Pasted below is an email I received earlier this week.  In it, I am “uninvited” to attend a seminar where I registered on-line.  Mac called me and then sent the email.  In our conversation he indicated that since I was an “agency,” I wasn’t invited, and that Silverpop had done a poor job of screening their email list.  Here is the email:

Dear Bob,

Sorry for inviting you then asking you not to show up. And thanks for
being so gracious about being uninvited.

We didn’t realize you were with an agency, or we would not have extended
the invitation in the first place. Our bad.

Thanks much for your understanding.

Sincerely,
Mac

———————————-
M. H. (Mac) McIntosh
AcquireB2B – Driving leads & sales with marketing automation
Email: mcintosh@acquireb2b.com
Phone: +1.401.234.4406
Website: www.acquireb2b.com

Executive Breakfast Briefings:
What B2B Marketing Automation is all about, and why you should care
1/26 Boston/Waltham, 1/27 New York City
Details & complimentary registration here

AcquireB2B  - A division of Mac McIntosh Inc.
601 Pendar Rd., North Kingstown, RI 02852-6620 USA

And here are the major problems with Mr. McIntosh’s attempt to conduct business.

1. Fire Alarm Marketing is a consulting firm, not an agency.  If he took the time to find out about us, he might recognize that I could be a valuable agent in referring what he does/sells.  His loss.
2. If he is so concerned about “agencies” attending his seminars, what exactly is it that he is doing or selling?  If it is so tenuous that attendance at a seminar puts his intellectual property at risk, just how worthwhile is it?
3. Since he also rejected my partner Dick Lush for the same reason, but by leaving a voice message, does he really care about people/companies?  At a minimum I would think a direct conversation is required when “uninviting” someone.

Lessons Learned:

1. If you are going to buy a mailing list, test it before sending out repetitive broadcast messages.  I received 3 emails before I signed up.  Had Mac done so, he would have recognized that “agencies” were on the list.  What does this say about Mac’s knowledge of B2B business and automation?
2. If what you are promoting can’t stand up to scrutiny or comparison, go back to the drawing board and develop something that is significantly different.  The Internet is about transparency.  Trying to position yourself by excluding people goes against the grain.
3. If a mistake is made, don’t attempt to undue it in an awkward manner, go with it and learn from your error.

Have you or your company had an experience like this?  How was it handled?  How should it have been handled?

RHM   1/20/2011

Much is being written today about aligning Marketing and Sales, a divide which is being exacerbated by social media tools, lead nurturing and new Marketing metrics.

Over the years I have had the privilege of working with some outstanding Sales people and Sales management.  They all have many things in common, but one trait that sticks out is skepticism.  Whether this is inbred or arises out of constant rejection is unclear, but if you scratch the surface of a good salesman you will find a skeptic.

This skepticism comes to the fore in discussions where Marketing trumpets its social media successes: increasing hits on the web site, a new CRM system that allows them to track inquires and downloads, Email open and click-thru rates, etc.  Since many of the charts start at a low level and increase over time, Marketing is looking good, and why shouldn’t Sales be impressed?

The Sales skepticism about the Marketing results can best expressed by the phrase uttered by Rod Tidwell in the movie Jerry McGuire, “Show me the money.”   Sales people aren’t interested in hits, click-thrus, downloads or other Marketing metrics.  What they want are solid qualified leads.  An added plus would be the customer’s potential pain points, as well as multiple contacts within the customer.

If the Sales force has to weed through patches of leads to find one that is worthwhile, then they feel that the work that Marketing is doing is not meaningful.  Sales people are generally paid on a commission, which to them means that time equals money.  The more time that Sales has to spend prospecting, the less time they have to sell and close.

David Merriman Scott recently released a white paper through Hubspot entitled 11 Examples of Online Marketing Success. Each example is indeed a Marketing success, but my skeptical Sales friends would say “show me the money.”  Only one of the examples deals with lead generation, and it relates to how John Deere gave away a tractor.  It does not report on how many of the people who registered to win the tractor were qualified leads for a sale.

I understand that part of Marketing’s role is to build and sustain a brand.  And I also understand that Product Managers are responsible for delivering the right product, at the right time and through the right channels.

But a key part of Marketing is delivering qualified leads.  In 2011 I think it is important that Marketing people don’t get caught up in digital metrics and overlook this important role.  When Marketing delivers qualified leads the conversation about a divide between Marketing and Sales disappears and the skepticism of Sales regarding Marketing goes down, however it never really goes away.

How well are you delivering qualified leads to your Sales forces?  How does this compare to how often are you telling Sales and management what a great job Marketing is doing on building the brand, recording hits, and downloads?

Are you focusing on the right thing?

RHM  1/13/2011

This is the seventh in a series of articles for the CMO on planning for 2011.

Talking heads and prognosticators will soon fill the air waves with summaries of 2010 and forecasts for 2011.  That we start a new decade and are still in the midst of a recession will add to the babble.

One area of focus will be social media/social networking/Web 2.0/digital marketing, etc.  Some will declare that “tipping points” have occurred and that significant changes will take place.  Others will decry the hype and say that much of what is going on is a fad.

What is true is that no-one can predict the future.  We can, however, learn from the past.  It is true that the automobile basically wiped out the buggy whip business.  It is also true that neither Television nor Radio replaced Movies as a form of entertainment.  What happened is that each form of media grew in its own way and to serve its own segment.

The unknown about social media is that we don’t know how it will evolve. Will the Internet/Google TV/You Tube take the place of older media?  Will tablet devices take the place of newspapers?  Will newspapers follow buggy whips? Probably not.  What is more likely to happen is that a junction will be reached and new branches will appear.  Learning from history:

• Thomas Edison based one of his early companies and efforts on providing DC power to densely populated areas.  He didn’t see the need to electrify rural areas because of the cost to reach only a few people.  The introduction of AC power created the greatest growth in electrification, pushed DC power in a different direction, and created numerous branches for electrical transmission and related electrical products.
• Henry Ford said that the buyer can have “any color as long as it is black,” and almost went bankrupt.  GM/Chevrolet provided color and gained significant market share.  Ford fought back, recovered and prospered. And as an interesting turn, Ford is the only domestic car company that did not have to be recently bailed out by the Government.
• In 1977, Ken Olsen the head of Digital Equipment Corp. said, “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”  While that strategic direction didn’t help save Digital Equipment, the PC business today is alive and well…and moving toward hand-held devices instead of in the home.

The bottom line is that people forecasting the future, or making declarative statements are usually wrong.  It takes a significant change and usually a long time before a product or concept is rendered obsolete, regardless of how hard VCs look for “disruptive technology.”  More frequently, new branches appear, grow and multiply.

How should the CMO react in the face of the 2011 forecasts?  Our advice has been fairly blunt:

• Recognize that you will probably have to reorganize/restructure for the “new” marketing.
• Continue doing what works.  (If you don’t know what works, set up a measuring process.)
• Join the digital age. Set aside a good portion of your resources to experiment.  Generally you will need more time (people) than money.
• Cultivate your installed base of customers in two ways:
  • Listen to what they say about your product and services, and make appropriate changes
  • Provide them with new products and services…it is the most inexpensive sale you can make
• To grow, seek adjacent markets with current products and services but move carefully.
• Recognize that there are increasing demographic divisions occurring, both in your staff and in your buyers:
  • The Millennials  act differently than the Baby Boomers.  Embrace the differences and use it to your advantage.
  • The rich (both people and companies) are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  Unless you can sell a lot to the poor people/companies, concentrate on selling to the rich.

As the CMO have you prepared your Management for 2011?  How will you react when  the best known talking heads suggests that all the world is going Web 2.0, and your management wants to know why you aren’t following lock-step?

RHM 12/2/2010

ACME Software sells its product to other businesses.  ACME’s products allow a business to save time in their processes, resulting in a more efficient and effective operation.  Their software is licensed on a per seat basis and with service (updates) and training sells in the high 5 figure to low 6 figure range.  They sell directly to enterprises and have 8 regional sales people in the US and 3 distributors in Europe.  These are supported by 3 telesales people in HQ who process leads generated by Marketing.  To date, they have not penetrated the Asian market.

Sales have been relatively flat for the past two years as a result of the economy.  ACME has not lost any market share, but also has not gained it against its two major competitors.  In constructing the 2011 budget, ACME’s management has proposed to cut both Marketing’s and Sales’ budgets by 20%.  The rationale put forward by management is as follows:

• For the past two years they have invested in Marketing by purchasing CRM and other automation tools
• They have decreased out-of-pocket Marketing expenses in print advertising and trade shows, but these savings have been offset by added Marketing head count to manage the new social networking activities
• Because of the changes in Marketing, during the first eight months of 2010, leads at the top of the pipeline have increased by 20% and “sales ready” leads have increased by 10%
• With this positive trend the sales force will be more effective; since having potential sales closer to closing will enable the sales force to close more deals in a shorter period of time.

Neither Mary Smith, the CMO nor Brian Knowles the VP of Sales can accept this logic and fear the impending cuts will destroy their positive work over the past two years.  Mary feels that she needs a flat budget to maintain the positive trend; although the new tools have automated the process and the social networking people she brought in have “learned on the job” and are looking for other things to do.  Brian strongly believes that ACME products succeed because of a “relationship” sale and that despite getting mores sales ready leads, the number of sales per sales person is proportional to the amount of time he/she spends with the prospect.  Getting more sales ready leads doesn’t mean that the salesperson will necessarily close more leads in a shorter period of time.  That said, his newest sales person is currently ranked number 2 and has only been selling to his prospects in his region for a year and a half.

Mary and Brian have worked on a response to Management’s proposal.  Their points are:

• A 20% cut will not allow Marketing to aggressively go after related verticals for new leads, which will help grow market share.
• The 10% increase through August may be the result of a slight rebound in the economy.  If the economy turns down again Marketing will need all of today’s available resources just to generate enough leads to stay flat relative to market share.
• The selling cycle of a software package costing $150K (median value) is a relationship sale, taking time and requires touching numerous decision makers and influencers.  This cannot be sped up by “nurturing” emails and blogs.  It requires face-to-face time.
• The buying decision is being stretched out.  If ACME doesn’t have a physical presence then ACME may lose to our competitors that do.

If you had to decide for ACME, what would you say?  Can Marketing automation and social networking ease the burden/cost of face-to-face selling?  Have there been enough improvements in Marketing automation and social networking that Marketers are down the learning curve and can do more?  Has social media and networking shorten the sales cycle?

Remember, ACME management needs the saved dollars to invest in a new product to leap-frog rumored competitive inroads, so keeping funding constant will have long term implications.

Send me your thoughts.

RHM  10/28/2010

The FutureM meetings were generally about how Marketers should be dealing with the new digital/social world, how power has shifted to the customer, how activities can be measured and how companies can and need to respond.  All the presentations/panels were valid and all true, but did not talk about Marketing as I was taught.

In my early Marketing courses several fundamentals were constantly driven home:

• Product Differentiation
• Market Segmentation
• The Wheel of Retailing
• Clear and consistent communication

Product Differentiation was defined as the value your offering (product, service or combination of product and service) has that sets you apart from the competition.

Market Segmentation was defined as the target market, i.e., buyers whose identified needs you serve…better than the competition.  Implicit in this definition is that you know all about this segment, as well as how your competitors are trying to serve it.

The Wheel of Retailing was illustrated by the emergence of the suburban shopping centers over the downtown stores.  This can be extended today to the “big-box” stores, and then to the Internet.  In this evolutionary wheel the successful merchants know their customers and how to reach them.

Clear and consistent communication means well articulated messages that are cleanly delivered.  As with many things relating to the buying process, repetition is key.

Viewed through this lens, today’s digital landscape looks similar to the landscape that existed many years ago.  You need to have a value-added product, you need to know who you are selling to, and you need to use the best means possible to reach or entice your target customer into a buying situation.  This holds true for both B2B and B2 C businesses.

Put another way, the new digital tools that are available to businesses boil down to communication media that link the seller to the buyer and the buyer to the seller.  The seller still needs to provide a basic value-added product in order to ensure longevity.  While the new digital tools allow for significant measurement and definition of the target market, i.e., the customer of one, very few companies have succeeded by making only one sale.  Allowing the customer to easily find you, easily learn about your differentiated product and facilitate the buying process seems very similar to the 1900-1960 Macy’s store in NYC which occupied a city block and had everything you could need, or IBM in the 1960’s providing the hardware, the software and training on their mainframes…both very successful companies at the time.

A related thought is that a company’s ability to “spin” a story is significantly diminished in the digital age.  Transparency is now part of the clear and consistent communication rule.

To me the principles have remained the same, the execution, via new and different tools is new.

Your thoughts?  Can you remember when the Justice Department was suing IBM, alleging that it was a monopoly?  Is Google today’s IBM?  Is the new digital/social world different or is it the same?

RHM  10/14/2010

Or, how Amtrak both dropped the ball and missed a great opportunity the Friday before Labor Day.

Situation:

On the Friday before the Labor Day weekend, the sainted Mother-in-Law (MIL) is coming from Philadelphia for a visit.  As she does 4-6 times a year, she is taking Amtrak’s NE Regional, leaving 30^th St. Station around 10:30, arriving at Route 128 around 4:30.  At the same time Hurricane Earl is bearing down on New England.

Activity:

Knowing from past experience that Friday trains tend to run late, the “Boss” tries to get a status on NE #86 by going on-line.  The information posted is meaningless, with directions to call for updates.  The phone center is busy, so I am enlisted to talk to the person when they answer. After about a 30 minute wait, the Amtrak person says: “Let me check, I really don’t know…oh yeah, that train is still working and is 90 minutes late.”

No additional information, no details, just that it is 90 minutes late.

I go on twitter (#amtrak) to see if anyone is tweeting about Friday’s service.  The answer is YES, about every 30 seconds a new tweet is posted:

• There is a tree across the electric wires, all service is out
• Amtrak is stopping service north of NYC at 4:30
• All traffic north and south is cancelled

I post a couple of tweets asking about train #86 and continue to monitor.  Reading them I realize that some trains already in New Haven are being connected to diesel locomotives and will continue to Boston.  What I cannot decipher is which trains.

The Boss and I go to the Route 128 station to meet the train which is “90 minutes late,” only to be told it will be 3 hours late.  We eventually meet up with MIL almost 4 hours after she should have arrived.

Subsequent news reports showed a high level of customer dissatisfaction with Amtrak, much of it centering on their lack of clear communication regarding the problem and solution.

Opportunity Missed

Amtrak asks passengers to follow them on facebook and twitter…they currently have 3800+ twitter followers.

While a tree falling on railroad lines is rare (note that utilities have a trimming service) the lack of clear communication was the major issue in this case.  If Amtrak had the knowledge to send “rescue” locomotives they should have had the capability to post arrival information on twitter, facebook and their web site.  Not doing so cost them a significant amount of good will, customer satisfaction and probably earned them another shot from Jay Leno.

Lessons From This Failure:

1. The ability to communicate clear, transparent information in a timely fashion is fundamental to achieving customer support and satisfaction. 
2. Information is currency and has value.  Giving something of value to a person usually engenders good will. Not providing information when it is expected or needed subtracts from any good will that may be present.
3. If you are going to ask your customers/clients to follow you on facebook/twitter make sure you have resources and policies to use these communication vehicles to provide updated, timely information to your customers in the event of a crisis.

As is often said, it takes years to build a reputation (brand), but only seconds to lose it.   Amtrak lost it this past Labor Day weekend.

A side note, the Globe reported this morning that MBTA bus riders can now find out arrival times of buses by using an app on their smart phones and the GPS devices mounted on the buses.  Perhaps Amtrak could learn something from the MBTA.

RHM   9/10/2010

Around this time last year (9/1/2009) I wrote A Checklist for Making the Year. In it I highlighted tactics that the CMO could use in working to finish out 2009 on a positive basis.

In reviewing that post a year later the tactical advice provided is just as applicable this year as last, and bears repeating:

1. Protect and cultivate your current customers.  Losing a key customer to a competitor not only reduces revenue; it gives the competitor a weapon to go after your customers.  It is harder (more costly) to get a new customer, and very costly to lose an old customer.  To make sure that your customer base is protected, keep your customers happy.  Make them understand that their needs are being met and help them understand your goals, Remember, any additional sales, upgrades, migrations, etc. that you make to the installed-customer base is less costly than selling to a new customer.
2. Hone your value proposition message.  Today’s environment reflects fear and uncertainty.  A company’s value proposition should address these concerns, by merging the differentiated message (faster, easier to use, longer lasting, etc.) to creative financial offerings that enhance or increase the ROI… in a few words that are clear, memorable and always visible.
3. Enhance your value by offering more at the same price. This is not a recommendation to cut prices, but rather a recommendation to augment the product/service offering with more value.  Free shipping, free installation, lower cost training, extended warranties, no-cost upgrades, etc. can be tied to the basic value proposition to make a more compelling story.  Each of these tactical moves can be limited by time, or tied to volume, so that when the economy picks up they once again become chargeable items.
4. Understand your demographics.  If you have had success in a specific vertical, geography or segment, continue to push each and every part of that area.  Having success in the education market doesn’t automatically mean that you will be successful in Financial Services.  You might find it easier in a growing economy but trying to convince buyers in today’s economy is difficult…especially when competition is protecting their turf.
5. Increase your visibility.  Traditional ways of communicating your message/value proposition are changing.  The reach of print media is down, fewer people are attending trade shows and seminars, direct mail, both snail and email, appears to be less effective, traveling road shows aren’t getting the audiences they have in the past, etc.    Increasing your visibility in this environment requires the pragmatic integration of applicable social networking tools to an expanded program.

In a recent talk at the Wharton School, UPS’ CEO Scott Davis was reported as saying:

‘The current shaky economic environment is a challenge for all leaders, Davis acknowledged. He detailed three types of corporate responses to the economic downturn. “Some companies won’t make it. Some will be crippled; it may take five, six or seven years for them to get back to the level they were at before the collapse.” The third type of company, however, will keep its long-term goals in sight. It will pursue strategic growth in line with its core values. These companies will effectively balance conventional and digital business, strive for efficiency and think globally. Consequently, Davis said, these companies will learn, adjust and evolve as the global economy recovers. “Some companies will come out of the recovery stronger than ever. Times of great uncertainty are also times of great opportunity.” ‘

I asked the following a year ago;  “As the CMO, can you spell out the new plans and programs you are going to implement after Labor Day?” To this I should add Scott Davis’ words….These companies will effectively balance conventional and digital business, strive for efficiency and think globally. Is this what you are doing?

RHM  8/27/2010

Earlier this week I was in a meeting where the conversation turned to behavior in meetings by attendees. In part, the conversation evolved from a recent article in the NY Times that highlights the issues about multi-tasking.  This article, along with others, reinforces the belief that multi-taskers cannot and do not do things as well as those who focus on the job at hand.

The discussion started on whether it is appropriate for those attending to use electronic devices (laptops, notebooks, blackberries, etc.) during the meeting.  Some felt it is disrespectful to the presenter, while others said that the devices were acceptable, based on the culture of the company or if being used to take notes.

One suggestion was to ban the devices, offsetting the ban by holding shorter meetings that follow a set agenda.  This was countered by those that hold project management type meetings where different constituencies need to be heard and that such meetings inevitably take time.

Most conferences that I attend have a hashtag, and attendees are tweeting about the meeting, presenter and weather during the course of the meeting, either using their computers or smart phones.  Obviously in these meetings, the organizers have decided that promotion on twitter is more important than focused attention on the presenters or panel.

So, on one side there are those feel that during a meeting the presenter or chair should get undivided attention, while others say that the culture requires immediate access, whether it be from their management or their need to access the Internet.

Another element that has crept into today’s meetings and conferences is the “back-channel” communication provided by the electronic devices.   Meeting attendees have been known to make comments about the presenter or other attendees, thru texting, email, or twittering, resulting in inappropriate smirks or giggles…comments which are oblivious the other attendees who are not part of the electronic group.

A conclusion that can be derived from today’s behavior is that you, whether chairing a meeting or presenting to a group, will rarely have the undivided attention of the audience.  Recognizing this beforehand, the key concepts that have been drummed into you are worth repeating:

For Marketing/Sales people:

• Tell them what you are going to tell them
• Tell them
• Tell them what you told them
• Keep it short
• Keep it simple
• Ask for the order
• Recognize that you will probably have to come back to do it again.

For those running a meeting:

• Follow a set agenda
• Never let a meeting go for more than a hour without a break
• Recognize that you are going to have to cover fewer things, and probably repetitively because attendees will not get it the first time.

The current “always-on” workplace seems to be counter-productive, driven by distraction and the inability to focus on work.  I hope I don’t appear as a Luddite, but my recommendation would be to manage the distractions to a minimum in order to improve productivity.

Your thoughts?

RHM  5/10/2020

The Fire Alarm Marketing web site went “live” on May 5, 2009.  We have used it both to communicate to our community, as well as to appreciate some of the Web 2.0 issues that have plagued our clients.  This experience has been positive and instructive, and we would like to share our findings.

• In the past year we have had 3,658 visits to our web site.  2,259 or 61% of the visitors were unique, which means that over a third of the visitors came back for subsequent visits.
• The 12 month average of 188 unique visitors a month masks our starting out slowly, and growing to our current run-rate of well over 200 unique visitors a month.
• There were 10,313 page views, meaning that those that came to the site visited, on average 3 pages a visit.  Not surprisingly, our Welcome page was the most visited page.
• Traffic came from three sources, almost evenly divided.  36% came from search engines, 30% came directly and 29% came from referring sites.  (5% came from other.)
• Visitors came from 86 countries and territories.  80% of the visitors came from the US, with the majority living in New England.
• We have published 82 posts, penned by ourselves and three guest bloggers.  Of these posts the five most popular are:

The Pros and Cons of Indirect Distribution

The Pros and Cons of Direct Distribution

The Upside-Down World of Lead Generation

Doritos’ Shameful Super Bowl Ad – The Slap

Issues Regarding VOIP

• We have had 757 comments, regarding the value from our blogs, requests for other topics, and the usual spam.
• Using Hubspots’ Website Grader, we have a ranking of 81, leaving us room to improve, especially in the area of inbound links and social networking.  We do have twitter accounts and have, within the last few months, linked our website to our corporate LinkedIn and Facebook pages.

Lessons that we have passed along to our clients:

• Today, the Internet is THE source of information.  When you meet, write or comment, interested people go to your website.  Having an up-to-date, easy to navigate web site is mandatory.
• Try to make web pages engaging, i.e. have a call-to-action or requests.
• Change is essential.  While we have not done a complete “facelift,” virtually every page has been examined, modified and/or changed to some degree.  Our clients should expect to continuously work on their web sites.
• Writing is hard.  Those chosen to post blogs on the site must be able to clearly convey one or two messages in 500-600 words or less.
• Spammers are a fact of life.  Everyone who allows comments on posts will get spammed.  So be aware that one needs to monitor these activities.
• Web 2.0 is evolving.  In April of 2009 having links to corporate Facebook and LinkedIn pages was only being done by a few…today it is almost mandatory.  Tomorrow it will be something else, which goes back to the idea of constant change.

Bottom line, your web site is NOT a static display but should be evolving, inviting and most of all provide value and original content.

Have your experiences over the past year been different?

RHM  5/5/2010

“We want to do more with social media and digital marketing.  We know that we are not doing enough.  What should we do first?”

Assuming a well structured and up-to-date web site, our answer to this question is as follows:

1. Listen.  There are two aspects to listening.  The first is listening to your customers, competitors and industry through tools such as Google Analytics and Trackle.  The second is establishing policies and following them according to what you hear.  For example, should you respond to a negative comment about you that is damaging to your reputation, and who should do it?  Be prepared to dedicate some time to “listening.”
2. Purchase and install a CRM system.  SalesForce.Com is one of many vendors in this area.  Critical in implementing a CRM system is getting top management and sales management buy-in.  Failure to do both will result in a waste of money.  Generally, an implementation and full utilization takes 6-12 months.  If you have the money and resources, augment the CRM system with a lead tracking system, such as Eloqua or Marketo.  Use the automated CRM system to track your sales process, see what programs are working, and use the information to tune your programs to the target audience.
3. Blog. Power has shifted from the seller to the buyer.  The buyer is using the Internet to gain information about products and services.  If you are not contributing original content about your industry or products, you will not be noticed.  For a small company, this is often viewed as an onerous task.  If this is the case, rotate the responsibility through management or out-source the content creation.  Either way, blog at least once, if not twice a week. 
4. Publish a Newsletter. All companies have a data base, starting with their installed base of customers, and growing by potential customers who have “opted-in” either at the website or in response to emails.  Communicate with these people on a regular basis.  For the installed base, this is a way of keeping in touch and perhaps preparing them for an up-sell.  For potential customers, this is a form of nurturing that is required as they move through the acquisition process.  The frequency of the newsletter may vary, from once a month to once a quarter.  Remember to put a compelling topic in the subject line…do not use “Newsletter from Bob” which will probably be picked up by automatic spam filters.
5. Cultivate the influential bloggers.  Regardless of industry, there are a small number of people who are influential bloggers.  Their reach and influence is disproportionate to their fundamental contributions, but this is the Internet today.  It is important that you cultivate a positive relationship with this small group.  Depending upon the IB’s (Influential Blogger) ego and outlook, this may be as simple as picking up the phone and talking; in other cases it may require sending him samples of your product or inviting him to visit your facility.  Whatever the process, it must be done, as potential customers will find and read these people.  If you are not mentioned positively, or not mentioned at all, you will lose.

The IBs can be found by reviewing the results by provided by Google Analytics and Trackle to your key words.  They should show up quickly.  Once identified, the next step is putting the contact/nurturing process in place.  As a comparison, the IBs should be treated the same way you treat an analyst from Gartner or Forrester.

With the exception of the purchase and implementing the CRM/Automated Lead Generation System, the out-of-pocket cost for these 5 steps is relatively small.   The big “cost” is re-allocating Management and Marketing staff’s time and priorities to focus on these activities.  If they are not goaled and directed to Listen, Blog, Publish Newsletters and Cultivate IBs, then any attempt at “digital” marketing will fail.  And, this has to be part of employees’ full-time job; it cannot be assigned to a summer intern.

How many of these digital marketing activities are you doing?  Are you doing them well?  How do you compare to your competition?  Do you really know?  What do the IBs in your space say?

Related Posts:

1. Marketing, Babies, Decision Making and Social Networks
2. Blogs From the Front – III- Social Media and Networks
3. Social Networking and the Marketing Mix

RHM  4/29/2010