An interview centred around the topic of B2B Marketing Automation (MA). Topics covered include how MA helps:
Like any good interviews, it took place in a restaurant/bar :)
This is my favourite local wine shop. I shop there all the time. I’m so protective of it that I’m going to keep its identity secret!
But let me explain what this shop has to do with good marketing.
It's all to do with Bob, the manager of the shop. You see, Bob knows me. He knows what I like, what I don’t like, what I’ve tried before. What I’ve bought recently. That I like to cook and entertain. The kinds of things I like to cook. My attitude to wine. My price range for normal evenings and for special occasions.
Where I live. Where I work. What I do for a living. How many kids I have.
Three weird facts you need to know:
In fact I enjoy buying from Bob. I love the experience that much.
The bad news: most of today's marketing is far from Bob. In fact its decidedly un-Bobular.
If Bob was a marketer instead of the world’s best wine salesman, I’d walk in and instead of saying “Hey John, how’d you get on with that Riesling?” he’d say, “Hello potential customer. This is a wine shop. We have red wine and white wine and sparkling wine. Some of it is from France.’
Instead of saying, “I’ve got a Rioja that your wife is going to rave about.” he’d say, “Buy three cases of Asti and get one free!” (I loathe Asti).
Behavioural Marketing is the best way to get more Bob-like. And it really is a simple idea:
Simple.
Its being Bob-like on a massive scale - being that personal, informed brand that doesn’t treat every customer like a new person who just walked in off the street.
Treating each one like the valued individual that they are.
Go forth and become Bob!
I came across this video recently and it did make me laugh. Despite the plethora of "Sh*t XXXX say" videos.
Favourite pokes for me:
Anyway, enjoy!
Looking forward to speaking at the B2B Marketing Forum in Amsterdam on March 14th.
My presentation will be titled "The end of segmentation in B2B Marketing". In a nutshell it'll be about how marketing should focus on a more personal approach, instead of a segmented one. I'll be giving some prime examples from best-in-class companies and sharing my experiences and tips with the audience.
In advance of that here's a short interview I did with event organizer Shimon Ben Ayoun.
It's something I've never really considered before, but recently I've been pondering on whether or not to automatically reply to my new followers on twitter (so called Auto DMs).
You know the thing - you follow a subject matter expert and within minutes you get a bot-driven response back such as "Thanks for following" or "Check out my fantastic site" or "Hey, follow me on Facebook too!"
The problem is, this is all very self serving and self indulgent. And as a follower myself I'm not sure it really adds much value. Working with leading consumer brands, this is similar to the Welcome/Onboarding challenge many businesses have in trying to build an emotional connection with their consumers. This is difficult to achieve at scale, and most businesses resort to automation as a way to manage the volumes. But whether you're a business or an individual, we're all trying to sell/market our services in a way that helps us stand out from the crowd and build a better connection with our audiences.
Back to me (sorry for being selfish), I really enjoy connecting with fellow marketers around the world and sharing thoughts and ideas. Auto DMs in the way most people use them, however, go against this. They're impersonal (bad), self promoting (badder) and have little thought put in to them (baddest). And above all, they're counter to the fundamental principles of social media - to share interesting stuff and to enter into a conversation.
That's why recently I came upon a great idea. Why not think a bit differently about Auto DMs, step away from the "about me" and step nearer the "about my community".
That's why I've started to Auto DM new followers with a simple message that encapsulates gratitude for following along with a desire to share. It is this:
No promoting my blog (you can find that easily enough). No sales pitch on me or my company. Just a note of thanks and some suggestions on people I rate as a way for you to get a better understanding of who I am.
In fact I've gone a stage further, using SocialOomph I rotate this message randomly to allow me to share even more great people. I have 4 messages now:
Thats 12 people I rate and trust now shared with my new followers. Ultimately I think this is a smarter use of Auto DM as it leverages automation, is way more positive and delivers much more value to both sides of the equation (in the business world we'd call that "delivering a better customer experience").
And the great news? It's working. Here's some of the feedback (keep it coming) I've got back in just the last week:
So why not give it a try yourself? After all, just like the real world, aren't we defined ourselves by the friends we have?
Email is, and should be, a pivotal part of revenue driving digital marketing strategy. But in an increasingly noisy world we all have to work harder to build an emotional connection with our customers. What really gains results is the delivery of the right message at the right time via the right channel.
I was honoured to share some thoughts on the matter on a recent Silverpop webinar with over 100 UK marketers. You can see my slides below. In the session I talk about:
Hopefully you'll find it interesting. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss anything contained within.
As a B2B marketer based in the United Kingdom, I’m always interested in the state of marketing in the region versus the United States. Typically the assumption is that the UK is behind, but I don’t believe it’s as clear-cut as that.
To consider the topic further, I took a look at three key areas of B2B marketing – sales cuIture, adoption of technology and communications approach – to see how both sides stacked up. And to help, I asked the following panel of B2B marketing experts to comment on each area:
Sales Culture
One of the keys to great B2B marketing is having a strong sales culture. All of our panelists agreed that selling is more ingrained in the United States, with greater pride there in the art of selling. As Joel Harrison put it, “Sales is more open and direct … which means buyers are more open to this approach.”
This culture of selling manifests itself in external marketing too — specifically, the desire of marketers to build their own personal brand, something seen as critical by many to building any company’s social media standing. “U.S. marketers seem more willing to step out from behind the brand and build relationships personally that benefit the brand,” noted Doug Kessler. “I know the names of marketers of U.S. companies, but very few in the UK.”
However, in terms of go-to-market models, I would argue the United Kingdom is a bit further ahead. As Bob Apollo pointed out, “The UK and Europe as a whole have certainly struck me in the past as being more intelligent in their use of channel partners than some of their U.S. colleagues.”
Adoption of Technology
When it comes to marketing technology, the agreement was that UK adoption is anywhere from 12 months to 24 months behind the United States. According to Gerry Brown, “The U.S. is embracing more advanced technologies, such as website personalization, more readily and with more enthusiasm.” This reflects the fact that British executives are more cautious about new technologies, wanting to see proof before purchase.
But that said, adoption doesn’t necessarily mean advanced implementations. Apollo agreed with me that there are wider differences between the early adopters and the laggards within each economy than there are between the United States and the United Kingdom on average.
Communications Approach
The shift away from mass marketing to behavioral marketing has seen an explosion in the channels, the type of content and the engagement models used by B2B marketers. Here, both sides of the Atlantic seem evenly matched.
Roger Warner highlighted how social media is driving a new breed of UK B2B marketer, particularly in hi-tech businesses. These companies have traditionally been execution muscle for U.S. corporate offices, but are now taking more control of their local brand communications.
“They are creating fit-for-purpose content and branding programs employing more consumer marketing-like tactics, because they have established freedom,” said Warner. “The results are great. Salesforce is a super example.”
There was also a definite consensus on the style of communications. The U.S. market is seen as more comfortable with a tone of voice that is “chummy,” “off-hand” and “informal,” as opposed to the United Kingdom, which tends to “business-focused,” “restrained” and “functional.”
Conclusions
In summary, the two regions seem to have more in common than different. Most of the experts agreed there wasn’t a huge gap between the two regions and that it’s not about the U.S. versus the UK. As Doug Kessler neatly put it, “There are good and bad B2B marketers on both sides of the Atlantic. The good have more in common with their good colleagues across the ocean than they do with the bad in their own country.”
[Originally posted on the Silverpop Blog]
There's a lot going on right now in the evolution of B2B Marketing, especially in marketing automation. There's lots of discussion, debate and, dare I say it, hype.
That's why I'm delighted to be hosting a pragmatic, no sales pitch seminar on B2B Marketing Automation in March.
I'll be joined by CleverTouch, probably one of the most experienced Marketing Automation consultancies in the UK and Ellen Valentine, experienced CMO and now marketing strategist at Silverpop. Together they represent the best of the best in B2B marketing automation excellence.
To host such a fine line up we had to choose a suitable location known for its fine products. That's why we're at the world famous Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly in London. Established in 1707 as a grocery store, it is now recognised internationally for its high quality goods and as an iconic British symbol. Perfect we thought!
The event is on Tuesday 12 March from 08:30 to 11:15. You'll find out how a behavioral marketing approach can help you better integrate your email, web, mobile and social media marketing and deliver outstanding ROI. Heard enough? You can register here.
Join your B2B marketing peers, our marketing strategy experts, hear the latest trends and see actionable insights to help you win more business, plus of course the chance to enjoy breakfast at an icon of British retailing.
Join us for a winning agenda:
As I said, the event is an exclusive, no sales pitch, invite only event and is free of charge. However places are very limited, so please sign up as soon as you can.
I look forward to seeing you on the 12th.
I was having lunch with a B2B marketing peer recently (he'll remain nameless) who was struggling to get traction with his CEO in order to justify/demonstrate the full value of marketing.
His problem was marketing just wasn't seen as strategic enough and he wasn't getting the funding to do the sort of thing he just knew would add bags of value. You know the situation - marketing's all about slide decks and collateral, and doesn't get to the table for revenue and market conversations.
He was convinced that his company could benefit from customer-oriented messaging, solution selling and better targeting. And that marketing should be leading the charge. So, like any diligent marketer he had set about writing a strategy document to convince his board to invest more. It was based on industry best practice & other-company case examples.
Whilst I applauded him for being so rigorous, I do believe there is a better way. As B2B marketers we're surrounded by stunning insights about our business that are within our reach right now. There's such a wealth of data available to us through customer behaviours and digital interactions it's phenomenal. And all of this can be exploited not only in execution, but in strategy.
So rather than writing a strategy document, I suggested to my peer that he do some simple market tests. I gave him three ideas which were like light-bulbs to him, but I guess sometimes got lost in his desire to think big:
1. Run a webinar. Think a topic is hot? But struggling to get management buy-in to sponsor value proposition development/sales training/solution development? Set up a 30 minute webinar and invite a portion of your database. Use an event platform like eventbrite or amiando and the whole thing's free. See who signs up and use the names as proof of interest to your management, And if you get no response, then you have your answer too. You can even A/B test the email invitation's subject line to try out which message resonates the most along the way.
2. Take out Linkedin ads. Arguing over product-oriented vs customer-oriented messaging? Use Linkedin ads to test out different messaging, e.g. "See how Watton Version 3 is fab" vs "Find out how retailers like you have reduced operating costs by 10%". Present the click thru rates to your management team.
3. Analyze wins. Want to illustrate which industry segments to go after? Dig into your CRM system and find out your company's last 10/50/100 wins. Build out your own analysis of each win (sub-vertical, av. deal size, company size, ERP system etc,) and then find out the addressable market size. All of the data is available at little or no cost. You can then present a market opportunity vs likelihood of winning boston matrix as a way of getting the conversation going.
What I love about all of the above is that they are:
But more importantly, they are real, tangible expressions of what your customers, not your company, think.
What's more you can tweak, scrap, improve and learn. Quickly. This continual running of small tests should be how we all do our marketing. Its an injection of data into our gut & rapidly transforms our marketing.
Hopefully I inspired my peer to try it out!
Working in the software technology industry and based in the UK means invariably you're working for the European subsidiary of a US-headquartered business.
This often throws up lots of challenges, many of which I've experienced over the years. There are inherent differences between planning and executing campaigns in EMEA vs US (let alone differences between different European countries). Languages and cultures, budget centralisation (or over-localisation) and global team structures can all result in marketing friction.
Its a topic dear to my heart, which is why I'm pleased to be taking part in a panel discussion on how EMEA regional marketing teams work most successfully, with (often US) centralised resources.
In this event you’ll learn how me and other practitioners from Zuora and Brother address issues related to running EMEA marketing in a global business.
The event's on Feb 28th at BPP Business School in London
If you want to hear some interesting debate you can sign up on the event website.
