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.). The answer is we don’t.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership Marketing Management 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

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

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. Asking for information helps deepen social media relationships. That, in and of itself, helps build trust and stronger relationships with audiences. Image by HubSpot via Flickr.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

AUGUST 16, 2011

Obviously, this is less of an issue in B2B than B2C. Cookies help us learn more about our website visitors, but you won’t learn nearly as much about the spending patterns of B2B executives through web cookies as you do with B2C buyers. Privacy is a concern in B2B, too. It may seem facile, but social media are the answer.

B2B 100

B2B Privacy Click Rate Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 16, 2011

Obviously, this is less of an issue in B2B than B2C. Cookies help us learn more about our website visitors, but you won’t learn nearly as much about the spending patterns of B2B executives through web cookies as you do with B2C buyers. Privacy is a concern in B2B, too. It may seem facile, but social media are the answer.

B2B 100

B2B Privacy Click Rate Internet Marketing 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 target executives, peer relationships are everything, but for now anyway, most of those relationships are happening offline. There’s a chasm there that many B2B marketers are unwilling to cross.

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 target executives, peer relationships are everything, but for now anyway, most of those relationships are happening offline. There’s a chasm there that many B2B marketers are unwilling to cross.

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

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. The trust leads to a more personal relationship and hopefully, a purchase.

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

We all know the increasing importance of ideas in B2B marketing. Please tell me if you think the following does the job: Relationships are what matter in selling. Please tell me if you think the following does the job: Relationships are what matter in selling. Relationship selling skills matter more than ever.

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2010

For marketers, having good relationships with CIOs was like knowing the bouncer behind the velvet rope. These CIOs could move to become heads of the specific business services that run in the cloud and manage the relationships with providers, predicts the Corporate Executive Board. Relationships will matter more after the sale.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 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 22, 2010

We should care more about lead management automation in B2B marketing. Put another way, we have to use content to establish a relationship with buyers where our salespeople can’t. And we have to continue to build that relationship over time until those buyers are ready to talk to us. No, there’s something bigger going on here.

Lead Management 100

Lead Management Marketing Management Automation Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

Marketing needs a better relationship with IT. Content creates relationships. It isn’t enough to develop idea-driven content and ship it out; we have to redesign the creation and dissemination processes so that readers are lured into conversations and relationships. If the vendors can’t help with the integration, IT can.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 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

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. Everybody wins with the MEAs.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Budget Programs Business 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

Relationship. But it’s less familiar to lower-level buyers, who are only beginning to calculate this piece as the economics of social media open up the privileges of relationship from cheesy tchotckes at trade shows to online social networks. Account history. Mobile raises the price. But the price can go up, too. startups.com).

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

Relationship. But it’s less familiar to lower-level buyers, who are only beginning to calculate this piece as the economics of social media open up the privileges of relationship from cheesy tchotckes at trade shows to online social networks. Account history. Mobile raises the price. But the price can go up, too. startups.com).

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 25, 2010

First, Paul Dunay (did I mention that Paul is my favorite B2B blogger yet today?) Tags: Customer Relationships Social Media B2B marketing David Weinberger Extraversion and introversion Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Personality test Psychology Social Sciences. Image via Wikipedia. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Media Wikipedia 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.”.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads 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 recently did a search on some well-known B2B technology brands and compiled their taglines in the list below. Not that the defenses were much more than Maginot Lines to begin with.

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 recently did a search on some well-known B2B technology brands and compiled their taglines in the list below. Not that the defenses were much more than Maginot Lines to begin with.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2010

These are companies that go out of their way to build close customer relationships. Hard to manage and to scale, highly reliant on the vagaries of human nature, most companies continue to have poor relationships—or worse, no relationships—with their customers. Social media is making that fact plain. We can do it with content.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Thought Leadership 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

AUGUST 23, 2011

There are only two types of relationships in social networking. G+ is touted as something new, but it’s really a combination of two elements that I’ve talked about here before: Permission-based and viral-based relationships. G+’s relationship model mix of the two is a little bit complicated. So much so that it takes a PhD.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 23, 2011

There are only two types of relationships in social networking. G+ is touted as something new, but it’s really a combination of two elements that I’ve talked about here before: Permission-based and viral-based relationships. G+’s relationship model mix of the two is a little bit complicated. So much so that it takes a PhD.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B 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

Chris Koch

JUNE 16, 2009

To someone her age, the concept of following immediately conjures up the issue of personal relationships—who you hate and who you like—and status—who is popular and who isn’t. Thankfully, adults have another context for developing relationships: communities of learning. Follow to learn. Think about it. Nobody knows but me.

Twitter 100

Twitter Web 2.0 Social Media Communities 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 16, 2010

Salespeople and businesspeople could see the talent and creativity in the ads and brochures, relationships being made at the events, and the business cards in the fishbowl. And we have to use other tactics that, in and of themselves, build trust and relationships with buyers. And to business people, that all represented value.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Social Marketing 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

Tags: Customer Relationships B2B B2B marketing CIOs role-based marketing Segmentation.

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 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

APRIL 10, 2009

It became a way to build trust and interest among prospects and to build a relationship with prospects based on knowledge rather than product information. Especially in B2B, products and services are becoming more complex and sales cycles are getting longer. Early engagement builds credibility and creates a stronger relationship.

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Twitter’s viral relationship model means that your subject matter experts can build up their networks of influence much faster than through a press release. You can’t do what one B2B company did: require that subject matter experts submit tweets to PR for approval two weeks in advance of posting. Get them twittering. Facilitation.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 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. But social media tools can alter relationships. That’s why I’m so intrigued by the viral relationship model invented by Twitter.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Paid Search Agency Viral Marketing 100