Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

But they call it “financial services” for a reason: They have all of the same struggles as technology services companies—with the added complication of tons of regulatory requirements. They had to do with other things that companies have to do before they can successfully engage in social media.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

AUGUST 5, 2011

Every time we talk about it, we have an endless argument that leads nowhere.”. I’m not saying that B2B companies shouldn’t be on Facebook. I think every company should be on Facebook. So I think B2B businesses should have a Facebook page that shares whatever content the company is already producing.

Facebook 100

Facebook B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership B2B 100

Chris Koch

JULY 31, 2009

I’ve had some good conversations this week with ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz and with lead management guru Brian Carroll and we all agree that in the broadest sense, measuring marketing misses the point. Create a unified lead process. So we should just stop. Measure CPOD instead. Get adult supervision.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

JULY 31, 2009

I’ve had some good conversations this week with ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz and with lead management guru Brian Carroll and we all agree that in the broadest sense, measuring marketing misses the point. Create a unified lead process. So we should just stop. Measure CPOD instead. Get adult supervision. What would you add to this list?

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

Two of the companies I spoke to for my report use analytics to determine which marketing tactics are working and which ones aren’t. He differentiates between a marketing funnel and a sales funnel because so many leads are lost in the handover between marketing and sales—94%, according to this report. Universal lead definition.

Lead Qualification 100

Lead Qualification Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

Two of the companies I spoke to for my report use analytics to determine which marketing tactics are working and which ones aren’t. He differentiates between a marketing funnel and a sales funnel because so many leads are lost in the handover between marketing and sales—94%, according to this report. Universal lead definition.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 16, 2010

In our survey, we asked, “In your company, is marketing the catalyst for social media being used by others in the company (product development, HR, etc.)?” Marketing as a percentage of revenue for technology services companies is at an all-time low—less than 1%. That’s right. It’s our job. 68% of our respondents said yes.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Social Marketing 100

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

We’re starting to see social media have a positive impact on driving traffic to websites and on lead generation. Increased lead generation” was farther down the list—24% are seeing it. Social media and lead generation go together. But there is a natural link between social media and lead generation. In our recent Web 2.0

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

One of the reasons that companies used to like to advertise in publications like Fortune and BusinessWeek and in trade magazines like CIO was that they could associate their companies with the smart content that these publications produce. For many B2B companies, idea marketing is a check box on a marketing list.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

MAY 21, 2010

That price is personal information, company information, and buying intent. of the time any link that you put in a tweet is going to lead to accessible content. Both Facebook and we have traditionally believed that the content services that we provide—in our case studies, white papers, webinars, etc.—come come at a price.

Privacy 100

Privacy B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 18, 2011

Too much of our content just tries to look and sound smart—great focus on ideas, but no real connection to how our companies can solve the problem. Both of these themes give subject matter experts and marketers plenty of leeway to focus on ideas while maintaining a link to the company strategy and its offerings.

Work Management 100

Work Management Thought Leadership Marketing Management Paper 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

Even the most basic lead scoring mechanism raises the price of content as buyers consume more of it—i.e., And some companies have disclosure rules that make it hard for their executives to participate on customer advisory boards. Maybe I’m focusing too much on semantics, but I think lead scoring only gets it half right.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

Even the most basic lead scoring mechanism raises the price of content as buyers consume more of it—i.e., And some companies have disclosure rules that make it hard for their executives to participate on customer advisory boards. Maybe I’m focusing too much on semantics, but I think lead scoring only gets it half right.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 22, 2011

Innovation is becoming more external to companies and more social. They were the only C-level executives involved in all the efforts to rethink the ways that companies did work across the entire organization. Sadly, few CIOs took advantage of this cross-company view to innovate the ways that their companies did things. (In

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 25, 2011

Some management consulting companies have the commitment to ideas baked into the culture—you simply will not survive as a consultant if you do not create ideas that lead to new IP. Some companies get pretty formal about this, creating invitation-only SME councils with entry requirements. Give them the tools to think.

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 11, 2011

Most companies do not yet have closed-loop lead management processes supported by systems, for example. B2C companies have these “wonks” today. Maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but I wonder about the long-term need for a marketing technologist. So we need some important systems installed in the short-term. What do you think?

Analytics 100

Analytics Paid Search Agency Marketing Management Loyalty 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

That’s why a change in the policies of perhaps the leading voice for social media, Forrester , has bigger implications than it may seem. All of Forrester’s commentaries about the policy change so far have focused on this idea that content companies are special and have a special need to protect their IP—which is words. Transparency?

Social Media 100

Social Media Forrester Media Transparency 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

The guy who manages the platform at Forbes, Lewis Dvorkin, (if he also created the platform he’s a freakin’ genius) recently wrote about its power to disrupt traditional journalism , citing my new employer, SAP, as one of the companies that sometimes get more hits for the stuff it posts than Forbes’ own journalism. My Current Project.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

Unless the company they work for is a startup or otherwise desperate for attention, these people tend to be ground down by the risk management aspect of their jobs over time. Much like IT people, they don’t hear much from anyone inside their companies unless something goes wrong. These are the internal corporate PR representatives.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JULY 16, 2010

I can’t name the specific companies because we’re still in the midst of the judging process, but it doesn’t really matter because the stuff is so innovative. Another company is using automated algorithms to seek out and deliver targeted customer and competitive intelligence to salespeople—on a daily basis! Use empathy.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 31, 2014

The moment Fallon says he had been waiting for all his life came when he was just 24: an audition for Lorne Michaels , the creator and lead producer of SNL. They are a new way for entertainment companies to market their celebrities and to track them over time without waiting for the book or the movie. The Only Job He Ever Wanted.

Wikipedia 100

Wikipedia Youtube Profiling Video 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. The goal of thought leadership is not just to raise awareness of the company; it is to help make a sale. Get agreement with sales on a sales-ready lead.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing Paper 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. The goal of thought leadership is not just to raise awareness of the company; it is to help make a sale. Get agreement with sales on a sales-ready lead.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 8, 2010

In the course of hundreds of interviews with companies over my career, the “yes but we’re different” mantra was a familiar refrain. There is only one objective in social media and it is common across all companies—even across the infamous divide between B2B and B2C: Create learning networks. Not in our businesses, though.

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. If we now have a system measuring how long it takes marketing to nurture a lead until it is sales ready, we will now also have a measure of whether the nurturing period increases or decreases over time. We accomplish this feat through content.

Planning 100

Planning B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

One of the great trends were seeing at ITSMA is increased automation of the lead process. If we now have a system measuring how long it takes marketing to nurture a lead until it is sales ready, we will now also have a measure of whether the nurturing period increases or decreases over time. We accomplish this feat through content.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Planning Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 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. Salespeople may have this kind of broader perspective, but more than likely they don’t have time to gather it.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling B2B Sales Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 5, 2010

And they both lead to content that benefits from being mobile. One company’s mobile application is tied to a wiki-based sales enablement website that lets salespeople generate actions and updates and get updated information from the road. We’re seeing mobile be part of an integrated approach to social media, not as a standalone.

Wiki 100

Wiki Urgency Marketing Mobile Marketing Content 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

But I think the nature of B2B makes it harder for companies and customers to have a satisfying relationship that’s entirely virtual than it is for B2C companies. What’s been proven to work in B2B is for marketers to reach out to prospects with smart, engaging, educational content that leads to trust.

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

But we’re in the era of social media now, so there are breadcrumbs in the forest that lead us to a fuller explanation of who Slater is and why he did what he did. Following the trail of bread crumbs leads us to a caring, thoughtful person. Here are a few thoughts: We must monitor what’s being said about our companies online.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media SME B2B 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 22, 2010

I wish I could say that social media leads to sales. We need to believe that more engagement between our companies and the people we want to reach is a good thing that ultimately leads to sales—but down a long, narrow, winding path with a few jumps between cliffs thrown in there. And it leads back to the problem we have with PR.

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

The impact of our content will be visible if that content is linked to an automated, closed-loop lead process. Getting agreement with sales on a sales-ready lead is critical. That requires a culture shift in the company and new skills for marketers and employees. You don’t even need to involve IT anymore. We’re all PR now.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 2, 2011

Companies are having success pulling in fans by linking to charitable cases. You’re just warming up to social media campaigns because you work for ITSMA and these are the companies who won your contest. Can campaigns coexist comfortably with a thought leadership lead nurturing strategy? Appeal to their sense of charity.

Social Media 100

Social Media Campaigns B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 2, 2011

Companies are having success pulling in fans by linking to charitable cases. You’re just warming up to social media campaigns because you work for ITSMA and these are the companies who won your contest. Can campaigns coexist comfortably with a thought leadership lead nurturing strategy? Appeal to their sense of charity.

Social Media 100

Social Media Campaigns B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Being on the corporate site is a good way for bloggers to raise their visibility inside the company and promote their careers. Readers will assume that corporate bloggers will sanitize their opinions and do what they can to promote their companies. Gaffes by independent bloggers generally don’t lead back to their employers.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Blogger Thought Leadership Word of Mouth 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

The best documents don’t just tell employees what not to do; they also tell them what they should be doing to further the marketing goals of the company. Here are some recommendations based on a cross-section of social media policies from B2B companies, including social media policy examples from some leading B2B companies.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Guidelines B2B 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 4, 2011

Publishers are left with a trickle of revenue and B2B companies discover just how uninterested a generic online audience is in their products and services. But most marketing organizations don’t measure relevance; they measure output—whether it’s in leads or downloads. It’s a no win for everybody except the ad agencies.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency 100