Geez - it’s been some time since I blogged. Work became extremely busy and as a one-person shop, clients superceded blogging. Oh well - I think the presentation accompanying this post adds some value to readers about emarketing for B2B organizations although many of these lessons can be trasferred to B2C marketers.
I had the pleasure of having speaking to a group at Mount Royal College that was taking a continuing education class on emarketing. Doug Lacombe, a marketer in Calgary, invited me to deliver a presentation to the class. As we discussed the curriculum, we landed on having me deliver a presentation I delivered early last year to a marketing team at Telcordia. This presentation helped to paint a complete picture of what emarketing means to an organization.
The main point of the presentation was to develop an effective program, it is important to not forget allocating budget across this spectrum of the prospect/customer lifecycle from Awareness -> Education -> Sales Support -> Client Management. Emarketing is about all these things and many marketers become so focused on awareness they forget about the rest of the lifecycle.
I posted the presentation to Slideshare if you’d like to view or download it.
Thanks again to Doug’s class for listening to me drone away
Please contact me if you have any questions.
November 9th, 2009
If the business owners and decision makers I spoke to in mid-sized firms last week are indicative of a broader sample of this same target audience, social media, let aloneTwitter, is not even on their radar. (more…)
June 20th, 2009
In a previous post, I referred to a common question I’m asked about LinkedIn: Does it really work (i.e., will it help me generate sales)? Is there an ROI?
There is no simple equation to say “yes” or “no”. I liken the question to: Does advertising really work. The answer is “yes it can” although sometimes it’s hard to determine a precise correlation between an ad and a sale, or its ROI. This may sound like blasphemy to many marketers. Of course we strive to understand ROI. But creating brand awareness via “less accountable advertising” can be a part of your marketing mix.
(more…)
June 2nd, 2009
In my previous post about LinkedIn, I discussed the notion that business professionals question if you can use LinkedIn to generate sales. My basic premise is that LinkedIn will indirectly generate sales by enhancing your company’s brand (and your personal brand). So how do you create awareness using the tool? I’ve included some suggestions below:
(more…)
April 24th, 2009
Recently I’ve been fielding more questions about LinkedIn. Everyone wants to know if it’s a good networking tool. I think what people are really asking is “Can it help me generate sales?”
My answer is “yes” - but it should be viewed as much more than a sales tool. Rather, it’s a community that can be used to build long term brand value for yourself and your company - which will ultimately help to generate sales. Before I go on, here’s a list of how LinkedIn can be used if you’re not that familiar with the tool:
(more…)
April 23rd, 2009
I recently made a presentation at the Calgary Marketing Club to provide an overview on social media and business to business marketing. Click here to download the presentation. The presentation provided an overview of three social media tools: blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter. I was unsure of the audience’s makeup prior to the presentation, so I decided to include a brief history on social media.
(more…)
April 21st, 2009
Assessing the impact of marketing is often a difficult topic for marketers to address. How does one measure the ultimate impact of an advertising campaign for example? How does one assess the impact of speaking engagements at a seminar? What’s the right time frame to be assessing the results? All good questions and there is only one adequate answer: It depends (I know this is a cop out to some extent).
(more…)
January 8th, 2009
A past client wanted to develop a brand strategy and also produce its first decent set of collateral material after being in business for over 20 years. I reported directly to the company’s President for this initiative.
I conducted many customer interviews and researched the clients’ competitors to inform the development of the brand strategy.
(more…)
January 8th, 2009