Dude, It's Marketing

A More Focused Dude, It's Marketing Blog

So I've been away from this blog for a couple of months and I apologize for the absence.

What can I say... life and work sometimes get in the way of side projects like this blog.

The past couple of years I made a resolution to do more blogging only to not quite live up to what I had hoped to accomplish. This time I thought I would wait until February to make that commitment and see if it turns out better. Kidding...

Working more on this blog is still a priority for me and I'll try to find more time to do it. However, during my absence I was also trying to figure out what this blog is really all about. I talk a lot about focus when it comes to marketing and messaging so why don't I apply that here.

The more I thought about things I realized that what I really want this blog to do is help start-ups use marketing to be successful. I believe it's a critical piece and there are many things start-ups can do on the marketing front whether they have a large or small budget. That's what I'm passionate about when it comes to marketing and has been the focus of what I do for much of my career.

So, the more focused Dude, It's Marketing will look at all the different strategies and tactics that can be used to put your start-up on the map. I won't tend to go into any one area too deeply as there are many great blogs that go really deep into specifics of certains areas like blogging, social media, demand generation, etc.

I will touch on all of these areas and more but what I plan to focus on in this blog is what marketing can do for your start-up, show you what works and what doesn't work and help you launch your company so you find yourself on the wave to success.

This blog is for many different people from the founders of a new start-up looking to kick-start their marketing program to the first marketing hire at company, who is trying to do everything with no resources and sometimes just needs a place to find new ideas or confirm what they are doing makes sense. I've been in first marketing hire at a few companies so trust me I know how it feels.

My goal since I started blogging is to share what I've learned from my past and ongoing experiences, explore new ideas with you, learn from your ideas and be a sounding board for your thoughts. So let me know what questions you have or issues you face and we can discuss in the weeks ahead.  

Be a Thought Leader to Make Your Marketing Credible

I recently started a series of blog posts on strategies that you should consider to make your marketing more credible. This week I want to look at the next strategy in more detail which is about becoming a thought leader in your industry.

First off, you need to decide who is the best person to become a thought leader. In some cases, it's the CEO of your company. But in many cases it's the founder, the CTO or some technical expert with many years of experience. In addition to knowledge though, this person needs writing and presentation skills along with a lot of time (more on this later) and true dedication to making the industry better. This role is not for someone who is going to fake it or is not willing to give everything they have to help people so choose carefully.

Finding the right person is not easy but that's only the beginning. Not surprisingly, creating valuable content, the strategy I wrote about previously, is a major step in helping you become a thought leader. In fact, creating new, relevant and useful content is the key to being a thought leader so the two are very intertwined. 

In addition to creating and publishing this content, you need to get out there and share your knowledge within your industry. You can speak at conferences, write articles or columns for industry publications, become involved in industry consortium or organizations, write a book or industry-focused blog, or become a go-to person for editors and get quoted in articles. All of these tactics help spread your content more widely and raise your profile with your target audience.

The important point with all of this is that you need to communicate how to solve your market's problems in new and compelling way so you will get calls from editors, get invited to speak at conferences, or get other opportunities to share your knowledge and content. No one is going to call if you only talk about your product.

Essentially, you need to build a personal brand as a respected expert on your industry's trends, with a deep understanding of the problems your target audience faces, and simple, clear solutions to these problems. There are many great example of individuals that have built strong, personal brands and helped their companies become credible through their thought leadership. 

One last consideration which I alluded to earlier - if you think this strategy is easy to implement and that you, or the person you selected, has the desire to succeed and the knowledge to share, you must realize that becoming a thought leader and building your personal brand takes an insane amount of time and effort.

You'll need to continually develope new content to tight deadlines so you get a book published, create a successful blog or write a column in a key publication. You need to travel to many conferences, in some not so exciting locales, not to mention the time it takes to develop the presentation you deliver. You may be interviewed multiple times about a certain topic and only have a small part of that interview appear in the article. It's all of these tasks and more in addition to your day job, as rarely is the thought leadership role a job in and of itself.

So before you embark on any of the tactics listed above for becoming a thought leader, you need to ask yourself long and hard to see if you have the right person. You need to make sure they have the time, dedication and patience to become a thought leader. If the right person is you, then look in the mirror long and hard to make sure you can handle it.

In the end, being a thought leader is not as glamorous as it first seems but it will bring many rewards for you and your company including making your marketing more credible. And, to all the thought leaders out there that we all learn from, you have my utmost respect and admiration. You make your industry better as a result of your dedication so thank you and please tell us your stories in the comments below.

Create Valuable Content and Make Your Marketing More Credible

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some of the initial strategies that you should consider to make your marketing more credible. You don't need to execute on all of these strategies to increase your credibility but you do need to pick the ones that will have the greatest impact with your audience. 

Over the next few weeks I want to look at each of these strategies in more detail so you can pick the best ones for your start-up. The first strategy I want to explore is around creating valuable content.

It's no secret that being found is crucial and search loves fresh content. A lot has been written about this topic by the various experts in search, content marketing and inbound marketing. But creating valuable content is not a new strategy.

Content that your audience finds helpful and educational will, and always has, made your marketing more credible. At the same time, content is the cornerstone of all successful marketing campaigns. Prospects will continue to engage with you if they see you as a valuable and trustworthy resource.

What is news is the number of different tactics and content types you can create and how this content can be disseminated to your audience and help you get found.

Previously, your options for creating content were limited to different types of marketing collateral like white papers and application notes plus the content that was posted on your website. Increasingly, more content moved online and webcasts became important along with video and podcasts. 

Now, with social media platforms from Twitter to blogs and YouTube to Facebook, the ability to create and share content is easier than ever. This has clearly led to an explosion of content in different media types with some content being more compelling than others.

And that's what you need to capitalize on to make your marketing more credible. You need to create valuable content. It's not about the platform or the media type.

You need to create content that is more compelling to your target audience because it is educational not promotional, easy to understand not full of jargon, and helps your customer solve their problems. That valuable content can then be easily adapted to the different media types and spread across the different platforms.

Without compelling content, your marketing will not be credible, your company won't be found and you won't have successful marketing campaigns. Creating valuable content is THE key to your marketing success and a strategy you don't want to ignore.

The Whuffie Factor Helps You Find Your Higher Purpose

I've been reading a number of books, blog posts and articles about social networks recently and finally got a chance to read The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt. The book has a lot of great insights and focuses on the power of conversations and communities rather than the tools themselves which I think is very important.

For those that aren't familiar with the concept of "whuffie", it's the social capital you earn and can then use as currency in the online world. While the term was new to me as well, Tara did a good job of explaining it and then used it as a theme throughout the book which helped to tie it all together. 

I really liked the chapter called "Find Your Higher Purpose" and in particular the section on "Think Customer-Centrically". Tara lists a number of items, including doing everything to keep your customers on your website to thinking you don't have any competitors, that signal your company is not thinking customer-centrically. I wrote about the need to understand your competition recently as well.

As I read the list, I realized that most if not all of us would be hard pressed to admit we have not done at least one of these items in the past. In many cases, you may even be still doing them. Continuing to follow this flawed strategy will definitely not lead to more whuffie.

Tara then goes on to give examples of companies including Southwest and 30 Boxes that take a very customer-centric approach. She then builds a compelling list of signals that demonstrate you are more customer-centric and explains that if you are doing these things you likely have a strong whuffie account.

Of course, there are many other great insights and lists in this chapter and the book, including a summary at the end of how to get started and raise your Whuffie Factor.

My one complaint was that the start of the book was somewhat repetitive with others as it used examples that are very similar to those used in other books and articles on social networks. Then again, if this is the first book you've read on this topic they would be new to you. As well, I may be finding them more repetitive because this is an area I've been reading about a lot lately. I do appreciate new examples and this book had those too.  

I definitely recommend reading this book for great lessons from a number of different companies on how to build better communities and have meaningful conversations with your customers. I know I learned many things I can apply and also look forward to finding ways to achieve my higher purpose. Thanks Tara.

[Image courtesy of Tara Hunt''s The Whuffie Factor website]

Make Your Marketing Credible

There's no question that it takes time to build a trustworthy brand in the marketplace. So how can a start-up trying to sell their products prove themselves to prospective customers? A big part of this is through credible marketing as I recently discussed. 

In this and other upcoming blog posts, I want to explore some strategies and ideas for how you can make your marketing credible.

Create Valuable Content
Being found is crucial and search loves fresh content. But content that your audience finds helpful and educational will also make your marketing more credible. Prospects will continue to engage with you if they see you as a valuable and trustworthy resource.

Be a Thought Leader
Creating valuable content will also help you become a thought leader in your industry. You can speak at conferences or get quoted in articles to help raise your profile with your target audience. Focus on communicating how you can help solve your market's problems in a compelling way so you will calls from editors to be quoted and invited to speak by conference organizers.

Win Awards from a Third-party
There are clearly different types of awards, but winning one that has been judged by a panel of experts, quickly raises the awareness of your company and provides strong third-party validation of your products or services. Promote these awards to increase your credibility.

Associate Yourself with Trusted Brands
There is a certain truth in the saying that you are judged by the company that you keep. Developing strong partnerships with trusted brands will not only increase your credibility but will also lead to sales opportunities with customers that may not have considered your offerings before.

Build or Participate in a Community
Prospects trust what their peers and/or friends say most of all. You need to find the relevant communities where these conversations are taking place and then listen and participate in a helpful way. In industries where there is no focused community, you could start one and invite other companies to join you as well.

The good news is that you don't need to execute on all of these strategies to increase your credibility. You need to pick the ones that will have the greatest impact with your audience. The even better news is that with the multitude of tactics and tools available to marketers you can definitely implement many with a limited budget.

This post contains some of the initial strategies that you should consider to make your marketing more credible. I will continue to add to the list and explore how to execute on them in more detail over coming weeks. In the meantime, let me know what you would do or have done to make your marketing more credible.

No Competition equals no market

Have you ever heard a start-up, or other technology company, claim that there product or service is so revolutionary that they don't have any competitors? Well, I know I have more times than I can count.

I was reading an article recently called Twelve Ways to Ace a Product Demo–or at Least Avoid Flopping by Harry McCracken where he lists one of the twelve ways as "Don’t claim you have no direct competitors." This reminded me of how often I hear that phrase so I thought I'd talk about it further even though I alluded to that point when I talked about the need to Differentiate Your Message.

So often, when I'm developing messages for a company or prepping someone for a media interview, I ask  who is their competition and more often than it really should happen, especially with an early stage company, the answer is that there is no competition because there product is new and so innovative.

The reality is if that was actually true this would also mean there is no market and if I was an investor I would thank them for their time and move on. Do you really think these entrepreneurs believe there is no market for their product? That seems unlikely so why do they believe there is no competition?

What I think most people do mean, when asked this question, is that there is no one doing exactly what they do in the same way they do it. That may be the case, but you need to look at how other offerings  solve a similar problem as that's how your audience or market will judge your product. You need to identify these indirect competitors, as some call it, so you can use them as a frame of reference but clearly differentiate from them.

Because it's all about how you solve a given problem, I can safely say if you have no competition you also have no market since that would mean there is no problem to solve and I challenge you to show me a successful product that doesn't solve a problem. I guess in some extreme scenarios you may be solving a problem that people don't know they have but that presents a whole new set of issues as you need to educate and convince your target market that they have the problem in the first place then. In the end, it's better to see your competitors for who they are and spend your efforts in differentiating your solution.

As McCraken goes on to say in the context of product demos, "claiming you have no competitors makes you look clueless, or full of misplaced hubris, or both." No one wants to look like that so the simplest way to avoid it is to make sure you clearly answer the question with how you solve the problem in a unique way than these would be competitors.

Don't fight the reality here, identify your competitors and create a compelling message that differentiates you and communicates how you are better. Your next product demo and all you marketing will be better for it.

Twitterville: A Great Place to Hang-out and Learn

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been hanging out and learning from Shel Israel's new book Twitterville and it's definitely been a great time. Shel does a masterful job of teaching you how Twitter can be used for business and personal use through a multitude of case studies.

This is not a book about how to use Twitter or how to create a social media strategy which is exactly what sets it apart.There are already books like that you can read and they say many of the same things.

By taking the approach of telling the story of Twitterville through the eyes of those that have used it successfully gave me a lot of ideas and ways to apply it myself. That to me is the sign of a good marketing book. I want to be inspired and challenged when I read and that happened here.

Shel looked at the early days of Twitter both from how the tool got started to how companies started to use it. This is an interesting background especially when you see how certain companies thought they would use it one way only to evolve their usage and then see the benefits the organization received.

He then looks at a lot of different case studies from many different vertical markets including small business, B2B, healthcare, non-profits and even newspapers which many have given up for dead. Shel gives them some suggestions for becoming more relevant in the social media age.

Throughout these case studies you would be surprised at how much you can learn from industries that appear to be very removed from your own. For example, if a hospital allows tweeting during a surgery is there really any reason your company should be concerned about joining Twitterville? I think we can all use that example if there is any question about whether it makes sense for your organization. 

I did disagree with Shel in one area and I'm not the only one as he points out in the book. Shel doesn't think that companies should tweet as brands but should tweet as a person from that company. While I agree that you need to be transparent about who is tweeting, there are many reasons that it makes sense to use the brand or company name as the Twitter handle including continuity, consistency and the need to separate personal from business in some cases.

Regardless of whether you agree with Shel's position or mine on company Twitter accounts, there are lots of lessons for you to learn from companies and people who have used Twitter successfully to reach their goals. Kudos go to Shel for putting these together in a book that should be part of any social media library.

I encourage you to read this book and let me know what you think. You won't be disappointed.

[Image courtesy of Shel Israel's Twitterville website]

Credible Marketing: Oxymoron or New Reality?

In the past, there is little doubt that most would have said putting the word credible in front of marketing is definitely an oxymoron much like jumbo shrimp or organized mess. Instead, people would have used words like creative or talk about marketing being about building awareness, creating perceptions or generating leads.

Today, with the advent of new technologies and social media I've heard words such as relationships and engagement used to describe what marketing is all about. While I believe these words to be accurate and that it's nearly impossible to only come up with one word, I thought I'd throw another word out there for consideration: Credible. Put another way: does you marketing lead to credibility for you company? Or more simply: Is your marketing credible?

While maybe not as exciting or flashy as some other words. Credible can be defined as "worthy of belief or confidence; trustworthy." In today's skeptical environment, would this not be a great attribute for your brand and marketing efforts to have?

There remains a tendency for many marketing or advertising campaigns to really stretch the truth and make claims that are too far from reality. There is also a frightening tendency to over promise and under deliver. When you deceive your customers in some way, it's so easy for them to tell the world through social media what issues they had with your product or service.

If this happens, then all future marketing campaigns will be viewed with a high degree of skepticism that will be difficult to overcome. Think about it. If you buy a product that promises to deliver X and it does not, then you are very unlikely to believe their next claim even if it's 100% true. Similarly, if you miss a meeting or call with a prospect then they are unlikely to take your call in the future.

Ensuring everything your company does is trustworthy, or credible, is crucial if you want to build lifelong relationships with your customers. That's why I argue that you need credible marketing before you can engage prospects, develop relationships, and create brands that people trust.

Do you think credible marketing is an oxymoron or the new reality?

Testing your Message

More often than not, a small group of people, or even one person, develops the messages for a company. Sometimes an agency of some sort is involved. Let's assume that whoever developed your message has done their home work and made sure it is simple, consistent and differentiated. Once it has been reviewed several times by multiple people in the organization then it is likely published across various marketing efforts including web sites, collateral and even public relations efforts.

Sound good? It probably does to many and I'll admit that this is a process I have used too. But, the big mistake here is that the new message was never tested with the right audience. It's very unlikely that people within your company are the audience for your product. Now there are exceptions to this and one or two people (like your IT department if you're selling networking gear) may be representative but even in this case they are clearly too close and won't give you the objective feedback you need.

There are a couple of options for testing your message that will get you objective and constructive feedback from your actual audience. One is to conduct focus groups and the other is to conduct online surveys. Ideally, these options are combined so that you get some qualitative feedback from the focus groups, make refinements to the message and then ensure the changes work with a wider population by getting quantitative feedback from the survey. This approach not only works for the message but can be used to test new products ideas or marketing campaigns.

Now I know many of my fellow marketers will say they don't have the time or money to do focus groups and surveys and I do understand as it's a lengthy and potentially costly process. I'll get to some options for potentially minimizing these. But before we decide to skip this step in your message development think of the time and money as an investment in your brand and across several marketing campaigns.

Now, I don't know if they tested the message initially but BMW has used the same tagline "The Ultimate Driving Machine" for 35+ years. This is a classic example of a simple and consistent message that I think everyone will agree, especially BMW drivers, captures the brand and has endured which needs to be your goal. In that light, even months and thousands of dollars is money and time well spent.

I realize that trying to convince the "powers that be" that running focus groups or conducting surveys is an investment in your brand over the long term is easier said than done. But if you're successful then the insights you gain from this process will undoubtedly lead to stronger messaging that better resonates with your target audience.

If you're not successful in getting the budget for this initiative, then I would urge you to look into conducting more informal focus groups by getting together a group friends or members of your colleagues' families and use them instead as you can may be able to convince them to help you as a favor. You do want to still be sure that they represent your target audience and make sure they will give you constructive feedback. While this may not be ideal, it is better than relying solely on internal feedback.

Better yet, there are more and more online survey tools that are either free or low cost that would allow you to get some feedback especially if you have an email list that you can leverage or use your friends and family as suggested above. This feedback will be more quantitative in nature but still give you ideas on how to improve your message before launching it more publicly.

I'm not saying that these later two suggestions are as valuable as making the investment in formal focus groups and surveys but it can give you feedback from your target audience and help you construct a message that means something to them not your internal audience.

Developing a simple, consistent and differentiated message is not easy. But without objective, unbiased feedback from outside focus groups and surveys, you won't know if it resonates with your target audience until it's too late. Testing your message is crucial to your success and an investment that's worth the time and money. Have you tested your message?

Frequency and Different Tactics

What tactics you use form a key part of your lead or demand generation campaign. But, is it more effective to use the same tactic multiple times or to use different tactics fewer times each to increase response rates. For example, should you send 5 emails to the same target list or should you send an email, send a direct mail piece, run a Facebook ad, run a Google PPC ad and do a webinar targeted at the same audience?

It's well understood that targeting the same list multiple times does increase response rates. However, are you still limited if you rely on only one tactic or channel to reach your audience?

I believe that you definitely need to use multiple tactics for better lead generation. At the same time though, these tactics need to be implemented as part of an integrated campaign. You need to use the same messaging, imagery and related calls to action across these tactics so that you are in effect hitting the same audience multiple times.

Basically, the best way to increase response rates would be to do a combination of tactics but use some of them multiple times, depending on your budget of course. If we look at the example used at the outset, instead of 1 email being used 5 times or 5 different tactics being used once each, we should send 2 direct mails, 2 emails and host one webinar for example. That way, we are hitting the same audience multiple times but also using different tactics and media for the widest possible effect.

While I've focused on outbound marketing tactics so far in this blog post, you should always make search part of your marketing campaign so that people can always find you. What I mean here is not just the SEO of your web site but adding terms and corresponding landing pages that are campaign specific. You should also consider including some social media tactics such as Facebook, Twitter, and others, if your audience spends time on these social networks.

The beauty of search and many of these social media tactics is that they will not take up the same budget that many traditional tactics may have cost. Granted they will take up a lot more of your time but in many companies this is easier to get than additional budget. Therefore, you can add even more of these tactics to the mix we outlined above if you budget is small but you're willing to invest more time.

Whatever the tactics, this marketing mix is a crucial part of the planning of your marketing campaign so don't sell it short. Make sure you find the right tactics that fit your audience and not just jump on the latest trend or what you did before. And, make sure you measure and look at the results of previous campaigns using these tactics so you can continue to improve your mix.

Integrated marketing campaigns are very effective and I'll talk more about this in subsequent posts. To increase response and ROI though, these campaigns need to use multiple tactics and media and run multiple times so the message and call to action hits, and gets through, to your audience.