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. We need a process and people for reaching out to them. What do you think?

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. This is why every B2B marketing leader needs a social media participation strategy even if he or she does not intend to actively market through social media. I think we need to parse that decision more. What do you think?

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. This is why every B2B marketing leader needs a social media participation strategy even if he or she does not intend to actively market through social media. I think we need to parse that decision more. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 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.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 25, 2009

That’s why it’s important for us to start building our expertise in social media today, even if social media isn’t yet at the top of our marketing agenda (and our research shows that among B2B marketers, it is not). Social media disrupts marketing structures and processes. Social media is always on. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Paid Search Agency Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

We all know the increasing importance of ideas in B2B marketing. As buyers do more searching, they are stretching the buying process earlier and earlier, to the point where they may not have a specific product or service in mind when they search. Besides creating idea networks, B2B companies also have to become publishers.

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 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

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

We all know how sales enablement got started in B2B. From what I can tell, the internet didn’t disrupt the basic model for the sales enablement process; it just moved much of it online. Who should own the process? 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 31, 2009

It’s time to measure sales and marketing together in that process. Marketing and sales are both part of the same process: raising revenue. Create a unified lead process. He or she emphasizes one revenue generating process that both groups contribute to. Measure CPOD instead.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management B2B Sales 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. Every buyer wants to learn at all stages of the buying process.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

One of the great trends were seeing at ITSMA is increased automation of the lead process. But this trend has an unintended side effect: it exposes our content development processes (or lack thereof). That metric is going to be critically important as we automate the lead process because nurturing is marketing’s special sauce.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Planning Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

JULY 31, 2009

It’s time to measure sales and marketing together in that process. Marketing and sales are both part of the same process: raising revenue. Create a unified lead process. He or she emphasizes one revenue generating process that both groups contribute to. Measure CPOD instead. What would you add to this list?

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management 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. Create a content development process. The key components of the program are: Create a publishing process and calendar. What do you think?

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

One of the great trends were seeing at ITSMA is increased automation of the lead process. But this trend has an unintended side effect: it exposes our content development processes (or lack thereof). That metric is going to be critically important as we automate the lead process because nurturing is marketing’s special sauce.

Planning 100

Planning B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2010

Then came the Software as a Service (SaaS) providers, who offered certain applications and business processes through their own servers. Another CIO archetype, the Transformational Leader CIOs that have been focused on using IT to improve business processes, may disappear as distinct IT leaders. CIOs’ power is rooted in complexity.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 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. Most companies do not yet have closed-loop lead management processes supported by systems, for example. Paul Dunay makes the case for one in this post, and Scott Brinker has been beating the drum for this for some time.

Analytics 100

Analytics Paid Search Agency Marketing Management Loyalty 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 22, 2010

We should care more about lead management automation in B2B marketing. And that is a huge change in the buying process. Buyers are removing salespeople from the buying process. What this all means is that buyers are really trying to remove salespeople from the earliest stages of the buying process. What do you think?

Lead Management 100

Lead Management Marketing Management Automation Marketing Automation Services 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. Create a content development process. The key components of the program are: Create a publishing process and calendar. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing Paper 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

I’ve been working on a report for ITSMA clients this week about analytics and it got me thinking about the proverbial bigger picture of B2B marketing. So you have to start with the bigger process picture. I haven’t seen a better articulation of what marketing should be doing in B2B than Brian Carroll’s marketing funnel concept.

Lead Qualification 100

Lead Qualification Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

I’ve been working on a report for ITSMA clients this week about analytics and it got me thinking about the proverbial bigger picture of B2B marketing. So you have to start with the bigger process picture. I haven’t seen a better articulation of what marketing should be doing in B2B than Brian Carroll’s marketing funnel concept.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Posted in Marketing Strategy Tagged: B2B marketing, ITSMA, Marketing Processes, Marketing Strategy, social media strategy. Tags: Marketing Strategy B2B marketing ITSMA Marketing Processes social media strategy. What else are you doing to improve marketing? How are you surviving these times?

Practices 100

Practices Best Practices Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

Because they have this cross-business visibility, they have the opportunity to become business process experts and use IT to make those processes more efficient and effective. Following through on those process opportunities requires more than programming and project management skills, however.

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 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. Sync your content to the stages of the buying process. In our recent Web 2.0

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

Assuming CIOs would be willing to accept the pay cut, and smart and determined as they are, I’m certain that few have the talent for or interest in the publishing process. If we automate the processes that matter, the metrics we need will be staring us in the face. What am I paying for? The funnel becomes electric. Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Of course, devising those incentives, putting them in place, and driving the cultural change necessary to make them stick is a maddeningly complex process that helps keep consultants and academics in business. Companies need to make it worth salespeople’s while to endure the longer sales cycle and lower margins that come with services.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services B2B Sales Consulting Marketing Automation 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.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Wiki 100

Chris Koch

MAY 20, 2011

on the Savvy B2B Marketing Blog entitled How to Gain Real Traction with Thought Leadership, I talk about how marketers need to create an idea network within their organizations to spur their subject matter experts to start thinking. Marketers need to facilitate a process for internal development of ideas and for external feedback.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

Because they have this cross-business visibility, they have the opportunity to become business process experts and use IT to make those processes more efficient and effective. Following through on those process opportunities requires more than programming and project management skills, however. Tweet This Post.

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Earlier this year I surveyed B2B marketers about their approaches to corporate blogging. Tags: Blogging Marketing Strategy B2B marketing blogs Marketing Processes social media strategy social media technology. Their strategies take two basic approaches. Marketers won’t be able to do much for their independent bloggers.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Blogger Thought Leadership Word of Mouth 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. This process is usually facilitated by marketing. Some companies get pretty formal about this, creating invitation-only SME councils with entry requirements. The winning ideas are implemented.

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 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. One client summed it up by saying that there are two points of resistance in the process of bringing new things to market.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

MAY 14, 2010

We’re seeing companies use social media to bring customers into the product and service development processes to collaborate on new ideas and improvements. Shameless plug here: My favorite B2B blogger Paul Dunay is going to talk about how Avaya uses social media for customer support at ITSMA’s Marketing Leadership Forum on May 25-26.)

Organic Leads 100

Organic Leads Social Media Social Marketing Organization 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

In B2B, that’s not going to build relationships with customers. The process is incredibly expensive and inefficient. The process of getting subject matter experts placed in publications or other third-party content channels is awful for everyone involved. Placement PR. Now, it’s even harder to justify. Control kills placement.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

MAY 1, 2009

For example, the trend towards creating a closed-loop lead generation and nurturing process between marketing and sales is a positive step, but it seems like a bridge across the chasm rather than a true route to collaboration. In B2B, both marketers and salespeople know the value of learning about customers’ business issues and needs.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling B2B Sales 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. One client summed it up by saying that there are two points of resistance in the process of bringing new things to market. Makes our jobs that much easier.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Of course, devising those incentives, putting them in place, and driving the cultural change necessary to make them stick is a maddeningly complex process that helps keep consultants and academics in business. Companies need to make it worth salespeople’s while to endure the longer sales cycle and lower margins that come with services.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Consulting B2B Sales Paid Search Agency 100