Can you outsource all of marketing?

Let the record show that I was a fan of outsourcing marketing long before I started freelancing. The question was always how much of it you could outsource. I have outsourced bits and pieces of marketing, such as collateral creation, in the past, but I usually maintained control of demand creation and other programs in-house.

For the last several months, I have been on the other side of the fence creating everything from complete campaigns to specific materials for my clients. I have concluded that technology companies can outsource most of their marketing, however there are a few tips that I thought I would share:

Choose a vendor that understands your business. If you want to keep your costs low and accelerate your marketing programs, it helps to have someone who does not need much training. Both my agency partner and I have a long history of working with companies like SAP and Microsoft. We can talk to a Subject Matter Expert (SME) and quickly translate their technology perspectives into language that makes sense to the average buyer. It takes more than just marketing knowledge to do that.

Experience matters. We hear about this happening all the time in business consulting. The firm convinces the client that they have vast amounts of experience in the business but once the contract is signed, all they see is junior level people. Of course, this helps the agency keep their costs down and, presumably, keep their fees low. However, it can raise the handholding you need to do. If you plan to outsource most of your marketing, you may be better off working with an agency that does not need as much support.

Keep someone on staff and accountable. Even if you outsource all of your marketing, the agency will need someone to be their main contact in-house. This individual can be instrumental in helping the agency understand the priorities of the company and develop the right contacts with SMEs, executives and salespeople. Having someone on staff with a marketing title, preferably someone with some credibility within the organization, can be important to project success.

All the best!

Melissa

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Not Everybody Needs Nurturing

I applaud the efforts marketers are putting into nurturing programs. It will allow them to make better use of their marketing investments and leverage their salespeople’s time more effectively. However, not everyone needs nurturing. No matter how long your sales cycle is, with the information available to buyers on the web, some people will be ready to engage the moment they contact you.

A couple of days ago, I was shopping for a service and clicked the “contact us by e-mail” button on the web page. The e-mail form asked for my information. I give credit to the company for not asking for my physical address. There was also a field that allowed me to comment so I briefly explained what I was looking for and asked someone to get back to me.

After hitting the submit button (yes, it did ask me to “submit” which is something I hesitate to do.) I got a response telling me that I had been added to their e-mail communications program. That was a little strange since this was a “contact us” form and not an “add me to your mailing list” form. But, being a marketer myself, I wasn’t too concerned and I assumed since I asked to be contacted in the comment field that someone would be getting in touch with me.

After two days and one promotional e-mail from the company later, no one had contacted me. Luckily for this company, I do need this service, I’m unhappy with my current provider, and they were recommended to me by someone I trust. I found a contact at the company (the CEO) and emailed them directly. Within a couple hours I got a response and everything is going smoothly now.

The point of my story is that nurturing is great, but make sure you are not losing potential opportunities in your zeal to implement nurturing best-practices. You may think this couldn’t possibly happen in your organization, but sometimes the people who field your frontline calls and e-mails don’t have the business experience you do. It’s easy for me to imagine a new marketing coordinator being told to enter every contact into the lead nurturing program. As they try to do the best job they can following your orders, they don’t realize the obvious – that I was ready to engage.

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Working with your (internal) editor

I’ve been doing a ton of writing for clients – brochures, presentations, website content and such. It’s a lot of fun, but writing for someone else is so much different that writing for yourself.

I start out the same way. First, I turn the little editor in my head on low and just let the words flow. Without a gate on the words I put on paper, I can come up with some clever and funny phrases. (At least I think they are.) At this stage I meander a bit but I don’t worry about it. Fixing that comes in the next step. For now, I’m just having fun.

Then I turn my editor up a little bit and look for the pieces that don’t support my, or really my client’s, main message. It never fails. The first bits to go are the clever little phrases that I love so much.

“But they will catch the prospect’s attention,” I argue with this second-level editor.

“But they detract from the message,” she (or is it me?) argues back. “Save it for your blog!”

She always wins. Actually I let her win because it’s good for my business.

Finally, I turn the editor on high and look for words that are not quite right, grammar mistakes, and cumbersome phrases. I really dislike this editor because she hates everything I write. I don’t always let her win because I know that sometimes the client and I are smarter than she is. But, more often than not she has a point and my writing is better when I take her advice.

All the best!

Melissa

P.S. My mental health is just fine and I am not really sitting at my computer arguing with myself – most of the time.

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Microsoft Uses Twitter Testimonials to Launch Windows 7

This has to be the most innovative use of Twitter for marketing that I’ve seen yet. Microsoft has changed their main screen to be one big Windows 7 add. On a side note, I like the look. It’s clean with some catchy call to actions that almost had me clicking.


But the really innovative approach is the rotating tweets about Windows 7. I've seen an occasional tweet used on other sites, but this is the most effective use I've seen yet. These tweets aren't a side not to the message. They are the message. And, when it comes to adopting technology like Windows 7, Microsoft knows that what the early adopters say about their product carries far more weight than anything they could claim.

These tweets should also carry more weight than the customer quotes you usually see on a website. Those quotes are often from customers who see something in it for them. I’m not saying they are paid quotes. It could be as simple as liking the attention they get from working with marketing.

Tweets are, presumably, spontaneous and unedited. The skeptics could say that these tweets came from Microsoft employees. I suppose that’s possible, although I’m not quite that jaded. Plus, Microsoft left off the Twitter ID, but they did give the time and date of the tweet. Those of you with time to waste could probably track down the original tweet.

And, yes, there are probably tweets out there that don’t shine such a positive light on the product. I don’t know that for sure, but it’s Microsoft – a pretty big target for those who like to sling arrows.

I like what they’ve done, but if I think about it further the take away for me is that Tweeps might hold more promise for many B2B marketers, especially in the technology industries, than even the bloggers. This is certainly true if you are trying to launch a new technology product. It’s a way to leverage the opinions of the early adopters who might be incredibly intelligent, but not always wonderfully articulate.

Outreach to bloggers should be part of your launch planning but the effort in writing a blog about your product is far greater than a 140 character tweet. Because of that effort you really have to have something spectacular for them to blog about. Plus, bloggers may only be reviewing your product. If they aren’t actual users, the blog can loses a slight amount of weight.

As you are planning your product launches and deciding who you want to be in your beta or in your early adopter phase, consider adding some of your customers who tweet.

Melissa

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The Joy of Brevity

I always hate the posts that start with “sorry I haven’t posted in awhile,” as though the reader of the blog was just hanging on every word. Believe me, there are enough other blogs out there to fill the void. Unless you are a Seth Godin or Chris Brogan I’m not sure anyone notices the absence. (And, maybe not even if you are Seth or Chris.)

I too have been incredibly busy lately with no time to blog. I joined forced with GrowthPoint a marketing agency that will allow me to offer a fuller line of marketing services. One of their specialities is lead management for channel organizations which I think is so cool – and much needed.

But, the other day as I was reading a post suggesting that you should blog before you Twitter, a point I mostly agree with, I realized that I was overlooking Twitter and the advantages of microblogging. (BTW, I am still looking for the link and as soon as I find it I will update this so that you can join that discussion. It's quite lively.)

I hate to let my blog lapse and my readership to dwindle, but you do what you have to do. If I have a client with deadlines, as I do now, I’m all over it. But that doesn’t mean I can’t continue to interact, I just need to be more brief. Twitter’s 140 characters is perfect. I can tweet my ideas and insights and continue to retweet posts from other thought leaders.

You can follow me at Melissa Paulik. I won’t promise to follow everyone back. See my personal Twitter guidelines. They've evolved somewhat since the original post, but are still relevant. For those of you who are interested in continuing the discussion I look forward to many more, if somewhat briefer, interactions.

And, yes, I will continue to blog between deadlines.

All the best!

Melissa

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Should You Leave Your Content Up to Your PR Agency?

There has been a lot of discussion in recent forums on whether PR is dead, evolving, being reinvented etc. I think the general consensus is that a good modern PR agency looks dramatically different from the agency of the past that tended to operate in a sort of “black box.” In the old days, you worked with them on a press release and then they worked their magic to get in the hands of the media and analysts. The end result was a “clip book” of your stories and mentions but little else.

In the modern era of PR the lines between PR and traditional marketing are blurring a bit. No doubt, a modern agency today uses social media tools such as blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and facebook to reach out to the audience. And, although the agency is focused on reaching out to the media, influential bloggers in your space, and your key analysts, they are also reaching out to your target customer as well. The content they create is easily accessible to a potential prospect doing a search on your keywords and can drive visitors to your website.

But, the area where I tend to draw the line between traditional marketing and PR is content creation. If, by “content creation”, you mean press releases and the types of content that go into your online media room, that works for me. But, I don’t think you should abdicate your entire content creation strategy to your PR agency. Unless they are truly content creation specialists and deeply understand the role of content in nurturing prospects, I don’t think you should be relinquishing the responsibility for the materials you use for your nurturing programs to your PR agency. Telling the story for the customer through a solid content strategy is different than telling the story to attract the media and analysts.

So do you agree? Disagree? Especially those of you who work within the PR agencies, has your product offering changed enough that you feel you can own the entire content creation responsibility?

All the best!

Melissa

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Where Will You Invest in 2010?

As this year draws to a close and we hopefully look forward to a better year in 2010, it’s time to start thinking about what we will do differently in the coming year to improve our results.

There is no magic answer to where to invest your marketing dollar for maximum effect in 2010. Lead nurturing programs would certainly rank high on my list if you don’t have an effective one in place. Aligning your sales and marketing team could also be of primary importance. Fortunately, this is often not so much a question of dollars as much as it’s a question of aligning your processes.

There is one area that I see holding technology marketers back that one could argue should be the first thing fixed – the website.

The problems vary from company to company, but take a look at almost any technology website and you’ll see common issues. Here are just a few, as told from the perspective of the visitor:

Self-centered verbiage. An incredible amount of “me, me, me” with most of the language focused on how great the organization is.

Very poorly written value prop statements. It’s darn hard to tell what value some of you add.

No clear indication of what types of companies you serve and what you do for them. I can see on your website that you “help global organizations succeed in today’s tough competitive world…” but what exactly is it that you do?

No evidence of any expertise. You tell me you can solve all my problems, but you don’t give me any evidence that you can. Where are your white papers and webinars that will give me the confidence that you know what you are talking about?

No calls to action. I would give you my contact information so you could follow up if you gave me something worthwhile to download.

No value in your downloads. I see I can download a brochure but that’s hardly worth parting with my email address.

Asking for too much information. You do have a couple pieces of information that I might be interested in, but it’s kind of hard to tell what’s really in them. I’m certainly not going to give you my physical address so you can send me junk mail. (Plus I suspect you might sell my personal information since I don’t see anywhere that you say you won’t.)

Poorly placed calls to action. I didn’t see that call to action because I had to scroll down past all of your self-centered self-talk about how great you are to actually see it. I never got that far.

While the website isn’t the Holy Grail of marketing any more than any other program is, it is a central hub for your marketing programs. Very likely your outbound marketing campaigns are pointing your prospects to a website for more information. Certainly inbound relies heavily on your website (or micro-sites) to convert visitors into prospects.

For many of your potential customers the website is the first (and sometimes the last) look they get at your company and what you do. Make sure you put your best foot forward in 2010 and spend at least some of your effort working on your site, testing it, and then reworking it again.

All the best!
Melissa

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