Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

The same web analytics that have destroyed publishing are now getting marketers fired because nobody’s clicking on their white papers and surveys. They think up all the different things that magazines offer to readers and then make a list: Surveys? A simple entry point leads to deeper and deeper related content.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

I’ve been working with my colleagues at ITSMA on another survey on social media for B2B marketers that I hope you’ll take by going here. I resisted treating it as a standalone in the survey. 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

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

APRIL 16, 2010

We just completed our ITSMA survey on social media. 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.)?” That was the number one goal of respondents in our survey for the coming year. But one finding sticks out. That’s right.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Social Marketing 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 21, 2011

It’s where we introduce some of the top findings from our annual budget survey of marketers. But we don’t like to just parrot the numbers from the survey. So we spend weeks leading up to the briefing arguing about what the numbers actually mean and what marketers should do.

Social Media 100

Social Media Budget Programs Paper PR 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 18, 2011

In fact, our most recent thought leadership survey found that few marketers are measuring much besides consumption of their marketing content. Use ideas to attract and nurture leads. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I’m constantly beating the drum of integrating content with an automated lead management process.

Work Management 100

Work Management Thought Leadership Marketing Management Paper 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 4, 2011

The number one suggestion for improvement: Focus more specifically on buyers’ particular business segment and needs (which B2B print publications used to be measured on each year in reader surveys). But most marketing organizations don’t measure relevance; they measure output—whether it’s in leads or downloads.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

We’re optimists at heart, and we like to trust that past success will lead to future success. In working with our clients, we’ve found that it’s particularly important to survey both customers and employees when developing an important new service, because it allows you to put the “why” argument to rest using objective data.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

We’re optimists at heart, and we like to trust that past success will lead to future success. In working with our clients, we’ve found that it’s particularly important to survey both customers and employees when developing an important new service, because it allows you to put the “why” argument to rest using objective data.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Survey internal sales and marketing staff, customers, target markets, and influencers to determine what they are looking for. These are the key components: Install a lead tracking and nurturing system. As the lead is passed over to sales for follow through, the thought leadership content is tagged as part of the sale.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing Paper 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Survey internal sales and marketing staff, customers, target markets, and influencers to determine what they are looking for. These are the key components: Install a lead tracking and nurturing system. As the lead is passed over to sales for follow through, the thought leadership content is tagged as part of the sale.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 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. As a researcher, I know that that is a pretty respectable survey sample.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B SME 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Earlier this year I surveyed B2B marketers about their approaches to corporate blogging. Gaffes by independent bloggers generally don’t lead back to their employers. Their strategies take two basic approaches. These marketers take a direct role in finding and supporting internal bloggers and in helping them develop content.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Blogger Thought Leadership Word of Mouth 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. Advanced Lead Nurturing Tactics with Ardath Albee (slideshare.net). You don’t even need to involve IT anymore. If so, how would you do it?

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 16, 2010

The report is a combination of the reporting I’ve done here on this blog, case studies of social media that I’ve done for ITSMA, and two surveys that we’ve done at ITSMA over the past three years. This week, we released my ITSMA Special Report: “How to Fit Social Media into your Overall Marketing Strategy and Make it Stick.”.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

Having been a journalist for years, I know that these acronyms lead even the most feeble-minded of us journos to the next obvious question: What do you mean when you say (insert acronym here)? I think that this definition will lead to the perpetuation of the brochure-on-steroids interpretation of thought leadership.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Gartner Planning 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 3, 2010

In ITSMA’s social media survey, 68% said that marketing is the catalyst for social media. Rarely do those links lead to paid content. Writing style guides can also help, but who has time to plow through them? Employees and subject matters experts need active support from marketers to develop their social media voices.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

AUGUST 3, 2010

In ITSMA’s social media survey, 68% said that marketing is the catalyst for social media. Rarely do those links lead to paid content. Writing style guides can also help, but who has time to plow through them? Employees and subject matters experts need active support from marketers to develop their social media voices.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

JULY 29, 2011

The trouble started when the McKinsey Quarterly published an article in early June entitled How US health care reform will affect employee benefits, based on a survey the firm did about what will happen to employer-sponsored health care insurance coverage when the President’s health care law goes into effect in 2014.

Social Media 100

Social Media Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Companies 100