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Does something smell? Marketing folks needs to clear the crap Play in full screen mode or else! Walk with me through my garden of marketing philosophy (ohh that might be manure you smell) and see examples of how to be successful by using that thing between your ears. No, you can't just take more fiber.

Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

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B2B tech marketers are in a rut. Caught between a lack of adventure and insecurity. Once marketing folks were the ones that took a chance and did great for their companies. Now, they just jump on the latest bandwagon and hope their best practices never die so they don't have to change. You have to stand up to stand out!

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Page 1: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Does something smell?Marketing folks needs to clear the crap

Play in full screen mode or else!

Walk with me through my garden of marketing philosophy (ohh that might be

manure you smell) and see examples of how to be successful by using that thing between your ears.

No, you can't just take more fiber.

Page 2: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Thought Leadership

Publishing

CollateralViral

PR/AR

Web Site

EPSPressure

Why so much marketing is low-ROI (crappy)Marketing Struggles to Make a Difference

• Budget pressures push to core functions

• Most core functions provide no differentiation (everyone does them)

• Impact Marketing is about innovating and streamlining core so effort can be spent outside

• Is lead generation done as a sales collaboration?

In this case, the bullseye is more like a bull's butt - just keeps you even with your biggest, strongest competitors and if only focused on, it results in crappy (smelly) marketing.

Lead Gen

Page 3: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Get Marketing and Sales Aligned!: The #1 synergy problem needs to be dealt with. General power struggles between sales and marketing cannot be accepted.

Two solid Wingman references are Top Gun – but Goose dies and that made Meg Ryan cry and makes me sad and the classic Coor's Light “Wingman” TV commercial.

Watch the original Coors commercial

SALES

New motto:Marketing is Sales Wingman!

• A wingman is a partner• Set sales up to look good

and manage loads• Always in communication• A common definition of a

“lead” and pass-over point• Building off each other• Personalities aside, these

two roles HAVE TO be on the same page

Page 4: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Apply Common Sense to Stand OutPR/Advertising/Lead Gen – take guts to be effective

Frequency/Expense

Stand Out

oohay

Macrohard

MBU

Moogle

You

Yes, this is a blatant ripoff of Gartner's Magic Quadrant, which is a blatant rip off of a simple 2x2.

IMPACT ZONES

More spend, no edge

Less

spe

nd, m

ore

edgeIf you don't

have the spend, you have to have/create stand out material to rise above the noise

Page 5: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing
Page 6: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

the “Box” the box is on fire… we don’t need no water.. Let the…Example: Greg the Architect “outside-the-box” viral campaign

The firm we used is based out of Kentucky – their name is “Big Fat Brain.” They went on to be featured in TIME magazine and produce the hugely successful “You Suck at Photoshop” series with millions of views. They got too expensive, so what did we do?

Click to watch the original videoClick to watch ROI of the Beholder

• 90k+ YouTube views on 1st video

• Winner of many marketing awards

• Hailed in Groundswell• Significant press: WSJ,

InformationWeek and even South China Morning Post

• I was invited to speak at YouTube's B2B event as an example of success (I waived my honorarium)

Page 7: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Greg strips when the budget is tightNo, he doesn't take his clothes off.

With “The Greg Strip” we were able to have timely and highly butt-kissing material. Turnaround in 2-3 days and can pitch to popular blogs like above example.

• Videos too expensive to continue

• Extended brand for <$100 per cartoon/strip

• Continued blog coverage of “The Greg Strip”

• Continued to be included in “the conversations” in our key areas

Page 8: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Sometimes out of the box is in the (mail)box!Direct Mail: Valentine's Day

Yes, it's ok to “Love your customer” but don't LOVE your customer!

Click to see Valentine direct mail piece

• Less snail mail to compete

• Valentines gets opened

• Humor strengthens interest

• Good will gift – blank card

• Sales so enamored they personally distributed thousands

• Easy to follow-up

Page 9: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Give your boring snoreware a pulseExample: Giving Content some Edge

Target buyers are people that care about TV shows like LOST, Battlestar Gallactica, American Idol, How I Met Your Mother (great show!) - B2B marketers need to think “edu-tainment” to break through noise.

• Vibrant, easily changeable Flash components

• Interactive and roll-based

• Catchy copy

Page 10: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Step over the edge to find it(sometimes)

A key Gartner analyst said “I've never worn vendor schwag, you send me a shirt with that on it, and I will wear it!” - So we did and it was the most popular shirt we ever made. It's also the campaign that resulted in the most love and hate at the same time, but plenty of attention.

• Not much to spend in comparison with big competitors

• BOLD and memorable

• Among the company's most recognized pieces

• Timed with early presidential election

• Appeared for 1-month in SFO, DFW, JFK, ATL

Page 11: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Spicing up a boring tech concept (SOA)SOA Banner Ad Campaign: Seriously Over Advertised

These had significantly higher click-thru rates than previous campaigns and better than the other advertisers (so the media companies told me). 25% of people that say statistics lie are really really 80% smarter than the other 75%. Trust me, I watch doctor shows (like House!)

• New agency selection

• Convey over-hype• Bold and hard

hitting• Be honest about

buyer environment

Page 12: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Turn workers into Killer TeamsIt's typically not the people, it's management LEADERSHIP

One unique practice I employed for Monday meetings was to have every team member come with a joke. This lightened up the meeting and also built stronger relationships with colleagues while bringing others out of their shells. My team routinely told me it made Mondays enjoyable and kicked off a productive workweek.

Great Productivity fromDiversity, Drive and Direction

• A happy team is a motivated team

• A leader is a prioritizer, an enabler, not a micromanager

• A leader not only gets in the trenches, they help dig them

• Embrace diverse teams – they bring strength

Page 13: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

It's not the size of your lead gen pipeline..

It's how you use it

Seminar and Webinar #’s also include Registrations.

Enix BPM email blast generated ~600 responses

Evaluation Software downloads have increased dramatically (1000+ downloads)

Google responses increased dramatically in May with new SEO management of program

Web/Online

Webinars TradeShows

LiveSeminar

Google OnlineDirectory

DirectEmail

MktgList

Tele-Mktg

Special Events

ExecEvents Total

FY2006-FQ2 4090 3705 1975 1647 1153 884 872 260 234 147 20 14987

Numbers are like letters, but they make sense when you do math stuff to them. Unless you are going algebra. Chucking out big “lead” numbers is just a game played to pacify and to show “marketing did work.” The key is how these numbers get nurtured and lovingly handed to sales to increase bottom line.

Page 14: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Who doesn't need a little love? Nurturing is about keeping contact, providing value when you can and knowing the pulse of the customer – are they ready to buy, hot?

Battle the Bloat to Close BusinessNeed to Nurture Raw Leads to manageable hand-off

High Volume of Raw Leads

Thrown to Sales

Leads Nurtured Based on

Business Rules

Characteristics1. No Single Sign On or Dynamic Webforms2. No Defined Business Rules3. No Lead Scoring 4. Manual Lead Upload

Results1. Better Visitor Experience, Identify Repeat Visitor2. Sales only receives Pre-Qualified leads (met Business Rules)3. On-Going, Auto De-duplication of Incoming Responses

BADGOOD

Page 15: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Find your influence to do make your stuff stand out!

Page 16: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Influencers, Influences and hopefully no influenza.

Christopher Locheed

Marketing chief at 3 public companies (Mercury, Scient, Vantive) and retired at age 38.

Proclaims “Save the World from Shitty Marketing!”

What he taught me:It's alright to say most marketing is “shitty” - I say “crappy” which gets through spam filters.

Convinced me that “committees” although safe are bad.

How I know him:I've never met him, just read about him when Bob Evans at InformationWeek told me about him.

For Christopher's birthday I made him a chocolate cake with “World's Best Marketer” on it, to match my own mug. He never ate any cake.

Some musings from his site:“Legendary marketing is about standing out, standing for something, and creating a brand that makes more people buy from you than anyone else...

Say something provocative, engaging, or controversial and people will talk about your brand. You may even set the agenda for your industry, drive a breakthrough in growth and kick your competition hard.”

Page 17: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Influencers, Influences and hopefully no influenza.

C.K. Prahalad

Father of 'Core Competence', 'White Space', 'Bottom of the Pyramid' and son Murali and daughter Deepa.Author of 'Competing for the Future', 'The Future of Competition', 'Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid' and 'The New Ago of Innovation'

What he taught me:The contrarian perspective is to be nurtured, explored and energized.

Listening is a remarkably important skill no matter who you are.

How I know him:He was the founder of a company I worked at. We became good friends and constant debaters

For CK's 60th birthday I got Peter Drucker (RIP) to sign and personalize a happy b-day message in his “60 Years of Essential Drucker” book.

Page 18: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Influencers, Influences and hopefully no influenza.

This slide wins the Simon Cowell (judge on American Idol) “Sheer Indulgence” award

Think outside the box and inside my sphereIf you know where the box is, you probably are still in itSafe marketing is rarely effective marketingMost best practices are dead practicesBlinders are for horsesMediocrity killed the catSay What you Mean, Do What you Say (The Fixx)Vacuums suckDon't get directions from Yogi Berra

My Top 9 Sayings

An eclectic collection of a few Things that I really like (in no particular order)

Alton Brown's Good Eats Snowboarding The Matrix Commodore64 My Wife Dogs Freakonomics SouthPark Golf Korean Food House High-fiber cereal Futurama TRON Ender's Game Jeopardy Green Day Crater Lake Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Depeche Mode LA Confidential Field of Dreams French Food/Italian Wine Fantasy Football Helping People Cutting Edge Science (wireless electricity, space exploration, stem cell research & more)

Page 19: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

Just like sales, marketing is all about making connections: Connecting the company's assets with the interests and opportunities that buyers, media, analysts and the market constantly presents.

It's communicating more effectively by putting the target in the middle and messaging outward, not the reverse like too many companies do. It's continual, bi-directional collaboration and it takes a whole lot of passion and heart (along with some great experience/experiments)!

If you read all of this, congratulations, my wife wouldn't even! Have a nice glass of wine or beer… Have them throw it on the Steve Jobs tab.

Page 20: Stop Crappy B2B Marketing

I rant because I care… one last thingAnd you thought I was done!

This is how most of us still get our change.

Why do they put the coins on the top?

It just makes you fumble longer.

The opportunities to innovate and improve are everywhere