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5 Best Practices to Rev Up Lead Generation

Each holiday season I express my appreciation to family and friends for the many joyous and wonderful aspects of my life – personal and professional.

This year I’m particularly thankful for three things:  1) the improving basketball skills of my two sons; 2) toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (seriously, give one a try); and 3) The Pulse Network.

Why Pulse?

Simply put, they are an exceptional corporate partner of ours.  Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) sponsored Pulse’s Inbound Marketing Summit in San Francisco and Boston which delivered visibility to a group of senior corporate marketers and technology vendors.

As part of this sponsorship, I was afforded an opportunity to present on stage at both events.  Here’s a 10 minute clip of my keynote in Boston entitled “Be Heard in a Crowd: How the Right Content and Social Strategy Will Drive Sales.”

Earlier today I was the featured guest on The Pulse Network’s Web-based news program called Content Marketing 360.  Themed “Revving Up Your Lead Generation Programs in 2014,” I shared five best practices a marketer can employ to drive more success from their investment in demand generation.

1. Target prospects based on propensity and profitability.  Many organizations squander resources by pursuing business with prospects who have no intention of ever buying or (worse) represent unprofitable business.

2. Follow the rule of three when it comes to messaging.  Keep your company’s value proposition clear and concise, and limited to three core messages.

3. Focus on content distribution, as much as creation.  Exceptional content is irrelevant if you don’t put it in the hands of customers and prospects.  That’s why it is imperative to fund a multi-channel content distribution program.

4. Collaborate with sales from day one.  Sales reps are in frequent dialogue with prospects and can help you more quickly identify the needs and requirements of the market.

5. Cherish the data.  Analytics serve as a barometer of interest and opportunity because prospects tell us what they think by how they engage with content.

 

My stand up comedy experience served me well at IMS San Francisco.

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My “Hippo” Comment Comes Off as Class-less

During my keynote presentation last week at the Inbound Marketing Summit I referred to another speaker as “the hippo lady.”  The reaction from many in the audience was swift and unforgiving.

 

OK, here’s a bit more context.  During my talk I referenced an interesting comment offered earlier in the day by Sonja Wraith, who is the marketing lead at a content management system (CMS) vendor called Hippo.

Sonja’s presentation included an extensive discussion of their corporate brand and how it serves as a point of differentiation for Hippo from competitive CMS providers.  I was unable to recall Sonja’s name at the time of my speech, so out spilled the dreaded “hippo lady” phrase.

Admittedly, I cannot feign complete innocence for this gaffe as I also aimed for a laugh from the audience.  I subscribe to the “3Es” when preparing remarks for an industry conference – engage, educate and entertain.

Humor is engaging and entertaining, so I often pepper my presentations with funny (and topically relevant) anecdotes.  Here’s an example from a marketing conference in San Francisco where I spoke during the summer.

I’ve now had time to reflect on the hippo lady remark and concluded there is simply no place in a professional environment for something that can potentially be perceived as a personal slight.

I have included below video of my presentation at the Inbound Marketing Summit.  Thankfully, Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) marketing lead edited out the inappropriate remark.

As the anchor man Ron Burgundy advised, “Stay classy, San Diego.”

 

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The Magic and Motivation of Director Lee Daniels

The Pulse Network scored big when they landed award winning movie producer and director Lee Daniels as the keynote speaker at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston.

Daniels credits include acclaimed films such as Monster’s Ball, Precious and The Butler.  In an hour long discussion hosted by Boston-based broadcast personality Butch Stearns,  Daniels engaged and entertained more than 200 corporate marketers with anecdotes about his life, his sources of inspiration and the creative process.

Here are a few highlights:

What are the brand attributes of his films?  America…truth…family…race relations and healing.  Daniels tells stories about overcoming adversity because of how it inspires him and his audiences.

During audience Q&A, I asked Daniels about how he has managed the egos of the talented actors who have appeared in his films (Oprah Winfrey, Forrest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, etc.).  His directorial approach focuses on the “honesty of the story” which creates a shared cause among everyone working on the film.  Talent tends to buy into this and, as a result, he’s yet to face a significant problem with his actors.

Does he read critic reviews of his movies?  No…he creates films for audiences, rather than critics.  He  is more tuned in to audience reaction and feedback, and how his stories inspire people.

What has inspired him in life?  The eldest of six children, Daniels’ dysfunctional relationship with his father and (now) his close bond with his children motivates his passion.  He learned his craft on set, rather than a more formal education in film school.

Advice for someone who wants to break into the entertainment business?  Daniels said you have to be “in it” with a desire for the art that exceeds everything else in life.  Few have that level of blind commitment.

 

In his latest movie, Daniels takes on issues such as race relations and family relationships.

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Confessions of a Conference Goer: What Hit (and Missed) at IMS San Francisco

The blogger and his wife at the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

After a wonderfully productive week in San Francisco to play tourist, visit with a couple of corporate marketers, and attend and speak at the Inbound Marketing Summit (IMS), the five hour flight east presented an opportunity to recharge and reflect.

Here’s my unabashed view of the conference:

Content is the Core

Profile industry speakers and panelists to address timely and meaningful topics attract high quality attendees.  This, in turn, sells exhibitors and sponsors which then creates a well rounded community at the event.

IMS did well to recruit speakers with diverse perspectives.  Analysts typically draw because of their focus on market defining trends and experience speaking to groups.

Digital Clarity Group’s Robert Rose delivered on that expectation with an insightful presentation entitled “Transforming B2B Marketing.”  Rose emphasized three issues that are very much top of mind with chief marketing officers:

-Content and its role as a centralizing force for an organization’s external communications

-Context and the need to craft messaging based on industry trends

-Chaos and the requirement to invest a percentage of budget on innovative endeavors

Panel discussions with a healthy dash of tension also prove to be constructive.  A few of the IMS sessions were merely a hollow chorus of consensus, which left much of the audience thumbing their smart phones.

An exception was the “State of Inbound Marketing” that featured an attention grabbing debate between Patrick Cahill from Beep! Directed Voice Mail and Kelly Jo Horton of Marketo about the return on investment from marketing programs.  Kelly Jo stands in the brand court with a commitment to story telling, and fostering emotional bonds with customers and prospects.

In comparison, Patrick shares my more pragmatic opinion that the majority of marketing initiatives must be evaluated by their contribution to lead generation, lead nurturing and/or deal capture.

The incorporation of video into a presentation by Jason Thiebault of Limelight Networks also proved to be a winner.  Appropriately called “Why Video is the Future of Marketing Content,” Thiebault highlighted each best practice with a real-world example pulled off the servers of YouTube.

 

Networking at Events, On-Premise and Online

Like most industry conferences, IMS effectively extended the relationship building return for attendees from solely the venue to a myriad of online environments.  During the keynotes and panel presentations, there was a healthy Twitter exchange, followed by a flurry of new LinkedIn connections.

Plus, there was ample time allocated in the agenda for informal discussions and chatter among participants.  Personally, it afforded me the opportunity to seek out a group of executive level business developers who I had an interest in speaking with about potential teaming.

 

 

Venue and Food Fall Flat

While San Francisco is a magnificent city with an extensive portfolio of top-drawer hotels and meeting facilities, IMS was inexcusably housed in the drab and hard to find Fort Mason Center.  My late afternoon ritual was a time consuming search for a cab to shuttle me back to my hotel, which was situated in a more central part of the city.

The food and drink offerings at the conference were equally deplorable with a limited supply of beverages and snacks during the sessions.  This disappointment was topped off by the arrival of a single food truck for lunch each day, producing a 30 minute long line of guests salivating for mediocre taco.

Perhaps I have grown spoiled by the royal accommodations at GetWellNetwork’s GetConnected conference and Polycom’s global partner summit, yet jetting 3,000 miles for a lukewarm bottle of water and cereal bar (yes…that was all that was offered in the afternoon) is unacceptable.

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Getting Real at Inbound Marketing Summit San Francisco

This past Wednesday I hit the stage at the Inbound Marketing Summit (IMS) in San Francisco with a fury one attendee described as akin to a caffeinated ferret.

For me, the comparison is a wonderful and appreciated compliment.  That’s because during the past few years I have honed a speaking style I define as real-world and practical information wrapped in a cocoon of entertaining enthusiasm.  I energize a room with insight.

In the the past 12 months I have taken this brand of presentation to Eloqua’s North American User Conference, TEAM Polycom, Pitney Bowes Software’s Annual Sales Kick-Off, Human Resource Leadership Forum and now IMS.

Entitled “Driving Pipeline in a Field Sales Environment,” my talk was organized into four segments:

1.  Set the stage with humor.  I shared an entertaining anecdote from a new business presentation I gave last year to establish interest in my topic:  how to align content creation and multi-channel promotion with measurable sales metrics.

2.  Define the market environment for context and relevance.  I dove into two significant trends – the enlightened buyer and a shift in influence to social networks – to establish why inbound marketing is such a meaningful endeavor.

3.  Share best practices each attendee can execute.  A conference presentation is absolutely not the time to sell Strategic Communications Group’s services.  Rather, I talked through five steps each attendee to elevate the impact of their content marketing programs. -Build a user friendly blog or micro-site –Think like a publisher when crafting content -Promote through multiple channels (social, search and digital) -Align with sales -Study analytics for insight and intelligence

4.  Illustrate with real-world examples.  I referenced three client programs to validate the credibility of my suggested best practices.

–Engage Today for Pitney Bowes Software

–The Modern Network for Juniper Networks

–Transformative Health for GetWellNetwork  

So…how did I do? The on-site and social feedback has been way positive.  I added a myriad of new Twitter followers from the audience, as well as a set of exceptional LinkedIn contacts.

And the tweets…well…check out a few below.

 

 

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