Chief Marketing Officer

March 7, 2016 by Marc Hausman

What to Learn from AMS’ Sad Tale

A hush rolled across the room as the presenter strode to the lectern.

“It has been six months of research, interviews with hundreds of customers and employees, and long hours of management debate,” the chief marketer explained to an audience of his colleagues. “What we have come to learn is that our difference is our people.”

AMS’ former building in Fairfax, Virginia. (Photo source: Gilbane Company)

A collective groan sucked the spirit from those in the room. Within two years, the global consultancy American Management Systems (AMS) was sliced up and sold off to suitors buying on the cheap. It was a quiet end for an innovative organization.

Starting in the late 1990s and for more than three years, Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) provided public relations and marketing services to a number of AMS’ business lines. It was gratifying work and I still consider AMS a foundational client relationship in my career.

The company’s demise resulted from changing market dynamics, failed customer implementations and, ultimately, an inability to differentiate itself.

To this day, the “difference is our people” mantra is one that business-to-business marketers struggle to articulate, validate and justify.

Yet, unlike AMS’ conundrum 15 years ago, we now have an arsenal of tactics that can be employed to successfully and cost-effectively communicate with key constituents how special are people truly are. Here are three approaches you can put in play:

Incorporate subject matter experts into a corporate marketing program by sharing their wisdom via written posts, podcasts and videos. Rather than a promotional stance, think thought leadership and education.
Reward employees for sharing content through their social media participation on business-oriented platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.
Explain clearly and concisely why your organization attracts and retains exceptional performers.

I’ve included below articles three of my colleagues at Strategic recently published on LinkedIn. Each presents a sincere story. In fact, I suspect you may even see much of yourself in these personal accounts.

Redefining Success: a First Generation American Perspective

By Shany Seawright

“While my husband worked from home and was the primary care giver for my child, I remained focused on climbing up the corporate ladder and being available to my clients every moment of the day, and even in the middle of night, for my start-up clients that worked around the clock. I saw my family for a few hours every day. My husband pushed back, and then pushed back harder, demanding more job flexibility from me.”

Finding Happiness at Work Again

By Shayda Windle

“I had my son Will in 2013, and just as any parent will tell you, my life completely changed. Work didn’t seem to matter in the same way it did prior to him being born. It was important, of course, but my priorities completely changed, and I began to realize that my family would have to be first.”

The New Realities of Fatherhood and Success

By Eldon Marr

“My wife, daughter, son, and puppy are at the center of that happiness. I couldn’t be a father that checked in before heading out the door and spent only a few minutes with my family at dinner or before bedtime. I didn’t want to miss out on watching my kids grow up.”

October 2, 2014 by Marc Hausman

Marketers Make Good on the Promise of CRM

The promises of customer relationship management (CRM) software are intoxicating.

Sales reps access timely information about accounts and a historical record of interaction with key points of contact. Identified opportunities are tracked with corporate resources appropriately marshalled to increase win rates. Revenue projections are more accurately distilled to facilitate reporting and business planning.

And, when integrated with a marketing automation platform such as Oracle Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot or eTrigue, an organization follows a prospect during the buying cycle at nearly every point of touch.

In theory, CRM-powered sales and marketing teams are efficient, effective and scalable. That’s why more than half of all North American companies surveyed by Computer Economics have adopted CRM.

As we all know though, there is often quite a gulf between theory and reality, especially in today’s complex and multi-dimensional organization.

A pressing challenge faced by marketers who seek to drive value from their company’s investment in CRM is how to motivate sales reps to take action on identified leads, without creating a hostile and adversarial environment.

Taking this issue head on is the mission of the new Strategic Lead Management CRM Solution, my firm developed in partnership with Rainmaker Associates. Utilizing the functionality of Salesforce.com (the market leader in CRM), we help marketers more effectively capture, route, track and report on sales leads.

This week I hosted John Sisson, Rainmaker’s managing director, for an exclusive online chat about how CRM can be leveraged to inspire sales team action and accountability. A replay of our best practices-focused conversation is below.

Web2Sales How Marketers Can Inspire Sales Team Action and Accountability from Kristin Janeiro on Vimeo.

February 26, 2014 by Marc Hausman

Crossing the “Last Mile” in Content Marketing

The last mile in content marketing is the alignment with measurable sales metrics. (Photo source: http://aws.amazon.com)

I often compare the sales enablement component of Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) client campaigns to the last mile that has historically bewitched cable, television, telecommunications and Internet providers.

For telcos, it is this valuable final stretch of network that is the speed bottleneck for the customer and (ironically) the most expensive to upgrade.

For corporate and field marketers, it’s the alignment of content with sales metrics (i.e. lead generation, prospect nurturing, deal capture and sales intelligence) that provides the most measurable return, yet proves the most daunting.

Why?

There are a couple of entrenched obstacles a marketer must circumvent to deliver on the sales ROI of content marketing:

1. Foster an open and collaborative relationship at all levels of the sales organization. Sales leadership must be convinced to champion the program and promote its importance to enterprise and inside reps.

Then, reps must be educated about how they can actively participate in the program by providing guidance on editorial/content strategy, serving as a content distribution channel and, most important, taking an action based on intelligence generated from analytics.

LinkedIn recently published an excellent blog post with suggestions about how to train old-school sales pros in the art of social selling.

2. Capture analytics and translate it into actionable sales intelligence. Reporting on quantity and quality of readership and audience engagement is an indication of brand awareness, credibility and thought leadership. Yet, these are the all-too familiar benchmarks marketers fall back on, even though they lack true ROI.

The modern marketer recognizes how critical it is to make recommendations about a tactical sales activity to be taken based on analytics. This demands the marketer have intimate knowledge of sales messaging, the status of opportunities in the sales pipeline, product developments and enhancements, and competitive threats.

I provide more insight into the changing role of today’s marketer in this four minute video produced by the Pulse Network.

3. Set realistic expectations and then measure program ROI. What if we bring opportunities to the sales team, make actionable recommendations and things don’t pan out?

This is a real and legitimate concern among marketers because of how tenuous the relationship often is with sales. Waste a rep’s time chasing a prospect, and you’ll lose respect and support.

Plus, in a corporate environment, no one likes to be associated with failure when they have personally championed a new approach. It’s not good for job stability.

Set expectations upfront when it comes to the opportunities identified from an integrated content marketing and sales enablement program. Not every lead or nurtured contact will produce immediate return. That’s true of any type of sales or marketing program.

The appropriate success benchmark is programmatic, and needs to be evaluated at quarterly or semi-annual intervals.

How much opportunity in the sales pipeline did this program touch during the past three months? And what percentage of those deals turned into revenue?

Those are the questions executive leadership, sales management and modern marketers need to ask (and answer).

February 14, 2014 by Marc Hausman

Content Marketing Insight from a Former Journalist

Nearly five years ago I penned a blog post entitled An Open Letter to the Unemployed Journalist in which I contended the shift in influence from traditional sources of credibility to search and social networks would result in a forced exodus from news reporting.

“What is important now is that you recognize the elimination of your job is most likely permanent. It’s comparable to those industrial laborers whose positions were swept away by globalization and automation.”

A myriad of talented and highly skilled journalists did indeed make the transition from newsrooms and broadcast studios to corporate environments where they have been professionally reborn as content marketers. One such writer extraordinaire is Sean Callahan, former editor of BtoB Magazine.

Now marketing director at Bizo and editor of the company’s popular Digital Marketing Remix blog site, Sean offers a valuable perspective on how to craft content that engages, educates and (when appropriate) entertains.

Sean Callahan, from journalist to content marketer.

Yesterday, I hosted Sean for an exclusive online Q&A to discuss the content marketing landscape. I asked him a couple of timely and relevant questions, including:

1. Recent surveys from groups like the Business Marketing Association indicate marketers plan to invest significant dollars in 2014 in content creation. Yet, there is confusion about applications such as content marketing, native advertising and brand journalism. Can you help our audience understand what each is?

2. Research firms like CEB have found that B2B buyers are now nearly 60 percent of the way through the decision-making process before they engage with a vendor on their solutions. Most marketers agree content is essential to reach these enlightened buyers. So, there’s a lot of stuff out there, yet companies struggle with how to publish effective content. Do you have any advice?

3. OK, let’s say your company is now publishing insightful, thought leadership content and the challenge becomes how to put it in the hand of the right audience – customers, prospects, partners and influencers. Talk to us about content distribution based on your experience as a journalist and now at Bizo.

4. What are a few things that companies should absolutely avoid doing when it comes to their content marketing strategy and content creation?

To hear Sean’s thoughts on each of these questions and for valuable insight to enhance the success of your content marketing programs, you can listen to a replay of our online chat and review the accompanying presentation in the resource center of Modern Marketing Today.

January 29, 2014 by Marc Hausman

How to Avoid “Wasteful Futility” in Content Marketing

Pundits and prognosticators share a common view about how corporate and field marketers will allocate resources this year. Marketers are all in when it comes to content creation.

The rise of the enlightened buyer coupled with the shift in influence to social and online communities has created a gap in the market. That is where organizations committed to crafting thought leadership, best practices and trend analysis content can step in.

There’s limited business appeal to tap dance with the dwindling number of trade journalists and analysts when a company can itself be a credible source.

A successful content marketing program must have time and budget committed to two equally important tasks – create and distribute. Most marketers get the creation part. Distribution? Not so much.

Simply put, the most elegant and carefully constructed content that fails to attract and engage the right audience is an exercise in wasteful futility.

Audience is more than a quantity benchmark. Sure, attracting numbers is important in terms of overall awareness and brand building.

Yet, in business-to-business and public sector, it is more critical to appeal to higher value decision-makers and influencers. They are the ones who play a lead role in vendor selection.

Here are three tactical approaches you can employ to improve content distribution:

Be strategic in social networking. Collaborate with your sales team to identify decision-makers at existing customers and prospects. Map where they are engaged online and then appropriately use social media as a channel to share your content.

This process cannot be automated without the risk of being perceived as spammer. Repeat…it cannot be automated.

Repurpose content for lead nurturing programs. Market automation platforms like Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, Hubspot and eTrigue require lots of exceptional content to power lead generation and nurturing campaigns.

By linking to your thought leadership content (rather than marketing oriented white papers and case studies), you can educate and inform, while growing readership with the right targets.

Establish co-distribution relationships with like minded groups and partners. Throwing up a blog roll is merely a start. Connect with other organizations that have a desirable following, and offer to share and cross-promote content.

Will they be receptive? You bet. In fact, Strategic Communications Group and Bizo recently announced a content collaboration agreement that focuses on both organizations’ publications – Modern Marketing Today and Digital Marketing Remix.

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Want to learn more about content distribution strategies? Join me on February 13 at 11:30 AM ET for an exclusive Q&A with Sean Callahan, former editor of BtoB Magazine. Our session is entitled “Understanding the Content Marketing Landscape: Reflections of a Former Business Journalist.”

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