The Marketing Options Blog

The next in the series of mini-videos from Technology Marketing In Mind – Rethinking the Art of Lead Generation – has now been released. We’ve pulled together some of the expert insights the videos contain and created a bite-sized guide to lead gen in 2012. (You can watch all three brand new videos here).

1. Times are changing, fast

The pace of change in the B2B technology industry has never been quicker. While this provides the switched on marketer with plenty of new opportunities, it also puts the onus on all of us to stay well ahead of the curve. As Eloqua’s Sylvia Jensen observes:

“Things are changing so quickly in B2B marketing [...] that you really do have to reassess every quarter, if not more often, what channels are available and how they can help.”

But the proliferation of marketing channels shouldn’t necessarily mean a proliferation of marketing messages. As multi-channel becomes the norm, Microsoft’s Allister Frost explains what he sees as underpinning the most successful campaigns:

“You need one big idea. Don’t try to change that [big idea] for every channel, but try to make that big idea come alive in as many channels as you possibly can.”

2. Targeting is getting tighter

With so many new channels and tools, we’re also enjoying a greater ability to target our lead generation activity. The B2B tech experts see a tight focus as central to success in 2012:

“In the next 12 to 18 months technology marketing needs to become very specific. You need to be targeting groups of 50, groups of 30, groups of 10.” Andrew Barraclough, Progress Software

Barraclough’s sentiment is echoed by CompTIA’s Lisa Archer, who highlights the value of identifying which “organisations you absolutely want your organisation – in some way, shape or form – to engage with, and what that level of engagement [should be].” As Barraclough goes on to discuss, if you’re engaging with organisations of a certain size, there’s often a huge opportunity generate brand new leads within your existing accounts.

3. It’s a fine line between nurturing and stalking

Lead nurturing may be much more of a subtle art than an exact science, but there are still plenty of strategies and best practices that could have a concrete effect on your conversion rate in the new year.

Claranet’s Richard Moore drives home the importance of keeping a consistent and well-managed CRM database. As he states, if you lose track of your touches, “You lose track of all of your nurturing”.

And those careful to keep this information are finding it’s proving ever more useful. Lisa Archer believes there’s a great opportunity for increasingly personalised communication – for recognising exactly how each lead has come into contact with your organisation, and for refining your nurturing activity to the lightest of well-timed touches:

“More often than not you’re marketing to a very intelligent audience. They know where you are, they know you’ve delivered materials. Treat them with respect – understand that they need time to digest that information.”

4. Quality is king

Research has shown that improving lead quality is a clear priority for B2B tech marketers in 2012. But how can quality be practically defined? And measured? Ian Baxter, Marketing Director, EMEA at Saba Software, is critical of artificial lead scoring systems. Instead, he outlines the three questions he sees as crucial to quality determination:

•  How complete is your information on the lead?
• How relevant is the lead to your business?
• How willingly will the lead enter into a dialogue with you?

But as Andrew Barraclough explains, quality will always mean different things to different people. He suggests that defining quality must ultimately be a matter of sales and marketing engagement, and that a firm definition should be agreed in one to one talks with sales before a campaign begins.

Lisa Archer also notes the importance of thinking about sales when planning lead generation activities. Challenging the notion that lead quality should be every marketer’s goal in 2012, Archer argues convincingly that the result of any quality vs. quantity debate must, in fact, depend on the sales infrastructure your organisation has ready to service the leads you produce.

All three short videos are now available to watch for free, so why not take a few moments to listen to her make the case herself?

Don’t be shy about telling us what you think – what do you see as the prevailing trends in lead generation over the next 12 to 18 months? How do you think marketers should define and measure lead quality? What nuggets of lead nurturing wisdom are you able to share?

Author: Vanessa Cheal, Marketing Options International

As social media makes the B2B technology marketplace busier, noisier and more crowded, the ability to stand out has never been more crucial — or more valuable.

But with so many vendors offering solutions to similar business problems, how can B2B technology companies create a brand that’s really distinct?

That’s the question being discussed by some of the UK’s top technology marketers in the second instalment of Technology Marketing in Mind, the video series that explores solutions to the key challenges facing the industry today.

The two videos are available to watch now, but here’s a quick peek at what each one has in store:

1. The Core Values of a Captivating Tech Brand

Every B2B technology brand wants to be thought of as reliable, flexible and responsive. But as Claranet’s Richard Moore explains, this creates a problem in terms of differentiation: if everyone strives to be seen as reliable, reliability won’t help you stand out from the crowd. He argues that companies must focus on developing brand values that aren’t merely rational, but are aspirational and emotionally resonant – and that can be a rallying point for the organisation as a whole.

So, can you simply research the values the market most desires, and claim them to be your own? Not according to IBM’s Pete Jakob, who shares what he believes to be the foundation of any successful brand communication:

• Truth
• Honesty
• Authenticity
• Respect

As he succinctly puts it, ‘You can’t game branding’.

This is a sentiment echoed by Progress Software’s Andrew Barraclough, as he highlights the phenomenon of smaller brands attempting to mimic the language of larger ones.

Barraclough argues that if smaller organisations and start-ups can learn to be true to their own voices (as Jakob claims is essential) and cultivate a more individual, niche appeal (as Moore suggests they must), there are incredible opportunities waiting to be seized over the coming months.

2. Building Brand Mindshare in a Busy Marketplace

You’ve looked into your brand’s soul and identified the real values that make it engaging, exciting and unique. The next challenge is to communicate those values in an increasingly busy marketplace.

CompTIA’s Lisa Archer identifies the power of sparking interest and conversations on Twitter, encouraging others to share your brand’s message (and values) on your behalf. While social media has made brands more accountable, it’s also levelled the playing field when it comes to raising brand awareness – having limitless imagination is now just as important as having a limitless budget.

Some traditional channels, however, remain vital. Silver Lining Solutions’ Mike Havard asserts the continuing power of industry analysts to help you get your brand inside the minds (and long term spending plans) of CIOs.

For the most established brands, the challenges associated with mindshare can be quite different. As Celine Naude admits, Microsoft has already completed much of the hard work of fixing its brand in the collective consciousness. She offers advice instead on managing the mindshare balance between an overarching, company brand, and the brands of its most memorable products.

Click here to watch the videos — then let us know what you think. Are there crucial points you feel have been overlooked? How is your organisation planning to approach brand development in 2012?

Author: Vanessa Cheal, Marketing Options International

On Thursday 24^th November, Marketing Options International (MOI) was awarded Best Market Event at the 2011 B2B Marketing Awards, the annual showpiece event for the B2B marketing industry.

The award was won for a series of Customer Services events showcasing Oracle Corporation’s unique support proposition. MOI organised 13 highly engaging live events across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and managed to smash the registration target by 81%, delivering a staggering return on investment on the campaign budget.

Gareth Scragg, Director, Services Marketing, EMEA at Oracle Corporation, said “Oracle works hard to promote its support services offering, hence the extent and wide geographic reach of the campaign. It means a great deal to us to receive industry recognition for this and we’re thrilled with the win.”

MOI also achieved runner-up for Best International Campaign for its work on Oracle Corporation’s Power Days webcast programme. The 15 webcasts, successfully rolled out across 40 countries in three different languages, resulted in a phenomenal volume of leads for Oracle and highlighted MOI’s expert knowledge of local country marketing and their international campaign management expertise.

“We are proud and honoured to win the Best B2B Marketing Event award. It is a real testament to our team’s incredible hard work and commitment to delivering event marketing excellence” said Vanessa Cheal, Managing Director, MOI.

The B2B Marketing Awards were launched in association with Information Arts in 2005, and have since grown to become the must-attend event in the B2B marketing calendar.

Author: Laura Nolan, Marketing Options International

What happened to your marketing plans over the last 18 months? If you’re anything like the 100+ B2B technology marketers who took part in our recent specially commissioned survey into the changing landscape of B2B technology marketing, then the chances are your priorities had to shift pretty fast. It’s a perfect indication of the turbulent times we’ve been through and the difficulties marketers have had in developing and sticking to long-term plans during a global downturn. But as the survey also revealed, it wasn’t just economic factors that our sector had to contend with: the cloud became mainstream, and social media emerged as a vital B2B tool. In fact, looking back it’s actually hard to believe that those two developments have only really hit in the last eighteen months.

The survey was conducted for us by Circle Research and complements perfectly our series of video interviews with senior markets. But where the survey really comes into its own is the insight it provides into where B2B technology marketing is going in the next 18 months. Responses indicate a re-emergence of brand marketing, and increased emphasis on content and social media – all of which fit within the wider picture of a greater focus on maintaining client relationships.

To find out more – including why lead quality is now more important than quantity, and what channels B2B technology marketers expect to focus on in 2012 – download the free research report.

Author: Vanessa Cheal, Marketing Options International

These are thrilling yet difficult times for B2B technology marketers. The end of 2011 finds us in a buyer’s market, having to work harder and smarter to encourage sustainable customer loyalty and brand advocacy – but also having a wealth of new tools and channels to help us achieve our goals.

With so many opportunities and so much to learn, it’s always great to get advice from others in the industry. Technology Marketing in Mind, a new, year-long video series from Marketing Options International and the IDM, features senior UK technology marketers sharing their insights and advice on some of the key challenges facing the industry today.

Available to view now, the first three videos focus on understanding and connecting with technology buyers in today’s tough marketplace. Here’s a quick flavour of what you’ll see in each one:

1. Understanding Today’s Technology Buyer

What motivates buyers? And how can we appeal to them in ways that make our brand and products stand out?

Old questions maybe, but still crucial as we head into 2012. Autodesk’s Miikka Arala offers some powerful answers, saying that naïve interest in new technology is long gone, and that in the light of the economic downturn, three basic motivations are driving most technology buying decisions:

• Cut costs

• Gain competitive advantage

• Increase revenue

But appealing to reason is only one factor in the equation. Most of the marketers interviewed focus on the importance of addressing a buyer’s emotional side too. After all, people buy from people.

Microsoft’s Allister Frost adds some compelling evidence to the case for appealing to buyers as rounded human beings, highlighting the current ‘consumerisation of IT’ – our desire to take the technologies that make our home lives easier, and apply them in our place of work.

2. Communicating the Value of Complex Technology

With customer decision-making teams now including non-technical executives (CFOs, LOB heads, even the CEO in some cases), this video looks at how marketers can find stronger, simpler and more compelling ways to communicate product benefits.

IBM’s Pete Jakob explains how benefits must always be articulated in terms of what’s on the customer’s mind, rather than product features and functions:

“Our clients do not care about our products. They care about their issues, their own challenges…. we have to speak to them in terms, in language and at frequencies… that are relevant, pertinent and respectful…”

Silver Lining Solutions’ Mike Havard offers some practical advice on what those terms, languages and frequencies might be, outlining four top tips for making complex propositions simple:

• Tell stories to bring a product’s benefits to life

• Sell the vision, not just the specific solution

• Get your customers communicating for you, sharing their positive experiences in their own words, through user groups and forums

• Push the idea that investing in your product will promote ‘connectedness’ – helping the customer’s existing IT investments work together better

3. Building Relationships and Loyalty

Buying cycles in the technology industry are notoriously long and complex, and marketers need to understand where a customer is in the cycle in order to build productive and lasting relationships.

In this short video, Progress Software’s Andrew Barraclough suggests tactics for marketing around licencse renewal times, while Saba’s Ian Baxter looks at how the cloud enables software customers to switch vendors more easily – and what marketers can do to encourage them to stay loyal.

Meanwhile Cisco’s Tony Hart explores the value of really understanding a customer’s business, and CompTIA’s Lisa Archer shares practical strategies for building stronger inter-organisational ties.

You can watch all three videos here – and we’d love to know what you think. Whose observations most accurately reflect your own experience? And are there important points and considerations you feel the featured marketers have missed?

Author: Laura Nolan, Marketing Options International

Marketing Options International has worked in partnership with the Institute of Digital and Direct Marketing (IDM), to produce a year-long programme of digital content showcasing real-life opinions, insight and advice from some of the UK’s most experienced B2B technology marketers. This programme, aptly named ‘Technology Marketing in Mind’ will launch in November 2011.

Across 20+ video episodes 25 senior marketing executives from companies including Oracle, IBM, Cisco, Dell, Microsoft and Autodesk will reveal their biggest challenges, brightest ideas and top tips for marketing success in this complex and challenging industry. Speakers include:

• Pete Jakob, Brand Manager, UK and Ireland, IBM
• Paul Collier, EMEA Marketing Director, Dell
• Steve Walker, VP, Corporate Communications EMEA, Oracle
• Allister Frost, Head of Digital Marketing Strategy, Microsoft

Technology Marketing in Mind will explore B2B technology marketers’ challenges, priorities and aspirations in areas including sales & marketing alignment; quality lead generation; new marketing channels and technologies like social media, mobile and marketing automation; brand awareness; content marketing; channel marketing and marketing leadership.

Vanessa Cheal, Managing Director, Marketing Options International, commented: “There are lots of great resources out there for B2B marketers, but nothing dedicated to the unique challenges of the B2B technology sector. We have created Technology Marketing in Mind as a specialist source of knowledge to help B2B technology marketers get a better return on their marketing investment.”

Edward Weatherall, Commercial Director, Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing, said: “The IDM have always been committed to supporting marketers through practical education and knowledge, so we are really excited about Technology Marketing in Mind. It will act as a great resource to help technology marketers share, understand and hopefully tackle, the challenges they face today. There is no better group of people to learn from, than leaders in your industry. “

As well as over 20 peer-to-peer video interviews, Technology Marketing In Mind will offer exclusive new research, ‘how-to’ guides, a quarterly e-zine and guest blog posts from industry leaders – all delivered in bite-size installments designed to slot into even the fastest-moving schedule. Additional content partners include Circle Research, B2B Marketing and the SuperBrands Council.

Technology Marketing in Mind will launch in November 2011 but B2B technology marketers can get a sneak peek of what’s in store by watching this short video.

Author: Laura Nolan, Marketing Options International

Marketing Options International (MOI), an international business-to-business (B2B) technology marketing agency headquartered in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, has been shortlisted in three categories at the 2011 B2B Marketing Awards, the annual showpiece event for the B2B marketing industry.

MOI was shortlisted for Best International Campaign and Best Lead Nurturing Campaign for its work on Oracle Corporation’s Power Days webcast programme.  The 15 webcasts, successfully rolled out across 40 countries in three different languages, resulted in a phenomenal volume of leads for Oracle and highlighted MOI’s expert knowledge of local country marketing and their international campaign management expertise.

A series of Customer Services events showcasing Oracle’s unique support proposition was shortlisted for Best Marketing Event. MOI organised 13 highly engaging live events across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and managed to smash the registration target by 81%, delivering a staggering return on investment on the campaign budget.

Vanessa Cheal, Managing Director of MOI, said, “We are extremely proud to be finalists in this year’s B2B Marketing Awards.  Oracle is one of the true B2B technology superbrands and an amazing client to work with. It’s fantastic that two of our Oracle campaigns have been recognised by the judges.”

Established in 2005, the B2B Marketing Awards are enjoying their biggest ever year, with 30% more entries than in 2010. “Being shortlisted in three categories amid intense competition shows just how hard our international team works to deliver campaign results for our clients,” said Vanessa Cheal.

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday 24th November at the HAC in Central London.

Recently, live events have had to roll with some powerful punches – but they’re still on their feet, and they’re coming back swinging.

Claire Weekes’s feature on virtual events in this month’s issue of B2B Marketing has made me think about virtual vs. live events, and which offer more value to B2B marketers today.

It’s true the recession wasn’t kind to the live event. Yes, key conferences and tradeshows maintained their presence, but attendance was down, and virtual alternatives grew in number and popularity. Reports of the live event’s demise, however, have been greatly exaggerated. As the economy creeps toward healthier times, the idea of business professionals getting together in the real world seems to have successfully weathered the storm. In fact, from our offices in Singapore, San Francisco, Sydney and London, we’ve noticed a global trend towards the development of brand new conference facilities – an investment that no one would make if they didn’t think live events had a bright future.

Why has the live event endured? Personally, I suspect it’s because there’s nothing quite like being sat in front of the industry’s leading specialist as he /she addresses a hushed, expectant auditorium – or meeting the developers of a product or service face to face, and building a relationship as they answer your questions.

I think the threat posed by virtual events has also been exaggerated. Webcasts and Webinars have now been with us for over a decade. As they continue to increase in popularity and practicality, the future will not see the virtual replace the ‘real life’, but augment it: hybrid events will proliferate, with few live events failing to offer a range of virtual elements.

Here are my top three tips for making sure your events are part of the recovery:

Look after your delegates

Some things will never change – the importance of looking after your delegates is one of them. Contact your delegates early on (within 24 hours of registration), make them feel valued, and keep them reminded and informed. Have your team on hand to offer support throughout the event, and follow up with those who don’t make it. (You can read more about ‘loving thy delegates’ in my colleague Melissa’s post, here.)

Embrace technology

As mentioned above, the most talked about live events now incorporate strong virtual elements. Streaming your event live online will not only expand your present audience, it‘ll help raise awareness of your wider event programme and drive attendance at future shows. Equally, offering a range of post-event, on-demand assets will both enhance your delegates’ experience and act as a set of ready-made publicity materials for any similar events you have planned.

Tweet

There’s already been some discussion on the B2B Marketing site about the dos and don’ts of tweeting when attending and exhibiting at live events. When you’re hosting, however, there’s really no room for argument – Twitter is an excellent way to generate buzz around your show. Create a unique event hashtag and let your attendees do the talking.

While the live event looks here to stay, the next 12 months will almost certainly witness some new trends in event purpose and delivery. With competition in the marketplace still so fierce, I’m expecting to see a rise in the number of smaller events – events whose focus is on nurturing existing client relationships rather than gaining new prospects. What do you think the future holds?

Author: Ben Ford, Marketing Options International

In the fast changing space of social media it’s vital you are able manage time efficiently when engaging with the C-Level on a daily basis.

It can become very easy to spend your whole working day (and beyond) researching, writing, posting and following up on your social media content, in the hopes that it attracts the right eyes.Although boardroom scepticism is decreasing around social media we still need to justify the time and spend.

As a result, marketers are looking for cost saving strategies when engaging in social media and marketing automation is one avenue often explored.It allows you to decrease the amount of time your staff spends on Social Media and also integrates into other marketing channels: increasing the impact of your message.

There has been some (understandable) hesitancy around the use of Marketing Automation in Social Media delivery.The word ‘automation’ naturally flies in the face of being ‘social’ and runs the risk of removing your campaign’s authenticity.A case in point would be the automated ‘follow’ messages on Twitter that ignore the pivotal ‘engagement’ element of Social Media, can be insincere and leave the follower feeling like another number.

Having said that, there is a side to Social Media that does lend itself to automation: the update.It is always important you are kept in your audience’s mind and that they are well informed about any pertinent information, be it about your company or your industry as a whole.

Practically, third party apps are very useful in the automation of posts across all your social media accounts.Scheduling updates and automating their multi-channel output saves you time and money that can be put towards the one social media activity that should never be automated: responding.

A few years ago social media software was developed to speed up the monitoring and measuring capabilities of marketers.It was all about “the quickest way to find conversations”. In 2011 this has now moved on to “the quickest way to action conversations”.

The Social CRM is now one of the fastest growing examples of Social Media Marketing Automation.It allows marketers to not only monitor conversations on social sites but to use that information in lead nurturing, segmentation and scoring along with triggering email marketing campaigns.

Automated Social CRM software can track Twitter conversations, give them a lead score and augment them into a profile that can be delivered straight to your sales/marketing team for use in a lead nurturing campaign.What’s more, you can also pass disqualified leads into a nurture programme, something email marketers will be very familiar with.This enables you to link the campaign into your social media activity and produce the same results.

The ability to track Social Media interest in the early stages of inbound marketing allows lead segmentation and scoring to be streamlined. These can then be automated into both your social and email output strategies. With Salesforce’s acquisition of Radian6, the integration of Automated Marketing and Social Media measuring tools looks set to grow yet further in 2011.

We could say “watch this space” but “action this space” may be more apt.

Author: James Browne, Marketing Options International

It’s easy enough to set up a LinkedIn Group. Click the little green plus sign, think of a name, type in a few words about what you would like to discuss and hit ‘create’. Simple. Setting up a successful LinkedIn Group, however, is a very different matter.

Most marketing professionals now understand that running a popular LinkedIn Group can be a powerful asset for the business, helping to establish thought leadership and enhancing visibility, credibility and reach. LinkedIn’s recent opening up of Group conversations has only made the proposition more compelling: increasingly accessible and searchable, the content you produce and curate can now reach even more people.

But, with nearly 900,000 groups already out there, how do you make sure your group is used, useful and unique – a social hub, not an island? Stuart Morgan, Digital Marketing Director at Marketing Options International, offers his five first steps for giving your LinkedIn Group the best start in life, and for nurturing it towards its full potential.

1. Find your niche. If your group is going to stand out from the crowd it needs a unique focus, and one that’s of interest to your target members. With this in mind, it’s vital to research existing groups related to your subject. Search using keywords, find out who’s already holding discussions in your area, what their agenda is, and how it relates to yours. Once you’ve identified your closest peer groups, join them yourself and monitor their content until you know exactly what gap your group is going to fill.

2. Get support. If your group is going to need input or resources from your senior executives, getting their buy-In and endorsement internally will be crucial to your group’s chance of success. Be ready to make a business case including cost/impact analysis, and to set a goal by which to mark the project’s success, such as a target number of members by a given date. In addition to the support of your executives, you’ll need the backing of a strong, interested team of Group Managers – volunteers from key stakeholder groups, committed to contributing and adding value to discussions. It’s a safe bet that this is a whole lot easier when you’ve got backing from above.

3. Plan ahead. Know the discussions that you want to start in advance, but also keep an eye on news of developing market trends. If conversation dries up, you should always have something topical in reserve to get it flowing again. Don’t, however, limit your planning to content: to take full advantage of the opportunities created by your group, it’s important to develop relationship-building strategies too, detailing (for example) how you might invite members into one-to-one or offline discussions.

4. Get noticed. Tell people about your group – by email, LinkedIn Advertising and InMail, company blogs, Facebook Pages and Twitter feeds. Make sure you and your Group Managers regularly mention it in your status updates on LinkedIn and other social profiles. Feed tweets to the people who run other corporate Twitter profiles and Facebook pages.

5. Keep it up. As a Group Owner, you should be an active, interested presence, but never overbearing – you want to encourage discussion, not stifle it. Keep a constant track of your group’s growth and the prospects it creates. If you’ve won the backing of senior management, let them know how well the group is doing. Give support to your Group Managers when they need it, and don’t forget to keep the conversation alive.

One final piece of advice. Don’t underestimate the importance of Step 1. For your group to be a success its members must want to participate in the discussion – and for this to happen, the group needs to be a valuable, unique resource. So, find that need and satisfy it. Give your members a place to speak, and some of the positive talk is sure to be about you.

Author: Stuart Morgan, Marketing Options International