Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

A study by Yahoo Research found that 50% of tweets are generated by an “elite” group of 20k users and that those users tend to follow one another rather than branching out—what many refer to as the social media echo chamber. These days, my audience is B2B marketers and my goal is to help you learn. that they think is relevant.

Twitter 100

Twitter Broadcasting Social Media Advertising Mediums 100

Chris Koch

MAY 1, 2009

That can help, but salespeople and marketers need more concrete reasons to work together. Our research on Account-Based Marketing has revealed a few such tasks: Customer understanding. Marketing can help. Posted in Sales and Marketing Collaboration Tagged: B2B marketing, ITSMA Research, Marketing and Sales Collaboration.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling B2B Sales Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

A study by Yahoo Research found that 50% of tweets are generated by an “elite” group of 20k users and that those users tend to follow one another rather than branching out—what many refer to as the social media echo chamber. These days, my audience is B2B marketers and my goal is to help you learn. that they think is relevant.

Twitter 100

Twitter Broadcasting Social Media B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 26, 2010

One of the biggest challenges for B2B social media marketers isn’t creating content, it’s helping others create content. That’s why marketers have to step in and help out. Filter research. Customer research can provide tons of fodder for content, but you can’t just dump it on SMEs unfiltered. It’s no surprise.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 4, 2011

Though most respondents in our How Customers Choose research said the quality of their providers’ thought leadership was pretty good, nearly 40% said it could be better. Does that help clarify what to do next? However, the tragedy that has become trade journalism is an opportunity for B2B marketers. When they do, they win business.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 18, 2010

Zane did research on the bike industry and figures that the average lifetime value of each of his customers is $12,500—from the first bike they purchase to the last, as well as all the accessories. For those of us struggling with B2B marketing and all its complexities, this will help clarify some core issues. They each take one.

Wikipedia 100

Wikipedia Marketing Management Training Conference 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2009

Thought leadership marketing is based on the academic research publishing model, in which academics created journals built around a peer review process. Other companies have adopted pieces of the academic research publishing model for their own thought leadership marketing. Is it only focused in knowledge intensive industries?

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 18, 2009

In a recent post, I offered some hard research data to support the growing importance of social media to B2B. As more buyers participate in social media, and as the tools and possibilities for collaboration continue to improve, social media is becoming an indispensable channel for marketers to help buyers find one another and market to them.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

My former boss helped me learn about the technology industry, yet few companies are addressing such skill shortages with a strategy that makes mentoring, corporate training, or development a core piece of the solution. ” Workers will walk if you don’t help them learn.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Training Education 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 3, 2014

Research by my colleague Rob O’Regan has found that hanging onto the kind of global popularity enjoyed by Man U requires focusing on four key channels: Social media. The NBA’s stats.NBA.com website, which houses player and team statistics from the league’s 67-year history, has helped double time spent on NBA.com while generating more than 9.5

Planning 100

Planning Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 25, 2011

I confirmed something I’ve been hearing in my research on idea marketing over the past month: idea marketing requires a deep commitment not just from marketing but from the entire organization. Let’s look at some attributes I’m seeing I’m my research: Show commitment to idea development from the top.

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

ITSMA research shows that there are other ways to reach these people that are much more effective than social media, such as small, thought leadership-based events, content-rich websites that are optimized for search, and robust reference programs, to name a few. I think we need to parse that decision more. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

ITSMA research shows that there are other ways to reach these people that are much more effective than social media, such as small, thought leadership-based events, content-rich websites that are optimized for search, and robust reference programs, to name a few. I think we need to parse that decision more. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 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. Research the need. Research the need. Doing research first allows you to set goals using reliable, objective data. Most people start with strategy.

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. Research the need. Research the need. Doing research first allows you to set goals using reliable, objective data. Most people start with strategy.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

MAY 20, 2011

Primary and secondary research. Creating an idea network helps demonstrate the importance of ideas to the organization. Marketers need to help create that culture in the company by facilitating the idea process. Here are some examples of how this can work: Internal. Knowledge share sessions. Awards programs.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Women hold a strong place in Iroquois society, leading individual clans within tribes, helping determine chiefs, and holding veto power over treaties and declarations of war (the Iroquois declared war on Germany in both world wars). They don’t want three different calls from three different sales areas of your company.

De-duplication 100

De-duplication Paid Search Agency Companies Wikipedia 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. Marketers helped salespeople put words to the insanely complex products and services they were trying to sell. What do I mean by sales enablement? But then the internet came along.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

Our group’s mandate is to research the business issues that SAP’s customers and prospects care about and write exclusively about those issues—not our products and services. More importantly, they see smart people from SAP featured in it and that helps everybody. I’m Watching For… Great ideas to help businesses and IT.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 8, 2010

Recommend products and services that you haven’t thoroughly researched and you will most likely be out of a job. You need to build an internal network that focuses on identifying internal thought leaders and building alliances with external academics and customers who can help develop and test ideas. But it also applies in B2C.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

I’m hearing a lot from clients and researchers about how vast swaths of salespeople need to be eliminated as companies transition from selling products to services and solutions. With customers able to do so much research online, the way to get in the door these days is to have information that isn’t readily available elsewhere.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Consulting B2B Sales Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

I’m hearing a lot from clients and researchers about how vast swaths of salespeople need to be eliminated as companies transition from selling products to services and solutions. With customers able to do so much research online, the way to get in the door these days is to have information that isn’t readily available elsewhere.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services B2B Sales Consulting Marketing Automation 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

They expected Ford to respond immediately to their requests for help. Meanwhile, the company kept up its emphasis on research and development so that customers would see that it was still committed to offering leading edge products. Use research to understand the context. Scope of response.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 14, 2011

I’ve also done research asking B2B marketers how they engage and how they educate their employees and SMEs to engage. helping my followers learn and discover new people who have smart things to say about marketing. In three plus years of tweeting, I’ve picked up what I perceive to be the general etiquette for engaging on Twitter.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Twitter Social Networks 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 14, 2011

I’ve also done research asking B2B marketers how they engage and how they educate their employees and SMEs to engage. helping my followers learn and discover new people who have smart things to say about marketing. In three plus years of tweeting, I’ve picked up what I perceive to be the general etiquette for engaging on Twitter.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Twitter Social Networks 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

If the vendors can’t help with the integration, IT can. This is where social media tools are helpful. PR people meanwhile should use their thick skins and relationship skills to help build the conversation in social media. You don’t even need to involve IT anymore. Marketing needs a better relationship with IT. Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 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? Think of how people contract avatars in games that represent the person that they want to be (or are but can’t show).

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Media Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

No wonder they all steer the argument in this direction; it makes it seem like Forrester is the aggrieved benefactor being sucked dry by selfish, ungrateful employees who insist on giving away the IP that Forrester pays them to create—and whose powerful brand opens the doors for them with the sources they need to help create that IP.

Social Media 100

Social Media Forrester Media Transparency 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

For example, there is no way that the typical Webinar is worth as much as an in-depth research report, yet we make buyers give us the same amount of information for both—we charge them the same price. For example, research shows that Europeans value their privacy more than Americans—meaning that their information may cost you more.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

For example, there is no way that the typical Webinar is worth as much as an in-depth research report, yet we make buyers give us the same amount of information for both—we charge them the same price. For example, research shows that Europeans value their privacy more than Americans—meaning that their information may cost you more.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JULY 28, 2010

Another problem is that they may move on to another company, perhaps taking their audience and any brand cred they’ve helped you build with them (most people pick on Robert Scoble as an example of this). What do you think?

Blogger 100

Blogger Wikipedia Work Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

Research the reader. Marketers can replace offers with survey questions once in awhile to help build an understanding of timely issues to drive future content. If you don’t have the money to do research, consider adding a review button or comment feature to content. Diversify content.

Planning 100

Planning B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

Research the reader. Marketers can replace offers with survey questions once in awhile to help build an understanding of timely issues to drive future content. If you don’t have the money to do research, consider adding a review button or comment feature to content. Diversify content.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Planning Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 30, 2010

According to a recent survey by ABI Research, 28% of respondents said that they access web sites from their phones at least once per day —up 75% in a year. At ITSMA, we’re seeing four main reasons for doing it: Help. Is there a reason for you to offer whatever help you give to customers through mobile?

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Wiki 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

They do their research on the web. First, it focuses the agency on some clear goals—cranking out press releases and getting press mentions—and gives the guard dogs a degree of separation that helps with risk management. The emphasis is on contacting rather than helping. at the expense of helping.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 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. I can’t help but think that as the different social media channels continue to evolve, customer intimacy is going to take a leap forward. I think so because social media is starting to give us a way to scale intimacy.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Thought Leadership Work Management 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

We know from our research that we in marketing don’t do much with analytics—i.e., The marketing funnel helps focus attention on a number of important issues: Qualify leads. 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.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Marketing Automation Services 100