Product marketing teams would assemble sales and marketing material, and route it to partners via partner portals or directly to their offices, assuming that the partners had everything they needed to sell the company’s products or services. And that approach worked, especially with those partners who were former employees.

Business was good and predictable, but then things began to change. More channels became available and, as a result, it was harder to reach and influence key customers; the window of having a truly unique product shortened, and partners started gaining a greater choice of products to recommend, along with various incentive programs.

Gradually, the power of the transaction was shifting further down the value chain, leaving companies with less influence over the point of sale. Partners, now armed with options and leverage, became less willing to cooperate with the demands of the manufacturer.

In response, the manufacturers began exploring how to realign themselves as a key influencer and, along the way, they discovered the following revelations:

•    Inconsistencies in communication about marketing programs, incentives, service and who owned the customer left partners confused and frustrated.
•    Partners felt like they were getting little to no marketing support from manufacturers despite having piles of marketing material and funds.
•    A concerning trend was starting to develop in which partners were using fewer of the marketing development funds available to them.

The old “push” product and programs through partners and “pull” customers to a company’s products through mass marketing was no longer working. It was time to rethink the model.

To learn more about the future direction of partner marketing, request a copy by June 15 of the Channel Insight white paper by registering for the live webcast at www.gyrohsr.com/channelforum.

The webcast is scheduled for June 16 at noon Eastern time and will include a discussion of the new channel marketing model that is evolving in the technology industry. I will co-host the webcast with Bob Ray, president of the GyroHSR San Francisco office. High-technology clients managed out of the San Francisco office include VMware, Sybase, Adobe and others.

Scott Gillum
Senior Vice President
Practice Leader – Channel Marketing

*This was originally posted on Scott Gillum’s blog, http://b2bknowledgesharing.blogspot.com/

As with most new technologies, social media is starting to settle in and common applications of the platforms are becoming known. In many large B-to-B organizations, that means social media is finding a home in the marketing communications group, often landing in public relations.

That seems fine for B-to-C organizations; however, I’m convinced that it’s the right spot or the only spot for social media in B-to-B companies.

The Upside-Down Funnel
In most B-to-B organizations, corporate marketing’s role is related to driving top—of-the-funnel activities. From advertising, PR and now social media, the focus is on creating awareness and hopefully driving consideration and preference.

There is another opportunity that may not be considered a part of the funnel where marketing, in particular social media, can play a valuable role.

It’s at the very bottom of what I refer to as the upside-down funnel. To find such an opportunity, you have to think about a funnel that starts once a prospect becomes a customer.

Just as a sales funnel has stages, so does customer relationship management (and I’m not talking about the technology). Companies should be actively pursuing strategies and tactics to retain, expand, grow and then leverage customer accounts to win business.

This is where I think the sweet spot is for social media in B-to-B. Here’s why: Social media is about consumers selling to consumers or profession to profession. If a company does its job of nurturing and retaining customers, it should be able to transition from having a relatively unknown prospect, to a known customer, to hopefully, a well-understood customer advocate … at least that’s the goal.

The Opportunity
If a company enables those customer advocates with social media, it gives them a platform to spread the good word. The potential of this opportunity is huge and, for the most part, being missed at most companies today.

As we all know, word of mouth is the most effective marketing there is. Combining it with technology creates scale and the ability to track it.

To do this successfully, companies have to first identify this opportunity within their organization; second, they have to change their current way of thinking about social media beyond its present use in marcom and PR.

It means finding uses and opportunities within sales and customer service. Yes, listening to customers chat about your service on Twitter is important, but I’m talking about creative ways to use it for (1) customer-to-customer referrals; (2) community building; and (3) facilitating user groups. The goal is to find ways to emotionally connect avid customers to the company and/or products, and then provide them with an outlet to communicate that passion.What to Do
As relationships deepen, customers begin interacting in more personal channels. Through those interactions they are likely to share more intimate details about themselves and their relationship with products/services and the company.  Companies have to be able to collect this information across channels to create a complete profile of a customer. If this can be achieved, an organization has everything it needs to begin enabling, influencing and studying customer advocates.

Finally, watch out for the silo effect. Typically, at least three different organizations interact with the customer as the relationship develops. But it’s only one customer interfacing with what the customer expects to be one company. The organization has to be in sync because the last thing a company wants is to provide a customer with a platform for communicating the wrong message. Turning an advocate into an adversary is not the goal.Scott Gillum
Senior Vice President, Practice Leader – Channel Marketing

*This was originally posted on Scott Gillum’s blog, http://b2bknowledgesharing.blogspot.com/

So what does all this mean for the B-to-B world? It is no different than the traction we already see. The real question is scale. 5 days after launch, 450,000 units were sold and there were 3,500 iPad specific applications available; Apple announced on May 3 that over 1M iPads were sold and users had downloaded over 12 million apps. When will the audience usership of the iPad reach the level that B-to-B advertising can be effective in reaching a target audience, above and beyond the novelty? The Wall Street Journal, the business industry’s bible, has come out of the gate with an iPad application that demonstrates an accelerated level of core competency with the platform, while strategically aligning useful and timely information for its users. The functionality for advertisers also reaches new heights with the endless potential for engagement and interactivity. This is the future. It offers content that is exclusive to the iPad such as “Now,” a real-time edition covering the latest breaking news and top stories, allowing the user to save entire selections for later reading. It also offers a seven-day-edition archive that can be downloaded for reading any time, even offline.

For advertisers, a variety of units of space are currently developed across iPad applications. For example, the WSJ’s app features a small sponsor “button” on the bottom left of a page, and, when touched, this area expands to a unit covering about one-third of the bottom of the screen. Further, this banner can be redirected to an advertiser’s full arsenal of materials, inclusive of audio and video. As in the WSJ example, advertisers can also own an entire screen that is embedded in between content. In addition, there are no apparent limitations to the depth of information contained on the iPad once a user is interacting with the advertisement, and, of course, if connected to a Wi-Fi network during use, the advertisement has full functionality to link with its website. The clear potential benefits for B-to-B advertisers, once the scale is there, is the design of the iPad with its color and unprecedented resolution, mimicking the size of a single magazine page, making it an ideal environment for reading digital magazines. Publishers are embracing this format by investing in the technology and specifications required for the iPad.

Tracking is not at the level that we are accustomed to for digital media at large, but is quickly making inroads.. A handful of the b-to-b iPad applications do offer advertisers (such as the New York Times) the ability to install tracking pixels that operate similarly to the mobile platform, yet others are more primitive, basing results on number of units sold times SOV of advertisers.

Pricing models for advertisers are all over the board as this new platform comes to life. Some advertisers are paying north of $1 million for their “trial period,” and others have been given the space as added value coinciding with their already placed integrated campaigns. The only catch for the advertiser is having the technology to develop iPad-functional ads.

The iPad is all about interactivity. Many critics believe the iPad will provide a resurrection of the print and video industries by providing new economic-on-demand frameworks that reset content and marketing values to reflect the expectations of digital users—and beyond. So while the iPad certainly has its fun factor, I believe it is here to stay as a tool in enhancing our opportunities to communicate with B-to-B audiences in unprecedented ways.

Frannie J. Danzinger
Senior Vice President – Media, North America

*This post has been revised to include updated, more accurate information

Those tasked to manage the SEO requirements of the corporate website are, after all, judged by their ability to secure prominent rankings for keyword phrases deemed to be important. And it seems fairly logical. What better way to measure the quality of SEO work than to view where the website ranks for target keyword terms on the likes of Google and Bing?

But there’s an incredible flaw in that approach: it doesn’t take into consideration whether the SEO work actually has a positive impact on the organization.

That’s a frustrating conclusion to draw, because there’s incredible opportunity (and money) awaiting the B2B organization that does SEO right. Consider this: in May of last year, Hitwise reported that 92 percent of all search-driven clicks in that month came from the organic set of results. Plus, JP Morgan and the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) reported that approximately $39 billion per year is spent on PPC advertising, compared to just $1.4 billion per year spent on SEO.

It’s safe to say that search is out of balance because SEO isn’t being held accountable.

To see the search balance of power restored, organizations must demand more accountability from SEO. This past week, I shared my thoughts on the four steps to SEO accountability to a standing-room-only crowd at the UK’s largest digital marketing conference, Internet World, in London. Here are the highlights of the discussion.

1. Place SEO in Proper Hands
SEO has never been well understood by most B2B decision makers. Often, SEO is made the domain of the webmaster, web agency, or IT department. Even in 2010, new client prospects say, “We optimized the website for search when we built it. We’d prefer now to focus on PPC.”

The truth is that SEO is deserving of a far more strategic role within an integrated marketing communications plan. Placing it in the hands of the web development or IT staff is not proper SEO.

SEO needs to be iterative and evolutionary. It should learn from itself and its PPC sister to become more targeted and relevant to the intended audience.

Over time, SEO should perform better. In short, it should operate just as other forms of digital marketing operate. After all, SEO is digital marketing.

2. Set Realistic Expectations
I can recall a pivotal conversation in my career. I was in an unsatisfying job and was having a drink one afternoon with a friend who was pitching me on a new business he was starting and wanted my help with.

I was eager to entertain any new job opportunity so I met with him and listened as he explained everything. He wanted to start an agency where companies would hire him to make their websites “pop up” when certain searches were performed on Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

To this day I remember my disappointment — and my naivety.

“I don’t think businesses are really going to need that,” I told my friend.

At that time, I believed that when you built a website, Google magically knew you were there and knew to give you your fair shot at relevancy for industry keyword searches.

In many B2B organizations, that mentality still exists. When a new website or piece of content is created, some expect that content to immediately shoot straight to the top of the results. Not so. SEO isn’t a quick hit tactic; it’s a long-term investment.

For SEO to become accountable, it can’t be saddled with unrealistic expectations. Give it some time to develop its legs.

3. Pick (Keyword) Fights You Can Win!
SEO isn’t about getting your website to rank in the first position for the industry keyword phrase. SEO is about achieving maximum visibility for the set of keyword phrases that drive tangible business results to the organization.

Attempting to rank for the definitive industry keyword term is often a fruitless exercise; it’s either a difficult or impossible task, or once-achieved it only brings tire-kickers to the website. To be accountable, SEO must produce results and the organization has to expect the channel to perform.

4. Optimize For Conversion Performance
A logical extension to selecting keyword fights you can win, optimizing around conversion performance is a B2B SEO’s primary indicator that you’re winning some fights! The unfortunate thing for B2B SEO in particular is that the buying environment is far less transactional than is often the case with B2C.

Typically, we don’t see purchase decisions made on a whim or after a single exposure to a search result. Still, a mechanism is needed to help quantify the positive impact SEO has on the organization, determining SEO’s role in effectuating or influencing an eventual purchase. This is where micro-conversions become essential.

It’s fairly intuitive that while asking for the sale at first touch may not be the best move, some form of engagement or conversion can be expected of our SEO-referred visitors. Micro conversions are more passive ways for website visitors to interact with a website and brand, and indicate an interest to buy ahead of an ultimate transaction.

The key here is to really understand your target audiences, their needs, and motivations. Set up your website and offers to nurture site visitors through the courtship process. Once sales eventually start to come through the pipeline, a simple set of regression analysis tests will confirm (or discount) the correlation that your micro conversions had on producing an eventual sale.

Summary
Admittedly, these thoughts are distilled for brevity, and only touch on some fairly advanced constructs. But if your B2B organization can embrace these four steps and put them to use across your SEO initiatives, you’ll undoubtedly be light years more advanced than you were when the only SEO report you cared about was the rank report.

Ryan DeShazer
Vice President, Global Practice Leader – Search

*Originally posted on Search Engine Watch: http://searchenginewatch.com/3640233

We were exceptionally fortunate to secure The Right Honourable The Lord Heseltine as keynote speaker. Lord Heseltine was captivating and spoke at length about the differences and similarities between politics and business. He also gave his personal observations on the economic outlook and what this meant for marketers.

His speech, plus other impressive speakers from businesses like Kyoceta Mita, Pearson, Fujitsu and David Brown, can be viewed at www.brandordemand.com, where you can also weigh in with your own opinions.

I think it’s fair to say that the question of Brand v Demand is something of a false dichotomy, and it was interesting to see some quite strong opinions as to the merits of each. When put to the vote, I think unsurprisingly the consensus was that brand expenditure was more worthy, yet a passing look at market expenditure would suggest otherwise. There seems to be some dissonance between marketers’ espoused views and their own actions.

I’d also add that brand spend isn’t as vulgar or extravagant as some might assume, and while it’s not easy to measure, it can be done. Debates like this will continue until marketing can drag itself up the business food chain: some of the most successful businesses in the world are run by marketers.

As you’ll see, there is no easy answer to the Brand v Demand question, but it made for a fascinating and exciting day. Look out for other similar events in future.

Danny Turnbull
Managing Director, European B-to-B practice leader
GyroHSR North

Attendees at the conferences were marketers representing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) heavy industry, and the financial services industries. As a group, they market complex, long sales cycle products to a well-defined B2B audience. As a result, understanding the value of social media is more difficult.

I found that many of the marketers I spoke with to be somewhat exhausted by social media. From trying to stay current to learning the application in their business, they felt like they just couldn’t stay current.

Based on what I experienced, I’ve put together six tips that might be helpful:   

1. False Prophets – Combine high employment with a fast-moving space like Web 2.0, and suddenly everyone is an expert. Buyers beware. If you need outside expertise, go with a firm that has experience in this space.

2. Learn How to Listen – Web 1.0 was about business-to-professionals in the business-to-business world. In Web 2.0, it’s about professional to professional. Users of your services/products want to talk with other users of your products/services first, before they hear what you have to say. In Web 2.0, you have to go from dictator to facilitator. Learn how to listen before you begin speaking. It a subtle and important transition. 

3. Keep it simple – I found many marketers were so focused on the tools that they had lost sight of what the tools do and the objectives they are trying to achieve with the tools. Social media tools do basically three things, none of which is new. They just do it better, faster or broader. The three things they do include:

a. Engagement – Social media provides better opportunities to engage with key audiences and capture their feedback.

b. Access to information – Social media allows faster and better distribution of information and, for customers, better access to company information.

c. Greater reach and frequency – With social media, a broader audience can be reached; however, it’s important to decipher where your target audience is and engage in those places. Quantity does not equal quality in this space, which can be of great value.

4. Gain control of your situation – Unless your full-time job is social media, you’re going to have a hard time keeping up. The best way to gain control over your situation (and reduce your stress level) is to define your objectives and ask yourself: “How will the tools help me achieve my objectives?” Keep in mind what they do (see above) and ask yourself how can I use social media to improve engagement with customers and provide greater access and distribution of information on a broader, more frequent basis. Now you’re in control.

5. Upside-Down Funnel – In many industries, social media is commonly used to broadcast to a wide audience, hoping to attract a few people in the end. The marketers I met are in a different situation. They have very finite customer targets whom they know fairly well. They don’t need to broadcast to a wide, unknown audience. They need to deepen or extend existing relationships with a specific audience. As a result, the potential “sweet spot” for social media in these marketers’ industries could be at the bottom of the funnel. Using social media to grow existing accounts while leveraging customer advocates to help win new business might be the killer “app,” and it definitely holds the potential to be more measurable.

6. Experiment – Lastly, do some experimenting (after you’ve learned to listen, of course). Social media is not going away. It’s one thing to be lagging, but it’s another thing to ignore its potential altogether. Pick a few areas and experiment. If it doesn’t do what you want it to do, at least you’ll have the experience to know why. Plus, when the CEO catches on to Web 2.0 and wants to tweet about earnings, you’ll be able to tell him or her why that might not be the best use of the social media tools.

Scott Gillum
Senior Vice President – Practice Leader – Channel Marketing

“The Lazarus profession: how advertising keeps rising from the dead”

The Changing Channel
In the “good old days” companies built a ubiquitous brand, unique products and then dictated their terms and funds to sales channels. Brand advertising was typically handled via one of the three major TV networks aimed at the mass market to create a “pull” that would have customers do whatever it took to get those products regardless of price, location or availability. 
 
Product marketing teams would assemble sales and marketing material, and route it to partners via partner portals or directly to their offices, assuming the partner had everything needed to sell the companies a certain product or service. And that approach worked, especially with those partners who were former employees.

Business was good and predictable, but then things began to change. More channels became available and, as a result, it was harder to reach and influence key customers; the window of having a truly unique product shortened, and partners started seeing a greater choice of products to recommend, all with different incentive programs.
 
Gradually the power of the transaction was shifting further down the value chain, leaving companies with less influence over the point of sale. Companies began asking themselves how they were going to get back into the game. Along the way, they discovered the following concerns:

• Inconsistencies in communication about marketing programs, incentives, service and who owned the customer left partners confused and frustrated. 
• Partners felt as though they received little to no marketing support from manufacturers, despite having piles of marketing material and funds thrown at them.
• An even more concerning trend was starting to develop, with partners using less and less of the marketing funds available to them.

The old “push” product and programs through partners and “pull” customers to your products through mass marketing was no longer working. It was time to rethink the model.

Scott Gillum

Senior Vice President – Practice Leader

Channel Marketing