The Truth About Marketing Insights on Marketing Concepts and Trends to Power our Partners' Cisco Marketing Efforts

7 Easy Ways to Integrate Twitter into Your Marketing

 Lately I’ve been spending some time talking to partners and my Cisco Channel Marketing counterparts about how and where we can integrate social media into our overall marketing efforts.  Frankly, I am a huge proponent of starting with objectives and strategy versus tactics – see my earlier blogs posts that touch on this subject relative to social media - Internet Marketing, Social Media, eMarketing… It’s Still Marketing and Social Media ROI: What Do You Measure?

However, I recognize that there are situations where you just need to try some things and see where they can take you. As most of you know Cisco has a fairly large presence on Twitter with Twitter feeds for marketing, product launches, Cisco executives etc. We frequently encourage both our partners and customers to follow us. With this in mind, I thought I would share some easy ways that you can integrate your Twitter presence into your overall marketing efforts. So, if you find yourself in a situation where the proverbial train is leaving the station with social media, this may give you some immediate things you can do to unify your marketing efforts.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 04:09PM PST

How Social Media is Like Blue Man Group

On a recent trip to Las Vegas - my first ever non-work related trip to Vegas - I was able to catch a few shows – Yes, the first shows I’ve ever seen in Vegas. One of those shows was Blue Man Group . It was fantastic!

In case you’re not familiar with Blue Man Group, they are a performance art troupe and marketing machine. Their shows combine vaudeville-style physical comedy with art, social commentary, and lots of odd and entertaining audience participation moments, all without the Blue Men actually speaking a single word.

Something struck me about the Blue Man Group show and got me thinking about how some of the characteristics of social media are evident in how the Blue Man Group show is structured. (OK… I know… You can take the girl out of the work environment, but you just can’t take the work out of the girl).

So here’s my take on how social media is like Blue Man Group:

Participation & Interactivity – Social media tools inherently encourage participation and feedback from anyone who is interested, effectively blurring the lines between media and audience.

Audience participation is required to make the Blue Man Group show successful. Right from the start, the audience is part of the show, from reading “Happy Birthday” out loud as a group (you had to be there), to individual and group participation in specific skits, the show would not be as effective without audience input.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 05:25PM PST

Social Media & Small Business – Power to the SMB

According to the US Department of Labor, there are more than 1 million new businesses each year. Small businesses constitute more than 99% of all employers, employ more than 50% of the private workforce and account for 51% of the nation’s sales.

The SMB is important. Your business may be one. You may market and sell to SMBs. Or perhaps, it’s both. 

Regardless, there are some interesting statistics on the usefulness of social media for SMBs.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 02:27PM PST

Social Media Reality Check

I am frequently asked by Cisco partners about the value of social media, how they should get started, what other partners are doing, if those efforts have been successful, and many other questions too numerous to list here. Many of these questions have been the inspiration for previous posts on this blog. 

Because I know you, Cisco partners, have a strong interest in social media as part of your marketing efforts, I am always on the look out for relevant information that I can share with you. Imagine my elation when I received the July issue of CRN and found an article entitled “Are You A Social Climber?” by Brian Kraemer.  The subtitle is the clincher – “Vendors, VARs find engaging with customers via today’s social networks is paying dividends in ways they never expected”.

And yes… I’m so happy to see an article about social media in a solution provider focused publication that I’ve been carrying this issue of CRN around with me ever since.

Here are the points that I think are most salient and interesting. If you have time you may want to read the entire article.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 01:42PM PST

Email Marketing: Why is Content Important?

Email… as marketers we love it. It’s inexpensive, trackable and provides a decent return on investment. In fact, according to the Direct Marketing Association, every dollar spent on email marketing in 2008 generated $45.06. This is slightly down from previous years, but the ROI on email will continue to outpace that of other marketing vehicles for the foreseeable future.

MarketingSherpa has been studying email trends for a long time focusing on the relationship between email practices and success. They recently posted this chart highlighting email trends from 2001 through the present.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 02:56PM PST

The Correlation Between Social Media & Revenue

As marketers, driving revenue is our ultimate goal and being able to track marketing efforts to actual sales is nirvana. Money talks, after all. But what about social media? In the past, debates have raged about the value of putting resources, time and effort into social media, when its impact was unclear. Even today, when most companies acknowledge that social media should be part of their marketing strategy, there is still the question about the value. What impact can social media have on your business? Does it help to drive revenue? Is the investment worth it?

According to new research from Wetpaint, a social media platform, and Altimeter Group, a digital strategies consulting group, there is significant correlation between a company’s social media engagement and their revenue and profit.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 02:25PM PST

Patience is a Virtue When It Comes to Telemarketing

Telemarketing is one of those “old school” marketing techniques. Worse, it’s probably one of the poster children for interruption marketing. No one is overly excited to get a call from a telemarketer.

But, it is also an essential part of any integrated campaign focused on demand generation. It is especially important as a component in lead nurturing. More information on this can be found on Brian Carroll’s B2B Lead Generation Blog

If you’re a Cisco partner, you know that Cisco offers many marketing programs that are telemarketing based or have a telemarketing component. If you’re not utilizing these programs, you are likely doing some form of telemarketing whether it is a custom program you have set up with a vendor or with in-house resources, if you’re lucky enough to have people on staff. Regardless, of how you are doing telemarketing, it may be time to re-evaluate.
The standard rule with telemarketing has been that three attempts to contact a prospect was sufficient. Any more than three times was thought to result in diminishing returns. Times change.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 04:47PM PST

Changing Information Sources for Buyers of Complex Solutions

Being aware of changing buyer behaviors is critical to marketers. This knowledge allows better alignment between the selling process and the target customer’s buying process; improving marketing effectiveness.

A recent MarketingSherpa survey found that the sources of information relied upon for making large and complex purchases are changing rapidly.

Key findings include:

• Virtual Events Are In: Many buyers shifted from face-to-face events and tradeshows to virtual formats for product, service and vendor information primarily due to cutbacks in travel budgets.

• Social Media is Emerging as a Key Resource: Blogs and social networks are emerging as important resources due in large part to the objectivity of their content. Third-party social sites are favored for their impartiality. Vendor branded blogs and discussion forums on vendor branded social sites provide a mix of subjective company information with moderated commentary and peer discussions.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 02:20PM PST

Direct Mail: Something Old Becomes Something New

I have been scrutinizing my mail lately. You know… the kind delivered by the US Postal Service. We are living in an age of consumer empowerment where customers decide what they want to receive, when they want to receive it, and have the ability to weigh in on the value and experience associated with our marketing/products/services. Social media has had a lot to do with that. I’m curious how this expectation of personalization and empowerment has crossed over to more traditional marketing such as direct mail.

Case in point, week before last I was chatting with a colleague while she opened her email. She came across an invitation to a seminar where Jack Welch was the keynote speaker. The cover letter was addressed to “Dear Sir/Madam”. Without reading further, my colleague promptly tore up the invite and tossed it. (Sorry Jack…). Seems there may be a personalization threshold that must be met in direct mail, at least.

What are some of the ways that direct mail is changing to meet this expectation of personalization?

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 02:17PM PST

Social Media ROI: What Do You Measure?

“Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s finally done there is surprise it’s not better.” - Avinash Kaushik – Analytics Evangelist, Google

Why is that? One factor may be that traditional measures and metrics are not easily applied to social media.

Traditional measurement goes something like this:

Marketing Investment = $30,000
# of Leads Generated = 1000
Cost per Lead = $30

Social Media Measurement can look something like this:

Blog Comments + Conversation + LinkedIn x Twitter = Success

You’re probably thinking…”uhmmm… What?! How can you possibly measure a conversation?” Social media requires a tweak to the way we think about marketing measurement. We need to consider that indirect influence generated via social media can often lead to sales. It’s just a different sort of measurement.

So here’s the question – What do you want to measure? The “social” more qualitative aspect or the “media” which provides the quantitative metric. My answer is measure what is important and relevant to your business goals. Following are some examples, but first some recommendations on setting and using what you will measure.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 01:29PM PST

Executives are Evolving. Is Your Marketing?

My original intent this week was to do a post on the ROI of social media and how we have to change our perspective on what we measure. After all, how do you measure a conversation? But, I came across a recent Forbes|Insights report, “The Rise of the Digital C-Suite”,  and thought this could provide insight on the growing importance of inbound marketing and social media. I’ll get to the ROI question in a future post. For now, read on and download the The Rise of the Digital C-Suitefor complete details.

Here are the findings that really stuck out for me and my $0.02 on why marketers should care:

• The Internet is the C-suite’s top information resource. Executives find it more valuable for locating business-related information than references from colleagues, personal networks, newspapers and magazines, TV and radio, and conferences and tradeshows.

Importance for Marketing: Marketers need to fish where the fish are. If you are targeting C-level executives, VPs and directors, then you need make sure that not only is your content relevant to the C-level, but it’s easy for them to find you.

• Contrary to popular belief, executives search for information themselves. More than half of the C-level respondents to the study said they prefer to locate information themselves. The immediate access to information means executives can make faster and more informed decisions.

Importance for Marketing: You can reach critical decision-makers online, engage in conversation and cultivate relationships. Important relationships that can ultimately turn into sales.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 04:51PM PST

Content – Why is it Important to Marketing and How to Get it?

Recent posts on this blog have centered around lead nurturing and social media. Mostly because I’ve been talking with many Cisco partners about how lead nurturing and social media fit into a larger marketing strategy. One thing that has become increasingly clear to me through these conversations is that content is the foundation, the enabler, the glue (pick a metaphor) for all marketing regardless of the marketing tactics used. I would go so far to say that the importance of content is magnified today given the myriad of social media tools that allow you to get your story out to the world with the simple click of a mouse.

Your content is your differentiator. It can establish you and your company as an expert, a thought leader. Good content, used effectively, can turn your expertise, insight, advice into marketing campaigns that influence people (your target customer) and motivate them to take action.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 12:55PM PST

The Importance of Customer Data: What’s in Your Database?

Business data degrades at the rate of 3% to 6% per month. Translation: One third of your information on business buyers and prospects may be inaccurate and ineffectual for sales and marketing use by the end of every year.

These statistics from D&B are further indicators of the volatility of business data:

• A new business opens every minute.
• A new business files for bankruptcy every 8 minutes.
• A business closes every 3 minutes.
• A CEO changes every minute.
• A company name change occurs every 2 minutes.

Add to this the additional complexities of a B-to-B database, where not only do you need basic information like postal address, phone and email addresses, but data on multiple contacts within a company – purchase decision makers, influencers, purchasing agents etc., company site information, not just an headquarters address and more. And this doesn’t account for other valuable data such as purchase history, competitive product installed etc.

Your customer and prospect lists are the foundation of your marketing efforts. 50-70% of your marketing campaign success is dependent upon your list quality. How can you be sure you have good quality customer and prospect data?

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 05:08PM PST

Guest Post - 4 Steps to Lead Nurturing: Walking the Buying Path with Your Customers

The following is a guest post from Brian Carroll. Brian is CEO of InTouch Inc. and author of the popular book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale and the B2B Lead Generation Blog. Brian just spoke to our Cisco partner community on how to develop effective lead generation and nurturing campaigns. Read his post below for more insights and actions you can take today to build your nurturing programs.

Get out your walking shoes. This ain’t no walk in the park.

Lead generation can take you on a long hike. The one thing I can guarantee you about the journey is that more is not better if you don’t know how to nurture. 

I define lead nurturing as that consistent and meaningful communication with viable prospects (those that are “a fit” for your solution) regardless of their timing to buy. It’s NOT “following-up” every few months to find out if a prospect is “ready to buy yet.” True nurturing involves a sometimes long and circuitous path but along the way you you’ll be building long, meaningful and trust-filled relationships with the right people.

A recent study of business-to-business buyers shows that sales people who become trusted advisors and understand the needs of economic buyers are 69% more likely to come away with a sale!

So, the first step on that path to success is to start thinking like a customer.

Step 1: Walk IN your potential customers’ shoes.

Consider the questions that customers have in mind before they make a buying decision: 

• How will this product/service help my company?
• We’re doing okay, why do we need it?
• Is there another company out there that is better?
• Will their solution really work? Can they prove it?
• Is the company credible?
• Can we afford it?

Help prospects find the answers to these questions, and you’ll remind them of the benefits of working with you. You’re creating value by giving them useful information in digestible, bite sized chunks.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 04:28PM PST

Lead Nurturing & Lists: Let’s Get Started

Lead generation and lead nurturing are top of mind for me this week. Ok… this is usually where my head is at anyway, but this week is different.  This week, we have Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, and author of “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale” and the B2B Lead Generation Blog, presenting to our partners on how to develop high quality lead generation and nurturing campaigns.

Why is this so exciting? Well… Let’s take a look at what lead nurturing can do for your business.

According to a CSO Insights report, companies with good lead generation and nurturing programs have:

• 7% higher win rates
• 9.3% more sales reps making quota
• 16% better conversion from lead to first meeting
• 62% have shorter sales cycles versus 42% of other companies
• 10% shorter sales ramp up time

Now that’s something to get excited about.  But keep in mind that good lead generation and nurturing requires some time and effort… not to mention a list of prospects to nurture.

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Posted by Ruth White-Cabbell at 04:57PM PST