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. What is the customer need? It’s a struggle.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Budget Programs Business 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

So what can we take away from all this as B2B marketing professionals? The trajectory of Slater’s postings look a lot like the things that customers say about our complex B2B products and services, which have a much longer arc of relationship than B2C. Our customers aren’t going to do a United breaks guitars on us.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media SME B2B 100

Chris Koch

JULY 16, 2010

For example, in the three categories I’ve looked at so far (there are six categories altogether), we have one company using analytics to predict customer buying patterns (and this ain’t diapers or laundry detergent, ladies and gents—we’re talking six-figure jumbles of complex products and services here). What is a waking dream?

B2B Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

MAY 21, 2010

Have you ever noticed that your Facebook profile page looks like one of those horrible qualification forms that we make our customers fill out? Customers are less willing to give up information. But I will tell you that this week I attended an excellent event run by Silver pop called the B2B marketing University in Boston.

Privacy 100

Privacy B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 30, 2009

Who says B2B marketers are lagging in social media? Check out these top posts if you haven’t already: Six factors driving B2B social media marketing adoption. How to create B2B social media policies. Why B2B marketers hate social media. Social media strategy for B2B: what’s required and what’s optional. Here it is.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2010

Social media is raising the bar on customer intimacy. Though it has become a generic term, customer intimacy was first coined by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema who worked at CSC/Index back in the 90s when I was a thought leadership marketer there. The theory is that every company competes in three disciplines: Customer intimacy.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Thought Leadership Work Management 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. This is the stage that occurs long before any discussion of products, services, or RFPs—indeed, it occurs before customers have even begun to think about a purchase. Related articles by Zemanta.

Social Media 100

Social Media Lead Generation B2B Thought Leadership Generation 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 29, 2009

Honestly, why do we think that sophisticated B2B buyers are going to follow our brands on Twitter or become our fans on Facebook? That would seem enough to end the debate about B2B social media participation right there. Actually, B2B buyers would probably love that but we’d lose millions and get fired.). What do you think?

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership Marketing Management 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 19, 2010

I’d like to create a guide for how to use social media in B2B that does not involve talking about the specific tools—as least not in the top line. Take an active role in social media by engaging with customers and influencers in the various forums where conversations are taking place. B2B buyers value peer connections above all else.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Despite all the breathless hype about social media these days, what I hear most from B2B marketers is frustration. For these marketers, the pool of customers and prospects is small and many of them do not want to engage publicly in social media or are simply ignoring it altogether. I think we need to parse that decision more.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Despite all the breathless hype about social media these days, what I hear most from B2B marketers is frustration. For these marketers, the pool of customers and prospects is small and many of them do not want to engage publicly in social media or are simply ignoring it altogether. I think we need to parse that decision more.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

I’m especially fond of the effect it has on my colleagues in SAP marketing: they understand that they no longer need to pitch products to get the attention of customers and prospects. That’s because customers and prospects actually come to the Forbes site and read our stuff. A Step Toward Better B2B Marketing.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

Geoff Dodds, Julie Schwartz and I brainstormed the different responses customers can have to a crisis and the steps you can take to address the problems. When a crisis hits, customers make a decision about whether the promise of a brand has been broken and whether the relationship can be repaired. Breaking the promise.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 22, 2010

So if you buy that leap of logic, let’s say that blogs are another channel, like PR, in a marketing mix designed to familiarize customers and prospects with our companies and us. And if that’s true, then we should try to increase the volume and quality of interactions with have with customers and prospects through social media, no?

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

We all know the increasing importance of ideas in B2B marketing. Every B2B company has subject matter experts (SMEs) who are working with customers to solve problems and have deep backgrounds in customers’ processes, industries, and functions. How do I get these ideas in a form I can use with customers?

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Taglines are the last bastions of a classic, one-way marketing messaging strategy, preserving marketing’s perceived right to tell customers what to think. 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. The power of we.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Taglines are the last bastions of a classic, one-way marketing messaging strategy, preserving marketing’s perceived right to tell customers what to think. 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. The power of we.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 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

JUNE 25, 2010

First, Paul Dunay (did I mention that Paul is my favorite B2B blogger yet today?) How can we help customers be extroverts? Those numbers look bad, but we have to think of them from our customers’ perspectives. I think for marketers, the issue is less about whether our customers will be more extroverted online—they already are.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Media Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

I’ve been working with my colleagues at ITSMA on another survey on social media for B2B marketers that I hope you’ll take by going here. B2B marketing lays the path to a sales discussion and supports relationships with existing customers. Why B2B marketers hate social media (christopherakoch.com). christopherakoch.com).

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 8, 2010

Companies that made commodity products would tell me with straight faces that even their financial processes were unique—GAAP be damned—and that they needed to customize their software to fit “our ways of doing things.” And learning is integral to buying—especially in B2B. What is a learning network? But it also applies in B2C.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

Posted in Customer Relationships Tagged: B2B, B2B marketing, CIOs, role-based marketing, Segmentation. Tags: Customer Relationships B2B B2B marketing CIOs role-based marketing Segmentation. Can you see how these different archetypes have different needs and interests?

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 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

APRIL 30, 2010

I’m going to be moderating a panel on this question (among others) at next week’s MarketingProfs’ B2B Forum in Boston. Our customers and prospects—especially the younger ones—will be looking at smartphones as one of their primary computing platforms—if not the primary platform. Image by TahoeSunsets via Flickr. How do we compete?

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Wiki 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

I helped host an ITSMA round table this week and a near universal complaint from our B2B technology clients was how difficult it is to launch new services in a fast, efficient way. You can compare employee perceptions about customer needs and the potential new service with the perceptions and needs of the customers themselves.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

MAY 14, 2010

Our subject matter experts (SMEs) are talking to customers. We’re seeing companies use social media to bring customers into the product and service development processes to collaborate on new ideas and improvements. We’re seeing companies use social media for customer support. What do you think? What have I left out here?

Organic Leads 100

Organic Leads Social Media Social Marketing Organization 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

I won’t be focusing on B2B marketing in the broadest sense anymore; I’ll be narrowing things to idea marketing (and the role that social media play in it). But thought leadership is supposed to be the antidote to the stuff that we (and, more important, customers) dismiss as collateral. It disregards social media.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Social Media Twitter 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2010

The importance of audience segmentation in B2B will increase. With speeds and feeds no longer relevant, marketers must get the attention of customers through ideas about how to improve business services rather than technology comparisons. Idea marketing will become more important. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 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. And while marketers can create some social media content, they can (and should) rely on their subject matter experts (SMEs) to create most of the stuff that’s going to build trust and relationships with customers.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

I helped host an ITSMA round table this week and a near universal complaint from our B2B technology clients was how difficult it is to launch new services in a fast, efficient way. You can compare employee perceptions about customer needs and the potential new service with the perceptions and needs of the customers themselves.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

That’s why increasingly, PR is going to become a matter of simply allowing your subject matter experts to be found rather than enlisting armies of PR people to try to force journalists and customers to find those subject matter experts. Push them to get lots of peer and customer recommendations and connections. Related articles.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

This price is one that high-level executives have been calculating for years as providers woo them with memberships in customer councils and invitations to private events. And some companies have disclosure rules that make it hard for their executives to participate on customer advisory boards. Relationship. The price will change.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

This price is one that high-level executives have been calculating for years as providers woo them with memberships in customer councils and invitations to private events. And some companies have disclosure rules that make it hard for their executives to participate on customer advisory boards. Relationship. The price will change.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

MAY 1, 2009

Our research on Account-Based Marketing has revealed a few such tasks: Customer understanding. In B2B, both marketers and salespeople know the value of learning about customers’ business issues and needs. Posted in Sales and Marketing Collaboration Tagged: B2B marketing, ITSMA Research, Marketing and Sales Collaboration.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling B2B Sales Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 8, 2011

I was thrilled to run a social media workshop this week with a large B2B technology and services provider (and ITSMA member). What is the next level of social media in B2B and how do you know when you’ve gotten there? Most B2B companies I work with are much farther ahead with internal social media efforts than with external.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Paid Search Agency PR 100