Almost Summer Reading

I'm not sure if June qualifies as summer or not. I used to think so, but some people classify summer as July and August. Seems a little short.

However you think about it, June is definitely the month to be outside as much as possible enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. 

Are you on the beach working on your tan? Then here are this month's relaxing must-read marketing articles:

1. Unleashing the power of B2B case studies, FierceCMO
2. How to get buyers to respond (even when they’re busy), Jeff Molander
3. Kahuna report: Mobile email trending upwards, messaging improves retention, FierceCMO
4. The Inbound Marketing Effectiveness Report, Act-on
5. Email Marketing Tips: 33 Industry Experts Share Their Best Strategies and Tactics, Drip

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call me anytime.

May Reading

Suffering from vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sun? We should get some sun soon.

In the meantime, here are some interesting articles to check out.

1. Email Marketing Tips: 33 Industry Experts Share Their Best Strategies and Tactics, Drip
2. Study: IT, finance departments most influential in B2B purchases , Fierce CMO
3. The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read, Moz
4. 10 of the most effective growth hacks The Next Web
5. Discover the Optimal Ad Copy for Every Keyword and Time of Day, SEM Rush

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Visit www.honeycomb-consulting.com now.

Can February March? No, but April May.

I'm not usually a fan of puns, but this one slipped into this month's newsletter anyway. For you pun-tastic people out there: you are welcome.

For the rest of us, hear are this month's five must-read marketing articles:

1. Create More Value With Marketing, And Less Frustration, Sales Benchmark Index
2. F8 Update: 10 New Facebook Features Every Marketer Must Know , Buffer
3. Survey: HubSpot is top automation solution in satisfaction, market presence, Fierce CMO
4. 50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today!) Neil Patel
5. The Platform You Never Planned For, Platform Strategy

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call us anytime.

Spring Reading

I am procrastinating on my annual bout of spring cleaning. It's only March, I know. But I feel like I'm already ready for May! How about you?

While you are daydreaming about summer, take a few minutes and read these five must-read marketing articles:

1. 16 Copywriting Mistakes You’re Probably Making (and How to Fix Them), Shanelle Mullin
2. Report: More than half of app users bail within 30 days of download, Fierce CMO
3. What's hot in B2B website design, Patrick Goreman
4. 50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today!) Neil Patel
5. What’s Next? 8 Trends I’m Excited About, Medium

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call me anytime.

Seven B-to-B Marketing Trends That Will Shape 2015

I read an interesting prediction article in AdAge, Seven B-to-B Marketing Trends That Will Shape 2015

Data and automated messaging are hot topics, but b-to-b marketers say their marketing must get more personal in 2015. "We need b-to-b to be more human," said Andy Goldberg, global creative director at GE.

The seven trends.

1. Great storytelling
2. Less Data, more emotions
3. Shareable content
4. Holistic user experiences
5. Consumerization
6. Reprioritizing marketing
7. Connecting technologies

North American Email Open and Click-Through Rates, Q1 2010-Q2 2014

Link to Marketing Charts: http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/north-american-email-open-and-click-through-rates-q1-2010-q2-2014-46305/

How Do Enterprise Buyers Research New Software?

Marketers often have a hard time explaining the value of content marketing. I hear sales focused teams ask "why do we have to write all of this stuff?"

Well, one of the many, many reasons is that prospects evaluate various sources when making a buying decision. Everyone starts with a google search and gets deeper from there.

Your company needs to be creating or influencing the creation of as much content in the chart below.

Source: How Do Enterprise Buyers Research New Software?

Lead Generation? You Are Not Doing It Right.

Lead Generation is the Most Important Thing for B2B marketers. Are you doing it right? Probably not.

Spending all day on social media and getting no results should tell you something. Are you integrating marketing with sales? Are you creating compelling content that is targeted to specific issues?

Learn more by reading this fine post...

5 Keys to Revolutionary Lead Generation - The Cogent Coach

In 9 Of 10 Industries Search Tops Lead Generation, Social Shortens Marketing Cycles

Read this very detailed look at marketing analytics.

First Touch: In 9 Of 10 Industries Search Tops Lead Generation, Social Shortens Marketing Cycles - MarketingLand

In a new paper, Bizible analyzed data from the more than 480,000 leads that have been tracked through its Salesforce marketing analytics platform to provide insights on how marketers should be thinking about attribution modeling and why the traditional last-click model is broken. 

When looking at last touch only, Bizible found that search accounted for 41 percent of the leads generated. Yet, when considered by first touch, search, in fact, drove 56 percent of the leads. 

Furthermore, the combination of search first touch and search last touch was the most productive sequence for lead generation, accounting for 37 percent of all leads from first/last touch combinations.

Good Examples of the ROI from B2B Content Marketing

Top Rank blog is generally a good source of usable information. This article is particularly rich.

Want to see content marketing in action and real world examples of the value it can generate...

11 Examples of Killer B2B Content Marketing Campaigns Including ROI

Read the whole article for more info on these campaigns-

SunGard – Created awareness amongst IT professionals for SunGard Cloud offerings with a zombie themed campaign. The zombie themed effort resulted in exceeding download rates by 300%, a 5.7% email open rate and 20+ leads.

Limelight Networks – Implemented a “For Dummies” themed education campaign drawing attention to success and failures for companies and their digital presence. The campaign gained exposure through nearly 10,000 social media and news release views and $200k+ worth of sales opportunities.

Logicalis - Using content assets such as emails, microsite and ebook, Logicalis developed a thought leadership effort that supported sales teams by enabling custom messaging based on the prospects interaction with the campaign. With a target audience of about 2,000, nearly $8 million in new pipeline business was closed.

Sales Benchmark Index – Targeting prospects that were newly hired VPs of Sales, this campaign focused on providing a toolkit that identified corporate pains when VPs of Sales fail as well as case studies of successes. The promoted ebook was downloaded by target VPs 5,781 times.

Lattice Engines – Partnered with a research firm to create a study showing the impact big data has on sales. A robust mix of content marketing tactics were used to promote the report including: ebook, blog posts, guest articles, video interviews, Slideshare and an infographic. The report was downloaded 500 times, covered by 15 blogs and industry media sites and 1,500 views of the ebook.

Optum – Created an integrated marketing campaign to support the launch of a new solution, support sales and build thought leadership. The content marketing mix included: advertorials, display ads, email, direct mail and a campaign website. The successful campaign earned a 23.5 lead to conversion rate, 475% increase in website traffic, 2,500+ resource downloads, 28% increase in YoY blog followers and $52 million in contract value of new business with less than $ 1million invested.

ADP – Developed a content marketing campaign to connect and engage with their target audience on a ADP solution using white papers and a diagnostic assessment tool. The campaign generated over $1 million in new sales opportunities with several deals closed within the first 3 months of launch.

Demandbase – This education campaign was designed to help B2B marketers make the right content technology investment by using a white paper, infographic, webinar, Slideshare and a live presentation to spotlight tools that can maximize the power of content. The results of the campaign included 1,700 leads, 125 webinar participants, 5,000 views on Slideshare and $1 million in new business.

Xerox – Created a targeted “Get Optimistic” campaign to connect with 30 top accounts and partnered with Forbes to create a magazine that offered relevant business tips. 70% of targeted companies interacted with the microsite, readership increased 300-400% over previous email campaigns, added 20,000 new contacts, generated 1,000+ scheduled appointments, and get this: yielded $1.3 BILLION in pipeline revenue. Yes, BILLION.

OpenText – Created a personalized new customer onboarding site offering a variety of assets (white papers, checklists, product pages, ebooks, case studies) and content to welcome new clients and provide upsell, cross-sell opportunities. The campaign also included a two phase nurturing program. 1,700 new contacts were identified along with 31 new opportunities worth $1.8 million.

Crowe Horwath – Using 48 pieces of content in 4 different topic areas, this campaign targeted C-level prospects in financial institutions with $1 billion or more in assets across the buying cycle. Content tactics included: executive briefs, case studies, infographics, checklists, Q and A, and Brainshark video. 778 contacts were engaged with a 70% open rate (vs. 10%), 2 engagement worth $250k in revenue.

Good Article in Inc.- 6 Reasons Companies Fail at Content Marketing

Another good article on marketing in Inc.

6 Reasons Companies Fail at Content Marketing

So...what are the reasons?

1. They have no subscription strategy.
2. They fail to inspire brand evangelists.
3. They still keep their content creators in silos.
4. They place traditional marketers in content roles.
5. They overlook internal marketing goals.
6. They miss out on opportunities to partner with traditional media.

I'd say that pretty much covers all the possible modes of dysfunction.

Honeycomb Consulting is Two Years Old!

Honeycomb Consulting is Two Years Old!

Two years ago this month I went online to incorporate a new enterprise called Honeycomb Consulting. I had high hopes that I would be able to bring value to a range of clients, but I remembered the statistics that most companies fail within a year or two.

There are always shifting fortunes during the run of any business, but I can look back over the past 24 months and see that I've been blessed to work with some great companies on interesting projects...

Some highlights...

- Working with a mobile video app company, Priveo (www.priveo.me), supporting their initial product launch with a new website, videos, lead generation and PR outreach

- Built a public relations campaign for wireless innovator Solid (www.solid.com), resulting in increased trade and analyst coverage (NY Times, Tech Crunch, InformationWeek, RCR Wireless)

- Developed an event based thought leadership campaign with client Lyceum (www.lyceum.com), a payroll and HR systems provider, based on the issues facing small businesses as they attempt to comply with the regulations stemming from the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

- Constructed content marketing program for travel risk management company, iJET (www.ijet.com), that included graphic design, collateral development, and public relations outreach

- Helped systems management company LANDesk (www.landesk.com) develop their social media program and worked with them booking third party experts, including press and analysts, to be interviewed on their blog.

A big thank you to everyone who put their faith in Honeycomb!

If you would like to receive a detailed presentation about these engagements, just let me know and we'll schedule a time to chat.

Or, if you like to learn more about Honeycomb, have a chat about your marketing needs, visit our website, send me an email or just call me at 202-497-8333

Reading List!

Here are a few articles that caught my eye, for your light beach reading:

How to Destroy Teams and Become Losers - Leadership Freak

Five Ways to Improve Your B2B Social Marketing Strategy ROI- Inbound Marketing

How Startups Can Triple Their Custome Base in Year or Less-Tech Cocktail

The Monster list of startup submission sites for free listing -The Startup Videos

Aligning Sales and Business Goals...Even Possible?

I've providing b2b marketing services to technology companies since 1999 or so. In that time, I've heard a lot of the same issues pop up at many firms. One of the them is the pain that is generated when a company is making a change in strategy, direction or focus- and the sales team becomes reactionary and resistant.

A common example of this is when a product based company realizes that its products are becoming commodities and attempts to re-position itself as a solutions or services company. This change always seems to cause consternation with the folks who have been happily selling the products. With good reason...lol.

I just read a very good article by Steve Blank, a Silicon Valley luminary about just this issue. It is a very good read, and you should read the whole thing...but here is a snippet...

The Land of the Living Dead 

I see this same pattern in early stage startups. Early sales look fine, but often plateau. Engineering comes into a staff meeting with several innovative ideas and the head of sales and/or marketing shoot them down with the cry of “It will kill our current sales.” 

The irony is that “killing our current sales” is often what you need to do. Most startups don’t fail outright, they end up in “the land of living dead” where sales are consistently just OK but never breakout into a profitable and scalable company. This is usually due to a failure of the CEO and board in forcing the entire organization to Pivot. The goal of a scalable startup isn’t optimizing the comp plan for the sales team but optimizing the long-term outcome of the company. At times they will conflict. And startup CEO’s need a way to move everyone out of their comfort zone to the bigger prize. 

Burn The Boats 

In 1519 Hernando Cortes landed in the Yucatan peninsula to conquer the Aztec Empire and bring their treasure back to Spain. His small army arrived in 11 boats. As they landed Cortes solved the problem of getting his team focused on what was ahead of them – he ordered them to burn the boats they came in. Now the only way home was to succeed in their new venture or die. Pivots that involve radical changes to the business model may at times require burning the boats at the shore.

The One Article You Have to Read Today

OK, there may be more than one, but for my money this is it.


Content Plays Critical Role Throughout Tech-Buying Cycle, MarketingProfs

From the article:

When making a major technology or security solution purchase, information technology decision-makers (ITDMs) download an average of nine content assets throughout the buying cycle, according to a report by IDG.
ITDMs rely on various types of content as they advance through the buying cycle:

• Early in the purchase process, when determining business need and technical requirements, ITDMs rank content such as feature articles, technology news stories, how-to articles, and whitepapers as most important.

• Midway through the process, when ITDMs are evaluating products and selecting vendors, content such as reviews/recommendations and third-party research (e.g., IDC, Gartner) plays a more important role.

• In the latter part of the buying cycle, when ITDMs are focusing on getting internal buy-in and final approval, content such as assessment tools (e.g., ROI calculators), product demos, and demo literature becomes more important. 

Reading List - June 7

Here are the articles and posts I've been reading...quite a hodgepodge. Read anything interesting lately? Send me the link at jeff@honeycomb-consulting.com

B-to-g marketers leverage social media to build relationships with federal employees - Direct Marketing News


The 5 Pillars of Social Media Strategy by Brian Solis, on the Networking Exchange Blog

Top 50 #Mobile Twitter Influencers by Jen Cohen on SAP's mobile blog

The 8 Keys to Successful Branding - Why 'Mad Men' and Whisky Are Not Going To Cut It by Matt Symonds, Forbes


Why the surge in obesity? - Consider the Evidence

Summary- the obesity epidemic started in 1980. The only variable changed around the same time is Calories in the Food Supply. Everything else that can plausibly explain the nation's weight gain- levels of exercise, hours spent TV watching, sedentary jobs, daily commutes in cars- aren't correlated with the change in adult obesity rates around 1980. Basically, everyone in America started eating more, a lot more, around 1980.

St. Bernanke's Fight Against the Deflation Dragon By Lance Roberts of Streettalk Live

Excuse me for geeking out on the economics front for a moment, but this is an excellent article on, what I think is a very much overlooked part of our troubles, the collapse of the velocity of money, which has happened despite the huge increase in the supply of money. Something for all you tea partiers to chew on...

Plus, for all you 99%-ers, check out this chart:

Kind of hard to blame rising inequality on recent events, when this is a trend that started in the late 1970's. Which is also when people started eating too much and getting fat. Coincidence? Correlation?

Why working-class people vote conservative - Jonathan Haidt, The Guardian

And check out the middle finger on the gentleman's book cover. LOL

All Men Can’t Jump - David Stipp, Slate

Quote:

There's no denying it—our kind started substituting brains for brawn long ago, and it shows: We can't begin to compete with animals when it comes to the raw ingredients of athletic prowess. Yet being the absurdly self-enthralled species we are, we crowd into arenas and stadiums to marvel at our pathetic physical abilities as if they were something special. But there is one exception to our general paltriness: We're the right honorable kings and queens of the planet when it comes to long-distance running.

Top Posts from 2010

I recently reviewed my Google Analytics account to see which posts were the most popular last year. As you might imagine, the social media case studies continue to be extremely well trafficked. Here is the top ten from 2010...


British Telecom Social Media Case Study

Microsoft Social Media Case Study


Four Cutting Edge B2B Social Media Best Practices


Sun Microsystems Social Media Marketing Case Study


Monster Social Media Case Study


Healthcare And Social Media Survey 2010


World Leaders As Kids Teenagers


BearingPoint Social Media Marketing Case Study


Despite Rapid Adoption of Social Media, Healthcare Lags Behind

Listen to my Webinar- an Overview of B2B Social Media Business Applications

Last week, I had the great opportunity of serving as a speaker for a webinar hosted by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). There were three excellent presentations and a fascinating Q&A session. The speakers were:

Jeff Majka, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Strategic Communications Group
Gail Nelson, SVP, Marketing, BurrellesLuce
Angela Lauria, CMO, AppAssure

...and the session was moderated by Karen Leavitt, CEO, Marketing Fusion.

Download the PDF of the 36 slides here and listen to the audio here (about 90 minutes).

What do you think? Please leave a comment or drop me a line!!

As I told you here, this was the first webinar in a four part series. The next three webinars will be held as follows (mark your calendars and click on the links to register):

Enterprise Sales Support - Using Social Medial to Support the Enterprise B2B Sales Cycle
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $35
Monday, October 5th - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
With new service-based models and the rise of "freemium", the sales cycle is getting complicated -- and every advantage counts. Social media has the potential to connect these new models to the customers that want them, but how do you implement it? Where do you start? Hear how social media can transform the way you approach lead generation and sales cycle support.

Panelists:
Adam Mertz, Product Marketing Manager, Jive Software
Jay Hallberg, Co-founder & VP of Marketing, Spiceworks

Using Social Media to Target the C-Suite and Close Deals
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Monday, November 2 - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
Many of your customers are using social media to communicate with THEIR customers. How can you tap into their social media programs? The first step to closing the deal is to conduct a social media audit of your principal prospects. How can this be completed efficiently and comprehensively for a large number of prospects? How can you facilitate social media for deal capture?

Panelist:
Jim Fowler, CEO, Jigsaw

Social Media for Brand Awareness, Thought Leadership and Other Traditional PR Activities
Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Monday, December 7th - 1:30pm - 2:30 pm EDT
Social media should be an integral part of your PR strategy, not just your sales function. To run a successful campaign Marketing, Sales and PR need to be integrated using today's popular social media tools. How can you effectively integrate your social media strategy across the enterprise?

Moderator:
Robert Carroll, VP Marketing, Clickability
Panelist:
Richard Dym, CMO, OpSource, Inc.

New Podcast with Jean Foster, VP Marketing at BT Americas

Hi all, I want to share with everyone a podcast I did this morning with Jean Foster. Jean is the VP Marketing for BT Americas, a division of global telecom powerhouse British Telecom. She shares best practices on marketing strategy, competing against bigger rivals (Verizon! AT&T!), merging marketing departments from acquired companies, integrating social media into a large enterprise B2B marketing and sales strategy and how to sell social media to internal audiences.



Full disclosure: Jean selected my employer, Strategic Communications Group, to develop and execute targeted campaigns to support her marketing and sales initiatives. Check out BT America's sustainability blog and their managed security services Twitter feed.

How do you think BT is doing?

Lovely Link-y Goodness

Some links of note:

A popular, successful social community for IT professionals: http://www.ittoolbox.com

Corporatedealmaker.com debuts as stand-alone Web site : http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080207/FREE/89099387/1078/newsletter01

Forrester Research is out with a report that addresses the possible impact of a recession on budgets for social media initiatives: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3idcbc5d3b3d8cd77104f087d7ef56ffb7

The Arketi Group has compiled a survey that provides data on how B-to-B media use Web 2.0, including how journalists get story ideas and how they use the Internet. Read the PDF here: http://www.arketi.com/pdfs/Arketi_Web_Watch_2007.pdf