IT Lead Generation Insider

B2B Tech Marketing shifts from IT to Line of Business leaving Huge Data Gaps June 13, 2011

Posted by Blank in IT Marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing Data.
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The advent of Software as a Service (SaaS), or Software on Demand, has thrown yet another curve ball at B2B Tech Marketers targeting Large Enterprise prospects.

With the IT Department’s influence over IT system choice for business functions like HR, Sales & Marketing on the wane the software buying decision is moving firmly towards those heading up individual Lines of Business (LoB).

For example, a Marketing Director now has as much, if not more, influence over the choice of an organisations CRM system. You only have to look at the inroads that have been made by cloud computing CRM Vendor Salesforce.com into the customer bases of big ERP Vendors to understand the signifcance of this shift. By pitching sales force automation (SFA) solutions to Sales Directors Salesforce.com is now one of the most widely used CRM systems on the market.

Just as we are getting to grips with more complex buying groups, who hide out online until 80% of the decision making process has taken place, we now have to worry about many thousands more potential prospects who know little or nothing about us.

For the B2B Tech Marketer this is a real challenge and one reflected in our own client base of IT Vendors. Over the last 18 months we have had to realign many of our clients lead generation campaigns towards LoB, rather than IT, where brand awareness is far less pronounced.

The biggest problem of course is the resultant requirement for reliable, up-to-date LoB data. And it appears many of you need this yesterday.

Our clients are finding the most effective method to on-board this data quickly is to build Custom LoB lists on a campaign by campaign basis. With internal resources scarce the best way to achieve this in the short timeframes available to them is to outsource the process. B2B Tech Marketing Agencies like ours, for example, can respond very swiftly and using a combination of social media and the telephone, quickly build accurate lists of key LoB decision-makers and decision-making units.

Are you feeling the LoB shift? How are you planning to meet new prospect data needs?

B2B Tech Marketers in ‘Distress’ as Poor Data takes its Toll June 13, 2011

Posted by Blank in B2B Marketing, IT Marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing Data.
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As a B2B Tech Marketer about to launch a campaign you have a crystal clear picture of your target market, their needs and aspirations. Your theme, propositions and content are on target, the creative is great and you’ve figured out the most effective channels through which to promote your message. Everything’s good to go – isn’t it? So why that niggling feeling at the back of your mind? Why that slight sliver of doubt about your campaigns effectiveness? That little niggle of doubt – there’s a name for it and its name is ‘Bad Data’.

You know, deep down, that the data in your CRM system is old and unvalidated and you know that buying yet another list is no guarantee of accuracy. You know that clean and accurate data is the bedrock of any successful marketing or lead generation campaign.

We all know this. Yet there are many B2B Tech Marketers still suffering its ill effects. Even those at the top of their game working for some of the industries leading global IT Vendors and SI’s are hamstrung by this perennial problem.

Bad data is such an issue that back in March 2010 Thomson Reuters actually contended that poor quality market data “contributed to the financial crisis”! Anyway, that’s another story.

As a B2B Tech Marketing agency we’re on the front line of the battle against poor data and inaccurate prospect targeting. In fact we’ve been drafted in to ‘rescue’ so many failing campaigns, particularly Tech Event Promotion, that we’ve given the process a name: Distressed Marketing.

So, as B2B Tech Marketers what can you and I do about it? What’s the answer?

Like many things in marketing it’s all about preparation and the willingness to invest in what you know works best. If you’re about to spend a significant portion of your budget on a campaign, take a breath, and think about building a Campaign Specific Database. Sending email or mail to irrelevant people is a complete waste of your time and money. Getting a Marketing Agency with an understanding of your market to find the right people first will be the difference between success or failure.

If your campaign schedule for the next quarter requires you to target IT Directors & Business Systems Managers in the Financial Service sector whose companies use a specific type of ERP system then remove the risk and guesswork from the process – build a Campaign specific target list.

Investing budget upfront in the bedrock of your campaign – the data – will dramatically improve response rates as every email, direct mail and call hits the right person time after time.

Are you a B2B Tech Marketer in Data Distress? Come have a talk with us about building a bespoke campaign list.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes April 27, 2011

Posted by Blank in Uncategorized.
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In our last blog we highlighted some of the best resources for B2B Tech Marketers and today we bid farewell to one of the very best – our Manager Director Greg Cooper. After 25 years in the B2B tech marketing trenches Greg is pursuing new projects around environmental sustainability and leaving the business in the capable hands of our current Operations Director and now new el Comandante Hector Taylor and the excellent Martrain team.

Over to you, Greg…………..

In a 25 year career in IT marketing I have seen many major changes and watched as some companies surfed the wave of change and others disappeared below the waves. In the beginning I started as a telemarketer when telemarketing was the new kid on the block. Projects included campaigns for early personal computers – the Commodore PET, Apple 2 and then the early Apple Macs with their advanced “Windows” interface. I grew up with DOS and over the years have been upgraded umpteen times most recently to Windows 7. I saw the rise and fall of mini computer giants like DEC and Data General and the apparent demise of the mainframe, although in fact I’m told that 90% of financial transactions still touch a mainframe at some point. IT has been an exciting industry to work in as, more than any other, it thrives on change and innovation.

One of the most fascinating aspects for me has been to witness how IT companies cope with change, and what lessons can be drawn from this. I am talking about major technology shifts e.g. from mini-computer to PC networks, from proprietary operating systems to open systems. We tend to use the term “disruptive technologies” today, more recent examples are the internet, SaaS, and social media.

Companies like individuals are often resistant to change especially when the existing product set is very lucrative. I’ve noticed also that there is a certain arrogance that accompanies success. On a visit to DEC, the then number 2 computer company in the world, in the late 80s – senior executives took great pleasure in telling me how no-one ever returned a customer call, “If the customer wanted to do business with DEC they had to call again”.

There are many examples of where market leaders have become arrogant and complacent – IBM was famous for its annus horriblis where it lost $1billion, at the time a corporate record, until they were rescued by the CEO of a biscuit maker (Nabisco) who knew little about computers but a lot about giving customers what they wanted. When Bill Gates published his vision of the future in 1995 called “The Road Ahead” he almost completely missed the significance of the internet and was forced to into a hasty rewrite immediately after it was published.

Another reason perhaps why some companies fail to see “the writing on the wall” is that structural change tends to creep up on us and then all of a sudden it’s everywhere. Cloud Computing is a case in point. Eighteen months ago it was definitely overhyped today many firms are moving to the Cloud and the growing assumption is that this will be the model of the future. As a result many application vendors are having to rewrite their business and marketing plans.

For IT marketers these are certainly interesting times. It will be intriguing to see who the winners and losers are over the next 5 years. Will LinkedIn implode? Will Microsoft be taken over by Facebook? What will be the next three letter acronym on everyone’s lips?

So as I log off I hazard two predictions - the companies most likely to thrive will be those who can see the world through their customers eyes and respond with eye catching flexibility, and secondly that it always rains over the Easter Holiday Weekend…… perhaps that should read ‘expect the unexpected’.

Cheers and thanks for the ride.

Greg

Top online Resources for the B2B Tech Marketer April 6, 2011

Posted by Blank in B2B Marketing.
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Ever wondered where the best online resources for B2B Tech Marketing news, trends and best practice are?

Us too! So we asked the question for you – in LinkedIn’s B2B Technology Marketing Community. We received some great responses and some really top recommendations. Enjoy.

Let’s kick off with some ONLINE RESOURCES….

CRN ChannelWeb – news, analysis, interviews, conferences, seminars and resources for the UK technology channel – IT distributors, resellers and VARs. @CRN_UK

IT Marketing World – Founded by Jim Novy. A worldwide community of IT Marketing Pro’s dedicated to improving industry best practices. @ITMarketingWrld

UBM TechWeb – powers both technology decision-making and technology marketing and purports to provide the ‘Marketing Muscle for Technology Providers’. Ooh-rah. @CYNC_marketing

MarketingSherpa – research firm specialising in tracking what works in all aspects of marketing (and what does not). Check out the B2B section – really wonderful stuff. @MarketingSherpa

TechMarketView – the ‘must visit’ destination for suppliers, investors and advisors to the UK software and IT services market. @TechMarketView

B2B Marketing Online – let’s face it, where would we be without @ctfergie and the B2B team? The place where the B2B marketing community comes together to share information, news, insights and knowledge. @MarketingB2B

TechTarget – enables tech providers to market their solutions through targeted online media and events that are built on qualified, active communities of professional technology buyers. @TechTarget

The Forrester Blog for Technology Marketing Professionals – a ‘roll-up’ of all the posts from analysts who serve Technology Marketing Professionals. @Forrester

ITSMA – The current membership of ITSMA looks like a who’s who of the Enterprise IT Vendor & SI world. @ITSMA_B2B

The Content Marketing Institute – THE online resource for Content Marketing. @Junta42

SiriusDecisions – provides B2B marketers with the sales and marketing operational intelligence required to improve top line performance. @siriusdecisions

IDC CMO Advisory Service – provides IT marketing execs with insights and fact-based information to plan program investments, prepare marketing operations, launch initiatives, and measure results. @IDC

And now for some carefully chosen BLOGS…….

B2B Marketing Insider – written by Michael Brenner, Senior Director of Global Marketing at ERP Vendor

The Digital Marketer – written by Allister Frost, Head of Digital Marketing Strategy at Microsoft UK. @Allisterf

B2B Marketing – Open for Business – written by Pete Jakob, Marketing Transformation Leader at IBM UK. @Curdridge

B2Bbloggers.com – an online B2B marketing magazine founded by Jeremy Victor discussing B2B Social Media, Content Marketing, Marketing Automation, Lead Generation, SEO etc. @B2Bbloggers & @JeremyVictor

Chris Koch’s B2B Marketing Blog – Chris is an Associate VP at the ITSMA (see above). @Ckochster

Everything Technology Marketing – a B2B Technology Marketing Blog by Holger Schulze, Director of Worldwide Marketing at SafeNet. @HolgerSchulze

And to finish off our top SOCIAL GROUP……

B2B Technology Marketing Community – LinkedIn group hosted by Holger Schulze with over 20,000 members worldwide.

IT Marketing – LinkedIn group hosted by Andre Armstrong, Marketing with over 2500 members worldwide.

If we’ve made some glaring omissions (which I’m sure we have!), and you’re itching to set us right, please join in. A sincere thanks to all those who contributed to the discussion on LinkedIn.

Seven Deadly Sins of IT Lead Generation March 21, 2011

Posted by Blank in B2B Marketing, IT Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Data.
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We’ve been focussed on developing our Win / Loss Analysis service for B2B Tech Marketer’s recently and it made us think about the things that Marketers don’t always get right. Based on 20 years of IT marketing we put together our version of the 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing. Do you agree? What would be on your list?

Lack of Customer Focus

A recent report highlighted that 60% of customers felt that IT Vendors were not asking them the right questions. Perhaps a consequence of this lack of insight, customers complained of being targeted with generic messaging that was only partly relevant to their business.

So much time is spent building and refining propositions that we think the prospect should be interested in. Hardly any time is spent asking customers and prospects what they want.

Failure to Follow up Leads

Once a lead is generated and passed to sales, marketing’s job is done right? Wrong. Many leads don’t get the attention from sales they deserve. Often the sales person’s attention is on closing current deals and meeting this quarter’s targets.

Another common reason is that the lead is not ready to engage with sales – cue for marketing to take this lead back into a nurturing programme.

Treating Customers & Prospects like Strangers

If you met someone at a party and a few days later meet them at another social occasion and behaved as if you had never seen them before that would be strange behaviour right? Yet, despite the fact that most organisations can access plenty of information about the customer many campaigns continue to treat them like total strangers. How would that make you as a customer feel? Case closed.

Overreliance on Email

Email is wonderful isn’t it? We can send messages straight to the target’s inbox and get an almost immediate response and it costs peanuts. Well, that’s the theory but the reality is that open and click through rates are dismal and for most people your clever email is just more spam.

What’s more the target email list probably only covers about 40% of the addressable market. What about the other 60% for whom you don’t have email addresses? That’s why wherever possible we recommend combining email with direct mail.

Failure to take Advantage of Sales Customer Knowledge

It might sound obvious, but no-one knows what the customer is thinking better than the sales team. We put a big emphasis in our work on collaborating with sales, they can give us great insights into what will sell in a particular account and how to refine the proposition that marketing has crafted to maximum effect.

Failure to keep Data Up-to-Date

Inaccurate data is the Achilles heel in most marketing campaigns. Innumerable studies have shown that accurate data is the single most important factor in a B2B direct marketing campaign. But data is not glamorous and sexy so too few marketers are prepared to invest enough of their budget on data maintenance.

Unclear & Unrealistic Objectives

It’s amazing sometimes how campaigns are planned and begun without clear objectives. Even worse is when the objective is not achievable. We keep a record of all of our campaigns’ success rates which gives us a great guide to likely success of similar campaigns.

So that’s our list. What would be your top 7?

10 Tactics to Improve Telemarketing Lead Generation Campaign Results for Tech Marketers December 21, 2010

Posted by Blank in Lead Generation.
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As 2010 draws to a close we thought we’d share our Top 10 Proven Telemarketing Lead Generation Campaign Tactics for Tech Marketers with you. An early Christmas present if you like!

This is our take from an Agency perspective and, although based upon prospecting for Tech Vendors, is applicable to telephone-based campaigns targeting any sector. These simple but highly effective tactics will enable you, in partnership with your chosen Agency, to increase lead ratios with minimal effort.

Prequalify all Target Accounts – Avoid wasting time, and budget, by prequalifying your target list through desk research and/or reviewing the accounts with your Sales team. In the past we have often come across our clients existing customers, pipelined sales prospects or recent competitive tender losses during the calling stage of a campaign.

Data, Data, Data – Clean and accurate data is the bedrock of a successful campaign. If the wider data situation at your company is poor, and your not alone if it is believe me, work with your Agency to build a campaign specific database. If you’re hoping to generate leads for ERP system reviews in the top 20 Banks get your Agency on the phone and identify the ERP DMU in each account. When the campaign proper begins no time or money is wasted finding & pitching the wrong people.

Invaluable Account Insight – Work together with your Agency and your Sales teams to create tailored propositions unique to individual key prospects using existing account intelligence and set your company apart from other IT vendors and service providers.

Keep your Proposition Focused – Ensure you achieve the best results by adhering to the following proposition best practices: target a clearly defined line of business, develop a short effective elevator pitch, clearly define the key business pains your IT solution addresses (the headliners), outline the most effective questions for your Agency to ask and provide a carefully picked set of existing clients with available case studies and ROI figures.

Deliver Larger Campaigns – Sometimes size is everything. Smaller campaigns containing less than 20-30 target accounts have their place but are, by default, less efficient than larger campaigns targeting 60-100 prospects. To increase opportunity to target account lead ratios run fewer but larger campaigns. Merge several short campaigns and simultaneously target multiple lines of business with multiple IT propositions.

Smarter Targeting with Social Media – With almost 50% of IT Decision-Makers (Forrester) having joined a Social Networking site for business purposes make sure your Agency taps into LinkedIn & Twitter to identify otherwise inaccessible Decision-Makers. Use what you have discovered about the individual to deliver a truly tailored proposition.

Prevent Lead Leakage – As many Marketers are now realising Lead Nurturing is essential to improving ROMI. Make sure all leads are dealt with. Some prospects may not be ready to buy now but will be later. Ignoring these longer term prospects is akin to burning money. Add them to your ongoing nurturing campaign, maintain contact and move them through the buying cycle.

Retain a Reserve List of Prospects – Generate an additional lead or two by injecting a reserve list of 5-10 target accounts as your campaign reaches its final stages. Towards the end your Agency will be chasing an ever diminishing number of contacts, and the reserve accounts ensure they are operating at full capacity until the campaigns conclusion.

Continuous Feedback – Ensure your IT proposition is proving effective in the early stages of a campaign by insisting upon live ‘on the ground’ feedback. The process enables you and your Agency to take restorative action early on to ensure your proposition and messaging are creating traction.

Secure all Sales Intelligence – A campaign creates a wealth of target account information that can be leveraged to generate leads long after campaign completion. Ensure your Agency delivers detailed Account Profile Reports highlighting the review or renewal dates of incumbent competitor systems and outsourced IT partners along with the identity of key purchasing DMU’s and insights into long term IT strategy.

Thanks for getting through all 10 tactics! Please feel free to add your own comments and suggestions or join the discussion on LinkedIn.

How IT Decision Makers & Tech Marketers use Social Media October 26, 2010

Posted by Blank in IT Marketing, Social Media.
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We came across a great survey paper today by UBM TechWeb about ‘How IT Decision Makers and Tech Marketers are using Social Media Today‘. The survey has some substance as the sample consisted of over 600 IT Decision Makers and more than 300 Tech Marketers.

What is interesting about this study, in comparison with some of the more lightweight research on social media is that it examines both the usage and preferences of technology decision makers and the activities technology marketers employ to reach them. A 360 degree view as the jargon goes.

Anyway, here is a summary of their key findings.

How IT Decision Makers use Social Media at Work

Predictably Social media is still lagging slightly behind more traditional online media as a key information resource taking 4^th spot behind Tech B2B websites, Tech B2B magazines & e-Newsletters. But, with a healthy 40% planning to increase the amount of time they spend with social media, the balance could soon shift.

From a Professional perspective Blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter received top usage which fits the social media marketing model of many of our IT clients. Just over 35% have joined a Professional Group on LinkedIn and Twitter is seen as the most effective way to keep up to date with key influencers.

So, to the crux of the survey. What are IT Decision Makers using Social Media for?

Following closely behind the reason #1, to stay connected with colleagues, comes:

To learn about new products, services & technologies
As a valuable source for tech information / advice

The key finding here is that almost 60% of respondents obtain information via Social Media for tech purchases and, as the study points out, that information is most likely to be found via LinkedIn or a Corporate blog. Continuing the theme of professional and personal time the study indicates that Twitter is most effective at straddling the two and thus maximising continual contact.

How Tech Marketers use Social Media to engage IT Decision Makers

Most tech marketers see the importance of developing a social media strategy with 43% saying it’s critically important, otherwise they fear they will be left behind, and 45% agreeing it is important and plan to address it soon.

Translating this into budgetary terms means that almost 45% of Tech Marketers are planning to increase social media marketing spend . Almost half of that percentage plan to increase social media budgets by between 15-30%.

According to the survey much of that budget will be ploughed into Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn with Corporate blogs slightly behind in 4^th. The primary objectives for the use of each social media by Tech Marketers are:

Promote Products / Solutions – LinkedIn by a considerable distance
Updates for company news – Facebook & Twitter level pegging
Though-Leadership – Corporate blogs hold their ground
Lead Generation activities – LinkedIn again

Conclusions

The study does throw up some interesting conclusions.

For IT Decision Makers, from a personal usage perspective, it is YouTube and Facebook that dominate.

It is the multi-functional Twitter that appears to be the most effective at straddling the two types of usage and thus maximising continual contact.

Corporate blogs are also regarded as a key resource. Of all social media they receive the top usage from IT decision makers during professional time and are most often consulted when IT decision makers:

Want more information about a recommended tech product or service
Want to contact a tech vendor for more information
Want to register for a whitepapers or other such content

As the research points out Marketers are not 100% comfortable with social media, we are still working out how to blend it into overall marketing activity and figure out how much resource to allocate to it.

Wherever you are at in your social marketing programme this report makes for a very illuminating read.

Here at Martrain we are seeing some success from our social media efforts which have been focussed on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you don’t already can I recommend following our tweets @martrainltd – an excellent additional source of information and updates for Tech Marketers.

Got to dash………there is a new film I have to see about social networking!

The Elephant in the room – Data Quality October 26, 2010

Posted by Blank in IT Marketing, Marketing Data.
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Some time ago I was approached by a leading software company to help them clean up their database. They had been using Lotus Notes as their main database application but had decided to ditch it, so they printed out all the information and deleted the software. As a result the entire database existed only in hard copy, the majority of it in Word! If I told you who this was you wouldn’t believe me, I’ll just say that another division in the group is one of the World’s top providers of company information.

Now as then data is the Elephant in the Room, even though it is one of the most important factors in campaign success. There was a famous piece of research carried out by a direct marketing agency to look at the impact of individual campaign elements. Many people were surprised that an accurate list was found to be ten times more important than the creative in determining results.

The US Direct Marketing Association has found that 25-30% of customer data and 75-80% of prospect data is incomplete or inaccurate. Our own experience is that contact data decays at about 20% per annum. At a time where the amount of information available to marketing is exploding data quality is more than ever an urgent challenge.

There are a combination of reasons for the poor state of B2B data, most obviously very few marketing organisations have a fully formed data strategy; which in turn means that no one individual has overall responsibility for data quality and that there is a lack of commonly agreed processes to ensure data is entered and maintained accurately.

I don’t want to get into the technicalities of data integration and the like, but I do believe that it is possible to make big improvements to overall results which can be self financing.

Here are a few suggestions that could make an immediate difference:

Carry out a data audit. Just how good/bad/incomplete is your data?
Clean existing data and remove duplication.
Enhance data from internal and external sources e.g. for customers details of software licences, version numbers etc.
Set up simple rules for data collection/entry e.g. contact names must have validation date.
Appoint a team to have responsibility for monitoring and promoting data quality, with full and high profile backing from the Marketing Director.
Encourage a culture where the importance of accurate data is really understood and acted upon.
Set aside at least 5% of corporate marketing budget for ongoing data maintenance / enhancement.

According to some research by Experian QAS on contact data quality 2/3 of companies reported that 5-30% of the marketing budget was wasted because of poor data.

At a time when marketing budgets are under pressure as never before I can think of no other marketing investment that will deliver a better ROI.

About to run a campaign? What can you do about your data problem?

The QAS budget wastage figures are very concerning not only due to the budgetary implications but also because clean and accurate data is the bedrock of a successful campaign. If the wider data situation at your company is poor, and your not alone if it is believe me, work with your Agency to build a campaign specific database. If you’re hoping to generate leads for ERP system reviews in the top 20 UK Banks get your Agency on the phone and identify the ERP DMU in each account. When the campaign proper begins no time or money will be wasted marketing the wrong people.

How are you meeting the marketing data challenge?

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IT Lead Generation Insider

Top 10 LinkedIn Groups for B2B Tech Marketers September 27, 2011

B2B Tech Marketing shifts from IT to Line of Business leaving Huge Data Gaps June 13, 2011

B2B Tech Marketers in ‘Distress’ as Poor Data takes its Toll June 13, 2011

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes April 27, 2011

Top online Resources for the B2B Tech Marketer April 6, 2011

Seven Deadly Sins of IT Lead Generation March 21, 2011

10 Tactics to Improve Telemarketing Lead Generation Campaign Results for Tech Marketers December 21, 2010

The Elephant in the room – Data Quality October 26, 2010

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IT Lead Generation Insider

Top 10 LinkedIn Groups for B2B Tech Marketers September 27, 2011

3 in 5 IT Decision-makers use Social Media to learn about new Products September 13, 2011

B2B Tech Marketing shifts from IT to Line of Business leaving Huge Data Gaps June 13, 2011

B2B Tech Marketers in ‘Distress’ as Poor Data takes its Toll June 13, 2011

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes April 27, 2011

Top online Resources for the B2B Tech Marketer April 6, 2011

Seven Deadly Sins of IT Lead Generation March 21, 2011

10 Tactics to Improve Telemarketing Lead Generation Campaign Results for Tech Marketers December 21, 2010

How IT Decision Makers & Tech Marketers use Social Media October 26, 2010

The Elephant in the room – Data Quality October 26, 2010

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