B2B Marketing Trends From Eloqua Experience 09 Via Twitter

Earlier this month I left my newborn and poor wife at home for an unforgettable week at Eloqua Experience in San Francisco. This sold out event brought together some of smartest marketers from all over the world. While there were a few keynote speakers, the conference focused on having the Eloqua community share their experiences so we could all learn from each other.


The main difference this year from last year was that we not only shared our knowledge and insights with each other but with the power of Twitter, we could share these with the rest of the globe. This made the event even more exciting as tweeters could listen to speakers, engage other tweeters, tweet their experiences, and see what others were tweeting about all at the same time! To better understand, how Eloqua pulled this off, see: Social Media Buzz at a Live Event. The result was better than Eloqua could ever have expected. The content generated by the event attendees was almost as good as the content from the speakers themselves. Why? Because it’s real. It’s in the moment. What better way to get in the heads of those that attended than by reading their actual thoughts.

While I could write a number of blog posts on my own findings from this event, I decided to let Twitter write the post for me. Of course, I did sift through over 1,000 tweets for trends as well the most memorable tweets. The Eloqua product was much discussed at the event but I’ve excluded those tweets here as this post was focused on learnings for B2B marketers that goes beyond Eloqua. I hope you enjoy it and I encourage you to follow the Tweeters that I mention below. They are some of the best and brightest out there. And if you’re mad that I forgot a important moment or missed a cherished tweet of yours, add a comment at the bottom.

Social Media And B2B Marketing

Social media played such a major factor at this event. This post as an example, was written from the product of social media (Twitter). At Eloqua Experience, there was a focus on helping marketers better understand the different aspects of social media, how to better leverage social media, and why they need to leverage it. One of the memorable moments on Day #1 was at the social media training session when all of students needed to set up a Twitter account (if they didn’t have one) and tweet using the #EE09 hash tag. It actually caused Twitter to block the IP address at the hotel from accessing Twitter for a short period of time due to the amount of new Twitter accounts generated. Those at the event felt proud that they’re collective voice reverberated across the internet – powerful stuff!

David Meerman Scott was a fantastic speaker and adding all the golden nugget tweets from his presentation wouldn’t due it justice. I have added a few though.

Here is a small taste of what was discussed:

tracyekraft: Social Media Revolution http://bit.ly/1Q6I5R at Eloqua Experience learning how to be better w/social media. #ee09

EricHorton: Twitter just blocked the IP for the #ee09 Twitter training session. How will new users learn to reap the benefits from Twitter?

jocebrown: Social's big impact in B2B marketing will be in how you interact with customers and develop advocates and relationships - Laura Ramos #EE09

stevewoods: Thought leadership and credibility, NOT community size are main drivers of why ppl engage in online communities - @lauraramos at #EE09

chadhorenfeldt: Track social media engagement, not ROI @lauraramos #EE09

edthewebguy: #ee09 steve woods - if facebook was a country it would be the 4th most populous

rhonda: #EE09 It's not about controlling the message it's about getting information out there. @dmscott

Bpoz: @dmscott: lose your fear of social media and lose control of your marketing. #EE09

tillatorrens: New Rule by @dmscott - EARN attention by publishing your way in - via YouTube, blogs, etc #EE09

chadhorenfeldt: #EE09 @dmscott borrowed this from @yoda to describe new rules of marketing: u must unlearn what u have learned

The Marketing Organization

While many of my conversations are focused solely on technology, it’s the people and process that are the building blocks of a successful marketing organization. The tweets below focus mostly on the session held by Tony Jaros from SiriusDecisions and some additional tweets from the Omniture session who use much of what SiriusDecisions preaches. The marketing organizations that have the right people and are using the best practice strategies will have the most success. As an example, SiriusDecsions focused on the concept of what they called the Demand Center.

lauraramos: #EE09: Tony Jaros of Sirius Decisions talks about the gap in marketing skills, not the technology or relationship with sales.

lauraramos: #EE09: Now need 2 worry about how 2 facilitate demand through the entire waterfall. Don't sell yourself short by thinking it's anything less

lauraramos: #EE09: Best marketing organizaitons will see the biggest change at the bottom of the waterfall. Waterfall is center of all marketing.

jocebrown: Neither a white paper not a product is a campaign....you need to be solving a problem....cannot continue to be tactically focused #EE09

lauraramos: #EE09: Quality marketing talent must support a wide variety of disciplines. Silos must go. Marketing automation experience will be key.

jocebrown:Frightening number of B2B marketers self taugh with no budget for training according to Sirius....huge performance gap #EE09

lauraramos: #EE09: The Demand Center is a center of excellence for program creation but with advisory, technical, and execution around buyer's journey.

jocebrown: It's the people and process not the technology that is stalling sophisticated nurturing and scoring - Laura Ramos #EE09

lauraramos: #EE09: Omniture organization looks like: Audience Program Mgmt, Offer Development, Channel Execution, and Marketing Operations supports all.

lauraramos: #EE09: 1: Sales engagement means taking in sales language: what do we contribute to the pipeline, how many sales accepted oppty do you need?

paynejoe: Avg CMO tenure 22 mnths. BUT if the CMO has a demand generation or sales enablement background he/she is 2 times liklier to make 5yrs #ee09

Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

This was definitely a hot topic and Eloqua was lucky to not only have speakers like Laura Ramos and Tony Jaros but also CMOs from its customer base. A theme across many of these discussions was the need for marketing to demonstrate its impact to the rest of the business. This doesn’t just mean the pipeline influenced from a lead nurturing program but also can mean the effectiveness of lead scoring to the sales team.

lauraramos: #EE09: all this [marketing] activity amounts to 18 to 30% of the pipe. Must look at influence in the waterfall, even if marketing doesn't source it.

lauraramos: #EE09: @siriusdecisions Marketers must measure the performance of demand creation, not of marketing.

SuaadSait: Benchmarking marketing statistics is NOT what matters, Baseline YOUR mktng data & set goals to grow as a commitment per @lauraramos #EE09

jocebrown: Nurturing value measured in pipeline velocity - Drew Clarke IBM #EE09

rhonda: #ee09 Drew Clark on measuring nurturing: what type & how many activities lead participates in, what their role is in opp & in account.

lauraramos: #EE09: Waterfall + database segementation shows Omni needed to acquire 150K more names to feel the model. Content choice: research survey.

lauraramos: #EE09: Omniture measures conversion across channel and pipeline. Lets them know where to invest marketing programs and why.

rhonda: @pteshima #EE09 ?'s CMOs ask: What initiatives drive ROI, how does sales & mktg funnel look, r my strategies working, how do I benchmark?

rhonda: #EE09 Scott Sheppard shares great ideas on rolling out lead scoring to your sales team: videos, distribute custom reports & driving adoption

Marketing Tactics

If you ask many marketers, one of the main reasons they came to Eloqua Experience was to pick up a few tips that they could take home with them and implement right away. This could mean learning how to clean your data so that it could be easy to segment off of or something simple as creating a control group that you send no marketing communication to and measuring how it fairs to the rest of the database. It’s very powerful when marketers themselves can share their results and let you know what is working and what isn’t.

jill_rowley: @lauraramos - content needs to be about me and my needs, not you and your products, your awards. #EE09 #Eloqua

JenPumpItUp: Session tip: How good is your lead scoring program? Only as good as your sales team buy-in. Make sure they're a part from the start. #EE09

rhonda: #EE09 marketers shld work w/ the sales team to help define a qualified lead for scoring... But DON'T ask them to help you prioritize assets!

rhonda: #EE09 Incorporate time frame into ur scoring model to ensure recency is reflected in the "value" of the lead.

rhonda: #EE09 Sales adoption of lead scoring is a paradigm shift-if rep reluctant, push adoption not just from top but via success of their peers.


lauraramos: #EE09: Omniture says realtime alerts increased contact ratios by to 100X and increased opportuntiies generated by 21X vs. no tools/process.

jfernandez: I love the idea of misspellings within automated e-mails from Sales Rep to add a touch of authenticity. Brilliant stuff, @Omniture. #EE09

Eloqua: Omniture: EVERY email must be personalized and relevant. #EE09


gclarkmt: Mikel Chertudi says Omniture only saw a 3% drop in conversions with their really long contact form versus a short form. #EE09

gregforrest: Omniture says do less programs and make them better - get more out of them. #ee09

tmcmullen: favorite idea of the day - create a control group when testing marketing campaigns/effectiveness #ee09

hallim: #EE09 data cleansing - tactics to support the overall strategy of demand generation and qualified leads into the sales pipline

chadhorenfeldt: http://twitpic.com/o5sq5 - Great Eloqua data quality dashboard in Eloqua by @gregforrest #EE09 #b2b #marketing

jill_rowley: Tony Jaros from SiriusDecisions says something like....Lead nurturing turns garbage into gold. #EE09 #Eloqua

Until Eloqua Experience 2010…

I hope you enjoyed some of these tweets as much as I did and if you were at Eloqua Experience, I hope these tweets bring back some good memories. To end this post, I want to highlight some of the true marketing rock stars that were at the event. These people were the finalists for the Markie awards. Here is Tweet from the Markie awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of the finalists:

stevewoods: Was a fantastic evening! Congrats all! RT @chadhorenfeldt: http://twitpic.com/o7l7g - The Eloqua Markies finalists #EE09

For more information on the winners, see: Winners of the 2009 Markie Awards where you can learn more about the categories, the winners and why they won.

Be sure to add comments on your favorite tweets or moments at EE09. Looking forward to Eloqua Experience 2010!

Chad H.

@chadhorenfeldt

PS: For videos from the event and some of the sessions I mentioned above, check out the Eloqua YouTube Channel. For more pictures, Check out the Eloqua Fanpage on Facebook

PPS: I would like to thank every tweeter at the event – you made this post possible. Believe me, it was hard choosing who to include! I would especially like to thank @lauraramos, @jocebrown and @rhonda who I used extensively.

PPPS: I did mention that this post was not on the Eloqua technology but I did want to give a shout out to the Pedowitz Group and its Sweet Platform that captured all of the tweets from the event in Eloqua and made it possible for me to analyze them. Very nice add-on and a big thank you.

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The Recession is Here - Time to Become an Eco-Marketer

When I say that you should become an eco-marketer, I don't mean that you should add some corny green recycle image to your website (who would do that?) or support a "Save the Whales" campaign. Although I'm a big supporter of environmental issues and started my career running an environmental organization, I would like to focus on eco-marketing in terms of demand creation.

I focused my research this week on how I can help my customers build out a demand waterfall as defined by the smart people over at SiriusDecisions. During my research, I stumbled upon a great article by the Canadian Marketing Blog called "2009 B-to-B Demand Creation Trends" eh (Canadian joke). It's here where I came across the term eco-marketer and I wanted to build on the excellent analysis that they have already provided. However, after I drank 10 cups of coffee, I've created my own version of the eco-marketer. Here are my three Rs that I recommend to become the best eco-marketer you can be in a down economy:

The Three Rs of Marketing and a Bonus R

1. Reuse: In a down economy you need to reuse all of your marketing resources that you have out there and maximize your marketing investments. Here are my recommendations:
   
   • Reuse your webinars. If you have run a live webinar, post the archived version on your website behind a form. It's been proven that archived webinars can generate more leads then the actual live event.
   • Reuse your email newsletters by ensuring they are posted on your website. This is a simple one but it's surprising how many e-newsletters remain only in email format. I would recommend to post in on your website and even create an RSS feed. With an RSS feed, you can promote in your email footers and it can be re-used by other bloggers and companies. You should even consider creating a blog and reposting your newsletter articles on it.
   • Reuse your live presentations. If anyone from your company or your customers are speaking on behalf of your company ensure that you film them and add them to the resource area of your website. You can even just post the slides or the speech text. Don't miss these great opportunities to build marketing content.
     
   • Use social media techniques such as Twitter and YouTube to maximize the effect of your webinars, videos and white papers. For example, you can mention on your twitter profile that you've just released a new blog post or newsletter. Think of social media as a big marketing ecosystem (see, I am focusing on the environment) and make sure you take advantage of all the tools out there. In this way, you can reuse your marketing materials as much as possible.
     
   • Reuse all of your marketing materials in your lead nurturing efforts. Having the right content for automated lead nurturing programs can be the most difficult part of a lead nurturing campaign. However, many companies have all of the materials they need already created. Even though some may be dated, if the materials are good they should be reused. You don't need to just focus on pushing out new content, you probably have some gold nuggets that may be hidden on your site.
     
     For your nuturing campaigns, create a document that outlines all of the marketing content that you have and map this to the buying process of your target audiences that you have identified (assuming you have created defined marketing segments).
     
     You would be amazed at how you can reuse the content you already have (blog posts, newsletter articles, industry white papers, demos) and create a specific and defined automated program that is designed to target a specific segment and has a specific marketing goal.
     
   • Create marketing campaigns that can be reused. For example, if you have a large marketing team, create processes so that you standardize your email and landing page templates. Tweak them as necessary based on your successes (or failures). Another example is to create automated program templates such as an event management or lead nurturing template. These templates can be copied and reused.
     
   • Reuse (and abuse) your whole company. If you have Jimmy from the development team who did a lunch and learn on how he coded a solution that will benefit your clients, get him to write it down and post it on a blog. If Sarah from your Support team came up with a great solution to solve a customer problem, video tape her and post it on your site or include it in your next newsletter. MAXIMIZE YOUR ENTIRE COMPANY IN YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS. Did I just write in caps?
     
     
2. Reduce: Not only should B2B companies reduce the amount of lead leakage where leads are being lost is the sales/marketing funnel by tightening up processes, the following also needs the be considered:
   
   • Reduce the amount of communication that you're sending to leads. Are you saying to yourself "Are you on drugs Chad? Why would I want to send less communications when I need to keep up the number of leads to my sales team?". In a down economy you need to work on further segmenting your campaigns and matching your communications to the right person at the right time. Any emails, direct mail etc... send should be based on a person's interest and the stage of the demand waterfall that they are in. This type of eco-marketing will achieve the best results and ensure that you conserve (another eco-friendly term!) you're ever shrinking opt-in database in the tough times ahead.
   • Reduce the amount of time it takes for qualified leads to be followed up with. An automated lead nurturing process will help deal with leads that are qualified but not yet ready to buy and thus reducing leads falling through the cracks but a process needs to be put in place to put the best leads on the desks of your sales team so they'll follow up right away. The best solution for this is a lead scoring process that scores leads based on their explicit information (industry, job role etc...) and their implicit activity (offers they've downloaded, emails they've responded to). With this type of process in place, you can ensure that your sales team is "cutting through the crap" and following up with the best leads before your competitors.
   • Reduce the complexity to getting access to information on your website. Optimize your landing pages by removing any unnecessary fields. Ask for more information only if it makes sense to the potential lead. Consider building up a profile of the lead over time. This requires more effort as you need to think through the stages on getting this information but it is worth it.
     
   
   
3. Recycle: By recycling leads that are in your sales and marketing funnel you will get the most out of your marketing investments. Just because a potential lead attends a webinar and doesn't respond to a sales call doesn't mean they're not interested in buying from your company. An eco-marketer may want to further investigate SiriusDecisions methodologies around calling webinar attendees "inquiries" rather then leads and not passing these on to sales until they've been further qualified through an automated marketing program. In fact, SiriusDecisions has demonstrated that webinars are typically viewed at the beginning stages of the buying process. This is just one example of how marketers need to go beyond lead generation to concentrate on the lead funnel and developing strategies to move leads through this funnel.
   
   Recycle your "inactive leads". Recycling doesn't just include those leads that are not "sales ready" or not yet ready to buy. You need to have automated processes that will detect those leads that you've been sending emails to (or other forms of communication like direct mail) and haven't responded. This means that they haven't visited your website, filled out a form or responded to your marketing communications. You can recycle these leads by placing them in a separate automated program with messages that are specific to this segment. This may include an email with a survey asking these "inactives" what they would like to receive from your company or a request to opt back in with a targeted offer. You may decide that it's time to take some of these leads to the curb but at least you have tried your hardest to maximize those leads that came through your front door.
   
   
4. A bonus R is "Remove". Remove any of the following:
   
   • Remove barriers between the sales and marketing team. Everyone needs to work together. Think peace and joy on earth (just like a real environmentalist).
   • Remove campaigns or tactics that are not working. To do this, you need a mechanism in place to measure every aspect of your marketing efforts. This goes back to my original premise of researching the demand waterfall. Having a defined process in place where you can measure the success of your marketing efforts at each stage of the sales marketing funnel is crucial. For example, if the conversion rate of a Google AdWords campaign is failing as the effort to turn these "inquiries" into MQLs (marketing qualified leads) is too expensive and takes too long, remove it. Focus on sources that are bringing in more qualified leads.
   • Remove crappy data and automate the process if possible. You will probably have fewer leads coming in the top of your pipeline so you can concentrate on creating processes that will remove contacts that should never hit your database. This may include contacts with bad email addresses, your competitors etc... You can also look at your database for data that is inconsistent and clean it up. Where possible, you can fix this data using automated data tools. For example, it may be possible to standardize contacts that have various job titles or contacts that have different versions of a country (USA, U.S.A., United States etc...). Bad data prevents you from further segmenting your database. Clean out the crap and ensure it stays as clean as possible.
     
   • Remove or punish people that have not bought in. Relating this back to the environment, in Toronto we've implemented a new program for home owners that taxes you based on the garbage that you put at the curb. If you follow the three R's and reduce your trash, you save money. If you don't want to get with the program, you'll pay for it with your wallet. It's fairly straightforward.
     
     As an eco-marketer, you need to get the senior people bought in on your new eco-marketing mantra. If you have sales people that don't want to participate, have them penalized. If you have marketing folks that can't see the forest through the trees, remove them. It's obviously easier said then done but that's why you need executive buy-in.
     

I'm sure you can add here to my points above and I implore you to do that by leaving some comments. Good luck to you during some tough times ahead and be the best eco-marketer you can be.

Chad H.

PS - Here are some additional resources I used in my research (let me know if you have other useful resources)

• Lead recycling means nothing wasted
• Funnelnomics: Accelerate your marketing and sales funnel to drive growth and profitability
• B2B Lead: 10 tips for marketing and sales alignment

PPS - Here are some tips to reduce the amount of water you use in your home.

Technorati tags: eco-marketer, sirusdecisions, lead nuturing, scoring, water conservation, reduce, Reuse, Recyle, demand gerenation, marketing automation, Toronto garbage laws, waterfall, sales and funnel, twitter

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Are Webisodes Just for B2C? Who Hired Bob?

Kraft has an interesting new microsite that follows the life of Bob at his workplace and his quest to replace the existing coffee machine with a Kraft Tassimo. Bob is one of those crazy co-workers that has a few screws loose. In fact, you could probably open a Home Depot with the trail of hardware he leaves. However, as someone that has seen like 20 different coffee machines at work over a span of three years that all produce putrid coffee that makes me run to the local Tim Horton's (Dunkin Donuts for the Southern Folk and I go for Starbucks when I'm working around the clock and need something superhuman to keep my eyes open - what is in the bold coffee? Probably something that Nasa found on mars), I can sympathize with Bob. You can check it out at www.whohiredbob.com. Here is a clip I found on Youtube.



While I think the webisodes are funny and entertaining, will it bring Kraft the desired effect of getting businesses to use Tassimos in the workplace rather then just at home? Possibly. I watched the first video and I got bored fairly quickly. There was little mention of Tassimo and what it can do until well into the video. What I did like was the contest that was encouraging web visitors to submit stories about their own Bobs to win a prize. We'll see if this site brings about the desired objectives but I think it's a step in the right direction on how to use video and user generated content (of course the fact that I'm blogging about this probably helps. You can thank me later Kraft).

Using Paid Search to Enhance the Campaign

I would use a tool like WordTracker to see which terms are searched on the most in search engines like Google and Microsoft but Tassimo may want to consider creating sponsored ads on Google for Keywords (have you checked out www.google.com/trends? it rocks!). I checked out SpyFu which tells you which keywords your competitors are bidding on. They don't seem to have any Google AdWords that are specific to this campaign. Here are some examples of keywords for Kraft to consider if they go this route:

• Tassimo
  
• Crazy co-workers
• Coffee in the workplace
• Bad coffee at work
• Who hired bob
• Don't you hate when someone drinks the last cup of coffee at work and doesn't make another pot? Don't you want to find that person and hunt them down?
  

Ok, that last one may be a bit extreme but it may also be part of the long tail of search. Some additional ideas may include advertising on The Office's (TV show) official website.

Webisodes and B2B Companies

The budget for this Tassimo campaign is probably out of the reach for most companies and is most likely only doable on the B2C side. However, B2B companies are creating entertaining videos to draw attention to their product and services. Here are a few samples (click on these - they're great!):

• Get the Cat by Lawson Software. This is a good laugh.
  
• Bob Kent by Bluecoat Systems (by far the funniest - why is it not on YouTube?)
• NetQoS Netcosm by NetQos. The success of this campaign was featured on MarketingSherpa.
  

Well, I hope you enjoyed these. Let me know if you're company has done anything similar or if you're planning to.


Chad H.

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Email and Video: Tactics you can use Today

I may be getting older but I had a crazy flashback yesterday. I went to the movies to see August Rush (I give it 1 thumbs up) and of course I was forced to sit through about 20 commercials that mostly focused on gifts I must buy before the move started. One commercial stood out - a new video phone that is being offered by a mobile carrier up here called Rogers (Verizon is the equivalent the US). I remembered seeing this concept in Star Trek and Back to the Future but low and behold, we finally have created this technology on a portable device!! The bottom line here is that video has come a long way.

How to Incorporate Video and Email

In a recent article on ClickZ called Testing, Testing, Testing... Karen Gedney reported that Bulldog Solutions started adding video highlights to their emails. For example, for an upcoming webinar they shot a very short webinar introduction video, took a screenshot of the speaker from this video and included this in the email invite (see the screenshot). When you receive the email, you can click on the video screenshot and the video opens in a new window. Looks difficult? It's easier then you think.

While the image in the email looks like the video will play directly in the email, that's actually not the case and not recommended as email clients (what you use to read your emails) render emails differently. It's much easier and safer to make the image a link in the email to the actual video player.

The Results of Incorporating Video and Email.

Bulldog Solutions reported that with the inclusion of video in their email, open rates have increased by 30 percent to 14.09 percent and CTRs nearly doubled to 2.20 percent. This trend continued for subsequent email campaigns. The results definitely show how video can improve your email success rates.

Tactics to Incorporate Video and Email

Here are a few ideas that you can use today:

• Adding video intros to event invites (highlighted above)
• Customer testimonials. If you go and visit your customers, take a long a camera and record a 10 second testimonial. Sales can incorporate these in their communication pieces to prospects.
• Have sales create short video intros that they can include in follow up and intro emails. For example, you meet a prospect at a trade show or live event - what better way for them to get a better sense of who you are and what you've accomplished then by sending an email with a video. This email may then be passed around the company so that everyone has a good sense of who the sales person is that they are dealing with.
  
• CEO video messages to customers, prospects and employees. Have the CEO record a video with their video phone at the airport while they're waiting for their flight. This can be used in an email, blog, main website etc...
  
• Company videos for holiday cards. You can really show off to your customer base the people that make up your company by creating a short video. Individuals from the company can include a short holiday greeting. You can't get more personal then this!
• HR videos. These can be corny but if you're a growing company and you want to attract the top people, use video to help paint the picture of who you really are.
  

I'm sure there are many more ideas out there. How have you used video?

Incorporating video into Email is too much Effort

Yes, this does take some additional planning as you need to get someone who can speak in front of a camera, setup the camera, write a script etc... But come on, how difficult is this with today's technology? We have video phones and YouTube!! If a three year old can play Guitar Hero and have it posted to YouTube, your marketing team can handle this. It's no longer "Back to the Future" but the future is here and it's time to accept that video should be a key part of your marketing efforts.

Chad H.

PS - make sure that if you do create videos, upload them to Youtube to increase the distribution of it.

Tags: clickz, video and email, Guitar Hero

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Americans Hate Canadians

I'm pretty steamed at the moment. I don't know how else to explain this but to say that Americans hate their brothers and sisters to the North. Are you guys jealous of our health care system or something? What is it??

If you try and access TV show episodes like The Office, you get messages like this: "We're sorry, but the clip you requested is not available from your location". I'm sorry, what?! I have a job that depends on this (refer to my last post). I thought, "OK, maybe this is coincidence" but then I just read in national Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail, that Comedy Central did the same thing with the Daily Show. Websites can detect which country you're coming from based on your IP address and block you. I guess I shouldn't complain that much as it's not like it is in China, but come on!

It turns out that Americans don't hate Canadians (well, some may). The reason that Canadians are blocked is because Global TV and other Canadian TV networks have paid a pretty penny to re-broadcast these shows in Canada and don't want Canadians to access these shows for free on the net. Therefore, Global is really to blame here but here's the reality:

• Canadians don't care who is blocking the videos, they are being blocked. We live in a free country up here and we don't look highly on being restricted in our web browsing (especially on US web sites!!)


• The brand of these TV shows and US networks suffer - not the Canadian networks. I think that this is grossly underestimated. Negativity is very powerful these days as bloggers can write up how dissatisfied they are very easily via blogs. :)
  


• Why not add a comment that tells me the reason I can't watch the video? I guess that would get Global in trouble. It looks like that the problem was rectified by the Daily Show as it now redirects you to a Canadian network called the Comedy Network. They learned their lesson - why hasn't The Office (notice how I blamed the show and not NBC - I actually am holding Steve Carrel responsible as he runs the office).

Don't set the expectation of placing videos on the net and then make them impossible to reach because of the country you live in. This is a web 2.0 no no - especially when video is so easily accessible via YouTube and other channels. While the web can be used to virally promote your product/service or TV show, it can just as easily destroy it.

Chad H.

PS - Question for the Global TV people - why do you have other videos on your site and not The Office? Please let me know.
PPS - Hey Global TV: ET Canada really sucks.

Tags: Global TV sucks, The Office, Steve Carrel

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What is RSS? Check out this video

Instead of me writing about what RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is , I'll let this whiteboard geek tell you all about it (thanks MarketingProfs!). Feel free to pass this along to your manager who doesn't understand what the hell RSS is and doesn't want to invest in it:

Chad H.

Tags: RSS, Really simple Syndication

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5 Ways to Set Expectations in Online Marketing

I was camping this past weekend and my sister brought with her a CD of this hilarious comedian, John Pinette. If you haven't heard of him, you will soon enough. Here's a clip of him describing how he hates lines of any kind.



Why is this so funny? I think we all hate lines. We all hate waiting. We want what we want and we want it now! The reality is that we're going to have to wait. If this means waiting for a Starbucks latte that you ordered or for that technical assistant from your local cable/Internet company we all know that waiting is a part of life. If that's the case, lets make sure that we know what we're getting ourselves into ahead of time and if we do need to wait, provide some added value.

Setting Expectations the Right Way in Online Marketing

1. If you want people to register or sign up on your site, tell them exactly what they're going to get. This means using images to provide context. For example, if it's a webinar that people are signing up for, provide a pic of the person who is going to speak. If it's a contest for an IPhone, show an IPhone.

2. Make the registration process as easy as possible. Only ask for the information that you need and let the visitor know that they will only need to register once (it's a best practice to configure your site this way if possible). If you're looking to setup an e-commerce site, look at the heavy weights such as Amazon and EBay.

3. Make sure the information is relevant. Don't blast your entire database and expect magic to happen in terms of conversion. Use relevant information such as a person's title or the pages that they have previously clicked on to determine the messaging.

4. Allow your customers/prospects to set their own expectations for marketing messages. They should control the type of email, the frequency and the content. If you don't give them this control (and you should), make sure they know what type of marketing messages they can expect to receive and how often. If you don't, welcome to unsubscribeville - population, your company.

5. Use appropriate messaging on your site and email and provide something in the meantime if you can't deliver the goods right away. I can see why John Pinette is losing his brains at McDonald's. I was there yesterday at a roadside service center (OK, I admit I have the odd Big Mac attack) and I was waiting for what it felt like was forever. Whether it's unacceptable or acceptable the only thing that kept me sane was my Blackberry. I'm not asking for Ronald and the gang to sing show tunes while I wait but it would be nice if:
a. I had a sign that told me that the wait would be less then 5 minutes (this would be updated automatically like a scoreboard)
b. If there was a TV or something so I could watch a sporting event while I wait. How about a contest of some sort like "Where's Waldo?". Get creative!

I don't think I'm asking for much here. Do you? I'm sure John doesn't.

When it comes to email and your website, tell people when they should receive a confirmation email regrading a webinar that they signed up for or for a recent purchase. Tell them when they can expect their new computer to be shipped to them. Provide easy access to FAQs and contact information and have someone on the other end of the line. If I send a customer request to Bell, I want to receive an email that tells me how long I will be waiting until I hear from someone.

Here's a bonus one:

6. Go Beyond Expectations. Have you ever been at Starbucks sipping a coffee and they offered you a free sample of a cookie or beverage? Typically I've had way too much caffeine at that point and another coffee may turn me into a jabbering idiot but the offer is appreciated. Why? Because the interaction is personal and shows that you, the customer is rewarded for being a customer and that Starbucks cares about its customers (if only they could fix their line ups!). I'm not saying that McDonald's should go around giving out free hamburgers to kids who are playing in the play area but there are many opportunities that companies miss out on.

Here's an example: Company X has been a loyal customer for the past 5 years. Treat them like they are private members to your exclusive club and offer additional incentives such as a free upgrade - go beyond their expectations and they will remain loyal to you.

Let's get even simpler: I just signed up to receive your newsletter. They are sent every three weeks. Here's an idea: Send me the most recent one right away! Here's another one: I just purchased a computer or expensive software from you. Why not send an email with links to tutorials, social networks etc... In this way, you can keep the enthusiasm going that you had when you purchased the product/service and relieve some of the cognitive dissonance (wasn't psych 101 great?) that you may have after the purchase or after you just provided your contact information.

Getting to the Front of the Line

Web visitors need to understand how much time they need to invest in an activity and how it will benefit them. Those that are loyal deserve some extra TLC so giev it to them. Think about the tips above and how your company can bring potential customers and prospects to the front of your line, and how to get them there as fast as possible.

Chad H.

PS - any examples that you have on setting expectations would be greatly appreciated.

Tags: Starbucks, setting expectations, IPhone, McDonald's, Online marketing, cognitive dissonance

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Even Your Father is on YouTube

Are you thinking about different ways to build demand for your products or services or just to attract more people to your website or blog?

I've been reading a few articles lately about how some user-generated content ad campaigns such as the one that Dove ran called Dove Cream Oil Body Wash Ad Contest "failed" as it wasn't well received by the YouTube community. YouTube vlogger oneparkave (AKA Shmuel Tennenhaus) mentioned that the ad only received a 1 star rating out of 3 million views and received some extremely negative comments on YouTube. Shmuel argued that Dove angered the entire YouTube community as YouTubers perceived the video as self-serving for Dove and not adding to the YouTube community.

I was pondering this over a late afternoon coffee when I received a link to a video recorded in 1991 that featured my dad. It turns out that someone had recorded a speaking engagement in which my father had introduced the main speaker. Besides the fact that I saw a video of my dad when he still had some colour in his hair, the interesting thing is that the link was from YouTube! I could not believe that my father had a video on YouTube before I did and I'm the one that watched YouTube all of the time. What does this all mean? It means that YouTube is much more then just a community in itself as Shmuel perceived it. As a blogger and a marketer, you need to look at YouTube in a broader context.

YouTube is another way of Building Demand

Where Shmuel is incorrect about Dove's "failure" is that many people may not be aware that YouTube is the platform that is hosting the video. My father sure wasn't. A friend of his who did a Google search came back with this video in the search results. My dad has since emailed the link to anyone he has ever known with an email address. If I ask my dad what YouTube is, I'm 99% sure he won't know what it is. In this case, it didn't matter that the platform was YouTube.

In Dove's case, YouTube acted as a platform for people to post commercials that they created (like this interesting one). YouTube also assisted Dove spread the word about this campaign as those who made commercials could send them to friends and family. Studies including this recent one have demonstrated time and again it's those closest to you that influence your buying habits.

Yes, there will always be those who react negatively when marketing is encroaching on something like YouTube as parts of the YouTube community perceive YouTube as a platform for user-generated content only that is not sponsored by a corporation. Guess what Shmuel and the rest of you 'Tubers - get over yourselves. Marketers must think beyond the YouTube community and see YouTube for what it really is - another channel to help spread the word about your product or service to your target market. You may receive some negative feedback if you open up comments (which you generally should) but if you're up front about what your campaign is all about you're not doing anything wrong. It's the YouTube community that must accept that YouTube is now being used as a marketing tool. Bloggers have accepted this and even embraced companies that have started blogging. It's only when businesses deceive the public that things go terribly wrong.

There will always be those that leave negative feedback on either on YouTube, blogs, forums or websites just because they want to "stick it to the man". These are typically comments that don't really have much substance but they react negatively to businesses in general. As marketers, you need to way the odds of losing some control over your brand as you will typically succeed if you execute your YouTube (or any user-generated content) campaign successfully. Typically, these detractors are not your target market anyways so don't worry too much about them. I would recommend responding to these comments though in a generic sort of way - don't just turn off comments on a blog.

How Can I get Started Using YouTube?

One of the main advantages as we saw with my father's example above is that YouTube can assist your company as a means to increase your prevalence in search results for your company. You can use YouTube as another channel like a blog or email to get your name out there and increase your staying power. Do you have a demo or you did your company recently speak at a conference? Post it on YouTube! Here's another great idea - if your company does speaking engagements or puts on events, record the testimonials from the event and post them on YouTube. Here is an example from a recent Marketing Effectiveness Summit. It's really that simple. If you're a blogger, why not do a 1 minute intro video about yourself and your blog and post it on YouTube? It's that simple.

Remember - always think of your target market and don't get too distracted by those who don't really care about your product or service (or blog) as your not trying to market to them in the first place. In addition, if you do get some negative exposure, it may help build even greater demand as you get some additional viral effects that money couldn't pay for. Look at Cisco who is suing Apple over the use of the name IPhone. Even if Apple loses the suite they win as the publicity that is archived and the sympathy that Apple will attain from the law suite is even more valuable.

Here's a video on how to use YouTube (notice the subtle way that this person uses markets himself with this helpful video)




Chad H.

PS - Look beyond YouTube to other video hosting platforms such as Google Video
PPS - It was really great to know that I have a video of my dad that I can now watch. Video really has an amazing impact
PPS - here are some other posts on YouTube:

• Honda Gets its Elements in Order With Fun Game
• Mastercard priceless moment at Anything Goes Marketing
• Integrated marketing campaigns using YouTube!
• Anything goes marketing using You Tube
• Coke and Mentos - Anything Goes Marketing (AGM) Winner!

Tags: Dove, YouTube marketing, web 2.0. marketing, Dove, building demand, video marketing

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Honda Gets its Elements in Order With Fun Game

Here's an award winning integrated campaign by Honda to promote it's sporty Element. It combined, TV spots, search marketing and even YouTube videos!! The agency that designed the campaign ended up winning an award which isn't too surprising.

Why is this campaign so good?

• It's a great product. Start off with a great product and you're off to a good start

• It's fun. It's game that allows you to test drive the car above ground and below. This represents the car as it seems like a fun car.
  
  
• It's funny! You're interacting with rabbits and other animals. At one point the car tells a rabbit that its feet are huge and that it must get great traction. The Element that informs the rabbit that it has 4 wheel drive.
  
  
• It hits its target market. I think I'm part of this market as I've noticed this car and may consider it if/when we purchase a new vehicle.
  
  
• Its integrated. a. you have TV commercials that kicked this off. b. you have a website that directly relates to the commercial. How do I know this? Check out the META tag description the campaign site: <meta name="description" content="So you like that funny Honda Element TV commercial, huh? Well, then, come play a game or two with the Element and friends on an adventure-filled island. The Element is definitely a different animal.">. c. you have a site that's finely tuned for search (try searching Honda Element TV commercial) d. It's even advertised on frickin' Wikipedia and Youtube. They've got the bases covered.
  

Here's the YouTube video:



The only thing they may have missed was including a link from the main Element profile page on the Honda site (Duh??). That happens sometimes when the left hand can't speak to the right.

Have a great weekend!

Chad H.

PS - If your recall, Honda has done some other great commercials - remember the Cog Commercial?
PPS - What if Honda had included a blog for this camaign so we could keep the buzz going about this great car and great campaign?? Blogging still has a ways to go before it breaks into B2C full force.

Tags: Honda Element, online marketing, integrated marketing, youtube, B2C marketing

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Have you Heard of Slide for Posting Pictures? You Should!

Just like YouTube, there's a new picture slide show tool out there that B2C marketers should get a handle on. It's called Slide.

Here's a sample:


If you own a small business, you can also use this to show off your products in Ebay, Craigslist and other formats. Want to create your own Slide, start here. Have fun!

Chad H.

Tags: slide, youtube, user generated content, Web 2.0, B2C

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Mastercard priceless moment at Anything Goes Marketing

• Amount of money I've made on Adsense in four months: $2.29
  
  
• Number of inbound links that I have to my blog in four months: 229
  
  
• The vast amount of knowledge that I've gained regarding blogging, e-marketing, search marketing (SEO), online advertising, and email marketing by blogging? PRICELESS!

Here's a funny one I found on Youtube:



Chad H.

PS - I forgot to mention how much fun I'm having!

Tags: mastercard priceless, visa, adsense, technorati, youtube

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Integrated marketing campaigns using YouTube!

Thinking about a new marketing campaign to promote a new product? Why not consider doing a video that could be used as a TV ad, website video, posted on YouTube, added to your business blog, linked to from emails and advertised in magazines and print material. Sounds difficult eh? Maybe, but if you're going to spend the money on that 30 second TV spot, mind as well get the most out of it by fully integrating the concept across all of your marketing channels.

Check out the video below from NFLShop.com. Notice how it's not only frickin hilarious but has a message to push you to their website to buy their stuff. This obviously isn't something new but I did stumble on this from YouTube which is definitely a new way to access marketing messages.

Don't have enough money for a TV ad? Simplify this. You can still create that video but ensure that it's high quality so you can post it on the YouTubes and other video venues as well as posting on your site and blog as well as linked from other sources such as email. Keep all options open.

For your business blog remember that it's only one avenue as part of your overall marketing plan and it should work in conjunction with your other marketing efforts. While you may have different objectives, it doesn't hurt to add links to a cool new ad or perhaps a button advertising an upcoming webinar or new download. As long as it's all related and adds value to the user experience, it's all good. The above video is definitely a gem. Wonder if these types of concepts will become more prominent in B2B? What do you think?

Chad H.

Update: Found an article on ClickZ regarding integrated marketing campaigns using direct mail and email.

PS - Just found this article called "How multiple channels help NFLShop.com refine its Internet game plan" which means I'm not the only one that spotted this great marketing job that these gusy are doing.
PPS - video advertising on the net is really taking off. Wait for Google AdVideo. I'm sure it's almost ready to go.

Tags: integrated marketing, NFLShop.com, YouTube, Anything Goes Marketing

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Anything goes marketing using You Tube

UPDATED! Zeeker was nice enough to tell me that the video below was no longer available so I updated it with a new one.

This was the best and most fun tip of the week by Darren Conian over at Performancing. His suggestion is to go to YouTube and find a video that fits your blog.

Here is what I found (no, that isn't me singing):



This fits my blog as the song is "Anything Goes" and well my blog name is Anything Goes Marketing but I also liked the humour in this video and the pure craziness which reflects my blog posts. I'm try to mix in humour when I blog and you don't know what you're going to get. Thanks Darren! You made my day.

Have you tried searching on YouTube for a video that suits your blog?

Chad H

Technorati tags: performancing, anything goes, youtube, you tube

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