Chris Koch

MARCH 19, 2010

Take an active role in social media by engaging with customers and influencers in the various forums where conversations are taking place. Take an active role in facilitating and managing conversations, such as creating a blog or community. Find and track the relevant conversations in social media and online. Develop a target audience.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

APRIL 30, 2010

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. Is there a reason for you to offer whatever help you give to customers through mobile? Continuity. An example of this is user groups. Timeliness.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Wiki 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 25, 2010

Research has shown that even in lively online communities, only 10% actively contribute, and about 1-2% actively become leaders of topics and post new threads. How can we help customers be extroverts? Those numbers look bad, but we have to think of them from our customers’ perspectives. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Media Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

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. Listen for conversation about your company or about relevant issues for you and your customers.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

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. Listen for conversation about your company or about relevant issues for you and your customers.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

MAY 14, 2010

Our subject matter experts (SMEs) are talking to customers. We’re seeing companies use social media to bring customers into the product and service development processes to collaborate on new ideas and improvements. We’re seeing companies use social media for customer support. Governance. What do you think?

Organic Leads 100

Organic Leads Social Media Social Marketing Organization 100

Chris Koch

MAY 7, 2010

The next step is to create communities around the applications so they can all geek out on it together. We need to create vibrant communities that customers will value so much that they will want a mobile application so they can keep up with the action anytime from anywhere. Collecting is fun. What do you think?

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Wikipedia Communities B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

I heard a great definition from my former ITSMA colleague Jeff Sands the other day: Sales enablement is helping salespeople be more credible with customers. What do I mean by sales enablement? We all know how sales enablement got started in B2B. Sales enablement used to mean brochures.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 18, 2009

Social media is a way to influence those peer conversations by monitoring them, engaging in them, and managing them through peer-based communities. B2B companies have fewer, more complex customer relationships and are often conservative and protective of those relationships. With good reason.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

B2B marketing lays the path to a sales discussion and supports relationships with existing customers. Social media is another channel—one of many—for making the connection and building the relationship with customers. Social media is no silver bullet.

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 30, 2009

And yet our latest annual survey of 355 buyers of complex IT solutions, How Customers Choose Solution Providers, 2009: The Importance of Personalization, Epiphanies, and Social Media, shows that the door to the C-suite is opening up. In fact, it’s hard for most of us to imagine these people using social media at all.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Enterprise Management Media 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

This price is one that high-level executives have been calculating for years as providers woo them with memberships in customer councils and invitations to private events. And some companies have disclosure rules that make it hard for their executives to participate on customer advisory boards. Relationship. The price will change.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

This price is one that high-level executives have been calculating for years as providers woo them with memberships in customer councils and invitations to private events. And some companies have disclosure rules that make it hard for their executives to participate on customer advisory boards. Relationship. The price will change.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

For marketers trying to build relationships with influencers and customers, this is a fundamental roadblock, because the permission model tries to replicate the way we form relationships in real life: Trust needs to be established before we enter into a relationship. You can follow all conversation. ask a poll question, etc.).

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

For marketers trying to build relationships with influencers and customers, this is a fundamental roadblock, because the permission model tries to replicate the way we form relationships in real life: Trust needs to be established before we enter into a relationship. You can follow all conversation. ask a poll question, etc.).

Social Media 100

Social Media Viral Marketing Tools Media 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 28, 2011

I found him on his own blog before I found him on Forrester’s and the conversation on his personal blog was more interesting and his community more engaged than on the Forrester blog. But who’s thinking about the customer here? It certainly did in my own view. What happens when your personal brand quits? I don’t think so.

Personalization 100

Personalization Forrester Brand Identity Branding 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 28, 2010

The ultimate risk in business is that your customers stop buying from you because they don’t trust you. Preventing employees from speaking to customers because they might make a mistake ignores this much bigger risk—which existed long before social media came along. Customers want to speak to the people they will be working with.

Planning 100

Planning Work Management Paid Search Agency B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

But research by my colleague Stephanie Overby has found that the real workhorse driving increased customization of manufactured goods on the production line is the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Machine. CNC machines make it easier for companies to customize products; alterations are just a matter of reprogramming the software.

Startups 100

Startups High Quality Lead Cost Order 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Two main threads underpin the logic behind these urgings: Your customers are becoming more active in social media, so you’d better get with it. Customer factors. Customers (the younger ones, anyway) are adopting social media. Marketers are building online communities—fast. How strong do you think the arguments are?

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Work Management 100