TSL Marketing: Market Now

Our blog has moved!

2009-06-23T22:56:00.002-04:00

TSL Marketing's "Market Now" has moved to a new location. For up to date posts, marketing trends, and B2B marketing reports, please visit our new blog location at:

http://blog.tslmarketing.com

We hope to see you there. Happy blogging!

What social network do you prefer?

2009-05-17T23:29:00.003-04:00

Last week we talked about Social Media and the importance of deploying a social media plan into your marketing strategy. What's more, the question of online "clutter" was also brought up. Therefore, this week, we will turn to you. In order to break through the clutter, TSL is taking a poll to understand better about what social media sites work best for our customer base:

What is your favorite social media site?(opinion poll)

We look forward to generating the results and helping you determine which social media site is best for you.

Jump on the social media bandwagon

2009-05-08T16:34:00.003-04:00

Jump on the social media bandwagon, originally uploaded by Matt Hamm.

Social Media has become the highest growing mediums for marketing worldwide. Here are some of the increased benefits to integrating a social media plan to your marketing schedule:

- Increase company reach by thousands
- Generate awareness for your firm
- Save time and money by cutting back on travel and making "virtual" connections
- Drive new leads through social promoting
- Develop relationships through adding a personal touch to your blogging/tweets/updates/etc.

If you're new to the world of social media, we find that a great place to start is through linked in, twitter, or facebook. However there are an abundance of other sites that are becoming cluttered and confusing for the new social media explorer. The question of "how much is too much" is constantly being asked as companies continue to try to take a piece of the online social pie.

If you have implemented social media into your world of marketing, you probably have an opinion on what works best. Let's share in our experiences... what social media sites do you find drive the most leads, awareness, and overall reach?

Webinar - Campaign Best Practices

2009-05-01T15:26:00.005-04:00

Join us for a Webinar on May 27

Generating success from your marketing campaign involves a number of steps. Yet even with the most successful campaign planning, campaign execution, and lead generation, some campaigns just happen to generate more results than others. But what makes these campaigns stand out so strongly from the rest?

Join us May 27th for a 30 minute lunch and learn as we explore campaign best practices that will guarantee higher return on marketing investment (ROMI).

Title: TSL Marketing - Campaign Best Practices
Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM EDT

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/751139507

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

TSL Marketing is hiring

2009-04-23T21:36:00.003-04:00

TSL Marketing is looking to build to our team. We are currently hiring for Business Development Specialists in the Boston and Maryland/DC area. Here is the job description:

TSL Marketing Business Development Specialist

Our Business Development Specialist will create Business to Business opportunities and is comfortable communicating with clients and senior executives at various companies nationwide. This is a perfect position for someone trying to acquire experience in sales and marketing. It is also a great fit for someone looking to build a career with a growing organization.

Experience:

- 0 to 5 years experience in lead generation/sales

- 5 to 20 years experience in lead generation/sales for Sr. Level Positions

Education:

- Associate or Bachelor degree (Information Technology and Marketing major/minor a plus)

Skills:

Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
Comfortable on the phone
Solid phone etiquette

Other:

- Ambition to move up within a fast growing company

- Excellent work ethic

- Motivated to learn new things

Full time TSL employees have a wide range of benefits:

- Healthcare

- 401K

- Paid Time Off

- Career Path through sales or management

If you are interested in applying or learning more about this position, please contact me at tdonnelly@tslmarketing.com

Economic downturn hits IT budgets

2009-04-15T11:17:00.005-04:00

In a recent study released by SearchCIO, 42% of enterprise IT firms indicated a cut in budgets for 2009. While the cuts are not being made across the board, the pain is not set to one specific industry (as it seems that industries everywhere are scaling back significantly).

How do you pan out?

Read the article by clicking here

Lead Generation - what works?

2009-04-10T10:26:00.008-04:00

Lead Generation is one of the oldest forms of marketing yet still remains one of the most effective. The trick is to know you are investing your lead generation budget in a company that will guarantee you the best results. There are two basic ways that you can do this: Pay Per Lead (PPL) and Service Level Agreements (SLA).

“Pay-Per-Lead” telemarketing leads are a very attractive offer, and in some case work very well for both buyer and provider of leads. However, it is also becoming clear that the pay-per-lead model does not suit every industry, and every sales situation. In TSL’s experience, and in the experience of our clients, pay-per-lead can cause more damage to a company’s sales efforts than the benefit it brings of shared risk. As there is still no "guarantee" on results. This is why TSL Marketing recommends using a “Service Level Agreement” (SLA) on leads instead of the PPL model. SLA provides you with guaranteed results along with the benefits of reducing risk. Additional benefits include:

• Offers a minimum guarantee to leads generated, thus providing higher quality
• Conductive to a partnership model than a “vendor” relationship
• Reduces the risk of low quality leads thus providing higher return on investment

The truth about B2B Blogs - are they worth it?

2009-03-12T00:07:00.009-04:00

An old coworker (we'll call him Mr. X) of mine and I share a joke. He once said "I would never work at a company that has a corporate blog." In his defense, this was about 5 years ago when the world of social media was not so huge. But now I say to you Mr. X (you know who you are) and to any any other non-bloggers out there...

In all seriousness though, here are some tips I put together on ways to blog successfully:

Change it up - don't always blog about the same boring stuff. Have fun with your blog, throw in cartoons, change around your topics, and above all make it personable.

Incorporate more than one blogger - we all have different writing styles, different experiences, and different views on business. Incorporating this into your blog is extremely beneficial as the blog will become more of a company community than a one person show.

Listen to your audience - Blogging is only successful if you have an audience. This is why you want to be sure that you listen to your audience and blog about what they are interested in. When you have a comment, respond to it, and then blog about it (if it is topic worthy). The more you listen, the more your blog will be read.

Don't get too "business" in your blog - a blog is about personality. Don't be afraid to express yours. When you are all about business and selling, your blog will loose it's personal appeal. Too many companies are out there trying to promote themselves through sales methods. Take a step back and think about what you want to say, then say it without selling it. A blog should not be used to generate leads (that just comes as a bonus).

Those are just some helpful tips to start you on your path to developing a successful company blog. Good luck!

Information Technology (IT) Trend Report for 2009

2009-03-06T09:30:00.004-05:00

A number of software, hardware, and IT service companies have recently been coming to me and asking about trends for 2009; and more importantly, if the budgetary cut backs due to the recession will be lifted anytime soon. What we found were some very exciting and refreshing statistics that should take a big weight off of any one's shoulders (that work in IT of course). With all of these statistics, we thought the best way to share our new found data was through our first ever newsletter direct to the IT community. Here are some highlights from the newsletter:

IT purchases are expected to grow to $616 billion in 2010 for a 7.5% increase from 2009 sales.
Software spending is expected to grow 3.4 percent in 2009
Gartner recommends the top 10 ways to save and do more with less
SaSS is growing at a rate of 40% annually
Highlights on the top trends for IT spending (where the money is being spent)

This newsletter is NO COST and available to any interested parties.

Top 5 Marketing trends for 2009

2009-02-25T15:42:00.004-05:00

In 2009 more people are looking for ways they can "Do more with less" by saving time and money through an effective go-to-market campaign. At TSL, we believe there are many things that can be done to enhance your lead generation efforts.Read this months article Top 5 marketing trends for 2009 and learn about:

Affordable multi-touch campaigns
Trends and statistics for 2009 marketing
How to optimize your landing pages
Market to a mass media and still save
Effective social media planning

For more information, please contact Tara Donnelly at:
Email: tdonnelly@tslmarketing.com
Phone: 617 753 9124

Marketing Operations - tracking your ROMI

2009-02-16T15:29:00.006-05:00

Marketing Operations is a relatively new term that has been tossed around over the last couple years. According to wikipedia, Marketing Operations (or Marketing Operations Management/MOM) is a vision of end to end marketing optimization, from planning and budgeting, through marketing content management, to global marketing execution and analysis. While that is correct, we would term marketing operations as simply your foundation in which you work to improve your marketing effectiveness.

When starting your marketing operations plan, here are some basic steps to get you started in marketing more effectively.

Track Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)

ROMI

Develop Dashboards

CRM

Marketing Lead Conversion

lifecycle

Lead Lifecycle Management

lifecycle

Campaign Management

Good luck and let us know if you have any additional questions on how to start your marketing operations plan.

How to go-to-market as an IT firm in 2009

2009-02-11T11:44:00.008-05:00

With the economy in it's current state, it is no question that many industries are being affected more so than others. For technology companies, the hit has not been as hard, yet companies are now being asked to scale back on new purchases and CIO's across this nation are beginning to re-organize their departments. So what does this mean for an IT company who is looking to sell their software/hardware?

Earlier this year we asked "What impact will the current Economic Crisis have on IT Budgets" and more importantly, who you thought would benefit the most. Here are the results:

Software Providers 15%
SaaS 31%
ERP Services 8%
Outsourcing 38%
Offshoring 8%

Based on this pole, you believe that outsourcing will benefit most from the current economic crisis. Other research points towards similar numbers as well. The important thing to note here is that there still is a wide variety of different IT companies who can benefit during the economic crisis and while some may benefit more than others, all can benefit if they play their cards right. Because of this, there are some important factors that should be taken into account when going to market during this recession.

Know how you can save your customer time and money - There is a very strong renewed focus on measuring cost and how cost will affect the current IT budget within organizations. If your product does not have a strong argument for cost savings, you will most likely be pushed to the sidelines. When going into any marketing or sales pitch, be sure you know your customer and how you will help them save!

Know your target audience - With the state of the economy, more organizations have restructured so that the CIO and CFO are more aligned. As IT is one of the largest expenses in an organization, the CFO is now looking to the CIO to find ways to cut costs and save more money. Furthermore, if the CIO is able to make a strong argument for certain solutions saving money, a purchase could potentially be made. Therefore, make sure your message speaks to both IT AND Finance.

Follow these two rules and marketing for technology in 2009 can still present success!

Target Marketing - why research is essential

2009-02-06T11:59:00.002-05:00

Target Marketing is one of the oldest but most essential ways to assure you go to market effectively. Without knowing the "who" the "why" and the "how" a marketing program can fail and your hard work can go unnoticed. Here is an example of research gone astray:

To make sure that this doesn't happen to you, be sure to 'profile' your target market and your marketing efforts will gain monumental increases in relevance.

What is Profiling - When creating a target market, profiling is the process in where you create an actual persona (or several) that you are marketing towards. This should be created based on your secondary research of geographic, demographic, and most importantly, psychographic data. Here is an example: "George Smith is a CEO of a software services company who makes approximately 200k per year. George believes that marketing is an import tool to generating business and works over 70 hours per week. George values hard work, honesty, family, and independence." When you create profiles it sometimes becomes easier to say "Would George read this" or "would George buy this."

To successfully "profile" your customer base, it is most important to understand their psychographics (or behaviors) that motivate them to buy. Here is a list of question you can ask that will put you on your way to creating profiles; thereby generating your target market:

Basic psychographics: What are their values, what do they like, how does the product fit into their lives, how do they go about their daily routine, how do others influence them, what are their personalities, attitudes, lifestyles.
What are their motivations and unmet needs? - How do they think and feel about the products they use and buy?
What do they think/feel/use the product/service? - To what extent are they aware of the brand - Do they know about the brand's special features, qualities - Do they understand how the product/service works - Do they understand the brand's superior qualities - What is their attitude toward the product category - What is their attitude toward the specific brand - To what extent do they like or desire the product or brand - Do they trust the brand to deliver the promised benefits - Do they have a preference for this brand - What image or personality do consumer's associate with the brand - What do consumer's feel the brand essence is
What are they guided by (one of the three orientations as follows)

Principle Oriented - guided by abstracts, idealized criteria, rather than by feelings, events or desire for approval by others.
Status Oriented - these consumers look for products and services that demonstrate their success to their peers.
Action Oriented - these consumers are guided by a desire for social or physical activity, variety or risk taking

Answer these questions and you are well on your way to successful target marketing!

Finding a new job during a recession

2009-01-30T09:19:00.005-05:00

I recently met up with Dave Brown, the principle consultant for Ridge Global Marketing (a premier partner of TSL's) who mentioned to me that he was writing an article regarding tips to landing a new job even with the economic downturn. As several people have been reaching out to myself and my colleagues looking for new job opportunities due to recent layoffs within their company, or upcoming "re-organizations;" I figured what better than to share this article with TSL's universe and show that their can be light at the end of the tunnel.

David Brown; Principal Consultant for Ridge Global Marketing writes:

According to TechCrunch’s Layoff Track er, nearly 120,000 employees in the tech sector have lost their jobs since August 27, 2008. And the number is growing. As a result of the current economic climate, many Professional Services Leaders who once considered their jobs safe are now finding themselves back in the job market. It’s an uphill slog to be sure, with few open slots and many experienced candidates dusting off their resumes and targeting the next opportunity. Not only is it a buyer’s market but competition among world-class candidates is fierce. With this in mind, I was recently asked to consider the following: In order to differentiate ourselves in the job market, can we package and sell ourselves in the same way that organizations sell a product or service? Is it possible to architect and execute a sales campaign for ourselves? Can we in effect sell “Corporate Me” into the career market?

One thing your prospects should know: Is your pipeline leaking?

2009-01-19T14:47:00.002-05:00

Customers are better educated and more informed and require value to advance through your company's sales pipeline. We will speak about adding value to pull your prospects through the pipeline in another article, here we will discuss prospects leaking out of the sales pipeline. Pipeline management is such an important part of a sales organization and I wanted to discuss major problems I have seen with many companies processes and management. In these trying times maximizing the dollars already spent to uncover and nurture prospects should be on every sales and marketing team's mind. When those prospects leak out of the pipeline, you are throwing dollars away.

Alaska has an almost 800 mile pipeline that connects Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, AK. What if a leak formed in that pipeline? If 700,000 barrels of oil left the oil field in Prudhoe Bay and only 500,000 barrels arrived at the Gulf of Alaska, due to a leak somewhere along the pipeline, you can bet several folks in Valdez would be quite anxious. Now why is that same anxiety not felt by sales and marketing organizations with the same results coming from their "sales" pipeline?

Companies of every size are guilty of having leaks in their sales pipelines, from SMB entities through to the fortune 100 companies. In every case the problem is the same, the sales and marketing organizations are not properly aligned and the sales teams focus on immediate opportunities. This style of sales pipeline management will usually allow a company to stay afloat and enable management to meet quarterly and annual goals, but it will disallow the entity from realizing substantial revenue increases. This flawed approach throws dollars away in lost opportunities when that dropped prospect buys from a competitor, and though the wasteful processes and necessary rework in an attempt to re-qualify.

How do you fix a leaky pipeline? The wrong answer would be "with duct tape". Do you really think duct tape will keep the oil flowing properly to Valdez? The proper fix: The pipeline would need to be drained, depressurized and the leak found and the broken parts replaced. This will have costs associated, and could mean downtime in the operations, but once back up and running the repair would pay for itself within hours.

The proper fix stands true for a sales pipeline. Although sales activities need not cease, analysis of the internal processes is required to define the location of the leak. (Where are the prospects falling out?) Once this is understood, create an improvement plan. The next two steps are commonly where I have seen the biggest mistakes, execution and control. The plan is in place now it must be executed. Plenty of ideas and plans are laid on boardroom tables each day, some are chosen to commence, but very few are properly executed. And finally, any good marketing plan will have a control plan. Without this last step you are destined to be right back in the same position with a leaking pipeline. A control plan is put in place to assure that future problems are detected early. If a weakness is discovered in the pipeline, immediate action can be taken before it develops into a leak.

In conclusion, your company has spent real dollars to uncover prospects, and your team has spent real labor hours developing them. Don't let those dollars go to waste over such a fundamental flaw. Take a hard look at what enters your pipeline, what activities are happening to add value and pull them along, and what is coming out the other side. In another article we will discuss further the concepts and strategies around value adding activities that will more efficiently progress prospective customers through the pipeline.

TSL Marketing joins Twitter

2009-01-14T12:39:00.006-05:00

With the social hype being all about Twitter and the current "tweets," TSL Marketing has decided that it is time we join the revolution and create our own twitter profile. Check us out:

Click Here to follow TSL Marketing on Twitter

So what is twitter anyway? To the untrained "follower," twitter seems like nothing more than a silly and inconsequential way to waste time online. However, the more I got involved in twitter and what it brings to the table, the more I began to realize the value add that this social network prevails.

What makes this social media site difference than the others is that it is solely based on streaming updates. You can connect to colleagues, friends, prospects, clients, and groups by simply "following" their feed. Once you decide to follow a "tweet (fancy word for update)," you will be sent updates as often as the twitter tweeter submits their feed. Some great ways to use twitter in a corporate setting:

Point your followers to your landing pages: If you have a live or online event, white paper, or really any marketing tactic to promote, here is another way to generate leads without spending any marketing dollars.

Follow everyone who follows you: A great way to build your twitter network is to follow the people who choose to follow you. As you start tweeting on a consistent basis, your social media stream will reach higher levels and you will be able to build your network substantially.

Tweet about your blog: You can submit a tweet that links back to your company blog. This will begin driving more traffic to your website and also drive more interest to your blogging network.

When there is nothing to tweet about, say hello: The point of twitter is to get your name and company out in the open. When you find that you may be at a loss for what to say in your updates, go ahead and say hello. The point of twitter (from a corporate standpoint) is to promote your company, this is often done by just showing your company name and continuing to build your network.

Follow follow follow: Finding the right person to follow is a great way to generate research and learn more about what is happening in the current market. Many companies that use twitter successfully don't use it just to promote their company name. If there is an article of interest or a topic of relevance that would benefit their network, it gets tweeted. This is why when you choose to follow people or companies, follow those that you think you can learn from and benefit from in the future.

If you haven't joined already, check it out Twitter and don't forget to add @TSL_Marketing!

What impact will the current Economic Crisis have on IT Budgets

2008-12-29T12:32:00.000-05:00

What impact will the current Economic Crisis have on IT Budgets? When some firms will feel the effects, will others find opportunity? As in any scenario, this will be a benefit for some and a detriment for others. Who do you think will benefit and what will the “Others” have to do to remain competitive?

From your perspective, how will the economic crisis impact your strategy from a Marketing perspective? What will they have to do differently and/or proactively to adapt and overcome?

Why Lead Progression is so important for 2009

2008-11-18T08:36:00.000-05:00

Industry Averages state that over 90% of leads are not followed up on regardless of who uncovers the lead (marketing or sales). This is why lead progression has become such a hot topic among businesses.

How do you compare?

Are you confident that all leads are being followed up on? ( polls)

Are you confident that all leads are being followed up on? ( surveys)

In 2009, it's more important than ever to deploy a lead progression campaign and make sure that leads do not slip through the cracks. With the economy being in its current state, businesses cannot afford to waste valuable leads by not following up. Here are some tips to deploying a successful lead progression campaign:

Update your CRM and assign tasks to yourself - by updating a customer relations management database, you will be able to determine when the last conversation was placed as well as when the prospect has requested a future follow up. By simply assigning a task to yourself after logging your first conversation, you will assure that any future conversations will not be lost.

Nurture your leads through multi-touch campaigns - regardless of where your prospect is in the sales cycle, you should maintain a monthly or at least bi-monthly campaign to stay in touch with your prospect universe. This is typically done best via email.

Hire an outside firm to help drive leads into the sales cycle - Many companies, including TSL Marketing, offer services that help move leads along the sales cycle. This way, your sales team can continue to work on closing deals while your outside firm works on moving leads along the sales pipeline so that they do not slip through the cracks.

As the new year approaches, be sure to use these tips (as simple as they seem) and you will see immediate results with your current lead progression.

Marketing in a down economy

2008-10-28T12:02:00.001-04:00

It is not surprising that when asked, most B2B executives assume the first department to be hit (given the state of the economy) is marketing. What is surprising, however, is the actuality that only 13% of B2B organizations (surveyed by Marketing Sherpa) indicated a plan to cut marketing first. While 13% is still a large number, this presents a huge opportunity for the other 87% of organizations to take advantage of the budgetary spend and make the most of marketing in this down economy.

Top 5 key trends to marketing in a down economy

1. Tactical budgets are shifting:·

WHAT IS HOT

Web 2.0 – 48% of B2B marketing indicated that they plan to increase marketing activities to include Web 2.0 and social media plans to their budgets.

No change in telemarketing – while telemarketing is still an old-fashioned way of generating leads, the budget for telemarketing is hardly seeing a change. 18% of B2B individuals in fact indicated that they plan to increase telemarketing spend.

Email to your house list – There is a 48% increase in email when the email is sent directly to your house list. Make sure you have a proper email marketing campaign in place and that it is focused on the pains your customers are facing.

WHAT IS NOT

Renting a list is a bad choice – With the talk of quality over quantity, it is no surprise that renting a list has become a lost cause. Marketing Sherpa found a 43% decrease in budgetary spend with outsourced lists (from a 3^rd party source). If you need a new list, plan on spending more money and go for a quality list that you can keep than renting one for a quick one-off campaign.

Events are down – Travel costs have risen so much in the last year that there is a 57% decrease in budgetary spend regarding event marketing. Take our advice… plan a webinar instead.

Direct mail –With email marketing and Web 2.0, it was only a matter of time before direct marketing became almost extinct. With a 52% decrease is marketing spend; you may want to think twice before sending a post card.

2. Virtual Training is a must – as mentioned before, the cost of travel has become so high that many marketing and sales professionals are shifting the way they do their business. In fact, 28% of organizations indicated that they plan on shifting in person training to virtual web-events. This has cut the cost of travel significantly while also maintaining the need for customer service.

3. Are you outsourcing? – Hiring is always a challenging time, especially when there is a need but no budget to back up a full time person. This is probably why 25% of companies surveyed indicated that they plan on moving more marketing activities to an outsourced marketing firm.

4. Your sales cycle has shifted – One of the top trends in marketing in the current economy is to pay attention to your sales cycle and track how this has changed. A large number of companies are being hit by less money coming in and therefore have much less going out. Because of this more and more companies are taking more time to make decisions on budgetary spending. Some key trends with sales cycle shifting are as follows:

41% of organizations have seen a significant lengthen in the sales cycle
27% of organizations have a lower average purchase per person
25% of organizations have a lower number of new customers per month

5. Customer Service has never been more important – Customer service is the number 1 reason why organizations decide to leave a firm. This is why, at a time where the economy is a challenge, customer service has never been more important. Be sure that you have a highly effective team of customer service personnel on staff that are ready and able to work with your current client base at all times. In a down economy, it is not only important to market to leads, but also to market to your clientele.

Marketing Sherpa - Special $600 Savings - Increase and Nurture B-to-B Lead Generation with Proven Techniques and Strategies from the Real World

2008-09-16T10:16:00.000-04:00

For a limited time only, TSL Marketing and Marketing Sherpa are offering a $600 savings for their upcoming summit: B-to-B Demand Generation Summit 2008 - East & West

Click here for more information on this special

Event Dates:
San Francisco, October 26-28, 2008
Boston, October 5-7, 2008

This 5th Annual MarketingSherpa Summit offers:

19 all-new Case Studies
Latest Research on B-to-B marketing
Training Day for Landing Page Optimization
Special $600 Savings brought to you by Genius

This offer ends September 30th, be sure to act fast to receive $600 in savings and information that is priceless.

Columbia MD, here we come!

2008-09-02T13:30:00.000-04:00

As of September 2nd, TSL Marketing opened the doors to our newest office in Columbia, MD. With this opening, we are more than thrilled to be expanding our team and servicing our local clients in the area.

Read our press release

Here is a picture of the new office:

Along with the expansion, we are looking for energetic talent to join the TSL Marketing team. If know someone or you yourself are interested in becoming part of our growing business, please contact us at 617-753-9100.

B-to-B Demand Generation Summit

2008-08-19T16:16:00.000-04:00

This October, TSL Marketing will be taking part as a sponsor for the upcoming Marketing Sherpa event: B-to-B Demand Generation Summit 2008 - East & West. At this summit, participants will:

Learn how to increase product/service demand
Generate quality leads
Receive the Latest research on B2B Marketing
Study 19 all new case studies
Participate in a one-day Landing Page Optimization Professional Certification Course

The dates for these events are as follows:

Boston – October 5 – 7
San Francisco – October 26 – 28

You can learn more about the event here:
http://www.sherpastore.com/btobhandbookpack.html

We hope to see you there!

Lower your costs and "do more with less"

2008-06-26T15:05:00.000-04:00

Flights, gas, oil, it’s all the same right now… expensive. With ½ the year behind us, marketing budgets for 2008 seminars are at a turning point, asking the question “Do we spend more than initially budgeted,” or “do we find an alternative method to drive new business.” Because of this, there are many faces looking in the direction for alternative means of marketing; after all… who doesn’t want to save money! So the question remains, what do you do?

Has the current price of gas affected your interest in attending seminars? ( surveys)

Our solution: “Do more with less”

In recent discussions with our business associates, many companies have indicated a turn towards online seminars. Not only is this helping cut the cost for travel, it is also avoiding the cost of food, travel, and venue rates for the host (while still maintaining a high level of interest). Sure, face to face meetings are (and will always remain) the most valued way of building relationships. However, a web seminar can help you reach a higher targeted audience while still cutting costs. You have to ask yourself “what would be the cost if you don’t take the economy into consideration.”

Top 5 reasons trade shows do not provide high ROMI

2008-06-11T09:54:00.000-04:00

We have all been there, countless hours deciding on what food options to choose, what signage to hang up, who will be working the registration tables, and most important… how will we fill those seats. So there you are, it is the day of the trade show and not only is attendance phenomenal, but the top companies you would like to prospect into are chatting up with your head of sales. So why then, is the return on marketing investment (ROMI) still seem to be minimal when everything to this point has been seamless in execution?

It is a common misconception that trade shows or seminars will deliver maximum results when the event itself was a success. This can leave you thinking “was all that time, effort, and hours worth this lack of return.” However, the problem should not lie in what was done wrong as it should be based on “what can be done differently.” TSL has put together the top 5 reasons why trade shows do not provide the highest ROMI with hope that our partners will gain success from these not only intrinsic but also crucial marketing tactics.

Limited Follow-Through: While most companies have a strong emphasis on filling seats, trade shows tend to loose the most ROI during the aftermath of the event. Before the event takes place, a process should be mapped out in how your company plans to follow up on any leads, attendees, or potential partners that attend the event. Statistics show that after only 24 hours of an events completion, the interest level of any given attendee decreases by more than 50%. That being said, if there is not a process in place to follow up within a prompt and timely manor, the event itself will have been a wasted effort.
Lack of Knowledge Transfer: Content being presented at trade shows are by far the most important reason for driving attendance and gaining interest from prospecting buyers. Because of this, the knowledge transfer should not only be viable, but should also speak to the needs of the customer. A top reason for limited ROMI after an event takes place is due to the lack of substantial data that speaks directly to the customers pains. Do not focus on trying to sell your product or service, rather than this, you should focus on what the pains in the Industry are and let the product and/or service sell itself.
Incomplete Quantifiable Data: Many companies will put together the all encompassing “how was your trade show experience” survey. However, collecting these surveys is often incomplete as well as a missed opportunity to generate quantifiable feedback as to how the events success could be measured. A recommendation here would be to present the attendees with a giveaway available to them upon submission of the survey or feedback form. This will help generate further survey responses as well as present your company with an opportunity to determine what parts of the events were successful and which should be overlooked at the next event.
Partial Attendee Filtering: While attendance is crucial to an events success, often times there will be more people there for the free lunch than the actual content provided. Before sending out invitations, your firm should always go through the list and weed out any contacts that are not suitable for potential future business.
Obsolete Market: One of the hardest parts to determining when to host a trade show or seminar is to position the event around when the market is in the purchasing or information gathering process of the buying cycle. For example, firms are often short on budgetary means during the end of the 4th quarter, and therefore a purchase regarding new software or hardware technologies may be limited, as well as the decision making process may not be relevant until the latter part of quarter 1. With the holidays in mind and purchases being short, planning an event in late November or December may not be the best option for your firm.

The Downside of Data

2008-04-29T16:43:00.000-04:00

In the past few years, TSL Marketing (formerly Technology Sales Leads) has been speaking with a number of people regarding data. What we have found, is that the majority of our clients, partners, or prospects are consistently having a problem with lists. Whether this issue is related to list acquisition, list development, or even list accuracy, the same issue has consistently been brought to our attention: What can I possibly do to make my data more accurate and drive better results?

Before discussing HOW to obtain better data, we first wanted to look at the issue at hand. Why is obtaining the right data so important and what impact does it have when your data is partially flawed.

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Bad data will result in a bad campaign. The term “on time, on budget” tends to be forgotten when new data plays an integral role in campaign delivery. We find more and more individuals who spend the majority of their time getting a campaign out “on time” before they think about how bad data will result in limited results. When a list is purchased from a 3rd party vendor or developed from online sources, the accuracy becomes less tangible than if the data was custom built or continuously updated. For example, the average tenure of a CFO (according to CFO magazine) is no more than 4.3 years. The average tenure of a CIO is only 3.6 years (according to CIO-midmarket.com). Although many of these online sites mention that data is updated “monthly” or “annually” we have found quite the contrary.

TSL Marketing has spent the past year researching current 3rd party vendors and online sites to determine the accuracy of their lists. What we have found is that many of these list brokers do not sell what they offer:

The bounce rates are always higher than what is guaranteed. With one broker in particular, the contract promised at least 70% of the emails would be accurate… the reality was that only 40% were accurate emails and the other 60% bounced. While they were willing to give a “discount” on the next campaign, this did not help our campaign launch.
The list, when accurate, includes inaccurate data. When we tested several purchased lists, we found names with titles that had not been updated in over 10 years. For example, contacts who were once in Operations had moved to finance, and were no longer viable prospects for the lists that were purchased. We even had the embarrassing call from time to time where we had to explain why we were calling someone who had been deceased for over 5 – 10 years. Therefore, even when the emails aren’t bouncing, they are still being sent to the wrong person.

What does all this mean?

The time to develop a well groomed list can be 2-3 weeks minimum. This time is crucial, however, to receiving the most accurate data that can be effectively used by your sales and marketing team. Be sure to plan accordingly.
Sometimes the “fastest” turnaround time will produce the worst results. Don’t spend your time trying to be “on time,” rather than this, delay the campaign (regardless of it being an email, Webinar, or even planned seminar) to assure you are reaching the right target market.

Dedicated Data Team

Based on this research, TSL Marketing decided it was time to take this matter into our own hands by building our own dedicated data research team. Our team is comprised of data experts ranging from program managers, research developers, and data specialists all purely focused on building, maintaining, and providing data that is not only accurate, but also beneficial to your companies overall marketing effectiveness.

B2B Online Marketing Trends for 2008

2008-01-22T18:00:00.000-05:00

Recently there has been huge hype around online marketing. With marketing budgets across the board increasingly growing into the online world... what does that really mean? Based on the ever-popular growing online market, TSL did some research to learn what will present the highest ROI in marketing online. Here is what we came up with, the top 5 online marketing trends for 2008:

1.) Optimize what? Everyone is talking about "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO) but the more people we spoke with, the more we realized that as large as the SEO industry has become, it is increasingly apparent how many people are still in the dark about it. Plain and simple, 90%+ of the B2B world does all of their research online through search engines (Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc.). When you "optimize" your site, your company will most likely be one of the first links that show up under specific key term searches. With a statistic as high as 90% +, businesses really can't afford to not be investing in SEO unless all of your business comes from current customers or referrals. So take our advice, Optimize!

2.) Subject Matters! A recent study found by Jupiter Research indicates that 35% of emails are opened based on what is read in the subject line. Here are a few tips:

Be Short (if you put too much information in the subject line, the reader no longer needs to open the email to see what is inside)
Be Mysterious (add in something that entices the reader to want to learn more)
Be Direct (Don't sugar coat what you are selling, nothing turns off a reader more than a false claim in the subject line)

Another study showed that including your company name (not personal name) in the subject line increases open rates anywhere from 32 - 60% based on company branding. Therefore, as much as it may seem that sending a "personal" email blast to your customers makes sense, listen to the statistics and send it from your company.

3.) Webinar vs. Seminar. By the name of this subject line you have probably already figured out this trend. That's right, the traditional road-show or seminar that B2B companies once saw great numbers and results from are diminishing fast with the rise of online marketing. While attendance rates for seminars are dropping, the rates for webinars are growing at a somewhat unbelievably increasing rate. Companies such as Gotomeeting or Webex have enabled marketers across the world to spread their message globally at minimal costs. One webinar hosted by TSL Marketing last year gained 900+ registrations and over 600+ actual attendees with less than 1 months notice! That's ROI in it's glory!

4.) When business becomes a social event. If you're thinking "how can online marketing become a social event?" you're not alone. The recent hype around social media has left many marketers wondering how you can be social without one-on-one interaction. The answer is easy: Social networking. Just like online dating, business professionals are now connecting through online sites to introduce themselves and share insight through websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Plaxo. These websites give B2B (and sometimes B2C) professionals the opportunity to introduce themselves through the world wide web and join groups of professionals like themselves. While the younger generations are spending countless hours on websites such as Myspace, we are now seeing those same hours being put into online socialization through business networks. Most of these sites are completely free and you will have the opportunity to add contacts that you may have never met in person.

5.) Blog it up! Marketing has become increasingly more difficult to differentiate oneself from the competition. So what more than to position yourself as a thought leader within your industry by incorporating a company blog. Recent trends point to online blogs as another form of social networking, however because it is not a community, the blog itself becomes more of a secondary source to effective marketing through online discussion. Blogs will also give your company a personality and your readers an opportunity to respond with questions/additional insight/etc. The cost for incorporating a blog is extremely lucrative as most blog services are free. Your competition is most likely already blogging themselves, so why not you?