Justin King October 18th, 2009

No need to explain my hiatus outside of spending a lot of time thinking about B2B marketing and matching that with the direction that Rosetta is heading and working on the Rosetta B2B group.  They match up beautifully by the way, and it truly is an excellent place to be.  It has been almost 5 years between Xteric, Brulant and now Rosetta.  2 acquisitions and many changes along the say.  In my past, after 1 year at a company, I was ready to go back on my own and do my own thing, and my wife is amazed that I haven’t had that itch in my voice after 5 years to do my own thing.  I have seen the company go from 30 people to almost 700 and it has absolutely been a fantastic ride.  Don’t get me wrong, we are not perfect, but any company that values it’s employees like Rosetta does and gives the freedom to be entrepreneurial while having accountability has my loyalty.

So, I am easing back into my blog, social media and other avenues, but hope that I can provide some consistency and some insight into my perspective on B2B marketing.  I hope my outlook can remain fresh and of course relevant…

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Justin King December 1st, 2008

I have been told all my life that sales is about storytelling.  We have seen it time and time again on places like eBay that a simple story for a product for sale sells the product faster and sometimes at a greater value.  As B2B marketers on our quest to create relevant content, story telling is part of what we do as well.  A recent article on DestinationCRM says story telling is:

Motivating your Audience to your Goal Interactively with great Content.

The keys include:

• Motivation—absolutely essential to get others drawn into the story you’re trying to tell;
• Audience—understanding that you need to get the customers’ attention before disclosing your intention;
• Goal—explicitly calling those hearing your story to some type of action;
• Interactive—engaging all of the senses and really fostering a two-way conversation; and
• Content—which can be found through your own experience, observations, history, metaphors, and analogies.

Marketing is about dialogue and conversations.  Great conversations are sparked by great stories.  How are you telling stories?

Tags: Arts, b2b marketing, business-to-business, EBay, Marketing, Motivation, Online Writing, Product, Storytelling

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Justin.King November 16th, 2008

Does anyone else struggle with navigation on the internet?  Honestly, I get lost…     A LOT.  Should I be admitting that?  I think it’s a lot more common then it’s admitted.  A few of my problems are:

• Where am I going?  Sometimes I get off track from what I started looking for.  There is just so much information – I start looking for one thing and I see something interesting and end up 30 minutes later trying to remember what I originally started looking for.
• Where am I at?  Within a web site or down a track of information, I have no idea where I am at.  I mean most of the time I can tell what site I am, and even a breadcrumb to tell me where I am at in the site.  However, I never know where I am at in the context of my search and the path that I used to get there?  Most of the time I find information through a track of information.  I start with a search on one group of terms, and as I learn more I am able to refine my terms including seclusions to help me find the true information I am looking for.   But the information I am looking for is normally not a single page or a single concept – it is the actual track that I used to get there.
• What have I found?  When I actually find information that is useful, what do I do with it?  Rarely is it one page – most of the time it is a group of related concepts on one page or a group of pages that I would like to use later, but I have no good way of storing these concepts as a whole.  Bookmarks do okay for storing information on a single page, but nothing stores the whole tree or whole navigation path.
• Information and people – it’s hard to separate information and people and I don’t think you should.  With blogs and twitter, information is tied to thought leadership which is normally lead by individuals.  However, bookmarking tools typically don’t relate information to people or vice versa.
• Bad representation of information and hyperlink – the beauty of the hyperlink is that information was no longer hierarchical – no longer top to bottom, left to right.  The problem along with getting lost is that my brain works a little more visual then the internet is.  Text doesn’t really work for my brain – I like pictures and visualizations.

I have been thinking and postulating about these problems a lot lately.  In my own fight to stay relevant, I know that people need to be able to use the information I am publishing in some relevant way.  I don’t mean just here on this blog, I mean whether in presentations, conversations, webinars, whatever relationship we might have and all of the related content out there that helps frame a position or complete the research that is being done online.

I need a GPS to be able to navigate my way through the internet – a way to know where I am going and where I came from, and most importantly when I am off track how to get back on track.

Tags: personal brain, web site navigation

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Justin.King November 6th, 2008

Getting a lot of questions from clients, friends, and yes even colleagues about Twitter.  One of the purposes of this blog is to show these new platforms on the “internets” through the filter of B2B.  The first step is to understand what Twitter is and is not.  No better way to understand then from Jeremiah Owyang here.  Enjoy.  Here’s the getting started list from that post.

“1: Understand Twitter. There’s plenty of educational material, consider watching video interview of co-founder with Jennifer Jones, Rafe Needleman’s (CNET) Newbie Guide to Twitter, Twitter Getting Started. Agence France-Presse, a global news agency: “Online tweets tell you what everyone is up to” (I was a contributor to this article)

2: Evaluate if right for your audience: use the anecdotal demographic information I provided above, or use the search tool for notable individuals within your community and marketplace.

3: Explore the tool: The best way to learn? Experiment, try creating a persona account before deploying a brand account.

4: Publish: Well, what are you waiting for? Try some tweets!

5: Integrate: Use in conjunction with other tools, providing an ‘integrated mesh’ of cross linking. Use to post announcements, changes.

6: Advanced: Communicate back to others. This is not just a broadcast tool, it’s also a conversation tool, reply back to followers using the “@” symbol, and engage in dialogue.

7: Advanced: Mashups. There are many uses (known and yet to be discovered) of the tool, as third party developers are creating mashups for Twitter. Build your own, or examine others to get creative.

8: Measure: From the start, consider measuring the impacts of this tool, from amount of followers, amount of replies, incoming links, look for referrer logs to your website from Twitter, and use search tools to gain intelligence. Read Social Media Measurement strategy for more information.

Tags: Social Media, twitter

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