Month: October 2010

A sad truth about most traditional b2b marketing

“People who don’t care, selling products to people who care even less.”

I was at a conference recently where the senior executives spent the entire day talking about profits, market share and growth… they never once mentioned that the pharmaceuticals they were selling were saving lives, or that changes in the product or its pricing could reduce side effects or the load on the patient and her doctor.

This disconnect is becoming less common, but it still happens. It’s okay to be passionate about what you sell, even if it’s an industrial chemical. It’s okay to be connected to your suppliers and vendors, even if you’re spending company money to buy from them.

Many businesses focus exclusively on saving money (or so they think) when they publish an RFP and take bids for this product or that service. It’s only later when they discover the sticky gas pedal or the customer angry about a stock out that they realize that paying attention to their suppliers beyond price is a good idea.

If you’ve ever met someone who is passionate about tax accounting or warehouse roofing systems, you understand the power that this passion can have in transforming a client. The challenge is for the supplier to hire passionate people and then give them the room and support to actually care.

“Without apology, we care about what we make and the companies (and people!) that help us make it.”

Not an easy thing to say, because if you rely on numbers alone, you get deniability. Blind bidding means you don’t have to care about anything but price. An RFP means you don’t have to compare apples and oranges. Anonymous business clients means you don’t have to answer the phone when it’s easier to send it to voice mail.

Except that caring works. On both sides.

Seth Godin

B2B, Social Media and Search

Search is especially crucial for business-to-business (B2B) enterprises and it seems that social media is playing an important role to improve B2B’s search performance.

According to data from BtoB magazine and Business.com, almost half of the B2B marketers surveyed indicated that social media has had positive influence over search performance.

So, how does social media improve search? Generating inbound links is the trick and social media is the vehicle to do just that. Businesses, which are capable of producing compelling content, usually see better results. Great content is easily sharable and garners engagement. The more clicks the shared link receives, the better the quality of the inbound link becomes.

Other than link building, B2Bs also use social media to expand their profiles and presence to increase their rankings on major search engines on an overall basis.

But while all the focus is on search ranking, it’s important that B2Bs also have a kick-ass webpage that converts visitors to clients. Otherwise, it would be just adding more non-performing pretty statistics to your Google Analytics totals.

Social media for B2B isn’t just about search, but it can be a powerful tool if used correctly.

Willis Wee

Penn Olson Social Media

Takeaways from Altimeter’s “Rise of Social Commerce”

Altimeter Group hosted The Rise of Social Commerce event on October 6th and 7th at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto. Theme for the conference was: The push for customer advocacy. Reinvent your brand through the Rise of Social Commerce

Shoppers want to belong. They want to be heard. They crave a better buying experience. Power is shifting from the retailer to the shopper. Social commerce is filling the void between clicks and bricks to deliver this personalized experience.

Technologies are emerging answer the challenge. Point of Presence (POP) is combining with Point of Sale (POS) to influence, persuade, and guide shopping. Artificial reality and virtualization is enhancing interaction. Social media is evolving to social commerce to improve the in-store experience. Attend this event to understand how companies are capitalizing on these trends to influence shopping on mobile devices, automate check-out and link the voice of the customer to the value chain.

The following points represent my takeaways from this landmark session:

  • Social commerce was defined as “the use of social technologies to connect, listen, understand and engage to help improve the shopping experience.”
  • In 2010, 20% of 200 companies had a social commerce strategy; in 2011 86% plan to have one.
  • 90% of companies will increase funding for social commerce by 8% in 20011
  • It seems that the Social Commerce world is fixated on what they refer to as “frictionless commerce” vs. the value of relationships.
  • The vast majority of discussion centered around how to create direct sales by leveraging the social graph.
  • Although most examples reflected that the companies making the biggest inroads to increased sales are those that allow the most interaction/relationship building it seems most etailers have not been able to let go to that degree.
  • Brands, not etailers, are the ones doing the best job of nurturing/leveraging relationships. Seems it may be because they do not have the pressure of next quarter performance, and the need to show direct sales to senior mgmt, so have more leeway to nurture relationships and plan for the future.
  • “Birds of a feather flock together” clearly points to peers influence more within their personality/behavior groups, therefore a very positive element for OpenSky developing strong sales around taste-makers and affinity groups.
  • According to many presenters the Social Media/Commerce journey starts with curiosity (OpenSky’s discovery factor) and leads to Advocacy… sharing their great experiences (a key to OpenSky success).
  • Influencers, when/if they see the value, can create group habit by including the group in the before, during, and after. What seems clear is that it is important that OpenSky provide the tools for Sellers to allow/encourage their audience to share the fact that they are buying… via input, reviews, forums… which in turn will enable the “group effect’ to help them grow, build their brand and foster the purchasing behavior.
  • The Social Consumer is empowered and has influence of her own. Be certain to provide the tools that allow this consumer to leverage the new found power. She wants a dialogue and wants to be heard and recognized.
  • Influencers do not equal simple amplification of an offer/product value… but add depth and breadth to the relationship.
  • Facebook is not a channel for commerce, but a platform that can enable commerce. Many are mistakenly looking at FB as a channel.

It seems to me the view/perspective I keep hearing is all about leveraging consumer’s social graph to sell more product. But when I hear the case studies, and see where true progress is being made, I hear more about interaction, engagement, and sharing… i.e. relationships.

When I think about social commerce what seems to be the greatest opportunity is growing/nurturing the connection, participation and loyalty of a consumer, which in turn will build ROR… Return on Relationship. This is the first step required to make all this social integration sustainable and long lasting. Relationships are what will lead to the ability to sell more, not using customers to sell more product, but by facilitating/enabling feedback, sharing, reviews, and therefore build dynamic advocates who openly sell product they love and are passionate about.

Ted Rubin

Editors Note: Agenda for event & complete presentations are available at http://bit.ly/RiseOfSocialCommerce

True Love, True Loyalty on #MMchat with Judi Samuels

Our twelfth MarketerMonday Chat #MMchat was indeed a Loyalty Lovefest and our SPECIAL guest, Judi Samuels @ChiefLemonhead was our guiding light! Currently with Maritz Canada, Judi has over 10yrs of experience in Marketing, Marketing Communications, Events, Experiential Marketing and Engagement Marketing.

This is only the twelfth #MMchat we’ve held and see #MMchat for more details on MarketerMonday Chat our previous SPECIAL guests, transcripts and our upcoming schedule.

Thanks again to Judi Samuels @ChiefLemonhead and @MaritzCanada loyalty dream team members @ScottJRobinson1 & @RobinsRich as well as all of you AWESOME #MMchat tweeps who joined us and participated for this LOVELY LOYALTY embracing tweetchat!

Check out the full transcript of the chat at http://bit.ly/JudiSamuels and please join us next week as Glen Gilmore, @GlenGilmore arrives on October 25th at 8:00 pm EST to AMAZE us all with his Trendtracker magic! See you all then!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO

Socialnomics Eric Qualman @equalman joins #MMchat on November 8th at 8:00pm!


GREAT news to share with you this evening and extremely pleased to relate to all #MMchat tweeps out there that Eric Qualman @equalman will be our SPECIAL guest on #MMchat on Monday November 8th at 8:00pm eastern!!


The topic for our chat with Eric is very timely with the growing proliferation of tablets and e-readers as we talk: The future: Social Search, Social Commerce & eReaders oh my! We look forward to Eric’s unique insights and viewpoint in this regard based on his position as a visionary at the forefront of the social media computing revolution!

Hope you’re all as excited as I am to have Eric Qualman @equalman join us and mark your calendars to be with us on November 8th, at 8:00pm for it truly is all of you who make #MarketerMonday Chat matter!

Remember #MMchat makes Mondays MARVELOUS!!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO

Location-Based Ads Boost Customer Loyalty

Very often when you make a purchase in a store, the cashier asks the same question: “Do you have your card?”

The cashier’s not asking for your Visa or Mastercard. She’s talking about those ubiquitous reward cards that track how many times you might order a bagel, a latte, an ink cartridge refill, or whatever you happen to be purchasing at the time.

Buy 10 and get one free. Purchase six and get the next at half price. Promotions differ, but the concept remains the same: the store wants to inspire customer loyalty, and it’ll reward you for it.

Some people benefit from loyalty rewards and save money. Others find the cards annoying. Imagine if you could replace the process with something that suits your lifestyle better. Instead of having your card punched at the sandwich shop or scanned at the pharmacy, how would you feel if you received a mobile-based coupon on your smartphone?

Location-Based Ads: A Business Boom in the Making

Businesses are increasingly working to improve marketing ROI. A recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association shows that almost one in four adults use mobile location-based services. Nearly half of those shoppers who saw ads from location-based services took some sort of action.

Few metrics exist on location-based advertising and customer loyalty, but so far, results have been promising. Foursquare, one of the most popular mobile location tracking applications, gives its users the chance to become a location’s “mayor” by checking in frequently. Many restaurants, coffee shops and other locations give their “mayors” discounts and freebies as a reward for customer loyalty. Most recently GAP offered a 25% discount if you checked in on Foursquare. The idea was to encourage store exposure, as friends of those ‘checking in’ would see the deal and would, hopefully, also act on it.

The Proof is in the Numbers

Another great example, Starbucks, offered its “mayors” $1 off any size of Frappuccino. Since beginning the promotion, the coffee haven has experienced a 50% increase in check-ins. AJ Bombers, a burger spot in Milwaukee, reported a 30% increase in sales after offering free burgers to the “mayor” (plus free cookies to anyone who checked in.)

Not wanting to limit promotions to a select few, Foursquare lets businesses provide frequency-based specials to users who check in often. Pepsi has built upon this feature by using Foursquare to give points for each mobile coupon used. Loyal soda lovers can redeem the coupons for music downloads and other Pepsi Loot.

The promotion is designed to increase brand loyalty and also to generate valuable data about repeat customers – where they purchase Pepsi, how often they purchase and what they do before and after they make the purchase. In time, this data may help Pepsi and other businesses make location-based ads even more effective. (It’s all in the data)
Have you ever used location-based advertising to promote your business? If so, how did the marketing effort turn out? If not, do you find that location-based advertising increases your loyalty to other local businesses?

Renee Warren

Analyzing Groupon Profitability: 7 Factors for Group Buying Success

I’ve had a lot of conversations lately about the strategy of group buying sites (or daily deals, flash sales, etc.). Groupon is the leader in this space…so much the word is becoming a verb. The questions I often hear are: How do you know if Groupon (and group buying deals) are right for a type of business? What are the factors that make Groupon a profitable strategy?

How do you evaluate and analyze the profitability of Groupon?

Already there are a lot of competitors with Groupon, and several more that are headed toward even more niche group buying capabilities, focused by interest, small city, or people groups. The group buying strategy will continue, and so will the conversation about this. But the model of giving a significant (50%+) discount on goods and services has its dangers. So it piqued my curiosity to analyze this from an economic perspective.

On the plus side, this is a pay-for-performance approach to customer acquisitions. And it’s a sudden and (mostly) predictable burst of new customers and revenue.

Read more

@ChrisBrogan to ROCK #MMchat November 22nd!


We’re very pleased to relate to all of you #MMchat tweeps out there that @ChrisBrogan will be our SPECIAL guest on #MMchat on Monday November 22nd at 8:00pm eastern!!


The topic for our chat with Chris is one that continues to grow in both importance and impact and that is The Role of Major Influencers in Cause Marketing. We look forward to Chris’s insights and examples in this regard based on his previous experiences in cause marketing programs.

Hope you’re all as excited as I am to have @ChrisBrogan join us and will all make the time to be with us on November 22nd, for it truly is all of you who make #MarketerMonday Chat matter!

Remember #MMchat makes Mondays MARVELOUS!!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO

Risk, Reward and Celebrating with Chile

It’s almost 2am – and I can’t rip myself away from the online and television coverage of what is happening in Chile. While I’ve been rejoicing with each miracle, big and seemingly small, that has brought these men out of their captivity, I’m also thinking of the terrible tragedy this situation could have been. Mining is inherently risky – period.

Center Rock Drill, located in Berlin, Pennsylvania, played a huge role in Pennsylvania’s Quecreek Mining incident in 2002. Their expertise was called upon in Chile as well. Brandon Fisher, Center Rock Drill’s company president, is like Harry Stamper of the movie, Armageddon (the hero portrayed by actor Bruce Willis). No one, perhaps, knows better how these men’s lives will change after they are rescued, and the inherent risks they will face because of the experience they have survived. What further peril lies ahead for these men and their families?

But we also take risks, perhaps not quite so dramatic, in our lives and businesses on a day-to-day basis.

Read more

Marketing Benefits of Employee Engagement #MMchat with @BillBoorman

HR met marketing during our eleventh MarketerMonday Chat #MMchat and our SPECIAL guest, @BillBoorman made the introduction last night. A recruiting industry rockstar, Bill spent 27 years in and around the headhunting industry and is what you might call a veteran!. @BillBoorman then decided to become a social media amateur and founded #tru events and has run 6 unconferences with 4 more planned before Feb, all marketed/built through social media. Our topic for #MMchat this evening was the Marketing Benefits of Employee Engagement and anyone who thinks the two can be managed seperately in the future may wish to think again!

This is only the eleventh #MMchat we’ve held and see #MMchat for more details on MarketerMonday Chat our previous SPECIAL guests, transcripts and our upcoming schedule.

Thanks again to @BillBoorman as well as all of you AWESOME #MMchat tweeps who joined us and participated for a truly ENGAGING and very interactive chat!

Check out the full transcript of the chat at http://bit.ly/BillBoorman and please join us next week as Judi Samuels, @ChiefLemonhead arrives on October 18th at 8:00 pm EST for True Love, True Loyalty! See you all then!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO