Justin.King November 30th, 2008

So, here are a few of the blogs that are coming out of Rosetta.  It’s amazing the thought leadership that comes from individuals with different subject matter expertise:

Adam Cohen (Partner, Consumer Products & Retail Vertical) A Thousand Cuts – Social Media & Web Strategy

Chris Boggs (Manager, SEO Practice) Search Engine Watch Columnist

Darrin Grella (Recruiter) The Art and Science of Recruiting

Mark Taylor (Managing Partner, Technology Services) Technology in Marketing

Keep up the great content guys!!

Tags: Adam Cohen, Internet marketing, Marketing, Promotion, Search engine optimization, Search Engine Watch, SEO, Social Media, Technology, Web Design and Development, Web search engine, Weblogs

• Rosetta , Social Media
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Justin King November 25th, 2008

{ I want to do more then just say words,
I want to back my talk up with actions }

As Thanksgiving rolls around, I want to do more then just give thanks.  I want to do more then just say words, I want to back my talk up with actions.  So whether you are consultant, a B2B marketer, a colleague or a friend, this blog is about a dialogue, but moreso a dialogue of action.  When I post other things, I post about ideas that we are putting into action, and I can’t think of a more significant idea to put into action then helping and serving others.

Growing up, the night before Thanksgiving my parents would have a meal of just rice to signify that there are others in the world that only have a little to eat.  My dad and mom practiced what they “preached” – they often took in single mothers and gave them a place to stay and demonstrated to us what it is like to serve others.  Now, my mom and dad (a successful graphic designer) showed action again when they moved half way around the world to Asia to serve the people there.  They are doing retirement in style and demonstrating again what it means to not just talk, but to act.

{ Be intentional this Thanksgiving,
figure out ways to serve and give back }

Obama or McCain, Biden or Palin, Bailouts or no bailouts, even our poorest are richer then most of the world.  This Thanksgiving I have a lot to be thankful about.  But, I want to do more then talk and give thanks, I want to give back.  I want to teach my kids what it’s like for their father to show grace and mercy to others and to serve people – I want them to see me be intentional with my time and my money.

This Thanksgiving, what can you do to help and to serve?  I will be taking my oldest 2 (of 4) daughters to deliver meals on Thursday morning with our church.  We will hopefully deliver meals to 40 – 50 people that day – mostly families.  I know it’s not big, but it’s an intentional time to serve other people and hopefully will be a great teaching time for my kids.  I also know, that if we just give during Thanksgiving it’s a little hypocritical, so I want to make giving and serving part of my daily life.  I want to be like my dad – who gives of himself daily, and I want my kids to want to be like me.

I would love to hear creative ideas that you are doing by yourself or with your family.  Let’s move from dialogue to action together.  Comment away.

Tags: giving back, Serving others, Thanksgiving

• Misc
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Justin King November 24th, 2008

Dave Ramsey, author and TV / Radio personality famous for his “Total Money Makeover” said this recently:

“I have a friend who owns a successful window installation business. I asked him how business was going and he replied that it was going great. Stunned by his answer, I asked him, ‘Isn’t there a housing crisis and economic slowdown? How could business be going great?’

My friend replied, ‘I heard about that, I’m just choosing not to participate.’”

-Dave Ramsey

{ “I heard about that, I’m just choosing not to participate” }

What a great line.  How are we as marketers changing our message to fit the times?  I wrote earlier about being excited about 2009, and I am definitely excited.  However, we are going to have to work really hard to differentiate ourselves and change our message so that it fits where we are all at.   As B2B marketers we know how to compete on price and value already – we do that every day.  We know how important it is to build our network and that we have to concentrate on our lead pipeline.  But often, we don’t remember that just a slight change in messaging can change the future of our business and it’s sustainability.  Home Inspectors become “Home Energy Auditors” and New Home Builders become “Home Remodellers”.

Change your message, and you may change your future.

• Misc
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Justin King November 23rd, 2008

In 2009, I am excited to be an interactive marketer within B2B.  Here is what I am looking forward to seeing shape out in the next 14 months:

1. Nothings figured out – We on the B2B side are a little further down the long tail then the rest.  We have a lot to figure out this year with some great models from our brethren on the B2C side.  But it has to be different – more measurable, more edgy, more applications, and in the end more revenue.  Nothings figured out and I am looking forward to participating.
2. Commerce – I know you probably expected to see Social Media at number 1.  But, Commerce is where I am focused.  B2B e-commerce is still not defined, and there is still a lot of work for those of that are passionate.  And I like to follow the money.  I think there is a lot of money for B2B organizations to leverage in B2B e-commerce.  I also think that like in B2C, B2B marketers are going to start getting more involved in commerce.  The user experience needs to be dictated from marketing, and not from IT.
3. Social Media – Twitter acceptance, Facebook wild fire spread, LinkedIN building applications, and all the others will start to penetrate B2B – especially for communicating and thought leadership.
4. Acquisition Marketing – As B2B marketers we know SEO, e-mail marketing and white paper syndication.  I think this is the year of figuring out PPC and Online Display advertising leveraged for B2B AND viral.

I can’t wait.  We are ready to go, and ready to start thinking outside of the box.  Commerce and Social Media will be my focus.  What is yours?

Tags: Acquisition Marketing, b2b commerce, b2b e-commerce, b2b marketing, e-mail marketing, PPC, SEM, SEO, Social Media, White paper syndications

• Social Media , b2b commerce
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Justin King November 23rd, 2008

My friend and colleague Chris Boggs just posted a great posting on selling SEO during an economic downturn.  As B2B marketers, there is probably little that we can do in 2009 more importantly than optimize our organic search.  Chris’s approach is to those on the agency side selling these types of services.  Chris is without a doubt one of the top 5 SEO consultants in the country, and I have the privilege having him involved in my pursuits at Rosetta.

Here are a few of Chris’s recent suggestions for selling SEO:

• Some level of introduction is needed – “Level-setting the room will ensure that people are at least aware of the primary tenets of SEO, and reinforce the decision made by prior “converts.”"
• Make SEO a program not a project – “SEO should always be an ongoing project. It has been said over and over, but you can’t “set and forget” SEO, especially when competing in crowded industries or verticals”
• Take advantage of Q4 – Q4 money exists for marketing departments to spend so that they get a similar budget in 2009.  “This year, you should really think outside of the box, and send at least some of the money towards ramping up your SEO efforts.”

For B2B marketers, SEO is one of our foundational tenets.  The ROI on SEO is always incredible and with over 80% of research occurring online, how you position your organization online is critical.

Tags: Chris Boggs, SEO

• Attract
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Justin King November 23rd, 2008

I am fascinated by stupid things that companies do for “policy” sake.

A couple of months ago I went through a McDonald’s drive thru.  There was quite a long line of cars behind me, so when I pulled up to get my food, and the fries weren’t ready, they asked me to pull up and wait for the balance of my order.  I had no problem with this and I am sure the people behind me appreciated this as well.  2 cars got their orders and pulled around me before I got my order hand delivered to my car in 3 – 4 minutes.  On a side note, either they forgot about me, or people are really getting McDonalds without fries??

A couple of weeks later, I had the same experience except this time there was no one else in line.  After informing me that my fries were not yet ready, they asked me to pull up.  I was surprised, and turned around to make sure no one was behind me.  There wasn’t.  I couldn’t figure out why they made me pull up to wait for food, when there was no one behind me.

It bothered me, so I called up a friend of mine who owns a couple of McDonalds franchises.  After I explained the situation, he understood exactly what I was talking about.  He explained to me that there is a timer that starts when you place your order and stop when your car pulls through the Drive Thru.  Every month your franchise is actually measured on your average Drive Thru times.  If you exceed a certain amount of time, you get audited.   So, to get around that they have their customers pull up even if there is no line.  I think what bugged me the most is that by having me pull up originally they weren’t trying to be *nice* to the line.

{ Sometimes, when we overemphasize elements in our
marketing programs, they start to defy common sense}

Sometimes measurements become obsolete – and sometimes we are just measuring things for measurements sake.  When we talk about things like conversion, don’t measure it because a book told you or because you think you should.  Measure them because they make sense and because they meet an objective that you have set.  Conversion is an excellent element to track and measure, but don’t let corporate policy, or the latest trend override your common sense.  Create balance in your programs.

Tags: McDonalds, measurement, optimization

• Misc
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Justin.King November 23rd, 2008

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine and author The Long Tail, has a blog that I have classified in my Google Reader as “Smart Stuff”.  His concept of Freemium has me thinking about the applications to B2B.  Read these articles here and here.

Free is not a business–it’s zero-cost marketing for a business. And it works best at the largest scale: a small percentage of a big number is a big number.

In the new Web 2.0 economy and what I am overusing as B2B 2.0, how can we apply “Freemium” to scale for our businesses.  I guess it depends, doesn’t it?  If you are a manufacturing company where most of your target audience knows who you are and buys from you one way or another, this plays a lot differently then if you are a software firm launching a new product into the marketplace.  Both very B2B, but very different in their approach.

But for the majority of businesses out there that don’t have their customer base “locked up”, the question of “What’s a free customer worth” should be tackled.

Problem is, convincing the regular customer to be a part of this model is difficult.  So, let’s start basic:   When you figure out where your thought leadership is, give at least some of it away for free.  Track the heck out of it and get some information from them (name, email), but give it away.  Establish yourself as a thought leader in your specialty area, start creating relevant content, and give it away.

Anderson goes on to talk about the 4 types of free:

• cross subsidy – get one thing free for buying another
• subsidized – third party ads support free
• freemium – a few support the majority (basic “free” version)
• gift – given away for non-monetary rewards

I really like the idea of doing zero cost marketing.  Marketing to the masses by offering a freemium product and getting a small percentage to subsidize the masses.

Tags: b2b marketing, Freemium

• Misc , relevant content
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Justin King November 20th, 2008

For the last 2 months, we (Rosetta) have been working with a traditional marketing agency to do a joint comprehensive pitch for a brand new product launch.  Up to this point, we have worked with more traditional agencies as part of a campaign and branding efforts, but this is the first opportunity that I have ever had to do a complete end to end marketing launch.  I will continue to detail more of our process out, and unfortunately, the product launch is incredibly confidential so I will remain careful in how I present it, but the process has truly been fascinating.  This afternoon was our pitch, and here are the elements that we presented:

• User research / Customer insights
• Product positioning statement
• Creative themes and through lines
• Launch Plan
• Media planning
• Digital strategy
• PR
• Channel Support
• Ongoing research

I think the most amazing part in all of this is how well we all worked together.  We had three companies working together:  Tradition Marketing, Us / Interactive Marketing, User Research. Not only did we work together well, but the final presentation was a true integrated, cross channel plan.  Print media was supported by PR, PR provides link baiting for microsite, microsite as the nucleus for the entire launch.

Within our digital plan we concentrated on creating sales-ready leads through our B2B model of attract -> capture -> persuade -> convert.  It was a unique approach for the traditional agency to focus on the marketing funnel, and the client immediately responded as we talked about nurturing leads for the purpose of converting sales-ready leads.

A few points that I learned:

• It’s okay to play second fiddle every once in a while – I intentionally did not lead the conversations, and let the traditional agency run the show.  It was their deal, and it was certainly my place to participate only
• 2 heads are better than one – this is obvious, but when dealing with two different organizations and cultures, sometimes you still want to do it on your own.  Our end products was a true collaboration between both orgs and we were better for it.
• Traditional is not dead – it’s not.  It still exists and is still effective.  People still read “real” magazines and watch TV.  By using a Microsite, we hope to be able to measure the results of traditional advertising more effectively.

Tags: agency, b2b marketing traditional marketing, collaboration, interactive marketing

• Misc , b2b philosophy / model
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Justin King November 20th, 2008

I am not going to even recap this post – you have to read it for yourself.  Craig Rosenberg creatively gives an outlook on 2009 using Scorcese quotes.

“In the casino, the cardinal rule is to keep them playing and to keep them coming back. The longer they play, the more they lose, and in the end, we get it all.” — Ace Rothstein (“Casino”)

Great quote, something I wish I would remember at 2 in the morning in Vegas when I am even or up.  This quote conjures up one thing: lead nurturing.  I am a broken record on this one, but I can’t get over the  idea that 80 percent of leads deemed unqualified end up buying anyway.  In 2009, we have to stay in our prospect’s faces.  Budgets will open up and when they do, you need to be there.  And you need to make sure you are fighting for the few budgets that are left.  The case for lead nurturing is strong. Take it from Ace: you’re job is to keep them in the casino.

Click here for Craig Rosenberg’s Funnelholic post.

Tags: Funnelholic, Scorcese

• Misc
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Justin.King November 17th, 2008

I use the Personal Brain for a lot of my brainstorming.  It is so easy to use, and really keeps all my information so accessible and so natural to the way my brain happens to process data and information.  Here is an example of a brain I use to show people how to use Personal Brain.

I recently posted on needing a GPS system for the internet.  This is the first of many thoughts around navigating the internet, and more importantly being able to store information a little more logical from the internet.

Here is my idea for how I would like to navigate a web site.  This is a simple representation of the B2BRelevance.com site home page header.

When you click on any link, the focus is on the page you have selected like this:

A couple of points:

• Navigation is not linear or hierarchical, it is relational.  Therefore when I am on a page, I would like to see the relationships between data and pieces of information.  I would like to know where I came from, and where I can go on the site
• The path that I have traveled thus far on the site could be highlighted.  I could “see” the path highlighted and even go back on the path that I have traveled so far.  Most importantly, I want the ability to save the whole or part of the path I have traveled to my own repository and draw my own relationships between information from this path and other information that I already have.
• I would like to see the author of the information on the page, and see who referred me to that information – was it Google, Twitter, another Blog?  Who are they?  And Why did they send me here?  Maybe it’s relevant, maybe it’s not.  In addition, I want to be able to relate ideas, and content to people.  People to organizations, people to people, organizations to organizations and all of this to content.  I want it at my fingertips, and I want to be able to navigate it fast.

Wishful thinking?

Tags: Internet GPS

• Internet GPS
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