Dude, It's Marketing

Book Review - The Language of Trust (by @m_mas) is Crucial to Your Business

For anyone who follows this blog, you know that I'm passionate about making marketing more credible. It's no surprise that language and words play a key role in making your message credible and engaging to your audience. Michael Maslansky, who I've worked with, and his co-authors, Scott West, Gary DeMoss, and David Saylor, do a great job explaining just how important language is to selling your product or service in their new book, The Language of Trust: Selling Ideas in a World of Skeptics.

It's always been surprising to me that so few companies spend much time and money on crafting the messages and communications they use for their business. I've written about the need for simple and consistent messages that differentiate your produce or service. However, Michael presents a compelling case for why this is absolutely crucial to your business in an era where "trust is dead".

But more important than an analysis of the post-trust era in America, Michael talks about the Four Principles of Credible Communications (Be Personal, Be Plainspoken, Be Positive, Be Plausible) and the New Word Order (Engagement, Theirs Before Yours, Context). It is these two sections that are an absolute goldmine for anyone looking to create new messages or improve the communications of their organization.

Michael explains how changing the language you use is hard and that these principles may run counter to what you've done before, and believe still works, but there is little doubt after you read the book that you do need to change your language in a world of skeptics. You can no longer rely on the facts and hope to change the view held by your audience as the facts can mean different things to different people.  You need to approach the language you use from your audience's perspective and use the Four Principles.

In addition to helping you choose the right words, Michael uses the New Word Order program to explain how to communicate the right message at the right time to your audience. The idea behind the program is that the process is equally important to getting the message right and that you need to follow the steps to be successful. The fact that Michael outlines a process here is extremely valuable, since many believe communications is more art than science, because it allows you to apply the program to your business and goals.

In the end, the list of lessons you can take from this book and apply to your communications is where the real value exists in The Language of Trust. I'm quite certain I'll reference this book numerous times in my work and also in the context of this blog. The book is especially relevant to the series of blog posts I've written on credible marketing.

In fact, I plan to explore in more detail how words and language are absolutely crucial to make your marketing more credible in subsequent blog posts. This book reinforced for me just how important the words you choose are to your message and marketing overall. It definitely got me thinking again about how to improve the language I use everyday and I'm certain it will get you thinking too.

Without a doubt, The Language of Trust, is a must read for all marketing and PR professionals as well as anyone involved in  the communications for their company. In this book, you will discover What to Say, How to Say It and Why It Matters. Now isn't that crucial to your business?

[Image courtesy of Michael Maslansky's The Language of Trust website]

Participate in the Community to Make Your Marketing Credible

As part of the series of blog posts about why it’s important to make your marketing credible and how you can do it, I wanted to look at online communities as they become increasingly important in the age of social media. These communities can range from the conversations that take place on popular blogs to discussion forums to more extensive platforms built on tools like Ning.

It's no secret that prospects trust what their peers and/or friends say most of all. What has changed is that these tools now exist where they can more easily have a conversation with people of similar interests. You need to find the relevant communities where these conversations are taking place and then listen and participate in a helpful way.

One place I would start to look for a community is in the blogs that are written around topics of interest to you and your market. For one, the conversations in the comment sections of various blogs can form the basis of a community onto itself. And, bloggers will more often than not be involved in or be founders of a community and they will mention it from time to time. I know this is how I've found a couple of marketing communities of which I am a member (Third Tribe Marketing and ProBlogger).

You may also want to check industry organizations similar to the ones I talked about previously as they will have communities built into or around them. There are also organizations for certain job functions that should be explored too. And, while you may hate to do it, you should also check your competitors to see which communities they participate in or if they started one. In industries where there is no focused community, you could start one and invite other companies to join you as well.

Once you have found the right community, you need to realize there is a certain etiquette about how you can and should participate in a community and that's why listening first is so important. You can't, for example, go into the community and try to sell your product. That's not what it's about and that won't help you make your marketing more credible.

Once you understand the players, dynamics and the topics of a particular community from listening, then you need to jump in and participate. You need to be helpful and share your expertise. Help other members solve their problems and offer value whenever your contribute. That's how you will become known and respected in your community

You do need to realize there is a certain commitment here (and I speak from experience as I have not contributed to my communities like I should). Individuals and companies that join a community just to use the logo or link to the website are not going to be respected. You need to be involved as I do believe that you will get out of it what you put into it.

In the past, communities were limited by geography but the Internet and social media make it easy to create communities that span the globe. Communities are now formed by people of similar interests, everywhere. If these interests match your own, then join, listen, learn and give back. That type of involvement will benefit you, your start-up and your marketing by making it more credible.

Make Your Marketing Credible With Media or Analyst Endorsements

As part of the ongoing series of blog posts I’ve written on how to make your marketing more credible, I talked about how to earn awards and endorsements to build credibility. At the time, I explored the award side of this topic in more detail than the endorsement side. In particular, I talked only briefly about how much more credible your marketing would be with a media or analyst endorsement. In this post, I want to return to that topic and explore it further.

It’s easy for everyone to realize how media or analyst endorsements would help your start-up but it’s a lot harder to secure the endorsement. It also takes a lot of time to work towards this endorsement and any attempt to get this done quickly will most likely result in failure or worse permanent damage to your credibility.

You have to remember that editors and analysts have spent years building their brands and reputations in the industry and they need to be careful or all this hard work will be for naught. Any analyst or editor that will provide an endorsement quickly for a favor or money, is not an endorsement you want. It may help in the short term but in the longer term it will have cost you money, your reputation or both.

So that leaves us with how to get a credible endorsement that will provide value to both your product and the analyst or editor. It’s really a process that starts with creating simple messages that clearly differentiates your product so the editor or analyst sees the value you provide and results in a powerful relationship with an industry expert.

I’m sure many PR professionals will cringe when I say this process is not too dissimilar to the sales process and it’s only the goal that’s really different. Now, I’m not talking about the sales process that is all about telling the customer what they want to hear to close the deal and then never hear from them again. I’m talking about the sales process where you build a long-term relationship with your customer and continually help them solve their problems. (Does this sound better you cringing PR professional?)

The reason the process starts with creating the right message is that the editors and analysts are bombarded day in and day out with pitches from all kinds of companies big and small. You need to be able to standout from the crowd with a simple, differentiated message to get their attention. But maybe more important you need to ensure you are sending this message to the right audience.

If you read their blogs and/or talk to the editors and analysts about their pet peeves, it’s the mass email pitches they receive all the times that are about products or services that do not fit within the scope of what they write about. If every company or PR agency would only spend just a little more time to research who the experts are in their industry and only reached out to them. Make sure you do this and I’m sure your editors and analysts will appreciate it, as it makes their life easier.

Obviously, having previous relationships with these editors and analysts helps in the early stages in terms of getting your message read. But these relationships are not as valuable if the story you are pitching does not match what they are working on at that time. And similarly, don’t let a lack of relationships stop you from reaching to the editor or analyst that covers your space.

Their job is to find interesting angles to stories and innovative solutions to problems faced by their readers. Better yet, give them a case study about how someone faced the problem you solve and let it be about your customer not your company. That’s powerful and editors clamor for these types of stories.

Now you may need to be persistent as they do get a lot of pitches that sound similar but if you’ve done your homework in terms of developing the right message for the right audience you can and should get above the clutter of “me too” companies.

Now, I do realize I’m oversimplifying here but at the same time, I don’t believe your PR efforts need to be complicated. You just need to focus your efforts on a short list of relevant editors or analysts and be persistent to get that endorsement or reference to make your marketing credible.

Book Review - Learning from Trust Agents @chrisbrogan and @julien

The book, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust, has been on my reading list since I first heard about it as I follow @chrisbrogan and @julien on Twitter and also try to read their blogs (chrisbrogan.com and julien’s in over your head blog) when I can. It took me a while to get around to reading this book though as I expected it to be another book about social media. Granted it would be a book by a couple of social media gurus but I was looking for something different.

Now that I’ve read the book, I wish I would have read it sooner as I’ve been writing a lot about how to make your marketing more credible and this book has a lot of material that fits into that concept. I guess the title should have tipped me off and the intro clearly says this is a business book and not a technology book but I was still surprised, in a very good way.

In fact, I’m not even sure I’d call this a business book as the lessons you learn from it could apply to everything you do online and even offline for that matter. The strength of this book lies in the fact that both Chris and Julien realize that technology changes fast so to write about how to use Twitter in your business, for example, would be quickly dated.

Instead they focus on what people can do to become Trust Agents, which is far more useful I find. Covering the tools is better done on blogs or better yet in communities, such as Third Tribe Marketing, which Chris is a founding member of and I am also a member (that needs to be more active).

The book looks at 6 key behaviors that define what a trust agent is: Make Your Own Game; One of Us; Archimedes Effect; Agent Zero; Human Artist; and Build an Army. While trust agents use all of them, it’s important to look at each and work from your own strengths according to Chris and Julien.

This definitely got me to think about what I need to do to become a Trust Agent. For example, my strengths exist in the behaviors of Make Your Own Game and Human Artist but I need to work on the Agent Zero and Build an Army behaviors.

Defining these characteristics and looking at each in detail helped me and I believe it will help others as they apply it to themselves and their business. I also know I’ll return to the book as a reference as I try things online, another key point raised in the book, and look for more understanding.

Now I don’t want you to think the book is all theoretical or full of these abstract concepts and nothing else. Chris and Julien explain everything using examples from their own experiences and other online case studies. They also touch on some of the tools used today but don’t go into them in detail as they will change.

As I’ve said a lot in this blog over the last few months, your marketing needs to be credible for your company to be successful. I’ve looked at several tactics and strategies you can deploy to make this a reality, including becoming a thought leader. I would now add becoming a trust agent to this list and strongly recommend that start-ups and their leaders read this book to learn how.

Thanks Chris and Julien for the lessons and insights. I’m working on them, slowly but surely, and I hope others do too.

[Image courtesy of the Trust Agent website]

How Marketing for Start-ups is Different than Small Businesses

Recently, I looked at how start-ups and small businesses are different. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to make that post any longer so I promised to follow-up with a post that would explore what this meant to the marketing of start-ups. As I mentioned, I don’t have a lot of experience marketing for small business so I asked if someone would like to contribute a post in that area since I can’t contribute the meaningful content I would like on this topic. This offer is still open.

In that post, the two fundamental differences I came up with between start-ups and small businesses are that start-ups aspire to be large companies and how each is funded with the start-up often relying on venture capital (VC) or angel investors that are not tied to the day-to-day activities of the business in any other way.

In terms of the impact on marketing, the funding of the business has the biggest impact in my opinion and it’s a double-edged sword. For start-ups that have received funding from a VC or other sources, the money is quite often a large sum which gives the start-up the ability and luxury of hiring some dedicated marketing resources and also allocating money to marketing programs.

It’s rare for the small business to have a dedicated marketing resource. Many times, the owner adds marketing to his or her already long to-do list. Having a marketing expert on staff definitely has its advantages, especially if the founder or CEO trusts that expertise and allows them to develop and implement an integrated marketing plan.

In addition to resources, this money also allows the start-up to run more comprehensive marketing programs as they can spend money on many different tactics and media to get the message out there to prospective customers. Having said that, many start-ups do tend to watch their money carefully so the budget may still be quite limited but with new social media tools and other tactics, you can put your start-up on the map without the million dollar budgets of the 90s (BTW - I can’t believe I just wrote that).

The downside of this influx of money is that the source of it usually has the objective of getting a large and quick return on that investment so new pressures are put on the start-up to deliver now. Combine this with the promise to grow big and start-ups need to land customers quickly and grow revenue fast in order to meet expectations.

Now I’m not saying that small business don’t have these same pressures to get customers and increase revenue, but they sometimes have the luxury to grow at a slower pace and don’t always have to answer to an outside source of funding if the business is self-funded. It’s a different set of pressures is all I’m saying; not that one is more pressure than the other.

From the perspective of the second difference, that of aspiring to grow large, the start-up needs to run more extensive marketing programs to reach more people quickly rather than the small business that may be able to focus on one small geographic area for instance.

If we look at the lead generation aspect of marketing, then the start-up marketing person (it’s unlikely to be a big team) needs to generate thousands of prospects so that the sales team has hundreds of sales-ready leads to pursue. The numbers can be staggering and have to be generated in an ongoing fashion to meet ever rising revenue goals.

If the marketing budget was increased with the funding then running these extensive programs can be easier but if money is still tight then these leads need to be generated in a very cost-effective manner. Again, thankfully new tools and tactics make this possible today.

There are other differences for sure and other impacts to the marketing of a start-up or small business but having the perspective above will help the marketing person or owner fine tune the objectives of the marketing program and develop the appropriate plan for the resources allocated.

Start-ups and Small Businesses are Different

A few months ago I wrote about how Dude, It's Marketing would become more focused on the different strategies and tactics that can be used to launch your start-up and put it on the map. While this allows me to cover a variety of marketing topics, I thought this focus was helpful because a start-up has a different set of challenges than a larger company in terms of being a young company with fewer resources (both people and money) and the pressure to make sales now. OK that last point is true for companies large and small.

However, I got to thinking recently about whether a start-up is the same as a small business or not. I know a lot of people may treat them as one and the same because both are small. I believe that they are fundamentally different and thought it would be good to explore this topic and see how strong the differences are between the two and what you think (which you can tell me in the comments below).

First let’s quickly take a look at what Wikipedia says about each:

• Startup: “A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets.” More…

• Small business: “A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales.” More…

In looking at both of these definitions, two things immediately jump out as fundamental differences. First and foremost, almost all start-ups, but especially those in the technology space, have aspirations to be large companies some day and some may even wish to pursue world domination. On the other hand, most small businesses don’t want to grow much bigger than a few locations (at most) or a small staff, although there are always exceptions. So while both begin as small companies, I’ve never seen a start-up business plan that did not talk about becoming bigger and generating millions of dollars in revenue some day.

The other big difference is where the funding comes from. Small businesses are privately funded, often by the owner or a close circle of friends, with maybe some help in the form of a loan from a bank or similar institution. While start-ups may start that way with some founders providing the initial funding, most will eventually turn to venture capitalists or angel investors to help take it to the next stage. And, for most that stage is ultimately an IPO or purchase by a larger competitor, which rarely happens to the small business.

Obviously there are other differences, including the fact that start-ups tend to be technology companies in many cases whereas small business are in many more industries, but the two differences above are the key ones and what I’d like to explore in terms of their impact on how the company is launched and run.

Because it will take more words than what I should put in this post, I’ll leave the discussion for a subsequent blog post to look at what the growth and funding differences do to a start-up in terms of marketing strategies. I would really appreciate a guest post from the other perspective about what these differences mean to a small business as I’m far from an expert in that area. Let me know below if you’re interested in helping me in the comments below or email me at bziolo [at] yahoo.com. Stay tuned…

Right Audience, Right Message, Right Time

When I started this blog almost a year ago, I wrote a number of posts about the importance of developing a simple, consistent and differentiated message that targets the right audience. At the time, I had intended to conclude that series of posts with a third concept, which is that you have to deliver this message to the audience at the right time.

Before I explore this third concept, I encourage you to do a quick review of the key points in these earlier blog posts:

• The Need for Simple and Consistent Messaging
• Differentiate Your Message
• Targeting the Right Audience

So now you have a simple, consistent and differentiated message that clearly presents a strong value proposition to your target audience but you need to deliver it at the right time. The simple answer here is that you want to deliver this message when your audience is ready to buy.  

However, this is easier said than done as you might imagine and differs by product or service. For some products, especially in the consumer space, this could be at the point of sale. For more technical products with a long sales cycle, the point of sale is waaayyy too late, as you won’t ever get to this point since you won’t be considered in the buying process.

Since there is not one right time to deliver the message, you need to figure out what your sales cycle looks like and how long it takes for the prospect to make the purchase. Ideally you review past sales and look at the steps you go through as well as measure the time it takes to go through each phase. I won’t review it here but you can check out an earlier post I did on defining the sales cycle.

In the case of a start-up, you may not have many, or any, past sales to review so you just need to take you best guess at what your sales cycle looks like, carefully record and measure every aspect of your initial sales and refine accordingly.

When you have the phases (which may or may not include: prospects, qualified leads, opportunities, trials/evals, call-to-close and closed) of the sales cycle defined you need to figure out when the decision to consider your product or service is made not when the purchase is made.

If we look at this in terms of a longer, technical sale then the right time is not later than the qualified lead phase. At this point the prospect is serious and you have to be on their short list or it’s likely too late. In the case of a shorter sales cycle for a less expensive produce, then many of these phases may be combined or go by quickly and it may be ok for your message to be delivered at the call-to-close phase or, as I referred to it earlier, the point of sale.

Now that you have your point in time selected to deliver the message, you need to tweak your message for that phase. While this may seem like I’m contradicting myself after I stressed the importance of making your message consistent, I’m not, because I only want you to adapt it so it’s more appropriate to the phase and not come up with a new or inconsistent one. 

For example, if the message is being delivered at the point of sale, it needs to be hard hitting to grab attention and close the deal all at the same time. In the longer sale, you’ll be delivering the message multiple times so you can take a softer approach and even give only part of the complete message so that you grab your audience’s attention and make them want more info where the rest of the message can be delivered.

Delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time is the key to your marketing and communications success. Too early in the process may result in the audience getting tired and tuning your message out. Too late in the process means you won’t be one of the options considered and lose out on the sale. Timing is critical so plan this carefully.

Let me know your thoughts on finding the right time to deliver your message or if you have questions leave them in the comments below.

Associate Your Start-up with Trusted Brands to Build Credibility

It’s no secret that for a start-up getting the first couple of sales is absolutely critical. It validates the business model, proves the product, gives you experience that can be leveraged to capture the next set of customers and makes you a credible player in your chosen market.

However, think of the risk that your early customers are taking by buying your product. They don’t know if the technology is real, if the product works as advertised, or if you’ll be around to support the product or expand their deployment in the future. Your champions are putting their jobs on the line when they go for your start-up’s solution over more proven ones.

There’s a saying that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM. Now this saying may be slightly dated and you can substitute other established and proven companies in place of IBM but you can’t substitute a start-up’s name in place of IBM. You need to remember this saying when your customer puts their business on the line for you.

This blog post, in the series about how to make your marketing more credible, will look at one way to solve this issue. You can give your marketing and company credibility by associating yourself with the trusted brands of established companies through a strategic partnership or joint marketing and sales relationship.

It's rare that a start-up can make it alone so leveraging a larger company can help in many aspects of the business including sales, bringing it credibility on the marketing front, R&D dollars, and the list goes on. Not to mention the fact that many acquisitions begin with a strategic partnership between start-up and acquirer.

At the same time, larger companies may not be able to react as quickly to a customer request to add a specific capability that solves a new problem. Larger, more established companies may look to start-ups to try new things and take risks that they may not be able to take. So this relationship can definitely be a win-win situation.

Now striking and building these relationships is not easy but the pay-off can be huge and the obstacles these partnerships help to overcome may be insurmountable otherwise. 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.

And while I’ve focused mainly on partnering with other companies as the trusted brands you should associate your start-up with, there are other third-party organizations that can also bring credibility to you and other benefits but not to the same extent. For example, there are many industry organizations that will help the start-up build similar credibility and may be easier to achieve in the short-term.

In the end though, it’s just as important whom you associate with from a credibility standpoint, as it is that you associate yourself with them in the first place. That’s why the term “trusted brands” was in the title of this post. You can’t just pick anyone to partner with or any organization to join. They need to bring your start-up credibility for this to benefit you.

There is a certain truth in the saying that you will be judged by the company that you keep. For a start-up, the companies you work with will be absolutely crucial to your success but at the same time, start-ups need to be careful whom they select as a partner and ensure that it fits with their soon-to-be trusted brand.

Are Tradeshows Worth It?

Last week, I attended an industry tradeshow as an exhibitor in a partner booth. It's been a while since I was at a tradeshow so this gave me a chance to take a step back and see what had changed in the last few years. Basically, I wanted to see if all the efforts and money put into tradeshows are worth it for a start-up.

As you may remember, tradeshows were all the rage a number of years ago and most companies, including many start-ups, felt they needed to exhibit at them if they were going to be considered a serious player in their particular market. This line of thinking never made a lot of sense to me, especially for a start-up, since the costs are high not to mention the fact a lot has changed in the last few years and there are many new ways to reach your audience.

To really decide if a tradeshow is worth it, you need to figure out what your objective is for attending that show and then measure it carefully. For example, are you looking to launch a new product and get some exposure, are you looking to generate some leads, are you looking to meet with some partners and establish a stronger relationship, are you looking to meet with some key editors or analysts and tell your story, and the list goes on.

I believe the majority of start-ups still do tradeshows to launch a new product and/or generate leads. My experience at this show was that I could wander the floor and not have my badge scanned even once. I don't even remember being approached by any booth staff. The booths that seemed to be busy usually had some show, such as a magician, or were giving away something free, in some cases beer and food which was a hit. While these booths had some good traffic, you have to wonder how many of these people were actually prospects for the company or people looking for free stuff.

This confirms, what I had already thought, in that the majority of companies may spend a lot of money on these shows but then they do not have a plan to reach the right prospect that will ultimately turn into a sales lead. In the end, they are going after a large number of leads regardless of quality but after the show do they capitalize on them? In these cases, the money and effort spent on tradeshows is definitely wasted.

To do a tradeshow in this fashion and make it worth the money invested, I strongly believe it needs to be part of an integrated program so that you are also hitting the prospects before and after the tradeshow using other media and tactics. You also need to clearly identify the top leads from that show and pass those immediately to sales so they can follow-up quickly while the others need to be nurtured until they are sales ready. In the end, I am left with further proof that tradeshows aren't worth it from a lead generation perspective as there are far cheaper and more effective ways to get better leads.

The one advantage that a tradeshow does hold is the ability to meet prospects, partners, or media and analysts face-to-face. This aspect of a tradeshow is extremely hard, if not impossible, to replicate with other marketing tactics and can go a long way in building your credibility with that audience. Building relationships that are started using other tactics can make a tradeshow worthwhile if you can find a way to do it cost-effectively, which as you know is extremely important for a start-up.

For example, setting up a number of meetings with prospects and showing them a demo at the tradeshow can be effective and cost less money than visiting them on a number of different trips. You can also capitalize on the fact that media and analysts attend these industry shows, willing to meet with companies, so you can have several meetings in just a couple of days compared to setting up media tours in several different cities. These are just a couple of ways to do tradeshows cost-effectively. The tradeshow will still cost a lot of money but you are comparing that to not having to make several trips which would also be expensive.

Maybe the best way to do a tradeshow cost-effectively is to try and leverage the presence of one of your partners, like I did at this one, and see if they have a partner pavillion or extra demo station in their booth. Many larger companies have this type of setup and if you can get in their booth, you not only save money (even if they charge you it will be less than having your own booth) but you also get to associate yourself with a trusted and more recognizable brand which is a key step in making your marketing more credible. This approach makes a lot of sense to me for a start-up.

As with other marketing strategies though, it's imporant to know your objective, set some goals and then measure the effectiveness of the tradeshow in reaching these goals. Only then can you decide if the tradeshow is worth it. I encourage others to share their thoughts on tradeshows and any tips to make an existing tradeshow program more effective.

Book Review - Crush It! by @garyvee Inspires

I read Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee) a couple of months ago and have been meaning to write a book review on this blog as it's a book that all start-ups must read.

This book is very inspirational as it explores how you need to do things that excite you and failure is OK as you can learn from that as much as success. Now isn't that the perfect recipe for any start-up?

Gary, in his book, talks a lot about passion which is absolutely critical for the success of any start-up. Because of the long hours and hard work you are going to need to put into making your company successful, you need to be doing what you are passionate about or it just won't take off.

Even though Gary, argues that you should do what you are passionate about, he does realizes there is the reality of life and that your family is still the most important thing. I believe this is another key message that start-up founders too often forget so it was a great reminder.

While not as important, for me, as the inspirational aspects of this book, Gary does look at the social media tools and techniques he used to build his family's wine business. This case study has been covered widely as Gary has become an online superstar but it's great to read about it from his experience. 

One concept that he covers, which I agree with wholeheartedly and have written about before, is the need to create great content. Gary sees choosing the right medium, choosing the right topic and telling a story as the keys to creating great content. I couldn't have said it better.

Don't get me wrong, you can definitely learn from the tools and techniques Gary uses to build your start-up, and you could view this book as a how-to guide but then you would be missing the key take-away. For me, the true inspiration found in this book is Gary's message that "passion is everything" and you can build a business that creates wealth with passion and hard work.

For that lesson alone, everyone should read this book. I know it inspired me. What was your key takeaway from Crush It!?

[Image courtesy of Gary Vaynerchuk's Crush It! Book website]

Earn Awards and Endorsements to Build Credibility

A few months ago, I started a series of blog posts about why it’s important to make your marketing credible and how you could do it through thought leadership and creating valuable content. With the refined focus for Dude, It’s Marketing, this series of posts is more relevant than ever, as start-ups need credibility to secure their first few customers and begin to build a brand.

In this post, I’ll look at another way that start-ups can make their marketing more credible, which is to earn awards or endorsements from outside organizations. Outside or third party is obvious as you can’t just create an endorsement for yourself or give yourself an award. You’ll also note that I use the word earn, which is intentional, as there are clearly different types of awards and endorsements in terms of exposure and credibility.

I’ll address the elephant in the room first so we can move on: you can buy awards. There I said it and I’ll admit I’ve done it. I’m not sure how surprising this is to all of you, and I hope it isn’t, but I have seen shocked looks on some peoples faces when I tell them this is possible and that all awards are not created equal. Suffice to say, if you are trying to make your marketing credible, this is not the type of award I’m referring to and that’s why “earn” was used intentionally.

Winning an award that has been judged by a panel of industry experts, who are credible in their own right, can quickly raise the awareness of your company and provide strong third-party validation of your products or services. Even better, if the award is the result of a product review, or some other testing or validation was involved, that will increase the credibility of the award and the impact it will have on your marketing.

When you earn a respected award like these, you definitely want to promote them as they will increase your company’s credibility but make sure you do it in a subtle way. You want to get the word out but work with the third-party that granted the award so that you follow their guidelines as doing anything they don’t approve of will only undermine the award for you and others.

Awards aren’t the only way to make your marketing more credible. Endorsements and references from trusted third parties can be even better than the awards. Think of how much more credible your marketing will be when a well-respected industry analyst talks about how a specific problem needs to be solved and you have a solution. Or, think of an article in a trade publication that is written by an editor or a post in an industry blog that highlights the need for a solution similar to yours. In fact, I want to explore the media and analyst endorsements further in a subsequent blog post because I don’t want to get sidetracked here.

In the end, the very best kind of endorsement is from your customers. Every start-up needs to find their first one or two customers which are always the hardest but also absolutely crucial to success. Once you get someone interested you need to nurture this relationship to make sure the customer is always happy so they will act as a reference for other customers and hopefully provide a public endorsement in the form of a quote or a positive review on a web site.

Now I know every start-up wants to land the tier 1 customer or key influencer and have them issue a news release or do a customer testimonial but in the early days you can’t always just try and hit the grand slam home run. Start-ups are built by securing many smaller victories along the way. If you get the big win early, leverage it as best you can, but don’t wait for that.

In the early days, go after any customer, get your product installed and take whatever form of endorsement they will give you from answering a few questions from a prospect privately, to providing a quote, to writing a positive recommendation on a third-party site. Success breeds success and these small wins will lead to the big customer and testimonial.

Start-ups need these award and endorsements to make their marketing credible just like a prospective employee needs references. Companies want to go with the product or the person that they know someone else has recommended. Some award and endorsements are better than others and will vary by industry. Earn the ones that are respected and that you would be proud to show.

Creating Your Virtual Marketing Team

One of the big challenges many start-ups face is the need to preserve cash before the revenue begins to come in and the company is break-even or cash flow positive. The balancing act is to grow the company to capture significant market share versus making sure the money lasts as long as possible.

Marketing is one of the areas that is likely affected most by this predicament. I'm not saying for a minute that other groups in the company don't face this too but marketing can at the same time help grow the company while spending a lot of money to do it. For that reason, in this economy, companies are tending to grow their marketing spend more slowly although there are exceptions.

While many new social media tactics have allowed companies to generate awareness and build a brand without spending thousands or millions on advertising, you still need people to develop the strategy and run the programs. And for the program to be successful, you need people to generate content, build websites and blogs and do all the other things that need to be done.

Unfortunately, hiring a full marketing team is a luxury many start-ups don't have and may not have for quite some time. So what is a founder to do to kick-start the marketing efforts and put his product on the map? Or, what is the original marketing hire to do when the company wants to ramp up its efforts and you already work around the clock to get things done?

What I've found works quite well and gives you the biggest bang for the buck is to create a virtual team of marketing, communications, web, SEO, PR, and the list goes on, contractors. Basically, find the person who works out of their home and applies their specific skills for a number of companies rather than working full time for one. In some cases, it may be a small agency and small is the key word here as the larger the agency gets, the higher the rates they will charge which hurts the budget you don't have yet.

Initially it may be hard to find these people but they do exist and they are experts in their field while not charging what a large agency might bill you. The other huge advantage of going this route is that the person who pitches you to get your business is very likely, and in some cases definitely, the person doing the work.

Don't underestimate how important this is compared to the bait and switch you might get at the larger agencies. You know what I mean where you get the principals pitching you the business but the most junior person does the work, yet you pay the senior or at the very least inflated rates.

Now don't get me wrong, there will be a time and place where you need an agency and some larger agencies are better than others at servicing start-ups but now is not the time, or even possible, for you to spend large amounts of money.

The other option is to hire a "junior" person in house but the way I look at this is that in the early days do you really need a designer full time or do you need them part time or a few days a month? What about that web developer? You likely only need them full time at the start of the project and then part time as the site launches.

Well, the good news is that there are a lot of people who make a good living working for a number of companies doing something they are experts in. You get top notch talent without having to pay a full time salary for them. It's a win-win situation as they can also make more money as their day rate is higher than if they worked full-time.

Now, if you are the founder and have no one in marketing you will likely need a person in house to manage your virtual team as you have other things to do. If you can afford it that's the way to go. Look for someone who is more of a generalist and strategists rather than expert as they can fill in the blanks as needed and will know what specialists are needed and when.

Building a virtual team is not only a cost-effective way to do your marketing but it can also result in an extremely successful marketing program and put your start-up on the map in ways you can't imagine. You've got a team of free agent, all-stars who excel at specific marketing tactics all working for you. What could be better than that to get you started?

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.

Why Demand Generation?

While demand generation is not the marketing buzz word it was a couple of years ago, it still must be the cornerstone of your marketing efforts. But, it is also crucial to realize that demand generation has changed significantly with the advent of social media and the decline of some traditional marketing tactics, like tradeshows and direct marketing.

I use demand generation and lead generation interchangeably quite often but I want to highlight the point here that, whatever the term, this is about more than just generating as many leads as possible. Demand generation is about reaching the right prospects, at the right time, with the right message, to turn them into customers.

Demand generation involves creating awareness of your solution, qualifying the leads, sending the sales-ready leads to sales, nurturing the others by building relationships with them until they are ready to buy, while working with sales to move the qualified leads along the funnel until the deal is closed.

A successful demand generation program combines the appropriate marketing tactics (more on this in a subsequent post) with sales tools and online presences that result in increased revenue for your product of service. Demand generation must be measureable, continually optimized and entirely in sync with the sales objectives of your organization.

If this doesn't sound like the marketing you are familiar with then you need to get with the times. While the program and tactics may change, the need in every organization for demand generation never goes away. In good times and bad. As marketing tactics and technologies come and go. Demand generation needs to adapt but always remain focused on the prize of getting more sales for your product.

Differentiate Your Message

Earlier I wrote about the need for simple and consistent messaging for your company.  But there's another key concept that must be incorporated into your message for it to resonate with your target audience. You must differentiate your message as well.

Even the simplest message will not be remembered if the audience can't understand how you're different from the competition. It's as confusing as a complicated message because in the end your message needs to not only be understood but must also set you apart from other solutions in your marketplace.

When you develop your message, you need to ask who you are competing with and what makes you different from them. However, when you answer these questions you need to still be clear and concise. At the same time, you need to ensure the difference you are communicating is also meaningful to that audience. Very few people are going to switch to your solution if you are only 2x better. In many cases, they may not even switch if you're 10x better.

Most important, to differentiate your message, you need to explain how you solve their problem better than your competition, which may be by being faster or more powerful, but it could also be by making life easier or more efficient for that organization.

Now, I know many startups believe they don't have any competition because their product is soooo innovative. But, in the eyes of your audience there is always competition because even if your product is new they have been solving the problem in a different manner so far. This is quite often called indirect competition and in many cases it is more important to differentiate from those solutions than the direct ones.

Also, keep in mind that you do want competition because if you don't, you may be targeting a market that doesn't exist, is too small, or you may be solving a problem that the audience doesn't know they have which will cause other issues from a communications perspective.

In the end, your goal from a message and branding perspective is to own a space in the mind of your target audience. This space must be clearly defined so they can put you in the right bucket. And then, you must clearly differentiate your message from the competition in that bucket or a similar one. Together, a simple, consistent and differentiated message is the key to your communications.

Defining the Stages of the Sales Funnel

If the sales funnel is the heart of lead generation, then defining the stages of the sales funnel is critical to a good healthy heart. While some (it should be all) organizations have embraced the concept of the sales funnel, the stages selected and what makes a lead be in a certain stage vary widely. In an ideal world, there would be a common definition that all marketing and sales organizations could just implement much like development organizations implement standard protocols. But we know this is not an ideal world. In fact, many of us know that these standards take forever to define so you can only imagine how long it would take to get the sales funnel defined in a standards body since in many cases marketing and sales in ONE organization can't agree.

This last point is what absolutely needs to be fixed if any lead generation program, and for that matter any organization, is to be successful. Sales and marketing must agree on the stages of the funnel, what defines each stage and use the same terminology across the entire funnel. This is definitely a tall order and if you're in the midst of defining these stages I feel for you. However, I can't stress enough how critical it is for each stage to be clearly named and defined and then have each lead be ranked with this criteria in mind. If this doesn't happen at the outset, and I've seen it many times, marketing and sales will become increasingly frustrated and always point the finger at each other about why the lead generation programs aren't successful.

I really wish I could post a clear definition for all the stages of the funnel but the reality is that it varies for each organization and type of sale. It is clear that the prospects that marketing identifies by collecting information about them are the first stage of the funnel. While some would dismiss this stage as not important since theses leads are not  sales-ready leads, it is still crucial to define this stage in terms of the criteria that needs to be collected since these prospects will be the sales-ready leads in the future.

To define the other stages, I propose that marketing listen carefully to sales and ask them to outline what they see as an ideal account. Then take as many of these attributes as possible and use that critieria as the basis for the next stage in the funnel which I normally refer to as A leads. Another set of key criteria involves BANT (budget, authority, need, timeframe), and while it's not always easy to collect, it definitely needs to be a key part of the next stage which is what I call qualified leads, or sales-ready leads. The next couple of stages really depend on the target audience, the technical nature of the product and the sales process involved in closing deals. Quite often these are called technical closure and business negotiation, but may go by many names, and may also involved some business case closure or trial stages as well.

In the end, and I've said it many times, the number and name of the stages are not what's important. What is important is that marketing and sales agree on ALL of it and also what it takes to move a lead from one stage to the next. While funnels will vary between different industries and organization, it must NOT vary within the organization.

The Heart of Lead Generation

Without a doubt the sales funnel is at the heart of lead generation. The understanding of how you move leads through the funnel is crucial to any successful marketing campaign and more importantly to the company's ability to sell more products. But before we talk about that process, the first step is for sales and marketing to work together and define the sales funnel for their organizations.

In general, the stages of the sales funnel may include: prospects, leads, qualified leads, serious opportunities, trials or evals, call-to-close phase and closed deals. And while the concept is similar across most sales processes, it's imperative that each stage be clearly defined and agreed upon by all parties so that it can be consistently applied, analyzed and adjusted as appropriate. Above all else, agreement on the stage where marketing passes leads to sales and the definition of these qualified leads is imperative. I'll have more on that in a subsequent post.

Once the stages are defined, then it's important to understand the number of leads from all prospects (10-20%) and the ratio of qualified leads to closed deals (15:1-20:1) so that marketing can generate sufficient leads to meet the revenue requirements for the year. Of equal importance, you need to understand the time it takes to move from one stage to the next (1 to 2 months per stage depending on market maturity).

While everyone would love these ratios and timelines to be smaller and shorter for their industry, I've seen time and time again that these are quite consistent in technology companies and can be even longer when selling to certain verticals. This means it's pointless to use unrealistic ratios or timelines when planning but only adjust them when you have concrete metrics and evidence built by carefully tracking this information in addition to other ROI metrics.

Since I strongly believe the sales funnel is the heart of lead generation there will be several additional posts on this topic. For now, it's important to understand that the concepts mentioned here are more scientific than most traditional marketers would like to admit so you need to accept them and work for improvement rather than ignore the process.

The Foundation of a Good Powerpoint

So I was always told that if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. In light of my recent post on bad Powerpoint presentations, I thought I would make this post and others about how you can improve your Powerpoint presentations.

The reason I want to spend so much time on Powerpoint is that for many companies, and start-ups in particular, this could be the only communication that prospects ever see from your company. And we all know you need to make a good first impression so it makes sense to spend the time on your presentations and ensure they represent the brand you are trying to build.

I believe the foundation of a good powerpoint presentation is the design template and then following it consistently across the company. With the proper template, you can use color, font, font size and layout to more consistently and effectively communicate your message.

By establishing a layout, font, color scheme, header/footer and other design elements, your presentation will look consistent, the audience will not be distracted by misplaced or different elements, and everyone can focus on the message which is what you want. The template does not need to be fancy by any means and simpler is likely better but it does need to be clean so the text and graphics are easily readable.

But maybe more important than the template itself is applying it to each and every slide and not making a custom layout for each slide in your presentation after the fact. This means, you cannot adjust the font of the title to make a longer one fit; you cannot make the font smaller so you can fit more words on a page; and please, do not move the placement of the text between slides as this could even make your audience sick as you go from slide to slide. I'm willing to make a bet that this won't lead to a good first impression.

To get started on this template, use an existing presentation that you think is well laid out and easy to follow. Ensure that all the slides are consistent in terms of content placement, font, sizes, etc, and save this as a template file. Make whatever other adjustments you feel will improve the look and feel and you've got a starting point. Then you should apply this to other presentations to see if it works on those and make any additional changes. You must also test the template by projecting the presentation in a meeting room or conference room so that you ensure it still works and people from the back of the room can read it.

You can and should continue to work on the layout until you are happy you have a format that is simple and helps your audience focus on the message rather than the layout. You also need to share it across the company and get feedback from other presenters. This helps to make sure everyone uses it so that you can present a consistent brand to all of your audiences.

It's not an easy or quick task but once it's complete, you've made life easier for yourself and everyone else and you have the foundation of many, more successful presentations to come.

Your Powerpoint is too Complicated

I'm not exactly sure when it happened. I'm sure it was not long after Powerpoint was created. But ever since, presenters (and those from technology companies in particular) have come to rely on Powerpoint to communicate their message to prospects everywhere. With the exception of the corporate website (maybe), Powerpoint slides are the main communication vehicle used by most, if not all, companies and I'm quite certain, it's also the most abused.

I'm sure we've all see our share of Powerpoint slides and some are definitely better than others. But it's surprising how many slides contain hundreds of words crammed onto it using a really small font so no one can actually read the text. There are also more than a few (I'm being polite here) diagrams that are so complicated or poorly drawn that no one, not even the author, can explain it.

The software program itself needs to share some of the blame. Powerpoint is not an easy tool to use and it definitely has it's share of bugs... I mean features... that don't work or are extremely inconsistent when you send them to another computer. But what is the alternative to using Powerpoint?

Let me go out on a limb and propose that you don't use Powerpoint at all in your next presentation but rely on a few notes and a whiteboard. One of the best sessions I ever saw at a conference was when the speaker put up one slide of a nature scene. He explained to everyone that it was his only slide and he just wanted to talk to us. The slide had no relevance to the talk but he had this one slide because the conference organizers insisted he submit something so he grabbed a picture he liked. Can you believe it? The presenter ended up engaging the audience for the entire time and it was a great session on a technical topic.

I know that may be the extreme but at the very least, everyone needs to use fewer and simpler slides in their presentations. Trust me when I tell you that you are not going to get through 100 slides in an hour. You will likely not even get through 20 or 30 in that hour. And, make sure you use as few words as possible and supporting graphics are a good thing if they are also simple.

So for the sake of your audience, please take another look at the slides you plan to use in your next presentation and remove half of the words on each slide and make sure you have, at most, one slide for every 2-3 minutes of the time you plan to speak. In the end, you'll have a simpler and more compelling presentation. Remember that this presentation may be your first impression with that audience so make it a good one.

Targeting the Right Audience

You would think that everyone knows that the more targeted your message, the better the response, and the more successful your marketing or lead generation campaign. But you would be surprised how often a shotgun approach is taken to communicating your message to anyone and everyone.

To better target your marketing and communications efforts, you must carefully identify your audience or audiences. Identifying this target audience is not a trivial task, since the more specific you can be the better, but I would recommend you start by looking at the audiences you have been successful with selling to, looking for verticals where your product provides the most value, and talking to your sales force to find out the profile of their ideal prospect. The more details you can collect here the better in order to build a prospect profile.

Then it's a matter of developing the value proposition for that audience, figuring out a compelling offer and then and finding the best way and vehicle to target this prospect profile. I'll go into details on all of these area in subsequent posts but for now I want to focus on the media aspect. 

The good news is that there are multiple media types and publishers that can be used to target your audience. The advent of social networks has made this list even longer but just because there are more ways to communicate your message doesn't mean the right people are  listening if you don't target the right audience. If you're going to use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and the many other networks, make sure your audience lives in that space or it's wasted effort.

Similarly, you need to find a publisher that has the capabilities to be very specific and will work with you to target your audience. If you're using a publisher that targets a general audience then you may be paying for an audience that's too broad and not targeted a not unless they can help your focus your efforts. What I find is better is to look at some of the more topic specific and/or vertical-focused publications because you can likely find one that also targets your audience with some research.

In the end, any successful marketing campaign can be even better by targeting the right audience by developing a specific audience profile, then formulating a simple and compelling message for that audience and finding the right media to communicate with them. While this isn't easy, it is possible and your marketing program will reap the benefits of this approach.

The Need for Simple and Consistent Messaging

I think it was Mark Twain that said, "I would have written a shorter letter but I didn't have the time." He obviously understood that making something simple can be very difficult.

This fact alone probably explains why technology messaging tends to be very complicated and long so that nobody understands what you are trying to say except for those that work for the company (which is hardly the target audience). I guess in technology, companies don't want to spend the time (and resources) to make their messages simpler and easily understood by the target audience... but they must.

On top of that, they change the messaging frequently to try and make it better. Rarely do these changes result in a simpler message which would make sense. Instead they make the message inconsistent.

It's been said that you need to communicate the same message 7 different times for someone to remember it. If you're changing your message around every few weeks or months then how will your prospects remember what you were trying to say if they hear something different every second time.

If you message is both complex and inconsistent (likely the case) then you are compounding the problem. For your marketing to be successful, it's crucial that you not only spend the time to simplify the message but also use it consistently for the duration of the campaign and across all media. This will without a doubt improve the effectiveness and increase the awareness and number of sales-ready leads.

The NEW Dude, It's Marketing

I'll start this blog with a confession... It's been started before but I've never been happy with what it said or contributed to it enough. I also started it on Blogger and found many of the limitations frustrating. So instead of just copying that blog over, I've decided to start over but will repost any of the more relevant posts with some updates so that it fits this new one.  

By day, I am a seasoned technology marketing executive with over 12 years experience at four different start-ups and one publicly-traded company where I’ve created some very successful and memorable marketing campaigns. At all five companies, I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work from a marketing perspective. Experience as well as making your share of mistakes (come on we’ve all made some) do that to a person.

More important for this blog, is that I’ve seen and heard a lot of “marketing ideas” from people who think they know how to do marketing because it’s so simple that anyone can become a successful marketeer overnight. As a marketeer, I'm sure you've seen and heard that many times. You’d also be surprised how many times I’ve seen companies build marketing plans that are very tactical in nature (i.e. lets go to 10 tradeshows, do 5 direct email campaigns this year, and we’ll throw in a bunch of money for PR to do news releases). To make matters worse, these tactics are done in isolation as one-offs. In other cases, companies believe marketing is just creating a flashy website or pretty powerpoint slides. Sound familiar?

At the same time, marketing is undergoing a fundamental transformation with the advent of social media from Facebook to Twitter that is easily the biggest change since online/digital/Internet marketing began. The result is that many of the tactics used before have to change as well.

In the end, the purpose of marketing is still the same: it has to be a strategic activity that is all about getting more customers for your products and generating revenue for the organization. Together, in this blog we'll see what's needed to catch your wave to success because... Dude, it’s marketing!