B2B « VLG Dialog Marketing

Why? That’s a good question

September 16 2011

Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers, a B2B consultancy, recently drafted a post entitled, “Why’s B2B Marketing So Boring?” He makes the argument that it, B2B marketing, doesn’t have to be boring. Bravo! Here’s a snippet. His post is filled with a multi-media barrage of reasons B2B marketing should take off the tie.

Understand your buyers and make it fun. Make them laugh or make them cry, tell them a story or surprise them with insights. They will respond, engage with you and turn into the quality sales leads your salespeople so badly need.

For truly entertaining and informative B2B marketing programs look no further than VLG. We’re so committed to building very un-boring campaigns on behalf of our customers. Also, check out the latest milestone reached by VLG.

VLG lands on Inc. 5000

August 30 2011

While most advertising agencies experienced negative growth and layoffs over the past three years, we grew revenue 42% and had a 43% increase in new hires. That’s not bad for a company that never took a penny from investors, but even more impressive because it was done during the worst recession in a generation.

See boys and girls, hard work does pay off and good guys and gals do finish first. Well, in this case we finished 334 among ad agencies and 94 among Dallas businesses in our debut appearance on Inc. magazine’s prestigous list. We’re finding it hard to contain our excitement.

However, it’s a humbling experience when you realize you’re no longer a start up. You’ve cleared a hurdle and built a company that provides a quality service at a fair price.

If it weren’t for a stellar client roster VLG wouldn’t have made the list. We appreciate every single one of you and will continue to deliver very un-boring marketing programs for you now and in the future. Although we can’t name all our customers, visit this website for a partial list.

There is a lot of fist bumping at the VLG office today as we celebrate this achievement. This isn’t the last you’ve heard of VLG. We continue to innovate to secure our place on the list next year, but we will pause, reflect and enjoy this moment. Again, thanks to all for helping make this dream come true.

Read more about the list and get quotable nuggets from our team here.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out our latest invention, JumpSpark.

What to measure?

January 28 2011

We were asked, what should we measure to stay on top of our marketing spend?

Great question. It’s really something that needs to be customized on a per company basis, but good to think about. The VLG answer:

1. customer retention (%)
2. customer winback (%)
3. revenue attributable to marketing efforts (less sales attribution) (Amount)
4. close rate (%)
5. leads - close rate, cost per (Amount)
6. leads - lost, cost per (Amount)
7. projected revenue pipeline new business (Amount)
8. projected revenue current customers (Amount)
9. roi on marketing spend (%)
10. missed deadlines during campaign execution with project cost impact (Amount)

These are in no specific order from No. 2 - 10. Number #1 should always be #1 in my book. It takes so much to win them don’t forget to measure and keep them.

How to measure is a whole different story, but you don’t have to be Wonder Woman to make it happen at your company. Start with your outbound marketing (us) and go from there.

Where do the cool kids hang out?

November 11 2010

Social media is not far removed from the high school lunch room. You have the jocks sitting over there, the nerds there, the debate team, the tennis team, 4-H (we are in TX after all), and the loners. You get the point.

It stands to reason that those same self-selected groups would manifest themselves online. Set Facebook aside. It’s clear old high school and college chums congregate together. Where does that leave your business?

Are you one of the cool kids or are you a loner?

Chances are you are somewhere in between and in between is not always the best place to be. If you’re popular customers gravitate toward you, your products, your brand and more. If you’re a loner you know your place in the world and its not always a happy place.

What about everyone else in the middle?

You are overlooked.

Maybe it’s time to start thinking about how your company becomes the BMOC. Good products and services, a great story, and a great personality are the recipe for becoming the company others follow not a company that follows. Be bold! Go big or go home.

Hey, don’t be content with the middle or you’ll find yourself alone.

Don’t spend it all in one place.

October 22 2010

Is social media useful to you, B2B marketer?

October 20 2010

Social media can be a difficult channel for some B2B companies to utilize. If they do have a presence on social media sites such as Facebook, companies tend to suffer from an overemphasis on selling or a failure to grasp the non-traditional way in which social media audiences communicate. While there is no silver-bullet approach, B2B companies can maximize positive recognition of their brand by following these simple steps:

The most important thing to remember about social media is that it is an interface through which you can engage directly with your customers. This can be a double-edged sword, but with inventive and diligent management social media users are a great resource. So, leverage the platforms to instantly and informally solicit customer feedback. “Feedback” on such sites as Facebook may consist of nothing mare than a “Like”, but it is a definite starting point.
Offer value to viewers. Share some industry expertise, incorporate a giveaway, post a product review. One question many B2B sellers forget to ask it, “What is the user’s incentive to view my content?”
Promote the personality of your business. Social media is a great place to differentiate yourself from the competition by adopting a clear and entertaining brand voice. Obviously at the end of the day the strength of the product is the most powerful influencer of brand loyalty, but think of a social media as an unconventional form of public relations.

Get ready to start your engines

October 19 2010

When Rob Leavitt was asked by a friend for his advice on taking over a B2B marketing organization, his advice was to make sure the following B2B marketing engines were up and running:

Content Engine - Different content is needed at each stage of the buying process, and who hasn’t had a difficult time coming up targeted, relevant information on their own? That’s where your Content Engine comes into play.

Relationship Engine – The phrase “Relationship Engine” is something of an oxymoron as ideally you’d want to personally maintain relationships. That’s how they strengthen, but you do need a consistent and focused approach that goes beyond that Holiday card each year and results in increased loyalty and sales.

Lead Development Engine – The holy grail of sales and marketing, the qualified lead is a bit hard to come by these days. Think long-term campaigns that move leads through a process that creates opportunities rather than just leads thrown over the fence to sales.

Solutions Development Engine – Product development has to respond to customer needs by prioritizing and strategically offering new products with the right value propositions. This should be a routine process with specific stages and metrics.

Read more

Also, thanks Rob.

Be Our Follower

June 9 2010

In the B2B advertising world, it’s easy to get caught up in a mundane, unappealing campaign. Most B2B is seen as the “redheaded stepchild” in advertising, but we steer clear of the typical business-to-business campaign. This video I came across seems to demonstrate our perspective and our clients who follow us towards producing more creative and innovative B2B campaigns.

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Start a revolution. Be our follower into more of a creative, interesting B2B campaign. B2B shouldn’t be something monotonous, because after all, businesses are consumers too. In order to break through the clutter, dare to be different. Don’t continue to stick with the boring B2B campaigns that businesses continue to discard. Kudos to you, you crazy dancing man. You’re an inspiration to us all.

Marketing Firestarters

December 9 2009

Marketing programs often identify influencers and decision makers then convince them to buy our products or services. What should we call these programs? Lead generation, demand generation, what? Typically we skirt the question by referring to programs as Dialog Marketing. It leaves the door open to several forms of marketing engagement. Are we generating demand, or meeting a pre-existing demand in the market?

Prospects that have already identified a pain point scan the market for a solution. The demand is already out there. We have to prove that demand can be met and fulfilled with our client’s solution. Maybe it’s semantics, but perhaps we should start paying closer attention to the difference between generating and meeting demand.

Here’s a quick analogy. A man standing on a street corner with his foot on fire screams for a bucket of water. He identified his pain and solution. He just needs someone to get him water. Should you give him the water first, or ask him if he’d like the water plus a soothing aloe vera salve? You’re talking about meeting an existing demand in the market.

Conversely, that same man is standing on the corner reading the paper and has no idea his foot is on fire. You walk by, notice, and offer the man water, an aloe vera salve, and a bandage. Not realizing he’s on fire the man is grateful and you have a friend for life. That’s demand generation.

In a perfect world we are the only ones carrying a bucket of water around town, but we know that is not true. There are lots of different types of water and different ways to find people on fire.

Marketing managers building 2010 budgets are right now trying to figure out how much money they should devote to generating demand and/or meeting existing demand. The choice can be difficult, but as long as you know the difference between the two the battle is all but won. Your prospects are on fire. Do they know it, or do you need to tell them?

Oh, what if your prospects are not on fire? Should you buy matches?

Selling to the C-Suite

June 19 2009

Selling to a CEO is different than selling to middle or lower-level management. No news here. How it differs is debatable, and should be, but Geoffrey James at BNET put together a piece that offers some good advice.

His article is more of a brush up on what to do than a revelation.

Don’t probe the CEO for new information about his/her company. You should know that going into the meeting. Research and prep goes a long way in the C-Suite.

If you’ve traveled so far through the marketing funnel and sales pipeline that you’re talking to C-level leadership you better have you shit together. That’s another way to say it.

Internal management is going to heavily influence the CEO’s decision, if the final decision rests with the CEO. So you can’t ignore the pitch to them. In fact, you should tailor you pitch and let them help you sell the CEO before you ever step foot in the lush confines of a C-Suite boardroom.

We’re really not an advocate of heavy slide presentations to the C-level, but you need something to show them. Hey, the CEO may not read it, but it’ll illustrate the fact that you care and that you’ve done your homework.

Follow this rule of thumb when it comes to presentations: 10 slides, 20 point font (or bigger), and 30 minutes. 10-20-30. We actually think this should be applied to just about any presentation you build for any audience.

Get biographical information so your chit chat as everyone settles in their seats doesn’t fall back to the weather. Boring. “You like base jumping,” you say. “Me, too.” That may be over the top, but you get the point.

Focus on pain points and objectives. You’ve already identified the CEO’s pain points and objectives in your discussions with the lower-rung folks. Give it to them straight.

Don’t forget a summary slide at the end, a closing. The middle of your presentation may sound like this to the busy CEO. “Blah, blah, blah, blah, Revenue, blah, blah, blah, Cost Savings. Be sure you finish strong.

Courtesy: Delphi

“Look eye, always look eye.” -Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid.

[Monday: What does the movie Mr. Mom have to do with the economic downturn?]

VLG Dialog Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘B2B’