Now is the time for B2B Marketers to invest small amounts in marketing programs - by doing research to find new or validate existing market opportunities, confirming or updating marketing messaging, or identifying new marketing technologies and media that  might offer better or more cost-effective results.

I read a great HBR blog post by Stephen Wunker, Five Rules for Innovating in a Shaky Economy. Then this morning when I saw my colleague Lisa Anderson‘s post on LinkedIn referencing an Industry Week article about 1,000 U.S. companies hoarding cash (as of the end of 2010, $853 billion), I was inspired to post about it. Wunker wrote about Rule #2. Buy Vowels:

“In the television game show Wheel of Fortune, contestants have the option of solving a word puzzle (a potentially risky move that can generate quick winnings) or buying a vowel (spending a bit of their cash to improve their knowledge about what the puzzle says). Uncertain economic times present an excellent vowel-buying opportunity. By learning more about consumer needs, investing small amounts in technologies emerging from academia, or trialing new ideas in modest test markets, companies can build their understanding about growth options and position themselves to take bolder and riskier moves as the economy brightens.”

So, U.S. companies, what do you say? Isn’t it more than time to get a jump on solving your B2B marketing puzzles?

Have you ever bought a product or service where you were excited about your decision to buy (maybe after a rigorous buying process), only to be very disappointed by the delivery? It happens all the time. Buyers deal with a great sales person, but delivery is slow, installation sloppy, customer service doesn’t solve problems and/or accounting doesn’t understand what the customer is trying to communicate.

Could that describe your level of service to your customers? Make sure you provide an excellent customer eperience by doing a customer touch point analysis.

“What’s that?”

A customer touch point analysis allows you to scrutinize all the points at which your company touches customers and assess how you perform on each touch point. The objective is to identify any touch points that cause friction (problems) for the customer and resolve the friction.

The customer touch point analysis is an easy exercise which can provide amazing results. The biggest challenge in doing this analysis is in  being open and honest about what is really going on and acting and solving the problems. It’s easy to defend your business practices. It’s hard to open up and say, “Hey, what are we doing wrong?” “How can we fix it?”

So, be brave. Open up and ask the question, “How can we do it better?”  Involve your employees and get their feedback. You’ll be surprised. They will like you more for the effort and you will get information you may not have known before.

Customer Touch Point Maps can take the form of a simple text list or a graphical representation of touch points, as shown above. It’s an exercise that any company can and should do, with the goal of improving the customer experience.

Recently I worked on a customer touch point map for a department at an educational institution that was founded in 1891. The particular department had been operating for over 50 years and was known for excellence in education. Lots of customers, many years of touch points. Even though the department provided an excellent product and customer service, we found some touch points that needed attention. The primary reason for the friction was that customer expectations and behaviors had changed over the years and my client’s delivery needed to change meet them.

For example, customers would travel from all over the country to attend classes at the institution. We found out that some customers had a hard time finding the building even though they had the address and used maps and the directions we provided. This is a very small part of the entire customer experience, but it caused friction and could be easily resolved by providing a picture of the building in customer registration materials. We also realized that sending the registration confirmation via snail mail was limiting. Many customers never received the materials because they traveled so much. We changed the process to send confirmations by snail mail and email to ensure delivery.

Have you done a Customer Touch Point Map? What did you find? Were you able to improve your customers’ experience?

B2B marketers are adopting social media, but they have a lot of questions about it!

In a recent blog post, Paul Dunay referenced Jeff Bullas‘ blog on  B2B social media statistics. The stats referenced on Bullas’ blog are from an Ernst Agency video – including one that says 81% of B2B marketers have social media accounts compared to 67% of B2C marketers!

Michael Stelzner published results of an April 2010 survey of over 1300 small business owners about social media marketing. Here are the top ten questions on respondents’ minds regarding social media:

1. How do you measure social media marketing?

2. What are social media best practices?

3. How do you manage time spent on social media?

4. How do you reach your target audience?

5. How do you convert followers to site visitors and prospective customers?

6. How do you implement a social media program?

7. What are the trends in social media marketing?

8. How do you get started in social media?

9. How do you integrate social media with other marketing programs?

10. How do you evaluate the costs and benefits of social media marketing?

What’s your question about social media? Please comment below.

Photo from Flickr, Some rights reserved by FindYourSearch

Competitive Analysis

We’ve been taught in business schools and business classes to analyze the competition! What products and services do they have that we do not? What markets do they serve that we do not? How are they positioned? What is their strategy? How do they perform and what is their price point?

For a long time I’ve told my B2B clients that if they focus too much on their competition, they will be looking at their business and marketing strategy laterally. If they look for new opportunities that their competition have not taken advantage of, they are forward-looking and have a better chance to succeed (at least until their competition looks laterally and then catches up to them).

Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue Ocean Strategy is a way to leap beyond the competition. Blue Ocean Strategy first emerged as a book written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne and published by Harvard Business Press in 2005. It is now an entire, global institution offering consulting, training and presentations on the topic. The gist of Blue Ocean Strategy is that rather than competing in the bloody red ocean where your competitors are, you’re better off finding a blue ocean that no one is in.

I use the market analysis image above to illustrate Southwest‘s blue ocean analysis of the airline industry. Most  airlines were duking it out in the mid- to high-price and performance (red ocean) quadrant. No one was in the low-price, high-performance (blue ocean) quadrant, giving Southwest a tremendous opportunity.

How do you find your blue ocean? Analysis of your industry and market is a start. Importantly, intelligence about what your customers need and want (that your competitors are not providing) can shed light on possible blue oceans. Staying close to your customers and serving their needs helps you hold onto your blue ocean – a great example now is Southwest not charging for checked bags when all other airlines are (and in doing so, other airlines are irritating their customers).

Blue Ocean Strategy is the kind of strategic thinking that can help B2B marketers change the playing field and gain advantage, at least until the competition catches on. Then it’s time to find the next blue ocean.

Do you have a blue ocean? Please comment below.

Original photo by MGShelton on Flickr. CC by 2.0

Marketing consultants have to come up with great ideas and sell them to their client. Some take it a step further and create project plans. A few even stick around to execute the marketing plan. How do you know how your marketing consultant can perform through this marketing continuum?

Some of the key variables to getting marketing projects done include how individuals naturally focus their energy and prefer to work. At the Association for Strategic Planning annual conference in February, I was introduced to a unique assessment system designed to help individuals and teams maximize performance while minimizing stress. The underlying assumptions of the 5 Dynamics assessment/reporting system assessment are based on neurobiology, not personality.

I took the assessment in 2-3 minutes online, and in short order was served up a 13 page report that allowed me to review my ideal work environment, motivation, communication, interaction with others on my team,  task orientation, preferences for taking direction, leadership, sales orientation and learning style. The result told me that I love the exploration stage of a project, and I’m deliberate in the proposal, planning, and execution stages. Some of the points from my report are:

1. When you enter the 1st Dynamic, you instantly have new insights, ideas and connections.
   
2. You put time and energy into feelings, people and developing community.
3. You will stay within the boundaries necessary to get through the 3rd Dynamic. You very seldom distract the team from the agenda.
   
4. You will implement plans within deadlines and other boundaries.

I felt the assessment was accurate, and it explains why I love strategic marketing planning and easily adopt and assimilate new marketing techniques, technologies and methodologies for my clients. It also explains why my process of working from a one-page, written marketing plan and working with great teams leads to successful execution. I also loved the validation of my business name, New Incite. I chose the name because I incite my clients to positive change by offering new insights into their marketing!

Many thanks to Dr. Joyce Reynolds-Sinclair for showcasing the 5 Dynamics tool at the ASP Conference. By the way, the tool also provides analyses for teams – it quickly pinpoints any of the 5 Dynamics that a team is lacking. If you want to know more about 5 Dynamics, visit the web site at www.5dynamics.com.

There has been a lot of buzz about this year’s Super Bowl ads and the fact that Pepsi eschewed the ad spend this year to run a contest for the best idea to help needy people.

Will corporate marketers change their messages to reflect these economic times? Which of the ads is your favorite? If you remember the ad storyline, do you remember the brand it represented?

Please vote for your favorite below. Note that the 2010 ads will not display until the 4th quarter of the game ends.

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When I studied for the Inbound Marketing Certified Professional designation, one of the many comments that I made note of is that the key to social networking efficiently is “discipline and filtering” (I believe these words are attributable to Tod Defren of SHIFT Communications – strike me down if I am wrong). We need to participate consistently (with discipline!) and we need to provide consistent brand images and messaging. In addition, we need to filter the volumes of information available to us online, so that we can feed our customers, clients, and followers with relevant information.

There is a simple and free tool you can use from Google to filter online information about industries, products, people, companies and pretty much anything else you can think of. I set up Google Alerts for new clients, new product lines, competitive research, as well as my name, my company and my products.

Setting up Google Alerts is easy. If you don’t have a Google account, create one. From the menu, select Alerts, or, if that doesn’t display, select “More” from the menu and then select “Alerts”.

Your Google Alerts can help you monitor your own activity online. In addition, you can set up alerts for customers, clients, competitors, industries, trends, products and services, and even locations that you want to travel to or consumer products you want to buy.

Note that you can set your alerts to email you as they occur, daily or weekly. There may be some additional options. This is a very simple thing you can do to add to your marketing filtering system.

So, instead of manually searching for your marketing intelligence when you think of it, set up automatic alerts. You’ll have more marketing intelligence and more fodder for your customers and for blog entries,  Tweets and other social networking topics.

Please comment below on Google Alerts, or other tools you use to monitor your and your customers’ online activity.