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

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 In our recent Web 2.0 efforts so far (by 67% of respondents). In our recent Web 2.0

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles 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. We need to use analytics to quantify and manage how fast we move prospects through the buying process and to increase loyalty and trust after they’ve bought from us. B2C companies have these “wonks” today.

Analytics 100

Analytics Paid Search Agency Marketing Management Loyalty 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

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

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. Marketers can use the consumption of thought leadership to track the readiness of prospects to buy if they have a system for tracking a prospect’s activities.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

JULY 31, 2009

You need a closed-loop lead process that tracks prospect activity from beginning to end (and back again, in the case of lead nurturing) that is supported by a system (see this post for more on that). Marketing and sales are both part of the same process: raising revenue. Measure CPOD instead. Create a unified lead process.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management B2B Sales 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). Related articles by Zemanta.

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 2, 2011

If all you do is run contests and campaigns on Facebook, how can you expect to hold onto prospects over the long term? I’m a content guy and I think thought leadership is the best way to build nurturing relationships with contacts in B2B marketing. 4 Reasons Why Facebook Stinks for B2B Marketing (christopherakoch.com).

Social Media 100

Social Media Campaigns B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 2, 2011

If all you do is run contests and campaigns on Facebook, how can you expect to hold onto prospects over the long term? I’m a content guy and I think thought leadership is the best way to build nurturing relationships with contacts in B2B marketing. 4 Reasons Why Facebook Stinks for B2B Marketing (christopherakoch.com).

Social Media 100

Social Media Campaigns B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

The company took a different approach with customers and prospects, saying, “We’re a new Oracle.”. In times of crisis, research with the following groups is especially important: Customers and prospects. Industry and financial analysts will likely have differing opinions about the current and future prospects of the company.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2009

Marketers began using thought leadership when they recognized that customers and prospects were growing weary of salespeople trying to sell them products without knowing about the business issues that customers and prospects faced. Especially in B2B, products and services are becoming more complex and sales cycles are getting longer.

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

JULY 31, 2009

You need a closed-loop lead process that tracks prospect activity from beginning to end (and back again, in the case of lead nurturing) that is supported by a system (see this post for more on that). Marketing and sales are both part of the same process: raising revenue. Measure CPOD instead. Create a unified lead process. Tweet This Post.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

We all know how sales enablement got started in B2B. These words, mostly in the form of brochures, specification sheets, and boilerplate PowerPoint slides, helped salespeople—especially those new to the company—get a conversation going with prospects. Sales enablement used to mean brochures. But then the internet came along.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 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. Marketers can use the consumption of thought leadership to track the readiness of prospects to buy if they have a system for tracking a prospect’s activities.

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. I haven’t seen a better articulation of what marketing should be doing in B2B than Brian Carroll’s marketing funnel concept. using data to determine and predict customer buying patterns.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Marketing Automation Services 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. I haven’t seen a better articulation of what marketing should be doing in B2B than Brian Carroll’s marketing funnel concept. using data to determine and predict customer buying patterns.

Lead Qualification 100

Lead Qualification Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 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

MAY 1, 2009

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. Our research on Account-Based Marketing has revealed a few such tasks: Customer understanding.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling B2B Sales Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 25, 2011

In other words, unless we become idea organizations, we’re not going to have much to say to customers, prospects, and influencers in social media. 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. What do I mean by an idea organization?

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 100

Chris Koch

MAY 22, 2009

Customers and prospects will be anxious to hear whether they were right to place their trust in the brand. Posted in Brand, Reputation, and Positioning Tagged: B2B marketing, Brand, Brand Management, Crisis Management. Tags: Brand, Reputation, and Positioning B2B marketing Brand Brand Management Crisis Management.

Brand Identity 100

Brand Identity Branding Tagging Transparency 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 23, 2011

It’s way too early to make a call, so I’m not going to presume to know G+’s prospects for success (especially when it hasn’t even been officially launched), but there are a few things that the rise of a possible new giant in social networking points out: Social networks are porous. Twitter kills the long-winded entry about nothing.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 23, 2011

It’s way too early to make a call, so I’m not going to presume to know G+’s prospects for success (especially when it hasn’t even been officially launched), but there are a few things that the rise of a possible new giant in social networking points out: Social networks are porous. Twitter kills the long-winded entry about nothing.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 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. Social media is a channel for raising the level of intimacy that we have with customers and prospects with that content. 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

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

MARCH 18, 2011

Marketers tell me that if they can get salespeople to even send the thing to prospects and customers they’re happy. We need to create talking points for salespeople to use when communicating to customers and prospects, and we need to find ways to integrate salespeople into the content development and dissemination processes from the start.

Work Management 100

Work Management Thought Leadership Marketing Management Paper 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 18, 2012

I’m excited about the prospect of not just presenting ideas to the SCN community but also in building ideas with this community. It’s not about the style, it’s about the ideas. One of the best aspects of social media is the opportunity to put ideas to the community and gather feedback.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Communities Transparency 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

Our prospects and customers want us to cut through the noise of social media just as they’ve wanted us to cut through the noise of every other communications channel that came before. Meanwhile, trust in “credentialed experts” and “company technical specialists” is rising—we’re getting so desperate we even want to hear from the CEO.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Thought Leadership Social Media Storytelling 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

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

It is a process for developing and disseminating ideas through various channels that build a relationship with prospects and customers. Marketers can use the consumption of idea marketing to track the readiness of prospects to buy if they have a system for tracking a prospect’s activities. myventurepad.com). Tweet This Post.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Gartner Planning 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

We’re all getting constant advice—hectoring, even—about how we need to make social media a key part of our B2B marketing strategies right now. While I believe that these two threads are accurate, I haven’t seen compelling data to back them up—at least as it relates to B2B. How strong do you think the arguments are? Customer factors.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Work Management 100