketing pundits took up the mantra that, whatever you do, DON'T STOP SPENDING. Some (myself included) cited the anecdotes that companies like P&G, Kellogg and Chevy increased ad spending during the Great Depression and pulled ahead of competitors. But most simply pronounced the incantation forcefully, that smart companies don't cut marketing, but didn't offer specifics on how companies should adjust their programs. Jonathan Baskin called this trend perfectly.
Notice a pattern here? Lots of punditry and trend analysis, but very few specific recommendations for how companies should adjust their marketing programs to deal with the economic crisis. There were a couple of exceptions, most notably a lot of dialog about the dangers of discounting and how price cuts undermine brand equity. But in terms of substantive recommendations for adjusting marketing strategy and operations, not so much. So I was interested to see a tangible sign of how some companies are adjusting based on the sudden increase of inquiries at SocialRep.
We're still in the early stages at SocialRep. After beating the streets for Series A funding over the summer, we read the tea leaves and readjusted to focus our energy on customers and product. In this market, we're going to live or die by our success in serving customers, not VCs. But bootstrapping a technology company can be tenuous. You need customers, but if you're too opportunistic and grab at anything you can drag over the doorstep, you'll quickly fragment your product and team by trying to be all things to all prospects. So you have to be deliberate in choosing customers, which means being a little more slow and quiet than would otherwise seem prudent. When you find a good market vein, you mine it, and pay close attention to the way your prospects frame the problem they want you to solve.
What surprised me was the sudden influx over the past few weeks in the number of companies that found us, and how they framed their interest in our social media offering. The common refrain was that, in the face of an emerging recession, these companies were aggressively reviewing every dollar of their marketing spend. One area in particular was not standing up to scrutiny: Public Relations. These companies complained about spending 5-figure monthly PR budgets on activities that produced activity without results. The mandate these companies had been given was to take the PR budget that was not performing and invest it in something innovative, like social media marketing.
Now I know this will provoke some howls, so let me make a preemptive disclaimer. I believe in PR. Or, I should say, I believe in good PR. And having spent 15 years on every side of PR, I can define the difference between good and bad PR. Years ago, when I was the editor of a magazine, my inbox overflowed every day with pitches and press releases that had absolutely no relation to what my magazine covered. Today as a blogger, I still get totally irrelevant PR-spam, more artfully framed as "blogger relations". This is the lazily "scientific" ethic of bad PR: blast a fire hose of pitches and press releases at everyone that looks like they might be a journalist or blogger, and hope someone picks up your story. In the place of actual stories that influence the market, this approach produces monthly "activity reports" and media mentions in off-the-beaten-path blogs or news feeds.
Good PR is different. It's about relationships and market expertise. PR companies in this category take the time to hire and train smart people who get to know a market, the competitive landscape, the products, and of course, the analysts, reporters and bloggers. They don't spam their contacts with press releases; they build relationships based on sharing knowledge and insight. Reporters and bloggers answer their calls because they know their time won't be wasted, and they may get an important tip. This kind of PR produces relevant stories that influence markets.
The problem is, the ratio of good to bad PR is not good. And even among the better PR companies, an understanding of how to manage the dramatic shift from traditional to social media is still largely predicated on the notion of cultivating asymmetrical influence more than reciprocal dialog. Moreover, few traditional PR companies have the culture to passionately embrace the tech-driven social media paradigm. So in the face of a market downturn, when belts are tightening, we're seeing companies looking at the money poured into PR, and deciding that now is the time to try something new.
What does "something new" look like? That's the topic of my next post. In the meantime, here's a hint: social media marketing is just like PR, in the sense that there's "good" and "bad" SMM. And the distinction is based largely on the same dynamic--activity vs. results, influence vs. engagement.
November 17, 2008
5 Time Factors to Fine Tune Your Lead Nurturing Messages
The lack of a strong lead nurturing discipline can cost your organization substantial unrealized revenue. Without lead nurturing in place to capture and cultivate early-stage leads, your marketing funnel misses out on valuable opportunities.
The true value of lead nurturing comes from the technique of staying in touch with prospects while providing them with the relevant information as they move through their buying process.
But, how do you get that delicate balance just right?
I’ve gotten the okay to highlight 5 Nurture Campaign Time Factors from MarketingSherpa’s new B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook that will help you to fine tune the nurturing timing. MarketingSherpa uses real-life examples and charts to hit home these five factors, but here’s a quick look at them:
1. Immediate welcomes
As soon as you receive a response to a lead generation campaign, you should rush out a welcome message in reply. It’s just good manners to acknowledge someone’s interest in your brand promptly.
2. Lead Qualification Telemarketing
The velocity of follow-up matters. As soon as possible use telemarketing (aka teleprospecting) to qualify each lead.
3. Interest-level Timing
Most prospects go through a variety of interest levels in your brand. Without being annoying, you need to stay in their radar until they decide to make that buying decision. Identify where they are in the buying process so you can share relevant information at the right time (i.e. should you share a case study vs. white paper? etc).
4. Industry Timing
It’s a given that you may need to adjust your campaign timing to reflect your industry’s annual rhythms.
5. Job Function Timing
Data shows that a decision maker is heavily involved at the very start and the very end of the process, but leaves the middle of the process up to the influencers. For your niche, you’ll need to investigate who gets involved at which point in the process so that you can segment your messaging.
I encourage you to check out MarketingSherpa’s B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook. It is a monster of a book, but I assure you it’s jam packed with practical, hands-on advice for B-to-B marketers.
November 13, 2008
10 Reasons to Write Your Business Book Now
Are you thinking of authoring a business book to help improve the sales of your business?
What follows is an extensive list of advantages to writing a business book; directly from the mouths of successful book authors.
1. Executives are “pre-sold” after reading the book: After people read your book, they will be aligned with the book’s point of view and have “drank the punch.” “Many of our sales ready leads are people who read our book,” said Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. “The books differentiate us from our competition and help us get big name client work. When somebody calls you and says, ‘I’ve read your book and would like to hire you,’ you know it was worth everything,” said Ford Harding, author of Rain Making.
2. Company and authors are automatically positioned as “thought leaders”: “The entire company benefits from the book,” said Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies. Authors are credited as “the” industry experts. Behind every guru is a book. “Suddenly they see me in a while different light,” said Peter Bowerman, author of the Well-Fed Self Publisher.
3. Incredible proof source: It demonstrates the expertise of your company and provides extensive evidence. The result: immediate credentials. “Suddenly you have a credential and most people are more included to do business with you,” said Bob Bly, author of Business-to-Business Direct Marketing and 70 other books. “The credibility from the book has been its major benefit in landing clients… after all, ‘I wrote the book,’” said Douglas Hicks, author of Activity-Based Costing.
4. Unsolicited business opportunity: Business leaders will approach the authors/company when looking for help. “People will call and say they’ve read your book and ask how much you charge,” said Bob Bly, author of Business-to-Business Direct Marketing.
5. Door opener: “If I’m interested in talking to someone and I send them my book, chances of me getting to meet with them are much greater,” said Ford Hardling, author of Rain Making. “Books have helped me open up more doors than you can imagine,” Bob Urichuck, author of Online For Life.
6. Good closer: When asking, ‘why should we hire you,’ you can say, ‘because we wrote the book’ on the topic. It becomes a powerful credibility tool. “A book is a great sales closer; people will want to hire the person who wrote the book,” said Bob Bly, author of Business-to-Business Direct Marketing.
7. Key tool in account entry toolkit: The entire sales force can use the book. “I’d mail it to every executive I could,” said Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies. Sales executives will be seen as problem solvers rather than money takers.
8. Generate more desirable client base: High profile, large businesses are more likely to work with the industry leaders. The book will help position you as the leader.
9. Charge higher fees: Businesses will be willing to pay more to achieve the types of results outlined the book.
10. Improve business with existing clients: Book can give sales a reason to cross-sell to existing clients.
The above quotes were sourced from personal one-on-one interviews and from the Rain Today report The Business Impact of Writing a Book.
Having authored my own book, I can say I agree with all of these points.
What say you? Do you have anything you would add?