Posted at 10:30 AM in Creating Demand, Reputation, Sales | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The buzz in marketing is all about social media, with Twitter as the flavor of the month and maybe even a tipping point in getting laggard companies to finally take the promise of social media seriously.
Posted at 01:01 AM in Campaigns, Creating Demand, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I'm pleased to announce the launch of a new Point of View series with my partners at Solutions Insights.
Posted at 08:51 AM in Creating Demand, Marketing, Reputation, Revenue, Sales, Strategy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: B2B, ITSMA, marketing, solutions, Solutions Insights, survey
Posted at 07:39 PM in Campaigns, Creating Demand, Marketing, Reputation, Thought Leadership | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: brand, ibm, idc, lead generation, marketing, smarterplanet, thought leadership
Consider the following scenario: After a few weeks of back and forth with a prominent business journal, your PR person gets the go-ahead to submit a 400 word contribution to an ongoing forum on a critical issue for the senior executives in your target market.
Love 'em, or hate 'em, Wal-Mart is clearly among the most innovative and successful companies on the planet over the last half-century. Critics typically point to the company's sheer size and relentless cost cutting as the pillars of Wal-Mart's success, but constant innovation in business model, use of technology, are supply chain management are at least as important. The company also has a finely-tuned understanding of its markets and a willingness to make intelligent bets on the future (witness the current substantial push toward sustainability).
Posted at 03:13 PM in Collaboration, Creating Demand, Innovation, Marketing, Strategy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Dell, eClinicalWorks, marketing, medical IT, Obama, solutions, stimulus package, Walmart
If you're like me, you sign up for a bunch of webinars but rarely get around to listening in. The invitations sound good, but when the day comes around they're ultimately not worth the time. You can always do a quick scan on the slides.
Posted at 01:40 PM in Campaigns, Creating Demand, Marketing, Revenue, Sales, Strategy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: 2009, B2B, BtoB, budget, CDW, IDC, leadgen, marketing, recession, sales support, solutions, strategy, Sybase, webinar
In a down economy, investments in thought leadership -- developing and demonstrating unique insights on critical market issues -- tend to fall by the wayside. The focus on the marketing side shifts more heavily toward short-term lead generation and direct sales support. Conventional wisdom suggests that thought leadership and other reputation-building investments generate only a longer term payoff in business development.
Posted at 10:07 PM in Campaigns, Creating Demand, Marketing, Reputation, Sales | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: B2B, business development, marketing, thought leadership
The need for speed in the market is little doubted. Businesses are constantly trying to accelerate the pace of innovation, bring products and services to market faster, and, of course, hasten the entire sales cycle.
"I was joined in these sessions by company executives who provided candid insights about their SaaS goals, objectives, and even uncertainties. They readily admitted that they are making a 'big bet' on SaaS and still have plenty of piece parts to put in place regarding how the new offerings will be packaged, priced, and positioned.
Their candor was refreshing and rewarded with an enthusiastic response from the sales team which recognizes that times are changing, and they have an opportunity to offer their customers new game-changing SaaS solutions and greater options to meet their corporate objectives."
Executives candid with the sales team? Sales people excited about the new approach? Company working almost a year ahead of launch to get it right? I don't know the details on this one, but I like their chances.
Photo credit: John-Morgan
Posted at 01:44 PM in Campaigns, Creating Demand, Innovation, Sales | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: go-to-market, innovation, JeffKaplan, marketing, SaaS, sales, salessupport, software-as-a-service
Amid the inevitable and generally useless flood of predictions for 2009, Peter Kim published a useful e-book today on Social Media Predictions 2009 (pdf). Based on the contributions of 14 other experts, the document covers a wide range of issues, from metrics and mobile to budget and B2B.
In 2008 we saw many organizations taking Web 2.0 very seriously moving from 'why' to 'how' they should implement these new strategies and tactics. In 2009, reality will set in--big time...
Organizations will come to terms with the reality that although it is now 'cheaper' to launch an initiative leveraging Web 2.0 technology--it requires qualified and passionate people to make them successful. This will not be easy for many businesses/brands as it brings up a host of issues ranging from empowering employees & agencies to have direct contact with customers, to staffing up projects differently.
Many of us are going to wake up in 2009 wondering 'what did we eat?' -- everything from hastily assembled friends list to Twitter followers to groups, apps, and widgets that we 'impulse adopted' (usually while shadowing others) yet rarely revisited. Some of us will join the Social Media equivalent of Weight Watchers, eager to trim the excess and rediscover a modicum of 'don't follow everything' discipline.
More people backing away from "following everything" means we marketers will have to work that much harder to get them to follow us.
Posted at 12:14 AM in Advertising, Creating Demand, Media, Organization, Thought Leadership | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Ann Handley, B2B, blogging, Charlene Li, Chris Brogan, David Armano, Jeremiah Owyang , marketing, media, Pete Blackshaw, Peter Kim, predictions, social media