The Marketing Options Blog

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

At Marketing Options International we pride ourselves on our low level of no-shows, with an average attendance rate of above 80%. We’ve achieved this by gradually transforming our Delegate Management Service into what we call a ‘Concierge Service’, dedicated to nurturing our delegates before, during and after each event.

While many B2B companies are good at the “during” and “after” side of event engagement, we think the “before” aspect is just as important, if not more so.  When our clients invest a lot of money in audience generation, the last thing they want is for all those initial registrations to turn into no-shows by the time the event comes around.  After all, the aim of most events is to generate sales leads, so every no-show is potentially a lost sale.

So what’s the best way to ensure registrations turn into delegates who turn into customers? The key is to make them feel loved from the moment they click the ‘Register Now’ button.  With that in mind, here’s my three-point plan to achieving sky-high attendance rates and delighted delegates:

First impressions: Establish contact with each delegate within 24 hours of registration. This not only demonstrates your own efficiency, it also reassures your delegates that they have correctly completed the registration process. MOI’s confirmation emails are personal, professional and practical, with agendas, calendar links, location maps and transport information. Ensure your communication tailored to each delegate and provide multiple methods for your delegates to get in touch with you – allowing them to contact you via their preferred method.

Staying in touch: What’s the difference between a delegate and an elephant? An elephant never forgets. Whilst  your event is occupying most of your waking hours, it could well have slipped entirely from your delegate’s mind. So, seven days before the event, send out a reminder communication, to ensure that your event stays top of mind.

With three days to go, call each of your delegates to check that they are still planning to attend, and to ask if there’s anything else they need – you might find out, for example, that they would now like to bring a colleague along too. If you are unable to reach a delegate by telephone, be sure to send a short email reassuring them that their place is still confirmed and encourage them to contact you at a time convenient to them.

The event (and beyond): Have your team ready to offer support throughout the event itself. Our commitment to providing a Concierge Service means we’re always on call if needed. (On site, we offer an SMS service, enabling our delegates to stay in touch with us at all times of the day and night.)

Once the excitement is over, follow up: naturally thank the delegates who attended, but also contact those who had to drop out, passing on any resources you can.  The delegates may appreciate your efforts and be more likely to attend one of your events in the future.

It’s a simple idea: love thy delegate, and soon, your delegate will start to love you back. On top of our high attendance rates, we know that if one of our delegates should need to miss an event, they are more likely to tell us that they are to become a no-show.  The increased delegate engagement in turn enables us to better plan our events; with love comes commitment and respect.

Marketing Options International has over 25 years’ experience in planning and delivering engaging and memorable events for our clients and their business customers across the world. For more information about how we can help you with your delegate management or event requirements, please call Melissa Berryman, Delegate Manager, Marketing Options International on  +44 (0)1932 233000 or email melissa.berryman@mointernational.com.

Author: Melissa Berryman, Delegate Manager, Marketing Options International

Register today for our latest webcast, ‘Born digital – The value of virtual events today and tomorrow’ with Ben Ford, event manager, Marketing Options International.

By joining this webcast you will learn more about how digital media can help you enhance the value of your events and have your questions answered in a live Q&A.

Webcast takes place on April 20th from 3.30pm-4.30pm GMT. Click here to register

For event organisers, 2010 was the year of the unexpected. Mother Nature reminded us all how powerless we are when she decides to strike. We saw the year open and close with heavy snowfall across the UK, turning winter from wonderland to wasteland as travel pandemonium ensued.

Last spring brought an even bigger surprise: a volcanic eruption in Iceland made headlines across the world. Air travel came to an abrupt halt and the words ‘Eyjafjallajökull’ and ‘ash cloud’ became synonymous with frustration and despair as thousands struggled to return home or reach their destination.

Whilst disruption on this scale is incredibly frustrating for travellers, for event planners there are also serious professional risks involved. No matter how much hard work you have put into your event, if an “act of God” occurs and you are not prepared, the consequences could damage your company’s reputation for years to come.

As an event planner for MOI Live I have had to deal with many unexpected circumstances, from typhoons, heavy snow and terrorist threats to last year’s incredible volcanic eruption.  What I have learned is that pre-event planning is your most valuable tool. It is the key to being able to move fast and implement an efficient strategy to save your event – and maybe ultimately even your business.

With this in mind, I’ve put together five tips for coping with acts of God in overseas event planning:

• Build great supplier relationships. Treat suppliers as an extension of your own team, and share all your plans, knowledge and contacts. The better they understand your project, the more time and money you will save if you are forced to work remotely. And if your equipment, collateral or team is unable to travel, you will need your local contacts to help you source everything you need quickly and cost-effectively.

• Record everything.  If you cannot travel to the event yourself, it is essential that other members of your extended team have enough information to manage without you. Make detailed notes of everything and ensure they are kept up to date and accessible to everyone who might need them.

• Review travel arrangements. Do you need to rely on air travel to get to your venue? Would it be less risky (and less costly) to drive or go by train instead? Do you need to courier equipment and collateral to the event, or could you source it locally – or store it at the venue in advance? Keeping close tabs on travel plans can keep costs down and allow you to rebook ahead of time if disruption looks likely.

• Check the small print. When the unexpected happens, it’s vital to know where your legal responsibilities lie, what you have agreed with your suppliers, and what is covered by your insurance. Check the small print of all your supplier agreements and insurance policies to avoid any issues that could adversely affect your delegates, costs, reputation or supplier relationships.

• Have a Plan B. Always have a contingency plan. This could even be a macro-level plan such as reformatting a conference or exhibition from a physical one to a virtual one, and to therefore salvage any costs that would have already been spent on elements such as speakers, audience generation etc whilst ensuring audience retention. Or a micro level plan for individual elements of your event that are you consider subject to risk. The key is knowing when to switch to Plan B, and making sure everyone is aware of the altered plan and their continued roles and responsibilities.

All of the above points helped me and my team to successfully manage all of our events when faced with the most unexpected of circumstances. With each challenge we have discovered again and again that being prepared is crucial. So when faced with an act of God, don’t panic – PLAN!

Marketing Options International has over 25 years’ experience of planning arresting, engaging and memorable events for our clients. For more information about how we can help you, please call Chloe Payne, Event Manager, on +44 (0) 1932 233000 or email chloe.payne@mointernational.com

Author: Chloe Payne, Event Manager, Marketing Options International

Coremetrics, an IBM Company partnered with Marketing Options International to deliver a three day Marketing Showcase for 150 of it’s European customers.

The Marketing Showcase took place on the 14^th,15^th and 16^th February at the Jumeriah Hotel, Knightsbridge.  The event attracted the brightest minds in European Retail and Travel and provided the platform for customers to share fresh insight, real life experience and hear the 2011 business strategy from the senior Coremetrics executive team.

On the 14^th MOI invited 20 hand picked customers from across Europe to attend a Coremetrics Customer Advisory Board where they could share their business strategies with the senior executive team and their peers during an exclusive dinner.

On the 15^th and 16^th February the main showcase opened and 150 Coremetrics customers had an opportunity to attend ‘Coremetrics Classroom’, chose from over 9 breakout sessions, hear keynotes from both internal and external experts on the key trends driving change in the online marketing arena and network with Coremetrics and 4 key partners in the Partner Pavilion.

On the evening of the 15^th the Jumeriah was transformed by MOI into Arabian Nights.  Here delegates had the chance to relax and enjoy a night of entertainment.

An onsite customer described the event as, ““Frightfully intelligent and beautifully delivered”

To deliver the Marketing Showcase MOI worked alongside Coremetrics for over 8 months and assisted in every element of the event preparation, execution and follow-up.

“Marketing Options International is an invaluable extension of my team.  They are an absolute pleasure to work with and develop incredible, professional events which exceed expectations at every level, maximize investment and provide quantifiable results.  MOI have created without doubt one of the best events that I have ever been involved with.  It is true to say that customers, sponsors and members of the Coremetrics executive team alike have nothing but praise and I look forward to working with the team again and again.”  Philippa Ochonski, EMEA Marketing Director Coremetrics, an IBM Company.

The Marketing Showcase has been a huge success and opportunities are in the sales pipeline with 29% of all customers who attended already engaged with sales.  41% of all European Customers registered to attend and 77% of all attendees rated the venue and overall event experience as excellent and MOI achieved 81% attendance rate.

To find more about the Coremetrics Showcase please visit www.coremetrics-events.com

Most B2B marketers know by now that social media can add value to their marketing strategy. Yet many are still unsure of where to start, which platforms to use or how to measure and demonstrate the success of their social media marketing initiatives.

Marketing Options International have created a whitepaper, ‘Where’s the beef? How social media can cut the mustard in B2B marketing’.  In this whitepaper seven burning questions being asked by B2B marketers in 2011 will be answered.  The 7 questions include:

1.            Can social media marketing really deliver benefits for B2B brands?

2.            Where should I start?

3.            How do I integrate social media into my overall marketing strategy?

4.            What sort of objectives should I set?

5.            How do I incorporate social media in my marketing mix?

6.            How much budget, time and resource should I dedicate to social media?

7.            How can I measure and demonstrate the success of my social media campaigns?

The whitepaper also provides practical guidance on incorporating social media into your overall marketing strategy. You will learn about some common tactics and techniques for successful social media marketing, and some proven methods of monitoring progress, measuring results and demonstrating ROI.

To access the whitepaper visit: http://www.mointernational.com/wp-content/themes/marketing-options/uploads/wheres-the-beef.pdf

You’ve chatted on the phone. Emailed each other a few times. Realised you had something in common. And then you did it. You met up for a date.

The following day: Wow! That went very well. Lots of smiles and eye contact, lively conversation, and a definite ‘spark’ on both sides. This could lead to something really special.

So, what’s your next move?

Sound familiar? We all know that a fledgling romance needs to be nurtured, and that’s true in business as well as in love. B2B marketers will go to great lengths to make the first date extra-special, whether it’s a conference, tradeshow or a corporate hospitality event. But what happens afterwards is often a different story. No phone calls, no follow-up, nothing to show you’re keen to take things further.

We think it’s time B2B marketers got a bit more romantic. Here are our top 7 lead-nurturing tips for turning a sparkling first date into a fulfilling relationship.

1. Plan your strategy: Before the event, work out what you’re going to do afterwards. If you’ve already created your follow-up communications, you’ll be ready to start capitalising on your contacts straightaway. All you need to do is add a personal touch and send the message out.
2. Get to know them better. Ask your delegates for some relevant information about themselves. Are they decision-makers?  What are their business needs? How could your solution help them? Make sure you note this information down as soon as you’ve finished speaking to them.
3. Don’t be coy: Send a thank you email, text or letter to all your delegates within 24 hours. Not only is it good etiquette, it also lets them know you’re interested in doing business.  You could also connect on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or another social network. It’s not just about the hot leads, either: all delegates should go into your database for ongoing nurturing.
4. Don’t worry about being stood up. No-shows may have had a valid reason for not attending, and shouldn’t be disregarded. Include them in your post-event communications – offering an archived recording of the event or a link to download the event collateral is a good idea.
5. Show you care: Make a note of your delegates’ interests and follow up with relevant information. If they had specific questions or concerns, send them presentations, white papers, articles or any other collateral that addresses their topic of interest. This may also be a good time to invite them to another event on that topic, or direct them to an online forum where they can discuss their interests.
6. Keep the fire burning. Aim to speak with the delegates within 72 hours, using the intelligence you gained at the event to steer your conversation.  Afterwards, use an appropriate blend of channels to keep the communication flowing and strengthen the relationship. Social networking sites are a great way to keep a conversation going in a spontaneous and informal way.
7. Check your progress. Evaluate your success based on cost-per-lead (CPL) or cost-per-opportunity (CPO). Establish your key conversion metrics at the beginning of the campaign and track the status of each lead over the consecutive months.

Follow these lead-nurturing tips, and a wonderful long-term relationship will soon blossom. We’re off to buy our hats right now!

For further insight and advice on event strategy, audience engagement, delegate management and event follow up, download our free guide “The Secrets of B2B Event Success” by visiting www.mointernational.com/event-success

B2B social media marketing took off dramatically in 2010 with more and more businesses exploring the potential, and using increasingly confident and innovative approaches. Looking back over the top-performing strategies and tactics, there are some core lessons that every B2B marketer can learn from those that delivered exceptional results to their businesses. This article highlights ten top tips to help you replicate the success of three social media star-performers from 2010.

Cisco – The ‘Less is more’ Product Launch

In the first half of 2010 Cisco launched their new ASR 1000 router using exclusively social media. They did this so that they could tangibly measure the impact of their social media campaign. The global virtual launch event was a huge success, reaching 90 times the usual number of participants– with reduced costs estimated at over $100K and saving over 42,000 gallons of fuel. The key take-aways from this are:

1. Meet Your audience where they are

Research enabled Cisco to create innovative methods of reaching people, such as iPhone Apps, and gaming. They discovered 17-18% of IT professionals play online games every day, so they created their own game where users ‘defended the network using the ASR’. This helped communicate the product launch with greatly reduce spend, resources and logistics.

2. Make it easy to re-post your content

Cisco assembled videos, collateral and images in a widget format and embedded it into “social media” news releases and launch pages. Bloggers and others could spread the information easily using the ‘embed’ code. The widget thus accelerated the republishing of their marketing content – in essence turning the audience into PR agents.

3. Monitor results to get success benchmarks

Cisco has a team using social media monitoring tools to measure the impact of campaigns relative to cost and – crucially – after the campaign has finished they can successfully set tangible benchmarks for the next campaign. In this way Cisco manages to equate their social media activities with measurable ROI.

4. Use multiple platforms to ensure universal messaging

Cisco ensured that they captured all of their possible audience by having active campaigns on Facebook, blogs, forums, video, mobile platforms and gaming sites. This ensured that Cisco could creatively deliver their messaging to the widest audience using fresh and varied formats appropriate to the context.

Kinaxis – Converting the Community

In 2009 Kinaxis launched an integrated social media program focused on building a community in the Supply Chain Management field. The goals were simply to increase web traffic and conversions. By the end of 2010 they had increased website traffic over two-and-a-half times, and more than tripled conversions  – through innovative content and careful implementation.

5. Use content and context to inspire your audience

To overcome the perceived ‘boring’ nature of Supply Chain Management, Kinaxis created spoof TV show ‘The Late Late Supply Chain Show’ which uses comedy and informative demonstrations to draw interest. Creative, human approaches using video and interaction really engage audiences. Efforts like this means companies like Kinaxis thrive in B2B social media marketing because they align quality content with a context that is relevant to their audience.

6. Integrate social media with other marketing activity

Kinaxis set ambitious targets for their social media marketing to more-than-double traffic and conversion. But they managed to exceed these goals by integrating social media activity with an already-strong SEO program. Running both campaigns alongside each other also saw engagement with the company blog massively improve, from a disappointing lack of interest a few years back to a 530% increase in traffic. Who said supply chain management was boring?

7. Be patient

Despite popular opinion, social media is not a quick fix. Yes, it is real-time; and yes, engagement is instant. But to build a successful campaign takes skill, time and effort. Social media is not free – but approach it strategically and it can greatly reduce spend and resources in the long term. Kinaxis started using Social Media in 2004. After a creative rethink in 2007, they carefully and meticulously planned a broad social media strategy centred on building a community. In 2010 they led their field in the use of social media.

Archer Technologies – Closed loop marketing

Winner of a 2009 Forrester Groundswell Award, Archer Technologies went from strength to strength in their social media campaign in 2010. The company runs two community platforms that enable their clients to interact within a forum-based environment (The Archer Community) and to download and share applications (The Archer Exchange).

8. Get customers talking together in a viewable space

The Archer Community gave customers the ability to interact directly with each other – to share ideas, concerns and advice. It now gets 20 new members a week, with 4,000 unique visits and over 400 downloads. Likewise ‘The Archer Exchange’ created a channel for the company to push out applications to dedicated enthusiasts. The Archer Exchange boasts 17,000 unique visits, 90,000 page views and 1,200 downloads every week. By figuring out what customers really wanted, and creating focused spaces where it could happen, Archer Technologies effectively got all their customers together in one place where advocacy was able to manifest itself strongly.

9. Use customer feedback to drive and enhance change

Both the ‘The Archer Community’ and ‘The Archer Exchange’ enabled Archer Technologies to monitor industry expectations and learn from their customers’ requirements. This level of education through user feedback and sharing led the company to declare in early 2010 that ‘The Archer Community’ had contributed directly to the development of their Business Continuity Management, Mobile GRC and Data Feed Manager applications.

10. Ignore feedback at your peril

Archer Technologies harnessed what their customers were saying and applied it into real life strategies. But conversely, ignoring what customers tell you – especially in social media channels – undermines your campaign by making it appear as a transparent marketing ploy. This is risky, because disaffected audiences can tell you so – quite publicly. Ultimately setting yourself up to hear customers’ opinions and then ignoring them would be detrimental to your reputation. The good news is that the reverse is also true – and the unsolicited testimony of happy customers is a key reward of committing to social media.