Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 6, 2009

If you haven’t considered creating an awards program for your target customers, you should. Creating the narrative helps project members focus their efforts and will help sell the effort to others inside the business and with customers. What is the customer need? Increase customer satisfaction. Tweet This Post.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Budget Programs Business 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 5, 2009

Geoff Dodds, Julie Schwartz and I brainstormed the different responses customers can have to a crisis and the steps you can take to address the problems. When a crisis hits, customers make a decision about whether the promise of a brand has been broken and whether the relationship can be repaired. Breaking the promise.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Ethics 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 22, 2010

So if you buy that leap of logic, let’s say that blogs are another channel, like PR, in a marketing mix designed to familiarize customers and prospects with our companies and us. And if that’s true, then we should try to increase the volume and quality of interactions with have with customers and prospects through social media, no?

Social Media 100

Social Media ROI Lead Ranking RSS 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

Every B2B company has subject matter experts (SMEs) who are working with customers to solve problems and have deep backgrounds in customers’ processes, industries, and functions. How do I get these ideas in a form I can use with customers? Great, so you want me to dump a bunch of whitepapers on my customers?

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Taglines are the last bastions of a classic, one-way marketing messaging strategy, preserving marketing’s perceived right to tell customers what to think. In B2B marketing, we’ve never been given the right to tell customers what to think, much less the budgets to pound a tagline into their minds. Image via Wikipedia.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Taglines are the last bastions of a classic, one-way marketing messaging strategy, preserving marketing’s perceived right to tell customers what to think. In B2B marketing, we’ve never been given the right to tell customers what to think, much less the budgets to pound a tagline into their minds. Image via Wikipedia.

Social Marketing 100

Social Marketing Tactics B2B Thought Leadership Enterprise Management 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 13, 2010

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. Our customers aren’t going to do a United breaks guitars on us. Longtime customers look especially like Slater. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media SME B2B 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Each tribe had its own language, customs, and culture. 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. This has got to stop.

De-duplication 100

De-duplication Paid Search Agency Companies Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 2, 2010

That’s what has led to the horrific vocabulary of mindless marketing speak that makes us utter things like “demonstrable value” with straight faces while deluding ourselves that it leaves an impression on customers. Hey, it was the best thing we came up with at the meeting, so why wouldn’t customers like it, too!?). all do that, too.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Marketing Marketing Budget 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. Existing customers are also looking for new ideas. However, the tragedy that has become trade journalism is an opportunity for B2B marketers. What do you think?

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

In other words, companies start trying to deliver new products and services before they’ve adequately answered all the questions about whether this new thing is something customers actually want, whether it’s something that salespeople can actually sell, and whether it is something that operations can actually deliver at a reasonable cost.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

In other words, companies start trying to deliver new products and services before they’ve adequately answered all the questions about whether this new thing is something customers actually want, whether it’s something that salespeople can actually sell, and whether it is something that operations can actually deliver at a reasonable cost.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 25, 2010

How can we help customers be extroverts? Those numbers look bad, but we have to think of them from our customers’ perspectives. I think for marketers, the issue is less about whether our customers will be more extroverted online—they already are. But how can we create more ways to share safely? What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Media Wikipedia 100

Chris Koch

MAY 14, 2010

Our subject matter experts (SMEs) are talking to customers. We’re seeing companies use social media to bring customers into the product and service development processes to collaborate on new ideas and improvements. We’re seeing companies use social media for customer support. What do you think? What have I left out here?

Organic Leads 100

Organic Leads Social Media Social Marketing Organization 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.” Your internal learning network should integrate with the ones you want to build for customers. The rest is promotion.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Media 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

This is the stage that occurs long before any discussion of products, services, or RFPs—indeed, it occurs before customers have even begun to think about a purchase. However, there is something important that happens at this stage: It is the point at which customers come to the realization of an important business need.

Social Media 100

Social Media Lead Generation B2B Thought Leadership Generation 100

Chris Koch

MAY 21, 2010

Have you ever noticed that your Facebook profile page looks like one of those horrible qualification forms that we make our customers fill out? Customers are less willing to give up information. If you go to Facebook and look at your profile, your immediate reaction is going to be that it’s asking for too much information.

Privacy 100

Privacy B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2010

With speeds and feeds no longer relevant, marketers must get the attention of customers through ideas about how to improve business services rather than technology comparisons. Without the IT hairball to lock providers and customers together in a death embrace, the barriers to switching providers will come down. What do you think?

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 10, 2012

For customers in this realm, I think utility has long meant access to their peers and to expert advice during the purchasing and post-sales processes. I am concerned about the B2B side of things, though, for complex technology solutions in particular.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer B2B Social Media Mobile Marketing 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

I’m especially fond of the effect it has on my colleagues in SAP marketing: they understand that they no longer need to pitch products to get the attention of customers and prospects. That’s because customers and prospects actually come to the Forbes site and read our stuff. What’s Wrong with BrandVoice.

Disintermediation 100

Disintermediation B2B Marketing Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

The example I’m about to give focuses on the fact that if you think of sports fans as business customers, they are the most loyal in the world. Sports teams are looking to change this dynamic by embracing metrics that help them quantify the value of loyal customers beyond ticket purchases – and reward those customers for their loyalty.

Loyalty 100

Loyalty Eye-Tracking Mobile Marketing Stats 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

This price is one that high-level executives have been calculating for years as providers woo them with memberships in customer councils and invitations to private events. And some companies have disclosure rules that make it hard for their executives to participate on customer advisory boards. Relationship. The price will change.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 29, 2010

This price is one that high-level executives have been calculating for years as providers woo them with memberships in customer councils and invitations to private events. And some companies have disclosure rules that make it hard for their executives to participate on customer advisory boards. Relationship. The price will change.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring B2B Thought Leadership Mobile Advertising 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

Posted in Customer Relationships Tagged: B2B, B2B marketing, CIOs, role-based marketing, Segmentation. Tags: Customer Relationships B2B B2B marketing CIOs role-based marketing Segmentation. Can you see how these different archetypes have different needs and interests? Have you tried to segment your CIO audience?

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 30, 2009

Tags: Blogging Marketing Strategy Social Media Thought Leadership B2B marketing Customer Research Epiphany Stage ITSMA ITSMA Research Marketing ROI online community social media policy social media strategy.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Consultant Fred Reichheld didn’t invent the concept of customer loyalty, but by identifying the marker for it, he changed how many companies approach managing customer loyalty. For example, IBM creates specific versions of its thought leadership materials for salespeople to use during their discussions with customers.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Loyalty Case Study 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Consultant Fred Reichheld didn’t invent the concept of customer loyalty, but by identifying the marker for it, he changed how many companies approach managing customer loyalty. For example, IBM creates specific versions of its thought leadership materials for salespeople to use during their discussions with customers.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Loyalty Case Study 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

That’s why increasingly, PR is going to become a matter of simply allowing your subject matter experts to be found rather than enlisting armies of PR people to try to force journalists and customers to find those subject matter experts. Push them to get lots of peer and customer recommendations and connections.

PR 100

PR Peer-to-peer Press Public Relations 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 17, 2009

Sure, salespeople know the accounts—they know what the customers have spent and what they are most likely to want next. They may also know what the customers’ major business issues are—if they know how to ask. And in big, important customers, it’s worth integrating that ability into the account planning process.

Planning 100

Planning Process Work Management Verticals 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 17, 2009

It’s marketing 101: don’t hold your needs above those of your customers—and don’t defy the expectations that you set with them. But then Apple sent out confirmation emails to its customers listing a UPS tracking number link to track the progress of the shipment. So far, so good. I can’t.

Marketing & Strategy 100

Marketing & Strategy Paid Search Agency Tagging Positioning 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 25, 2011

In other words, unless we become idea organizations, we’re not going to have much to say to customers, prospects, and influencers in social media. One company has created an internal portal where project members submit ideas that are vetted and voted on by the project customers. What do I mean by an idea organization?

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

First, let’s define what PR means from the perspective of the customer (i.e., a journalist) and the customer’s customer (i.e., Your customer hates and avoids you. These aren’t the people you want talking to influencers and customers. And customers never read the releases. As in dead. Don’t do it anymore.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 26, 2010

And while marketers can create some social media content, they can (and should) rely on their subject matter experts (SMEs) to create most of the stuff that’s going to build trust and relationships with customers. Get ideas from customers. Set up an RSS feed of key news sources and bloggers and forward the good stuff to your SMEs.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 18, 2009

B2B companies have fewer, more complex customer relationships and are often conservative and protective of those relationships. B2B customers tend to be high on the executive ladder and are usually reluctant to discuss their business strategies in public forums. With good reason. But of course, no B2B marketing strategy does that.

Social Media 100

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

Chris Koch

MAY 22, 2009

Customers and prospects will be anxious to hear whether they were right to place their trust in the brand. Assess the pace and depth of customer losses. The most important vital signs for companies to monitor in the wake of a crisis are the pace and depth of customer losses. Respond quickly. Length of the crisis.

Brand Identity 100

Brand Identity Branding Tagging Transparency 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

But thought leadership is supposed to be the antidote to the stuff that we (and, more important, customers) dismiss as collateral. What customers are looking for are good ideas, not content. The term has come to mean so many different things that it has become a throwaway. It disregards social media. Thought leadership implies depth.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Social Media Twitter 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

Today, more salespeople are able to have business and strategy discussions with customers and take the time to listen to their needs. Marketers today are in the same position I was with that sales guy in 1995: Wondering how to explain the value and difficulty of creating clear, compelling content about a complex subject. Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100