The Challenge of Channel Marketing

Get channel marketing right and companies can enjoy significant growth and improved profitability. But getting your channel ‘right’ is a challenge for many vendors. Selecting and recruiting the right companies is just the start of the process: training, support and MDF (Market Development Funds) take valuable time and resources. And the results are not guaranteed. Here are just a few of the issues faced by vendors pursuing a channel strategy:

Channel Partners have Limited Resources

Most partners have little in the way of their own marketing collateral (White Papers, Case Studies, Video) and many do not have a dedicated marketing manager. With resources tight partners tend to focus their efforts on one or two preferred solutions. Which means that for the majority of vendors the 80-20 rule applies: 80% of revenue generated by just 20% of partners. Improving the ratio by 10 points could dramatically improve vendors’ turnover.

Channel Partners are in Competition

Get three channel partners in a room together and it is odd on that you will have three organisations in direct commercial competition flaring their nostrils at each other. It does not create an environment of openness and collaboration. Which is a shame for the vendor because openness and collaboration is needed to maximise marketing effectiveness and generate opportunities.

This lack of openness means that it can be difficult to accrurately guage the impact of MDF, joint campaigning and your overall marketing efforts. The channel just appears to be a ‘black hole’ into which you pour your marketing funds. And what you cannot measure, you cannot manage. For many vendors, identifying where to focus effort in the channel is impossible.

A Perfect Solution?

Vendors want to support their channel, but can be frustrated by limited resources and partners natural aversion to sharing information.

Wouldn’t it be great if vendors could run regular marketing campaigns directly (and securely) to resellers prospects and automatically route opportunities to the right partner? Well a solution is being rolled out by some international vendors which looks like an answer to a maiden’s prayer. The short video below (just refresh your browser if you cannot see it and make sure your speakers are on) explains all.

If you would like a demo or some case studies forwarded, please just get in touch.

Many organisations dipping their toes into the fast flowing waters of Social Media get cold feet. The medium just does not deliver the returns they expect or worse, they make a social faux pas and wind up with a major PR exercise.

It is a fact that Social Media Marketing is effective, it delivers great results and, as traditional media makes way for the Internet, it is the way all organisations will market in the very near future.

Individuals inevitably fail when they tackle a job with the wrong tools (Ever tried to water a garden with a sieve?). Digital Media Marketing is no different: you need the right set of tools (and experienced tradesmen) if you are going to succeed. This blog outlines the infrastructure we believe organisations need to have in order to execute campaigns effectively.

Basic Infrastructure: The Principles

Social Media is just like any other media; there are assets you own and have complete control of, assets you ‘hire’ and have temporary control of and assets you neither own nor control but which you may be able to influence.

Unfortunately it is this latter group of assets that has the greatest impact upon your success.

The success of any campaign will depend upon the way you employ your owned and hired assets: get it right and you’ll be surfing the face of a social wave with skill and style. Get it wrong and you’ll be wiped out and eating sand.

A sound architecture is needed before launching a successful campaign. Make sure your controlled assets are properly linked to the right ‘uncontrolled assets’ and that you have done your media planning meticulously. Just like in the traditional world, you need to get your message in front of the right audience.

www.get-itadvantage.com

Build for interactivity: independent, unaffiliated assets have interactivity built as part of their core functionality; it is what makes these assets popular. Make sure that when your audience uses your assets, they can exchange ideas freely and chat, preferably in real time.

The old adage ‘the harder I work the luckier I get’ is possibly more appropriate for Social Media. Your contributions to debate have to be regular, thought through and engaging.

Basic Infrastructure: The Assets Interactive ‘Blogsite’ or ‘Micro Site’

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It is highly likely that your website is unsuited for use in Social Media campaigns. Typically websites suffer from a lack of interactivity, inappropriate information structures or insufficient relevant collateral.

But even if everything was perfect, a corporate site is unlikely to ‘work’ in the Social Media space. Put simply: people will not chat and interact if they think they are going to be watched and sold to.

A Micro Site designed for blogging can provide the necessary distance between the audience and the organisation. Micro Sites can be issue or campaign driven and hold a wealth of information and collateral.

Sponsored pages

The company’s Facebook page might not get a lot of activity; it may be good for keeping friends (customers and staff) informed of events but it generally won’t generate the heated and useful discussions that help to develop the next killer product (or sell more of your existing product). There are exceptions, particularly if the product and company are synonymous: Promoting Bands, Celebrities and Events can be very effective on social media sites.

For most organisations, setting pages up which focus on the product or the issue is more effective than ‘The company page’. Product recall, complaint and feedback pages can help organisations get a feel for sentiment in the wider world. Some of these sites will be developed anyway – ‘I hate HP (HP Sucks)’ is a real group on facebook.

Twitter and other Micro Blogs

Too many people take Twitter at its word and just make noise. Don’t. It is annoying, will lose brand value and corporate credibility. Only ‘Twitter’ if you have something important to say that adds value for your target audience.

A good Tweet is the equivalent of a great email subject line.

But you need something to back it up with. Direct followers to your assets: your micro sites, webcasts and blogs. Used effectively Twitter will build your database and audience.

eMail

Do not forget your email audience; many will be waiting for your next instalment: it is how they prefer to consume your material. It is likely years have been spent cultivating a readership of customers and prospects. Do not forget them.

eMail is still the number one lead generation vehicle. Effective marketers are already executing co-ordinated eMail campaigns that incorporate social media and delivering great results.

Non Owned Assets

Perhaps the biggest mistakes are made by organisations experimenting with Social Media through membership of groups such as LinkedIn. They actively promote products or services: a strategy that inevitably backfires. Rather than increasing market share they shrink it. Discussion and interest groups actively exchange ideas on subjects and issues that directly affect your business. To get involved you need to pose questions and offer opinion. Direct discussion as an effective chairperson would.

It is possible to improve your organisations profile and mindshare within the ‘uncontrolled asset’ space. But your contributions will have to demonstrate expertise and your questions will need to precipitate lively debate.

How to get it working

A client recently told me that senior management wanted to get involved in social media because it was free.

Skill and expertise built up over years in digital communications are unlikely to be cheap and they are certainly never ‘free’. Whilst digital media may be more cost effective (and measurable)  than traditional channels, you will need a team of experts actively planning and expediting your campaigns. And it is a full, not a part-time, job.

When it comes to lead generation too many organisations rely on third party lists (or poor quality ‘in-house’ lists).

The results are always disappointing and frequently appalling.

Well designed, updated and administered emailable databases will deliver results well above industry standards. If you are currently experiencing open rates below 15% and ‘click through’ rates lower than 10% then you may wish to read further.

What is an eMailable database?

Well it is more than a list of names and email addresses of ‘prospects’. A database consists of:

1. Individuals with whom you have an active or latent commercial relationship.

2. Individual, personal email addresses.

3. Individual permission to communicate via email.

4. Individual intelligence: you know exactly where the individual is in the buying cycle.

Note the use of individual: email marketing is not mass marketing. Organisations and colleagues who talk of ‘eshots’ and ‘email blasts’ just do not get it; they need education. An emailable database is a valuable resource that delivers regular revenue. A simple list will perform badly, damage your digital reputation and cost you money.

Jonathan Calver’s White Paper on ‘How to Build an eMailable Database‘ provides an insight into what it takes to start improving your campaign rates. If you would like it: Click Here

Building rather than buying your list.

When you build your own database you embed value:

1. It contains historical data: all the interactions you have had with the individuals in the database.

2. It is far more responsive than a ‘bought list’ or sending campaigns via third parties.

5 List Building Strategies:

1. Raid the Sales Team.

They might not like it at first but when you start to deliver real opportunities into their laps they will soon forgive you. Your sales team will have built up some serious intelligence on potential customers: it belongs to the company, not on a sales executives private spreadsheet, outlook file or notebook. Do not underestimate the level of authority you may need to extract this information. But the leads belong to the company, not the individual.

2. Purchase a list to get you started

Working in conjunction with telemarketing (either internally or externally) a bought list can provide you with enough information to start really building intelligence into your database. Remember, at this point you are not selling. You are simply getting enough information and permission to start email campaigns.

3. Telemarketing with a valuable offer

If you cold call someone, ask for their email address and permission to email, you will probably get a ‘No’. Hopefully it will be a polite, ‘not company policy’ rather than a short expletive! However, if you have a valuable offer of interest: a Sample, White Paper’, ‘Case Study’ etc. you are far more likely to get a positive response. And if the individual appreciates the offer, you will have started to build the commercial relationship.

4. Convert your Direct Mail list to an eMail list

Look at your most responsive, regular direct mail contacts. Working with them first to attain their email address should be relatively easy: they already have a relationship with you and should be willing to provide email addresses.

5. Use social media & website interactions to capture data

Many organisations have ‘subscribe to our newsletter’ options on their websites. But they don’t deliver that many quality leads. However, if you provide useful information through social networking sites (blogs, White papers etc). people will access that information and provide you with their email address as a quid pro quo. If you then match your communications to their stage of the buying cycle you will start to build a strong pipeline of potential business.

Take your time

Building a valuable resource like an emailable database takes time. Do not expect to have 30,000 individuals waiting to receive your next email in two weeks time. Rather, focus on quality. 200 good quality emailable records per month will deliver read rates above 40% and click throughs of around 30%. That will significantly improve your digital reputation. It will also improve the quality of the leads that are passed to your sales team.

If you would like to read the full White Paper Click here

Facebook can be dangerous for business.

Many organisations have rushed blindly into putting up a facebook page and engaging via Twitter without analysing the potential downside. Just like any powerful tool, facebook has to be treated with care; there are benefits but get it wrong and your organisation could lose money and reputation.

Before launching your facebook campaign consider the following:

This space is not for rent.

Facebook allows anyone freedom to create just about any group, provided it is legal and decent. Many organisations have taken advantage. They have increased their web presence and built an enviable following of loyal supporters. However, investing significant time, effort and money in third party assets could be short-sighted.

Social sites can and do shut down groups. Every facebook user has the right to report any group and many social sites take a ‘risk adverse’ approach. So, if someone complains (even without justification) that your group is misleading, you are likely to be shut down. You will not only lose reputation; you will lose you contacts and all the investment in building your group.

Policies change: what might be free today may become very expensive tomorrow. We have seen how Google mutated from a completely free service to the most powerful advertising organisation on earth. Today facebook has over 300 million subscribers and it is starting to flex its commercial muscle. We simply do not know how long commercial group pages will remain free.

Dangerous praise

Word of mouth marketing is great but again, it is not without risk. False claims made on your behalf by a well meaning but misinformed supporter could prove costly, especially if your company initiated the process. For example: if an organisation provides a product free to consumers it is potentially liable for any misleading  blog posts.

Ouch.

You could be forgiven for wanting to return to a simpler time; when all your advertisements were vetted by the legal department before publication!

All that lovely data

The social media business is all about data collection and consumer profiling. Knowing, on a massive scale, individual preferences, hobbies and lifestyles is a marketers dream. But it also creates risk for organisations. A successful facebook group will have thousands of followers. Create an application: a game or interactive survey and you will obtain a great deal of information about your consumers. This information not only has to be protected, it has to be collected in accordance with local data protection laws. And how often do you see a privacy statement or terms of use link on a facebook page?

That’s right. Not often.

In enthusiastically following a social media strategy organisations could be unwittingly setting themselves up for potentially expensive litigation. Organisations need to understand the sensitive nature of information that flows through social media. They should recognise the serious compliance and litigation risks that the collection and distribution of such information entails.

There are contractual tools to mitigate these risks, including properly drafted privacy policies and terms of use. A trip to your legal department will help you understand your obligations under all applicable data privacy and security laws, and help you build a nuts and bolts plan to meet those obligations.

Just because there are risks, does not mean you should not do it

Social media is the marketing phenomenon of the new millennia. It provides great opportunities to really understand customers on an individual basis and to engage in deep and meaningful dialogue. It has already started to revolutionise industry and the genie cannot be put back into the bottle. Organisations looking to benefit from the medium can, provided they treat social media with the respect it deserves.

Market research is vital.

It enables organisations of all sizes to estimate future profitability, plan new products, services and determine what competitors are doing today.

If only getting accurate, timely intelligence was that easy.

Until recently the quality of information was determined by the resources or cash an organisation could commit to the activity. And this created a number of problems:

1.    Classic market research is extremely labour intensive: it requires a lot of people and a lot of time.
2.    Because of the resources committed, traditional research is carefully planned and organised.
3.    Cost and time constraints imposed by complexity limit the scope and frequency of research.
4.    Smaller organisations’ research is constrained by budget.

So not only are the results of traditional research compromised by natural errors: survey errors, scope, collection and interpretation. Their ‘up to date’ assessments are always slightly out of date (and expensive).

On the pulse

Waiting for research next month to tell you what the market is doing this month is hardly pro-active. Indeed many organisations feel that they spend most of their time reacting to events rather than initiating them.

Most organisations recognise that being close to their markets delivers success. And being close requires regular dialogue. It is during the course of these discussions that real time, useful information is obtained. Co-ordinating digital activity enables organisations to maintain multiple dialogues but it may require changes in the way an organisation thinks about and implements its digital strategy.

Business cannot be run from behind a desk. Yet most corporate websites take this approach. The organisation’s ‘wares’ are duly displayed and ‘search engine optimised’.  Whilst these sites might create some demand, their ability to provide market intelligence is limited.

Active websites

Sites built to communicate provide a wealth of real-time market intelligence (in addition to new customer and revenue). Regular articles published and distributed by social and direct means give immediate real-time information on the state of the market: demand can be measured through the interest for particular subjects.

With social or blogging technology integrated, company websites become more visible to search engines. Thought leadership content may be tagged, bookmarked and get distributed widely amongst interested groups. The professional networking sites you connect with: LinkedIn, Ecadamy, Yorz, Xing will be dependent upon your market, your customers and where they interact on the web.

Gated communities

Organisations have commercially sensitive projects. It would be inappropriate to post comments publicly or have a ‘product development facebook page’. An increasing number of commercial, government and professional organisations are beginning to host their own closed communities.

Leveraging social media technology, closed communities look and behave like a facebook group. But the information they share is secure. Many companies are using these technologies to prepare complex, high value bids with partner organisations. Information is kept secure as individuals are given specific permissions and authority. So sub-contractors can contribute to their part of the bid and submit costs. But they will not be able to see final pricing.

The potential customer (government department of corporation) has access to the bid as it is being developed, but not the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the bid preparation.

Gated communities are also useful for developing new products and services. Invited customers become an ‘always on’ customer focus group. Whilst never completely replacing the customer day, the gated community means you do not have to wait for an annual event to get feedback!

Implementation

Most company websites cannot provide market intelligence; they are simple ‘information sites’. This is not competitive today. To be visible on the Internet, information has to be regularly updated (at least once a week) and the site has to be interactive (enables comment and links to professional networking groups).

If you have a traditional company website: change your strategy! Not only will  your  web presence be enhanced, you will get good, timely, market intelligence and more revenue.

Blogging is a low priority for most mature businesses. They prefer to focus on getting a good website up, some search engine optimisation , email activity and a lot of traditional off-line events. (If it ain’t broke, why fix it?).

Well, the fact is it is broke: most companies just do not know it.

Traditional company websites cost a fortune to build, maintain and get traffic to. Ill conceived email campaigns can and will damage your reputation. The simple fact is that the ‘old’ (yes I know it’s only 5-10 years in many cases) way of Internet marketing is expensive and ineffective: you need to throw a lot of money at the problem to get a consistently high Google ranking.

Why blogging?

Even old school web designers will tell you that the main thing that gets your website noticed is good content, regularly refreshed. The problem is that most company websites are not set up for regular (once a week minimum) updates.

The second issue is links: most company websites are difficult to link to, the pages and connections are ‘hard wired’.

Put simply: your company website is a good asset but it has its limitations as far as hardnosed business generation is concerned. Company websites provide great references for companies interested in doing business with you but they are not very efficient when it comes to attracting and identifying potential customers.

Blogs on the other hand are built around linking and regular updates – the things search engines like! The other advantage is they federate your information: produce a good article and you will get plenty of readers, produce good articles regularly and you will get an avalanche of visitors which would smother your company website.

How do Blogs work?

There are several types but Seth Godin only counts three for business purposes: Cat Blogs, Boss Blogs and Viral Blogs.

Cat Blogs

These are essentially ‘My Diary’ entries, of little interest to most of the outside world. So called because they are usually the blogger giving news about their cats (or other small animals/pets/significant others). From a business perspective they can be useful internally and for Key Customers: letting people know what is going on and quashing rumours.

Boss Blogs

Unlike Cat Blogs, Boss Blogs are full of useful information (like this one, hopefully) . They provide a resource for individuals (potential customers) looking for a solution to their problem or just keeping up to date with developments in their industry. They provide ‘thought leadership’ and are far more flexible, more widely read and interactive than the old ‘link to a white paper’ email trick.

Boss blogs generate significant business: www.davavailability.co.uk for example has generated over £10 million in enquiries this month (does your website do that?)

Viral Blogs

These are the kind of blogs most company directors think of when they hear the word ‘blogging’.  They are essentially on line discussions, chaired by the blog author.

They generate interest, traffic but their ROI is difficult to measure. (So they are not that popular with companies looking to hit numbers next quarter). However, they do fulfil a useful role: they build a company’s web presence and reputation. They can also help with market research (more on that next week).

Don’t start on a ‘Blogging site’

There are plenty of services offering Blogs for free. As a business be careful: you need your own URL. You do not want to build reputation, traffic and revenue on what would effectively be a ‘rented site’. You need to build your own. www.datavailabilty.co.uk is just that – owned and edited by a successful small company. And it is generating far more business than their traditional company website.

Influencing markets compels organisations to invest in intellectual capital. White Papers are commissioned, Seminars organised and Webcasts broadcast. But the audience for these events and materials is often limited and content dates quickly.

Developing thought leadership materials is the easy part; the challenge is getting it read.

The right communications infrastructure helps but it is only the foundation. To be a thought leader organisations not only need good ideas and broadcast infrastructure, they need active management.

Be regular

The latest thinking encourages organisations to build ‘dialogues’ with customers and potential customers: great! What exactly does this mean?

A couple of years ago a large electrical retailer commissioned a ‘viral’ digital campaign. It involved a witty email, banner adverts and a free ‘elf bowling’ video game.

Did it increase traffic? – Absolutely yes.

Did it engage the market? – Again yes.

Did it result in more sales? – A resounding NO!

It was a classic example of traditional marketing going digital. The campaign was classic ‘fire and forget’; it did not build a dialogue. But it could report that vast numbers of individuals played ‘elf bowling’.

To succeed organisations have to develop regular ongoing communications, elicit interaction and build a conversation. Every industry has its challenges and opinion formers. Regular publication and comment on matters effecting your industry will recruit an army of influential supporters: individuals who recommend your papers, link to your webcasts and build your audience. New material needs to be published once a fortnight as a minimum.

Be assured; the demand you create is directly proportional to the frequency and quality of your publication.

Be original

The majority of social networkers, tweeters and bloggers simply regurgitate and promote useful material. This is great news for the publisher but it does not help the ‘tweeter’ other than giving them a great following. It is better to have 2,000 active recommenders than 20,000 followers wondering who you will recommend next. Be original, be talked about and build your reputation. Simply pointing your audience to a third party White Paper will promote the third party – not you.

Too difficult?

Many organisations believe that regular publication involves significant investments in personnel, time and effort. In most cases it does not. But it does require good organisation, appropriate resources and management.

In practise the effort is limited and many companies find organising a single trade show far harder work than developing regular communications with their marketplace. But the returns for regular publication are significantly greater.

During 2010 Social Media Marketing will have a shave, buy a suit and start working for professional service organisations. The techniques and technologies have matured to a point at which it is possible for serious B2B organisations to secure mind and market share over more sluggish competitors.

These changes are driven by several factors:

1. Content is no longer found in tidy silos – it is distributed, edited and commented upon. New clients are more likely to learn about (and engage with) your organisation via recommendations on third party sites.

2. Traditional models of SEO and SEM to promote corporate websites have been eclipsed by professional networking group referrals.

3. Direct (interruption) marketing channels have become increasingly ineffective: telemarketing, direct mail and even email for new business generation are highly inefficient and may harm rather than enhance reputation.

4. Technology and individual use of the Internet has changed: potential clients are willing to engage in online discussions. Content is no longer static.

5. Individuals do not need marketing: there is a wealth of information and comment on the web where professionals can keep abreast of the latest innovations and market developments. And if you are not at the party, you are not part of the discussion and not part of the solution.

Effective commercial networking requires organisations to publish good quality information, share useful materials and build a network of peers, clients and suppliers.

Publish

Most professional organisations have a decent library of materials and an ongoing programme of publication. However, the majority of this material either sits on company websites or is the subject of email broadcast activity. It is a shame that after so much time, intellectual capital and money has been invested, that these materials are not more widely read. A relatively small investment can help organisations leverage Social Media technologies and get your material read. However, it does need investment in infrastructure (Blogs, Microsites, Websites) and active publication on third party sites (Google, Wikipedia, YouTube).

Share

But it does not need to be you that does the promotion: your customers can be encouraged to publish (LinkedIn, Squidoo, upcoming.com) or support through bookmarking (Delicious, eHow, furl etc.). Many of IBM’s highly technical white papers would not register on search engines if it were not for IT professionals bookmarking the best information.

Network

The better your network, the stronger your business. Publishing and sharing materials builds connections with potential customers. Your company reputation will be influenced by how you manage these interactions. Where you interact is important. Organisations can configure Social Media Technology to develop their own ‘private social sites’: useful for getting  bidding consortia together, collaboration or product development. Potential customers are more likely to congregate (and discuss stuff) on public shared sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Gather, eons). The networking location determines how you act and respond as an organisation. It is a bit like a cocktail party: if you are the host, you set the agenda but it requires work. If your a guest, the workload is reduced but you might not have as much control over the conversation.

Is it worth it?

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: Marketing has changed. Increased Internet use has put the consumption of marketing collateral firmly in the control of the customer. Interruption marketing is ignored. And we now have systems which disregard marketing automatically.

If you are not implementing a Social Media Strategy today you are not at the party, but you may be part of the conversation.

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The strength of your network reflects the strength of your business: it pays to be well connected.

It’s as true for corporations as it is for individuals; increased connections and deeper relationships equal increased revenue. Some organisations have perfected business networking on an industrial scale: Amazon, Google, iStore et.al. But are lessons from Internet retailers relevant for professional service companies?

The answer is yes, with caveats.

Internet retailers’ transactional business can scale in a way that is impossible for more complex professional service products or services. For practical purposes Internet retailers do not have to limit business volume: they can scale to meet demand and customer expectation.

In contrast, professional service marketers have to match demand to available resources. The challenge is not to build networks per se but to network profitably. In other words: maximise connections with organisations that deliver the greatest return and sever unprofitable links; which is where ‘Business Ethos’ becomes relevant.

Business Ethos is your organisation’s character. It is how you are perceived (and remembered) by the world. Potential clients are attracted (or repulsed) based upon their predisposition to the type of organisation you are. Professional service marketers have to develop a business ethos that builds relationships and networks with a carefully targeted audience.

And this is how to do it online:

How we act

Attracting new business is a pro-active endeavour. Timing, frequency and the tools used to communicate create an impression in the marketplace. For most, interruption marketing: cold calling, email blasts, etc. is pushy to the point of rudeness. It is unattractive and unlikely to appeal to audiences most professional service organisations wish to connect with.

But connections need to be built and interruption marketing is possible if:

1.    The style of copy is right.
2.    Subject and materials are relevant.
3.    The individuals addressed have been carefully selected.
4.    Timing is correct.
5.    Objectives are limited.
6.    Follow-up is timely and appropriate.

It is the digital equivalent of the cocktail party. A charming and intelligent approach to an individual you wish to engage in conversation is likely to be successful. Limit the initial objective: ask too much of you new found friend and you will fail. Be prepared to follow up any interaction appropriately. Build your network.

What we say

Your organisation is perceived by what you say as well as how you say it. To create gravitas and presence communications have to provide value to your target market. Simple, time limited offers, will not build a network. Your content has to be thought provoking, engaging and help your readership solve complex, challenging issues. It should encourage further dialogue and networking. Good quality articles, white papers and commentary on matters affecting your customers’ marketplaces today will help to construct profitable networks.

Where Amazon will suggest a book or product based upon purchase or browsing behaviour, the professional services marketer should offer opinion or provide insight based upon individuals’ interests and browsing behaviour. Getting partners or busy professionals to create high quality content can be challenging and we address how to build content in a later post (Expedite).

Look forward

Building the right connections should be a priority for the professional services marketer and it starts with understanding the sort of organisation you are and the sort of clients you wish to attract. Once that hard work has been done planning and constructing communications should be easy!

Our next article looks at infrastructure: the tools and techniques required to get your message out, build your network and manage the opportunities generated.

Most professional organisations agree that meaningful conversations build relationships and business.

Yet many have difficulty initiating or maintaining business dialogues. ‘Classic lead generation’ activities (telemarketing, email prospecting et al) are just not appropriate in a professional environment. It is a dilemma that few have solved.

Modern communication tools complicate rather than simplify the situation. In a fluid and evolving communications landscape, partners and marketing professionals continually attempt to answer several questions concurrently.

Typically those charged with marketing a professional organisation will focus on tactical matters:

1.    Can we use eMail to engage new clients and if so, how?
2.    How effective are pay-per-click systems like Google Adwords?
3.    Is our website visible enough, should we invest more in SEM?
4.    Under what circumstances may we tele-prospect for new business?

Etc.etc…

However, professional organisations should focus on one strategic question:

‘How does my organisation initiate and maintain meaningful dialogue with prospects and clients?’

We answer this question focusing on four communication pillars:

1.    Ethos: The organisation and its interaction with its commercial environment.
2.    Architecture: The design and deployment of communication tools and assets.
3.    Expedite: Active management of campaigns, resources and responsibilities.
4.    Action: Follow-up of engaged individuals and ‘closed loop’ reporting.

The aim is to build a communications structure and processes that not only build your organisation’s reputation but also increases the strength and depth of your commercial relationships. We will help you explore the basic principles behind your communications strategy. We will show you what tools other organisations use to expedite their campaigns. We will also share with you how communications assets are created and deployed.

All of our work is based upon one simple premise:  for professional service organisations, relationships need to be built before any business can be won.

The explosion of communication methods creates complexity for anyone charged with marketing professional services or high technology. A communications revolution has already started. By focusing on the basic principles and applying them to complex situations we hope to help you revolutionise your corporate communications.

Next week our first instalment will examine communication Ethos; what it means and why it is important. We will provide case studies detailing the impact when organisations get it wrong. We will also show you how some organisations have implemented a robust communications framework which enables ‘on brand’ content to be created by many.

Please feel free to comment or pick up the ‘phone if you would like to discuss any aspect of this post in greater detail.