Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Thought leadership is little more than an interesting opinion unless it is backed up with data and case studies. There’s little point in doing thought leadership if it’s something that the company can’t follow through on. Backed up by proof. What else would you add to this list? Share and Enjoy:

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Best Practices Content 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 11, 2011

Paul Dunay makes the case for one in this post, and Scott Brinker has been beating the drum for this for some time. There’s lots of talk out there these days about the need for a technology guru within the B2B marketing department. 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

OCTOBER 7, 2011

But I talk to them all the time and I know that’s not the case for most of them. The business case doesn’t exist for social media; but it does for idea marketing. It would be easy to say that B2B companies don’t have social media policies because they just don’t get it, or they’re slow and lack resources.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

But I talk to them all the time and I know that’s not the case for most of them. The business case doesn’t exist for social media; but it does for idea marketing. It would be easy to say that B2B companies don’t have social media policies because they just don’t get it, or they’re slow and lack resources.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 18, 2009

The case for social media isn’t just about showing how buyers are flocking to social media. The first hurdle for B2B marketers in developing a social media strategy is presenting a case for why their companies should be involved in social media at all.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

In many cases, we’re charging too much for our content and in other cases not enough. No doubt marketers can also charge a higher price for a white paper that embeds a video case study or a how-to in a great looking media environment. The price is the forms we make people fill out to download white papers or sign up for events.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

In many cases, we’re charging too much for our content and in other cases not enough. No doubt marketers can also charge a higher price for a white paper that embeds a video case study or a how-to in a great looking media environment. The price is the forms we make people fill out to download white papers or sign up for events.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 22, 2011

I wrote a case study a few years ago about how IT services firm CSC has an innovation process that is facilitated by marketing. In a blog post this week entitled What CEOs Want from Their CMOs, Forrester’s CEO, George Colony, discusses the mandate for the CMO to keep an eye out for what’s ahead.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

For better or worse, that is not the case. I noticed the other day that it comes up right next to my new website in Google search when you’re looking for my blog. Trouble with that is, I stopped posting on that blog more than a year ago, so it makes it look like I have given up on blogging.

RSS 100

RSS Thought Leadership Opinions Communities 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

In truth, customers have never listened, except in a few cases of companies with the budget muscle to pound the tagline into customers’ heads over and over again though mass marketing and TV. 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.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

In truth, customers have never listened, except in a few cases of companies with the budget muscle to pound the tagline into customers’ heads over and over again though mass marketing and TV. 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.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

For example, buyers who are in the Epiphany Stage are looking for new ideas and industry news, while buyers who are actively getting ready to buy and are creating a short list of providers will be looking for case studies that profile how their peers have generated business results.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Loyalty Case Study 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

For example, buyers who are in the Epiphany Stage are looking for new ideas and industry news, while buyers who are actively getting ready to buy and are creating a short list of providers will be looking for case studies that profile how their peers have generated business results.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Loyalty Case Study 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 2, 2010

I may need to keep an eye on these guys in case they say something else that moves me. Ideas can create an emotional connection. Okay, so it’s not big emotion, but it hits some buttons: Gratitude. This company understands my pain. These guys are smart. Image via Wikipedia.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Marketing Marketing Budget Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 16, 2011

What was interesting to me is that this is even the case when they don’t interact directly with the IBMer on the page.”. For example, if we have a web page that is designed to get visitors to click deeper into our site, the presence of IBM experts on the page improves both the performance and the overall feedback we get about the page.

B2B 100

B2B Privacy Click Rate Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 16, 2011

What was interesting to me is that this is even the case when they don’t interact directly with the IBMer on the page.”. For example, if we have a web page that is designed to get visitors to click deeper into our site, the presence of IBM experts on the page improves both the performance and the overall feedback we get about the page.

B2B 100

B2B Privacy Click Rate Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 30, 2009

Sounds like a business case for investment to me. Just 15% of CEOs and directors said they did not use any form of social media at all, while 34% of manager/directors and 26% of VPs/Assistant vice presidents said they ignore the stuff. This has big implications for marketers.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Enterprise Management Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 11, 2009

But video case studies and interactive product demos—even for B2B services— are going to become more popular on mobile devices. For example, a Forbes survey found that C-suite executives are more likely to make the time for a video than other executives. Sure, there are technical issues. Video search isn’t great yet, though it’s improving.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing B2B Marketing B2B Storytelling 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

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

I’ve enclosed them and my answers below in case you’re remotely interested. Forbes has an profile section that BrandVoice authors are asked to fill out. I filled mine out today and thought the questions were really fun and interesting. I’d love to hear how you would answer these questions.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 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

AUGUST 23, 2011

It’s rare to see threaded conversations (unless the discussion is political, in which case the conversation usually happens at the shouting level). All the social networks allow for various kinds of real-time, texting style conversation, but when it comes to commenting on content, there’s little true conversation.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Every company needs a guard dog or two to be around in case of a PR disaster. 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.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 100

Chris Koch

MAY 7, 2010

What I realized is that the iPhone and iPad aren’t just jewels, they are jewel cases. When you look at the screen of the iPhone or iPad you see beautiful little jewel-like icons beaming at you from beneath the glass. They contain our collection of applications.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Wikipedia Communities B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 23, 2011

It’s rare to see threaded conversations (unless the discussion is political, in which case the conversation usually happens at the shouting level). All the social networks allow for various kinds of real-time, texting style conversation, but when it comes to commenting on content, there’s little true conversation.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Social Networks B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 26, 2010

Journalists are trained to separate the compelling ideas from the chaff and develop them with supporting evidence and case examples. Hire one to help your SMEs develop and disseminate their ideas. Buddy them up. If your SMEs refuse to go solo because they think it will be too much work, find them a partner or partners to share the load.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

Rather than trying to craft an objective view of what HP employees thought of Hurd based on a handful of interviews with a few (possibly disgruntled) ex-employees, the reporter is able to build a credible case for the fact that, as it says on the headline, “Few HP workers shed a tear for Hurd.”.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B SME 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2009

Thus, while it does rely to some extent on research and peer review as an academic journal does, it is essentially a marketing vehicle because it focuses exclusively on ideas, research, and case studies generated by McKinsey consultants and an internal research group.

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2010

Perhaps, but in most cases, CIOs were crucial to making sure that the deals didn’t completely fall apart. In our ITSMA Webinar How Cloud Computing Will Change Marketing last week, one of our guests made a bold prediction: Major IT services deals will, in the future, bypass IT. They are too important not to be made by the business.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

The theme (as opposed to an ad slogan) is something that IBM’s marketers can use in many different channels, like social media, and sends a clear signal to the organization that Palmisano probably won’t complain if you decide to write a few post about the intersection of green and efficiency on your blog.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

MAY 21, 2010

Both Facebook and we have traditionally believed that the content services that we provide—in our case studies, white papers, webinars, etc.—come And just as our traditional thinking about qual forms is failing, so will Facebook’s personal-information-as-currency model. come at a price.

Privacy 100

Privacy B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 30, 2010

B2B mobile marketing case studies. Of course, the Blackberry is the quintessential timeliness mobile app. Is there any aspect of what you do that customers would want to be alerted about the moment it happens? At the MarketingProfs event next week, I’ll have two panelists who have sprouted shoots from the tree.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Wiki 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

Occasionally, the placement PR people are in-house, but in the vast majority of cases the placement people are contracted through PR agencies. The second type of PR is based on getting the company’s thought leaders into publications and other externally-sponsored venues. This does a number of things.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

There are plenty of cells on data forms (too many, in most cases) so people may be lying about things that don’t really matter anyway. Meanwhile, Blake Hinckley cites a stat from Marketing Sherpa that says that the data we’re capturing is garbage anyway because 71% of people lie on the forms.

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

In this case, marketers work to restore faith and credibility in the company through other means than a brand change, such as customer outreach, a change in management, change in processes, or other steps. Make choices about a brand’s future.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

But in the case of the viral model, it’s all good—at least for marketers. We are tribal creatures, so we respect group opinions and authority. We tend to accept rules that the majority of those around us follow. Of course, that has good implications and bad implications.

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

But in the case of the viral model, it’s all good—at least for marketers. We are tribal creatures, so we respect group opinions and authority. We tend to accept rules that the majority of those around us follow. Of course, that has good implications and bad implications.

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100