Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

ITSMA research shows that 66% of buyers seek information themselves rather than waiting to hear from providers. They seek that information through search: 79% of c-level executives do at least three searches per day. Here are some examples: Most C-level executives are not in social media—they’re in search.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

As social media becomes more prevalent in marketing, we’re going to have to rethink how we gather information from prospects. Given the potential for lead generation through social media, the question then becomes how much information should we try to get from people coming to us through social media? In our recent Web 2.0

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 18, 2012

As I interview SMEs around SAP and external influencers like analysts and customers, I want to be able to share the raw ideas in their earliest stages so that I can inform people and get their feedback. I’m excited about the prospect of not just presenting ideas to the SCN community but also in building ideas with this community.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Communities Transparency 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

As buyers do more searching, they are stretching the buying process earlier and earlier, to the point where they may not have a specific product or service in mind when they search. Most salespeople are still focused on selling specific products and services. But I don’t have access to that kind of information.

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 100

Chris Koch

MAY 19, 2014

MakerBot , a manufacturer of desktop 3D printers priced at the level of a decent laptop, is the best known of companies producing a product that has already been raised to PC-level stature in terms of its potential impact on business and society. Viral How-Tos. Not that Pettis was a bad teacher.

Conference 100

Conference Education Viral Marketing Class 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Another great aspect of that piece is that when you click through to the article, you’ll see an aspirational piece positioned next to it entitled “Redesigning Employee Benefits,” which advocates taking a product development approach to the employee benefits process.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Loyalty Case Study 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Another great aspect of that piece is that when you click through to the article, you’ll see an aspirational piece positioned next to it entitled “Redesigning Employee Benefits,” which advocates taking a product development approach to the employee benefits process.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Loyalty Case Study 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

For example, what customer do you know of that would be willing to sit for hours in sub-zero temperatures just to get your product (okay, maybe Apple fans do that somewhere, but other than that, it works. Despite all these advances, few teams have all the information they need to get truly personal with their fans.

Loyalty 100

Loyalty Eye-Tracking Mobile Marketing Stats 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

The information from a social site like this changes how journalists can write about a huge company like HP. 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.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B SME 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 2, 2010

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. And you never get any interesting assignments if you aren’t able to communicate information through a narrative structure—a story with a number of star characters and a beginning, middle, and end.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Marketing Marketing Budget Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 8, 2010

Companies that made commodity products would tell me with straight faces that even their financial processes were unique—GAAP be damned—and that they needed to customize their software to fit “our ways of doing things.” Recommend products and services that you haven’t thoroughly researched and you will most likely be out of a job.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 30, 2009

Most of ITSMA’s clients are B2B marketers from big technology companies that sell big, complex products, services, and solutions. This makes sense when you consider what our IT buyers have been telling us for years: that their peers are by far their most preferred and trusted choice for information during the buying process.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Enterprise Management Media 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Most of the marketers I talk to are trying to reach a few top executives in big organizations who make buying decisions about big, complex products and services. We could control the public conversation because our audience had few public outlets for giving or receiving information. After all, that’s how we’ve always done it.

Social Media 100

Social Media Allocation Media Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Most of the marketers I talk to are trying to reach a few top executives in big organizations who make buying decisions about big, complex products and services. We could control the public conversation because our audience had few public outlets for giving or receiving information. After all, that’s how we’ve always done it.

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. It forced me to think about all the components necessary to build and sustain a thought leadership strategy. Here are my thoughts on the big pieces.

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. It forced me to think about all the components necessary to build and sustain a thought leadership strategy. Here are my thoughts on the big pieces.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

JULY 22, 2011

Then, the day after surgery, the nurse informed me that I was being moved to be “with my own kind” over in orthopedics. The highest production-value material I received upon discharge was a two-color, 24-page glossy magazine entitled “A Guide to Taking Warfarin.” I was in heaven. Motivational. Market your strengths.

Work Management 100

Work Management Marketing Management Social Media B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

They didn’t coach CIOs to talk only about how they used the products and services of the company. On the contrary, they asked me to explain the story I was working on and supplied that information to the CIO or their subject matter experts prior to the interview. I truly valued these PR pros and always told them so.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

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. Customers and prospects are better informed than ever, thanks to the Internet and global connectivity. Use research to understand the context.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 22, 2010

This is the number of articles or blog posts that mention the product or service measured against the trend in sales. The only effective argument I’ve heard recently is that we embed calls to action in social media that drive readers to a landing page where we capture their information and start nurturing them as leads.

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 12, 2012

[This is cross-posted on the SAP Services blog]: Mobile applications are a little like vacation snapshots: They are informative, sometimes fun—beautiful, even—but they don’t tell a full story on their own. Of course, that’s not to say that the unprecedented level of connectedness we are getting with enterprise mobility is a waste.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Lock-In Marketing Management Paper 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 28, 2010

From Facebook to email to putting telephones on employees’ desks (remember, the telephone started as a “consumer” communication technology, too), companies think that every new wave is going to lead to gajillions in lost productivity. Creating compelling offers and descriptions of products and services is an art, it really is.

Planning 100

Planning Work Management Paid Search Agency B2B Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

It may look better and read better than a brochure, but it’s still a brochure because it emphasizes our products and services over the needs of the people we are trying to reach. It presupposes that we have something to talk about besides our products and services. What a mouthful. I even developed an acronym: IM.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Gartner Planning 100

Chris Koch

MAY 5, 2014

The Costs of Production Approach Zero for Everything. There are three other areas where the costs of production will soon reach zero, according to a fascinating academic article (in this rare case that’s not an oxymoron) by Mark A. Because these bricks are information, they can be shared and recombined in numerous ways, says Lemley.

Copyright 100

Copyright Distribution Youtube Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

ITSMA research shows that 63% of buyers proactively seek information about providers themselves, and the Forbes/Google survey found that 79% of executives perform at least three web searches per day. The pool of information they are sifting through contains an increasing amount of social media content. The trade press is dying.

Social Media 100

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Work Management 100