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

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

Here are some recommendations based on a cross-section of social media policies from B2B companies, including social media policy examples from some leading B2B companies. Social media is supposed to be fun, informal, conversational and open. Encourage openness, honesty and transparency. Ditch the legalese. Make it public.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Guidelines B2B 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

The information from a social site like this changes how journalists can write about a huge company like HP. So what can we take away from all this as B2B marketing professionals? Similarly, there are many ways we can intervene in our B2B customers’ frustrations. What do you think? What else do we need to do? Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B SME 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. We could control the public conversation because our audience had few public outlets for giving or receiving information. We have reached the point where monitoring is an absolute requirement in any B2B marketing strategy.

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. We could control the public conversation because our audience had few public outlets for giving or receiving information. We have reached the point where monitoring is an absolute requirement in any B2B marketing strategy.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 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. B2B Marketing POSTs by Laura Ramos.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Personalization 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

A Step Toward Better B2B Marketing. But the Forbes platform is an important step in helping companies understand that there is a time for selling but there is also a time (generally much earlier in the sales process) when customers and prospects are simply looking to be informed, educated and entertained. But hey, I’m a known crank.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 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. ITSMA research shows that 66% of buyers seek information themselves rather than waiting to hear from providers. They seek that information through search: 79% of c-level executives do at least three searches per day.

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. ITSMA research shows that 66% of buyers seek information themselves rather than waiting to hear from providers. They seek that information through search: 79% of c-level executives do at least three searches per day.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2010

The importance of audience segmentation in B2B will increase. Tags: Customer Relationships Marketing Strategy Application service provider B2B marketing Business Business process Chief information officer CIOs Cloud computing Corporate Executive Board E-Commerce Information technology Thought Leadership. Tweet This Post.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

We all know the increasing importance of ideas in B2B marketing. But I don’t have access to that kind of information. 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.

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 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. I’m sure that there will be opportunities and reasons for B2B to advertise on these things eventually, but that’s the easy part. I think that’s how we have to view mobile apps for B2B marketing. Continuity.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Wiki 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

We all know how sales enablement got started in B2B. Salespeople remained dependent on marketers for information. If they don’t it’s because they don’t see the link between sharing information and fatter bonus checks. Marketers helped salespeople put words to the insanely complex products and services they were trying to sell.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

As social media becomes more prevalent in marketing, we’re going to have to rethink how we gather information from prospects. Now that may be due in part to the fact that most B2B marketers have only recently begun using Web 2.0 nature of social media means that we should err on the side of less information. In our recent Web 2.0

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 22, 2010

We should care more about lead management automation in B2B marketing. Yet buyers are hungrier than ever for this kind of information and insight. They want to become as informed as possible about current trends and their buying options before they ever speak to a salesperson. No, there’s something bigger going on here.

Lead Management 100

Lead Management Marketing Management Automation Marketing Automation Services 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

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). Mostly what we do with thought leadership is educate and inform. I don’t know of another marketing term that gets so much hate mail. It’s a set up for failure.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Social Media Twitter 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 11, 2011

There’s lots of talk out there these days about the need for a technology guru within the B2B marketing department. I think B2B marketing groups need the same emphasis–and that need will never go away once the systems are installed. Maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but I wonder about the long-term need for a marketing technologist.

Analytics 100

Analytics Paid Search Agency Marketing Management Loyalty 100

Chris Koch

MAY 1, 2009

In B2B, both marketers and salespeople know the value of learning about customers’ business issues and needs. Marketing needs this information to create thought leadership and marketing materials designed to reach many different clients at once. And both know how to gain that understanding. But it makes sense to collaborate.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling B2B Sales Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

For example, there is no way that the typical Webinar is worth as much as an in-depth research report, yet we make buyers give us the same amount of information for both—we charge them the same price. For example, research shows that Europeans value their privacy more than Americans—meaning that their information may cost you more.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

For example, there is no way that the typical Webinar is worth as much as an in-depth research report, yet we make buyers give us the same amount of information for both—we charge them the same price. For example, research shows that Europeans value their privacy more than Americans—meaning that their information may cost you more.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 5, 2010

One company’s mobile application is tied to a wiki-based sales enablement website that lets salespeople generate actions and updates and get updated information from the road. Why B2B marketing will become more visual, vocal, and mobile (christopherakoch.com). But not until then. What do you think? Related articles by Zemanta.

Wiki 100

Wiki Urgency Marketing Mobile Marketing Content 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 23, 2012

Let’s face it, there are some B2B executives who wouldn’t read a white paper even if you threatened them with lima beans (what, you like lima beans? That means lists and top tens and bullet points and lots of informative subheads. It’s an important part of social media management. Readers have to feel your commitment.

Paper 100

Paper Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

JULY 22, 2011

All of which is a lead-in to this week’s entry, which is what we as B2B marketers can learn from health-care marketing. Many of us in B2B can be proud of how we educate our customers and prospects on the business issues they face—from current regulatory changes to future “sea changes.” I think we do this pretty well in B2B.

Work Management 100

Work Management Marketing Management Social Media B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 9, 2010

If your SME is a person who loves to collect information, then becoming an aggregator is a route to trust. People know that they can count on this person to provide or link to the most insightful information in the topic area—no matter where it first appeared. Aggregator. Some SMEs are always looking to see what happens next.

SME 100

SME Aggregators Blogger Social Media 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2009

In industries where the product or service is very information intensive, such as research, management consulting, technology, aerospace, etc., In industries where the product or service is very information intensive, such as research, management consulting, technology, aerospace, etc., Why did companies start focusing on it?

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

APRIL 17, 2009

Marketing can reuse the information it discovers about a strategic account with other customers in that vertical. Using that information, the marketers worked with the sales team to develop an account plan. But the research investment has a useful life beyond one specific account. Why aren’t more companies working like this?

Planning 100

Planning Process Work Management Verticals 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. so that buyers can consume the information in any form they choose. How to use social media for B2B (christopherakoch.com). Marketing is the default head of social media management in most companies.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 8, 2010

There is only one objective in social media and it is common across all companies—even across the infamous divide between B2B and B2C: Create learning networks. And learning is integral to buying—especially in B2B. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t assume, as we do by default, that ours are much different from anyone else’s.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

It’d be great if your target influencers follow you back (so you can engage them with your messages and begin to build a deeper relationship), but if they don’t, you can still gather valuable information. Tags: Marketing Strategy Social Media Uncategorized B2B marketing social media strategy social media technology. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Recently, I was asked by a former ITSMA client to help put together a plan for a thought leadership program for a B2B technology company that sells both products and services. Posted in Thought Leadership Tagged: B2B marketing, Marketing Processes, Thought Leadership. Here are my thoughts on the big pieces. What do you think?

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Recently, I was asked by a former ITSMA client to help put together a plan for a thought leadership program for a B2B technology company that sells both products and services. Tags: Thought Leadership B2B marketing Marketing Processes. Here are my thoughts on the big pieces. Please tell me what I’ve gotten wrong or left out.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing Paper 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

We see B2B companies have three choices to make for their brands in the aftermath of a crisis: Retain the existing brand as is. Customers and prospects are better informed than ever, thanks to the Internet and global connectivity. Tags: Brand, Reputation, and Positioning B2B marketing Brand Brand Management Crisis Management.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

In B2B, that’s not going to build relationships with customers. On the contrary, they asked me to explain the story I was working on and supplied that information to the CIO or their subject matter experts prior to the interview. As the media melts away, companies can’t link to or highlight objective sources on the website.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

It’d be great if your target influencers follow you back (so you can engage them with your messages and begin to build a deeper relationship), but if they don’t, you can still gather valuable information. It gives us a shot at accomplishing the three aspects of social media marketing: Monitor. ask a poll question, etc.).

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2009

In tracking B2B marketing through Twitter, I find a ton of great content being shared through blogs whose creators have already swamped the output of trade magazines. Social media tools are imperfect for informing people. Twitter is literally an endless stream of information, much of it repetitive. This is no evolution.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Paid Search Agency Viral Marketing 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 30, 2009

Most of ITSMA’s clients are B2B marketers from big technology companies that sell big, complex products, services, and solutions. This makes sense when you consider what our IT buyers have been telling us for years: that their peers are by far their most preferred and trusted choice for information during the buying process.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Enterprise Management Media 100