February 3, 2008
ComScore Internet 2007 Report Released
ComScore has released its 2007 Internet Year-in-Review report highlighting the major trends in U.S. Internet activity.
No surprise...Google is even more powerful at the end of 2007 than it was starting the year. Women's communities showed major growth as a category, and Office Max's powerful year-end viral ElfYourself campaign drew so much traffic it launched the company into 3rd position in growth percentage. Now that's a marketing campaign!
Posted by jcioban at 2:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Irrational Exuberance Redux
I was looking at the cost-per-click for some B2B categories the other day..."data center" top position was running over $20.00.
Huh? Maybe I don't get it, but this is a "click" folks. I do agree that SEM is a powerful and necessary tool, but paying that high a number on a general term seems over the top, especially based on what the click-thru links were on some of the top sites.
Some thoughts:
- If you are going to pay a high click value, make the landing page really relevant and highly actionable. Content is king and the reader better know exactly why you brought them to your site within 3 seconds
- Evaluate your broad marketing strategy. While SEM is targeted and "laser-like", it remains only one part of a broader strategy. Over-reliance on any one part of a solid marketing campaign can lead to expensive disappointment.
Repeat after me...content is king. If you aren't ready to pay off a SEM click with good content, there are probably cheaper methods for generating broad awareness on a CPM basis.
It remains amazing, but not surprising, how history repeats itself when marketers hear about a new technique that will deliver the "mother-of-all-lead-generation-programs."
Posted by jcioban at 11:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 16, 2008
Tips on Great Presentations
Most Powerpoint presentations suck. Sorry for the harsh language, but sometimes the truth hurts.
So this posting titled "Ten Questions With Garr Reynolds" by Guy Kawasaki on his How To Change The World blog should be considered required reading. The posting introduces some key thoughts by Reynolds, author of the book "Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)" and the blog PresentationZen.
Best takeaway...the response to the question "What is the single most important thing people could do to enhance their presentations?"
The answer: "Turn off the computer, grab some paper and a pencil, and find someplace quiet. Think of the audience. What is it they need? What is it you want to say that they need to hear. Identify what’s important and what is not. You can’t say everything in a twenty-minute talk—or even a two-hour talk."
To so many things today, I think the advice "turn off the computer" is a great response. Too often we start creating before thinking...bad, bad, bad.
Posted by jcioban at 12:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 3, 2007
DM Made Simple
Great marketing is not always complex, expensive and flashy. Sometimes, it is brilliant in its simplicity, and elegant in its cleanliness.
Check out this blog about the direct mail for a Belgian optician done by Proximity BBDO (Belgium). Very cool. Great direct mail. Damn...I wish I'd thought of that..... ;-)
Posted by jcioban at 1:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 29, 2007
Registration Forms and Opt-In Practices
Check out this Get Elastic blog posting "Registration Usability - 87 Registration Forms Tested" containing interesting data on the registration and opt-in practices of 87 e-commerce Web sites.
My favorite factoid was that only 14% of sites actually listed the benefits of registration. Increasingly e-mail weary readers are overwhelmingly suspect of any registration process, and to ask people to register without clearly telling them what's in it for them is silly. In addition, the reasons have to be clear and believable. As suggested in the blog, bullet points that are easy and fast to read are highly preferable to long copy blocks.
Nice posting.
Posted by jcioban at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 29, 2007
The Fallacy Of People Don't Read Anymore
Here's a link to some great thinking on copywriting by the highly-respected Drew McLellan author of Drew's Marketing Minute , a blog currently ranking #37 on Todd And's Power 150 Marketing Blogs.
Drew's observations are built around the J. Peterman catalog. J. Peterman was made famous on Seinfeld before an infamous stint in bankruptcy. Now resurrected, the J. Peterman catalog and website are carving a distinct brand niche with their clothing. And the copywriting is brand-consistent, differentiating and ...perish the thought....FUN.
OK, I exist in a B2B world, as do many of you. So, is there anything to be learned from this. I contend yes. All copywriting is about appropriateness — in length and style. But appropriate is not defined rigorously -- it is defined by the brand and the presumed reader use. Everyone is TOO busy, businesspeople AND consumers. To me, the message of Drew's post is in writing's ability to make busy people slow down. If people are not reading your copy, could it be that the words are neither compelling nor relevant to the reader!?!?
Many thanks to Drew for helping point this out.
Posted by jcioban at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 23, 2007
The Power of NO.
Small business guru John Jantsch has a short, but important reminder posting about learning to say No when it comes to working with clients. Especially in many smaller independent dealer organizations, the temptation to accept all work is overwhelming. Learning to stay on focus can help you better manage your resources and keep the organization on a positive track.
Posted by jcioban at 5:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 3, 2007
The Attack of the Killer Ad
This is not AdRants and it is not my normal posting to be critiqueing ads. But every so often, I see an ad that reminds of everything wrong a company can do with its B2B ad budget. This ad from Kyocera caught my attention in just that way.
(Click image to view larger size)
I assume, the concept was awareness, and BusinessWeek (where this ad was running)certainly has reach. But, is "color" really a value proposition for placing an ad that costs tens of thousands of dollars? I assume the point was to let people know that Kyocera is in the color game but the very soft copy does not make a bold statement -- and there are NO differentiators versus competition. The art direction is out-of-control. The Web site listing is for the Home Page -- there is no campaign-specific landing page to quickly get a reader to a payoff. Finally, the placement: BusinessWeek. Many ads in BusinessWeek are "investor-oriented. But for all that money, this is clearly not an investor ad, yet it has a weak call to action.
To be effective, B2B ads need to be clear, express a strong value proposition, explain the simple benefit for the customer, preferably have a strong call to action, and must run in media that are demographically correct. This ad misses the mark on many levels and is a great case study for any company working on ads for B2B media...a study in what not to do.
Posted by jcioban at 8:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 16, 2007
B-to-B Advertising Venues Update
The BtoB Magazine ranking of the Top 50 b-to-b advertising venues is out. Number 2 on the list...Google, which as the article points out, accounts for nearly 50% of all searches conducted in the U.S.
Whether you are major manufacturer or a local dealer, Search Engine Optimization and a basic paid ad plan on Google should be top-of-mind.
BTW...three relative newcomers in the Web world are on the list: AllBusiness.com, Business.com, and Global Spec. If you are not aware of these fast-growing sites, visit now!
Posted by jcioban at 6:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 8, 2007
Personalized Contact Redux
I read a funny sidebar in CRN (formerly Computer Reseller News) about recruiting developers in the Web 2.0 bubble. Why funny? A creative recruiting e-mail went to David Heinemeier Hansson, a partner in the software company 37 Signals and the creator of the Ruby on Rails Web development framework. The e-mail offered a development opportunity with the note "It looks like you have an interest in this news and exciting framework." Duh.
Of course, it is also a sad commentary on how badly and frequently misused e-mail marketing is. Given the continuing growth in the e-mail marketing backlash, sending these type of messages feeds into the hands of the growing legions of people screaming for a "Do Not E-Mail" registry.
E-Mail can be a powerful communications medium, but only if we as marketers do not kill it before its value can be matured.
Posted by jcioban at 1:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 26, 2007
You Don't Want To Buy A Drill, You Want To Buy A Hole....
Rabert Faletra is the Channel Group President at CMP, publishers of the tech industry's most august publications. (CRN, VARBusiness and others). Their ChannelWeb.com website is a very nice online resource for tech industry VARs (and obviously an ad destination for the industry's myriad suppliers...).
In his April 16 editorial in CRN (formerly Computer Reseller News if you are not familiar with the publication), he exhorted readers how important it is to take discussions away from technology...or "best of breed"... and to get them onto subjects that matter to customers. He had a great line: "Selling technology is a raffle." How true.
Unfortunately, it is amazing how badly many companies are at delivering on that simple-sounding strategy. It turns out, as salespeople, we are conditioned to want to sell "products" and not "solutions". It reminds me of the classic story about Ted Levitt's Harvard Business School exhortation to his students, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole." Since we can't buy "holes", we buy "drills"...but that doesn't change what is important to the customer...it's the result, not the tool. So why is it that copier dealers want to sell "MFPs" or car dealers want to sell "SUVs"?
For one, it's easier. If you are trying to sell a prospect on the quality of your "upscale, aspirational transportation" it can be confusing versus talking about the Escalade's elegant interior or tricked-out ride. It's hard to talk about "optimized document production process" versus your "low-cost, 25 PPM multifunction printer with ADP, finishing and high-volume paper tray". And besides, most manufacturers love to talk about their "stuff". Just like a bunch of men talking about "who's bigger" they forget that "size doesn't matter." (Female readers...apologies for the reference...but I couldn't resist the analogy.... ;-)
However, the times they are a' changing. Customers are getting smarter and information transparency makes it easy to learn product specs and subsequently bargain on price like a buyer in a Marrakech souk. Failure to get a customer to talk about the issue they are trying to solve makes it hard to compete on other than easily commoditized features/benefits.
As Bob Faletra said, "Solve problems, but never sell technology." Good advice for people in lots of industries...tech and beyond.
Posted by jcioban at 8:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 20, 2007
Bad Behavior Begets More Resistant Readers
The challenge of geting consumers or B2B prospects to respond to any lead generation program is making people downright liars. Recently, I got a very creative mailing from Ricoh with the message outside saying "Your Rebate Information Enclosed." Well, surprise...there was indeed information about a rebate program, but the mailing was intentionally designed to look like a "check" in a secure mailing format to get me to open it and read the promo. Misleading...but not technically a lie (and, truth be told...it did trick me into opening.)
But, I was reading AdRants earlier today and came across the post "Bank of America Direct Mail Misleads." The article rails against a BoA promo with the message "Account Information Enclosed" on the outside of the envelope. You guessed it...just another promo.
I understand the rationale for the approach, but as mailboxes, inboxes, TVs, radios, etc. fill with ads, and unwanted solicitations, it is fueling the backlash against marketing that is making it harder to break through. Bad behavior begets more resistant readers. And, that marketing readers, is real food for thought.
Posted by jcioban at 9:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 10, 2007
E-Mail...A Nuclear Winter Looming??
In the January issue of Direct Magazine, an article by Richard Levy titled "Watch Out for the Little Guys" noted that small and mid-tier companies--those with annual revenue in the half-million to million-dollar range--are pouring more money into database marketing, especially e-mail. The article quoted results from an Alterian best-practices study that indicated 85% of respondents planned to increase their online direct marketing budget in 2007, with 82% of respondents indicating an increase in e-mail marketing.
That got me thinking about a quote from John Mozena, the co-founder of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail that I read Technology Review in 2004. In the article John stated,
"Our concern is not so much for the porn and the herbal Viagra as it is for legitimate businesses. There are 24 million small businesses in the U.S. If just 1 percent got your e-mail address and sent you one message per year, you’d have 657 additional messages in your in-box every day. That is our nuclear winter scenario.”
He's right. As I have noted in talks and verious postings, e-mail in its current form is relatively easy and fast to blast to an audience, making it unbelievably attractive to smaller businesses and organizations. However, if we fail to apply good practice and respect the individual recipients, we threaten to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. I liken the state of e-mail marketing to global warming...a disaster looming, but marketers everywhere want to "say it ain't so, Joe." An Inbox is not infinitely expandable, and increasingly frustrated e-mail readers are eventually going to demand a "mandated whiltelist" approach or some fees to reduce the burden of junk.
Seth Godin and others have spoken of the value and importance of "Permission Marketing" which remains the key to ensuring that e-mail remains unregulated and affordable. Remember the next time you plan an e-mail program.
Posted by jcioban at 4:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 9, 2007
An American Demographic: The Average American
My AdAge Annual January 1 issue has been buried in my bag for the past several days and I finally got to reading it. Stuck at the back of the issue was the American Demographics section that is periodically included. Very interesting reading.
As a Connecticut resident, I was absorbed by the first line..."the average American family has 3.1 people, makes $46,326 and saves nothing." The elitist New Englander in me can't help saying "WTF?" $46,326 with a spouse and a kid? In the NY metro region, that's poverty level...barely enough to cover the annual Starbuck's tab for over-caffeinated DINKs heading to their jobs.
Humorous comments aside, the income level should be a sobering wake-up for many marketers whose six-figure incomes may make it hard to acknowledge what an "average" American considers normal and affordable. It is also a sobering fact that in an era where guaranteed pensions are a distant memory and social security's longevity is an annual cause for concern, this average Ameican saves nothing.
There are lots of other interesting factoids in the numbers. If you have a moment and your job is marketing, it is worth a visit to the American Demographics section of the AdAge Website.
Posted by jcioban at 8:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 16, 2006
DUH: With Increasing Product Parity Among Copier Brands, Sales and Service Become More Important to Customers
In its November 2006 report on customer satisfaction in the business copier industry, JD Power noted the growing importance of sales and service on the overall satisfaction with a brand. It is an interesting report because so many of the current leaders in the copier/multifunction systems category remain fixated on product-centric marketing and technology-focused development.
Factors like the sales experience, product reliability and service quality were major factors in differentiating major manufacturers. Once particularly interesting note was when asked to define the major reasons to consider switching copier brands, product reliability (not surprisingly) was mentioned by one-half the respondents. This shows how critical after-sales service and support are in determining repeat purchases. As I have noted before, management of the post-sale customer experience has never been more important in ensuring stable long-term business growth, since it is the primary lever to solidifying the existing customer base.
Posted by jcioban at 2:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 20, 2006
The Best Sales Tactic You May Never Have Heard Of.
I saw an interesting link to a Marketing Sherpa study on Lead Scoring by Brian Carroll on his B2B Lead Generation Blog. I found the study of interest as much for the fact that it existed at all as for its content which was somewhat "self-evident." But...the speakers in the panel should still be considered thought-leaders for standing up and talking about lead scoring given the overwhelming majority of companies using primitive lead generation strategies and tactics.
Lead scoring, and related maturation or nurturing programs, are still rarely employed in B2B selling. In a nutshell, lead scoring brings an analytical approach to assessing the quality of a lead -- applying point values to items such as lead source, customer interaction level, nature of request, lead age, etc. It acknowledges the well-known fact that "all leads are not created equal." It takes on the issue that poor quality leads sent to a sales team are likely to reduce the sales team's confidence in marketing's ability to create any leads of value. As Brian notes in his blog, "...inquiries are not leads. A lead isn't a lead until it's been qualified." (This is why I so vehemently object to companies like SalesGenie who tout "unlimited access to sales leads." Says who??? They used to be called "prospecting lists" before some marketing genius at InfoUSA got hold of them.....)
Why don't more companies tackle the scoring challenge? For one reason, application vendors and service providers continue to make the concept more "complex" than it often needs to be. Scoring strategies can, and should, reflect the realities of a company's budget, sales sophistication, staffing and follow-up plans. While perfection should always be the goal, creating a situation where no system is implemented because the client could not afford or staff against perfection is ludicrous. Next, client's often tune-out before they give the concept a chance because the program "sounds complicated." I have been in more than one meeting with a marketing executive who quickly says, "nice idea, but I don't have the bandwidth for that right now..." even before the presentation was finished.
Effective scoring, and by extension, effective nurturing programs can be complex, but they don't need to be built all at once. Finding an iterative, ROI-driven approach can make the concept both intellectually manageable and budget-friendly.
Posted by jcioban at 6:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
