Latest News from Ambal Balakrishnan

Are You Ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST

Holidays are fast approaching which means spending time with your family and loved ones, time off work for most of us and, of course, overspending on gifts and merchandise. The notorious Black Friday is usually perceived by analysts as being the main major marketing event that launches the Holidays' spending frenzy. It is soon followed by Cyber Monday, which sort of launches the same wave of spending though in the online space. This is a great time for retailers, etailers and affiliate programs.

Or is it? Are you prepared for Cyber Monday's frenzy?

1. Increase your marketing budget. Now is a good time to get a pay-per-click campaign going. Never had one of those before? Well SearchEngineLand has you covered - check out their collection of articles on PPC campaigns to get you started.

2. Revise your keywords. Buying keyword campaign could prove highly beneficial for your business, but first you need to make sure they're on target and representative of your business and service offering. Indeed, a well performing set of keywords could highly improve the amount of traffic directed to your site by search engines. SEOmoz's beginner's guide to conducting keyword research will get you there fast.

3. Organize a targeted marketing campaign with coupon codes. Indeed, coupon campaigns are proving to be efficient while also raising your link equity. Business.com has an interesting article on the efficiency of coupon strategies. This campaign can even be carried on Twitter and other social networks through sites like Coupontweet.

4. Put people in a festive mood. Have you ever noticed how inhaling the smell of warm bread at the grocery store makes you want to immediately bite into a baguette? Well adjusting your site's design to reflect seasonal moods could help increase sales. Brick and mortar stores have been doing it for decades, and so has Google.

Are you and your business ready for the start of the Holiday season? Any other tips you'd like to share with us?

The Power of Listening - A Show and Tell

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:49:01 EST

What is HARO?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:45:00 EST

Chances are, if you're not a journalist, you haven't heard of HARO. It stands for Help A Reporter Out, and it's a site that was created to help journalists connect with experts or sources to interview for articles that they're writing. Chances are, you're thinking: OK, but I'm still not a journalist, so why is HARO useful to me? Well, if you're blogging or creating content regularly, you are similar to a journalist in some ways. You're trying to come up with interesting ideas, connect with an audience, and potentially find interesting sources to interview.

ClickInsights: How to Make Marketing Messages Memorable

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST

Think quickly. Which marketing slogan or jingle can you hear in your ear? Which marketing logo or picture appears before your mind's eye? Why do we remember only some marketing messages over others? What are characteristics of a memorable marketing message? Here is an interview about with Chip Heath, author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - Making B2B Marketing Messages More Memorable.

We have invited B2B Experts to shed light on the following question: "What can B2B marketers do to make marketing messages more memorable? Define one or more (no more than 3) characteristics of a memorable marketing message. Optionally, also give an example of a great B2B marketing message (slogan, picture, video etc) which has captivated you?". Read on to get their insights.

Recommended Resources from B2B Marketing Experts

Blogs

Books

Others

Ardath Albee

Blog Marketing Interactions Twitter Ardath421

Provide a Takeaway that is Conceptual, Conversational & Convertible

Ardath Albee's Bio

Ardath Albee is a B2B Marketing Strategist. Her company Marketing Interactions helps companies with complex sales and quantify marketing effectiveness by using interactive e-marketing strategies driven by compelling content. She empowers her clients to create customer-centric nurturing programs that leverage strategic story development to engage prospects until they are sales ready. Ardath’s book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale is now shipping!

Ardath Albee's Tip

B2B marketing messages need to leave a lasting impression. What your prospects walk away with, the ideas your message helps them ingest, chew on and discuss with colleagues are the takeaway from your messaging. Even if your prospect doesn’t choose to act upon your call to action, the takeaway should provide recognizable value. As the impressions from takeaways build, your credibility will grow and active engagement will follow.

A valuable takeaway is:

Conceptual – produces an idea your content helped generate that the prospect can own and develop in relation to a top priority.
Conversational – the idea is powerful enough that the prospect wants to discuss it with others involved in solving the problem your content is designed to address.
Convertible – applicable to their specific situation. They can see the idea in application to their circumstances.

The beauty of a takeaway is that it can be “owned” by the prospect, but attributable to your company. By simplifying the complexity of a situation in a way that promotes active thinking about solving it, your messaging helps prospects visualize successful outcomes and enroll others in embracing “their” ideas.

The point is that every single interaction you have with a prospect is an opportunity to provide a takeaway they value. Just ensuring your logo or company name is in front of them doesn’t create engagement. By helping prospects generate ideas that get them thinking about the possibilities of eliminating obstacles hindering successful outcomes, your company can become the anchor they rely upon to help them do just that when the time comes.

The next time you think an email message or content description is just a call to action, think again. Define the value your prospect will receive—even if they don’t click through. If all they’ll gain is the knowledge that your product has yet another new feature, it’s time to rethink your messaging from your prospects’ perspectives. Give them a takeaway.

Ardath Albee Recommends

Ardath Albee's book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

Rebel Brown

Blog Phoenix Rising Twitter RebelBrown

Be relevant, be concise, be compelling

Rebel Brown's Bio

Rebel Brown is go-to-market strategist and Spin Doctor specializing in start ups, turnarounds and start-arounds in the high technology arena. She has helped to define, position and launch over 75 individual products and companies since she began consulting 20 years ago. Her clients who are technology vendors and venture firms leverage her strategic marketing and go-to-market expertise. She identifies and transforms differentiation - customers crown jewels - into compelling, customer-centric value that sells. Her blog is Phoenix Rising and her business is People Who Know.

Rebel Brown's Tip

To me, great messages attract buyer attention. That’s all they are focused on doing. They don’t explain or educate. They draw audiences in with their direct and quick hits. At least the memorable ones do. We want our key branding messages to be sticky, to catch the audience’s eye, draw them into our story. Then we can share more information.

I call these messages Pivot Points, focused on our market, our company and our offerings. When I’m creating Pivot Point messages with clients, I focus on three key criteria. The final messages must be relevant, concise and compelling.

Be relevant. People pay attention to things that are important to them. If we’re telling our audience about things that they don’t care about – we don’t get their attention. If we’re telling them about things that are important to us – we missed the point of marketing. Know your audience and be relevant. With every message, answer the most important marketing question. “So What?”

Be concise. One of the biggest mistakes we all make is using too many words to make our point. Less is more - especially in sales and marketing. Short and sweet is what attracts buyers. So get to the point, stay on point. When we wander off message into explanations or deep dives, we lose audience attention.

Be compelling. There’s always more than one way to say anything. So pick the words that are most powerful. Active words are much better than passive words. Questions draw people in, especially when they’re right between the eyes. Quantitative, provable statements are enticing as well. Explaining how things work is boring to economic buyers. Think sizzle!

Rebel Brown Recommends

Charlene Li's and Josh Barnoff's book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Mac McIntosh

Blog Sales Leads Insights Twitter B2B_Sales_Leads

Talk directly to the target audience when creating lead generation campaigns and messages

Mac McIntosh's Bio

M. H. (Mac) McIntosh is considered to be one of North America’s top B2B marketing consultants and an expert the subject of using marketing to generate leads and drive sales. In addition to consulting, Mac conducts marketing workshops and seminars, writes regularly for leading marketing and business publications, is the publisher of Sales Lead Report, a newsletter with more than 15,000 subscribers, and Sales Lead Insights, his B2B marketing blog. He holds the Certified Business Communicator (CBC) designation awarded by the Business Marketing Association and was designated by BtoB magazine as one of its “Top 100 in BtoB Marketing.”

Mac McIntosh's Tip

Start by using the sticky ideas in Chip and Dan Heath’s thought provoking book, Made to Stick.

That’s exactly what one of my B2B sales lead consulting clients, GlobalSpec (an online media company serving the industrial marketplace) did. They created a very successful lead generation campaign using the theme of “Be a marketing Hero.”

Why was it memorable, and effective? Because it talked directly to the target audience, industrial marketers, using many of the sticky concepts the Heaths recommended in their book:

It had strong emotional appeal. It was appealing to exactly the people they were trying to generate leads from: Industrial marketers. The same folks, who like the late Rodney Dangerfield, often feel they get no respect.
It was simple. Marketers clearly understood the message (the benefit). They “got it” right away.
It was concrete. The lead generation campaign including clear calls-to-action, such as Download the Marketing Hero's Toolkit.
It was credible. The campaign was aimed at marketers who had already been receiving information from GlobalSpec, so they were familiar with the company and had previously experienced the quality of the marketing resources offered by GlobalSpec, so they had little doubt that the information offered would be useful.
It told a story. The lead generation campaign materials used familiar super-hero comic book language like, “Fear no more, help is here” and it engaged the reader by addressing a real-world problem that marketers were (and still are) wrestling with: today’s challenging economy.
It was unexpected. It was it a rare positive message in a time of doom and gloom for industrial marketers.

All B2B marketers should read Made to Stick, and give copies of the book to the people they rely on to help create or implement their lead generation campaigns, messages and offers. They should also list three concepts outlined in the book (i.e. emotional, simple, concrete, etc.) on a sticky-note, then stick it on the edge of their computer monitor as a reminder when they are developing lead generation campaigns, coming up with offers and calls-to-action or writing copy.

Mac McIntosh Recommends

Made to Stick book by Chip and Dan Heath
MarketingSherpa
B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study 2009
Sales Lead Expert’s Learning Center

Tom Pick

Blog WebMarketCentral Twitter TomPick

Know your audience, understand what keeps them awake at night, and use their language

Tom Pick's Bio

Tom Pick is an online marketing executive with KC Associates, a marketing and PR firm in Minneapolis , Minnesota , focused on b2b technology clients. He helps clients improve business results through search engine optimization (SEO), search marketing, interactive PR and social media programs. Tom also writes the award-winning WebMarketCentral blog, a blog about B2B lead generation, social media, interactive PR, SEO and search engine marketing.

Tom Pick's Tip

The keys to creating a memorable b2b marketing message are to know your audience, understand what keeps them awake at night, and use their language. That means, first and foremost, you need to be able to precisely define your audience; the language that will appeal to C-level executives is different than what will speak to the direct concerns of a departmental director, for example. An ideal message will speak directly to eliminating a pain your target prospects recognize, in words they would use. And of course, you have to be able to back up your promise. If, for example, your message is about reducing costs, you’ll need proof points that specifically identify which costs can be reduced, and what level of savings is reasonably achievable.

An example I like is from Kinetic Data. Their primary audience is IT service managers and internal help desk managers. Their tagline – Building a better service experience – may not mean a lot to you, but it resonates with their target prospects, who care about making IT easy to deal with for employees, and about keeping costs down. The company’s software empowers users to make IT service requests through self-service portals, while also streamlining the service delivery workflow on the back end. The marketing message is effective because it directly addresses a key concern (IT service quality) of their prospects.

Tom Pick Recommends

Howard Sewell

Blog Direct Connections Twitter HJSewell

Does you message get prospects and customers to respond?

Howard Sewell's Bio

Howard J. Sewell is president and founder of Connect Direct Inc. (CDI) a full-service marketing agency with offices in Silicon Valley and Seattle that specializes in demand generation and lead management for high-technology companies.

Howard Sewell's Tip

This is an interesting question because, frankly, I’m not sure I care whether our clients’ marketing messages are memorable or not. As a dyed-in-the-wool direct marketer, all I care about is whether someone responds. To my way of thinking, companies who go out of their way to make their messages memorable in a “Got Milk?” kind of way will most likely end up with pithy copy that fails to drive the desired action on the part of the reader. Today’s social, digital, interactive world demands messages that drive people to engage, respond, and share. Whether or not they remember the message 5 minutes later, I would argue, is secondary.

When I was first cutting my teeth in marketing, an early mentor told me that good copy (and by extension, I would argue, an effective marketing message) needs to do three things, namely tell the reader:

What the offer is
Why he/she wants it
How to get it

It’s a philosophy that works well for subject lines, for landing pages, for headlines. As an example, here’s an email I reviewed not long ago on our blog, developed (not by our firm) for Tableau Software.

Note that within just a few lines, you know what the offer is, what you’ll learn from it (in very specific, concrete, quantitative terms), and how to get it. Is the message about “telling stories” particularly memorable? Probably not. But if the campaign succeeds, who cares?

Howard Sewell Recommends

Seamus Walsh

Blog B2BContentMarketing Twitter SeamusWalsh

Writing has to be planted firmly in the terms of how readers are adopting change

Seamus Walsh's Bio

Seamus Walsh founded VAZT Global Inc. in January 2008. Seamus' passion for sales, sales process and excellence enabled him to develop a platform that "finds, cares and feeds" prospects until they are ready to buy. Prior to forming VAZT, Seamus worked in sales and strategic account management for The Hackett Group, a strategic advisory and management consulting firm in Atlanta, For Gartner, a research, advisory and consulting company in Stamford, CT and Cambridge Technology Partners, a web development company, prior to its acquisition by Novell. Seamus resides in Essex Junction, VT with his wife and four children.

Seamus Walsh's Tip

This question forces me to evaluate my writing. Am I rehashing a tired mantra or chasing to the next vernacular like a cluster of seagulls? Realistically, writing has to be planted firmly in the terms of how readers are adopting change.

I believe the best way to make our content memorable is to make it actionable. On my reading list right now is Kristina Halvorson and Ann Rockley, they write in such a way that I get tidbits of very valuable information: A new way of looking at an old problem, an identification of a solution that I could not nail down, or a phrase that I may use as a part of common “industry accepted” nomenclature .

With technology and business architectures changing constantly, our value as writers is to tell a story in such a way that it makes sense to our readers and they can use tidbits to implement strategies and initiatives to achieve their goals.

Seamus Walsh Recommends

What Is Your Favorite Case Study? Why Do You Like It?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST

Case studies come in all shapes and forms. Our Panel of Case Study Experts have written and reviewed thousands of case studies over the years. Which case study stands out in their mind? We have invited Case Study Experts to answer this query: "Give one example of your most favorite case study and why you like it".

Cindy King

Blog CindyKing Twitter CindyKing

“Highlight business impact”

Cindy King's Bio

Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Specialist based in France. She uses her dual background in sales & marketing, in international business development, to help businesses improve their international sales conversion. She is also adept at content marketing, international web marketing and social media marketing.

Cindy King's Tip

My favorite case study is a blog post on Social Media Examiner:
Social Media Marketing Lowers Acquisition Costs 39 Percent for TakeLessons.com

What stands out the most for me in this case study is the great example of how social media marketing works for a real world business. It highlights how businesses need to adapt their marketing to this new environment in order to engage with their clients in a different way. Another great take away from this case study is how businesses should approach the ROI of social media. It's not only about the money you make, but also the money you save.

Of course, most businesses would love to experience similar results to the TakeLessons.com case study, especially when you consider the manageable amount of time invested in their social media tasks. So this case study is also an inspiration.

Cindy King Recommends

Casey Hibbard's book Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset
Jill Konrath's book Selling To Big Companies
Joe Pulizzi's and Newt Barrett's book Get Content. Get Customers.

Casey Hibbard

Blog Stories That Sell Twitter Casey_Hibbard

“Tell a story and prove claims with numbers”

Casey Hibbard's Bio

Casey Hibbard is the founder and principal of Compelling Cases, Inc. Over the past decade, she has created and managed nearly 500 customer stories for dozens of companies, including Level 3, USA.NET, Jobfox, Qwest, Great-West Healthcare, Vocus and Verio. She is the author of the first published book on the topic of customer case studies, Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset.

Casey Hibbard's Tip

Alltel Wireless drives “My Circle” success with sophisticated direct marketing was created for Acxiom, an interactive marketing services company.

This case study is at the top of its class for many reasons:

A well-known company was willing to share its success in a case study.
The design attracts and engages readers. The amount of white space is inviting, as well as the numerous, relevant graphics throughout the story. The layout keeps paragraphs narrow and relatively short, making it more reader-friendly.
A sidebar summarizes the story for readers. Placing it on the first page means readers don't have to search for that information.
A feature story style means the story starts immediately with an engaging feature lead, instead of an "About the Customer" section.
Acxiom has left out an About Us section, keeping it about the customer's story. Instead, the audience can glean that information from other sources.
The story uses descriptive subheads throughout to help readers skim.
The 4-page case study uses 5-6 powerful customer quotes that reinforce the customer's experience.
It includes measurable results - the icing on the cake.

In short, it's extremely attractive, tells a story and proves its claims with numbers.

Casey Hibbard Recommends

For writers and marketers, the first book on customer case studies just came out, Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset, in ebook or printed formats. It covers the complete process of creating a story from start to finish to usage.
Steve Slaunwhite’s Cracking the Case Study Market how-to manual is a great resource for writers looking to profit in this field.
Join LinkedIn Group – Success-Story Marketing Group for discussions about all things related to using customer stories in sales and marketing.

Michele Linn

Blog Savvy B2B Marketing Twitter MicheleLinn

"Highlight results that are quantifiable and relevant to the reader"

Michele Linn's Bio

Michele Linn is a B2B marketing consultant specializing creating and promoting buyer-focused content, such as white papers, research reports, feature articles and case studies. Her business is devoted to making the job of B2B marketers easier by producing effective content and providing insights on how they can market it. Her website is Linn Communications.

Michele Linn's Tip

One of my favorite case studies (Insurance Firm Wards Off Costly CPU Upgrades With Compuware Strobe) is one I worked on when I was a marketing manager for a software company. It was a collaboration between the key people at my company (sales was especially instrumental), and I was very pleased with the results.

Like many case studies, the format of this piece is easy to skim and understand: problem, solution, results. The sidebar summarizes these key points for those who want a quick overview.

I am especially fond of this case study because the results are so quantifiable and relevant to the reader. For the audience of this story, hard-dollar savings was especially important. We understood exactly what data we wanted to pull out, so we developed the questions to get powerful quotes:

“We were able to fine-tune performance and delay our next CPU upgrade for almost 18 months, saving approximately $2 million in hardware and software costs.”
“We can improve performance and put off other upgrades, saving us today probably close to around another $1 million in costs.”

We got a lot of mileage from these quotes and others from the story. There was also a video and press release about the customer experience, which was a nice compliment to the written story.

Michele Linn Recommends

Casey Hibbard's blog Stories that Sell
Casey Hibbard's book Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset
Jonathan Kranz's eBook: Making Your Case: Everything You and Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies

Sarah Mitchell

Blog Global Copywriting Twitter globalcopywrite

"Identify a case study with clear subheadings - Problem, Goal and Solution"

Sarah Mitchell's Bio

Sarah Mitchell is a freelance copywriter with a focus on B2B content, specifically case studies and white papers. Combining successful technical, sales and writing careers, Sarah provides a rare perspective to every project. She’s especially interested in working with small and medium-sized businesses. Sarah has lived and worked on five continents. Find her website at Global Copywriting.

Sarah Mitchell's Tip

My favorite case study is from an unlikely source, Cook’s Illustrated magazine. For those of you that don’t know, Cook’s Illustrated is known as America’s Test Kitchen. Taking a scientific approach to every recipe printed, the magazine is nothing less than a monthly compendium of case studies.

Published in March 2006, Old-Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake identifies itself as a case study with clear subheadings on The Problem, The Goal and The Solution. Written clearly in feature-style prose, the reader is drawn immediately with a reminder of how chocolate cake used to be, “towering slices …slathered with billowy frosting”. The problem succinctly follows, “over the years chocolate cakes have become denser, richer and squatter”. By the time I get to the goal, “old-style, mile-high chocolate layer cake with a tender, airy, open crumb and a soft, billowy frosting”, I’m already making a shopping list.

As with all good case studies, Cook’s Illustrated provides plenty of convincing data. You trust a recipe perfected with 130 attempts. Both failures and successes are detailed in objective language. Key findings are described along with the technical reasons for success. When you’re done reading, you know what works and, importantly, why it works.

The case study ends with clear recommendations in the form of a recipe and systematic instructions with accompanying photos. If you’ve never made a chocolate cake in your life, this case study provides four pages of specific information to guide you. For an experienced baker, Cook’s Illustrated makes you confident you’ve found the perfect recipe.

Sarah Mitchell Recommends

Savvy B2B Marketing
Compelling Cases Blog
Joe Pulizzi’s Blog
Stories that Sell by Casey Hibbard
The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman
LinkedIn Groups: Copywriting Success Summit and Success-Story Marketing

Stephanie Tilton

Blog Savvy B2B Marketing Twitter StephanieTilton

“Produce a range of pieces to address different audience interests”

Stephanie Tilton's Bio

Stephanie Tilton is an expert case study and white paper writer who helps B2B companies advance the sales cycle by engaging prospects and customers. Harnessing her unique blend of technical knowledge, marketing savvy, and writing skills, Stephanie has crafted nearly 100 case studies and white papers for leading brands such as Akamai Technologies, EMC, Macromedia, Novell, SAP, and Symantec. Her website is Ten Ton Marketing.

Stephanie Tilton's Tip

My favorite case studies focus on the customer's success and help readers envision how their situation can change for the better.

SAP does a great job of telling these types of stories. In fact, SAP takes an interesting approach to showcasing customer successes. It produces a range of pieces to address different audience interests, from a one-page customer profile to in-depth stories that follow the typical "problem-solution-results" formula. In the middle lie Business Transformation Studies, which illustrate how SAP has helped customers, well, transform their businesses. These Business Transformation Studies are formatted to appeal to both skimmers and readers, as well as to business and technical audiences. In the sample I've chosen, you'll see the following elements used to great effect:

A headline and pull quote emphasizing the main customer benefit
A shaded box summarizing customer and solution information
Bullets highlighting key challenges, reasons the solution was selected, implementation highlights, and benefits
A four-line summary encapsulating the story
A one-page narrative telling the story in a compelling fashion

Key takeaway: Focus your case studies on your customers and format the stories so readers can digest information the way they prefer.

Stephanie Tilton Recommends

Casey Hibbard's book Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset
Casey Hibbard's blog Stories that Sell
6 Steps to Successful Case Studies

Recommended Resources from Experts on Case Studies

Blogs

Casey Hibbard's blog Stories that Sell
Cindy King's blog CindyKing
Michele Linn's blog Savvy B2B Marketing
Stephanie Tilton's blog Savvy B2B Marketing
Jonathan Kranz's blog Kranzcom
Sarah Mitchell's blog Global Copywriting
Joe Pulizzi’s Blog

Books

Casey Hibbard's book Stories that Sell
Jill Konrath's book Selling To Big Companies
Joe Pulizzi's and Newt Barrett's book Get Content. Get Customers.
The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman

Others

Steve Slaunwhite’s Cracking the Case Study Market
LinkedIn Group – Success-Story Marketing Group
Stephanie Tilton's 6 Steps to Successful Case Studies
Jonathan Kranz's eBook: Making Your Case: Everything You and Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies
Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies

Related Articles

How to Be a Content Marketing Winner

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST

Do you feel like a content marketing loser? Like even though you're using the same strategies as the celebrity bloggers, the crowd keeps passing you by?

In a super post about "getting lucky" in the content marketing world, Tracy Feit Love breaks it down to this memorable example:

"Two guys walk into a bar (humor me here). The first guy walks up to a woman and says, 'Hi. I make a lot of money and drive a really fast car, so you will definitely want to go out with me. Here’s my number. When you’re ready to go out, call me.'

"The second guy sits down at the bar and listens. He hears the woman next to him complain to the bartender that the last Italian restaurant she tried was terrible, and that she couldn’t seem to find good Italian food nearby. When there’s a break in the conversation, he says, 'Excuse me, but I couldn’t help overhearing about your bad experience with some of the local Italian restaurants. Have you tried Davio’s Cucina? It’s really excellent.'

Which guy is more likely to end up with a date?"

Even if guy no. 2 doesn't get the date, he's at least demonstrated that he's listening and that he's willing to offer help. So, how can you show you're listening? Here are a few ways:

1. Try a poll or online survey. We're often afraid to put our ideas on the table and admit that we don't know what the next step should be. When, in fact, asking your clients and/or readers what they think of your next move, or product can only put you on the right track to better meeting their needs. Another way to use polls or surveys is simply to develop a profile of your client/reader base: What are their demographics? Are they more into Facebook or Twitter? What areas of work and life do they need most help in? This information can help you figure out where you come in.

2. Listen and react: When you read others' blogs and Twitter feeds, you are listening. But unless you comment or react in some way, the author has no idea you're out there. You are not engaging. Put yourself in their shoes: They would love to know they've got your attention, that they're making you think about something, that you read a post of theirs from start to finish. Jump the hurdle of silence and connect in any way you can think of - even if it's just to ask the writer how they came up with the idea for their post, or to thank them for voicing an interesting point of view. Responding to others' questions or requests for advice/help seems obvious, but you have to get into the habit of doing it.

3. Connect people: Another way to show people you're listening is to connect them with those that have a relevant or mutual interest. Think of the people in your various networks, and how they might be able to learn from or work with each other. This shows that you're thinking of others, and willing to make an introduction that may help them in the future.

4. Give credit where credit is due: Let people know how they've influenced you or helped shape your decisions. Perhaps a particular thread of forum discussion or Tweets helped you gather opinions on a particular topic. Tell people that their feedback was helpful, and be specific about how you used it. Here's a great example of letting your readers know how their feedback helped: Rypple added a new feature based on user feedback.

5. Give people something different: If you are out there listening to what's being said in your online neighborhood, chances are you hear a lot of the same things over and over. You read discussion of the same issue, rehashing of the same problems or approaches. Try to find ways to establish yourself as something other than a parrot: find an angle, tool, recommendation or resource that helps people. Or, at the very least, makes them laugh. Who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky.

What is Your Favorite White Paper?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST

White papers come in all shapes and forms. Our Panel of White Paper Experts have written and reviewed thousands of white papers over the years. Which white paper stands out in their mind? We have invited White Paper Experts to answer this query: "Give one example of your most favorite white paper and why you like it". Read on to get their insights.

Great Social Media & Content Marketing Quotes in 2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:15:55 EST

Ardath Albee's new book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:47:09 EST

Happy Holidays, Content Marketers!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST

Now that Halloween is behind us, watch out for fruitcake and Jingle Bell Rock. The holidays start earlier each year, which is unfortunate for those of us still mourning summer. But, in terms of content marketing, it's a great reminder to stay seasonal, relevant and creative. This doesn't mean jumping on the consumer bandwagon, in fact it may mean helping people do just the opposite. Read on for eight tips on how to ready your content for the holiday season.

1. Wrap up a gift. Put something in a box with a ribbon on top and it becomes a gift. Think of ways you can package your content so that it becomes a gift or a special offer. Can you put together a resource guide or other evergreen content that will be useful and relevant to a large audience?

2. Do something charitable: In this 2008 pre-holiday post, Chris Brogan requests that instead of sending holiday cards, readers contribute to particular causes. Does your organization support a fundraising or community cause? Rally readers by getting them involved in your project.

3. Cook something delicious: Put your subject area in a blender with holiday themes and see how it turns out. Perhaps you can create a funny guide to the year's best books and/or gifts related to your subject area. Check out this post on What to Buy a Marketing Person for Christmas.

4. Write a letter to Santa: Kids get to write wish lists to Santa, so why not us professionals? A funny, creative format for a blog post at this time of year is a wish list based on your subject area or field of expertise.

5. Holiday newsletter: Lots of people send out personal newsletters to family and friends, giving the highlights of the year. What about concocting a funny or informative holiday newsletter about your industry or company? Other variations: "The year in review" and "Best Xs of 2009".

6. Surprise people: Part of the pleasure of giving is surprising people, so do something out of context, something that rallies against stereotypes or something that taps into people's inner child. A great read on this is Andy Nulman's book Pow! Right Between the Eyes, which focuses on the power of "surprise marketing."

7. Look to the trends in the year ahead. Many media outlets end the year with a "What's hot, what's not" list, looking at what trends have gone in and out over the year. Go out on a limb and forecast trends in your subject area for the coming year. Here's a Harvard Business publishing post about Social Media Trends for 2010.

8. Help people stop binging. Christmas is a time of excess: more spending, more eating and higher expectations. Is there any way you can help people get back to basics and keep it simple? Get Rich Slowly blogger J.D. Roth is already on it, with his post The Regrets of Christmas Past and last year's Do-It-Yourself Christmas: 34 Great Gifts You Can Make Yourself, which received 57 comments.

Happy Holidays!

ClickLaunch: Ardath Albee's eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:00:00 EST

Ground reality - 1. B2B sales cycles are long and complex. 2. Marketers today are under high pressure to close sales and show results quickly. 3. Buyers don’t want to be pitched to. How do B2B marketers successfully navigate the challenges along the B2B sales course map? In her new book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, Ardath Albee recommends that it is important to find answers to the following questions - Who are you buyers? What are their critical priorities? What do they need to know to make a buying decision? We have invited Ardath Albee to get an insider look into her book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

Ardath Albee

Blog Marketing Interactions eMarketing Mastery Twitter Ardath421

Create content for each stage of the buying process that’s focused on delivering value from the buyers’ perspective.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Ardath, it is a great pleasure to discuss your new book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale. Thanks for finding time out of your very busy schedule to provide your valuable insights to our readers. Tell us about what Marketing Interactions does?
Ardath Albee: Marketing Interactions helps B2B companies with complex sales increase and quantify marketing-to-sales effectiveness by developing and executing interactive e-marketing strategies driven by compelling content. Essentially we help companies use content to engage with and help prospects choose to become buyers because of the strategic advantages they gain by doing so.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Give us the background of how you gained an interest in B2B Marketing?
Ardath Albee: I’d been strictly B2C for a number of years as a turnaround specialist for hotels and country clubs. When I was invited to help launch a start-up B2B software company, it was a new challenge and time for a change. I’d always been a writer, but what I found as I helped companies use the software platform for best results, was that they needed a lot of help with content strategy. Through helping them become successful, I found a way to put my passion for both customers and writing to work and decided I enjoyed that work more than running companies.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What prompted you to embark on creating your book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale?
Ardath Albee: That’s a good question. There wasn’t a good resource out there that tackled the exact challenge of content creation from a strategic perspective. I know. I looked. I’ve learned a lot about what that takes and want to share that knowledge to help marketers learn to fish, instead of having to hire people to fish for them. I wanted to write an accessible book that could be used as a guide for how to create content strategies that produce results, not a high-level book that gives you great ideas, but no way to put them into practice. I hope I accomplished that.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Please walk us through the book writing life-cycle from concept to launch?
Ardath Albee: Oh boy. Are you sure you want to know?

I was referred to my agent by a colleague. He was interested in my concept and worked with me to create the proposal for the book. Within about a month, he had interest from my editor at McGraw-Hill. We worked together to incorporate her ideas and that changed the original concept quite a bit. Then I signed and they asked me to complete the manuscript in 3 months. That was the most challenging part – writing the book while continuing to do client work.

After I turned in the book manuscript, we went through two revision rounds and then it went to final copyedits. Those required quite a bit of re-work on my part as that person didn’t understand my subject matter, but firmly embraced the publisher’s style guidelines. I requested they change most of it back, and I’m really thankful they agreed.

In the midst of all that, we went through two cover designs. The first one missed, but they nailed what I wanted with the second one and I’m very pleased. Their designers did a great job on the book design itself and it was really fun to watch it evolve.

Then, the day came when they asked me to get endorsements for the book. Oh, and told me I had two weeks to get them. Fortunately I had great support from some wonderful people who I consider luminaries in the industry. They all pulled together for me and I made my deadline. But, that was truly the hardest part. It was the first time I’d had feedback on the book outside of my editorial team and the colleagues who’d been Beta readers. It was terrifying to have some of the people I’ve got a huge amount of respect for, but don’t know all that well personally, as the first to read it. Thank God they liked it!

Then came the day that FedEx pulled up with cases of books. I finally got to see and hold the real thing. It was amazing. I still smile when I look at the copy sitting on my desk. But, the day after that, Amazon started shipping. A full three weeks early and I wasn’t ready due to my client project schedule. But that’s okay, I’ll get there – about the time it was supposed to be released.

The funny part is that I work in a business environment that moves fast. And I received the book in final form almost a year to the day I signed my contract. It seemed like it took forever. Most gratifying is that people are buying the book. And I’m hearing from them, which I absolutely love. That people are finding value in the book makes it all worthwhile.

Recommended Resources

Get Content. Get Customers. by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett
Cashing in on Content by David Meerman Scott – a classic that I still reference.
Junta 42 Community and the Top Blogs list – you’ll find a great resource there.
The Customer Collective – a collection of blogs that includes both marketing and sales thought leaders.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Who is eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale addressed towards?
Ardath Albee: I wrote the book for marketing and sales organizations challenged with engaging prospects across the entirety of a lengthening, complex buying cycle. I think the book will be helpful for any size company that needs to answer that challenge.

Ambal Balakrishnan: How is the B2B Marketing landscape different than what it was a decade back?
Ardath Albee: A decade ago buyers pretty much had to speak with a salesperson to find out what they needed to know to make a purchase decision. The Internet changed that by connecting people with information about nearly everything. Buyers now can learn pretty much what they need to know to get to the creation of a short list without ever speaking to a salesperson. Not only has that made becoming the advisor to help people buy harder, but it’s transferred a lot of responsibility to the marketing side of the scale. In addition, instead of face-to-face, much of communication today is done digitally. That’s a wholly different process that requires us to develop different skill sets in order to work effectively.

Ambal Balakrishnan: How is Content Marketing for B2B’s different from B2C’s?
Ardath Albee: I think the biggest difference is that B2C doesn’t have the buying committees and influences that impact the B2B market. In B2B we have to address the buyer, but we also have to know how roles, responsibilities, corporate culture, industry specifics and stakeholders impact the problem and the choice to buy. We’re often dealing with complex systems where our product or solution impacts only a part of them, but still, we have to be able to address the ripple effect of everything else they touch.

In comparison, the most complex purchase a consumer makes is often their home. Much of how they decide is based on personal values and their buying committee is usually their spouse, and maybe the family. Generally the values you’re addressing are shared. In B2B, it’s not that easy.

Ambal Balakrishnan: You have an entire chapter dedicated to B2B Marketing Metrics. Which metric is the one you most reach out to in your metric toolbox?
Ardath Albee: Goal Achievement – aka Levels of Engagement. Whether opt in, other response activity or online dialogue, B2B marketers must motivate their prospects to respond in increasingly interactive ways or they aren’t generating the amount of interest necessary to progressively move them toward viable sales conversations. Every content “touch” must be designed to achieve a goal. With progressive goal achievement, marketing builds pipeline momentum that drives sales outcomes.This is not to say that contribution to revenue isn’t the ultimate metric, but that I use goal achievement much more often to tune and tweak marketing programs and make sure that metric sees impact.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What is one change you recommend for businesses to do better when it comes to handling complex sales?
Ardath Albee: Create content for each stage of the buying process that’s focused on delivering value from the buyers’ perspective.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What are the 3 key lessons you want readers to take away from your book?
Ardath Albee:

Know your prospects and customers really well.
Engage prospects and customers with compelling content that helps them, regardless of their timing to buy.
Nurture prospects continuously and consistently across their buying process—and beyond, once they become your customers.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What one “get started on right away” change do you recommend to the reader of your book?
Ardath Albee: Put marketers and salespeople in the same room and complete the Customer-Focus Tune Up exercise. You’d be amazed what you discover that can help improve relevance and how you’re using content to engage prospects.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Please recommend 3-5 resources (books, blogs).
Ardath Albee:

Get Content. Get Customers. by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett
Cashing in on Content by David Meerman Scott – a classic that I still reference.
Junta 42 Community and the Top Blogs list – you’ll find a great resource there.
The Customer Collective – a collection of blogs that includes both marketing and sales thought leaders. The community is a great resource for marketers who are trying to better understand the process at the bottom of the funnel to create better alignment with their sales teams.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What kind of projects (both personal and professional) are you involved in when you are not blogging, speaking or consulting?
Ardath Albee:

Training my Australian Shepherd puppy, Bella – or just playing ball with her in the backyard.
Reading and writing women’s fiction.
Research and thinking. My husband thinks I’m nuts, but I’ll sit for hours and just think about something from different angles. And I love research. Crazy, I know.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Ardath, thanks for taking the time to discuss your book and sharing your B2B marketing insights with us.
Ardath Albee: Thanx Ambal.

Win FREE copies of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

To celebrate Ardath Albee's book launch, we are giving away 3 FREE copies of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

To enter this giveaway, simply do the following:

Follow @clickdocuments and @ardath421 on twitter
Tweet either the link to this interview or eMarketing Strategies Book with '#clickgiveaways'

We will randomly pick 1 lucky winner each day for the next 3 days and give them a copy of Ardath Albee's eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale. The winner for each day will be announced the subsequent day. Stay tuned!

Keep it Interesting: Strategies for Great Interviews

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

Whether you watch them on TV, hear them on the radio, read them online or in the newspaper - you absorb a lot of information through interviews. News organizations rely on interviews to get information from authority figures and to show the different sides of a story. Your favourite magazines use interviews to profile interesting people and find out what makes them tick.

You are just as capable of using interviews in a content marketing strategy. Given that social networking is built around connecting with others and listening - rather than just talking - conducting regular interviews makes a lot of sense. Interviews kill two birds with one stone, in that they demonstrate an interest in the interviewee and put you on their radar. They also provide the reader with valuable content from a unique perspective.

How to identify a good interview candidate

Look around in your online neighbourhood. Who's writing about topics or experiences that interest you and your audience? Do some research. Does this person have an experience that would be useful to share?
When you're starting out, stick to interviewing people in your peer group rather than trying to get online "celebrities".
Do some research about the subjects' background so that your questions are targeted to elicit interesting and useful information (not the same information that's on their "about" page).
Contact them to ask whether they're willing to be interviewed and would mind answering some questions about a particular topic. Try to make the topic as focused as possible. Rather than "marketing", for example, propose to ask their thoughts about how to go viral, or whether traditional advertising still works.
Ask if you can use a picture of the subject - it helps the reader to see that there's a real person answering the questions.

How to develop a list of questions

Keep the list short: Five to ten questions should do it. If you find that after reading the answers, there's more you want to know, follow up with another question. Or, if they're really interesting, run the interview in chunks over a few days. People are unlikely to read lengthy answers.

First, let the subject introduce themselves and their authority. If the topic is "content marketing", try questions like:

Tell us about your background in content marketing.
How did you get your latest role in content marketing?
What is a typical day like for you working on a content marketing project?

Ask questions that allow the subject to share their expertise.

How do you approach content marketing?
What advice do you have about content marketing?
What is the future of content marketing?

Get specifics, details and concrete examples - they typically make the interview more entertaining and human.

Can you give a specific example of how your company uses content marketing?
Can you walk me through the process of developing a content marketing concept?
What are some indicators of a successful content marketing strategy?
What is one thing content marketers could do better?

Feel free to get a little more personal and pick the subject's brain.

What or who inspires you when it comes to content marketing ideas?
What do you love/hate most about content marketing?
What's the best/worst content marketing campaign you've ever worked on?
How do you keep content marketing fun?

End the interview by asking the subject about their future plans, and thanking them for their time.

For more interview inspiration, go to Business Networking Advice, which runs interviews with many different subjects.

How to Aggregate the Best Content in B2B Marketing

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EDT

The pace at which content is being added to the web has increased dramatically and so has the value of aggregating the best. How will the content aggregation landscape change in the next few years? What will the impact on content aggregation be as the semantic web starts to really take off? Read on to get answers for these questions and more from Tony Karrer, CEO/CTO of TechEmpower.

ClickDigest: Weekly Round-Up: 23-Oct-2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

It’s a big world out there in the content-marketing/social media/B2B blogosphere, so we would like to save your time by rounding up the best posts and articles of the week. We highlight a take-home point of each post, giving you a snapshot of what thought leaders and influencers are saying.

Dare to Give a Case Study Customer a Deadline?

Author : Casey Hibbard

Casey Hibbard writes "Customers can turn a story around in a day or take months". Many times, publishing case studies is based on a deadline. Casey has highlighted the subtleties of how to push the customer to act upon a deadline.

3 Ways for Businesses to Take Full Advantage of Facebook

Author : John Jantsch

John Jantsch outlines three approaches on how to use Facebook for your business. Managing Business Accounts, Fan pages and personal accounts based on your requirements.

Custom Publishing Budgeting - Providing Some Answers

Author : Joe Pulizzi

Joe Pullizzi has posted an article that highlights the budgeting issues of content publishing. He wraps up with a little story as to how your small and frequent investments can become unified. Joe Pullizzi summarizes: "Over time, as resources and budget allow, your content investment will make all the little in-between connections so that you end up with a content marketing strategy that is a unified whole."

How to Lay a Solid Foundation for Marketing Success

Author : Stephanie Tilton

Gartner has published a report entitled "Marketing Essentials: Marketing Activity Cycle for High-Tech and Telecom Providers." Tthe report discusses five phases of Marketing activity cycle. The five phases are: examine, plan, execute, communicate and evaluate. Stephanie Tilton has drilled into "examine" phase which is the most crucial phase for the success of marketing activities. Assessing Market, competition and understanding the customer are three areas to focus on the examine phase.

How to Craft an Effective Corporate White Paper Strategy

Author : Jonathan Kantor

Here is a common question - "How to Craft an effective corporate white paper strategy?". Jonathan Kantor has explained in a more pictorical way, the three types of white papers that form a highly effective corporate strategy.

What other posts have you come across that you can share ?

Related Articles :

ClickDigest : Weekly Round-Up : 9-Oct-2009

ClickDigest : Weekly Round-Up : 16-Oct-2009

ClickInsights: Aggregating the Best Content in B2B Marketing

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

The pace at which content is being added to the web has increased dramatically and so has the value of aggregating the best. How will the content aggregation landscape change in the next few years? What will the impact on content aggregation be as the semantic web starts to really take off? We have invited Tony Karrer to share his insights on content aggregation.

Dr. Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, a software, web and eLearning development firm based in Los Angeles, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. Dr. Karrer taught Computer Science for eleven years. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. His work in social media, e-Learning and Performance Support has won awards and has led him into engagements at many Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Karrer was valedictorian at Loyola Marymount University, attended the University of Southern California as a Tau Beta Pi fellow, one of the top 30 engineers in the nation, and received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science. He is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events.

Tony Karrer

Website TechEmpower Blog eLearningTech & SoCalCTO Twitter TonyKarrer

Topic hubs are critical for 95% of the audience that doesn't have time to track individual sources.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Tony, it is a great pleasure to have you discuss your ideas on content aggregation and visible networking with us. Thanks for finding time out of your very busy schedule to provide your valuable insights to our readers. Tell us about Browse My Stuff and B2B Marketing Zone?
Tony Karrer: Browse My Stuff is an aggregator and filter that allows you to create topic hubs that focus on particular topics. B2B Marketing Zone is a topic hub that I created with Tom Pick that covers B2B Marketing. Tom Pick and I really didn't see anyone who was specifically focused on B2B marketing. B2B marketers have specific needs and content interests that are very different from consumer brand managers or B2C internet marketers. The goal of the site is to be a way to find the best content from great sources like Tom Pick on the topic. And I partially created it to be able to learn from people like Tom Pick.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Your career/background is very interesting. You have worked in multiple industries(IT, Services, eLearning, Internet etc). How has this vast experience shaped your thinking about business and marketing?
Tony Karrer: It's fun to work across a wide variety of industries and types of companies. It's surprising how common a lot of the issues are. And I'm able to draw from my experiences to help companies. I'm a pretty fast learner and love new challenges, so it fits my style really well. I also have an incredible network of experts that help me when I need to get smart and figure out good solutions in new situations.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What prompted you to embark on putting together Browse My Stuff and the B2B Marketing Zone? Describe the B2B Marketing Zone journey so far.
Tony Karrer: Browse My Stuff came out of my experience as a blogger. I would go to speak to a pretty large audience at an event and only a few people in the audience were subscribers to my blog. And I would be saying things in the presentation that I had written about six months earlier. I've found that 95% of the potential audience in any space can't really spend the time to subscribe to individual blogs. Yet as a blogger, I knew the other good bloggers. We had a loose network. And we all wanted to reach that other 95%. So, that really was the genesis of the system.

The B2B Marketing Zone came because I personally wanted to learn more about the topic and wanted to have good relationships with bloggers in the space. In the world of B2B Marketing, I'm actually one of the 95% who can't spend the time subscribing to individual blogs. Instead, I rely on Tom Pick's curation and the social filtering to deliver me the best stuff.

The result of doing this has been really interesting. We have new topic hubs cropping up all the time. I'm learning a lot about aggregation, filtering, long tail SEO. And I believe we've built something with real value far beyond the initial genesis.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What is behind the Browse My Stuff technology?
Tony Karrer: My company, TechEmpower, has built and owns the Browse My Stuff technology. We are using it with lots of clients and partners at this point. I'm still deciding what it will be when it fully grows up.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What are goals for Browse My Stuff and the B2B Marketing Zone?
Tony Karrer: There are really two different answers here. For the B2B Marketing Zone, Tom Pick and I want to create a great site that attracts top-notch B2B bloggers as contributors, and attracts B2B marketers and other executives on the strength of the content.
In terms of Browse My Stuff, I believe that there are going to be a lot of ways this will provide value. There's so much great content being created – often far better than you can get in a trade publication. But the challenge is how does this get to the person who needs it? How does it get filtered? Topic Hubs are part of the answer to that.
Because of the SEO effect and the smart aggregation and filtering, I believe this has real value to:

Associations, Nonprofits and Causes in that it can bring together existing, but scattered content. It can use member activity to help filter. Provide a valuable resource to members. And attract new visitors.
B2B and B2C Advertisers and Social Media Marketers can use it to bring together various content sources from their own sites or from related third party sites, to provide a rich set of content that will attract new eyeballs. It also is a great vehicle for blogger outreach. It allows you to become the hub in a space very quickly.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Who is your poster child (most popular topic hub) for Browse My Stuff?
Tony Karrer: It's the eLearning Learning site. This site gets about 60,000 visitors a month and is constantly growing subscribers. It's also the farthest along in terms of attracting Curators Editors and Researchers. But I'm also very happy about the results for Develop Mentor and Fantasy World which both generate significant and valuable traffic for those B2B and B2C sites. And with Southern California Tech Central which generates great traffic for that association and the associated bloggers. Whoops and of course, the B2B Marketing Zone. Wow, that was almost like forgetting your wife when you are getting an award and thanking people. :)

Ambal Balakrishnan: How do you recommend marketers engage in interesting conversations with prospects and customers?
Tony Karrer: What's been really interesting for me personally as I've used social media to build my reputation and reach/serve customers is that I'm able to first and foremost think of this as an extension of natural conversations that I would already have. Recently, I've started making this even more explicit with my concept of visible networking. If I just take and make my conversations visible, then it not only helps the people I'm talking to, but it helps to build my network, grow my subscriber base, etc. And if you don't believe me, take a look at Tom Peters and Seth Godin (who know a little about marketing) talking about blogging in Nothing More Important in my Life Than Blogging.
What's really required then are people who are interested in learning, engaging in the conversation. That might not be a pure marketing person. Instead it may be someone from product management or technology.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What upcoming challenges with Browse My Stuff keep you awake at night?
Tony Karrer: What keeps me up at night is that every time I turn around, I find new places where Browse My Stuff adds value. However, I've not really decided where I'm going to take it. I'm grappling with a few different business models. And trying to decide what will make the most sense. But I'm convinced there's high value and there's some real differentiation.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What are you 3 predictions for how content aggregation will happen in 2010 and beyond?
Tony Karrer: The challenge is simple. There are way too many different content creators for any of us to really be able to find and keep track of it all. Topic hubs with their aggregation and filtering are critical to making sense of it – especially for the 95% of the audience that doesn't have time to track individual sources. Thus, I think we are going to see all kinds of new forms of aggregation and filtering. As the semantic web starts to really take off, this will get more interesting. And I believe that the real-time web is also going to have an impact. But all of this just continues to add to the complexity and the need for content aggregation.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What kind of projects (both professional and personal) are you involved in when you are not writing or blogging, speaking, consulting or building your business?
Tony Karrer: I spend most of my time working with either very large companies on their use of technology to improve human and business performance or as an Acting CTO in Startups. Right now I'm more busy with startups. I generally have 3-5 active at any one point in time. As I'm writing this, I'm about to sit down with an early stage startup that's looking at a B2C play that has eLearning aspects to it. They are not a client, but I think they have high potential. Fun stuff. Read my post: How I Spend My Time. :)

Ambal Balakrishnan: Tony, thanks for taking the time to sharing your insights with us.
Tony Karrer: Thanks Ambal. I welcome our continued conversation.

You can subscribe to B2B Marketing Zone here.

Five Ways to Have Fun with Boring Content

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

If you're dreading writing about a particular subject and don't know where to start, one coping strategy is to inject something fun into it. Do yourself and your readers a favour and find a fun way to present your topic.

Here are some ideas:

Capitalize on mistakes: Rather than sitting down to write ANOTHER blog post advising how people should do something, turn it around and tell people what NOT to do. You can even share some of your own stumbles - who doesn't love an embarrassing story? This style can apply to so many subjects, like What Not to Do When Starting Out as a Freelancer. Variations: The 10 most common mistakes on X, or the seven deadly sins of X.

Dear sir: When you're in the mood to take a stand or vent about something, write an open letter. This format allows you to personally address a particular person or party about something you'd like to change. Here's An Open Letter to Steve Jobs: Fix Apple TV and an Open Letter to Recent College Graduates.

A bluffer's guide to X. This format is intended to read like an FAQ on a particular subject, giving people enough information so that they can hold an intelligent conversation on the topic. Variation: A beginner's guide to X, or X topic made easy.

Go Hollywood: Tie your content to a current movie or character that people can relate to, like a Wild Thing's guide to parenting, or Mad Men's top 10 strategies for advertising. Copyblogger's Brian Clark has a very popular post called The Inigo Montoya Guide to Commonly Misused Words. Inigo Montoya is a character from The Princess Bride, one of Clark's favourite movies.

Go Reality Show: Another twist on the same idea is to use the concept of a popular show like American Idol or, if you want to create buzz, get a group of people together for a contest called So You Think You Can Blog?

Make it delicious: Everyone likes to eat, right? So put a food spin on your content, even if it has nothing to do with food. Take the subject of writing a press release, for example. The title could be: How to bake the perfect press release or The secret ingredient to a mouthwatering press release, or How to bake a press release that will have everyone asking for seconds.

How do you make writing more fun?

ClickLaunch: Connect Direct's High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

ClickLaunch is ClickDocument's platform for launching new and exciting eBooks, books and white papers. We feature top notch industry experts and thought leaders and get an exclusive insider view into their latest creation.

The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook is packed with 65 tips and techniques on demand generation strategy. We have invited Howard J. Sewell, the author of The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook to get an insider look into the making of this Handbook.

Howard J. Sewell is president and founder of Connect Direct Inc. (CDI), a full-service agency with offices in Seattle and Silicon Valley specializing in demand generation and lead management for high-technology companies. Prior to founding CDI in 1990, Howard was a marketing manager for software giant Oracle Corporation. When not running his company and working with clients, he is a frequent contributor to online publications on demand generation, lead nurturing, social media, and other topics, and also writes his agency’s blog, Direct Connections.

Howard J. Sewell

Blog Direct Connections Twitter HJSewell

Ambal Balakrishnan: Howard, it is a great pleasure to discuss your 'High-Tech Direct Marketing HandBook'. Thanks for finding time out of your very busy schedule to provide your valuable insights to our readers. Tell us about what Connect Direct does?
Howard J. Sewell: Connect Direct Inc. (CDI) is a full-service marketing agency specializing in demand generation and lead management. In layman’s terms, we help technology companies generate and manage sales leads.

Recommended Resources

Mashable’s daily newsletter
Steve Farnsworth's twitter feed: @Steveology
Michael Damphousse’s blog, B2B Demand Generation
How to Choose Your Carrot: Effective Lead Generation Offers for High-Technology Marketers (White Paper)

Ambal Balakrishnan: Give us the background of how you gained an interest in B2B Marketing and more specifically in High-Tech Direct Marketing?
Howard J. Sewell: I worked in high-tech sales for a few years after college but always knew I wanted to move into marketing. I was fortunate enough to land the perfect transitional role – marketing manager for a sales organization – at Oracle, and found my way into their in-house direct marketing agency. I’ve been a direct marketer ever since, and eventually left Oracle to start my own firm. That was 19 years ago and we’re still going strong.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What prompted you to embark on creating an ebook for High-Tech Direct Marketing?
Howard J. Sewell: The ebook’s origins lie in an monthly email newsletter I wrote for 10 years on high-tech direct marketing, a newsletter that eventually became our blog, Direct Connections. 10 years in I was sitting on more than 100 tips on high-tech direct marketing, and our creative director at the time had the idea of turning them into a handbook. We shipped hundreds of copies in hard copy form before converting it to an ebook this year.

In all candor, the handbook has always been intended to be an offer. It’s a way to introduce people to our company and our way of thinking in the hope that somewhere along the line the reader will have a need for our services. In the process, hopefully we help educate people a little by sharing some of what we’ve learned in 19 years. I think people appreciate the fact that the handbook isn’t a brochure – I often hear from people who have a dog-eared copy by their desk at all times!

Ambal Balakrishnan: Who is ‘The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook’ addressed towards?
Howard J. Sewell: For the most part, the tips contained in the book are practical techniques rather than high-level strategy. Because of that, the person who will gain the most from the book is the person “in the trenches,” someone chartered with developing, designing, and executing lead generation programs for their company.

Ambal Balakrishnan: How is the High-Tech Marketing landscape different than what it was a decade back?
Howard J. Sewell: By far the biggest shift has been the shift from outbound to inbound marketing. Ten years ago most of CDI’s business was comprised of email and direct mail campaigns based on list rentals. We defined an audience, found a list that met that profile, and blasted our message to that list. Now it’s all about leveraging vehicles like social media to drive inbound leads, and then nurturing those leads over time until they have a need for what you do. Lead management will probably be half our business this year.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What is one change you recommend for businesses to do better in their High-Tech Direct Marketing initiatives?
Howard J. Sewell: It still amazes me how many high-tech marketing plans, even in Silicon Valley, revolve around campaigns and programs. I call it “Program-Centric Planning.” It’s as if pushing campaigns out the door is more important than the results those campaigns generate. It makes far more sense to quantify the results you need and then plan programs accordingly, rather than plan campaigns and hope they get you where you need to be.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What are the 3 key lessons you want readers to take away from 'The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook'?
Howard J. Sewell:

Sell the offer, not the product.
Don’t focus all your energy on generating hot leads. Cast a wide net, build a lead nurturing strategy, and the hot leads will happen.
Plan. Don’t just execute.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Please recommend 3-5 resources (books, blogs).
Howard J. Sewell:

I read Mashable’s daily newsletter every morning. It’s a great way to keep abreast of the changing social media landscape.
Steve Farnsworth is a former client, a good friend, and an expert in high-tech marketing and social media. One of the best Twitter feeds out there: @Steveology. (26,000 followers can’t be wrong.)
Check out Michael Damphousse’s blog, B2B Demand Generation. Mike is someone whose opinion I really respect. (It helps that I agree with him 90% of the time.)

Ambal Balakrishnan: Howard, thanks for taking the time to discuss your eBook and sharing your B2B Marketing insights with us.
Howard J. Sewell: Thanks Ambal.

You can download Connect Direct Inc. (CDI)'s 'High-Tech Direct Marketing HandBook' here.

The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:53:26 EDT

What is the #1 secret for improving lead quality? How to get resellers to respond to your campaign? What are 5 ways to getting started in lead nurturing? Connect Direct Inc. (CDI)'s The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook covers these and more demand generation questions. Howard J. Sewell shares his expert insights about High-Tech Direct Marketing.

ClickDigest: Weekly Round-Up: 16-Oct-2009

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

Content Marketing Secrets

Author : Russell Sparkman

Russel Sparkman is creating an interesting series of articles on Content Marketing Secrets. This week he posted about 1-7-30-4-2-1 line up. "Altogether, a 1-7-30-4-2-1 publishing schedule amounts to what is increasingly being referred to as multiplatform, or 360 platform, or transmedia storytelling experience." highlights Russel Sparkman.

What Human Business And the Social Web Are About

Author : Chris Brogan

In this post, Chris Brogan shares with us his perspective of how human networks & relationships can inter-operate with social media.

Home Pages: Treat Them As The Ultimate Landing Page

Author : Mike Damphousse

"Whenever I get a new lead from a prospective company, I always check its web site to see if it looks like a good fit. A good deal of the time I'm unimpressed with what I see. The home pages are cluttered, not structured for a quick read, and no actions are suggested." writes Mike Damphousse in the above article. He has highlighted how important it is to captivate customers with eye catching home pages that have examples.

What Barbie and Pong can teach us about Consumer Experience marketing

Author : Heather Rubesch

Heather Rubesch is covering and writing about Integrated Marketing Summit. In this post, Heather takes us through an excellent analysis of how Barbie captivated young kids generation after generation. "Barbie Girl is the result of experiential marketing program Mattel has orchestrated. Wikipedia defines Experiential Marketing as the art of creating an experience where the result is an emotional connection to a person, brand, product or idea." she highlights. Also, Heather shares with us that Social Pong as the event was called, is a great example of something a B2B company could do at a tradeshow to drive crowds to their booth in this post.

Print is Dead . . . Or Is It?

Author : Diana Huff

Diana Huff highlights in this post that the print industry isn't dying... "Many of us still need and purchase print services; it’s just that we have so many options today than we did before." She mentions that her own business is continuing to use the print media.

OVER TO YOU:

Dear Reader, What are interesting blog posts or Books have you come across this week?

Related Articles

ClickDigest : Weekly Round-Up : 9-Oct-2009

ClickInsights: What ROI metric should B2B marketers use in this digital marketing era?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

ClickInsights is an Expert Interview Series brought to you by Connect the Docs (ClickDocuments blog). In ClickInsights Expert Interview Series we feature top notch industry experts and thought leaders and get their insights, opinions and predictions. We also ask for their suggestions on recommended reading resources to keep abreast with latest trends in their industry.

What types of metrics do B2B marketers need to measure a marketing campaign's success? Read these interesting blog posts on B2B marketing ROI: Kevin Joyce's Untangling B2B Marketing Campaigns ROI, Jon Miller's Improving B2B Marketing ROI: Thought Leadership With Merry Elrick, Tom Scearce's Three metrics that are more useful than Cost per Lead. We have invited B2B Experts to shed light on the following question: "In what ways have metrics evolved with the increase in digital B2B marketing? Suggest one ROI metric that you have found to be very effective". Read on to get their insights.

Recommended Resources from B2B Marketing Experts

Blogs

Books

Others

Ardath Albee

Blog Marketing Interactions Twitter Ardath421

Measure momentum. Tune and refine the buying process. You’ll see shorter buying cycle times.

Ardath Albee's Bio

Ardath Albee's Tip

Marketers Gain Visibility
The increase in digital B2B Marketing has provided the opportunity for marketers to expand their visibility beyond the aggregate to the granular level of individuals. But regardless of whether overall or drilling down to one prospect’s activity, we now also have the ability to assign more meaning to online behaviors because we can know just who’s doing what, when, in what combinations and how often.

That puts a lot of power into the marketer’s toolbox—if they build their metrics around strategy. Because a complex sale inherently has a longer buying cycle, marketing must not only focus on generating sales opportunities, but on the progression of prospects across those buying stages. In order to keep your company focused on both the short and long terms, you’ve got to demonstrate effectiveness at both.

Measure Momentum
One of the ROI metrics I find effective across the long-term is measuring not only levels of activity, but the momentum marketing can generate to drive sales qualification. There are a couple of things you need to do to make this metric viable:
•    Map your prospects’ buying process (personas and segmentation will help).
•    Create content that matches your prospects’ needs during each stage.
•    Plan triggers that help nudge your prospects to take next steps.
•    Measure progressions over time through to qualified leads and resulting sales.
•    Tune, refine and keep going.

Measuring momentum will not only help marketers to show momentum across the buying process, but as you tune and refine the process based on patterns of activity, you’ll see shorter cycle times. The other thing you’ll notice is that it takes a continuous, consistent nurturing program to produce the desired results, rather than a string of one-off campaigns that don’t serve anyone well over the long term.

Real-time visibility into prospect behavior driven by compelling content strategy will help your company generate more interactions with your prospects. And, let’s face it, prospects who read your content when you send out an email and then move on aren’t likely engaged to the degree it takes to indicate sales readiness. As you build credibility and provide the right content at the right time, you’ll see higher levels of engagement that involve your prospects beyond your nurturing sends. Digital B2B marketing allows marketers the visibility they need to transform the value of marketing for your organization by directly impacting sales—and to prove it.

Ardath Albee Recommends

Brian Carroll

Blog Start with a Lead Twitter BrianJCarroll

Focus on Cost-per-opportunity for effective measurement.

Brian Carroll's Bio

Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, is part of MECLABS Group (MarketingExperiments, MarketingSherpa, InTouch) and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale and the B2B Lead Generation Blog with expertise related to B2B marketing, lead generation and complex sales.

Brian Carroll's Tip

The use of the Internet, mobile and other interactive channels has certainly increased the number of leads marketers receive today. Many organizations spend thousands of dollars each month on search marketing to take advantage of this increase.
This increase, however, causes many marketers to focus on the wrong metrics. In order to generate leads marketers have to know how to use the analytics. Many marketers focus on conversion rates of specific phrases or banners and are ignoring other valuable information. While conversion rate is one way to measure the effectiveness of a search phrase, for instance, it can be extremely misleading.

If marketers are spending a lot on search marketing and not capturing visiting organizations (both those that convert and the many more that don't), they are making decisions based only on half-truths. And they are probably routing dollars toward phrases and ad creative that appear to perform better but in reality are really just clogging the marketing database and sales pipeline.

The metrics of digital marketing is starting to slowly evolve. Marketers are starting to realize that sales people care very little about the cost of the leads we generate. What they really care about is how many of those leads will actually become viable sales opportunities.

For this reason, I think cost-per-opportunity measurements are the most effective metrics. The most common metric, cost per lead, is irrelevant unless we can answer other fundamental questions first, “What is our rate of lead acceptance (a.k.a. sales pursuit) into the sales pipeline” and then “What is the cost per opportunity?” Cost-per-opportunity is the one metric that can help you understand how well your sales team accepts and pursues leads. Ultimately, it shows if your leads are actually helping our sales team sell and if marketers are positively contributing to their pipeline.

Cost-per-lead models drive down the cost of each lead by generating more leads, which is good if the quality does not suffer. However, this is rarely the case since there are a finite number of high quality sales ready leads in your target market at any given time.

The real question is, “Are these leads helping our sales team sell more and will these leads become profitable customers?”

These are real-world metrics that every marketer should track in their lead generation program:

Number of inquiries? (people who raised their hands)
Number of leads? (qualified as "sales-ready")
Number of opportunities? (leads that move to pipeline)
Number of closed sales? (generated from marketing leads)

If marketers know those metrics they can start to track the following key performance indicators:

Inquiry to lead ratio (cost-per-lead) – this isn’t a enough
Lead to opportunity ratio (cost-per-opportunity)
Lead to pipeline revenue ratio (cost-per-pipeline revenue)
Lead to sale (win) ratio (cost-per-closed sale)
A value driven mindset requires leaders and marketers to plan and budget for the long term and to take a more holistic view that goes beyond cost-per-lead budgets.

Patsi Krakoff

Blog WritingontheWeb Twitter PatsiBlogSquad

Measure what counts for your site, your business, your objectives.

Patsi Krakoff's Bio

Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D., is a former psychologist and journalist who has been working in online content marketing for the last 10 years helping professionals use e-newsletters and blogs to grow business. Her award-winning blog can be found at WritingontheWeb. She provides quality content and newsletter services for global executive coaches at ContentforCoachesandConsultants. She is co-founder of The Blog Squad, providing blog services and consulting. She lived and worked in Paris for 20 years and now lives in Ajijic, Mexico, where she is an avid tennis player.

Patsi Krakoff's Tip

Ah yes, numbers, measurements, ROI, return on objective, percentage improvements, traffic stats, sales reports… Yes, I know, I know, that’s important, but I’m a content marketer, not a statistician! I love writing, not counting!

Sometimes I think the whole world is divided into either wordsmiths or bean counters.

But I have a secret: I get a kick out of traffic stats. My heart nearly went into tachycardia last week when I hit the highest page views ever in my little blogging life!

Website/Blog traffic and customer engagement are two important ROI measurements.

I’m a small business, and my clients are small businesses that might not have sophisticated CRM systems to measure and monitor results. Fortunately, certain tools are free and user-friendly. I use Google Analytics and Sitemeter, and advise my clients to do the same. You don’t need an advanced degree in statistics to know that when the line goes up, you’re doing something right.

When it goes down, you need to find out why. Is it your content itself? Or is the design of your site too difficult to read? Is it not clear who your targeted visitors are? Are your content topics unfocused and too broad? Are you confusing the search engine robots because your keywords aren’t clear and obvious? (And, are you boring your readers?)

It’s not rocket science, but it’s often times difficult to discern what measurements mean. Apart from knowing whether your stats are going up or down, what does that mean? What good is more traffic if it’s not converting?

The important thing is that you have clearly defined objectives for your site and your content. Ask yourself “so what?” each time you publish new content. Make sure you measure what counts for your site, your business, your objectives.

Patsi Krakoff Recommends

Howard Sewell

Blog Direct Connections Twitter HJSewell

Measure campaigns based on Cost Per Quality Lead (CPQL).

Howard Sewell's Bio

Howard Sewell's Tip

To the extent marketing metrics have evolved, it’s due less to the evolution of digital marketing, and due more to the rapid adoption of marketing automation technologies that improve the way companies connect marketing activity and sales results. Even so, it would be idealistic to suggest that all companies should start measuring marketing activity by ROI. Even with the right tools in place, measuring the true sales return from marketing activity can still be problematic, not the least because of the human element – i.e. the diligence and accuracy with which sales reps record and document sales activity.

A more realistic goal for most B2B companies is to measure campaigns based on Cost Per Quality Lead (CPQL). What defines “quality” isn’t critical – it could be a minimum lead score, a lead accepted by sales, or an opportunity. At a bare minimum, however, CPQL gives a company a more effective way to measure the relative performance of different tactics. Without the qualitative element, a campaign such as paid search (SEM) may appear to be performing well, when in fact a high proportion of the leads may fall completely outside the company’s target profile.

Howard Sewell Recommends

Seamus Walsh

Blog B2BContentMarketing Twitter SeamusWalsh

Bounce rate should be analyzed daily.

Seamus Walsh's Bio

Seamus Walsh's Tip

Picking one metric is very difficult, almost impossible. The hype around the web as a sales and marketing tool is driving people online in droves. Frankly, some are jumping in with no thought to content or a strategy that is going to keep people on and coming back to their sites. That said, to pick one, my favorite metric would be bounce rate. Bounce rate should be analyzed daily. When I am searching on the web, you have about 7 seconds of my time on your site to get my attention. If you pass my UX (user experience) sniff test you gain another 20 or 30 seconds to prove you are a player, in other words, your content has to show me that you understand my search request and that you can satisfy my requirements quickly and if I choose with details: whitepapers, testimonials, spec sheets, videos, etc.

In our and our client’s efforts, we use 3-8 words, or keywords because using longer keyword strings makes it easier to be micro-topical. If we have a bounce rate over 50% we get very concerned. You can, depending on your product and keyword strategy be very, very successful with a higher bounce rate, but for many, it is a very important metric that measures one’s ability to educate and editorialize on a solution as part of a longer sales cycle.

Seamus Walsh Recommends

Recipes for Remarkable Content

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:09:17 EDT

So you already get that great content has the power to communicate expertise, raise your profile and generate leads. You know that it should be useful, credible, easily digestible and, if possible, entertaining.

And you think you've got a hot idea for your next blog post, whitepaper or ebook.

Before you click on "publish", check out this free whitepaper from Tippet called How Vendors Can Use Remarkable Content to Attract Real Buyers. The best part of the whitepaper is the "How to Create Remarkable Content" worksheet, because it helps you step away from your strategy and see it from a user's perspective.

The 5-question checklist asks that you ask yourself questions like: "Will someone re-Tweet it?", "Will someone hang it on the wall of his or her cubicle?", "Will the reader want to meet the author?"

Hmmm. What kind of content would YOU re-tweet or post in your office because it's so useful, unique or sophisticated? What is your target audience Twittering about and posting on the office wall? Are you ready to hang out with your readers?

Perhaps a little more research is needed, or perhaps a new angle on the original concept. Before you get overwhelmed by the task of producing something remarkable, here are some pointers for getting started:

Producing remarkable content doesn't mean you have to come up with something that's never been said before. As Miguel Wickert writes on Simply Blog, "There’s only a certain amount of original content to go around. Remarkable content is unique and quickly shared because it rings different with the reader, even if others said it before."
Put limits on it: To get into a more creative mindset, James Chartrand suggests choosing three random words, like egg, mystery and alphabet. "Write a three-paragraph blog post on copywriting, with each of your chosen words the focus of one paragraph." Constrained by these three words, you're forced to get creative and come up with a solution, which may help look at your subject differently.
Re-frame the subject: Think about how your target audience feels about the subject you're addressing, and try to tap into those feelings. A post about "Marketing tips for people who really hate marketing," is likely to win more fans than "Strategic Marketing Tips". It's human and it reaches out to other humans.

The Content Marketing PlayBook

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:48:00 EDT

42 content marketing tactics, over 50 case studies and hundreds of resources - "The Content Marketing Playbook: 42 Ways to Connect with Customers" is packed with lots of ideas to execute on your content strategy. Read on to get an insider look into the making of "The Content Marketing Playbook" from authors Joe Pulizzi and Jonathan Kranz.

ClickLaunch: The Content Marketing PlayBook

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

42 content marketing tactics, over 50 case studies and hundreds of resources - The Content Marketing Playbook: 42 Ways to Connect with Customers is packed with lots of ideas to execute on your content strategy.

We have invited Joe Pulizzi and Jonathan Kranz the authors of The Content Marketing Playbook to get an insider look into the making of this great and informative eBook.

Joe Pulizzi is a leading author, speaker and strategist for content marketing. Joe, founder of client-vendor matching site Junta42, is co-author of the highly praised book Get Content Get Customers, recognized as THE handbook for content marketing. Joe writes one of the most popular content marketing blogs in the world.

Jonathan Kranz has written a huge stack of content, advertising, direct marketing, and public relations materials for consumer and B2B clients in financial services, banking, insurance, high-tech, healthcare, education, and other industries. Jonathan is also the author of Writing Copy for Dummies and The eBook eBook: How to Turn Your Expertise Into Magnetic Marketing Material.

Joe Pulizzi

Blog Junta42 Twitter juntajoe Junta42

Marketers have to create a story that customers and prospects want to listen to.

Jonathan Kranz

Blog Kranzcom Twitter jonkranz

Content marketing means meeting customers on their own terms.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Joe & Jonathan, it is a great pleasure to discuss your latest eBook - The Content Marketing Playbook. Thanks for finding time out of your very busy schedule to provide your valuable insights to our readers. What prompted you to embark on creating ‘The Content Marketing Playbook’?

Joe Pulizzi: Content marketing seems to be the buzz word for 2009. There are lots of experts talking about the value of content marketing, and that's great...but a much lesser number are actually talking about clear, concise examples. That's why we developed the Content Marketing Playbook. A marketing professional can quickly get an idea of why and how they should use a particular tactic. Now that doesn't mean content strategy isn't important...it's still paramount, but that wasn't the purpose of this. The Playbook should be used as a great tool to brainstorm and imagine the possibilities to position your company/brand as a trusted solutions provider (through content).

Jonathan Kranz: My role in the Playbook begins with a cool social networking story. In advance of publishing The eBook eBook: How to Turn Your Expertise Into Magnetic Marketing Material, I spent a lot of time online, following bloggers, Tweeters and thought- leaders interested in content marketing. Joe, obviously, was (and is) one of the big guns in the field. When I saw that we were both scheduled to speak at a virtual online conference, I introduced myself to Joe and we arranged a phone call. Naturally, we had a lot of common interests. And when Joe happened to mention, as an aside, that he had started a kind of guidebook to content tactics, but was bogged down with work, I offered to help with the writing.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Give us the background of how you gained an interest in Content Marketing.

Joe Pulizzi: People don't want to be interrupted, but they still want to have relationships with the brands they favor. About a decade ago I realized that the way to do this was for marketers to become their own publishers. In 2000, I started helping brands become their own publishers while at Penton Media. When I left Penton in 2007, my goal was to spread the concept of "marketers as publishers" or content marketing to the masses. Writing Get Content. Get Customers. was an important part of this process. The great part is, now there are many people consistently discussing content marketing and the benefits of this philosophy. Great things are starting to happen, and it's only the beginning.

Jonathan Kranz: Whereas Joe came to content marketing from a media angle, I came at it, unexpectedly, from direct marketing. Several years ago, I was brought in to a lead-generation project in which the premium – or offer – was a “top ten” booklet relevant to the target market. I wrote the book, plus most of the supporting marketing materials: direct mail, print ads, email, web copy, etc. All of it focused on one thing: the value of the information in the booklet – not the product, service or brand. The results were staggering: the client had asked for 500 qualified leads; the campaign pulled in 1,200, representing (after sales) $1.2 million in new business. The key? The offer wasn’t a gimmick – like a flash drive or an iPod – but something immediately relevant to prospects’ needs. That’s what awakened me to the power of content marketing.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Please walk us through the eBook writing life-cycle. How did it evolve on its journey from concept to launch?

Jonathan Kranz: Joe came up with the idea and began with a rough outline that matched various tactics with potential examples. When I came on board, we started by reviewing our list: adding missing tactics, deleting less-promising ones, and consolidating others that were similar. Then we agreed on a standard format: a brief definition or explanation of the tactic with an annotated example of the tactic in action. This, in turn, would be complemented by short bullet lists suggesting who should (or should not) consider using the tactic, plus three key “play points” with advice about execution. Once we pulled this together in a draft, we went through a few rounds of revisions to clarify our points and examples.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Who is ‘Content Marketing Playbook’ addressed towards?

Joe Pulizzi: Marketing professionals at non-media companies. We guarantee that any marketer, of any size, will get at least a couple of gold nuggets from the Playbook.

Jonathan Kranz: People tantalized by content marketing as a strategy, yet hungry for practical insights on tactics in order to execute that strategy effectively.

Recommended Resources

Books

Ambal Balakrishnan: How is the marketing landscape different than what it was a decade back?

Joe Pulizzi: Simple answer -- we went from a few, to thousands of communication vehicles over that time. Consumers have learned to ignore or block the messages they don't want. That means that marketers have to create a story that customers and prospects want to listen to. Enter content marketing.

Jonathan Kranz: Traditional marketing methods have taken a major beating. Direct marketing response rates have plummeted and ordinary advertising has been undermined by new customer behaviors: customers don’t sit around to “see” or “hear” your messages; instead, they seek out information they want when they want it. Content marketing means meeting customers on their own terms.

Ambal Balakrishnan: You have some great case studies in ‘Content Marketing Playbook’? How did you pick these examples?

Joe Pulizzi: It's easier than you think. Most of the case studies were provided by Junta42 certified content vendors. Since we review these projects on a regular basis (because that's part of what Junta42 does to properly help marketers find expert content vendors), we simply had to reach out to our partners.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What are the 3 key lessons you want readers to take away from your book?

Joe Pulizzi:

Everyone is a publisher. If you aren't publishing via one or many of these outlets, you are going to be in trouble.
Don't be afraid. The best way to find out what works is to start, get customer feedback and continue to evolve the program.
There is no silver bullet, but there are 42 (and growing) ways to get your story out to customers...to present yourself as an expert in your industry...and to ultimately change the way you do business. What an opportunity!

Jonathan Kranz:

Think from your customer’s point of view. It’s what they need, not what you want, that matters.
Experiment. Most of the 42 tactics are relatively cheap (especially compared to media buys and DM). Expand on what works, abandon what does not.
Jump in. You’ll learn best by taking action, gathering feedback, measuring results, and making adjustments.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What one “get started on right way” change do you recommend to the reader of your ‘Content Marketing Playbook’?

Joe Pulizzi: Listen! Your customers are either talking about you, or talking about things that are important to them all over the web. Listen, then start finding a way to get yourself in the conversation.

Jonathan Kranz: Joe’s nailed it: Listen. Then listen some more.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Please recommend 3-5 resources (books, blogs).

Joe Pulizzi:
Where to start:

Get Content Get Customers.

Plus:

Ambal Balakrishnan: What kind of projects are you involved in when you are not writing, blogging, speaking, or consulting?

Joe Pulizzi: A few that are not ready to be released, but the big one is continuing to tweak Junta42 into a truly helpful content marketing service for marketers. Also, keeping an ear to the ground in the industry looking for opportunities (like with the Playbook) to spread the gospel of content marketing to the masses.

Jonathan Kranz: I serve on the board of directors of Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. As part of the innovative Cristo Rey Network, students attend four extended school days, then spend the fifth day of the week working in a corporate/white collar environment; the money they earn helps defray the cost of tuition. This is our sixth year as a school. Despite operating in what the Boston Globe has described as the poorest city in the commonwealth, both of our graduating classes to date have achieved 100% acceptance rates to four-year colleges!

Ambal Balakrishnan: Jonathan & Joe, thanks for taking the time to discuss your eBook and sharing your insights with us.

Joe Pulizzi & Jonathan Kranz: Thanks Ambal.

Read The Content Marketing Playbook and keep it handy. You will find great ideas for every kind of marketing project you tackle. Download The Content Marketing Playbook FREE here. Get The Content Marketing Playbook's Table of Contents here.

Over to you...

What is the one lesson from The Content Marketing Playbook you will put to use in your next Content Marketing project?

ClickDigest: Weekly Round-Up: 9-Oct-2009

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:36:00 EDT

TGIF and welcome to ClickDigest weekly roundup!

It’s a big world out there in the content-marketing/social media/B2B blogosphere, so we would like to save your time by rounding up the best posts and articles of the week. We highlight a take-home point of each post, giving you a snapshot of what thought leaders and influencers are saying.

Improve your Lead Gen: 8 Takeaways from the B2B Marketing Summit

Author : Brian Carroll

Brian Carroll highlights many takeaways from the 6th annual B2B marketing summit. Several themes emerged during the course of the event, and eight key takeaways are summarized in the post.

The 4 Step Content Strategy Program - Content Strategy Simplified

Author : Joe Pulizzi

"Let's face it. Content strategy is not easy. Actually, it's pretty difficult." says Joe Pulizzi and builds a roadmap for all of us to build a successful content strategy in 4 simple steps.

6 Easy Steps to Increase Leads from Your Corporate Blog

Author : Howard J. Sewell

Howard Sewell takes a direct hit approach and provided all the tips to increase leads from a corporate blog. A very simple, straight to the point article, lists down key important points to make the articles more marketable.

Why You Should Avoid the “Template Mentality”

Author : Jonathan Kantor

Rather than creating boring marketing documents, Jonathan Kantor gives us excellent tips to make it interesting for readers. He encourages authors to use cliparts, icons as much as possible. In this post, he highlights the negative repercussions of using standard templates for your white paper.

White Paper Client Interview Template: Good for Sales Letters, Too

Author : Apryl Parcher

In this posting, Apryl Parcher highlights how "Stelzner's method" can be broadly adopted for various marketing documents (not just white papers). "One of the tricks Mike taught me is to have a little “cheat sheet” posted on my computer screen with qualifying questions" she highlights.

42 Ideas on How to Create Content to Connect with Customers

Author : Michele Linn

"Last week I learned about even more options when I came across a great new eBook from Joe Pulizzi and Jonathan Kranz: The Content Marketing Playbook: 42 Ways to Connect with Customers" Michele shares with the readers and reviews the ebook.

OVER TO YOU:

Dear Reader, What are interesting blog posts or Books have you come across this week?

ClickInsights: How should case studies be used in marketing activities versus sales activities?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

ClickInsights is an Expert Interview Series brought to you by Connect the Docs (ClickDocuments blog). In ClickInsights Expert Interview Series we feature "top-notch" industry experts and thought leaders and get their insights, opinions and predictions. We also ask for their suggestions on what reports, whitepapers etc to read to keep abreast with latest trends in their industry.

Marketing teams and sales teams are different within a company. Marketing team within a company works to put together and publish case studies to highlight their solutions and products. Sales teams need to engage with prospects through various phases - pre-sales, nurturing them, educating them, contracts, actual sales and post-sales. Marketing customer engagement is clearly very early stage as compared to sales customer engagement. We asked case study experts "How case studies should be used in marketing activities versus sales activities?". We also asked them to share their insights on the following questions:

What is Marketing Team's objective in creating a Case Study?
How does a Marketing Team use a Case Study?
How does a Sales Team use a Case Study?
How can a Marketing Team use a Case Study more effectively than they normally do?
How can a Marketing Team effectively use a Case Study through various phases of customer engagement?

Recommended Resources from Experts on Case Studies

Blogs

Casey Hibbard's blog Stories that Sell
Cindy King's blog CindyKing
Michele Linn's blog Savvy B2B Marketing
Stephanie Tilton's blog Savvy B2B Marketing
Jonathan Kranz's blog Kranzcom
Sarah Mitchell's blog Global Copywriting
Joe Pulizzi’s Blog

Books

Casey Hibbard's book Stories that Sell
Jill Konrath's book Selling To Big Companies
Joe Pulizzi's and Newt Barrett's book Get Content. Get Customers.
The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman

Others

Steve Slaunwhite’s Cracking the Case Study Market
LinkedIn Group – Success-Story Marketing Group
Stephanie Tilton's 6 Steps to Successful Case Studies
Jonathan Kranz's eBook: Making Your Case: Everything You and Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies
Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies

Cindy King

Blog CindyKing Twitter CindyKing

“It is important for sales and marketing teams to be aware of each others needs and market needs”

Cindy King's Bio

Cindy King's Tip

Collaboration between sales teams and marketing teams is essential. You get better case studies when both teams are working towards the same goals.

Here’s why…

The marketing goals for a case study fall into three main categories: to bring credibility, to educate and to validate. Salespeople need to address all three of these to make sales. Marketers need to keep a clear focus on this goal to create good case study.

And there is something else to remember…

Sales professionals have an accurate picture of what kind of case studies would help them do their jobs. They can usually bring insights into current trends and even insider news that could be valuable in creating the case study. Sales teams bring feedback to improve a case study’s relevance for a market’s specific needs. When you use this feedback within a solid marketing plan your case studies become much more effective.

It is important for sales and marketing teams to be aware of each other's needs and to cultivate communication around market needs and the role case studies can play. A fruitful dialogue can often highlight the need for more credibility, or education, or validation, in different areas of business. When sales teams know what to look out for this usually helps to find the right clients to approach for future case studies. Teamwork between sales and marketing teams gives you a stronger case study marketing program.

Cindy King Recommends

Casey Hibbard's book Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset
Jill Konrath's book Selling To Big Companies
Joe Pulizzi's and Newt Barrett's book Get Content. Get Customers.

Casey Hibbard

Blog Stories That Sell Twitter Casey_Hibbard

“Integrate the happy customer's voice in nearly all communications throughout sales and marketing”

Casey Hibbard's Bio

Casey Hibbard's Tip

The lines of case study usage between marketing and sales teams are often a little blurred. The reason: Not every buyer follows the exact same path in the marketing and sales processes, so case studies show up at different points in the cycle.

For example, marketing teams create customer case studies usually in a couple of formats - the website format and a downloadable PDF, or maybe a customer video. On the company's website, those serve as educational pieces for buyers to review on their own, perhaps before ever calling the company for more information. But also, sales reps refer to that same content when engaging with prospects in the sales process. They email them to prospects, hand them out, or link to them. It's the same content but used in different stages.

However, at times there are differences in how marketing and sales use the customer's story. Marketing might also use case study content in various forms in advertisements, newsletters, blogs, direct marketing, live events, for industry awards, contributed articles or pitching to the media. Sales then uses the content in PowerPoint presentations, sales letters, live in sales conversations, and proposals. They can even leverage them to upsell to current customers.

Both teams can use their case study "content," not just the full written case study, more effectively by integrating the happy customer's voice in nearly all communications throughout sales and marketing. Few organizations do this well, but it pays off for those that do.

Casey Hibbard Recommends

For writers and marketers, the first book on customer case studies just came out, Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset, in ebook or printed formats. It covers the complete process of creating a story from start to finish to usage.
Steve Slaunwhite’s Cracking the Case Study Market how-to manual is a great resource for writers looking to profit in this field.
Join LinkedIn Group – Success-Story Marketing Group for discussions about all things related to using customer stories in sales and marketing.

Jonathan Kranz

Blog Kranzcom Twitter jonkranz

"The case study is essentially a marketing, rather than sales, tactic"

Jonathan Kranz's Bio

Today, Jonathan Kranz enjoys the confidence of numerous clients and agencies, but unlike most independent copywriters, his career didn't begin with them. Instead, he had stints as a follow-spot operator in a regional theater, a park ranger on an allegedly haunted island in Boston Harbor, and as a summarizer of documents in large-scale litigations (think: Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener). After completing his MFA in Creative Writing in 1995 (and publishing a number of short stories in literary journals such as the Missouri Review and the Green Mountains Review), he leap-frogged agency life and jumped into freelancing with both feet. Since then, he has written a huge stack of content, advertising, direct marketing, and public relations materials for consumer and B2B clients in financial services, banking, insurance, high-tech, healthcare, education, and other industries.

Jonathan Kranz's Tip

Frankly, the case study is essentially a marketing, rather than sales, tactic. (No one will sign on the dotted line based on the strength of a case study alone.) As a marketing effort, case studies can help you:

Demonstrate how your product/service works in action
Clarify the role and purpose of your product/service
Reinforce credibility by articulating a real-life (rather than theoretical) application
Build trust by centering your product/service story on someone prospects can empathize with — customers like themselves

And the beautiful thing is, the case study is “green” content (yeah, what the heck, I’ll jump on the emerald bandwagon, too): it’s a make-once, recycle-many-times tactic that can (and should be) used for:

Website content
Something to talk about on your blog and on Twitter
Something to distribute as social media fodder
Part of a direct mail package (sure beats the slim-jim brochure)
Part of a press kit — terrific material for reporters and editors
Sales call leave-behinds
Trade show handouts
Follow-ups to inbound inquiries

If you’d like to learn more about how to write case studies, I invite you to download my free ebook: Making Your Case: Everything You and Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies.

Jonathan Kranz Recommends

Michele Linn

Blog Savvy B2B Marketing Twitter MicheleLinn

"Marketing teams should use case studies to generate interest and sales team should use them in a more customized way"

Michele Linn's Bio

Michele Linn is a freelance marketing writer specializing creating buyer-focused B2B marketing content, such as white papers, research reports, feature articles and case studies. Her business is devoted to making the job of B2B marketers easier by producing effective content and providing insights on how they can market it. Her website is Linn Communications.

Michele Linn's Tip

Case studies are content-rich goldmines for both marketing and sales. Both groups are thrilled to have new story because they feature the voice of the customer and automatically lend credibility to their solution. However, both of these groups use the case studies differently.

Marketing uses case studies to generate interest and move prospects through the sales cycle. In general, they are looking for stories that have wide appeal. In some cases, the case studies are simply posted to the website, but there are so many more ways that they can be used. Here are just a few ideas:

Pull quotes can be used on the website and in presentations.
The content from the case study can be used in white papers and eBooks to show how a user has been successful.
Excerpts of the customer success can be used in newsletters (both internal and external).
Content can be used for press releases and articles (getting the customer’s permission, of course).
Case studies can be used as next steps for any type of marketing content.

On the other hand, sales relies on case studies to help them close sales, and they often use them in a more customized way, looking for customer references that really address the specific pains and questions faced by each customer. For instance, earlier in the sale cycle, quotes and facts from case studies can be referenced in sales presentations, matching clients who are in a similar industry and role. As another example, when clients are ready to purchase, sales can use specific customer quotes and results in proposals.

Michele Linn Recommends

Casey Hibbard's blog Stories that Sell
Casey Hibbard's book Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset
Jonathan Kranz's eBook: Making Your Case: Everything You and Your Colleagues Need to Write Compelling, Lead-Generating Case Studies

Sarah Mitchell

Blog Global Copywriting Twitter globalcopywrite

"Marketing department should consider the case study as more than a lead generation tool"

Sarah Mitchell's Bio

Sarah Mitchell's Tip

When I worked at a multi-national software company, it wasn’t unusual to have the marketing and sales teams at odds with each other. The marketing people were full of great ideas and possessed a lot of energy. They developed products that didn’t always reflect the real needs of the quota-weary sales staff. Being on the sales end of the equation, I was party to plenty of disagreements about marketing collateral. We all agreed on one thing, however. You couldn’t do better than a case study.

Marketing teams view case studies as promotional material. With a focus on successful conclusions and attractive graphics, they know a stack of printed case studies is going to be easy to push at trade shows, conferences and to the media. The marketing department is usually the originator of the case study and, largely, controls the development and deployment of these documents.

While case studies are often part of a marketing strategy, they are invaluable in a sales cycle. As Word of Mouth (WoM) becomes a heavy influencer in how consumers are making acquisition decisions, the role of the case study is intensified. By documenting the benefits of a particular product or service and establishing a reference customer in the process, the decision to purchase becomes easier. Replies to tenders, bids or RFPs are always enhanced when a sales person can demonstrate the successful implementation of their solution with documented evidence.

For this reason, it’s imperative the marketing department consider the case study as more than a lead generation tool. It must also be viewed as a means to help close a deal. In this light, the case study has to provide more than a good story with a happy ending in an attractive package. It must present hard data demonstrating specific benefits to the client. Statistical data outlining cost of ownership, payback periods, and the investment required for implementation and training all help build a successful business case.

The good news is a well-planned and executed case study can satisfy both the marketing and sales teams. A knowledgeable marketing team can repurpose a single success story into many different formats including print advertisements, online campaigns, newsletters, and direct mailings. Rich in facts, the same document will assist the sales department in their task to generate revenue for the organization. Ultimately, the goal for both marketing and sales is to close business.

Sarah Mitchell Recommends

Savvy B2B Marketing
Compelling Cases Blog
Joe Pulizzi’s Blog
Stories that Sell by Casey Hibbard
The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman
LinkedIn Groups: Copywriting Success Summit and Success-Story Marketing

Stephanie Tilton

Blog Savvy B2B Marketing Twitter StephanieTilton

“To squeeze the most value from case studies, don't relegate them to the case study library”

Stephanie Tilton's Bio

Stephanie Tilton's Tip

Increasingly, B2B companies are viewing their engagement with prospects from the buyer's point of view – and delivering content that's relevant at each stage in the buying cycle. This strategy is key because today's prospects often don't interact with a sales rep until the decision stage. As a result, the onus is on marketing to develop enough valuable and engaging content to keep prospects moving along the path until they're ready to talk to sales.

At the beginning of the sales cycle, marketers can present case studies to overcome objections. After identifying common reasons that prospects are hesitant to consider the company's solution, pinpoint existing customers who had the same concerns initially. Develop a case study that highlights one or more customer's concern with this issue and why the company's offering ultimately won them over. This story can be offered as a downloadable PDF, a video on the website, and as a featured story in a newsletter.

In the consideration and decision stages, offer case studies that follow the standard "problem-solution-results" formula. This type of case study helps business buyers envision how the company's service or product can help them change their current situation for the better.

But don't overlook the needs of technical evaluators. According to a poll of CIOs conducted by Scott Vaughan of TechWeb, people in this role are interested in the evaluation and implementation process, the technology architectural approach, and lessons learned. Be sure to craft case studies aimed at the technical audience so they can understand what it takes to successfully implement the solution.

To squeeze the most value from case studies, don't relegate them to the case study library. Excerpt customer quotes and summaries to include in white papers, webinars, presentations, prospecting emails and voice messages, and on relevant web pages. Rotate featured quotes on the home page. Share a compelling story in the company blog. Highlight a customer success in a lead-nurturing newsletter. Promote a case study in a keyword-rich press release that will show up in the search results.

Assemble all case studies in a playbook, on the intranet, and in any other relevant systems, categorized by industry, prospect role, challenges, and stage in the buying process. Then make these available to sales reps so they know which case study to offer in any given situation.

Stephanie Tilton Recommends

Casey Hibbard's book Stories That Sell: Turn Satisfied Customers into Your Most Powerful Sales & Marketing Asset
Casey Hibbard's blog Stories that Sell
6 Steps to Successful Case Studies

Related Articles

How to write a tutorial that helps others and helps you

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

Did you know that you're an expert at something?

You know something about a topic or a process that many people don't, and you're qualified to teach that knowledge to the rest of us. Designing a user-friendly tutorial or instructional resource about a process or method related to your field is a great way to help others, build community and market content.

Instructional information is valuable for many reasons:

It demonstrates expertise and an altruistic willingness to share knowledge

It's often "evergreen" content that remains relevant and useful over time
Because it's problem-solving information, it builds trust and encourages people to return for more
If you pick a topic that contains popular search terms, you could hit an SEO goldmine

How to determine your expertise

Social Marketing Manager Nate Kartchner blogs about how he turned to WPDesigner.com for free instructional help in coding his own site. "WPDesigner has an impressively extensive knowledge of Wordpress themes. He took that knowledge, broke it down into chunks that are easily digestible for noobs, and shared it, free of charge." It follows that many people can offer the same kind of value if they think about what their areas of expertise or authority. Kartchner spells out how to determine those areas in five easy steps.

Tips on how to construct an effective tutorial

1. This tip comes from Little Box of Ideas, a blog about design. "Before writing a tutorial, pick a topic you know about like the back of your hand, then research, " writes Sneh Roy. "I would suggest running a search via Google using a combination of keywords to see whether that topic has been covered before." The idea here is to try to identify what information is lacking, and find an angle or search terms that fill the gaps.

2. Brainstorm how best to position and title the tutorial so that it addresses people's core wants in that subject area. Skelliewag talks about this in her own tutorial How to write a Viral-ready article in two hours flat. "Explicitly addressing an entire core want in your article is a very powerful viral strategy. Here’s an example: I read an article about ‘How to Tackle in Soccer’ because I want to learn how to be a great soccer defender. Don’t you think I would be even more excited to read ‘How to be a Great Soccer Defender’?"

3. A straightforward lead-in to the tutorial is crucial, writes David Barnes in How to Give Your Tutorial a Killer Introduction. It should be jargon-free, and tell readers what they're going to learn, how it will help them and what the steps will be to get there.

4. To figure out how to break down the process you want to describe, look to other basic tutorials as models. There are popular sites like eHow and wikiHow that offer step-by-step instructions in many subject areas.

5. Use visuals, particularly for explaining technical, graphic or hands-on processes. Once you've broken the process or topic down into steps, figure out a way to illustrate each one. Depending on the subject, you may want to use screenshots or photographs. This post, How to Make Your Post Attractive Using Images, shows how to find stock photography online and how to capture screenshots and insert them in tutorials. Here's an example of a tutorial that makes great use of images to explain how to use Photoshop to give a retro look to photographs.

Happy Sixth Month Blog Anniversary!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:56:55 EDT

Six months ago we embarked on the ClickDocument: Connect the Docs blogging journey. It has been a thoroughly exciting adventure!

Thank you Readers and Panel of Experts

Readers - A big thank you for reading, subscribing and for your enthusiastic involvement! Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Also, a special thank you to our panel of experts for their invaluable contribution to ClickDocument: Connect the Docs project.

White Papers Experts

Follow ClickInsights White Paper Experts on twitter with one-click.

Michael Stelzner WritingWhitePapers Twitter Mike_Stelzner
Jonathan Kantor WhitePaperPundit Twitter Jonathan_Kantor
Sarah Mitchell Global Gopywriting Twitter globalcopywrite
Stephanie Tilton TenTon Marketing Twitter StephanieTilton
Gordon Graham Website ThatWhitePaperGuy
Phil Dunn QualityWriter Twitter PhilDunn
Jim Lodico WhitePaperSolution Twitter Jlcommunication

Case Study Experts

Follow ClickInsights Case Study Experts on twitter with one-click.

Cindy King CindyKing Twitter CindyKing
Casey Hibbard Stories That Sell Twitter Casey_Hibbard
Jonathan Kranz Kranzcom Twitter jonkranz
Michele Linn Linn Communications Twitter MicheleLinn
Sarah Mitchell globalcopywriting Twitter globalcopywrite
Stephanie Tilton TenTon Marketing Twitter StephanieTilton

B2B Marketing Experts

Follow ClickInsights B2B Marketing Experts on twitter with one-click.

Ardath Albee Marketing Interactions Twitter Ardath421
Rebel Brown Phoenix Rising Twitter RebelBrown
Brian Carroll Start with a Lead Twitter BrianJCarroll
Britton Manasco BrittonManasco Twitter BrittonManasco
Bob Gilbreath MarketingwithMeaning Twitter MktgwithMeaning
Mac McIntosh Sales Leads Insights Twitter B2B_Sales_Leads
Maria Pergolino Modern B2B Marketing Twitter InboundMarketer
Patsi Krakoff WritingontheWeb Twitter PatsiBlogSquad
Seamus Walsh B2BContentMarketing Twitter SeamusWalsh

The Journey So Far

ClickInsights In ClickInsights Expert Interview Series we have feature top notch industry experts and thought leaders and got their insights, opinions and predictions on the content marketing field. We also asked for their suggestions on recommended reading resources to keep abreast with latest trends within the industry. Currently, we have 3 different series: ClickInsights White Paper Experts Interviews, ClickInsights Case Study Experts Interviews and ClickInsights B2B Marketing Experts Interviews

ClickLaunch ClickLaunch is ClickDocuments’ platform for launching new and exciting eBooks, books and white papers. We feature the best industry experts and thought leaders in order to get an exclusive insider view into their latest creation and awesome work.

ClickIdeas ClickIdeas is a hub for bringing together expert picked blog posts and articles from around the web on these topics:
•    Content Marketing
•    Social Media Marketing
•    B2B Marketing
•    Viral Marketing
•    Ebooks
•    White Papers
•    Case Studies

Expert contributors to ClickIdeas include Michael Stelzner, Joe Pulizzi, Chris Garrett, Jonathan Kantor, Patsi Krakoff, Casey Hibbard, Stephanie Tilton, Doug Kessler, Michele Linn, Cindy King, Jonathan Kranz and Sarah Mitchell.

Photo Courtesy: spiicytuna @ flickr

The Journey Ahead

The latest addition to ClickDocument: Connect the Docs is called ClickDigest. It’s a big world out there in the content-marketing/social media/B2B blogosphere, so we will save you time by rounding up the best posts and articles of the week. It’s our pleasure to do the leg work for you!

Free GiveAways

To celebrate our six month blog anniversary, we have FREE giveaways worth more than $1000

To enter this giveaway, simply do the following:

Follow @clickdocuments on twitter
Tweet any of ClickDocument: Connect the Docs blog post that you find interesting with '#clickgiveaways'

We will randomly pick 7 lucky winners tweeters each day.

1 Tweeter will win one of the Marketing books listed above(ONLY one book each day for 5 days)
1 Tweeter will win The Fulcrum Effect DVD
5 Tweeters will win Upbeat

Winners of each day will be announced the subsequent day. Stay tuned!

Thanks to all the folks who enthusiastically conversed, thereby enhancing the value of content on our blog - Joe Pulizzi, Cindy King, Glen Townsend, Mark Pilipczuk, Jim Lodico, Michael Stelzner, Kim Albee, Ardath Albee, Karen Swim, Roberta Sachs, Erica Stritch, Denise Wakeman, DeneneWrites, Patsi Krakoff, Brindey Weberm, Nick Peters, Jonathan Kranz, Peter Springett, Dianna Huff, Melissa Paulik and Sarah Mitchell.

Again, thank you all dear readers, you make for such a great audience!

ClickInsights: How to choose a white paper syndication partner?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:00:00 EDT

How do you market your white papers? Can syndication partners take your white paper to your prospects?

Stephanie Tilton has published a timely 14-page report on White Paper Syndication Options for Technology Marketers.

White Paper Syndication Options for Technology Marketers report has great information on the following:

List of Syndication Partners
Costs to syndicate your white papers
What returns you can expect for dollars spent on syndication

List of Syndication Partners in Stephanie Tilton's report:

eMedia
Find White Papers
IT Business Edge
NetLine
Technology Evaluation Centers
TechTarget
TechWeb
Toolbox for IT
Web Buyer's Guide/Ziff Davis Enterprise
Connect Direct

We have invited White Paper Experts to shed light on the following question: "What are your tips on how to choose a white paper syndication partner?". Read on to get their insights.

Recommended Resources from Experts on white papers

Blogs

Michael Stelzner's WritingWhitePapers Blog
Jonathan Kantor's TheWhitePaperPundit Blog
Jim Lodico's WhitePaperSolution Blog
Phil Dunn's QualityWriter Blog
Bob Bly's CopyWriting Blog

Books

Others

WhitePaperSource Online Forum
WhitePaperSource Newsletter
How to Write a White Paper – A White Paper on White Papers
Scribd for reference and distribution of white papers
5 Steps to a White Paper that Pulls in the Perfect Prospect
Savvy B2B Marketing blog posts about white papers
White Paper FAQs
Who needs white papers anyway?
Tips on terrific titles for white papers
Tips on writing white papers as tips
How to use white papers to grow a healthy crop of leads
WhitePaperPundit: The Friday FREE White Paper List

Stephanie Tilton

Blog Savvy B2B Marketing Twitter StephanieTilton

“White paper syndication is one way to quickly expand your reach and generate leads”

Stephanie Tilton's Bio

Stephanie Tilton's Tip

Once you've spent the time and money to produce a white paper, you want to get it in front of as many prospects and customers as possible. White paper syndication is one way to quickly expand your reach and generate leads. In fact, according to MarketingSherpa, 78% of companies rate white paper syndication as the most effective media purchase, even outperforming online ads, paid search, emails and offers in third-party newsletters.

But when it comes to syndicating your white papers, it's not so simple to sort out the options. You can syndicate via:

Newsletters (or bulletins) through companies such as eMedia
Single sites through companies including IT Business Edge, Toolbox for IT, and Web Buyer's Guide (part of Ziff Davis Enterprise)
A network of sites through companies including Find White Papers, NetLine, Technology Evaluation Centers, TechTarget, and TechWeb

To choose the right partner (or partners), ask the following:

Do you reach my target audience?
How many white papers per month does your target audience download?
What is the cost-per-lead and is there a lead guarantee?
How will you promote my white paper, to how many subscribers, and over what period of time?
Do you help me optimize the paper's title, content, and description to maximize downloads?
What type of information do you collect on the registration form, and can I customize it to collect information that fits my lead definition?
How frequently – and in what format – do you deliver leads?
Why should I choose to work with your company versus another syndication partner?

If you feel overwhelmed by all the options, you could work with an agency such as Connect Direct who can help you choose the right programs. Once you tell CDI how many leads you want and what criteria you want those leads to meet, it will negotiate a package of content postings and other promotions for you via its network of media partners.

Read 14-page report on White Paper Syndication Options for Technology Marketers.

Stephanie Tilton Recommends

Michael Stelzner

Blog WritingWhitePapers Twitter Mike_Stelzner

Michael Stelzner's Bio

Michael Stelzner is one of the leading authorities on the topic of writing and marketing white papers. Michael is also the author of the bestselling book, Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged.

Michael Stelzner's Tip

Howard Sewell has a great article on this question. Read more at Ten Tough Questions to Ask Your White Paper Syndication Vendor

10 critical questions you should ask every white paper syndication vendor before you post on their site or network

What’s the demographic profile of the person downloading white papers from your site/network?
Is the contract price based on cost per lead, or fixed price per month/quarter? What assurances do I have on lead volume? What happens if we don’t meet that minimum?
If there are lead promises, what constitutes a “lead?” For example, will I have to pay for consultants or students who download my paper?
What percentage of total downloads or traffic is international? Will I have to pay for international leads if I don’t want them?
Can you provide references?
What’s the typical lead volume for a white paper in my category?
How do you drive traffic to your site/network? Is my content syndicated to other sites — if so, how and where?
Do subscribers or registered users get alerted to new content? If so, how? How many registered users are there? What’s the typical response to this alert?
What’s the user experience on the site? How can I feel confident that someone searching for information on my product category (or the business problem that my technology solves) will find my white paper?
If I renew my contract, how will the pricing be different from this initial term?

Michael Stelzner Recommends

Jonathan Kantor

Blog WhitePaperPundit Twitter Jonathan_Kantor

"Consider free white paper distribution sites”

Jonathan Kantor's Bio

Jonathan Kantor is the principal and founder of The Appum Group, "The White Paper Company", and has been producing commercial white papers for the past 11 years. He is also the author of the White Paper Pundit blog. Jonathan's experience with white papers is also coupled with over 25 years of enterprise business experience with leading industry innovators such as Apple Computer, Microsoft, Digital Equipment Corporation, and J.D. Edwards Enterprise Software (now a division of Oracle Corporation). This experience included a variety of sales, marketing, business development, and management positions.

Jonathan Kantor's Tip

In this economy, it pays to consider the free white paper distribution sites instead of fee-based syndicators.

If you’re an enterprise white paper marketer, you can consider the usual outlets for white paper syndication such as Bitpipe, TechTarget, ITPapers, KnowledgeStorm, etc. In most cases, these syndicators will charge you a fee based either on number of downloads, clicks, or subject relevance. These fees are quite steep and show mixed results for the marketers that use them.

Rather than paying an arm and a leg with an uncertain return on your investment, consider the free white paper distribution sites such as:

In most situations, these free sites allow users to preview your white paper, read it online, download it, or generate hyperlink URLs allowing you can reference them via Social Media sites such as Twitter.

So why not try these free sites first before jumping into the uncertain and expensive waters of fee-based syndication?

Jonathan Kantor Recommends

Free document distribution sites: Scribd.com, DocStoc.com, Slideshare.net, Gazhoo.com, Yudu.com, and WhitePapers.org.
Blog sharing sites such as BizSugar.com, Sphinn.com, and Reddit.com.
WhitePaperPundit: The Friday FREE White Paper List, a listing of free white papers from weekly Twitter Tweets that don’t require registration, posted each Friday.
Twitter search criteria set to keywords: “White Paper”, and “White Papers”.
Google Alerts set to “White Paper”, and “White Papers”.

The Power of Commenting: How a Skeptic Became a Believer

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

When it comes to content marketing, the power of one simple habit is often forgotten. If you're consistent and genuine, commenting on other blogs and websites is an efficient way to highlight your own content and, more importantly, build relationships and reputation.

In a funny guest post on Problogger.net, Josh Hanagarne aka World’s Strongest Librarian, talks about how he has gone from being a commenting skeptic to a believer.

"I’d never tried commenting as a traffic-building strategy, mainly because I’m not smart or patient enough to strategize," writes Hanagarne. "For the record, I read a ton of blogs. It’s just rare that I comment."

Then, after being asked about his position on blog commenting in an interview, he froze and realized he should look into whether commenting is actually worthwhile.

How? He spent one week trying to leave as many comments as possible.

Now, he did have a head start, because he targeted his comments at bloggers who had commented on another guest post he had written on the ultra-popular Problogger.net. He went through the comments on his post, sifting out genuine comments from spam, and visited the commenters' blogs to see if he could add anything of value to the discussion. He ended up leaving about 30 comments over the course of the week.

The results? "After I left the comments, the numbers went up again," writes Hanagarne, "far beyond the typical spikes following a Problogger guest post."

Higher numbers translated into a 100-per-cent increase of RSS subscribers (160 to 320) and 40 new newsletter subscribers.Not bad for a week's work! But, as Hanagarne, goes onto say, even more important than the numbers are the relationships that commenting can facilitate. In that spirit, here are some other posts that offer inspiration on commenting:

In a post titled 5 Tips for Getting More from Your Blog, Duct Tape Marketing talks about simple ways to engage your comment community.

This post on DoshDosh, titled Rethinking Blog Comments: Much more than just a quick way to get web traffic, captures the idea that comments are an extension of your personal brand. "A comment left on a popular blog may be viewed by a few hundred people in one day. Multiply that by the lifespan of the blog and you’ll see that a simple comment may say a lot about you. Every blog comment is usually permanent. It’s not just a hyperlink but a long-term representation of your brand." For the record, this DoshDosh post got 186 comments.

From Chris Garrett's 10 Reasons Commenting is Good for Bloggers, reason #7 reads: "You never know who is reading – It amazes me who reads my comments on obscure blogs that I thought only myself and a handful of others read. My comments on one blog lead to a consulting gig. You never know unless you try."

Caroline Middlebrook has commenting down to a science. Her post Do You Have a Blog Commenting Strategy? has great tips on things like setting up a hit list of blogs to comment on. Interestingly, she notes that since she's in the UK, it's difficult for her to be a top commenter on U.S.-based blogs, because of the time-zone difference. She works around this issue by commenting more on Australian blogs.

Do you have a commenting strategy and how is it working for you?

A Content Marketing Reality Check

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

There's a big difference between getting publicity and getting productive, reveals Wendy Piersall, founder of Sparkplugging.com, a blog network that focuses on work-at-home resources for solo business owners. Sure, it sounds great to be able to say you've been interviewed by so-and-so, or featured on such-and-such. That you're this close to getting on Oprah.

But, as Piersall writes in a post titled "Internet Fame Ain't All That", it's also a good idea to sit back and look at whether all that buzz is actually producing anything concrete. Piersall recently wrote a post about how, over the past 6 months, she has completely changed her attitude about focusing on getting publicity vs. producing the kind of content and SEO that she initially set out to create.

"When I started Sparkplugging," Piersall writes, "I wanted to create an advertising and affiliate based website that would generate passive income even when I was helping my kids with their homework or out boating with the family. The business of internet fame is the exact opposite of that – not only did I have to work to become ‘famous’, I had to work even harder to maintain it. The impact on my work schedule was gruesome – and the impact on my bottom line was similarly pitiful."

She says that after taking a break from all the PR-related work, and focusing only on creating content and SEO, she made more money in 30 days than she had in the previous year.

"I had no idea how much time I was wasting on something I thought was important to my business – only to find that simple hard work is what really pays the bills," Piersall writes. "It’s not glorious work. I won’t be getting on TV any time soon for it. Nobody has asked to interview me about it. I’m not getting any speaking gigs because of it. And I’ve never been happier with my business."

In the spirit of getting back to basics and doing all that non-glorious work, here's a nice visual explainer on content marketing from Intersection Marketing blog.

Also, cutting down on personal PR doesn't mean you don't have to continue marketing your content. Problogger Darren Rowse is starting a series of posts on how to 'seed' content. Check it out!

Calling all Copywriters and Wanna-be-Copywriters to Copywriting Success Summit 2009

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:57:06 EDT

Mike Stelzner is once again pulling together one of his informative online summits - Copywriting Success Summit 2009.

We have invited Michael Stelzner, event producer of Copywriting Success Summit 2009 to share his thoughts on copywriting and details of the event he is organizing. Michael Stelzner is one of the leading authorities on the topic of writing and marketing white papers. Michael is also the author of the bestselling book, Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged.

Michael Stelzner

Blog WritingWhitePapers Twitter Mike_Stelzner

“Great writers also understand marketing. Write more engaging, compelling, accessible and persuasive copy.”

Ambal Balakrishnan: Mike, it is a great pleasure to discuss the Copywriting Success Summit 2009 that you are organizing. Thanx for finding time out of your very busy schedule to provide your valuable insights to our readers. Tell us about Copywriting Success Summit. What prompted you to embark on putting together Copywriting Success Summit and make it an online event?
Michael Stelzner: Copywriting Success Summit 2009 is the largest online event dedicated to helping writers generate better-quality leads, win higher-caliber clients and earn more. Many of the world's leading copywriters are presenting sessions on how to market and sell yourself as a writer.

This is our second annual event. Last year nearly 400 writers attended. We made it online to help eliminate the cost of travel. This online summit allows you to attend sessions, meet the experts and network with peers, all from the comfort of your home or office.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Who is Copywriting Success Summit event addressed towards?
Michael Stelzner: The summit is for freelance writers. Specifically, it's for writers who fall into one of these categories:

The "Work From Home" Copywriter: You've been writing commercially for a few years (or longer) from the comfort of your virtual "office" and you're ready to take your business to a whole new level. Better clients. Better projects. More profitability. And, you're ready to connect with your peers!

The "Moonlighter" Copywriter: You've been taking on projects in your spare time (most likely while working a day job you wish you didn't have). You'd like to learn some powerful marketing strategies for carving out a more lucrative niche for yourself, helping you make that final leap to full-time copywriter.

The New Copywriter: You're new to the field, love the idea of making a handsome living as a copywriter, but just aren't sure how to best market and sell your services.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Copywriting Success Summit has a fantastic line up of speakers with various expertises. Tell us more about the speakers. Why does copywriting success mean not just learning to write and market great copy, but also learning about social media marketing and information marketing?
Michael Stelzner: This year's line-up is an all-star cast. Presenters include bestselling authors and copywriting experts such as Peter Bowerman (Well-Fed Writer author), Steve Slaunwhite (Start & Run a Copywriting Business author), Michael Stelzner (Writing White Papers author), Marcia Yudkin (Persuading on Paper author), Nick Usborne (Net Words author), Chris Garrett (Problogger author), Casey Hibbard (Stories That Sell author), Chris Marlow (the original copywriter's coach), Pete Savage and Ed Gandia.

Smart writers will apply the latest marketing techniques to grow their business. We'll talk about them all at the summit, including the very hot topic of social media marketing.

Ambal Balakrishnan: How is the Copywriting landscape different than what it was a decade back?
Michael Stelzner: Ten years ago business was great and copywriters didn't need to work hard to find jobs and close deals. However, now that the economy has tanked, writers must work harder to find and keep clients. In addition, social media has emerged, providing a great opportunity for writers.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Why do some copywriters succeed and others don't? Give us few examples of great copy writers and marketers? What makes them great?
Michael Stelzner: It's really all about marketing. Great writers also understand marketing. Take Steve Slaunwhite for example. Not only will be presenting, he also an exceptional writer. His work has landed him book deals and great respect in the industry.

Peter Bowerman is another example. In 1993, with no industry experience, no previous paid writing experience and no writing background, he built a freelancing writing business from fantasy to full-time in less than four months. He walks the talk. Many can learn from the lessons he'll be teaching at the summit.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What is one change you recommend for copy writers to do better in their projects?
Michael Stelzner: Work on conversational writing. Using a few surprisingly simple-to-apply rules, you write more engaging, compelling, accessible and persuasive copy that will earn you more money. Why should you care? Because better writing gets better results, creating client loyalty, repeat business and more referrals. Discover how to take your writing technique and income to the next level. Peter Bowerman will reveal his secrets in this area.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What are your predictions on how Copywriting business will change in the next year?
Michael Stelzner: By this time next year, many of freelance writers will be out of business because they haven't discovered how to properly market and sell their services. They'll give up because they have not kept up. Fortunately for many hundreds that will attend this year, they'll thrive if they apply the tactics that made many copywriters famous.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Please recommend 3-10 resources (books, blogs) on Copy Writing?
Michael Stelzner:

Ambal Balakrishnan: What kind of projects are you involved in when you are not writing, blogging, speaking, teaching or putting together cool events and seminars?
Michael Stelzner: I am in the midst of launching something super top secret. All I can say is it's been consuming me and will be related to social media. Watch for more soon.

On a personal level, I love boogie boarding in the beaches of southern California and hanging with my family.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Mike, thanks for taking the time to discuss your event and sharing your insights with us.
Michael Stelzner: Thanks Ambal

Copywriting Success Summit 2009 FAQ

How do I register for Copywriting Success Summit 2009? You can register here.
How do I win tickets to Copywriting Success Summit 2009? Read more about how to win tickets here.
Where can I read more about Copywriting Success Summit 2009? Details of sessions with experts are here.

Guest Post: The Simplest, Most-Efficient Way to Write a Case Study: The story behind the Making Your Case ebook

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

I was introduced to Jonathan Kranz by Michele Linn a few months back. Both Jonathan and Michele are regular contributors to our ClickInsights Case Study Experts Interview Series. Jonathan Kranz is the principal of Kranz Communications and a 13-year copywriting veteran. His guest post today focuses on his eBook on case studies - Making Your Case: Everything you and your colleagues need to write compelling, lead-generating case studies (which has a fresh new look!). The ebook includes how-to's on case studies and also some handy extras:

Step by step instructions for writing the three essential parts of any successful case study
Advanced tips for making your case study more engaging, more credible — and ultimately, more productive
Access to three videos about key case study topics
Secrets for crafting headlines and subheads that lure readers into your story
Handy worksheets you can use as a template for writing your own case studies

Jonathan Kranz

Blog Kranzcom Twitter jonkranz

"the power of the case study is rooted in its reality—a real story about a real client with whom the reader can empathize."

Jonathan Kranz's Bio

Jonathan Kranz's Guest Post

Case studies have long been a part of any B2B marketer’s playbook. With the ever-increasing role of the Web as THE place where potential buyers conduct research before making purchasing decisions, case studies have become even more popular as key pieces of online content.

And yet, they are ever more problematic. Why? Because if there isn’t a simple way to write them, they won’t get written. The case study will be deferred. It will be delayed. But it won’t get done.

The ebook, Making Your Case: Everything you and your colleagues need to write compelling, lead-generating case studies evolved out of the in-house marketing writing seminars I conduct within corporate marketing departments. In these sessions, the demand is for a simple, step-by-step process anyone – not just professional writers – can fulfill.

With simplicity in mind, Making Your Case has been designed to:

Break the case study into three basic sections: challenge, solution, results
Reveal the key ingredients that make each section credible, memorable and convincing
Link to videos that explain important points in greater detail
Offer worksheets readers can use to build their own cases
Give readers successful formulas for writing engaging headlines and subheads

In addition to the above, the ebook provides advanced tips and example copy based on a hypothetical business.

Making Your Case is free and doesn’t require any registration: you may download it here.

I also highly recommend the following resources:

From ClickDocuments, a terrific blog post by various experts on the three essential components to a great case study
From iBeam Marketing Consulting, an excellent three-part series on writing B2B case studies with especially helpful advice on soliciting client cooperation
From Savvy B2B Marketing, an entire library of blog posts all about writing more effective case studies

You can download Jonathan Kranz's eBook at Making Your Case: Everything you and your colleagues need to write compelling, lead-generating case studies.

ClickInsights: How B2B marketers should forge customer relationships by providing compelling content?

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

ClickInsights is an Expert Interview Series brought to you by Connect the Docs (ClickDocuments blog). In ClickInsights Expert Interview Series we feature top notch industry experts and thought leaders and get their insights, opinions and predictions. We also ask for their suggestions on recommended reading resources to keep abreast with latest trends in their industry.

One of the many goals of B2B marketing is to continuously forge better customer relationship. We have invited B2B Experts to shed light on the following question: "What is your one tip on how B2B marketers should forge customer relationships by providing compelling content? Please focus on prospect presale engagement". Read on to get their insights.

Recommended Resources from B2B Marketing Experts

Blogs

Books

Others

Ardath Albee

Blog Marketing Interactions Twitter Ardath421

Help Buyers Become Experts

Ardath Albee's Bio

Ardath Albee is a B2B Marketing Strategist. Her company Marketing Interactions helps companies with complex sales and quantify marketing effectiveness by using interactive e-marketing strategies driven by compelling content. She empowers her clients to create customer-centric nurturing programs that leverage strategic story development to engage prospects until they are sales ready. Ardath’s book, E-Marketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, will be published this fall by McGraw-Hill.

Ardath Albee's Tip

Business moves fast. Changes happen quickly. Chances are that the buyers of complex solutions have a lot to learn before they develop the knowledge and confidence they need to make the best purchase decision. Their latest hot priority is likely not within their core area of expertise—or the priority is an expansion to that core. This reality presents a terrific opportunity for B2B marketers.

First, you’ll need to shift your mindset. Instead of talking endlessly about all the cool stuff your products do, share insights about why doing those things is important—from a business objective perspective. In lieu of strutting your awards and embellishing how your company has achieved world domination, show them how your customers are reaping business outcomes that power sustainable growth and innovation.

Second, work on making buyers comfortable. Mitigating risk is one of the highest concerns when considering a complex purchase. Talking about your products’ features won’t help with that. Exposing your expertise through thought leadership helps buyers understand and appreciate that your company will provide a better value add than your competitor. The amount of credibility you hold with your prospects is often caused by the “what have you done for me lately?” perception. Companies that work hard to be helpful, provide valuable insights and increase their prospects’ understanding of the problem-to-solution scenario are able to establish much higher levels of credibility than those focused on selling.

Third, help buyers use knowledge with confidence. How you help buyers learn is both critical to their retention of the information and their ability to influence other project stakeholders. It’s likely there are at least seven people involved in the buying decision. Through sharing content designed to help them visualize solving the problem and see clearly how choosing your company to do so will get them the outcomes they want, your prospects will have the confidence they need to persuade others. And remember that each stakeholder is affected in a different way by the overflows of the project. By addressing those types of issues, you can demonstrate that your company looks at the big picture of change instead of just focusing on the more narrow product application.

Helping your buyers become experts about how to solve their highest priority problems builds the kind of trust and credibility that results in buying decisions made in your favor. Just remember, it’s not about selling products and solutions, it’s about helping prospects decide to buy.

Ardath Albee Recommends

Rebel Brown

Blog Phoenix Rising Twitter RebelBrown

Get Everyone on the Same Page

Rebel Brown's Bio

Rebel Brown's Tip

To get the most out of great positioning stories, we need to start everyone reading with the same frame of reference.

It’s especially important for demand generation, where we have such a short time/space to capture our audiences’ attention. We have to make sure everyone gets on the same page before we can communicate clearly.

Think about it. If your reader is focused on managing their suppliers and you’re talking about a solution to internal production efficiency – you won’t start from the same place. If they do read your content – they may try to apply it unsuccessfully to their focus. So take a moment and make sure your audience focuses on the same area and problem you are. Get them on the same page.

I’m not suggesting that we 'dumb it down' as many of my technology clients think. They want to jump right into the whizbang innovations because ‘everyone gets the basics’. No, they don’t. That assumption can sink you before you ever get started.

Everyone brings their own history and perspective to the table. What John believes about the state of a market or technology may be different than what his associate Kevin believes. Their beliefs are based on their accumulated knowledge, which comes from experience. That's how human nature works.

For your audience to get the most out of your story - they have to be on the same page with you. When you're writing novels or creating movies they call it building a back story. It doesn't have to take much time. As a matter of fact, the shorter, the better. The key is to set the stage - simply and clearly - for the story you are about to tell.

I usually focus on three areas:

What are the challenges/problems you are trying to solve? Begin setting the stage by simply and succinctly telling your audience why you are doing what you're doing. What's happened in the market that is causing issues for your customers (or holding them back from their potential). What is your focus and why? The goal is to create a simple and accurate picture that gets you and your audience focused on the same problem area.
Why are these problems important to solve? Here's a chance to show that you understand your customer's business. Take a few lines to chat about what you see as the impact of not solving this problem. Put your cards on the table about why you think they should care – your specific areas of focus.
How you intend to solve those challenges and why it is compelling? Share the 2-3 key facts that quickly hook them on your innovation. Bait their interest to draw them further into the story. Then use a pertinent, real-world example to help your audience quickly grasp your solution's impact.

Now you've set the stage and you've shown them a wow factor. You have their attention and they understand your concept. So go ahead, dive into the elegance and beauty of your story.

Your story will resonate like never before - simply because everyone is on the same page.

Rebel Brown Recommends

Charlene Li's and Josh Barnoff's book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Brian Carroll

Blog Start with a Lead Twitter BrianJCarroll

Walk in your customers’ shoes, and give them what they need regardless of whether they are ready to buy

Brian Carroll's Bio

Brian Carroll's Tip

In order to build better, more meaningful relationships, B2B marketers need to focus on prospect presale engagement in new ways. Get away from the bad habit of calling your brochures “lead nurturing.” The goal of each presale engagement should be to create content that will really make a difference in your prospect’s buying process. In order to do this you must think like your customer, and then give them what they need without expecting anything in return.

Walk in your customer’s shoes
The best way to engage or catch someone’s attention is to talk about something they need. And, that’s why prospect presale engagement can’t be taught as a science. In fact, it’s more appropriate to think of it as a craft that gets fine-tuned over time. How you engage will depend on factors that will change from company to company such as where their company is in the buying process and what their role is in that process. You fine tune and target your conversations so that they hit home with the right person at the right time.

The easiest way to do that is to walk in your customer’s shoes. Consider the questions they will have while making a buying decision:

How will this product/service help my company?
We’re doing okay, why do we need it?
Is there another company out there that is better?
Will their solution really work? Can they prove it?
Is the company credible?
Can we afford it?

Your content should provide prospects with the answers to these questions. Feed them. Walk with them through the buying process. Think about the specific questions they may have depending on their position or role in the decision making. Are they concerned about costs? Reliability? Or ease of implementation? You’re creating value by giving them useful information in digestible, bite sized chunks.

If your goal is to build customer relationships, always keep the very definition of the word nurture in mind when creating content. Nurture means: foster, help develop, or help grow; the act of nourishing or nursing; tender care; education; training; that which nourishes; food; diet; sustenance; the environmental influences that contribute to the development of an individual.

So you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. You know what they need. What now?

Don’t be afraid to give them what they need - regardless of whether they buy from you

Here’s where it gets a little hard for some folks to swallow the pill. Once you’ve figured out what your customers need to become educated decision makers, don’t be afraid to give it to them - and don’t expect anything in return. Take on the “pull” approach. Don’t expect them to buy now or ever. Just help them. Be a resource. Become an industry leader through education. If there’s new legislation that will affect your prospect, explain it to them in detail. Give them resources to help them understand the changes. You are saying to them: “I am an expert on this issue. I know what needs to be done. I can help you.” You are “pulling” them in. It’s totally different from being “pushy.”

It takes time to set yourself up as a leader, and that’s why you can’t worry about the short-term sale when you produce content. True nurturing involves a sometimes long and circuitous path, but along the way you’ll be building long, meaningful and trust-filled relationships with the right people.

Here’s a stat that will make you feel better: A recent study of business-to-business buyers shows that sales people who become trusted advisors and understand the needs of economic buyers are 69% more likely to come away with a sale!

So, think like a customer and give them what they want. Don’t focus on what you’ll get out of it immediately. I guarantee you that if you keep walking with the customer, guiding them along the path, you will become a respected resource - and that’s a hike you should be willing to take.

Read more: What IS and ISN’T Lead Nurturing

Patsi Krakoff

Blog WritingontheWeb Twitter PatsiBlogSquad

Connect with your customers through a case study

Patsi Krakoff's Bio

Patsi Krakoff's Tip

When I was fresh out of graduate school, newly licensed as a psychologist, I needed to get clients. Word of mouth wasn’t going to do it, nor was relying on insurance referrals or my Yellow Pages ad.

I spotted a family style magazine at the hair dressers one day, and decided to buy a half page advertorial. I wrote about a fictitious client – “Susie” – who was unhappy about her weight, her husband, her life. I added some specific details about this person (“Susie” was an amalgamation of clients I had worked with as an intern).

That marketing tactic worked like a charm. Women came to my office saying they knew I could help them, because I had written about Susie who was so similar to them it was eerie.

Before I became a psychologist I had been a journalist, and the combination of those two skills paid off. It was my introduction to content marketing, although I didn’t know it at the time.

In B2B, this marketing tactic is a case study. It works because you connect with people where it hurts. You show them that others are similar, and here’s what happened to them. You give them hope. You spell it out for them.

A case study works because:

You write about a real human being (or a typical one)
You connect with their pain (the problem and all the manifestations of it)
You explain the solution (your product or your services)
You show examples of the results for that person (this creates hope and desire)
You make your product and services real and specific
Readers identify and connect the dots for themselves

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling technological devices or counseling services. People buy from other people because they know, like and trust you. The more you bring in real people with names and specifics, the more compelling your content becomes.

The more the reader (aka prospect, buyer, manager, etc.) can see themselves in the picture, the more they can connect the dots between what you do and sell and the problems they need solved.

Patsi Krakoff Recommends

Seamus Walsh

Blog B2BContentMarketing Twitter SeamusWalsh

Get into the deal early and be of value by thinking like the buyer

Seamus Walsh's Bio

Seamus Walsh's Tip

Great question Ambal. I believe this one is fundamentally the most important question for business to business marketers and sales, get into the deal early and be of value. To do this think like a buyer, what is the buyer going to be typing into Google™ looking for your your solution? Be it 2, 3,5 or 8 keywords, stop what you are doing right now and go to a registrar and own them and then worry about providing compelling content later.

Seamus Walsh Recommends

Free your Whitepapers from Registration!

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

Too many whitepaper providers are hiding their documents behind a registration process. Not only does this obstacle prevent many users from going forward and download your whitepapers, it also annoys a lot of them (me included.) Furthermore, some of your competitors are not using a registration process to distribute their papers, which helps them stay ahead of the crowd.

The Need for Registration

Many providers will argue that registration is an essential component of whitepaper distribution since that is what generates leads. Since lead generation is the essence of the whitepaper industry, collecting personal information has always been a given. Otherwise, would the effort be worth it?

Yes, it would.

Jonathan Kantor is also a proponent of no registration whitepapers. On his WhitePaperPundit blog, we wrote the following: "For the past several weeks, I have been posting a weekly update called, “The Free White Paper List”. It’s a compilation of white papers that have been posted on Twitter over the course of each week that do not require registration or personal information. So far my idea is gaining traction. An increasing number of people are telling me that they are interested in reading FREE white papers and receiving my list." When something can easily be accessed by anyone without fees, barriers or obstacles, it gains traction and visibility. It can also spread faster and more efficiently, be talked about, generate discussions. These are all valuable, desirable qualities for your whitepapers that can only be obtained through a no registration process.

People are increasingly refractory at giving their personal information away, especially online. Doing otherwise most often results in inboxes full of undesired marketing emails or worst - spam. Is your whitepaper attractive enough that people won't mind releasing all their personal information to be allowed the right to read it?

Freeing your whitepapers could be your best marketing strategy this year. Think about it!

Content Marketing Event: New Media 2012

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Social and geopolitical changes, combined with economic and environmental factors, are rapidly altering, twisting and shaping the online landscape. And while it's daunting to keep track of how far we've come in the past few years, it's absolutely staggering to imagine what New Media will look like in the next 3 years. This is the topic that thought-provoking professionals will tackle at New Media 2012 event. Learn more about New Media 2012 from the event producer Russell Sparkman.

Jonathan Kranz's The eBook eBook

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:15:00 EDT

We have invited Jonathan Kranz to discuss his eBook.Today, Jonathan Kranz enjoys the confidence of numerous clients and agencies. After completing his MFA in Creative Writing in 1995 (and publishing a number of short stories in literary journals such as the Missouri Review and the Green Mountains Review), he leap-frogged agency life and jumped into freelancing with both feet. Since then, he has written a huge stack of content, advertising, direct marketing, and public relations materials for consumer and B2B clients in financial services, banking, insurance, high-tech, healthcare, education, and other industries. Jonathan is also the author of Writing Copy for Dummies.

Bernie Borges' Marketing 2.0 Social Media Book

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EDT

Bernie Borges' new book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing. Bernie's book aims to give a macro view of social media marketing with a focus on "what it is" and "how" small and medium size businesses (SMB) can develop a strategy, implement it and measure results. Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing covers these topics:

Velocity's B2B Content Marketing Workbook

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EDT

What is B2B Content Marketing? Why you need to be good at Content Marketing? What does ‘good’ B2B Content Marketing look like? Velocity's latest eBook 'B2B Content Marketing Workbook' cover these questions and more. Read on to hear from Doug Kessler, Creative Director and co-founder of Velocity, why Content Marketing is the single most powerful weapon in the B2B marketing arsenal.

How To Market White Papers

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EDT

White papers are an essential item in your marketing toolbox. I have compiled a list of blog posts on marketing white papers.

How to's of Writing White Papers

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:15:00 EDT

White papers are an essential item in your marketing toolbox. I have compiled a list of blog posts on writing white papers.

Social Media Content Marketing Lists

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:15:00 EDT

This article is a roundup of assorted posts related to Content Marketing. Find several ways of promoting your business by distributing your white papers on blogs, relevant social networking sites and online publications where your prospects and customers go for their informational needs.

Attract Customers With Good Content

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:06:00 EDT

This article is a roundup of insights into how to attract customers with good content. There are many valuable lessons in these blog posts to leverage for creating and marketing white papers and eBooks.

Leverage Content Marketing For Your Business

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:15:00 EDT

How do you leverage Content Marketing for your business? What are the questions to ask before launching a Content Marketing project? How do you get the most bang for your Content Marketing buck? What are the Ten Commandments of Content Marketing? What Content Marketing mistakes to avoid? Find answers to these questions and get more Content Marketing tips from a mega list of lists from the experts.

Writing Creative, Great Content

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:05:00 EDT

One of the important goals of creating content is to attract customers and prospects. How do you create good, compelling content? A set of blog posts I have gathered gives insights on writing creative, great content.

How to's of Content Marketing

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EDT

What are the questions to consider when creating any type of content? How do you engage your ideal target reader by creating compelling content for their most important informational needs? What is the checklist when creating a content marketing strategy? Find answers to these questions and more with a list of 'how to' blogs posts from experts like Brian Clark, Patsi Krakoff and Newt Barrett.

Write Compelling Content To Connect With Your Readers

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:15:00 EDT

What mistakes to avoid in writing? How do you pick the right words? How to write catchy headlines? How do you write persuasively? Isn’t the goal of all writing to influence the reader in some way? What can you learn from some of best writers in history?Get tips on how to write quality content and connect with your readers.

The 7S's of Content Marketing

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EDT

The challenges marketers face today are multifold. How you do create content is such a way that it not only addresses an individual's informational need but also reaches the masses? How you present content so that your target audience does not loose interest? I wrote about The 4P's of Content Marketing and The 6C's of Content Marketing to give you frameworks to brainstorm these types of marketing questions. Find out more about the 7 S's of Content Marketing and how to harness these for the growth of your business.

The 6C's of Content Marketing

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EDT

Marketing 101 taught you the The 5 C's of Traditional Marketing - Company, Collaborators, Customers, Competitors, and Context. What are the 6 C's of Content Marketing? Customer, Community, Content, Conversation, Continuity and Consistency. Find our more about the 6 C's of Content Marketing and how to harness these with your marketing strategy.

Turn Prospects Into Buyers With Compelling Content

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:00:00 EDT

How do marketers provide compelling content that customers and prospects actually want to consume? How to combine old and new marketing in innovative and useful ways? How to build on going customer relationships? How to attract prospects and retain customers? Joe Pulizzi & Newt Barrett provide answers to these questions in THE handbook for content marketing "Get Content. Get Customers.".

Right Content Type in Social Media Marketing

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:45:00 EDT

If you were a car sales man would you recommend a soccer mom to test drive a 2 door, fast and flashy convertible? How about showing a 7 seater mini van to a cool and hip bachelor? You wouldn't, right? You would first take notice of the person walking into the car dealership show room and then know what car to show them. Read on to find out how to pick right content type to reach your target audience.

Latest News from Ambal Balakrishnan

Are You Ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

The Power of Listening - A Show and Tell

What is HARO?

ClickInsights: How to Make Marketing Messages Memorable

Recommended Resources from B2B Marketing Experts

Ardath Albee

Ardath Albee's Bio

Ardath Albee's Tip

Ardath Albee Recommends

Rebel Brown

Rebel Brown's Bio

Rebel Brown's Tip

Rebel Brown Recommends

Mac McIntosh

Mac McIntosh's Bio

Mac McIntosh's Tip

Mac McIntosh Recommends

Tom Pick

Tom Pick's Bio

Tom Pick's Tip

Tom Pick Recommends

Howard Sewell

Howard Sewell's Bio

Howard Sewell's Tip

Howard Sewell Recommends

Seamus Walsh

Seamus Walsh's Bio

Seamus Walsh's Tip

Seamus Walsh Recommends

Related Articles

What Is Your Favorite Case Study? Why Do You Like It?

Cindy King

Cindy King's Bio

Cindy King's Tip

Cindy King Recommends

Casey Hibbard

Casey Hibbard's Bio

Casey Hibbard's Tip

Casey Hibbard Recommends

Michele Linn

Michele Linn's Bio

Michele Linn's Tip

Michele Linn Recommends

Sarah Mitchell

Sarah Mitchell's Bio

Sarah Mitchell's Tip

Sarah Mitchell Recommends

Stephanie Tilton

Stephanie Tilton's Bio

Stephanie Tilton's Tip

Stephanie Tilton Recommends

Recommended Resources from Experts on Case Studies

How to Be a Content Marketing Winner

What is Your Favorite White Paper?

Great Social Media & Content Marketing Quotes in 2009

Ardath Albee's new book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

Happy Holidays, Content Marketers!

ClickLaunch: Ardath Albee's eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

Ardath Albee

Recommended Resources

Win FREE copies of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

Related Links

Keep it Interesting: Strategies for Great Interviews

How to identify a good interview candidate

How to develop a list of questions

How to Aggregate the Best Content in B2B Marketing

ClickDigest: Weekly Round-Up: 23-Oct-2009

ClickInsights: Aggregating the Best Content in B2B Marketing

Tony Karrer

Five Ways to Have Fun with Boring Content

ClickLaunch: Connect Direct's High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook

Howard J. Sewell

Recommended Resources

The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook

ClickDigest: Weekly Round-Up: 16-Oct-2009

ClickInsights: What ROI metric should B2B marketers use in this digital marketing era?

Recommended Resources from B2B Marketing Experts

Ardath Albee

Ardath Albee's Bio