Are you getting the most from LinkedIn?

A few questions for you.  Do you visit LinkedIn regularly?  Do you use it to its full potential?  Do you know what that potential is?

If the answer is no, then I’d say that you’re missing out.

I’ve been getting to grips with LinkedIn more and more over the last year and can see its potential not only in terms of connecting with a network but also in terms of becoming a primary B2b marketing tool.  If you subscribe to the belief that people buy from people then LinkedIn should be a key part of your strategy.  And here is why:

The people you want to talk to.  All in one place.

If you’ve built your network correctly, you’ll have been sending “connect with me” messages to everyone you meet in a professional capacity.  After sales meetings, networking events and other industry shindigs.  Hunt them all down on LinkedIn, fire off the message, build your contact base.

In an ideal world this will mean that LinkedIn will be as good a client database as you’ll have elsewhere.  Better in fact – this one updates itself.

Movers and shakers.  Moving and shaking.

People who move jobs generally update their LinkedIn profile to reflect this change.  Especially when they’ve gone up in the world (and have bigger budgets to buy your stuff….).  LinkedIn will tell you what’s happening, who has gone where and to do what.  You’ll see a snapshot of which companies are hiring and get a good sense of where the focus lies.  Plus, you’ll have a great opportunity to contact someone who has moved on to congratulate them and set up a meeting to discuss that shiny new budget.

Your industry, all discussing….stuff.

LinkedIn’s groups function has led to a tremendous amount of knowledge being shared across industries, sectors and professions.  Get on board with it.  Learn from your peers, join the conversation and share your expertise.  This builds your personal brand and helps to develop that of your company.

Shout from the rooftops.

A sales guy (or gal) would kill for an opportunity to stand in a room full of relevant contacts and tell them all about a new product launch, new service or exciting development within their company.  This is what the LinkedIn status update is.  Use it sparingly and it is the most powerful, non-spammy form of marketing shoutiness there is.  The people in your contacts list have all given you permission to contact with them, so treat it with respect and they will listen to what you have to say.  Keep it interesting and relevant of course.  This is different from Facebook and Twitter.

One related tip – don’t link your Twitter account to your LinkedIn account, even if it asks you to.  A constant stream of non-business related tweets on LinkedIn is not relevant, and is annoying.  I’ve unconnected (disconnected?) with several people for this reason.  If I want your hourly tweets, I’ll follow you on Twitter.

Events

The events function lets your network know which events you’re considering or signed up to attend.  You can see who is going to what, and set up meetings.  Even if you don’t use it to plan your agenda, it gives the market a sense of the type of things your company has a presence at.

Your CV, searchable, all the time

Not strictly B2b marketing but LinkedIn is also the best way to get your credentials in front of future employers.  It’s an online CV with bells on.  Ask for recommendations and you have everything you need to help you in moving on in your career.

Let LinkedIn do the work.

Best of all, LinkedIn wraps up all of this stuff – your status updates, the industry discussions, the events and the moving and shaking into a weekly digest email that people relevant to you have signed up to receive.   Make sure you piggy back this direct train straight to their inbox.

So, there you have it.  LinkedIn as a classical B2b marketing tool, all wrapped up as a social network.  Treat it with respect and you’ll get great value out of it.

Dragon’s Con

I was really encouraged over the last few years by the rise in TV programmes that tried to promote business as a trendy, interesting activity.

Obviously this started with The Apprentice but also could be seen on kids TV with Beat the Boss and of course, Dragon’s Den.

When Dragon’s Den started it was a pretty serious business show.  The “dragons” were interested in the potential opportunities on offer and the entrepreneurs excited and stimulated by the prospect of added investment into their enterprise.

Then it became popular.  The format seemed to grip people – the dramatic walk up the stairs, the stammering and stuttering of the little guy fluffing his chance to make it big.

And becoming popular was the death of it as a business show.

Dragon’s Den is now nothing more than a route to market.  A route to market for products whether or not they get the investment they ask for . And more irritatingly, a route to market for the “dragons” as brands in themselves.

Firstly, about the products.  Now, I love a bit of Reggae Reggae Sauce as much as the next guy but there is no way that Peter Jones and co thought that there was a gap in the market for a spicy jerk sauce.  They’ve not trekked up the aisle in Asda thinking “damn it, all I’m after is a spicy music-based condiment – I could make a fortune if only I had the right recipe”.

Nope.  They thought that in a conversation with the sauce buyer at Asda they could throw in that they’ll slap “as seen on Dragon’s Den” on all of the merchandising and everyone will be quids in.  So, the show is essentially the modern version of the “as seen on TV” sticker that was used so much in the 1970s and 80s.  Which makes it nothing more than advertising.  Advertising interspersed with fat blokes sweating and forgetting the difference between gross and net profit.

The thing that is most unsavoury for me however is not the product stuff but more the “dragons” using it as a promotional tool for themselves.  Almost every single one of this lot has used the show as a way to promote themselves as successful, rich, cut-throat business people.  Most of them have books out and TV or radio advertising deals.  Each piggy backs on the show’s “i’m out” catchphrase.

I have a real problem with it.  Especially on the BBC’s dollar.  Doesn’t seem to me that a show that advertises products and promotes the careers of a few publicity hungry business people is the right way for the license fee to be spent.

And for that reason.  I’m out.

Event horizon

Have you noticed how nothing on TV is a surprise these days?

Now that Sky plus, iplayer and TV on demand is now the norm, TV companies must do everything in their power to make sure that everything is an event.

In order for a TV show to be a compelling property for an advertiser, they must have confidence that the audience they are targeting will be sat at home, engaged and watching, all the time minimising the chance that they will be clicking straight through to the 30x fast forward button.

In years gone by this was pretty easy.  Fewer channels to choose from, and a selection of mass-market, mass-interest shows that could guarantee you an audience.   It was only a last resort to set the VHS and watch it at another time.

But now, TV schedules are largely an irrelevance.  I’m as likely to use the A-Z search on Sky plus as I am to search by channel.  Often I’ll watch something without really even knowing which channel it is on.  I certainly don’t hang about for the ads.   People watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it and in a variety of different ways.

So, that’s a big problem when selling once-prime advertising slots around TV.  How can it be overcome?

The answer is the creation, development and promotion of unmissable i-was-there TV events.  It starts with sport – unscripted drama that loses its value if not watched live.  Perfect. As relevant to advertisers now as it ever was.  No-one will watch England in the world cup final on their sky plus.

Other types of TV shows want a piece of this and as such are becoming more and more like sport.  Look at the prime time TV shows and you have X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and Strictly Come Dancing.  All have an element of sport about them, and have a newsworthy “vote out” that loses its impact if you watch it after-the-fact.  These are shows that people set their watches to.

But also, increasingly, the shows that traditionally were the fodder of the ad-men, Soap Operas, are acting more and more in this way.  If you look at the life cycle of something like Coronation Street it has a few weeks of (mind numbingly dumb) build up, then a big event.  Usually a murder, a death or a wedding.  Sometimes (in Emmerdale) a plane crash.  These are promoted like sport – with build up in the tabloids and glossy mags for weeks before.  Several endings are filmed to give that sense of mystery and to add to the drama.

It’s all designed to make people feel like it is unmissable.  And if it is unmissable, the advertisers are suddenly interested again.

It even happened in the world of news last night with Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time.  A political debate show set up as a big event, a piece of must-watch TV.

The world of TV advertising has changed, and it is responsible for a change in the medium itself.

It will be very interesting to see how advertisers combat this and whether they back away from “normal” TV altogether.  I’ll sky plus it and find out later.

The England Kit Launch

I was at the Business of Sport summit in Manchester on Wednesday and saw a great presentation by the brand manager from Umbro on the development of the new England kit.

It was fascinating to see the process from strategic vision (for Umbro to help to define “Englishness” through the England team) through to creative approach (Tailored by England) and a stunning use of tactical marketing and PR.

This included the importance of making an event of the “reveal” and releasing a downloadable kit on Pro Evolution Soccer.  There was the partnerships with non football publications such as NME and Vice to position the kit as something more than a football shirt, the physical displays at strategic locations nationwide and one of the best examples of a campaign YouTube channel I’ve ever seen.

All in all, excellent stuff.  A great demonstration of how strategy can be delivered through multiple channels if the core creative idea is strong enough.

Fantastic.

Back the bid!

Stop talking at people.  Start engaging with them.

That’s pretty much been the chat in the world of marketing for a good while now.  Web 2.0 turned up with all its shiny bells and whistles and made engagement possible.  Let people get involved, join the chat about turn your marketing into a dialogue rather than a shout-fest.  Post things, comment on them, tag everything, share stuff.  Engagement ahoy.

I saw a really good example of this recently with the newly launched England 2018 bid website.  This is a project that absolutely requires community support and involvement (and, yes, engagement) to succeed.  It’s all about the people, the cities and the passion.

It’s clear the folks behind this website have thought strategically that engagement, and realising this digitally, is absolutely key to success.  Nice to see.  And they have followed it through really nicely.

All of the basics are there – share to Facebook, Digg, Deli.cio.us etc but also a cute little “show your support” section where fans can post messages directly to a wall on the site.  They can also view and comment on Back The Bid content on Flickr and YouTube, all signposted from here.  If I want to get more involved I can download wallpapers and digital buttons.

It all seems like pretty simple, straightforward stuff but I’m surprised at how badly a lot of this stuff is implemented.  It’s great to see it done really well here, for a cause I passionately believe in.

Come on everyone – BACK THE BID!

My B2b Marketing Tool-kit

Starting to really get my feet under the table in my new job now, and have been assessing the tools I need to have at my disposal.

So, here is my guide to the (almost) definitive B2b Marketers Toolkit:

1 – A CRM system

You can have all of the wonderful marketing collateral in the world, but it’s useless unless you get your head around the data side of things.  A good CRM system will enable you to keep all of your suspect, prospect and customer data in one place and also help you to track campaigns and ROI.  A really good CRM will also talk to some of the other parts of your marketing toolkit, give you dashboards and email updates and help you to communicate your successes and progress around your company.

2 – A lead generating website

Feeding directly into your CRM should be your corporate website.  The website should be your home for pretty much everything you do.  Product info, corporate news, movers and shakers, credentials, customers, case studies.  All should be here.  Segmented appropriately and with contact forms and calls to action throughout.  It goes without saying really that it should be fully SEO’d and updated as regularly as possible.

3 – Search engine marketing activity

It’s pretty pointless having the best website feeding into the best CRM system if active buyers cannot find you.  Get your pay-per-click activity sorted.  Make sure that when people are looking for your product they find your site.  Use a long-tail of keywords.  Generally longer search terms means that someone is further down the buying process and more qualified.  Ensure your ads are showing to buyers at all stages, and direct them to appropriate pages within you site – not just to the homepage.

4 – An email marketing solution

Free, or paid-for.  Fancy HTML or plain text.  Whatever stage you are at, you should be communicating with your customers by email.  Ideally this would be 100% permission based, but there is also some value in simply making a bit of noise every now and then to maintain awareness.  Your email tool should hook into your CRM system so you know who you have mailed, when, and whether they opened it or clicked on anything.

Let them unsubscribe if they want to.  Don’t take it personally.  Concentrate on speaking to those who want to listen.

5 – A twitter feed

Speaking of talking to to those who want to listen – there is no higher level of permission than someone actively clicking on the “follow” link on your Twitter.  Use this.  Engage with them, tell them stories, ask them questions.  Get into a conversation with them and use what they tell you.

On a very basic level, use Twitter to find out what the chat is around your brand and respond to it.  Quickly.  More quickly if it is negative.  Get involved, sort it out.

6 – An events calendar

Every industry has a series of key B2b events such as trade shows, conferences and networking jollies.  Get a calendar of all of these sorted.  Rank them in terms of importance and prioritise.  Don’t exhibit because your competitors are – exhibit because it is the right show, at the right time, with the right delegate list.  When you’ve been to an event, in whatever capacity, have a post-show debrief and use this intelligence to help plan next year’s trade show calendar.

Nothing can replicate the one-to-one experience that you get at a good trade show, so make the most of the opportunities by picking the right ones.

7 – Printed marketing collateral

In a largely digital world, this seems a little old fashioned.  But when you’ve got all your digital stuff sorted there is still some value in the printed stuff.  People like to hold things and they like to read things.  So, have some nice stuff to give out at shows, or leave behind at meetings.  Just make sure it is relevant and doesn’t date as it is a lot of effort and money to keep reprinting these things.  Think carefully about where this sits in terms of your overall collateral, and whether some parts of it are better as a downloadable or printed PDF.

8 – PR output

No one likes to do business with a company that looks or feels stagnant.  If things are happening around your company and you are contributing to your industry, let people know.  You need a process for getting news out, and not just as press releases.  PR can help if people aren’t talking about you, and it can also help if people are saying the wrong things.

Get all of these things sorted, and you are off to a good start.  Especially if you are a small company or a business with a small marketing team.  I’m sure if anyone from Salesfore.com saw this they would have a little chuckle.  No doubt they have a team dedicated to each one of these.  Most of us aren’t that lucky.

Once these are sorted you should start to think about some of the more industry and brand specific work, like thought-leadership programmes, corporate blogs and white papers.

So, a lot of work to do.  You don’t have time to be sat there reading this really, do you?

Bits and pieces

A few bits and pieces that are too big for a tweet but too small for their own blog post:

Selco Builder’s Warehouse. All very modern asking people to “google Selco” on your radio ad.  But when I do google it, Wickes have bought the top PPC ad for your brand.  You need to get the PPC sorted as well as the SEO for this approach to work.  Understand why you did it though, with someone else having www.selco.com….

Rugby World Cup.  Giving the RWC to England is largely pointless.  The IRB should consider the growth of the sport and take it to Japan or Italy.  Giving it to one of the most established nations just keeps the feeling that International Rugby is happy to be a closed shop.

Speedo.  All of the world records tumbling in the swimming world championships have positioned Speedo as a high-tech supplier of the highest order.  This would be a great time for a few well-considered brand extensions (before all of the cheat-suits get banned left, right and centre).

Scotland. Using  TV shows as a destination marketing tactic has reached new heights this year, with first Monty’s Great Escape and now Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones doing a wonderful job of showcasing a tourist spot in glorious HD.  Even the long, lingering shots of London on the Apprentice do more good than most brochures could do.

Call of Duty 6.  The video games industry cannot moan about the damage being done by the second-hand market if they crank up the price of the biggest release of the year to £55.  How they handle the pricing when games inevitably move to digital-only distribution will be very interesting.  It should be fewer intermediaries = lower costs = lower prices.  I bet it won’t be….

Twitter, Happier.  I’m getting an incredible amount of value from Twitter these days, despite my original scepticism.  Some recommended Twitter streams are @econsultancy (for digital marketing blogs and opinion), @FourFourTwo (footy news), @BrandRepublic (marketing industry news), @MarketingB2B (B2b specific marketing news and opinion), @NotGodinREPOSTs (Linking to Seth Godin’s daily blog)

Whatever your level

I’ve been pretty critical of The FA in this blog at times, so it’s only right that I throw them some credit when I think they are due.

This new viral piece designed to get more people into the glorious world of amateur football hits the spot in just about every way.

Top stuff from the agency, Dare Digital.  Some of this stuff really resonates with me.  Although I’m never late for matches, never train so hard I throw up and I’ve never, ever, been asked to take a free kick….

Top Marks

There are many big corporations trying to be seen to be making a difference.

From construction to media, the big boys are implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives as part of their wider communications strategy.

The problem with many of these programmes is that it’s difficult not be cynical.  They often feel tacked on.  As if the strategists behind it have watched the news and latched on to the issue of the moment.  That’s that box ticked.  You can’t say we’re not doing our bit.

That’s why it is so refreshing when it is done properly, and with a real sense of commitment.

The best example of this at the moment is Marks and Spencer’s Plan A.  If you’ve been in an M&S recently, you can’t help but have noticed it.

It is 100 pledges across 5 different categories.  All broadly within the sphere of climate change and working to make a difference.  And it is communicated with real purpose and real belief.  It’s the underpinning thread of everything M&S do now.  And it is this that separates it from most CSR initiatives I’ve seen.

In terms of the marketing communications basics it also gets everything right.  Consistent, impactful and well implemented in store and online.  There is a tone of voice that backs up the feeling that M&S means business with this campaign (ie “Plan A can’t be put on hold just because times are tough”).

The website allows people to register and post their pledges, showing them up as a design feature.  It’s engaging and fits in perfectly with the wider “Your M&S” branding.

It is also carried through the supply chain, with even the design of the lorries being amended to reduce motorway drag and lessen the environmental impact of each journey.  Fantastic.

It is everything a CSR campaign should be and reflects very well on the company and the brand as a whole.

Did you know?

I recently had this video pointed out to me. It’s a pretty fascinating look at the progress of technology – thought provoking stuff.