Sales enablement bridges the ‘Last Mile’ of communications strategy

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Marketers love branding, awareness, and lead generation programs.  They develop compelling value propositions—encapsulating the benefits of a product or service for a targeted group of customers.  The multi-channel marketing strategy is put in place and aligned with corporate objectives. Marketing is ready to go-to-market.  What can possibly go wrong?

For one, there is a potential gap between marketing objectives and field execution, where customer-facing sales people engage with buyer organizations.  I liken it to the “last mile” metaphor because this is the vital final link of the communications strategy trail for a targeted audience.

Marketers must be ready to bridge any potential gaps in strategy execution. This is where sales enablement comes into play by helping the sales force sell more effectively. Continue reading →

34 Minutes of Darkness: Entergy New Orleans Scores Big in Social Media Crises Management

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img-Despite-partial-blackout-Super-Bowl-a-success-for-New-OrleansIt was just a month ago, almost to the day, when the Twitterverse exploded with news that the lights went out during the Super Bowl game.  231,500 Tweets per Minute (TPM) to be exact.  Okay, I admit the Beyoncé half-time show generated over 5 million Tweets, but Super Bowl XLVII will be remembered for its period of darkness, perhaps more so than the game itself.

Entergy New Orleans, the utility company powering the Superdome, quickly went into crises management mode. After all, they’ve had lots of communications experience powering the storm laden Gulf coast and southern states, and most notably having dealt with Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans back in August, 2005.

Social media has changed crises communications forever.  The old way of assembling the crises team and calling in the PR firm to craft a corporate statement for a newswire service is so yesterday. You need to act swiftly, recognizing the hyper velocity and amplification of social networks!

Let’s look at the Entergy response to the crises which exhibits five key principles in crises management that are applicable to all companies:

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How to Integrate Social Media into B2B Marketing

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. SantiMB . / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

I came across some interesting peer research on recommended best practices in social media  integration for B2B marketers. The  study was conducted by the ITSMA (Information Technology Services Marketing Association) in 2011 but is still relevant today.

The research found B2B marketing campaigns are most successful when social media is integrated into the overall marketing strategy; emphasis is placed on customer relationships; and when social media is used to drive traffic to traditional marketing channels such as websites and events.

Read the excellent study findings and suggestions on how marketers can transform B2B marketing and social media within a larger, integrated marketing strategy  focused on customer relationships: Continue reading →

5 Steps for Building a Content Marketing Strategy

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According to a 2011 study by the Content Marketing Institute, 90% of B2B marketers are participating in content marketing and plan to allocate 26% of their total 2012 marketing budgets on this practice.

One of the best ways to build a brand and deepen customer relationships is via content marketing.  It’s fundamentally the creation, publication, and distribution of relevant, high-value content, tailored to the needs of targeted groups.  The Content Marketing Institute’s definition also includes the desire by vendors to attract, acquire, and engage with audiences.

Marketers are communicators of value and have been transformed into educators. Buyers are seeking information from vendors on how to solve business issues. Companies that embrace good content marketing practices are destined for more leads, conversions, and sales.

With the explosion of easy online sharing and distribution of information, marketers now have a way to scale and reach many more people.  Good content is an integral part of search and social media networking, and can take many forms, including articles, case studies, blogs, whitepapers, and videos.  Many people are responding well to visual content over plain text.  It won’t be long before we see more of the social network Pinterest in the B2B marketing world.

Let’s look at 5 content marketing strategy steps aligned with a buyer’s journey:

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Close Deals Faster with Marketing and Sales Alignment

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Learn how process automation and other techniques address the popular analogy: “Marketing is from Venus, and Sales is from Mars”

One of the most pressing issues for marketing and sales executives is how to align their Marketing and Sales departments.  Winning companies are experiencing top line revenue growth and faster sales velocity within their pipelines – deals are closing faster. According to a 2011 research study by the Aberdeen Group, “best-in-class” companies exhibiting Marketing and Sales alignment showed an astounding  31.6% average year-over-year annual revenue growth versus a 6.7% average decrease in revenues for “laggard” organizations.  Top companies display a number of key attributes: process and message alignment, common lead definitions, marketing-to-sales cycle unity, and shared Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

For the vast majority of companies there is a long-standing departmental disconnect commonly described as: “Marketing is from Venus, and Sales is from Mars.” What are the reasons for this? For one, Marketing sees the world with broader brush strokes, generally at the market segment level. Sales want to focus on the individual customer value proposition.  Branding and awareness building campaigns are customary functions for Marketers and have longer time horizons, compared to the short-term quarterly quotas of Sales. Continue reading →

Tapping into the Groundswell

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Social media is turning the world of marketing upside down.  Companies can no longer simply “shout out” and have one-way conversations with their customers.  Today, dialogues are not only two-way, but also customers are reaching out to colleagues and trusted advisers on social networks for brand information.

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff in their bestseller book Groundswell, describe this new shift in the relationship between customers and companies as:

“A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”

In fact, most B2B buyers prefer to conduct their own research first to learn about a company`s product or service offerings than rely on a customer representative.  The vast amounts of content available online, along with ubiquitous Internet access and high bandwidth make information gathering and sharing standard practice today.  Buyers are simply more social. Continue reading →

Optimize Sales with Marketing Automation

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According to Forrester Research, one in five B2B organizations are planning to implement marketing automation in 2012, and a similar number are expanding their usage.

Many marketers are facing increasing pressure by senior management to demonstrate marketing’s contribution to the sales pipeline and are turning to more comprehensive marketing automation solutions.

Forrester Research also reports that some companies believe their sales force automation (CRM) initiatives have maxed out and are seeking additional value by integrating them with marketing automation. Marketers can achieve better lead management and nurturing capabilities, along with improvements in the marketing-to-sales funnel process.

Some additional benefits of marketing automation include:

  • More qualified sales-ready leads
  • Faster sales velocity (close deals faster)
  • Better marketing and sales alignment
  • Maximizing Marketing ROI
  • A metrics oriented culture
  • Better insight into campaigns and budgets
  • Flexibility to adjust marketing plans as needed

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Content Marketing is a Top Piority for B2B Marketers

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I’ve spent the last few months talking with many B2B marketers and the number one priority I hear is content marketing.  Marketers want to use content to educate and better engage with prospective customers.

The Content Marketing Institute offers an excellent definition:

“Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Through engaging content, B2B marketers have better brand control and can more fully express their key messaging.  Interestingly, the marketing role has evolved into content publishing—online and print publishers no longer have exclusivity.  This is the appeal of what is termed “owned media” (besides content, owned media includes websites, newsletters, and whitepapers) which is the new mantra for B2B marketers.

Good content marketing techniques address a customer’s business and operational issues, as well as align with the entire buyer journey. Brand advocates are created who can increase audience reach dramatically via their social channels.  It’s a wonderful amplification of a brand’s story touching many additional potential customers—the end result includes more conversions, leads, and sales.

 

May I Have your Permission

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After my last post on email marketing, I thought it would be fitting to write about one of the most important words in marketing called “permission.” Marketers who conform to permission marketing stay focused on the customer and relationship building—the yellow brick road for generating customers for life.

The production of high value content is key and goes hand in hand with  respect for a customer’s time. There has to be a good reason for someone agreeing to receive a vendor’s communications on an ongoing basis.

Savvy marketers always seek permission.  Customers who grant permission are more likely to be an appropriate target for tailored offers and messaging; often sent via email and in the form of an e-newsletter.

There are many reasons to embrace email marketing—it’s cost effective, measurable, and provides a great return on investment. According to email marketing software firm Exact Target, 42% of subscribers are more likely to buy from a company after subscribing to their emails.

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10 Reasons Why Email Marketing Still Delivers

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I’m a social media enthusiast, yet recognize, the number one communications tool today is email.  The Pew Research Center says that 9 out of 10 Internet users send or read email every day.  A number of sources report that social media usage ranks fairly well in the 60% range for the general online adult population, and even higher (of course) in the under 40 demographic. Only search, according to Pew Research, has around the same adoption rate as email in the 90% range. We love to “Google” don’t we?

Business marketers are also embracing email—from newsletters and  transactional emails to direct emails and sponsorship emails. In fact, the CMO Council recently reported that a majority of marketers worldwide (67%) rated email as the most successful digital marketing tactic.

Email is indeed one of the most important tools in the marketer’s toolkit, but it still needs to be complemented with search, social media, and content marketing.  An integrated multichannel campaign generates superior results and is a foundation for creating thought leadership status—essential for building brand and differentiation.

What are email marketers focused on this year?  According to a survey by services provider StrongMail, the top marketing initiative is subscriber engagement at 48% followed by improving segmentation and targeting (44%) and growing opt-in email lists (32%).

Read my list of 10 reasons why email marketing still delivers: Continue reading →