Self Education

For Sales, Communication is the Name of the Game

May 1, 2012 Leave a Comment

Are your salespeople fully equipped to engage in conversations with their target executives? Do they speak the language of the CFO for instance?

Salespeople get referred down to the level they sound like.

What terminology do they use? What is their conversation style?

Make sure you TEACH your salespeople to speak the language of your target executives!

We love comments and those who share on social media.

Jeff Ogden is President of the lead generation company and global marketing firm Find New Customers. He’s also the host of Mad Marketing TV and the creator and host of Marketing Made Simple. Check out the new SCORE Demand Generation Program from Find New Customers too.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: Find New Customers, management-best-practices, sales-challenges

Starting From Scratch: 10 Steps To Launch A Content Marketing Strategy

April 27, 2012 Leave a Comment

At the recent Content2Convert Conference in NYC, Aldath Albee of Marketing Interactions presented a 10 step content marketing program. I wish to thank my good friend Arthur Germain of The Communication Strategy Group for taking copious notes.

This list of ten things is a quick guideline to a good content marketing program and I’m using to gain CEO support with a current client of Find New Customers - a software firm in Stamford, CT. It’s elegant in its simplicity. Thanks Ardath. I also added comments on each step from me, the President of Find New Customers.

Hope you find it helpful.

Gain C-level Buy-in
Getting support for this program is ongoing and important
Pick a Priority
Whom will we target? I recommend we start small and focus where we have the best chance of success.
Assess Your Database
Spend some time going over your database to ensure the information is correct. Marketing is about sending the right content to the right person at the right time. This depends on accurate data.
Build Buyer Insight (personas)
Interview customer to learn key insights. Use the 5 Rings of Insight at www.buyerpersona.com (I had the pleasure of interview Adele Revella of The Buyer Persona Institute for Mad Marketing TV.) Don’t assume you know what they think. (This is a common mistake - thinking you know what buyers actually think.)
Revisit Your Childhood (ask questions, wonder)
Keep it simple and ask lots of questions. What are their issues? What questions might they have? Kids ask lots of questions.
Design Your Content Flow
Look at the customer buying process and decide how your content should map to this.
Conduct a Content Flow Audit
Content needs to move buyers through a buying process. Lay out the process and find the gaps.
Assess Capabilities & Resources
The content audit reveals gaps. Some content is old and tired. Some is poorly designed. Some is missing. We need to re-purpose, reuse and create. What can be done in-house and what should be outsourced? (Check out the nice folks at Avitage.)
Create an Editorial Calendar
Publishing should be an ongoing function. Create a calendar to ensure we publish on regular basis.
Set Appropriate Expectations
Make sure you have enough time to deliver results. If the sales cycle is 9 months, don’t do a 3 month program. It takes time to get everything going. Make sure you set the right expectations.

Please note that our new marketing show, Marketing Made Simple TV, launches in a couple of weeks. In addition, we invite you to check out Find New Customers new SCORE Demand Generation program.

What do you think? We love to read comments and appreciate those who share on social media.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: buyer personas, content marketing, Find New Customers, management-best-practices, Marketing Made Simple, sales-challenges, social media

Zappos company values. What are your values?

April 24, 2012 1 Comment

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jenn Linn, the CEO of Delivering Happiness (a Zappos creation) for Mad Marketing TV a couple of weeks ago. One of the things I love about Zappos is the whole idea of delivering happiness - to employees, to strangers and to customers.

Please also check out the new SCORE Demand Generation Program from Find New Customers.

Jenn LIm

One of the things that is striking about Zappos is their company values. They were not an edict from management, but rather every employee of Zappos was invited to participate.

Here is the final list they came up with:

Deliver WOW Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communications
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More with Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble

What are your company values? Did they come from a management edict or did your people give input? Are they a sign on the wall, or do you people live them and look for them in prospective new employees?

They are values of Find New Customers, by the way.

What do you think? We love comments and those who share on social media.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: company values, management-best-practices

Laugh and Learn with Find New Customers | Marketing Words

April 20, 2012 1 Comment

In his weekly B2B marketing show, Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers shares a key marketing lesson using wit and humor. We hope you’ll tune in each week for a new Laugh and Learn show as well as our Mad Marketing TV show. And our newest show, Marketing Made Simple, premiers on May 1st.

In this show, he illustrates the importance of selecting words carefully. In B2B marketing, the words you chose mean the difference between huge success and abject failure. This touching story show how selecting the right words can make a huge difference in results.

What do you think? We read all your comments and appreciate those who share on social media.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: content marketing, Laugh and Learn

Generalists vs. Specialists - Why Specialists Know So Much More

April 15, 2012 Leave a Comment

Specialist-People-Foundation_kontor_cp_Bogdan-Szymczyk1

Specialists are vastly superior to Generalists. Read this to know why.

I was chatting with my good friend, Jim Burns CEO of Avitage, about content marketing. I was struck by Jim’s deep knowledge and expertise. And the highly innovative approach he use to create a video briefing sponsored by Act-On Software by using Watchitoo and syndicating it to other sites, such as this blog.

I was struck by the difference in conversations between an expert like Jim and the run of the mill marketers I talk to all the time. Case in point, one of the new clients of Find New Customers is using product-oriented content in lead nurturing.

Then it hit me. It’s all about specialization. People like Jim and me spend every day thinking and researching the best ideas in the industry. Most marketers are in fire-fighting mode most of the time, leaving them little to no time for research. As a result, the superiority of specialized third parties grows and grows.On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a novice and 10 being an expert, Jim is a 9.5 and most marketers are a 5 or 6. Why?

Here’s the marketing take-away - look for the expertise of outside Specialists wherever you can.

Want to see a good example of Avitage’s expertise? Take a look at their Microsite Create Like a Publisher.

Why don’t you also check out the new SCORE Demand Generation Program from Find New Customers? We’re Specialists too.

What do you think? We love reading comments and appreciate those who share on social media.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: content marketing, Find New Customers, lead-generation, lead-nurturing, lead-scoring, management-best-practices, marketing-campaigns

Why Facebook’s New Timeline for Brands Should Be Embraced - Guest Post

April 11, 2012 Leave a Comment

Jeff Ogden, President of the lead generation company and global marketing firm, Find New Customers is pleased to present this guest post by Caeden MacGregor of SEO in Vancouver. Bio follows the post.

___

Agile business owners can make the recent changes work for them

Every few months, Facebook changes its layout to widespread, ineffectual protest from those who prefer the “old Facebook” (about which they were fuming a few months earlier). Facebook’s Timeline overhaul is a bit more daring than the usual minor facelift, but at least for business owners, it appears to be a step in the right direction. Here’s why:

Timeline gives your brand a sense of history

The new Timeline feature allows you to archive your company’s history (if it has one) in an attractive, interesting format. By adding past events, you can make your brand page content-rich from the start, and then allow users to track past events including openings and product launches as they occur. Rather than simple ad blurbs, Timeline allows you to tell your company’s story, which is demonstrably more effective in engaging users. Coca-Cola, for instance, has Timeline entries going back to 1898; and while your brand might not be able to boast that kind of history, you can use Timeline to establish an immediate, impressive presence on Facebook.

Conversation is more important than likes

The previous interface conditioned marketing professionals to chase ‘likes’ as evidence of their messaging success, but it was a rather lazy way to measure penetration, and not always an accurate indicator of user engagement with the product. The new Facebook layout invites conversation through news-feed marketing, rather than inviting a superficial ‘thumbs-up’ to your brand, which means very little to you or the user. According to TechCrunch, only 10% of total page app traffic was driven by landing pages, while the other 90% came from published links and ads; so the new layout forces marketers to do what’s effective rather than what’s easy.

The visual layout of your page is more versatile and attractive

The introduction of the cover photo allows more customization of your page’s look (while maintaining enough uniformity to prevent the kind of visual cancer that afflicts Myspace pages). Pages were previously dominated by Facebook’s default format, making it difficult to catch the user’s eye and differentiate your brand’s page from the ocean of groups and celebrity pages. Big images inserted into your business’s feed, no matter how professional, tended to look like tacky banner ads. Now, Target and Victoria’s Secret and Best Buy have pages that look like the Target and Victoria’s Secret and Best Buy websites as much as they look like Facebook; and that’s great news if you have (or want to establish) a distinctive look for your brand.

Pinning posts to the top of your News Feed gives you more control over your message

People don’t have much patience with a pitch, especially online, so it’s hard to overestimate the impact of a first impression when a user comes to your page. By pinning a post to the top of your Feed for a specified time period, you’re able to control exactly what visitors see first. These pinned posts will likely take on the role previously filled by landing pages by directing visitors to like your page, without turning off visitors who choose not to click.

New Admin Panel allows you to better track how your brand is doing on Facebook

Your page’s new Admin Panel lets you track how many visitors are viewing, liking, and sharing your Facebook content, as correlated with individual posts—allowing you to see how your brand is doing in general terms, but also identifying which posts are making an impression on users and creating conversation about your brand. If you have experience with SEO, this will look pretty familiar. It also presents a to-do list for creating greater engagement with your users, which can be a big help to beginners.

About The Author

Caeden M MacGregor is a staff writer for SEO in Vancouver who specializes in blogging on viral marketing, social media, and internet marketing tips and techniques. Caeden has written for numerous blogs in a variety of fields ranging from software to fitness, and from gourmet food to travel.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: marketing-campaigns, sales-challenges, social media

B2B Company in Northern New Jersey? Learn to Drive Results with Social Media tomorrow!

April 9, 2012 Leave a Comment

BMA-NJ’s B2B Social Media Symposium (SMS)

Learn how to leverage the key social media strategies and platforms for a truly integrated business-to-business marketing campaign.

The Keynote presentation at lunch will be delivered by Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers, a social media expert, b2b marketing guru and professional writer, speaker and TV host.

You have a Facebook page. You have a LinkedIn account. You even have a Twitter account. And they’re all focused on your company or business.

You’ve spent time building your key social media platforms for your company. But now what? How do you effectively use them for truly integrated marketing with your offline and other online campaigns?

BMA-NJ’s B2B Social Media Symposium isn’t your typical “how to do” social media session. At BMA-NJ’s half-day symposium – with two sessions and a lunch keynote – you’ll see real-life case studies on how companies have successfully integrated social media into their marketing programs.

You’ll learn how socially engaged businesses achieve competitive advantage through social media tools. And you’ll come away with actionable ideas to solve your own marketing problems.

B2B SMS Agenda:

9:00 am to 9:30 am
Registration, Networking and Breakfast

Opening Remarks and Program Introductions

Steve Cummins
Director of Marketing
Panasonic Electric Works Corp. of America

Steve is a B2B marketing executive with more than 20 years experience in Industrial and High-tech industries. His global business experience includes many years of working with Asian and European customers and suppliers, and promoting emerging technologies through multiple sales channels.

Steve is an enthusiastic early adopter of new marketing platforms including LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, and has successfully implemented Digital B2B Marketing programs with Panasonic.

He regularly discusses current digital marketing issues on his personal blog.

9:45 am to 10:45 am – LinkedIn for B2B

Carrie Craig
Senior Account Executive
LinkedIn

With more than 150 million members, LinkedIn is one of the most used resources for professional and personal networking. With new features, using LinkedIn for B2B marketing is offering new ways for business marketers to prospect for leads.

Carrie brings 10+ years of experience implementing digital and integrated programs across various verticals, including technology, financial services, consumer packaged goods, and pharmaceuticals.

11:00 am to 12:00 pm – Google+ for Businesses

Judith David
Social Specialist
Google

With the release of Google+, B2B marketers have another new tool for social media success. During this session, Judith will explain the evolution of Google+, best practices for businesses looking to leverage Google+, and how to get started.

As Google’s social specialist for the B2B vertical market and the voice of the @GoogleB2BTeam Twitter feed, Judith monitors the social strategies for leading B2B brands and develops custom marketing solutions across Google platforms. After 8 years of working in brand management, Judith joined Google in 2010 and has worked with brands in the Global Manufacturing, Transportation & Logistics and Consulting Industries.

12:00 pm to 1:00 pm – Keynote and Lunch

Jeff Ogden
B2B Demand Generation Expert
Writer/Speaker/TV Host

We’re delighted that Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor and President of Find New Customers is delivering our keynote address.

Jeff has built a highly successful marketing consulting business via publishing remarkable content on his blog, social media and other sites. His blog is in broad syndication and he also hosts a popular marketing show called Mad Marketing TV, which publishes on YouTube. He’s also a professional writer and speaker, having penned four white papers and he is a national speaker for the Business Marketing Association.

He was also a guest on Hubspot TV and also on Intrepid Radio. He’s a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and he lives on Long Island with his wife and three boys.

When: April 10, 2012 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

Where: Sheraton Lincoln Harbor, 500 Harbor Blvd., Weehawken, NJ

Cost:

Early Bird Registration (with payment in full received before 3/21):
$119 members
$169 nonmembers

Regular Registration (from 3/22 to 4/6):
$139 members
$189 nonmembers

Late Registration (after 4/6 or at the door):
$149 members
$199 nonmembers

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: Find New Customers, management-best-practices, social media

Why Are Lottery Winners So Unhappy?

April 6, 2012 Leave a Comment

Life Lessons From Sad Lotto Winners - What I Learned Interviewing the CEO of Delivering Happiness

Lottery Winners are an unhappy bunch. Despite that $1.5 billion dollars was spent on the recent MegaMillions lottery. Why do people do it, when so many lottery winners are unhappy?

Jenn LImare unhappy?

Delivering Happiness is a company started by Zappos. They’ve examined the science of happiness and they found that most people are utterly unable to predict what truly makes them happy.

Jenn Lim is the CEO and Chief Happiness Officer of Delivering Happinessand I interviewed her on my online TV show, Mad Marketing TV. One of the slides she shared is below.

Notice the processes outlined here. Get a girlfriend/boyfriend, find a soulmate, get married, etc. Too many people confuse the early steps - getting a girl or boy friend, landing a new job, etc. with actual goal, Happiness. Delivering Happiness found that people want a higher calling and to feel empowered.

Why don’t you check out Delivering Happiness today?

What do you think? We love to read comments and those who share on social media.

Jeff Ogden is the President of Find New Customers and wants to deliver happiness to salespeople everywhere - quality sales leads. Check out our SCORE Demand Generation Program too.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: Happiness, management-best-practices

Good-Bye Chase. Hello American Express

April 5, 2012 1 Comment

Update on 4/5/2012 We won a new account! That means even more money coming in and making Chase look even more foolish!

We have a happy problem at Find New Customers. Business is booming. So we are bumping up against our credit limit on our JP Morgan Chase credit card.

No problem. Pick up the phone and talk to them. Ask for a credit line increase. After all, I’ve paid on time and Find New Customers is a long time customer and the credit limit has been the same for years.

I spoke very nicely to them. “I’m sorry, Sir, but we’ve determined that your current credit line is adequate.” After trying and trying, they would not budge. I hung up.

My next call was to a company I respect a lot more - American Express. 10 minute talk. Approved. New card came overnight.

Good-bye JP Morgan Chase. Hello American Express.

Here’s the marketing take-away. Work with your customer to find a reasonable compromise (like a small credit line increase) That way you keep a customer. Chase failed to do that. Shame on them.

Jeff Ogden is President of the lead generation company and global marketing firm Find New Customers. We also invite you to check out our new SCORE Demand Generation Program.

What do you think? We love comments and those who share on social media.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: Find New Customers, management-best-practices

CMO.com | Study Finds Marketers Don’t Practice ROI They Preach

March 29, 2012 1 Comment

More Than Half Don’t Use ROI Metrics to Plan Budgets; 28% Rely on Gut Instinct

This article, which published at CMO.com on 3/16/2012, points to how few marketers leverage ROI metrics. It directly points to the need to bring in outside experts in B2B demand generation like Find New Customers.

According to a study of 243 CMOs and top marketing execs, almost 6 out of 10 don’t establish budgets according to ROI measures. “Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they base their budget decisions on historical spending levels, while 28% said they go with gut instinct. And 7% said most of or all their spending decisions aren’t based on any metrics at all.”

The study was conducted in January and February by the Columbia Business School Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association, and results were presented at the Brands Innovation Technology conference in New York on March 5.

To read the rest of the article, please visit Study Find Marketers Don’t Practice the ROI They Preach.

“We at Find New Customers believe the inability of marketers to use ROI points to the need to bring in outside help with B2B demand generation. Since we’ve interviewed metrics experts like the Lenskold Group for Mad Marketing TV, we have not only the knowledge, but a world-class network to draw upon.”

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: Budgets, CMO, Metrics, ROI