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Technology Marketing Category

Becky Sheetz-Runkle Named to The ASBC Executive Committee

Monday, June 29th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Becky Sheetz-Runkle has been named Vice Chair of The American Small Business Coalition (ASBC) inaugural Executive Committee. This new committee will be an important part of the federally-focused membership organization’s decision making process.

The ASBC is a membership organization exclusively focused on supporting the development of relationships, best practices and market intelligence for companies doing business in the government sector.

Find out more at http://www.theasbc.org/?page=execcomm_mem.

Posted in Business to Government Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Best Ways to Build Brand Loyalty in Recession

Thursday, June 25th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

As discussed last week, brand loyalty is another consequence of this recession. From grocery stores to enterprise solutions, buyers are tenuous with budgets and all too eager to swap out product and service providers to save a few dollars.

So, aside from providing awesome products and services and enviable customer service, what are you doing to boost brand loyalty and retain your customers? The first and most important step you can take is to tell your customers two very important things.

1. Say thank you. How are you thanking your customers for their loyalty? The answer can’t be that the sales representative checks in once a year to re-up the contract. That’s not saying “thanks.” That’s say, “where’s the money?” And customers see through it.

An option is to have your account managers or senior leadership pick up the phone and thank customers for their business. Of course, you always want more business and cross selling is important, but the purpose of these calls should not be to highlight a new offering or upsell a contract. The purpose is to say thank you.

If you’re in a high volume business with thousands of customers, that’s untenable. But you can at least call key customers. Emails and letters are alternatives for large customer bases. For your non-government customers, take them to lunch to show them you appreciate their business.

2. Remind them that you’re great. The purpose of thanking your customers is not to give the impression that sales are down or revenue is tight, if that’s your present reality. You’re not calling to beg them to continue on with you. Good, bad or neutral times, showing appreciation is always a good idea.

Selling and marketing don’t stop after the sale is made, unless you never want their business again. Once an organization joins your customer roster, you must periodically remind them that you’re the absolute best choice they could have made. Chances are they have other options for the products or services you provide. If you keep in front of them in a positive light, you’ll reduce the likelihood that they will want to shop around for alternatives. That’s why marketing is a recession is so critical.

Posted in Customer retention, Direct marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Public Relations, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Q2 Marketing Cited in Slideshare’s Content Marketing Predictions for 2009

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Slideshare’s Content Marketing, Social Media and Marketing Predictions for 2009 cites research commentary from Q2 Marketing. Find the presentation, full of great resources, here:

http://www.slideshare.net/ambal/clickdocuments-content-marketing-cheat-sheet

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Online Marketing, SEO, Search Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Brand Loyalty–Another Recession Consequence

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

For most of you out there, another fallout of this strange economy is the loyalty of your customers. Buyers are increasingly looking to make the absolute best decisions with their budgets. In an attempt to shave dollars, they will even incur greater risk by swapping you out for a new product or service provider. And there’s also the risk of them cutting your portion of the budget entirely.

Forrester’s George F. Colony says in the Huffington Post:

Brand loyalty will be limited. For five years, Forrester has been tracking the precipitous decline in brand loyalty — particularly for complex products like cars. Brands will afford only limited protection for your company in the new world — because choice has been radically expanded. All brands are subject to consumer testing, discussion, disclosure, and transparency. You can no longer own your customer — your customer will own you.

Wow. Your customer will own you. Seeing any of that in your industry?

Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you know the Technology Marketing Blog isn’t about gloom and doom or hand wringing. We’re about solutions here, people. The question is–what are you going to do with this information?

We all know that new customer acquisition is a high priority. But an even higher priority is keeping the customers you’ve worked so hard to attain. If your pipeline has slowed, you certainly can’t afford to lose customers. But if customer retention isn’t part of your current marketing strategy, be prepared to face that unpleasant reality.

Later this week we’ll discuss marketing activities you really should be doing to increase customer retention.

Another interesting, if harrowing read, is from NakedCapitalism.com. If you’re not on board with the severity of this issue, this is pretty convincing.

Join us next week for solutions, and visit www.q2marketing.com for lots of other ways to solve your tech marketing challenges. Till next time….

Posted in Customer retention, Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Keyword Optimization—Low-Cost, Qualified Leads

Thursday, June 18th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

There’s a low-cost, recession-proof way to drive qualified leads to your web site.

“[In this economy] there is a greater focus on customer acquisition. Search is the best tool for that.”

–David Hallerman, senior analyst, eMarketer

Q2 Marketing is offering a proven recession-proof keyword optimization program you can implement immediately to begin driving measurably increased qualified traffic to your web site.

You’ll receive a full listing of keywords, prioritized by daily searches, predicted daily searches and Google KEI (keyword effectiveness index). And you’ll know at a glance, based on the straight-forward, easy-to interpret numbers, which are the most effective for your web site and which ones to be sure and include.

The Q2 Keyword optimization program. It’s fast, affordable and will boost qualified leads to your web site. That’s good news in any economy. Contact sales@q2marketing.com for more.

Posted in Lead Generation, SEO, Technology Marketing, Web site development | No Comments »

Last things you need before you begin to blog

Monday, June 15th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

This series grew out of my heartfelt conclusion that B2B and B2G blogging isn’t for everyone. Sometimes I get the sense that non-bloggers feel guilty about not yet joining the fray. Conversely, a hearty helping of business-to-business bloggers that, it turns out, have very little to say, have jumped in. The series began by highting the four attributes a would-be blogger absolutely must have:

Strategy
Discipline
Desire
Content

But, from there it grew. Because in addition to these, skill and content targeted to audience are essential, as we explored in part two. But wait, there’s more. Here are our final two attributes you need if you’re going to blog. At least for now.

7. Patience. You aren’t going to experience a groundswell of traffic to your site overnight. You probably won’t experience much traffic for the first number of months. Patience is a prerequisite. This ties into the discipline mentioned earlier. Know that this requires a big picture, long term perspective. We all want thousands of unique visitors each day. But remember one qualified inbound lead as a direct result of your blog has greater value than one thousand passive readers.

On readership, promoting the blog is an entirely different story. A story for another time.

8. Metrics. All good marketing is about metrics and blogs are no exception. One of the single greatest assets of web marketing is measurement. Google Analytics, which is free, will give you great data on traffic to your blog, most popular pages, time on site, referring sites and more. Use this information to understand the types of topics of most value and interest to your readers. When quantifying the value of your blog, refer back to your strategic objectives and make sure your goals are in alignment with your initiatives. And the most important metric of all: are you getting qualifed leads?

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Public Relations, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing, Web site development | No Comments »

Two More of the Most Important Things You Need to Blog

Thursday, June 11th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Earlier this week we examined the four most important things you need before you blog. To recap, they are:

Strategy
Discipline
Desire
Content

Those are the absolutely essential ingredients if your blog is going to make any impact on your business. Most don’t, according to Technorati’s State of the Blogsphere. According to this September 2008 survey, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs they track had been updated during the previous three months. This means 95% of blogs have been abandoned.

So to avoid an abandoned blog, or spinning your wheels to no avail, here are two more of the most important things you need before you blog.

5. Desire. Blogs aren’t high prose, but you have to like to write. You must have at least a modicum of aptitude for conveying the written word. And you have to want to push out to the world information, trends and issues that are hot in your industry. Being naturally inquisitive and generally excited by your industry and its goings-on will go a long way. And having a finger on the pulse of trends and developments is an absolute necessity if you’re going to attract initial and repeat visitors.

Think of it like going to the gym. If you hate it, or you’re just ambivalent, you won’t keep doing it. It’s better to dedicate your time to other efforts.

6. Content targeted to audience. Part one identified content as critical, but an effective blog extends beyond that. If your blog is going to help you drive business and reach other strategic objectives, your copy must be aligned to your objectives. I talk with bloggers who are disappointed that their consistent and well-conceived efforts are not driving traffic to their blog, sales leads, or even significant traffic to their corporate web site.

Often the culprit is less the quality of the blog and more the relevance of the content to the business. There is no shortage of things I’m passionate about and could blog about, from politics and religion to martial arts, fitness and a variety of business topics. But my Examiner column and Q2 Marketing’s Technology Marketing Blog are focused on strategic marketing for one of our most significant market sectors: B2B and B2G tech firms. If you’re going to get results, ensure your blog is equally targeted.

Check back soon for two more things you need before you blog.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Blogging? Do you have the 4 most important ingredients?

Monday, June 8th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Business-to-business blogs are everywhere these days. But that doesn’t mean that blogging is really for everyone. Maybe it’s a fit for your and your business. Maybe it’s not. This article highlights the four most essential attributes needed before blogging. We’ll review even more in part two. If you’re missing any one of the four below, regroup and consider if blogging makes sense for you.

1. Strategy. We hear all the time that executives are told they need to blog. They feel this overwhelming urge to keep up with the Joneses and their blogs. But what is too often missing from these recommendations is the strategy behind the blog.

This is true with any marketing activity. It’s not enough to produce a brochure for its own sake or build a web site for the sake of having a web site. How will the blog help you close sales, boost your credibility, fuel search engine optimization, or create awareness for your products? Start here because the next three attributes are irrelevant without a sound strategy.

2. Discipline. Be honest. Are you the type of person who bounces from one thing to the next? Or are you the type who can stick things out and stay the course? Blogging must be consistent, as we all know. Some advise for a daily posting. I think that makes sense if you’re a social media professional or professional blogger. For the rest of us, two to three times a week is a better and more realistic goal.

If yours is going to be a multi-author blog, you’ll need an accountable project manager to build the schedule and keep contributors on track. Contributions should reflect the strategy you’ve carefully planned.

3. Desire. You have to like to write. You have to want to push out to the world information, trends and issues that are hot in your industry. It’s like going to the gym. If you hate it, or you’re ambivalent, you won’t keep doing it.

4. Content. Not all industries lend themselves to B2B blogs. That’s not to say you have to be Guy Kawasaki to create and nurture a blog that people will read. But generally speaking, determine the theme of your blog. Will you cover specific industry verticals? Will your approach be skeptical? Will you provide actionable tips readers can use to help build their own businesses? And importantly–what’s stand-out about the way you will provide information to your world?

Come back later this week for other essential ingredients for a blog that drives revenue for your business.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Technology Marketing, Web site development | 1 Comment »

The 5 Fastest Ways to Generate Leads in a Recession–part 3

Friday, June 5th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Leads. Leads. Leads. They’re worth their weight in gold in any economy. But in a recession, qualified lead volume is as essential as it gets. This is the final of our three part series on the five fastest ways to generate leads. Read part one and part two of the fastest ways to generate leads.

To recap, the first four of the quickest ways to generate lead–and sales:

Webinars
Seminars
Speaking Engagements
White Papers

One quick note on the tactics mentioned in these two recent articles: A lot of companies are still spending significantly on lead generating marketing activities. Word on the B2B and B2G tech marketing street is that these activities continue to work, but a greater volume of leads are needed to close sales.

We’ve saved our most non-traditional marketing activity for last as we explore the fastest ways to generate leads. The last program is telesales. We consider this to be non-traditional from a marketing standpoint, because it falls much more under the banner of sales than marketing. But, like in much of the sales and marketing world, this should be a shared responsibility.

The business model of firms that provide telesales is only growing in this economy. There is no shortage or companies that provide this service. Here’s how it works: they make the cold or slightly warm calls to schedule meetings for your sales people and/or technical experts. These can be very helpful in any economy, but especially now when leads volume is so desired. But just because this is a tactical sales exercise doesn’t mean marketing should sit on the bench.

One of the biggest frustrations executives have with outsourced telesales is the script. The telesales people use the elevator and subsequent messaging the company provides. If the message is off target, the value proposition unclear or the message otherwise misaligned, the calls will have limited success.

Marketing should be engaged at day one to craft the call script and ensure it’s aligned with the corporate messaging, product messaging, etc. Marketing should also be involved in the strategic selling process for each movement within the funnel.

Examples: What is the next step that should occur from a marketing standpoint? Should the lead be added to the marketing database, deleted from the database, scheduled to receive a follow up communication such as a white paper, webinar invitation, enewsletter, etc? This is all part of the sales and marketing process. The best case scenario is that the calls close in the short term. But that won’t happen all the time, so the plan for nurturing the leads through the pipeline has to be considered carefully—and early—in this process.

Additionally, marketing should be involved in testing the message. How well are the calls going? Do prospects understand the value of the product or service? What are their push backs? Marketing must evaluate this feedback and hone the script until it’s fully optimized. Again, it’s a process. The days of throwing random messages against a wall to see what sticks are over in today’s ROI-focuses marketing paradigm.

Generally speaking, the programs highlighted in this three-part piece are the five fastest ways to generate leads. If there are any that you’re not currently exploring, now’s the time to take a closer look.

Posted in Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Messaging & Positioning, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | 3 Comments »

Q2 Announces Launch of Johnston McLamb Website

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 - by Pamela Girardin

Q2 is pleased to announce that Johnston McLamb’s new website is now live. Johnston McLamb hired Q2 to completely redesign the site as well as incorporate SEO in the form of keyword/phrase research and optimized web content. The site is already receiving rave reviews and Johnston McLamb looks forward to leveraging their new site to help drive sales and recruiting objectives.

Posted in Business to Government Marketing, SEO, Technology Marketing, Web site development | 1 Comment »

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