Metrics are fast becoming the B2B marketers new best friend. As we begin to take on responsibility for more of the sale funnel and ultimately revenue generation, our reliance on metrics increases. We need to learn a new language – one based upon return on investment and productivity. With metrics we can show the value of marketing, effectively manage our marketing investments, and ensure we’re putting our budget dollars in the best places  to drive business.

Today, there are countless methods to measuring marketing. Unfortunately, not all metrics are created equal.  For example, if driving web traffic is one of your key goals, you may focus on low cost, high volume sources of traffic. However, the audience you’re drawing to your web site may not fit your target audience and do little to actually drive business.  So which metrics should you be tracking? And how do you leverage this data for the best insight?

Picking the right metrics matters. Here are twelve metrics that can help ensure you’re choosing the best marketing investments for your business:

Read More »

Tags: b2b marketing, Cisco, Cisco partner marketing, marketing measurement, marketing metrics, metrics

Earlier this week, we hosted the first session in our current Accelerate! Virtual Workshop Series on Marketing Planning for 2012. Todd Lebo, Sr. Director of Content and Jen Doyle, Sr. Research Manager from MECLABS shared key findings from their 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Guide including top lead gen tactics for 2011, how we can best utilize them to generate qualified leads in 2012 and how B2B marketers are allocating their budgets given new marketing trends.

According to the MarketingSherpa research, B2B marketing challenges such as producing high-quality leads, generating the required volume of leads, conveying value, creating PR buzz, and competing in a multi-channel lead generation , are on the rise.  Demonstrating marketing’s contribution to revenue is a key focus for marketers.  So what tactics can help us do this?

Interestingly, the MarketingSherpa research shows that website optimization, SEO and email are the top lead generation tactics for B2B marketers. (These were also the top tactics for 2010 and 2011). There are few surprises here if you consider these trends from a recent TechTarget Study:

• The Internet remains the primary destination and source for all research done by IT professionals.
• The Internet is the preferred method by which IT professionals expect marketers to communicate the value of their brand and capture IT prospects as leads.

Although our priority as B2B marketers is on lead generation, perhaps our greatest challenge is lead conversion. In our Accelerate! session, our experts outlined a four steps to conduct a lead generation analysis which will help ensure you are focused on the right tactics to generate leads and increase conversions.  View the session recording from the On Demand tab in the Virtual Velocity Auditorium – session title: Top Lead Gen Tactics of 2011 and How Best to Utilize Them in the New Year

We will continue our discussion on marketing planning with a second session on February 15^th. This session will focus on making your marketing plan a reality with four tactical steps you can use to drive online conversions.  Register for this session in the Virtual Velocity Auditorium

Tags: Accelerate, Accelerate! Virtual Workshop, b2b marketing, Cisco partner marketing, cisco partner marketing accelerate!, MarketingSherpa, MECLABS

Inspiration is a word we often see used in the media, news and corporate life.  If I remember my school Latin lessons correctly it literally means ‘breathing in’, that great sense of readiness we get when we take in a deep breath and pause, just for a second, before we apply ourselves with vigor and passion to some project or task. We can be inspired or inspire others and with our sponsorship of London 2012 I feel it and believe we are doing it to others.

In less than 200 days, the greatest show on earth comes to my country’s capital, London. It’s never happened before in my lifetime and in spite of longer life expectancies, it is probably never going to happen again. Which means not only do I want to savour every moment, share it with my family and friends but I also want to leave a permanent mark in terms of Cisco’s involvement. When the sound of the closing ceremony to the Paralympics is but a memory in the Olympic Park, I want Cisco’s investment in the Games to be inspiring future generations of athletes, students, entrepreneurs, business people and ordinary members of our community…both in the UK and the furthest reaches of our planet.

As a marketer, sponsoring a global event such as London 2012 is incredibly exciting and at the same time a major challenge. With so many other sponsors and the general media noise that builds up around the Games, how do you create a marketing strategy that has depth and stands out?

Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cisco London 2012, cisco London 2012 Olympics, Cisco partner marketing, L2012

Correctly conceived and creatively executed sponsorship is a powerful marketing tool.  Why else would the Fortune 500, along with millions of other businesses big and small, invest precious marketing dollars in the discipline?  As mentioned in my previous blog post, the first step in successful sponsorship is having clear objectives, whether those are aimed at brand building, commercial gain or stakeholder engagement.  Clearly articulated SMART objectives are a pre-requisite for achieving the second most important aspect of successful sponsorship – securing the right ‘rights’. Read More »

Tags: 2012 london olympics, Cisco London 2012, Cisco Olympics Sponsorship, Cisco partner marketing, Cisco_London_2012, event sponsorships, L2012, London 2012, London Olympics, Sponsorships

We’re all familiar with Google Search. Most of us use it every day to find information and data to help us with our jobs and make our daily easier or perhaps, just more entertaining. However, Google is not only a search engine. It also has a range of tools that provide marketers with social networking and content creation opportunities. Google Places is one of these lesser known tools, but used correctly, it can help your business get found on local search results on both Google Search and Google Maps. In fact, you’ve probably unknowingly used it yourself to find a local restaurant or handyman. So, what exactly us Google Places and why is it important?

Read More »

Tags: cisco partner marketing. b2b marketing, google places, online marketing, online optimization, search engine optimization

In the good old days last century, global sponsorship was the preserve of a select number of companies.  Only a handful of sponsorship properties could be considered to have global reach (The Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, Formula One Racing).  A similarly small number of brands were big enough to pay the premium for gaining mass market brand exposure at a fraction of the cost of a global advertising campaign.

But technology has changed all that.  Exponential growth in computing power, the internet and mobile has created a new environment.  Brands are now able to reach customers with individual conversations pretty much anywhere in the world.

So why is it that brands continue to invest sometimes seemingly ridiculous sums in sponsorship platforms?  The Rugby World Cup is currently enjoying the patronage of Mastercard, Heineken and DHL, amongst others, even though it is being hosted in a time zone that makes for late nights or early starts for the majority of rugby playing nations. 

Next summer sees the ultimate sponsorfest in London with the Olympic and Paralympic Games  coming to town.  The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) recently announced it had achieved revenues of over £700m ( that’s over 1 billion US Dollars) from its domestic sponsor programme. At a quoted £40-80 million for a Tier 1 sponsor, and something in the region of £15-25m for a Tier 2, which must then be at least doubled cover sponsorship activation, what is motivating brands to make these sorts of investments when more direct, cheaper conversations are possible?

The answer lies in objectives.  Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cisco_London_2012, Cisco_Olympics_Sponsorship, marketing, Olympic Games, Sponsorships

Last week, I attended  the MarketingSherpa B2B Summit in Boston. The line-up of speakers was fabulous including Jay Baer, Kristin Zhivago and numerous experts from MECLABS; all of them providing fascinating information on how to optimize the B2B lead generation funnel.  Here are a few things that resonated with me:

The biggest challenges for B2B marketers are 1) generating high-quality sales leads, 2) providing a sufficient volume of leads to sales, and 3) accommodating lengthening sales cycles. No real surprise there. I’m sure all of us experience these challenges.

What is surprising is that B2B marketers don’t appear to be adapting new marketing practices that can help to address these challenges. According to research from MarketingSherpa, 61% of marketers send all leads directly to sales but only 27% of these leads are actually qualified.  68% of marketers have not identified a sales funnel, 79% are not scoring their leads and 65% have no nurturing campaigns in place.  Clearly, there is an opportunity for us to address  the premature handoff of leads to sales,  identify and articulate a lead funnel  that we can support with marketing , and begin to develop lead scoring and nurturing processes. 

The value proposition is the essence of marketing.  Your value proposition should address two key questions: What does your company do? and Why should a buyer that meets your ideal customer profile buy from you and not one of your competitors?  It’s important to include at least one key differentiator in your value proposition that identifies what makes your solution or service unique and better than your competition.

Read More »

Tags: b2b_marketing, Cisco_Marketing, Cisco_partner_marketing, lead_generation, lead_nurturing, marketingsherpa_b2b_summit, marketing_automation

There was a period in our house when Roger Black could do no wrong.  The young, tall, handsome runner with the choirboy hairstyle from Portsmouth had won medals at both the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and in my wife and her friend’s eyes had an effect akin to that which Achilles must have had on all the Greek women while they waited to hear of his success at Troy. So it was with some curiosity that I met Roger for the first time in his capacity as one of our London 2012 Olympic Ambassadors. Would he still have the athlete’s demeanour, a taught spring ready to tear out of the starting blocks or pounce on an  unsuspecting Trojan? Would the choirboy hair deny his 45 years?

I joined the Cisco UK & Ireland team fairly late into our London 2012 journey in August 2011 following four years in Cisco’s Services business in California and Europe.  I had been lucky enough in my earlier career while working for a consumer brand to sponsor the British Bobsleigh team across a period of two winter Olympics, culminating in a medal at Nagano. I knew the excitement that comes from involvement in world-class sport and while I had not been involved in the early decisions around Cisco’s sponsorship, I was very much looking forward to being involved in probably the only Olympics and Paralympics that will take place during my lifetime in Britain.

For Cisco, London 2012 is all about leveraging network technology to create a better Britain, a brilliant future as we see it. London 2012 is the starting gun for us, not the finishing tape as so many other sponsors see it. The legacy is what it’s all about, not just 5 weeks of incredible sporting challenge. So when we look at our 2012 marketing strategy, we always keep the end goal in mind. It is a tall order; we want to focus on the future beyond 2012 and at the same time benefit from the excitement and opportunity before and during the Games.

So how have we approached our marketing strategy for London 2012?

Read More »

Tags: 2012_Olympics, Cisco_London_2012, Cisco_Marketing, Cisco_Olympics_Sponsorship, London_Olympics, Olympics_2012, Rachel_Morris, Roger_Black, Tim_Brabants

According to SiriusDecisions, 70% of the buying process is now completed before the prospect is ready to speak with a sales representative. This means that marketing is moving further into the buying process as the prospective buyer uses new – and decidedly online – sources of information instead of a relationship with a sales professional to guide their purchasing decisions.

As B2B marketers we know it’s important to leverage social media as part of our marketing efforts and most of us are. However, it’s more important to pay attention to how our target buyers’ online behavior is changing overtime. How do IT professionals leverage social networks? What sources of content influence their purchase decisions?  Do IT professionals have a preference for certain formats of content over others? 

Answers to these questions can be found in the 2011 Toolbox.com/PJA Social Media Index. Read More »

Tags: b2b marketing, Cisco, cisco channels, Cisco partner marketing, IT buyers, marketing, social media, social media marketing, social networks, technology buyers

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and this is very true of the Cisco NOW Van Program. Cisco has decided to discontinue the US NOW Van program as of July 29^th 2011 in accordance with Cisco business priorities for our next fiscal year.

Over the last 7 years, the Cisco NOW Van has crisscrossed North America, visiting every state in the United States and making the occasional foray into Canada. All in the name of wowing customers and prospects at Cisco and partner events with exceptional demonstrations of Cisco products. While we recognize the overwhelming support for the NOW Van from our partners, it’s time for the NOW Van to go the way of  music videos on MTV, the typewriter, and the ability for humans to write in cursive format.  

Not to worry though. The void created by the decommissioning of the NOW Van Program will be filled by new demonstration capabilities. We are currently exploring innovative techniques that will allow partners to showcase the latest Cisco products at non-Cisco locations throughout the country. In the interim, there are several options for both live and virtual demos available through Cisco and our Distribution Partners.  (Link requires CCO Login. You may want to log into Partner Marketing Central before clicking the link to ensure easy access)

Saying goodbye to the NOW Van is like saying goodbye to an old friend. But it is time… Adieu Now Van! The roads of North America just won’t be the same without you.

Tags: Cisco_NOW_Van, NOW_Van, partner_marketing

Guest Post by Mary Beth Reidy from The Conference Board

Developing a brand-based culture that spreads ownership and accountability for the brand beyond the executive team is the holy grail for most organizations.  The goal is to leverage talent, tools and social media to differentiate from competitors, increase employee engagement and customer satisfaction, and achieve measurable business results. 

We’re gearing up to hear such industry leaders as Starbucks, Cisco, JetBlue, UnitedHealth Group and many others discuss how they help their employees understand their role in upholding and delivering on the business strategy, brand promise and a great customer experience.  On June 16-17 in New York, The Conference Board Extending Your Brand to Employees Conference will explore best practices for eliciting employee behaviors that will strengthen your brand.  If you’d like to join us, just mention code “DC 1” and you’ll receive a $300 discount.  Details are here.

Here are a few nuggets from the 2009 Extending Your Brand to Employees Conference:

An employee value proposition (EVP) builds on a brand promise to define common values. An EVP ensures a consistent experience of the employment brand through recruitment, engagement, and retention activities. 

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As a technology marketer, do you ever wonder how (or if) the marketing collateral you work hard to create is used by IT buyers in their purchasing decisions? What influence does this material actually have?

According to a report by Eccolo Media (Eccolo Media 2010 B2B Technology Survey Report, www.eccollomedia.com), the quality, format, length and topic of marketing collateral substantially affects the purchase decision. The delivery channel through which assets are made available is also a factor.  

Here are four points that I thought particularly interesting from this report:

1)  A wide range of collateral types are used by decision-makers and influencers during a technology purchase, but not all are created equal in terms of influencing power.

Data sheets  were the most frequently utilized type of collateral by IT buyers (83%), followed closely by white papers (76%), case studies and success stories (67%), videos (59%), and podcasts (40%).

Interesting side  note – The use of video and podcasts/audio content continues to grow significantly with an increase of 8% for each of these vehicles over the prior year results.

What are the types of collateral that influence a purchasing decision the most? Read More »

Tags: b2b_marketing, content_marketing, IT_buyers, lead_generation, marketing_content

Customer and prospect data is the life’s blood of truly effective marketing.  As marketers we acknowledge this, but are we focused more on the size of our databases? Is size really what matters? Ok. It matters a little, but it may be that quality matters more. When your data is old, incomplete, inaccurate (aka dirty), marketing performance and ultimately sales suffer.  In fact, in a recent DemandGen Report, it’s not only sales and marketing that are impacted. Surveyed companies noted that Finance (30%) and customer relationships (54%) are also effected.

So how bad is our data? According to the DemandGen Report, more than 62% of companies rely on marketing data that is 20% to 40% incomplete or inaccurate. Almost 85% of the companies surveyed say they are operating CRM and sales databases that house between 10% and 40% bad records.

What is bad data, exactly? It can be as simple as an email address missing from a record that is otherwise current, duplicate records, incorrect contact information for a company that otherwise meets your ideal customer target… basically, it’s any data that impedes your ability to reach the contact from a marketing and sales perspective.

With 8 out of 10 companies that their lead generation efforts have been effected by bad data, what can you do to make sure that your company is not one of them?

Read More »

Tags: b2b_marketing, database_marketing, data_augmentation, data_hygiene, list_procurement, marketing_data

Ed Daly, Director Market Management and Pete Davis, Manager, Market Management, in our Cisco Services US Field Marketing Team recently encountered a marketing dilemma -- a dilemma I’m sure most marketers can relate to. Fresh from winning a couple of prestigious awards, Pete and Ed wanted to tell the world, but were told by PR that awards are something that are not exactly “press release worthy”.  As we all do, when we’ve experienced rejection, Ed and Pete did a bit of soul searching on the need for marketers to promote awards. The result is this tongue-in-cheek post. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Oh -- by-the-way, that’s Pete in the photo with the awards in question.

“We don’t do press releases for awards.”  “No one cares about awards except marketing people.”  “We don’t have enough budget.” Have you ever heard this from the PR team when you’ve won an industry award that you’re really proud of?  You want to shout from the nearest rooftop how cool it is, but you keep getting told no.  You’re not alone.  The Cisco Services marketing team won two IT Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) for the Accelerate services training and Smart Care partner enablement programs..

 The Smart Care program won the 2010 Gold Award for Marketing Excellence in the category of Developing and Launching New Offerings.  The Accelerate Services Training program won the 2010 Diamond Award for Marketing Excellence in the category of Enabling Sales. This is the first time that Cisco has scooped both a Diamond (first place) and Gold (second place) Award and only the second ever time that we have won a Diamond Award. 

 When we approached the PR team to publicize the win externally, we were given the standard answer, a double whammy in this instance “We don’t do press releases for awards, and no one but marketing cares about awards anyway”.  So we decided to do some soul searching to understand why we feel so compelled to boast about having won these awards…and why no one else seemed to get it.

 And here’s what we came up with.

Top 10 Reasons Why Marketing People Like to Promote Awards They Win:

10.  Standing in the middle of the office shouting “look at me, look at me” wasn’t going down very well.

9. You know, fake it till you make it.

8. Sales is where the rubber meets the road, but marketing is where the rubber meets the sky.

Read More »

Tags: awards, cisco_services, ITSMA, marketing, partner_marketing

Originally designed for tracking automotive parts for vehicle manufacturing, QR codes may very well be the next wave in B2B marketing. Funny how technology can sometimes transcend its original purpose…

Although, we, here in the US, may be a bit slower to adopt QR codes,than the rest of the world, it seems QR codes are poised to make it to the mainstream in the near future. Then, it’s only a matter a time before they become a staple in every B2B marketers arsenal.  Here’s a few points to back that up:

• According to the International Telecommunications Union, there are 2.5 times more mobile phone users than people connected to the Internet. 
• Smartphone manufacturers are pre-installing QR code readers on their phones. This already includes Android, Nokia and some Blackberry phones.
•  QR codes are already making creative appearances in music videos -- see Kylie Minogue’s “All the Lover’s” video, NHL marketing -- see the Detroit Red Wings’ interactive game program, and most notably the giant QR codes in Times Square earlier this year promoting Internet Week 2010.

So, how do we capture the power of the QR code for B2B? Here are a few thoughts on how QR codes can bridge the gap between your offline and online marketing: Read More »

Tags: b2b_marketing, Cisco_channels, Cisco_partner_marketing, marketing, mobile_marketing, QR_codes