Two Years of Blogging

September 2, 2015 //
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Two years ago today I published my first blog post on ‘Paul Dilger’s blog – Musings on stuff I come into contact with.’ I committed to do 3 posts a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, going out between 7:30 and 8:30 am London/Dublin time, regular as clockwork. It didn’t seem worth the commitment to do one when I felt like it, since that would degenerate into one a month, and pretty soon none a month.

Two years later, and some 300-plus posts later, it’s still going strong, regular as clockwork. I like to think that I’m still true to the values from the early days: mostly sales and marketing stuff, posts that take a maximum of 2-3 minutes to read – rather than 10 seconds or half your morning – and posts that I hope interest and enable people.

It serves as the chief dollop of fresh content for my business web site, but it doesn’t feel like work. I really enjoy writing the posts, and I know the discipline of creating them is good for me.

I hope you enjoy dipping into them as well. Here’s to the next post :-).

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Categories Communication, Customers, General, Language, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Strategy, Technology

The Thirteenth B2B Marketing Step

August 31, 2015 //
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The number thirteen. Unlucky for some. But not for you. You’ve done the hard work on your B2B marketing, crafting your strategy, developing a plan for making it happen, working the detail, and getting it approved by your team mates and the powers that be.

Thirteen is a good thing for you.

The thirteenth B2B Marketing Step is execute, executing on your plan for your project or quarter or year. Go do that thing, make it happen! Turn your plan into reality and get it done.

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Categories Marketing, Planning, Strategy

The Twelfth B2B Marketing Step

August 28, 2015 //
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In our previous B2B marketing step, we costed out all of our activities to make sure that each activity and the sum of the activities give us a reasonable targeted return on our investment towards achieving our goals. Our plan is ready to go now, or is it?

Not quite. Now we have to socialise the plan among our colleagues, partners and superiors, get feedback, adjust the plan where necessary and get approval to proceed. This is our twelfth B2B marketing step.

Any draft plan will benefit from different view points. Specific subject matter experts and the people we report to can be a valuable sounding board for the plan and help give it more direction and shape.

Make sure you build in time for these iterations before you start to execute the plan. Sometimes the review and approval process can be quick and painless, but it’s usually more drawn out, since you’re eating into the time of other people whose priorities might be different to yours, even if they’re aligned in overall business terms.

Be prepared to make concessions and adjustments to your plan. It’s inevitable; you won’t get it right first time. Be sure to pick your battles and let go what’s less important, while being ready to defend what is important with evidence and numbers.

Once your plan is approved for execution, you’re good to go.

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Categories Marketing, Planning, Strategy

The Eleventh B2B Marketing Step

August 26, 2015 //
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In the tenth B2B marketing step we mapped out the specific activities underpinning our marketing strategy to hit our goals. We now have a list of specific measurable things we’re going to do.

We now need to cost them and budget for them. This is the eleventh step.

Many of our activities will have sunk or fixed costs against them. For example, sending an email marketing campaign is a function of the time of the salaried marketing staff to set up, test and send the email, and the cost of the email marketing software, both of which we have already committed to. Each of these costs can be counted as one amount that can be spread over a bunch of activities.

Then there are activities where we need to spend money, such as advertising, events, buying data and the like.

You need to estimate as accurately as you can – without it taking too long and becoming self-defeating – the cost of each activity. Then you can balance it against the return you’re targeting. This will help you see which activities you can’t afford or won’t do because you don’t see the return, and those that look better value than others. A balance of activities will help you spread your risk. Some will crash and burn, some will do OK, and the odd one might go gangbusters.

Totalling up all costs and estimated returns will give you a feel for what kind of return you anticipate from either your project or your marketing team as a whole, including any third parties whom you’re paying for their specialist expertise.

All of this helps you fine-tune your activity list – or seek extra funds – to the point where you’re happy to submit your plan for review.

 

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Categories Marketing, Planning, Strategy

The One Thing a Good Marketer Must Have

August 24, 2015 //
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The one thing a good marketer should have is – a good eye.

A good eye for what looks good. Good marketers know good design when they see it. They appreciate a well designed page, product, thing. They know what to look for and they know how to brief others to create ‘good’.

A good eye for detail. The devil is in the detail, which means he – or she – is in the data, the words, the images, the emotions.

A good idea for what reads well and sounds good – for which you probably need a good ear too. Remember that what reads well and what sounds good are not the same thing. You’ll find few good marketers who are not good communicators, not good at writing, not good at speaking, not good at listening.

You can learn to get a good eye, you don’t have to be born with it. But you must have this one thing to be good.

 

Categories Communication, General, Language, Marketing, Planning

Copacetic? Me Neither

August 21, 2015 //
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As a marketer, writer and communicator, I love words. They’re what I do.

The other day I was flicking through a daily mood flip board that my wife gave me a while back. It has a huge range of one word, one emoticon options that sum up – and signal to others – how you feel that day.

I eventually settled on ‘subversive’ – it was a Friday after all – but I digress.

I came across the word ‘copacetic’. Ever seen or heard of it? Me neither. With my background in Latin and Greek I can sometimes figure out a word’s rough meaning from the roots, but not this time.

Turns out it’s a North American colloquialism meaning ‘OK’, with an unclear heritage.

Great word, isn’t it? A new one for us European English speakers to throw into the conversation.

 

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Categories Communication, General, Language

The Tenth B2B Marketing Step

August 19, 2015 //
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In our ninth B2B marketing step we decided the marketing mix elements to execute our strategy and achieve our objectives. We have some momentum now. We know what we’re going to do, we have to get into the specific, measurable detail.

In the tenth B2B marketing step, then, you need to map out the specific marketing activities you will undertake for your specific project. If this is an ongoing marketing strategy, then I recommend you do it on a quarterly basis, as a quarter is a reasonable B2B timeframe for your efforts to bear fruit, and it’s the fruit you’re measuring. All of your specific activities should have measurable targets against them, which, when added up, get you to your overall target for the project or period.

I suggest you put together a table with each numbered activities listed down the left side, and the following 12 headings across the top. You then need to populate your table:

  • Campaign – that the activity relates to
  • Audience – the segment or sub-segment you’re targeting
  • Launch date – so you can work backwards and figure out when you need to start it
  • Call to action – the thing you want them to do
  • What – what are they getting for completing the action (eg registering for an event)
  • Medium – what do you need to build to allow them to complete the action, eg email, web site landing page and piece of content
  • Who – who in your organisation and /or partner ecosystem is on the hook for delivering this work
  • Target Leads – target number of marketing qualified leads for the activity (eg webinar registrations which marketing then qualify)
  • Target opportunities – of the target leads, the amount of sales qualified opportunities that you plan to generate
  • Target pipeline – the total pipeline this activity will generate
  • Total deals – the total deals or that should result from the activity
  • Total business – the total deal amount that should result from the activity

Leave extra columns for the actual leads, opportunities etc that result from these activities once the project or period is over, but that’s a topic for another post.

Make sure you build in buffer, so that you plan to exceed your target with the sum of your activities, even though you’re only promising or are being held to the target itself. Over time, and with successive efforts, you should get better at forecasting the results of your activities.

Notice too that these are all demand generation activities. You will do other activities that may not generate specific demand, like brand awareness initiatives, but you should still attempt to survey and / or measure the results. If a demand generation activity does not generate one SQO with a value that covers your activity investment by a multiple that you feel is appropriate, don’t do the activity.

Once you have an activity plan that looks reasonable, you need to cost the plan, which comes up next :-).

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Categories Marketing, Planning, Strategy

It’s Not About Starting Something

August 17, 2015 //
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It’s not about starting a project. It’s not about coming up with a great idea that could make millions. It’s not about deciding to walk coast to coast for charity.

Anyone can start something. Kids start new things every day, but how many do they finish before they get bored and move onto the next shiny metal thing?

It’s not about starting something.

It’s about finishing something. It’s about following through, executing, closing the loop, learning from the experience and moving on to the next thing.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Strategy, Technology

The Ninth B2B Marketing Step

August 14, 2015 //
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In the eighth B2B marketing step we reached the summit of the 15 steps and crafted our marketing strategy. It’s downhill from here, from steps 9 through to 15. There’s still a lot of work to do, but it should feel easier. It should feel like you’re gaining speed as you move downhill, rather than breathing heavily as you climb uphill.

The ninth B2B marketing step is deciding your marketing mix. You know your strategy, so now you need to figure out the combination of which marketing elements will get you there. These are the tools of your trade.

There is potentially one blog post for each of these marketing mix elements – and perhaps we’ll revisit this area in more detail another time – but for now I’m going to list the main elements you need to consider. This list of 10 is not meant to be exhaustive or all-inclusive – there are myriad possible elements – but hopefully I’ve captured the main ones.

  • Public relations. Are you going to use an agency or do it yourself?
  • Influencers. What analysts, influencers or mavens in the space will you leverage?
  • Traditional advertising. Will you pay for space in TV, radio, newspapers, or publications specific to your space?
  • Events. What conferences will you attend, exhibit at, speak at, to build awareness and pipeline?
  • Seminars/webinars. Will you organise your own events or perhaps partner with others to do the same?
  • Email marketing. How will you use email to create demand, nurture demand and create opportunities for your sales and partner sales teams?
  • Direct marketing. What physical items will you send to the places where your prospects work to attract them to you?
  • Digital marketing/social media. What presences, portals, platforms and plans (sorry, the urge to alliterate was irresistible) will you curate to let people find you when they’re at all stages of the buying process – especially the beginning – and / or who are currently invisible to you?
  • Online advertising. What search engine optimisation will you do, and what paid search, banner ads or sponsored opportunities will you adopt to convert browsers into prospects?
  • Collateral. What websites, micro-sites, web pages, landing pages, brochures, ebooks, white papers, data sheets, slide decks, videos, will you produce to reward your customers for their attention, in whatever stage of the buying process they are, and educate them as to how you can solve their business problems?

OK, you’ve got your blend of marketing elements you want to use. Time now to figure out the specific programme of activities that makes up your execution plan.

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Categories Marketing, Planning, Strategy

The 3 C’s of Customer Intimacy

August 12, 2015 //
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This is not so much 3 separate Cs as one rule with 3 C’s in it.  Here is my golden rule of customer intimacy:

Customers Crave Consistency.

Consistency is a comfortable armchair after a long day. It’s a familiar tune, or a fly ball to centre field. Easy.

When you’re consistent, and deal with your customers in a consistent way, they know what to expect. They grow with you, they’re comfortable with you, and the relationship deepens and develops. Remember the ‘one more thing’ of Jobs-led Apple product launches? We know it’s coming, and it sucks us in.

When you’re unpredictable, haphazard and inconsistent, customers are confused, discombobulated, frustrated. It turns them off.

I try to keep my posts consistent, to a consistent standard. It’s not a case of ‘this is getting stale, let’s change it up.’ It’s more like ‘I’m going here, it feels like home.’

For more on my consistency soapbox, see here.

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Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy
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