Tech B2B Marketing: Rants and Raves

Where Good Ideas Go to Die

Starbucks and the Value Meal Brand Dilemma

		Thursday, 26 February 09 - 09:26 AM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

So much has been written on this topic, I hesitated to join in when Starbucks first announced they will be offering value meals and instant coffee. There are so many blogs commenting on this decision, that it would take hours to consolidate them and provide a list. 

I thought it would be interesting to dig a little deeper and see if any bloggers/brand experts are saying this is a good idea.  Instead of spending an hour or two on Google searching around, I've launched a Smartsourcing question to the Mechanical Turkers to ask them.  I should have the results shortly and will update when I do...

I had a brief chat on Twitter with Rob Frankel, also known as the Branding Expert.  He wrote this post back in 2007 with his thoughts on how Starbucks 'has no genuine brand and never did.'

He makes an interesting case, saying that the Starbucks 'brand' is actually nothing more than a well-known identity.  

"To this day, there is not one person who can accurately and consistently articulate why Starbucks is preferable to other competing brands.  Not the average yutz in the street. Not the Vice President of their ad agency. Not even the CEO of Starbucks himself..."

But Frankel himself says that brand is 'the reason why people evangelize you ... it increases customer retention and profitability..."

For me, an avid coffee drinker, I buy Torefazione for home brewing and I go to Starbucks if I'm out and about.  Why Starbucks?  McDonalds coffee is terrible.  Dunkin Donuts coffee is terrible.  I've tried their new 'higher end' coffees and they taste the same, watery and without flavor.  I go to Starbucks because I know one of the two brews they are serving that day will be one that I like. 

Lately, they've been brewing Casi Cielo, the drip coffee they created specifically for Canlis Restaurant here in Seattle.  I love it.  I'm buying the beans for home brew, I'm talking about it on Twitter, I'm raving about it to my friends.  Is Starbucks brand linked with Casi Cielo?  Not really, but to me, it's always been about good coffee, something I can't easily find elsewhere. 

So in my mind, the development of value meals and offering instant coffee most certainly does taint the Starbucks brand.  Instant coffee, in my opinion, will not be quality coffee.  I won't buy it.  I probably won't even try it. 

But to Frankel's point, if you ask 100 people on the street what the Starbucks brand means to them and 10 (like me) say quality coffee, and another 20 say the consistent experience and another 10 say the catchy tunes they play (& sell) and yet another 10 say the breakfast sandwiches ... has Starbucks failed at establishing a real, lasting, loyalty-building brand?  What do you think?

Productive Multi-Tasking

		Wednesday, 18 February 09 - 12:39 PM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

Awhile back, I helped our founder and CEO with chapter 7 of our book on productivity. In this chapter, we outlined the idea of NTP or Net Team Productivity which is a metric that fights back against the idea that becoming uber productive as an individual will somehow elevate your team's productivity as well.  We also talked about Tim Ferriss' book, The Four-Hour Workweek and discussed why this probably isn't a realistic model just yet.  Mostly because technology hasn't risen to the level of automation that we need to effectively outsource mundane snippets of work, until now.

With the release of Smartsourcing, we've really been able to amp up the productivity of a single individual or a team.  It's now possible to quickly 'Smarsource' the most detailed tasks and it works especially well for outsourcing time-consuming web research.

Now that I'm on the bench and advising Smartsheet in my off-mommy-hours, I have to take advantage of every moment that is allocated for work.  I use Smartsheet as a collaboration tool more than ever.  It saves me from having to call up someone at the office and tacking them with another interruption (which is a drain on the NTP).    And I use Smartsourcing to help with mundane tasks I would have slogged through when I had more time, like researching articles written by particular journalists (ask Turkers to find the latest 10 articles by XYZ journalist and the links magically appear in Smartsheet for fewer than $0.75).  Amazing.

What I'm finding is that if I work smart, reduce interruptions by collaborating and making updates online and utilize Smartsourcing when I can, I am making a pretty decent impact on the business in fewer than 2 hours a day.  Here are some of the tips I would offer ...

• Eliminate interruptions. This one is key for me. Not only does it keep me on track and make my work time more productive, it also reduces the 'productivity tax' on other members of the team.  Using an online tool to manage updates and status can work wonders to reduce interruptions.
• Get rid of the grunt work. Okay, so you're not always going to be able to offload the grunt work, but as much as I can, I try to outsource time consuming, low-value web research via Smartsourcing. It's faster, super cheap and gives me more time to think strategically and create content ideas for the team.
• Plan ahead. Every day, I mentally prepare in my mind the open time blocks (usually naptime) and how I plan to spend them. Some days, afternoon naps are allocated for running or exercise and evening downtime is set aside to write a blog post or research editorial opportunities. Knowing ahead of time saves 15 minutes of decision-making in the moment (should I run today or ... should I?)
• Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Figure out what work items will have the biggest impact on the business and focus there first. Some may be time or deadline sensitive, while others directly map to business objectives (profitability by 2010).

Don't Shoot the Messenger ...

		Friday, 30 January 09 - 07:59 PM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

I've found in all of my marketing positions at B2B companies, there is always a struggle around defining core messaging.  And if done right, a messaging re-vamp can be time consuming.  Here are a few things I've learned:

Define the deliverable: Tell the team up front what you're planning to deliver as part of the messaging process.  Typically, the deliverable would include a messaging hierarchy of some sort and sample messages which can be associated with that hierarchy.  These are the set of rules anyone can refer to when creating more granular communication materials. This includes answers to questions like what is your product's primary benefit? What are the differentiators, etc... It can also include the one-sentence (or less) category/descriptor (e.g. CRM, collaboration tool, etc).

Don't re-invent the wheel: Unless you're Apple and can completely invent an entirely new genre (iPod), stick with the categories that currently exist.  This is especially true for small and medium size companies.  If you make CRM, don't spend cycles trying to come up with a different way to describe it.  You will confuse analysts and the press and they will ultimately decide to lump you in an existing category anyhow, but now you risk ending up in something that's inaccurate.

Messaging does not equal copy: I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to do an entire messaging revamp because someone doesn't like the home page copy.  Copywriting and messaging are two different things.  The copy should come out of the messaging.  In other words - messaging should be your guidepost to creating the other communication materials.  That said, a good messaging project will always contain some sample copy and may often have specific copywriting goals associated with it.

A few tips for developing the specific samples (finding the right words to use):

Do your ReSEARCH: How do people talk about your space?  What words do they use to describe the space you're in?  If you aren't sure, do some research.  Use Google's set of tools, Digitalpoint's free KW tool or subscribe to the free 7-day trial at Wordtracker. Look at the quantities and the competition. Type in a few of the words that seem to fit and see who comes up on the first page of the organic results.  Are they your competitors?  You may think coming up with a brand new category will get you on the first page of results, but if no one is looking for those terms, it doesn't help you much.

Ask your customers: If you're an existing company doing a messaging exercise, ask your customers how they use your product or how they describe you to friends and colleagues.  Then do a Word map of the results.  The results will be pretty obvious if you have a big enough data set. 

Survey Says ...

		Wednesday, 28 January 09 - 09:19 PM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

Smartsheet recently administered a client survey to get feedback on what's working, what's not working and where we can improve.  Additionally, we asked a few questions around how people found us (since we still get quite a bit of traffic from the direct url - people simply typing in www.smartsheet.com).

Now, for the disclaimer.  Keep in mind, often customers who take the time to fill out surveys (God bless them!) are either raving fans or extreme haters.  The folks in the middle often don't take the time to respond. 

So far, 85% of the respondents said they have recommended Smartsheet to a friend or colleague.  Out of that number, what percent do you think went through our official process (which is a different - and we think better - spin on traditional customer referral programs - http://www.smartsheet.com/affiliate-program)?

Zero.

It supports my hypothesis that people are going to recommend your product if they love it, not because you are going to give them a discount or cash or a donation to their favorite charity.  Now comes the part where we test the second part of my hypothesis.  Will the raving fans (since they are already recommending us) be willing to recommend us more often and in more places once they are made aware of the incentives? 

The jury is still out on that.  But I'll let you know.

The Social Media Marketing that Wasn't

		Monday, 26 January 09 - 10:13 AM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

Finally!  An example of social media marketing for a B2B company.   Why the strikethrough in the 'marketing'?  Well, quite frankly, because it wasn't marketing.  It was pure, unadultered social media at work.  In my opinion, the best and only kind. 

The secret sauce? A 24 year-old developer named Chris Doyle. 

Chris works for Smartsheet.com and is an active follower/participant on several blogs, technology and otherwise.  Twice now, comments posted by Chris have spiked our web traffic.  For those particular days, trafficf from Chris' posts were the highest form of referral traffic on our site.  And the traffic wasn't crap.  It was qualified, highly curious visitors who actually signed up to try the service. 

Here is one example (yes this is real): http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1541-different-approaches-to-positioning-a-comment-icon-in-basecamp-and-backpack

So what can we garner from this lesson?  The secret to B2B social media is ...

Youth?  Transparency (it's obvious from his post that he works at Smartsheet)? True engagement in communities?

Seriously, can you train your people to be inquisitive and genuine like Doyle when they are doing it with the end game of marketing a product?

Something to think about. 

 

Evite Angst X 10

		Monday, 19 January 09 - 12:24 PM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

I'm one of those people that responds to an evite with just a yes.  It stresses me out to try and think of something witty and clever with each invitation.  So my responses are typically yes +2.  If it's a particularly good day (meaning I got more than 5 hours of sleep the night before), I may add a witty line or two.  But I almost always regret it.

Twitter is evite angst x10.  Every single post should be informative, interesting, not self-serving, but not overly 'stuffy corporate'.  Some people have nailed this balance.  Some of the people I follow are extremely good at saying clever things about their children one tweet - and the next sending a link to an article that is incredibly useful for marketers. (e.g. http://twitter.com/elizabethsosnow or http://twitter.com/daveschappell or http://twitter.com/skydiver).

I am new to Twitter, in fact, I think I blogged once awhile back about how useless it is.  Not so anymore.  Now that I'm on maternity leave, I find it an extremely useful way to stay up-to-date on what's happening in B2B marketing, mostly because of the folks I follow.  Since I'm not bogged down by a day job and since I'm breastfeeding constantly (I had twins), I actually have time to find people worth following and read some of the links they send. I've learned a ton.  I was too busy working before to bother. 

As a rule, I try to Twitter only useful stuff that I've stumbled upon and found really helpful.  This is what I appreciate about some of the folks I follow.  On the weekend or after hours, I'll Twitter personal stuff (to strike that weird balance of personal vs. professional).  I'm not sure if it's working or if my followers (a huge club of 39 people) find my posts helpful, but I hope so. 

I've tried to follow the 'etiquette of Twitter' and follow everyone that follows me, but I've had to remove some of them becuase they just don't talk about stuff that interests me.  And then, the folks I do like to follow are too far down in the list when I check it. 

So now I don't automatically follow people that follow me (again, I have a whopping 39 followers so I'm not huring too many feelings...)  Am I breaking a big rule?  Is this a no-no?

I would end with a witty or clever one-liner, but last night was rough (2 hour chunks of sleep) so I just can't think of one.

Obama and Social Media

		Monday, 19 January 09 - 12:08 PM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

After reading this WIRED article, it's very obvious that the Obama administration will have a hard time keeping up their use of social media.  Things that were paramount to getting the 'change' theme in the minds of millions will be rendered useless after going through several levels of forced regulations. 

"There's also another reason to expect a tech-driven presidency: Obama   promised it. He said he would expand government transparency by putting more data up on the Web, streaming meetings live, and letting the public comment on most legislation for five days before he signs it. He said he would bring blogs, wikis, and social networking tools with him into the executive branch—all overseen by a new national chief technology officer... But turning his innovative campaign and transition into Government 2.0 won't be easy. The nimble Obama startup is about to be absorbed into a stodgy, technologically backward behemoth: the federal government. Ahead are bureaucratic obstacles the campaign never imagined, along with the political land mines that transparency brings."

While some of the regulations are extremely valid some are steeped in the kind of 'Washington thinking' Obama campaigned against.  

Since it seems Obama's staff will have a hard time allowing access to the real meat of the executive branch (where does the money go, where does the money come from?) why not use it to inspire change on a grassroots level?

For instance, Obama could Tweet to his 150,000 followers that the week of Martin Luther King Jr. day is the week to help out at a homeless shelter or lend a friend your pickup so they can save by not paying for a moving van.  I'm just brainstorming here...  They could put together some kind of site where people could track points and register what they've done (maybe the winner gets dinner at the White House?).  I know this sounds idealistic, but there's got to be a way to utilize the effective social media campaigns he started and encourage responsibility and accountability in the American people.   

Just a thought.

UPDATE: This is very cool - http://pledge5.starbucks.com/

The Referral Marketing Myth

		Wednesday, 14 January 09 - 08:00 AM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

During tough times, we're always trying to squeeze as much as we can out of what we've got.  In my experience, this is often when the revival of the 'customer referral program' will resurface as something to try (again...).  In past companies and as a consultant, this was something that landed on my plate often.  I would come up with all sorts of creative ways to drum up programs for B2B customers to refer potential new clients.  Palm Pilots for every lead that closed (am I dating myself here?), donations to favorite charities, t-shirts, cool gadgets, you name it. 

The myth: if you offer the right incentive, any mildly happy user of your product will gladly recommend it to their closest friends/colleagues.  WRONG. 

I know it sounds harsh, but after years of trying different programs, I really believe we need to take a different approach to referral marketing.  Especially with all the tools for monitoring your brand.  Within seconds on a Serph query, you can find people's Tweets, blog posts or comments on community forums either singing the praises of your product or blasting it. 

The customer referral program: Here goes my consulting fee...  It sounds simple, but find the people who like your stuff and who like to talk about it and give them incentives to talk about it more frequently and in more places. 

Here's a real-world example from my personal life (not B2B focused)
***

The setting: An in-person meeting for the Eastside Mothers of Multiples (EMOMS) group composed of moms/dads who have twins or triplets in our local area. 

The topic: "My favorite things". This is one of the most popular meetings for this group. Members get together and share their favorite pregnancy and infant/toddler products (specific for having twins or triplets).

The meeting: Although this meeting and topic are often one of the most popular of the entire year, only a small sample of members actually share in the group setting.  Most are there to hear what others recommend.  I would say 10% of the total stand up and make a recommendation. 

Before and after: Before and after the large group meeting, members mill about and this is where the expert eavsdropper gets the real goods.  Members talk at length about whether they liked the other members' recommendations and they discuss alternatives and their favorites.  You hear things like, "I know Molly said XYZ stretch cream is the best, but I found this other brand at half the cost and it works much better."

So what does this have to do with B2B marketing?  I'd argue that this is the perfect example of how people talk about products - now imagine the scenario happening online.  

Maybe they are on a forum or in blog comments.  Some feel comfortable making a recommendation in the forum to everyone, others only feel comfortable sending direct messages with their referrals.  You can find these folks online.  You can find where they are posting comments and talking back and forth about your stuff.  Maybe they are on your own message boards or in user groups or on Twitter...

Once you find the right people, the incentive is easy.  Because they are already dong this for free.  You're simply motivating them to do it more frequently and in more places.  A much easier sell.

 

Social Media Targeting Experiment

		Monday, 12 January 09 - 07:36 PM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

After reading Jason Falls enlightening post on social media for 2009, which includes a great refresher on Forrester's Social Technograph ladder, I was inspired to try something out to see for myself.  Basically, Jason's point is that a whopping 69% of us are spectators when it comes to social media.  Granted, the numbers of creators are up slightly as well, but the spectator crowd is the majority.  I decided to run a little social media experiment with Smartsheet.com. 

Smartsheet is online work tracking.  It's for teams within small or large companies that want to collaborate, share and manage work in a more efficient way.  I used to work there as the VP of marketing.

The problem: When I was at the company, we really struggled with figuring out how to use social media in a meaningful way.  We fully recognized that our product was somewhat boring and definitely not sexy.  How can you engage people online without sounding lame and forced?

The experiment: I put together a list of books I like.  I happened to use a Smartsheet - but the books had nothing to do with the company or product. Most were personal selections, historical fiction, etc.  I used some of Smartsheet's cool features (e.g. put my book reviews in the discussion bubble, used customized drop downs, etc) but the list was genuine.  Just a list of books to share with others.

Then I posted it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (as my status). And I updated a forum thread including the link to my sheet on my Mom's of Multiples web site where other twin and triplet mom's are constantly asking for book recommendations (but we never keep track of them).  In all instances, I noted that folks could add their picks to the list, and thus keep it going.

Now, keep in mind I don't have a lot of folks following me on Twitter (31 to be exact) so I wasn't expecting thousands of hits immediately.  Within the first day, my sheet had been viewed by 51 different people and 4 had entered in new books.  So we can assume that 47 of those that clicked through were mere 'spectators' AKA just interested in seeing my books, not necessarily wanting to add their own.

Granted, a small sample size but it completely confirms what Jason talks about.  So let's say I have 3,000 spectators looking at my Smartsheet with book selections.  How would that impact the company?  They may remember the brand name <good thing>, they may remember it as a cool place to track lists of things <good thing>, they may remember the name and Google it later <good thing>.  Just because I didn't have a flurry of new books entered doesn't mean this $0 social media experiment was worthless. 

Apparently, I just need more 'spectators' following me on Twitter.

DeathWatch - Media or Reality?

		Wednesday, 17 December 08 - 09:05 PM (GMT -08:00) By Maria Colacurcio in General

A good friend of mine, who is a PR pro, gave me a bit of feedback from her recent conversation with a senior editor from one of the big dailies. They are on deathwatch.

What I mean by deathwatch. They want stories about the recession, stories about the down-and-out, stories about layoffs, stories about down times, bad times, hard times. DeathWatch. And low and behold if you take a quick look at mainstream media right now, the drumbeat is the same.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand the gravity of this recession, especially if you've lost your job or are looking for a new one, but I have to wonder whether the media is making it worse? They tell us we need to save. They tell us the problem is we're not spending.

But back to the point ... how does a B2B marketer position a product announcement or release with a media who isn't really interested in the innovation that will rise from the ashes (because it always does you know) but would rather hear stories about doom and gloom?

My advice? Figure out how to wrap in your news with the doom. For instance, we have a release coming out in a few weeks that will be great for managers who have had to lay off several members of their team (and are now doing three times the work).

Innovative? Not really.

But somewhat depressing? Absolutely.

... More items are available in my News Archive