The Essentials of Marketing Automation
In early October, I moderated a panel at the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum in Boston. The panel included William Toll, Lori Cohen and David Karp. Despite all the hype many people are still trying to figure out where marketing automation fits into their mix. Here are the slides. The Essentials of Marketing Automation for Small Businesses from Frank Days Thanks to @marketingprofs, Ann Handley and Kathy Bushman for the opportunity....
Seven things a blog post is not…
A direct response marketing program – This means we need to avoid the urge to include conversation stopping things like hyperbole, canned benefits statements and a call to action. Few things shut down a blog conversations faster than “act before Friday…” or some other type of offer. A press release – PR teams have a very specific role as the “official voice” of the organization for the media and other third parties. This typically means speaking of your organization in the third person. In contrast, effective blogging works in the first and second person as you would in a conversation. This also invites comments, both positive and negative. An email substitute – Just because your house email list is losing its pop doesn’t mean you can blindly move your promotions to your blog. Blogs with no obvious value to your audience are spam. You need to get beyond the facts and tell me something new, fresh or surprising. A case study – Blogs are great for telling stories but again think in the first and second person rather than the third person. You have to interview your customer for the case study so why not take the time to capture the narrative as a Q&A or podcast? Buzz – You are not stupid. You can see through it when there is no substance. It is no secret that the best blogs are full of fresh content and interesting ideas. Why bother blogging at all if you have nothing new, original or real to share? Advertising – If you are a consistent blogger with a thoughtful SEO plan, you can crank up your pagerank and generate significant inbound traffic that can replace expensive paid media. Again it starts with compelling content that your readers want to read, share and link to. Viral marketing – Sure a blog post can “go viral” and get shared broadly but you first need to create something your audience cares about and is worth sharing. – Mr. Tangyslice thanks you for joining us today and wonders which of these things you see most frequently and if he missed anything? Related articles: Top 8 Mistakes Of Blogger Newbs (davidrisley.com) The Power of Being Personal on Your Blog (problogger.net) 8 things I wish I knew before starting to blog...
A 21 day plan for creating your own Internet radio or TV show
Image via Wikipedia Wake up everybody. The age of plentiful bandwidth is here. This means a streaming radio show can sound like the host is sitting right next to you. Last summer I blogged about my learning from producing a couple of online radio shows. I created this post as a follow roadmap to help you create your own show. My guess is that this is a new venture so I am a big advocate of testing new media programs in no-cost or low cost ways to prove the concept before “going big”. So how can we get from idea to fresh online radio show in an agile way? Here is my road map I used twice last summer and am currently employing as I produce a new show here at Novell. Strategy: Write a short creative brief – This should be no more than 3 pages. Remember that the show is the product not the document. Sell the idea to the most important stakeholders – You need buy-in but don’t try to sell everyone. The first show (ie “the pilot”) will be your best tool for convincing people to do more. Find an executive sponsor – This person can advise the team and protect the idea from the corporate T-cell types that challenge anything new or different. Your sponsor could also be a possibly be one of your first guests. Operational details Decide on a format – Will it be a panel? Will it be a one-on-one interview? Or a combination? Pick dates for your first three shows – Without a first show date, all you have is an idea. This creates a sense of urgency and catalyzes the team. Decide on frequency – My bias is towards weekly. Unless you have enough content, more than once a week is tough. On the other hand, less than once a week doesn’t give you the chance to develop a rhythm. Identify potential guests for your first three shows – The first shows won’t be perfect so you don’t need to call in all your markers to get superstar guests. Save that for when you have worked out the kinks. Get all your technology straightened out. You don’t need much equipment these days to do radio but you do need someone who can plug it in and make sure it works seamlessly. TV/video has even more moving parts so plan accordingly. Figure out the streaming/hosting – Where will the show reside? There are a number of Internet radio stations to consider. You can also buy some bandwidth from a CDN and stay independent. Content Find a strong host – I...
23 social media things for your next software marketing announcement
In no particular order: Blog it Tweet it Digg it Stumble it Post in LinkedIn groups Add to email signature Tweet it again later today Post to Facebook group(s)/fan page(s) Update your LinkedIn status Share in customer forums Reddit Create a one minute podcast for iTunes Record a one minute Webcam video for YouTube Upload your PPT to Slideshare Create a Friendfeed Get your blog listed on Technorati Tweet it tomorrow Update/create your Wikipedia page Post to vertical communities like Toolbox.com Ask friends to retweet Ask friends to “like” on Facebook Beg your favorite bloggers to mention Post picture from announcement party to Flickr I’m sure I missed some. Any other...
Man can’t live on inbound marketing alone…
I’ve been thinking a great deal about the balance between inbound and outbound marketing. I’m not a big fan of the term “inbound marketing” as it is largely a rehash of things that most online marketers discovered over the last 8-10 years. Accountable and analytic marketers understand that: Most of the mass media and “push” techniques just aren’t as effective as they used to be a decade or two ago. People don’t like to be harassed by telemarketers. Shoppers are increasingly using the Web (including blogs and social media) to learn about your product or service. Prospects who engage with your business online are typically further along the purchasing process and are more likely to buy. These are all things that most of us have discovered empirically. In my opinion, the real challenge is figuring out if you can get enough from your online channels to fill the funnel and support your sales goals. In many markets, a large percentage of people still use “old media” to learn about things. For example, while over 10 million people still watch the nightly network news shows in the US, the more popular online TV shows have at best thousands of viewers. I know, I know we can talk about audience targeting and specificity but differential is meaningful. While all trends are toward online media, most of us will exhaust our productive online opportunities and will need some “old media”push in our marketing mix. To use an expression popular in the state of Maine, “you can’t get there from here.” We have businesses to run and sometimes we still need the sheer mass of eyeballs you can only get from “old media”. I know that change is upon us as print media and radio suffer through their painful corrections but they still have big, relevant audiences that we need to keep that in mind. These channels are also not going away anytime soon. My suggestion is to watch the numbers and be ruthless as you make media decisions understanding that most businesses need more than just online marketing (even if the customer acquisition costs are much higher offline). At the end of the day, results matter more than channels. How much are you moving to online media? Can you reach your goals this year with online...
What’s old is new
Last week I blogged about fresh alternatives to the B2B marketing lead generation trinity (webinars, whitepapers and tradeshows). While few parts of your marketing mix can help you tell your story, share a demo or answer questions like a live web event, I feel like the medium has become tired. How many sessions about “Best practices in…” or “X Ways to improve…” can your prospects bear? The format has become as predictable as a “Friends” rerun. You begin with a short intro, followed by a customer or analyst testimonial, then a demo, shameless plug and finally an interactive Q&A. Your prospects may or may not listen to the audio in the background as they get caught up on email or checkout Perez Hilton. So, what can a software marketer do? Sales is still going to breath down your neck for leads. My suggestions is to take another look at streaming radio. I know this is technologically similar to webinar audio but has a few advantages. Costs: Unless you are using one of the low-cost, higher-risk webinar providers (ie Gotowebinar or Dim Dim), streaming radio can be significantly less expensive. Sound quality: A 128K audio stream typically sounds better than the overburdened VOIP or conference call connections from the major webinar services. Scalability: Webinar providers also often have a different pricing schedule for bigger events (ie over 1,000 people). Streaming radio on the other hand can use a CDN which typically scales to much great levels without arbitrary limits imposed to maximize revenue yield. Freshness: Who wants to be a webinar attendee? An Internet radio show just sounds cooler. Podcasts: It is pretty easy to create podcasts from most streaming radio software. Here are a couple things I have learned: You need an alternative plan for chat. I’ve dabbled with Twitter and a custom hashtags. You could also consider Skype or some other chat platform for less social media savvy crowds. You need to find a registration system. I’ve used Eventbrite. It is free and easy to configure. Live demos are a challenge. You would need to find a screensharing solution. You’ll want to build a custom page for radio show URL. People can access the show without registering, costing you some leads. Anyone else have experiences with streaming radio they would like to...
