Posted by Tara Robertson on Thu, Aug 26, 2010 @ 01:14 PM
Another recent article written by Mike Kelly, co-founder of TSL Marketing, has received all the buzz in DM weekly. In this article Mike Kelly asks the simple question "Are you boring your prospects" and the answer is... most likely. Let's take a deep dive into what this means through an excerpt from the article:
With all the buzz around “micro marketing” and “one-to-one” marketing over the last decade it still astonishes me to see how many companies rely on a single message to multiple contacts in different functional areas at their prospect companies. Do we really believe that the Finance Director and IT Director have the same agendas?
Many business-to-business marketers seem to have forgotten that you don’t market to companies, you market to individuals. And each has their own specific agenda. Unless you market to them in their language, addressing their specific needs, you will simply bore them.
It is worth using an example to reinforce this. Imagine you market a business-to-business software application and that the buying center for this application is comprised of multiple constituents at a company e.g. the IT Director, Operations Director and Finance Director.
Each of these people will have separate goals and agendas specific to their functional responsibility. The IT Director will be concerned with things like compatibility with the existing IT infrastructure and future-proofing. The Finance Director will be concerned with Total Cost of Ownership and how quickly the company can recoup its investment in your application. The Operations Director may be more concerned about how your application will affect the operational efficiency of the business...
Or click here to read more of this article
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Thu, Aug 19, 2010 @ 08:45 AM
When you hear the term 'corporate identity' you most likely either wonder what exactly it means, or know that your company has a strong or a weak one. Your corporate identity is vital today because it lets others know what your company stands for. Whether you are in marketing, or any other business, your corporate identity sets you apart from all the rest, and gives everyone in your company something to believe in. It is important because it reflects every aspect of your company. It represents not only customer interaction, but also the role your employees play in your company, and how they feel about it.
Dan Vivian, joint managing director of Design Group, has some great advice for those looking to create or strengthen their corporate identities. “You need to decide what is the core proposition of the company — what you do and what you sell,” he said. “If you don’t know what the company stands for it is difficult to create an identity. If you have no vision or proposition for the company, it will fall apart.”
Here are a few tips from Vivian on working up the most powerful corporate identity possible:
- If you don't know what your company stands for, have a brainstorming session with a few key colleagues from different departments and really hash out your ideas.
- The Goal: Come up with an image and message that will lodge in people's minds.
- Your identity should be as consistent as possible. Imagine it as one loud voice shouting from a rooftop instead of a lot smaller voices, which could get confusing.
- One key goal is to get everyone in your company backing the identity. Make sure your entire company is motivated by the identity, and that no one is confused by it.
- Identify your reasons for change. The reasons could be many or few, and can range from entering a new market to realizing new competition to simply becoming more visible in your sector.
- Once your identity is in place, commit to maintaining it and check in on it regularly to be sure that everything is still relevant and 'working.'
Click here to read the full article by the Times Online.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Thu, Aug 12, 2010 @ 08:44 AM
Mike Kelly, co-founder of TSL Marketing, recently wrote an article on one of the biggest challenges that Channel Marketing Directors face today: a channel partners reluctance to engage. Through this article Mike goes on to talk about some of the top reasons why partners are not willing to engage in channel programs. Some of them include:
- "We have already committed our marketing budget for the quarter or year"
- "We just don't have the time and resources"
- "The minimum project size is too large"
- "We don't get enough support from the vendor"
- "The amount of co-funding is too small/other Vendors co-marketing offers are better, or better funded"
Regardless of what the objection may be, there are many ways you can overcome them. For example, in objective #1 ("We have already committed our marketing budget for the quarter or year") an easy way to avoid this is to plan your annual channel marketing initiatives to kick off in October or November prior to the new year. This enables the channel vendor to promote the co-marketing programs and work with the channel partners on joint co-marketing calendars.
It is also important to note how many channel vendors your partners are working with and take this into consideration when working with your partners on planning and engagement.
"Channel marketing teams should remember that they are competing with other Vendor’s for their partners time, resources and budget." says Kelly "The partner only has so many resources to share between IBM, HP and Oracle for example, and the early bird will catch the most worms."
By planning in advance of the year, you are likely to have more buy in and engagement from your channel partners thus beating out your competitors.
Read more of the original article by clicking here
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Thu, Aug 05, 2010 @ 09:19 AM
Have you ever wondered what exactly is a multi-touch marketing campaign? For those not in the know, a multi-touch marketing campaign utilizes multiple methods of reaching out to prospects in order to maximize the effectiveness of a campaign. An example would be a campaign that combines calling efforts with direct mail, email, and a webinar.
Though it may seem overwhelming, a multi-touch marketing campagin may be more simple to deploy than you think. We wanted to share some of our first-hand knowledge with you, so here are a few steps and tips to get you moving forward with your first (or 100th) multi-touch campaign.
- Brainstorm and research the best ways to connect with your prospects. Would a webinar be useful to them and present you as thought leader, or perhaps a direct mail campaign would allow you to advertise a special deal or upcoming event.
- Determine your budget beforehand so that you do not get sidetracked by ideas that you can't afford to implement.
- Have a follow up procedure in place if you are intending to use direct mail or email of some sort. Calls placed to the recipients of direct mail and email can tell you if your tactics are being recieved, and if so what the response to them may be.
- Think outside the box. A good brainstorming session with some colleagues may produce some interesting ideas for unique campaigns that may prove more effective than the same messaging you have used in the past.
- Be Consistent. If you are utilizing multiple tactics such as email and direct mail, be sure the recipient will know they are part of the same campaign simply by looking at them.
- Be flexible. If you are finding that the response to one of your tactics isn't as good as you had hoped, focus on the parts of your campaign that are doing well and put more time and energy into those. You may even consider doing away with the part of your campaign that is less effective altogether.
Multi-touch marketing is becoming more and more popular as companies strive to increase awareness. You may very well find that your most effective campaigns involve a multi-touch approach, but you will never know unless you try!
Posted by David English on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 @ 07:32 AM
Dave Brown, principle consultant for Ridge Consulting (a sister company of TSL Marketing) recently wrote an article published in ConsultingMag.com on the importance of catching your prospects attention and finding a way to create an uncontested value proposition for your company.
Here is an excerpt from this article:
The Problem
"In all aspects of our work, we constantly switch between heuristic and analytical problem solving techniques: the gut feel and the data gathering. And so do our sales prospects and clients. Yet, in many interactions in the sales process, the tendency is to dwell almost completely in the analytical realm. Most sales presentations, webinars and seminars are data-fueled pitches that fill the audience with all kinds of facts and stats. They start with the “features,” move on to the “benefits,” and end with a crescendo of “advantages.” There’s talk about time to benefit, TCO and ROI.
There are graphs, pie charts and magic quadrants. The analytical input is overwhelming. The audience is seen as passive pawns. Give them the right information, show them how your products or services are faster, better, cheaper and bigger than your competition, and they’ll buy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Chances are that your clients don’t have the time or interest to wade through the information that is being thrown their way. While you’re delivering that well-crafted pitch, your prospects’ attention is probably wandering, fading in and out, depending on their level of interest or concern. This happens to even the best presenters and best-prepared presentations. Why?
You’re hitting your audience at an analytical level, while they’re operating heuristically. While you’re explaining some well researched statistics, they’re thinking: “I get it already! But will it solve my problem? How much will it cost? How fast can I deploy? What are the risks?”"
The Solution
Learn more about how Dave Brown offers solutions through getting into the mind of your prospect. You can read the full article by clicking here.
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Thu, Jul 22, 2010 @ 10:56 AM
As we find ourselves in the heat of the summer, daydreaming about lazy days in the sun and long trips to the beach, we should take a minute to stop and 'tweet' the ice cream. Ben & Jerry's ice cream to be specific.
In a recent blog post, Ben & Jerry's announced that their customers will no longer be receiving email marketing from the brand, and that instead they invite their fellow ice cream lovers to join them on Facebook and Twitter for updates. Ben & Jerry's is the first major corporation to discontinue email marketing in favor social media, so we can learn a lot by monitoring how successful their decision is in the near future.
Ben & Jerry's customers' preferred being updated via social media so they made the groundbreaking decision to halt subscribed email altogether. This is an extreme example of how important it is to read your customers and figure out the best way to deliver information to them. It shows that Ben & Jerry's is committed to maintaining a positive, growing relationship with its current and future customers.
It seems likely that Ben & Jerry's will find success in moving away from email as their main marketing tactic because they already have an extremely strong social media presence, but most companies will want to consider that email marketing remains a powerful tool and, in most cases, should not be abandoned. It is vital that you analyze your current marketing strategies and look for tactics that are successful for your brand while eliminating programs and campaigns that do not drive interest or awareness. More than likely you do not want or need to discontinue your email marketing, but rather hone in on what is working for your company and focus on making those strategies even more powerful.
You must be receptive and give your customers more of what they want, and also make it easy for them to get it. Once that happens, they will surely be back for more. Be inspired by ice cream...people will always keep going back for more because they know they can choose the flavor that suits them best.
Source: HubSpot. Click Here to read more.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Fri, Jul 16, 2010 @ 12:29 PM
It never seems more important to find ways to increase productivity than in the summer months. After all, the sun is shining (usually), the grass is green (most of the time), and your friends and family are calling. So who wants to sit behind a computer and work the days (and often nights) away?
I recently ran across an article that showed how one woman was able to increase work productivity through 11 simple steps. I thought I would share some of the top steps with you that have worked for me in the past and provide our own insight into how you can use these to better manage your productivity in the coming months:
- Respect your time: It is easy to plan your day with a certain "schedule" in mind. However we all know this schedule will most likely be pushed back for last minute projects, conference calls, and many, many, MANY other things. Try to respect your time. When someone asks you for something ask them "is it urgent." You'll find that most of the time, it can wait. This will help you respect your time and your schedule and get more done.
- Schedule time for email: Email can easily turn into a full time job if you are not managing when/how to respond to emails appropriately. To avoid the need to constantly respond to incoming emails, try turning it off for a few hours a day and only responding to emails during designated hours.
- No calls/meetings without a purpose: We all do it. The need to schedule a meeting and leave that meeting with no end result. If you can't craft up an agenda and leave with action items, your meeting can probably wait.
- Forcing people (and yourself) to find the point: It's a fact, we all ramble from time to time. This makes meetings (see above) last longer than necessary and tends to leave many people confused at the end. When making a point, make it, and move on. Try to help your colleagues do this as well!
- Leave that mobile device away while working: In this day and age it is easy to be working off of 2 if not 5 different pieces of technology. One that can be put aside is your cell. Your email is being checked and most likely that text message can wait.
- Cut off personal conversation during working hours: It is easy to get pulled into endless conversations that have nothing to do with what you are working on. While it is important to be able to talk with your colleagues and take time for a break during the day, one conversation can easily turn into 10. Try to avoid personal conversations when your schedule is slammed.
- Only do what's important: Even though that one project seems way more fun, it's not always what's important. Try to prioritize your projects by "need to do, "have to do" and "want to do." This will help you prioritize your schedule and get the most important things done on a daily basis. It's usually ok if your "want to do" projects take a few weeks.
- Having an actual life: While we are all working towards this with all of the steps above, I can't emphasize how important it is to make sure you make time for you. Stress can be one of the biggest causes for loosing productivity and if you make time for you, your level of stress is likely to be much lower than if you work around the clock.
So there you have it. These tips worked for people all over the globe, so why not you! You can read the original article with alternate feedback on how to use these tips by clicking here.
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Fri, Jul 09, 2010 @ 12:52 PM
When creating collateral for your company, be it a one page newsletter or a multi-page document describing your top offerings, it is important to keep design aesthetic in mind. While the content is surely the most important part of your documents, you will experience much greater readability if you follow a few simple 'rules' when it comes to collateral layout and design.
- Utilize White Space! This is one of the best things you can do to create professional looking marketing collateral. Less is more, so don't cram all of what you have to say close together. Use more pages if necessary, or make your body text more concise.
- Be consistent in the Font that you choose. Use up to 2 different fonts per piece - remember that you can choose different variations of those fonts like Bold and Italic, or use different font sizes to increase interest.
- Choose a font other than the default. When you consciously decide to be more creative in your font choice, it conveys to your reader that you put thought and intention into your work (just be sure the font you choose is easily readable).
- Add Pictures! To avoid the 'yawn factor', add relevant and tasteful photos or imagery into your work to break up the text. Images can also be useful for creating sections in your work, allowing you to highlight different ideas or topics. Stock photos are a good choice because you will own the rights to use the images. Stock Imagery can easily be purchased online where you can browse through thousands of choices.
- Choose a color palette and stick with it. It is best not to use every color of the rainbow in your collateral - instead, choose a main color to use for your headlines and highlights, and then choose another color to use as a compliment if you wish. Muted colors often go well in marketing collateral, and using your company colors is a good option as well.
Creating an eye-catching collateral piece doesn't have to be overwhelming. Just keep your style consistent, keep it simple, and when in doubt, leave it out.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Fri, Jul 02, 2010 @ 03:15 PM
This October, Marketing Sherpa will be hosting their annual B2B Summit and TSL Marketing is proud to announce our sponsorship of this event. At this event, learn how to:
- Architect a successful social media strategy
- Use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to drive leads
- Accurately score, nurture and measure leads
- Align marketing and sales strategies
- Optimize PPC, SEO, email and landing pages
- Develop strategies to grow your list
- Generate B2B content your audiences will value
- Manage multichannel campaigns
- Market effectively to Fortune 500 companies
- Accelerate leads through the funnel
What makes this event unique:
You'll listen, learn and interact with B2B marketing experts over two days through an intriguing blend of instructional formats, custom tailored to provide value to marketers of all skill levels. Whether you're looking for intensive how-to training, interactive audience-led panel discussions or real-life case studies to add to your arsenal, B2B Marketing Summit '10 has it all. To receive a $700 discount,
More about the event:
The dual coast event dates and locations are:
- Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA - October 4-5
- Westin Waltham, Boston, MA - October 25-26
Click Here to download the event agenda
Join us! We would love to see your there and share some of the top insights for B2B marketing in 2010.
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 @ 08:00 AM
So you don’t know the difference between Digg & Delicious? You aren’t the only one! With all of the hype around social media, you might be feeling overwhelmed. You know you need to ‘do’ social media, that isn’t the question, but it’s hard to get your mind around what it all means if you don’t understand the terms being used. Having a basic understanding of common terminology is your foundation to getting the most out of social media marketing.
We recently read the ‘Social Media Marketing Directory: 101 Terms to Know’ compiled by HubSpot, and thought that we would share some of the most common (and more obsolete) terms to help you feel more comfortable with social media marketing.
· Delicious - Delicious is a free online bookmarking service that lets users save website addresses publicly and privately online so that they can be accessed from any device connected to the Internet and shared with friends.
· Digg- Digg is a social news website that allows members to submit and vote for articles. Articles with the most votes appear on the homepage of the site and subsequently are seen by the largest portion of the site’s membership as well as other visitors.
· Google Documents - Referred to as 'Google Docs' is a group of web-based office applications that includes tools for word processing, presentations and spreadsheet analysis. All documents are stored and edited online and allow multiple people to collaborate on a document in real-time.
· LinkedIn- LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site, mainly used for professional marketing. As of June 2010, LinkedIn had more than 70 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide
· News Reader - A news reader allows users to aggregate articles from multiple websites into one place using RSS feeds. The purpose of these aggregators is to allow for a faster and more efficient consumption of information.
· Social Media Monitoring - Social media monitoring is a process of monitoring and responding to mentions related to a business that occur in social media.
· StumbleUpon- Free web-browser extension which acts as an intelligent browsing tool for discovering and sharing web sites.
· Twitter- Twitter is a platform that allows users to share 140-character-long messages publicly. User can “follow” each other as a way of subscribing to each others' messages. Additionally, users can use the @username command to direct a message towards another Twitter user.
· Yelp- Yelp is a social network and local search website that provides users with a platform to review, rate and discuss local businesses. Over 31 million people access Yelp's website each month, putting it in the top 150 U.S. Internet websites.
This report is brought to you by HubSpot.
To read the full social media directory Click Here.