Chris Koch

JULY 31, 2009

ITSMA research has long showed that when we do it at all, we do it poorly. Both marketing and sales should work together to reduce CPOD because that’s what really matters in terms of marketing’s contribution to the business. It’s time to declare marketing metrics a failure once and for all. Get adult supervision.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Face it, few of us can say that our work has a high degree of purpose and meaning in the greater scheme of things. A quieter sense of desperation follows us to work each day. A few years ago, I was given the day off from work and walked with about two dozen colleagues into a huge warehouse that was filled with broken boxes.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Work Management Marketing Management Loyalty 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 26, 2010

Okay, so you need to work for IBM to access it, but Skribit is available to the rest of us.). Filter research. Customer research can provide tons of fodder for content, but you can’t just dump it on SMEs unfiltered. Pick some key themes and ask them to comment on them. Buddy them up. Write for them. Tweet This Post.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 6, 2009

The winners get serious recognition for their work that helps their companies and their careers. The depth and creativity of your research can be the deciding factor in whether the program rises above the noise in the marketplace. Research provides the supporting evidence for a new insight into customer or market needs.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Budget Programs Business 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

The first review I saw listed under the search was entitled, “OK to work for, but watch your back.” In a piece on SiliconValley.com, they interviewed the CEO of Glassdoor, who was able to offer an assessment of Hurd’s reign based on over 1000 reviews of people who work there. Nothing like faint praise. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Media B2B SME 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. As for me, I’m going to watch a Liverpool match but I can’t forget the team that did all the work to pique my interest in English Premier League Football: Man U.

Planning 100

Planning Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

JULY 31, 2009

ITSMA research has long showed that when we do it at all, we do it poorly. Both marketing and sales should work together to reduce CPOD because that’s what really matters in terms of marketing’s contribution to the business. It’s time to declare marketing metrics a failure once and for all. Get adult supervision. Tweet This Post.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management B2B Sales 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 say this even after discounting ITSMA’s recent research showing that marketers don’t see social media as being very effective components in their marketing strategies. Image via Wikipedia.

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy B2B Thought Leadership 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. ITSMA research shows that B2B marketers are most successful when they use social media to drive prospects and customers to more “traditional” marketing channels such as the website and events. What do you think?

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

APRIL 16, 2010

That’s not to say that these more traditional tactics don’t work anymore and should be abandoned. From our research we see that marketing tends to own social media for the rest of the organization. Today, we do a lot less of that stuff. But we have to find ways to stretch the dollars we do invest in those tactics farther.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Social Marketing 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

She knew that a writer with journalism experience could learn about computers, but a computer expert who couldn’t write the materials she wanted would not work out. My job worked out because my former boss gave me the opportunity to learn about an industry that was taking off. Where’s the Flexibility?

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Training Education 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

Interesting research from Edelman shows that there has been a decline in trust in “people like myself” and “regular employees.” Usually, that means experience that is deeper than the target audience has, or breadth of experience working across multiple companies or industries, or all of the above. Social media are growing up.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Thought Leadership Social Media Storytelling 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

ITSMA research shows that 66% of buyers seek information themselves rather than waiting to hear from providers. Someone somewhere latched onto that and declared that blogs don’t work. Then that gets translated into “social media don’t work for us.” They blame the channel rather than blaming their company’s lack of commitment.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

ITSMA research shows that 66% of buyers seek information themselves rather than waiting to hear from providers. Someone somewhere latched onto that and declared that blogs don’t work. Then that gets translated into “social media don’t work for us.” They blame the channel rather than blaming their company’s lack of commitment.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Peer-to-peer 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. It is staffed by editors who work exclusively for McKinsey and are not academics. See what you think of my answers: How did thought leadership initiatives in companies begin?

Thought Leadership 100

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

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

In the court of public opinion, customers make a decision about whether the company as a whole is to blame for the crisis or whether the crisis was the work of a few rogue individuals acting outside the norms of behavior. Use research to understand the context. But gaining the ability to be predictive requires research.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Most are riven by silo (tribal) warfare, as employees who are all supposed to be working for the same cause – serving the customer – engage in turf battles and subvert one another in an attempt to appear to be the most effective contributors to the company. Why Can’t Companies Do This? This has got to stop. How Do We Stop the Infighting?

De-duplication 100

De-duplication Paid Search Agency Companies Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 8, 2009

And he wants me, Mr. Research, to find them. Now we do have some research data about the impact that the recession is having on marketers and actions they are taking. My CEO at ITSMA, Dave Munn is looking for stories about how marketers have come up with innovative ways to actually do things better during these tough times.

Practices 100

Practices Best Practices Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 8, 2009

And he wants me, Mr. Research, to find them. Now we do have some research data about the impact that the recession is having on marketers and actions they are taking. My CEO at ITSMA, Dave Munn is looking for stories about how marketers have come up with innovative ways to actually do things better during these tough times.

Practices 100

Practices Best Practices Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

MAY 20, 2011

Here are some examples of how this can work: Internal. Primary and secondary research. Experts need to defend their ideas, get input and collaboration from others, and compete for attention. Knowledge share sessions. Awards programs. Competitive intelligence. External: Customer councils. Collaboration with academics and analysts.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Thought Leadership 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

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Most journalists have discovered social media as an important research tool. And research shows that even the stodgiest C-level executive does at least three web searches per day. PR works to identify people in the organization who would be good representatives of the company, its value, and its offerings.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 22, 2011

ITSMA’s social media research (free excerpt available) shows that marketing is responsible for monitoring social media and for training, governing, and supporting the organization in using social media. They were the only C-level executives involved in all the efforts to rethink the ways that companies did work across the entire organization.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 28, 2011

Forrester Research is testing both sides of this argument. Owyang’s blog is still packed full of references to Forrester and his work there. But as social media raises the ante for putting a personal face to the corporate brand, we are going to have to work through the issues that Forrester is grappling with right now.

Personalization 100

Personalization Forrester Brand Identity Branding 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 15, 2011

That’s the way it’s always worked. The American Marketing Association successfully lobbied the FDA to have Mojitos outlawed after research linked them to these unpredictable outbursts. The marketer passes through a period in which social media is thought of purely as a B2C thing. Not gonna happen in B2B.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 5, 2011

Much of what works on Facebook seems to fall into two camps: Charity. Research shows that people unlike brands on Facebook nearly as often as they shut off other channels and for all the same reasons: “too frequent, irrelevant or boring communications.”. But let’s put this all in context. What is B2B marketing all about?

Facebook 100

Facebook B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership B2B 100

Chris Koch

JULY 28, 2010

Now, it is possible to highlight individual contributors within a group-authored blog to give readers a better sense of connection, but for me it never works as well as when the individual takes responsibility for the whole enchilada. Individuals can burn out—or just leave. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Blogger 100

Blogger Wikipedia Work Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

During one of the first few days I went to work at CIO magazine in 1995, I had what we called a “vendor visit”—one of many I would have in the coming years. In his mind, I shouldn’t even have been working there. The idea behind the visits was to avoid having us journos become isolated in our ivory tower. If so, how would you do it?

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

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. We know from our research that we in marketing don’t do much with analytics—i.e., This is especially important as more of our work moves online. The system we’d like to see.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

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. We know from our research that we in marketing don’t do much with analytics—i.e., This is especially important as more of our work moves online. The system we’d like to see.

Lead Qualification 100

Lead Qualification Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 25, 2009

That’s why it’s important for us to start building our expertise in social media today, even if social media isn’t yet at the top of our marketing agenda (and our research shows that among B2B marketers, it is not). Developing a personal understanding of how it all works will make it less disruptive. Social media is always on.

Social Media 100

Social Media Paid Search Agency Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

No doubt you’ve seen research showing the degree to which most web content leads back to a few, dependable sources like the New York Times —whose reporters do all the work (which, contrary to popular belief, very few people could do even if they had all the time and money in the world) so others can benefit. Forrester loses R&D.

Social Media 100

Social Media Forrester Media Transparency 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 6, 2009

And the publishing process works better than the marketing content development process because the publishing process developed without an overlord (e.g., Research the reader. 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

And the publishing process works better than the marketing content development process because the publishing process developed without an overlord (e.g., Research the reader. 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

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. They do their research on the web. They would work hard to get CIOs and subject matter experts to agree to talk to me in an open way. Guard dog PR.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 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