To all those idealist who thought that social media has heralded a new age of selling.

No more spam, no more push marketing... yeah, right.

Yesterday I received 2 messages from advertisers straight into my inbox on LinkedIn. One was from HP and the other from Microsoft (not sure why I got them since I'm not in IT, but whatever).

They appeared in my inbox alongside other network messages. When I clicked on the link I'm sent to micro site on LinkedIn. Right at the bottom it tells me:

Why did I receive this message? This partner message was sent to you based on non-personal information, such as the title of your current position, your primary industry, or your region. Per our privacy policy, your name and e-mail address have not been disclosed

And there's an option to change my contact settings.

No more today so far, let's see what happens.

Now LinkedIn usually tests things in the background before launching and, when they do, there's little fanfare or announcement, they just slip in it.

But it looks like they're trying the equivalent of "promoted tweet" ie: good old fashioned direct marketing.

Personally, if it's relevant I don't really care but in this case it wasn't. Possibly because I have the word "technology" on my profile but that's it. Hardly targeted with laser precision.

And, even though I use LinkedIn every day, these 2 ads made up 22% of my inbox messages yesterday. Hmmm, wonder how long it is before those contact setting get changed?

On a similar note, there's been a round-robin style message going around Linkedin about the fact they've changed their privacy settings and can now use images and details of you in their advertising campaigns.

While I'm dreaming of my 5 minutes of fame on prime time TV, others are up in arms spreading the word that you need to change your settings to stop this happening.

Ah, social media.... it's so social.

Labels: direct marketing, social media

I don't know whether I'm just a grumpy 40-something or maybe I'm just having one of those "emperor's new clothes" moments but I'm starting to wonder about the direction of social media.

You see, like many others, I'm spending some of my time on twitter, LinkedIn groups, etc. I'm following people with similar interests, commenting on discussions, etc.

It's true, my involvement isn't full time since, like you, I'm also running my business and delivering projects for clients and trying to generate more revenue.

And, in my quest to find the next useful piece of information or discussion to tweet about and comment on all I'm seeing is more of the same.

LinkedIn discussions are often either the same questions asked in a different way or just a long running debate that's been added to over a 12 month period.

The latest "research" or report just seems to re-hash old statistics or spin someone else's report to create content.

After all, content is king and you need to feed the beast.

Plus, if you follow all the social media experts they'll keep telling you that this is the best way to convert business, drive sales, etc, etc... but very few give you concrete examples outside of a few huge brands or shoe-string niche consumer start-ups.

It's a bit like the myth that you lose 90% of your heat out your head. Totally debunked by scientists since the 80's but still everyone believes it. Maybe it's because it's got a statistic in it?

There are countless other examples where some study has been regurgitated over years to be held up as a truth that everyone just accepts. And I think there's a lot of that happening in social media.

Sometimes I get the feeling that on many LinkedIn groups (and to an extent on Twitter) there's this self-serving clique of people who simply retweet each other and start discussions just because they have to (it's in their social media plan).

I know... that's social media etiquette, of course. Which is maybe why I'm just being a grumpy middle aged man.

But, I think it's valid to question why you're doing something and also where it's going.

I read in a report (ironic, I know) that one hot area for new business ideas is in "filtering" social media content.

Wasn't that was social media was all about. Content gets filtered and recommended to you by people you trust?

But if everyone's playing the game of "must tweet 4 times a day" or "must produce an article every week" what's going to happen?

As I've posted about before, marketing does one thing really well - abuse a new channel until it gets saturated. Junk mail, cold calls, email, it's all been done before.

Even Twitter now has promoted tweets and accounts.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Labels: social media, social networking sites

Another email lands in my inbox from B2B Marketing promising to show me How to use Twitter to generate and nurture leads.

At last, I think, rubbing my hands, someone's finally cracked it and can show me how to actually generate real leads from Twitter.

Unfortunately, it's much more of a list of "best practice" which really only means "what everyone else is doing".

What really made me laugh was point 9) "Make a Sale", which says:

At this stage, hopefully your target has followed you back, accessed lots of valuable information via your Tweets, answered a few questions in return and as a result built up an ongoing relationship with your brand. They are now better informed and in regular contact with you – when you pass on their details to the sales team they should be in a great position to buy.

Call me a salty old sales cynic but as soon as I read "hopefully" I knew we were in trouble.

To me, that one word "hopefully" sums up the strategy of using twitter for lead generation.

Of course, I tweet myself occasionally, and have implemented most of the points covered in the article. And I'd agree that there's a large slice of "hopefully" in my strategy for doing so.

Does it take much of my time? No.

Could it potentially generate some leads? Hopefully, some day.

Would I forget about other tried and tested (but less sexy) lead generation tactics? No way!

Twitter is still new and, sure, people are still trying to work out what it's good for in terms of the B2B marketing mix. Unfortunately, I think that there are a lot of people who are making money out of telling people how to generate leads from Twitter when they really don't know themselves.

Earlier today I was chatting with a marketing consultant who was telling me that she tweeted on behalf of clients and helped them set up and manage their Twitter accounts. She was telling me how long it took to do it all and, sure, it sounded like a nice little earner.

But, when I asked her how much business it has generated for her clients it all went very quiet.

Labels: b2b lead generation, social media

I suppose it was only a matter of time.

I noticed today a Twitter Sales Lead Tool which searches tweets for keywords relative to your business. It seems to filter tweets based on intent words (such as "need" or "looking for") and then delivers you a list of sales-ready leads which you can communicate directly with via the tool.

All very neat stuff.

It's something you can already do manually with a search string or advance search form and then saving the search. But, the search tool is free and looks to make organising the results easier so maybe it's worth a punt.

However, my real question is whether you really can get sales ready leads off twitter.

You see, as I've posted before Are social networks just a waste of time for B2B lead generation?, I wonder whether they really generate qualified sales leads or just a lot of time wasting noise.

Let's take our business as an example.

I'm looking for prospects who want telemarketing, right? (Well, not exactly, but lets follow this route). If I run a search on twitter for "telemarketing" I get a whole mixed bag a people complaining about telemarketing, looking for a telemarketing job, people looking for hire someone for a telemarketing job, it goes on.

OK, so I filter it by using a search string to remove the word "job" and to only look for people asking a question. What do I get? Well, in this instance, just one tweet and it's someone looking to hire someone.

But let's assume I actually get more. What next?

Well, for it to a qualified "sales-ready" lead I need to tick a few boxes. Basic stuff like budget, target market, timescales, etc. Whatever the filters are that you need to decide whether it's a qualified lead.

My point is that, when you really drill into these things, for b2b lead generation twitter doesn't seem to deliver. Of course, if you're selling something that has less qualification criteria and/or a large universe of people looking, then it could be a goldmine.

But for my business (and for pretty much all of my clients) I don't think so.

The more I look, the more I see that most of the buzz comes from people selling training or tools to use social media for lead generation. Everyone's jumped on the Sales 2.0 bandwagon and are making hay.

Don't get me wrong, social networking platforms can be useful for sales lead generation. Identifying and researching prospects are two key areas where we use them every day.

And, I don't rule out that as they develop and adoption grows within business, we won't find serious buyers tweeting their intent or starting discussions on LinkedIn groups whereas they used to wander around an exhibition hall looking for solutions.

But right now, for b2b sales lead generation, I think you're still better off investing your time, money and energy in more proven tactics.

Bottom line is that we're interested in delivering results. Whilst it might be sexy to talk with clients about social media the reality is that we can't guarantee it'll deliver qualified sales-ready opportunities.

Labels: b2b lead generation, sales lead generation, social media

Just when you thought the hype around social media couldn't get any bigger, there's seems to be a revived interest in that old-school approach - the cold call.

If you look at this poll on LinkedIn, Is Cold calling Dead, you'll see (at the time of this blog) that 64% of 352 respondents answered "No (Have No Plans to Change)".

Only 6% have moved totally to social media and a further 14% say Yes, they have stopped or will stop soon. The rest are somewhat on the shelf.

Even more interesting than that are the comments.

One after another, business owners, sales people and business development executives are confirming that cold calling is still alive and kicking.

You won't see that said in much of the B2B marketing media.

Also, people are confirming that they use social media to enhance their cold calling.

Whilst picking up that phone may be old school the approach has changed. Researching targets online before engaging (something that we always recommend) leads to a more intelligent approach and, ultimately, higher conversion rates.

If you read between the lines in the comments you'll find that many of those people who think it is dead are probably justifying the fact that they hate cold calling. Or they're selling "social media" as the new magic bullet.

Truth is, cold calling still works, but it needs a more intelligent approach.

Which is where we come in, I guess.

Labels: b2b telemarketing, cold calling, social media

I recently attended Social Media 09 in London, which was a face-paced tour of social media comment, case studies and demos.

As usual at these excellent mashup event, there are always some nuggets of information which change your perceptions.

For me, a couple of speakers nailed it.

Mat Morison talked about how "social norms", rather than "business norms" are applicable within social media and Andrew Grill made the point that it's the same rules which apply to any social gathering, such as a networking event.

Now these may seem obvious, but if you look at how many people behave within social media you can see how the point isn't always grasped.

It's a bit like seeing someone at a networking event who's rushing from group to group, working the room and gathering business cards rather than engaging in meaningful conversations.

In a networking environment you'd just call them a jerk; on a linkedin group you'd call them a spammer.

Many of the speakers used a simple 3-step approach for brands using social media. I think that it's equally applicable for business development.

Firstly you listen. Next you respond. Finally you engage.

It reminds me of much of the advice about "networking" in the 90's so it makes perfect sense in the context of social media, such as a Linkedin group that you've just joined.

Listen to what's happening and wait for an opportunity to respond.

Finally, once you understand the tone of the group you can initiate a discussion.

I kind of think that if more people took this approach then every LinkedIn group wouldn't have those "featured discussions" laying down the rules.

Labels: business development, social media, social networking sites

I've started a new group on LinkedIn called ExecPitch: "It's Dragon's Den meets the boardroom... on LinkedIn"

Our business is all about pitching targeted executives direct with new business ideas. Whether it's to get a meeting, a referral, or even funding, this outreach approach is the bedrock of business development.

But, with the rise of social media, I was wondering whether there was another way?

What if you could pitch a global audience of executives with your business idea and inspire some of them to take action?

I imagined something a bit like Dragons Den but pitching to a broader audience than investors and using an online platform rather than face-to-face.

From my experience of pitching senior executives, I know that they are open to hearing new business ideas; the problem is that they are time-poor.

Groups on LinkedIn (like a lot of social media and Web 2.0) are effectively crowdsourcing solutions; the pitches that get the most attention will get the most attention.

Great pitches will get followed most and, because this is social media, there is always the opportunity for your pitch to get accelerated globally both within the group's members' networks and outside of LinkedIn).

The cream rises to the top, as they say.

So, if you're open to discover new vendors with business ideas that could potentially transform your business... or you're a vendor who's willing to put your pitch out there... jump in and join ExecPitch.

Labels: new business development, social media, social networking sites

I recently found an interesting survey on marketing collateral for B2B technology vendors. "Eccolo Media 2009 B2B Technology Collateral Survey Report".

There's alot of detail in here about trends, etc but a couple of key points are that white papers are still the most influential form of collateral influencing technology purchasers and that it's "highly viral" in nature.

The last point is very interesting when you consider that the survey found "nearly as many (85 percent) share case studies; 81 percent share brochures/data sheets; 80 percent podcasts; and 79 percent video"

This seems to echo our experience where we often use white-papers, case-studies and "thought-leadership" collateral as a tool to both engage and develop relationships within a prospect organisation.

Indeed, the survey makes it clear that "collateral acts as the 'front door' to the sales process.

Another interesting area is the channel preference: "A download from a direct response campaign was the second most frequently used channel for receiving a white paper, behind the corporate Web site. This implies both the frequency with which the white papers are used as direct response offers, and the respondents' preferences to receive them through this channel"

Just as this survey has seen the use of video rise in last years. I think this is one area where social media marketing will dramatically increase. At the moment it's behind direct response but I definitely see that changing.

After all, I found this piece of collateral via the Inbound Marketers group on LinkedIn.

Labels: b2b marketing, demand generation, digital marketing, marketing collateral, social media

In a recent interactive poll for B2B marketing magazine, 80% of it's readers voted "Yes" to the question "Should B2B be focusing all it's efforts on 'pull' marketing (otherwise known as 'outside-in' marketing) therefore turning its back on 'push' marketing techniques (known as 'inside-out')?"

I find that staggering!

80% of B2B marketers think they should be focusing all their efforts on 'pull' marketing.

Whilst I'm not surprised to find myself in the minority with all the buzz and hype around how on-line and social media has changed the B2B landscape, I still find it amazing that so many B2B marketers are prepared to throw out proven push marketing tactics such as DM and telemarketing.

I totally agree that the landscape has changed, and that returns on some traditional direct marketing tactics are falling, but equally, many of the stars of 'pull' marketing, such as social media, still have to deliver tangible and robust ROI.

Like many things in life, it's seldom a "either-or" choice; it's about how you choose the best of all available options to deliver the results you need.

Labels: b2b marketing, push marketing, social media

The jury's out but, with some degree on scepticism, I've decided to start a twitter account.

As I've posted on my blog before, see Is Twitter a B2B marketing channel? I'm still trying to work out where the return is (truth be told, I'm sure everyone else is too!) but I've seen a growing number of clients, associates, prospects and organisations I know join so... who knows?

If you're interested in my 140 character musings - follow me here

Labels: b2b marketing, social media, social networking sites

I've recently finished reading the excellent Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin.

In his book Seth maps out 14 trends that are shaping the business world and suggests that the winners will be the companies which align their business model with what he calls "New Marketing".

Unsurprisingly, since this book is from the guru of permission marketing, Seth says in the executive summary that Old Marketing tactics such as telemarketing and cold calling "are all in trouble"

I didn't exactly spit out my coffee at that point but it did make me sit up :-)

The thing is that Seth's talking about telemarketing as a "mass marketing" media, since he compares it with Network TV and newspapers.

And in that sense, he's absolutely right.

Mass-market telemarketing, which is typically B2C, is dead. As I've posted about previously (see Ethical Telemarketing Companies? Now I know we're in trouble!) unsolicited cold calling to consumers just doesn't work any more.

But let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Telemarketing can still be extremely effective as a marketing tactic and, in certain situations, can deliver far better results than other, often over-hyped, digital marketing tactics.

As long as it's highly targeted and relevant then outbound telemarketing can not only be effective but it can also be well received (I posted about this a year ago Google ads show us the future of cold-calling).

My view is that telemarketing is already shifting to higher value, more complex sales propositions where it can still deliver a strong ROI.

Will telemarketing ever become extinct as a marketing tactic?

I guess that if it no longer delivers a return-on-investment then the answer's yes. Or if legislation comes out to ban it's use in business-to-business.

At the moment, though, if you need to reach senior decision makers and key influencers in business, high-targeted telemarketing can still deliver.

Labels: b2b marketing, b2b telemarketing, cold calling, social media

Even though I've been in the telesales business for over 20 years (I ran a telesales team back in 1989 for an IT services company), I'm always interested in reading books on the subject. You never know, you just might pick up a real gem of an idea.

Anyway, I was looking Art Sobczak's Telesales Blog and saw a recommended book that's not in my library called Successful Sales Managers Guide to Telephone Sales.

Cool, I thought, let's have a look at this one. But, then, something stopped me dead in my tracks - it was published in 1999!

Now, in some ways, 1999 isn't that long ago. But in the world of telesales it's an eternity.

In a way, the title of the book gives it away - "Telephone Sales".

I was chatting the other day to one of our associates who worked in one of the first telemarketing companies back in the 80's. We were talking about how the game has changed so much in that time.

For a start, there was no voicemail. Not to mention the fact that people were actually happy to chat with you :-) No email. No web.

Today, at some levels within an organisation, you can call all day and not reach anyone. And that's exactly why the tactics that worked in the 80's, and even back in 1999, just don't cut it anymore.

Back in 1999 I was a regional sales manager for a company selling IT solutions for manufacturing (the fact we were selling to manufacturing dates the story for a start!) In those days, you would ask a prospect, "do you have an email address?".

The game has changed.

The description "Telephone Sales" just isn't accurate any more.

Telephone, voicemail and email are all daily tools. Today, we set up as many appointments by email as we do by phone. Social networking sites like LinkedIn and web based research tools have become critical in positioning your approach. Web demos have become the norm for software telesales.

But in a few years time we may be saying... that's so 2009!

Labels: b2b telemarketing, cold calling, social media, telesales

Maybe it was the blog title "If You're an Over 40 Marketing Professional You Must Wake up and Understand the Importance of Twitter" that caught my attention because I've pretty much managed to avoid the phenomenon of twitter so far.

I must admit, I still think of twitter as an inane stream of pointless "tweets" of a "just got my morning paper" style. Who wants to know that?

Well, 4M people apparently.

So, when Salesforce.com announce that they're integrating twitter, it makes me think again.

I can see it in a service or support function, kind of a micro-blogging user group. And for major brands it must be great.

If you're a consultant, coach, trainer or some "guru" then I guess you could use it to get potential clients to follow you. I see a lot of tele-seminar tweets flying about and, to my mind, it fits well with a personality led business.

Getting your thought leadership positioning into 140 characters may be a challenge for many though.

Like other social media platforms, no doubt an MLM element is in there as I can see it's a great medium for recruiting network marketing agents and affiliates. "Just made another Zillion dollars, you must get in on this".

Twitter has certainly got the media's attention and that, more than anything, could be behind Salesforce.com's integration plans.

But, maybe that's just an over 40's perspective :-)

Labels: b2b marketing, social media

I came across an excellent article in Information Age this weekend, which looks at 10 Outstanding applications of Web 2.0 in business.

With all the hype around Web 2.0 and it's focus on high-profile consumer applications such as Facebook, it's great to see examples of where collaborative technologies such as blogs, wikis and social networking are being used in businesses including Coca-Cola, Ernst & Young, GE and Proctor & Gamble.

I'm always interested in this space because, not only are many of our clients involved in Web 2.0, through providing technology solutions, consultancy or design services, but you could say that our business is built on collaborate Web 2.0 technologies.

Applications such as Skype, LinkedIn, Google Docs, SugarCRM & Salesforce.com are tools we use daily, both for collaborating with clients and internally within Maine Associates.

Finally, we're finding more clients have internal wikis which enable us to quickly develop our understanding of their proposition and encourage more collaboration with client teams.

Labels: new business agency, social media

The guys over at RainToday are running an interesting webinar by Dana VanDen Heuvel called "How to Create a Web 2.0/Social Media Marketing Strategy for Your Firm".

Aimed at professional services firms, the webinar promises to "provide you with ideas, examples, and a plan of action for immediately putting these technologies [Web 2.0 & Social Media] to work to attract new clients."

I've been using social networking tools, such as LinkedIn for a number of years now. Back in January 2007 I posted "Is 2007 the year for Business Social Networking sites?"... maybe I was a year early :-)

Certainly social media marketing is getting more and more attention. Recently, I noticed that this year's adtech conference in London is being sponsored by Xing.

For me, LinkedIn remains the key social networking site for any professional service firm; I use it daily.

If you want to know how to use social media, and LinkedIn in particular, to develop new business, read this post on LinkedIn's own blog "From startup mode to being acquired by Yahoo! - The MyBlogLog story". Here's an interesting quote from the post:

"It occurred to me how they did what they did, and I reached out to Eric via LinkedIn - we had Sean Bonner of metro blogging in common. I called him up; he got Todd on the phone"

The key phrase for me is "I called him up; he got Todd on the phone".

You see, social media has changed the game, but it doesn't mean the old rules don't apply.

Sites like LinkedIn help you make a more intelligent approach. You can understand whether your proposition will be of interest before you contact them. This means that you can phrase your message so it doesn't appear as spam or just another cold call. And, where relevant, you can reference other people that you both know.

Essentially, you can warm up a cold call.

Labels: marketing, new business development, social media, social networking sites