Finally a pop star: Five reasons I joined @silverpop

I'm absolutely delighted to have come on board at Silverpop, joining the EMEA leadership team to further grow the business in the region.

For those of you who don't know us, we're a digital marketing technology provider that unifies marketing automation, email, mobile, and social. Ultimately we help marketers build more personalised digital communications, with the aim of strengthening customer relationships, tracking the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and providing better qualified, sales-ready leads.

As a B2B marketer I've been on the connected sales & marketing journey for many years myself. I started out with list based telemarketing, stopped off on high-end CRM systems, moved on to personalised emailing then in the past five years embraced marketing automation (MA) and social media marketing. So its great to go "vendor side" and get involved with a company at the heart of the market.

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For me, outside of being in a post-punk new wave indie rock band (don't ask) its as close as I get to doing a personal passion for a living. (Which is why I also love that Silverpop calls its employees "pop stars"). 

So why did I join Silverpop? Here are five reasons (with some links to tunes thrown in for good measure):

1. Hot hot hot. Behavioural marketing is hot and we're seeing an explosion in interest in MA, customer experience and personalised digital marketing tools. This market is going places. Fast.

2. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Silverpop is well placed to take advantage of this growth, having a heritage of nearly 10 years in email, MA and social/mobile. Less brash than some of the newer upstarts, its been focussed on doing the best for its customers, with high retention rates and commitment to success. I love that. Its also bigger than many of the perceived "leaders", profitable and growing at a fair old tick. Great place to be!

3. The Song Remains The Same. Let's be honest, many dismiss companies like Silverpop from the MA discussion as our heritage is in email marketing. As if  this somewhat invalidates our MA credentials! In my opinion that's nonsense. Email is the backbone of digital marketing and for many segments remains the preferred channel for customers conversations. Silverpop brings together the best of all worlds: scaleabale emailing + MA + social + mobile.  Oh, and lets not forget Silverpop have had MA capability since 2007, years ahead of many of its competitors.

4. All You Good Good People. I'm a believer that great companies are made up of great people who exhibit an "employee first" culture. And this came through strongly in the interview process. I got to speak with the majority of Bill Nussey and his Exec team and I came away impressed by an as unified, professional and passionate team as you'd care to meet. It was clear this team had a common purpose and an answer to why they do what they do, not just what they do (read the rather excellent Culture Shock by Will McInnes if you want to know what I mean). 

5. Good together.  I was more than impressed on my visit to Silverpop's Atlanta HQ to witness the weekly pipeline review meeting. Get this : sales and marketing do a pipeline review. At the same time! Together!! IN THE SAME ROOM!!! This totally blew me away and is a refreshing change to the blame culture and sales/marketing divide in many companies from my past. I just know my job will be 100 times easier because of this collaborative approach.

So, I'm looking forward to the forthcoming weeks and months and getting to know my fellow pop stars. In the meantime, feel free to contact me should you want to know more about Silverpop and what we do.

PS 10 points if anyone can name the post-punk new wave act in the photo. :-)

Tech companies entering EMEA: A 5 point content marketing plan if you have no marketing team #marketing #b2b #socialmedia #contentmarketing

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A friend of mine is currently gunning to help a US software business establish a foothold in the UK. He asked me for an idea of what a marketing plan could look like (and of course pass it off as his own….that’s Ok, he’s a good friend). Key thing is he's a sales guy, with a handful of consultants and without a marketing team (for now). So I had to come up with something really pragmatic, Here’s what I said. I think it hangs together quite well, is anchored around content marketing & social media and seems common sense to me. I have a horrible feeling that is what you get from a content marketing consultant. So I’m happy to have provided some advice for free, albeit without an @equalman YouTube video.

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Some thoughts on a marketing approach.

Firstly I'm guessing they don't have $$$ and want something pragmatic.

Secondly, I'm assuming there's not much of a team in UK?

Nowadays I'm a big supporter of social media for building awareness - only thing is it'll require you to do some regular, content work :-) The basic principle is to share information and engage in a conversation. Not to bombard people with broadcast sales messages.

1. Segmentation

  • Use their existing base to profile the perfect customer segments.
  • Either purchase lists or telemarket to build your prospecting list around these core segments.
  • Build reference material (quotes/case study/presentation/video) that can be used as sales support material.

2. Market your references

  • Take a reference customer in one of your target segments, and if they have a UK rep, organise a breakfast briefing and invite prospects like them. Don't talk your company - just let the customer talk about what they're doing. Event can be short & to the point - 08:30 start, 09:30 finish. You can follow up with company information etc at a later date.
  • If the customer doesn't have a local rep, set up a 30 minute webcast and get them to talk.
  • No matter what format you use, record it!  Video the briefing or record the webcast. That way you can re-use later!- Try and do 1 or 2 of these a month - make it a regular series. You may choose to segment by industry etc.

3. Build Content

  • If you have any local customers, go and visit them & get them on video. Just take a flip video and grab 2-3 minutes of them answering a few simple questions such as "what are your major challenges?", "why did you choose us?", "compare life before and after us". You can send the questions in advance, then post the video on the sites below.
  • Identify 3-5 topics/themes that you can write about/comment on. Use these as monthly themes - everything you do that month hangs off that theme.
  • Do a video blog yourself! Don't laugh, it gives your local presence a face - you can a daily/weekly update on latest thoughts/news. No one worries about production values these days, so you can use a flip video in your office & upload to youtube etc!

4. Distribute Content

  • See if you can build a UK blog to post content on to, such as what's happening in the UK, latest news, customers, views/opinions/ whatever. Helps you build profile.
  • Sign up a twitter account. Use search.twitter.com to find UK tweeters. Follow them. They should follow back.
  • Tweet or post your blog content via a distribution tool  (will distribute to all the major social networking platforms)
  • Put all your (non-confidential) marketing material on slideshare (presentations), scribd (white papers, brochures, case studies) and youtube (video). It'll help with SEO and boost your google rankings.

5. Get known in all the right places - both offline & online

Get a view of upcoming conferences/seminars in the region on your company's domain. If no budget, try to get yourself on as a speaker or just get registered as an attendee. If budget exists, sponsorship is an option - if budget's tight, offer to sponsor coffee breaks or something similar.

  • Subscribe to any online/offline local publications. Get a feel for which ones are good - post comments to any relevant articles. Make a note of the writers/get their contact details.
  • Think really really hard about sending anything to press! If you do, try to make it very very relevant (either to an article you read or an upcoming feature). And if you do, follow up by phone. Getting to press is harder than its ever been and you really have to work at it.
  • Identify any relevant blogs/communities that are UK specific (you can use blogsearch.google.com). Get signed up.
  • Sign up for any LinkedIn Groups.
  • Begin commenting on the blogs/pages/groups, with links to your UK site(?) or your contact details. This'll get you known in the online community. Of course, don't pitch. Use the themes built in stage 3.

Is it better to share than create? #b2b #socialmedia #marketing

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The realm of social media is making fuzzy the idea of content creation and origination. Are we moving to a world where we value editorial expertise rather than original thought?

Exhibit 1. Recently a (relatively well known) blogger picked up on a case study someone had written on the (social media) work I'd painstakingly planned and executed over the last 18 months. The case study was written by someone who had met me once at a seminar and proceeded to document my work from other web articles and references. I was involved in proof reading & fact checking the article, but was never interviewed directly. The blogger than picked up this article, summarized and published it. No additional commentary was added and to be fair he did refer to the original article. However what was amazing was the blog comments he got on how great his writing skills were and what a master of getting to the point he was. None of these were replied with "I'm just summarizing, I must give credit to the author etc.". Nope, just "thanks, you're too kind." Plus to some comments he proceeded to explain my strategy and approach as if he'd met me and was involved. I've never met the guy. And whilst i have no problem with the publicity its the implicit claiming of the origination of the content i detest.

And when I chipped in to say I'm happy to share my story (I really am) he replied by spouting nonsense about him being good for my personal brand. Plllllease.... Exhibit 2. A well known business consultant frustrates the hell out of me. He's clearly trying to promote himself as a "thought leader" but when you follow him on Twitter you'll notice he has very few opinions of his own - preferring to retweet other content. Even retweeting bursts of 10-20 tweets in 2-3 minutes. Even if you're buying into his editorial expertise, loving the way he's acting as a content filter just for you, how can he possibly have read fully 20 or so articles in 2 minutes, digested the content and decided it's fit for sharing? (remember he's also filtered out 40 or so other articles that weren't fit).

These guys exemplify all that is bad in social media. Especially Twitter. A world full of watchers from the sidelines, gurus who talk, not do. Gravitate to the shiny popular guys. Its not what you know it's who you know. And ultimately don't create, just share.

The hype of marketing automation needs a few silver surfers. Notes from #Funnel12 @econsultancy #b2b #marketing #MA

Despite the buzz around the delegates at eConsultancy's Funnel 2012, I came away needing even more reassurance around the promise of funnel marketing and marketing automation (MA).

Don't get me wrong, it was a great event. As Doug Kessler (disclaimer: i like Doug) put it, its like the Bah Mitzvah of B2B marketing - full of friends and family.  What concerned me though was the lack of practical experience & advice. Too much hype, not enough action. And too many vendors telling you the same thing in 20 minutes (on which, guys it's not the 90s. If we want to find out about your product, we don't need to come to a trade event any more). From what I heard, Eloqua faired worse on this front with marketo marginally better. At least Silverpop shared how they did nurturing rather than resort to a product demo. The best however was Hubspot (which I'll come to later).

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We're in an interesting phase in MA, coming out of a hype cycle into the cold reality of implementation. But to avoid the trough of disillusionment (which believe me is coming fast) its time to can the youthful energy and bring out the grey hairs please!  The grey hairs of experience, The grey hairs of failures. The grey hairs of reassurance. Reassurance for the vast majority of companies that this stuff actually works and can deliver value. Its time to move on.  

The battle scars and successes were sadly lacking in the pitches by inside salesmen and mid-level marketers. I've been privileged enough to have been on the inside of several business technology waves - from relational databases to ERP to eProcurement to spend management. And I can tell you what ultimately made them a success was having the party, surviving the hangover and delivering results. All of these were over hyped, but all survived on the back of experienced consultants and subject matter experts. So in funnel marketing where are the senior business process consultants to integrate sales & marketing ? Where are the seasoned technology implementers to get stuff done? All were sadly missing from Funnel12.

There were notable exceptions. Kings of inbound marketing Hubspot and their rockstar CMO, Mike Volpe, did an outstanding job with a presentation full of stats, facts and learnings (it also doesn't do any harm that Mike is a super slick presenter). But the presentation was based on SIX YEARS of Mike's experience, making him a veritable silver surfer in inbound marketing.

Stan Woods (disclaimer: I like Stan too) did an admirable job sharing the results of lead nurturing at Canonical (even if I did come away with a burning need to procure an open source OS). Bob Apollo was another highlight. A battle-scarred sales & marketing veteran replete with armed combat analogies, he's been working with sales & marketing teams for 20+ years. And it shows (in a nice way Bob). His appreciation of the problems were evident, his recommendations were clear and his presentation delivery was spot on. Not only is Bob a grey hair (and indeed beard) but as an aside he addresses the biggest challenge of demand generation. Not the technology and the cool features but - raising it up the chain of command to the C-suite. And to do that, you need A LOT of grey hairs!

So, all in all a great day. You can see all my tweets here. But please next time, more "silver surfers". And maybe then, I'll be more reassured.

Five takewaways from Marketo's Revenue Rockstar Unplugged

Some thoughts on today's Marketo Revenue Rockstar event in the not-so-rockstar surroundings of a serviced office in Reading. Well, I guess all acts have to start touring somewhere :-)

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1. Its still early days for MA. Watching the (two) bright young things of marketo play out their vision to a room of fortysomething CRM consultants brought it home to me that this Marketing Automation (MA) stuff is still new to most. Having been a beta customer of marketo and an MA implementor since 2007, I forget that this is most people's first BBQ.

2. Hype cycle tiring? With very few end clients and less buzz than what i understand from last year's event, vendors like Marketo have to be careful about stretching out the hype. Especially in markets like the UK. There were less than 25 at today's event - perhaps failing to attract the late adopters/early majority? We need more case studies, (sadly just one today, even if it was an able presentation by NewVoiceMedia), proof points & anecdotes and reassure people you've done this before. Many times.

3. MA is the flipside of content. Great to see Kieran from marketo spending some time on content marketing. Often neglected by many in the MA journey, its the elephant in the room. Great that you can converse, drip & nurture prospects without human intervention. But what are you going to say?? So time and effort in thinking about personas, content topics & and an editorial calendar is critical. (Also great to see content supremo Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners namechecked. Hire him. I did!)

4. Complete the equation: Success = Technology + Blank + Blankety Blank. Missing from today was any mention of process & people. 99% of the challenge in MA is cultural. And of that the real challenge is sales & marketing alignment. My worry is MA is being bought as a toy for the marketing team to automate their activities, when the real value is using it to integrate sales & marketing.

5. Insight trumps execution. Since business process automation software was invented in the 70s, the real value in any automated process (be that finance, logistics and now demand generation) is the insight you gain from the data collected. Its not about scheduling that follow-up email or distributing that social media whitepaper. Its about what you learn from the customer interactions with it. This is where you get the real advantage. marketo are making some early inroads with their (costed) additional analytics modules, but there's a long way to go here.

So, all in all a good day. Thanks to marketo for laying it on, and for saving me a few $$$ with a free copy of Revenue Disruption !

My Digital Life Manifesto

Don't get me wrong. I love technology and I love social media. But sometimes I feel I/you/society have/has lost the plot. So in response, i've tried to adopt a 5 point plan to coping. My Digital Life Manifesto, if you will. 

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  1. Less weak connections, more strong connections. I’m spending far too much time reading the musings of people I hardly know (and probably would never like if I ever met them) and not enough time with my “true” friends and family. Distractedly reading the tweets of a social media consultant in Ohio should not trump playing with my kids. Time to step away from the digital device (for example, I physically put my phones/tablets/laptops as far away as I can at home) and actually meet people i know and love. Oh, and when I do meet up, remember to not be checking my iPhone all the time rather than engaging in good old conversation.
  2. More dumb devices.  There’s a reason why in the “olden days” (i.e. pre-2006) I used to go off to a quiet spot or room to get stuff done. ITS CALLED FOCUS. The same applies to our digital lives. Smartphones and tablets only serve to distract you from what needs to be done. So I’m going to be ruthless and kill the alt-tab culture and go back to using more dedicated (or I guess, dumb) devices. So when I listen to music I’m using my iPod CLASSIC and taking the time to enjoy my tunes (it also handles my 12,000+ library too). And if I want to read an eBook, I use my Kindle and actually read (not flick to twitter, check the footie or reload facebook). I even have a separate personal phone for (certain) evenings and (most) weekends that doesn’t contain my work calendar or work email. My good friend Roger Warner has gone one step further – using one that can only text and make calls. Read his DumbPhone Manifesto for further inspiration. DUMB DEVICE BONUS POINT! Battery life on dumb devices is awesome.
  3. Turn off the twitter firehose and end FOMO. I’ve been tweeting for over 3 years but I still have only the one stream in my twitter clients. I’ve gradually come addicted to continually checking for updates (boy does facebook feel so sloooow compared to twitter), fiddling with my iPhone every 10 minutes even late into the night (and annoying my wife when at home and my friends when out and about). Some call it the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). But you know what, having taken a break over Xmas (I deleted twitter from my iPhone), I didn’t feel any less informed or less connected. So it’s time to (finally) use those lists and focus. So a careful bit of curating and I’ll hand pick the accounts I love and build mini-firehoses in Tweetdeck.
  4. Twitter egotists – your time is over (part 1). OK, so if you’re Ashton Kutcher or Stephen Fry you deserve a bit of a latitude in the broadcast vs conversation debate. Fair enough, you can’t possibly follow back and engage all your followers (although Mr. Fry tries admirably, following 50,000 or so). But if you’re a white collar worker in the marketing or advertising industry – shame on you. You are not a celebrity nor are you a person of importance. Stop the broadcasting, you have nothing special to say anyway. 10,000 followers & 800 following? In 2012 - UNFOLLOW.
  5. Twitter egotists – your time is over (part 2). I follow you. You don’t follow me? In 2012 – UNFOLLOW. (And yes, I know I have to get my house in order in reverse :-))  

So there you have it. That’s my 5 point Digital Life Manifesto. Anyone with any more?

Entering a new geographical market

I was delighted to be interviewed by marketo for their latest marketing guide "The Definitive Guide to International Market Entry & Expansion".

Over the course of last 10 years I've helped several businesses expand into new markets (be that North American companies coming to Europe or European businesses expanding Internationally) and its something I feel passionate about.

In particular, the ability of even the smallest business to build an emotional connection with their audiences through a wealth of cost effective technology options never dreamt of 10 years ago. Here I not only refer to social media and social sharing tools, but also marketing automation platforms such as marketo (which is why I guess I was asked to comment), eloqua and silverpop. For a few thousand dollars or so, companies can now curate content and share it with customers & prospects at the right time in their buying cycle, personalised to their particular requirements. Sprinkle on a comms personality that is distinctive, human and compelling and you have something that stands  out from the crowd. Even if you're the smallest of businesses! 

    ​Anyway, I recommend anyone in B2B Marketing with multi-segment responsibility to take a peek at the guide.