Chris Koch

APRIL 2, 2010

This may be the ultimate question in B2B, especially as we struggle to integrate social media into the overall marketing mix. Let’s face it, even if it was possible to curl up in front of the fire with a glass of wine and our B2B products and services, no one would do it. It’s the same in B2B. Related articles by Zemanta.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Marketing Marketing Budget Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

The number of B2B buyers who are ready to buy as soon as they engage with our marketing is small—and social media will make it even smaller. The best way to do this is with thought leadership. Before Nurturing a New B2B Lead, Ask the Golden Question (thecustomercollective.com). What do you think? Related articles by Zemanta.

Social Media 100

Social Media Lead Generation B2B Thought Leadership Generation 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 26, 2009

My job is to learn about how to become a better B2B marketer and to share what I learn with others. To get better, you should think of yourself as part of the emerging guild of B2B marketers in social media. I think of Paul Dunay as one of the model citizens of this online B2B guild. One of the best ways to start is with RSS.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Personalization 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 1, 2010

It’s a warm-up for the great dialogues we’ll be having at MarketingProfs’ SocialTech conference later this month in San Jose, where I’ll be speaking about social media and the B2B buying process. If you’re in B2B marketing, you gotta go to this thing. All the top social media pros will be there and the focus will be all B2B.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

For these reasons, pundits say that Twitter isn’t much use for reaching B2B customers. These days, my audience is B2B marketers and my goal is to help you learn. I have a search column in TweetDeck for “B2B.” Then I click through to see if the content is something that I think B2B marketers might learn from.

Twitter 100

Twitter Broadcasting Social Media Advertising Mediums 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

For these reasons, pundits say that Twitter isn’t much use for reaching B2B customers. These days, my audience is B2B marketers and my goal is to help you learn. I have a search column in TweetDeck for “B2B.” Then I click through to see if the content is something that I think B2B marketers might learn from.

Twitter 100

Twitter Broadcasting Social Media B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

This week I was asked to speak on a panel about social media to a group of B2B marketers in financial services. Social doesn’t happen in B2B without a culture change. When we surveyed B2B marketers last year, 50% said they do not have a social media policy. But you can’t tweet a 50%-off coupon in B2B.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

This week I was asked to speak on a panel about social media to a group of B2B marketers in financial services. Social doesn’t happen in B2B without a culture change. When we surveyed B2B marketers last year, 50% said they do not have a social media policy. But you can’t tweet a 50%-off coupon in B2B.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

In B2B marketing, we’ve never been given the right to tell customers what to think, much less the budgets to pound a tagline into their minds. I’ve spoken to hundreds of CIOs in my career as a journalist and I can tell you that at best, they ignore taglines ; at worst, they feel their intelligence insulted by them. The power of we.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

In B2B marketing, we’ve never been given the right to tell customers what to think, much less the budgets to pound a tagline into their minds. I’ve spoken to hundreds of CIOs in my career as a journalist and I can tell you that at best, they ignore taglines ; at worst, they feel their intelligence insulted by them. The power of we.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 6, 2009

Like most marketers, I spend most of my time desperately seeking to understand my target audience (B2B marketers) and delivering content that they find relevant and engaging. We have five different categories for the awards that cover important areas of focus for B2B marketers. It’s a struggle. You have to check it out.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Budget Programs Business 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

CIOs are in fact so different that marketing to them all with the same message means that you’ll be irrelevant at best, and offensive at worst to most of the people you’re trying to reach. The best have built up their business skills through direct experience. CIOs are not all the same. Business Strategist.

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 2, 2011

I’m a content guy and I think thought leadership is the best way to build nurturing relationships with contacts in B2B marketing. Marketing automation vendor Eloqua released a SlideShare entitled 10 ways to “solve” Facebook for B2B. 4 Reasons Why Facebook Stinks for B2B Marketing (christopherakoch.com). Related articles.

Social Media 100

Social Media Campaigns B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 2, 2011

I’m a content guy and I think thought leadership is the best way to build nurturing relationships with contacts in B2B marketing. Marketing automation vendor Eloqua released a SlideShare entitled 10 ways to “solve” Facebook for B2B. 4 Reasons Why Facebook Stinks for B2B Marketing (christopherakoch.com). Related articles.

Social Media 100

Social Media Campaigns B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 11, 2010

This was the gist of a very controversial assertion made by a senior marketer from a very well known B2B technology company during dinner at our ITSMA Marketing Leadership Forum (download highlights from the ITSMA Marketing Leadership Forum) when he said: “An overemphasis on leads is damaging our relationship with sales.”. Seems doubtful.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads 100

Chris Koch

MAY 1, 2009

In B2B, both marketers and salespeople know the value of learning about customers’ business issues and needs. Salespeople are best equipped and most motivated to understand the “now” of the account: what has already been sold to customers and what they are most likely to buy next. And both know how to gain that understanding.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling B2B Sales Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

PR schedules interviews between the subject matter experts and the influencers and tries to influence the interaction to put the company and its offerings in the best light. The best way to get press and influencer attention these days is to write smart things that are easily discoverable. Gatekeeper. Encourage them to blog.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 25, 2011

I’m hearing B2B companies tell me that they are starting to make idea development part of the yearly goals of their subject matter experts. Some companies have companywide competitions for the best ideas or the best white paper. Make ideas part of individual expectations. The winning ideas are implemented. Make it competitive.

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 3, 2010

I humbly offer these guidelines in the spirit of the B2B marketing guild. The best social media voices have a clear understanding of what it feels like to stand in their audiences’ shoes. As my friend Laura Nicholas points out, the best social media voices try to inspire others to action. Empathetic. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

CIOs are in fact so different that marketing to them all with the same message means that you’ll be irrelevant at best, and offensive at worst to most of the people you’re trying to reach. The best have built up their business skills through direct experience. CIOs are not all the same. Business Strategist. Tweet This Post.

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 100

Chris Koch

JULY 16, 2010

That’s also why the best movie I’ve ever seen (for me, the Godfather) still pales next to the best book I’ve ever read (War and Peace) because I own the vision of Pierre lying on his back in the middle of a horrific battlefield and looking up to see the most beautiful blue sky imaginable. I think there must be many more than this.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

Now that may be due in part to the fact that most B2B marketers have only recently begun using Web 2.0 Indeed, some B2B early adopters are seeing 10-15% of their lead totals generated through social media, according to this survey by DemandGenReport. Check out the B2B Marketing Zone. In our recent Web 2.0 I don’t think so.

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 26, 2010

One of the biggest challenges for B2B social media marketers isn’t creating content, it’s helping others create content. Very few writers are able to get their best thoughts out on paper without some help. How to use social media for B2B (christopherakoch.com). Have regular pitch meetings. What have I left out? Tweet This Post.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 16, 2009

And it’s in this sense that Twitter is a goldmine for B2B marketers. You can seek out the best thinkers in marketing—people that you’ve paid money to go see at conferences—and listen to what they have to say anytime, for free. Thankfully, adults have another context for developing relationships: communities of learning.

Twitter 100

Twitter Web 2.0 Social Media Communities 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

Partly that’s a quality issue, but it’s also an issue of B2B marketers taking the publishing analogy too literally. For many B2B companies, idea marketing is a check box on a marketing list. The best example of this that I can think of is IBM’s Smarter Planet. Idea marketing as checklist. Association in action: Smarter Planet.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

MAY 7, 2010

The smooth contours and the shimmering black glass bezels make the devices look more like something out of a Swarovski store than a Best Buy. Why B2B marketing will become more visual, vocal, and mobile (christopherakoch.com). Now of course you know that the iPhone and iPad are popular because of the way they look. What do you think?

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Wikipedia Communities B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Earlier this year I surveyed B2B marketers about their approaches to corporate blogging. That runs counter to the spirit of the best blogs. Tags: Blogging Marketing Strategy B2B marketing blogs Marketing Processes social media strategy social media technology. Their strategies take two basic approaches. Content inflexibility.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Blogger Thought Leadership Word of Mouth 100

Chris Koch

MAY 6, 2011

The best of these is still Technorati, because blogs are, in and of themselves, the most influential channel within social media. For example, many ITSMA members are companies that began by selling B2B products but are now trying to become known as full-service solution companies. These fall into two categories: The number generators.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing Work Management Media 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2009

Especially in B2B, where the products and solutions are complex and usually need to be adapted/customized in some way, developing the relationship through knowledge helps demonstrate to customers that providers can go beyond the product specification sheet and help them with their business needs.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Work Management 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2010

We know that in B2B, customers and prospects respond best to ideas, news, research, and how-to—not sales pitches. I think so because social media is starting to give us a way to scale intimacy. We can do it with content. Social media reduces the incremental cost of content.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Thought Leadership Work Management 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 18, 2012

As I say in the SCN post and as I’ve mentioned here plenty of times, I think we are kidding ourselves if we think that many of our best SMEs are going to take the time to blog. One of the best aspects of social media is the opportunity to put ideas to the community and gather feedback. Others call it ghost writing.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Communities Transparency 100

Chris Koch

JULY 29, 2011

The article itself is one of the best examples of thought leadership I have ever read. Despite its prowess in thought leadership—McKinsey is simply the best—the firm is falling dangerously behind in social media. A textbook example of pragmatic thought leadership. It is bold, clear, authoritative, and based on solid research.

Social Media 100

Social Media Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Companies 100