A colleague forwarded me this link earlier today – Surviving an ERP Implementation: Notes from the Field. It’s a great example of content delivered in a “warts and all” way. It reads like a personal diary, and as a result we’re compelled to read on.

In response to this email, another colleague responded, “The chap makes it easy to digest – it doesn’t feel like work. That’s critical for longer content pieces particularly, and where most white papers and case studies let themselves down in our industry. How many people can claim to have actually read an entire Gartner or Forrester white paper?”

By introducing an element of personal story this vehicle is extremely successful at delivering its messages. We want to know what happened, we want to understand the mistakes that were made, we can empathise with the writer.

Food for thought in developing new vehicles for delivering lengthy B2B content.

…but I feel fine. Yes, tomorrow morning at 9:30am local time the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will turn on. Shortly after 10:00, the first micro black hole with have appeared. Within two minutes, it will be visible to the human eye and by 10:15 the Earth will be no more.

Or not, as the case may be.

For too many very complex reasons, Chris (who works with me and has a physics degree) can confidently predict we’ll still be here at 10:30 (and if we’re not, shoot me. Or better still, shoot Chris).

What I’ve been thinking about this week, though, is how such a complex and potentially esoteric science experiment, three decades in the making, has captured the public’s imagination. The entire world has a film crew in there and Google returns more than 12m pages on LHC alone.

The answer lies in the first couple of lines of this post – it’s all about the story. The idea that the LHC might evaporate the planet in a single star-trek-esque moment has, understandably, got legs.

But it’s the facts and figures about the LHC that also grab attention. It’s so big it spans two European countries, just 1/8th of it qualifies as the world’s largest fridge, it will generate temperatures 100,000 times hotter than the centre of the sun and it houses the world’s most powerful supercomputer.

The really important stuff – like the fact that it will recreate the moments after the Big Bang, and that it may reveal where the universe is headed, that science and advancement as vital for us as people – are filtering through on the back of the statistics and “will it, won’t it” drama. The ultimate message is getting across, but the vehicle for the ultimate message is a handful of stories with the common touch.

We are compelled to find out more, and in doing so we learn a bit about what LHC is actually for.

I am in wholehearted agreement with FutureLab’s recent blog post on the power of the story in marketing. Stories and anecdotes stand out in our minds: we remember presentations that are heavily anecdote-based, we gravitate towards people who can spin a good yarn. Companies who have a good story to tell engage us – those who involve us in their stories keep us loyal.

The problem comes for B2B marketers when we try to create viral campaigns or marketing creative to take our message out in the marketplace, rather than trying harder to understand what the story is – what’s genuinely interesting about us and what will actually travel.

And you don’t have to threaten to blow up the world to do it. Take Rackspace – a B2B company. It’s spun great stories around the way it delivers something that other companies take for granted – customer service. It’s given it a name “Fanatical Support”, it’s involved customers (and very importantly staff) in delivering its pledge. Customers feel a vested interest – they are part of the story as they are experiencing and can talk about the great support they get. Rackspace has realised that the message (our servers are up all the time) isn’t what buyers really want, (and isn’t even something they believe to be true.) Buyers want Rackspace to jump to it when something does go wrong, because they know something eventually will. And that simple message, backed up by a super service organisation, has really travelled.

What travels helps people tell stories, helps them do their jobs better, helps make them interesting to have a beer with. The key is finding something that travels for all the right reasons.

So we can learn all something from LHC. And, of course, if I’m proved wrong about tomorrow, at least I won’t know about it…

Yesterday I wrote a post on how to argue a case for your marketing budget.

But what if you’re not sure you’ve got a strong case to start with? Here’s a checklist to make sure you’ve thought through all the angles before you go in for the meeting with the CFO. (If you didn’t get it yesterday, here’s a download summarising other useful stats and links to online B2B marketing budget resources. Marketing Investment – Resources Sheet)

1. Have you started with a clean sheet of paper? Have you questioned old or inherited assumptions? Don’t use last year’s budget as a starting point, it will often lead you to make the same mistakes.
2. Have you budgeted on the basis of what you are paying now? Can you get things cheaper through better buying practices? Manage costs through prudent buying, investigate alternatives for spend rather than assuming it will cost the same this year as it did last year.
3. Have you looked hard enough at the people and skills side? Do you have what you need, or are you living with what you have? Have you considered outsourcing rather than increasing headcount or replacing leavers?
4. Have you budgeted programmes rather than lines? Line-based thinking can lead you from where the real issues are with marketing programmes. Sometimes changing creative or changing tactic masks a fundamental problem with the marketing strategy itself. You can also make a much more effective business case for a programme than a single line.
5. Have you cut out costs by standardising production? Adopt marketing agency type-approaches to numbers of authors’ amends you will allow internally. Impose SLAs on yourself and your team to uphold and improve the services you provide to the business.
6. Have you looked at where you can adopt new purchasing and manufacturing techniques within your job or team? Consider a “just in time” approach to content generation for example. Review your processes and look to minimise waste wherever possible?
7. Ask yourself a lot of tough questions – do you absolutely have to do things? Have you challenged received wisdom that certain activities work – are you sure they don’t just make people feel good? Do you have measures from previous years that can back you up?
8. Have you focused your spend on improving what really matters to the business? (Leads generated, a better conversion rate, customer loyalty increase?, larger average £ sale per customer, increased profitability per customer?)
9. Have you projected the revenue stream from your activity forward rather than looking back? Different activity, in a different market or at a different time will give different results. Look forward over the coming year with your assumptions, don’t base this year’s marketing on last year’s revenues.
10. If you have multiple products or services, have you budgeted differently for them depending upon the corporate objectives, aspirations and markets for each?
11. Are you being asked to do too much with too little? Avoid the “marketing always wants more budget” accusation. Be clear and realistic – don’t be pressured into agreeing to achieve myriad objectives with insufficient resources. You will fail to achieve your objectives and undermine the reputation of marketing.
12. Are there other areas of the business that will impact your success? Should you make a case for the marketing spend in these areas too? (Customer care, sales and bid support, internal communications.)
13. Have you pre-identified points throughout the year when you are willing to sit back down the CFO and review your progress and the returns you are generating?

Locking horns with the CFO or CEO over B2B marketing budgets? Here are 9 ways to argue a strong case.

Plus – struggling with where to start or how to put the budget together in the first place? We’ve collated the most useful starting points from our own desk research. Download it here – Marketing Investment – Resources Sheet.

1. Start by completely aligning your proposed marketing plan with the business plan – draw a straight line between what the company wants to achieve and what you are planning to do. Explain in detail exactly how it will contribute. Have the company’s stated strategic plan with you on the day.
2. Measure what matters, not what’s easy – use metrics that the CEO and CFO will genuinely care about. Pipeline, lead generation, increased revenue from existing accounts and new business. You will be measuring a lot of other things too, but these are the numbers they want to understand your contribution to.
3. Use the right language – talk about investment rather than spend. Argue a solid business case. Focus on short term ROMI (sales leads for today) and longer term ROMI (an easier selling environment for tomorrow). Explain for each budget line what you are targeting the return on investment to be and why.
4. Help the CFO achieve his/her ends – suggest that the marketing spend be amortised as the benefit is realised. We’ve also seen a number of companies who account for their marketing spend only when they see the actual benefit from the campaign (typically when the deliverables hit).
5. Use standard sales terminology – map your programmes against the sales funnel, visually if possible, showing how your plans will contribute to driving prospects through that funnel.
6. Get the sales director behind you – if you’re already delivering leads, use this to support your case. If not, make a start on sales-approved programmes and use the sales director to support your case before the meeting.
7. Don’t forget to map against profitability targets as well as revenue targets. Demonstrate how your programmes will increase average sale per customer, keep customers loyal for longer or retain more of them.
8. The CFO can’t argue with what the customer is saying. Poll your customer and prospect base about what they want and expect from you marketing-wise. Take visuals in with you to demonstrate what is needed. See my recent post on how CIOs like to be marketed to as an example of the kind of first-hand information you can use to back up your case.
9. Remember to sell the plan just as hard as you explain it. Enthusiasm is infectious.

Ed (name changed to protect the innocent) is responsible for all infrastructure globally for the entire organisation. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the IT sector, having worked in retail banking and for major retail organisations. He shared his thoughts with us recently on the best way for IT companies to market to him:

• I’m interested primarily in content and information that will help me do my job. If you can help solve the problem I’ve been grappling with in the car on the way in to work then I’ll listen to you.
• The strength of the proposition is not always the key determinant here; more important is the timing of the proposition and how relevant it is to me and my priorities.
• Be prompt and to the point. I want information, but I don’t want to spend too long getting it.
• Demonstrate a personal understanding of my business. Show you appreciate my company’s stated corporate direction and its market challenges.
• Make me feel obliged to respond, make the effort by investing time in helping me.
• If you can’t get me directly, the best way in is through a member of my team or my PA.
• I listen a lot to my ‘customers’ in the business, so you can always reach me through them – maybe they will be first people in the company to recognise the issue we have.
• Engage with me on a business level, don’t talk technical.
• Respect my team. If I ask you to deal with someone else there’s a good reason for it.
• Give me great content – sexy channels like podcasts are good, but I’ll only want the content if it’s useful to me
• I want to network with my peers, and hear their stories. Help facilitate that for me.
• My next step needs to be clear – if you’re asking me to do something (from taking a meeting to requesting a document), it needs to be easy for me to do and pitched to sound as valuable as possible.

Keeping up with the rapid changes in IT world and B2B at the same time is a big challenge. But many successful lead generation campaigns owe much to their timing. So for those interested in producing great marketing to generate leads at an enterprise level, it’s key to have access to the latest thinking on B2B as well as the latest news on IT. Here’s a manageable list of some of the best blogs around for keeping posted on both.

I’d recommend pulling all these and other favourite resources onto your desktop using a free RSS reader like NewsGator.

The FT’s Tech blog http://Blogs.ft.com/techblog
Computer Weekly’s Making IT Happen blog
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/cio-making-it-happen-blog/
Paul Dunay’s blog http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com
Brian Carroll’s blog http://blog.startwithalead.com/
Chris Brogan’s blog http://www.chrisbrogan.com
The Enterprise Irreguars Blog www.enterpriseirregulars.com
Forrester’s Marketing blog http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/
The Marketing Pilgrim blog http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/
David Meerman Scott’s blog http://www.webinknow.com/
Micropersuasion blog http://www.micropersuasion.com
Nicholas Carr’s blog http://www.roughtype.com
The B2B International blog http://b2binternational.com/b2b-blog/

Today Google launched Chrome, its new beta browser. Chrome is designed specifically to run applications rather than just display pages. As such, it’s ideal for running SaaS applications such as salesforce.com, sugar crm, SAP BusinessByDesign, Oracle CRM OnDemand etc.

Nicholas G Carr on his blog today argues that “the real goal of Chrome, embedded in [its] open-source code, is to upgrade the capabilities of all browsers so that they can better support (and eventually disappear behind) the applications.” The web as a computing platform continues its relentless march.

As SaaS gains increasing popularity, the way businesses are buying applications is changing. SaaS apps are proving easier and quicker to buy. The average business unit head is very comfortable with the web – it doesn’t hold the fear and pain of “going through IT” to get something done. If you can sign up for FT.com to get your news with the company credit card – why not a CRM tool too?

But the fact/illusion that you can simply “sign up over the internet” is having real impact on the decision-making cycles B2B marketers are used to. Sales cycles are shorter, traditional due diligence is being shortcut. Many more decisions are being made on the basis of politics, ambition, emotion and frustration. Often IT is being left out of SaaS purchase processes entirely.

Nick Booth’s article last week for Computer Weekly highlights a study by Gartner research which showed that 75% of all SaaS is bought by business unit managers, rather than IT managers. Gartner warns CIOs to get involved in the decision-making, saying: “It’s happening in your organisation anyway, whether you like it or not.”

All this adds up to interesting times ahead for B2B marketers. If browser technology is evolving to make applications easier to run and access to the latest software is a click away, what does that mean for our marketing efforts? Should we look to the publishing world or the gaming world for models? Is the SaaS subscriber model bringing a “throwaway” culture to organisational IT buying?

IT decision-making power is shifting rapidly, and the perception of organisational IT is changing with it. Take a good look at what it means for your programmes.

I recently interviewed the marketing director at one of the UK’s largest systems integrators about her views on the marketing she receives. Her “most memorable” was a mailing containing a box of tissues and the headline “crying into your sales forecast?”.

She couldn’t remember who sent it, why, or what they were selling. She recalled it – for all the wrong reasons – and no-one got an appointment or a sale out of it.

These attention-grabbing techniques are often agency-inspired. They happen when agencies can’t or don’t understand the proposition. ”But it got a 57% recall rate” shrieks the agency. “Yes, but did it generate any leads?” we should ask! The recipient is a real person with real challenges. They want information to help them do their jobs better, not balloons, trowels or tissues.

The same is even truer online. People vote with their feet. If the content is interesting and useful, it grows legs. If it doesn’t, it dies.

A derth of good, relevant, valuable and honest content has been the B2B marketing world’s challenge for decades. For years buyers have been asking for “warts and all” stories but few companies have the stomach to provide them. (It’s why shows like Top Gear are so successful in B2C – they tell it like it is with a strong opinion and bags of personality.) But is a change on the horizon for B2B? Is the web 2.0 phenomenon finally forcing B2B marketers to change their ways?

Consider whether you would rather read a private diary from someone actually using the multi-million pound software product you are considering purchasing, or a corporate brochure describing its features? The brochure will probably be skimmed through but you can imagine the diary getting read thoroughly. As increased truth and interaction is being demanded by web 2.0, a new era is dawning for B2B marcomms functions.

Going from decades of broadcasting brochureware to something more akin to crafting diaries and narratives (and being prepared for a good amount of criticism along the way) is going to require quite a shift for the traditional B2B marketing department.

The upside is war stories, honesty, interest, more pull-able and usable content. It’s what buyers have been screaming for. The trade-off is less editorial control and a necessity that the content-generators themeselves are better informed and involved in their products’ or services’ world.

Emergency event turnaround… OK, so you’re reading this a little late (see part one of this post on getting events right first time) and you’ve sent out email blasts and mailers in the thousand to your event about version 6.3.1.7’s new grey button and the takers aren’t exactly flooding in. Or, you think you’ve done everything right and you honestly can’t understand why things are just not going your way. Your sales team needs the leads and all eyes are on you; what to do?

Appraise your event very critically. What’s not working? Is the timing a challenge (it could be school holidays). Is the content not chiming well (did the last big industry conference already cover your topic in the same way?) Ideally you don’t want to second guess this – call a few of the non-takers and ask them honestly why they don’t want to attend. Focus on the area they are outlining: it’s normally to do with content (interest factor), speakers (authority/scarcity) or convenience (they can’t get there, or it’s too much effort to get there). Download this free event countdown tool to help you with timings.

B2B events: tip sheet 2. Rescue rangers

1. Boost the interest factor
   Unless you’ve booked your event on a remote island, the primary reason for poor take up is likely to be poor content. Any business event featuring Richard Branson or Derren Brown is going to be full. Why? Yes, the cachet of their names and fame, but they are famous because of the quality of their content. Branson on his life story and business approach, Derren for psychological tricks and persuasion techniques. It doesn’t matter if your speakers aren’t known but you need to market their interest factor and reason for having authority in the field just as much as you need to stress the quality of the content. Plus, on the day, the speakers need to live up to the hype otherwise you’ll have a full event but not a great one that makes people keep coming back. Seth Godin makes a great point in his blog about ensuring if you are going to get people to come, the event’s really worthwhile.Be deliberately provocative in the communications if you can. You might consider retitling the event. The B2B IT industry loves its long words. To engage interest, think tabloid headlines for your event title and presentation titles. “Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster” is infinitely better than “Previously Little-Known British Comedian Digests Small Captive Rodent”. Our last event was called “The Naked Decision Maker” (but we could easily have called it “How The Recipients of Your Marketing Activity Perceive It.” You can look to TV formats for inspiration; Dragon’s Den, Big Brother, The Weakest Link.
2. Swap out the speakers
   Add a new speaker, or change the one(s) you have. If any of the presentations look like a pitch, take them out or refocus them. Use the change as an opportunity to recommunicate with the audience. “New speaker added, the author of the book “Killer Outsourcing” Bob Peters, who also writes the #1 blog on outsourcing.”
3. Make it more convenient
   If the event date, timing or location is an issue for everyone, or the majority, change it. You can change the date if you need to, but often simply switching from morning to evening or a full day to a half day can really help. Change the format, condense the timing into a rapid-fire learning session. People prefer punchy 20 minute presentations over 1 hour marathons every time. Can you shorten it? Consider offering two places/bring a colleague; some people don’t want to attend on their own. If it’s a high profile event and you can afford it, consider offering free transport to and/or from the event. If you can’t change the date but some key contacts can’t make it, give them a call and ask (a) whether you can bring the content to them (b) whether the content would be of interest to anyone in the company.
4. Make it sound unmissable
   People are insecure at heart. Give them reasons they can’t afford to miss it. The “No FT, No Comment” approach. Tell them that they will hear something for the first time at the event. Explain what tools they will be given that will help them do their jobs better. Create a list of other organisations who are already attending the event ie, if it’s a retail focused event say, “Senior representatives from Tesco, Boots and Starbucks have already secured their places.” Consider adding job titles too, if seniority is an issue.
5. Make it easier to sign up
   Amazing how many invitations demand the recipient to make a phone call to book a space at the event. Add more response mechanisms to the emails. Fax backs still get a great response from a senior audience in the UK; it’s easy for the exec to tick “yes” or “no” and get the PA to fax it back. Give your sales team a quota to bring a couple of people each.

If all else fails, don’t fret. Some excellent events are run with few delegates; it does encourage better debate. Relook at the format to add further opportunity for debate and questions. If you’re worried about the room looking too empty and you can’t change it, think of creative uses for the other half of the room and make it look like you meant to do that all along. (Exhibition area, demos, TV room, breakout area, coffee and Wifi areas for example)

If you only have one or two signed up the a few days before, cancel the event and make appointments to see signed up delegates individually to run in house events for them and their teams. These appointments can often be extremely fruitful. At The Marketing Practice, we often find that we gather as many sales-ready leads among people that can’t attend an event as from registered delegates but only with a well thought-through offer as part of a complete strategy wider than any specific event.

Ahhh, the joy of being Steve Jobs. You mention that you’ll be launching your latest ithing at an upcoming event and there isn’t a seat left in the house (or a dry eye). No worries here about delegate numbers or drop out rates. But what about the rest of us in B2B marketing, organising our own events selling the latest middleware or systems integration services? Recent research shows that IT decision makers only attend about 5 events per year (download the research paper here for free). How are you going to convince them to come to yours?

But I love a good event. Events are great galvanisers of marketing action. Where direct campaigns can slip and lose traction, there’s nothing like a deadline at which people have to stand up in public to ensure the marketing gets out there. And they generate great leads and relationships.

I’ll cover two things this week. Today some thoughts on stopping the “there’s two weeks left to go and we’ve got 6 people signed up” from happening in the first place. Tomorrow, what to do if this is happening to you right now. If you’re thinking about organising an event, try this simple event countdown tool. (Event Countdown Tool)

Getting events right first time, every time

If you believe that your proposition alone won’t cut the mustard to get the right people along, something else needs to do it. Don’t think about marketing the event in terms of drilling home what your latest widget can do, think about what will make it a truly compelling and interesting event for the audience and go from there. Put on a show.

If version 6.3.1.7 of your product isn’t going to materially change their world (or more importantly, if it’s impossible to genuinely convince them it’s going to via direct marketing) don’t make it the focus of your event.

B2B events: tip sheet 1. Right first time

1. People first, not product
   Think about the audience. What kind of people are they? Do they like networking or not? Do they want to play with the latest technology or learn about global business themes? What’s preoccupying them? What’s their biggest challenge? What do they want to learn? Who do they want to meet? What’s been written in their market recently that they want to understand more about? Find up-and-coming authors or bloggers in your field, they can cost a lot less in speakers’ fees than you think.
2. Think Amex Black card
   Everyone wants and is intrigued by the “invitation only” Amex Black card. Can you really buy a Rolls Royce Phantom on it? Do they even exist? People want to come to events that feel more exclusive, which are hard to get into, or at which something is being given away that feels scarce. For example, Stephen Worchel’s pyschological experiment into the desirability of scarce things found that when there were only a few cookies in the jar they were rated as more desirable than cookies with plenty in the jar. Cialdini who writes on the psychology of persuasion says, “The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it. What can you do to make the event feel exclusive? What can they get if they come to the event (and only from the event)?
3. Stage an experience, not a powerpoint endurance challenge
   Can the event itself be an event? Innocent Smoothies knows that people won’t get out of bed purely to drink a smoothie at an event, so they create an annual Innocent Village Fete. It’s a mini open-air concert, and they get to own, sponsor and tailor the whole experience. I’ve seen great business events themed as the “summer of love”, or a 1920s speakeasy. Can you give your event a compelling theme? We use an S&M theme in our quarterly Sales & Marketing forum events, and theme the invites with rubber boots and ropes, book a sleek and sexy hotel and have even invented our own S&M Cocktail (Here’s the recipe: S&M Cocktail.doc). You can take inspiration from web 2.0 and get the audience suggesting what they want to hear on the day: get them emailing in.
4. Nine out of ten audience members who expressed a preference said they preferred content
   You are asking people to take a significant chunk out of their working day. They don’t want to be pitched at. You’re reading this because you want to learn something (you lovely foolish individual) not because you want to buy something from me. Of course you’ll buy in time (oh yes you will), but first you want to check out whether it’s worth your while. Your audience will be no different. Look back at step one and craft great content delivered by speakers in authority. What will your audience learn on the day that will help them do their job better? Reinforce this on the invite. Look at best-selling “how to” books and copy the style on the back cover in your invitation material. i.e at this event, you will learn how to do X, Y Z
5. Leave plenty of time
   Pity the senior executive and their time-poor diaries. Their endless round of conference calls and meetings means that you need to leave at least 12 weeks from invitations going out to the day of the event (also allows for the corrective actions in part two of this post if things go wrong.) Mix up your comms channels as you go, some email, some by hand from the sales team, some via the post, altering the messaging on each and measuring the inbound response. PS. It is almost impossible to convince someone on the phone to attend an event if they’ve already decided not to. And you shouldn’t be trying it, you’ll damage your reputation. So don’t bash the phones in an attempt to get more delegates. You should go for a teleservice approach instead. A lot of people set the invite to one side before deciding whether to attend and it gets buried. So on the phone just say I’m calling to check you received the invite OK and to find out whether you’re planning on coming or not? If you’re not planning on attending, is there someone else in your organisation I should send an invite to?”
6. Don’t overlook networking opportunities
   At one of our recent events networking was rated as one of the major reasons delegates attended. Build networking opportunities into your events where at all possible. Perhaps a few beers in buckets at the end of the event, speed-business dating or a full scale cocktail party. Leave time for it. Consider how you might be able to facilitate it online through your own website, or if the events are regular, or user-group based, how you can use social networking tools liked LinkedIn or Facebook.
7. Sweep up the nos and the no-shows
   If someone can’t come or doesn’t turn up on the day that shouldn’t preclude them from your marketing efforts. Before the event, if they say no during the follow up, offer them an opportunity for someone to come to their office and share some of the best content with them. After the event, offer the nos and the no shows an audio CD of the best presentations for their car, or a document outlining the major new points discussed. Put edited excerpts on YouTube and provide a link from your site and send emails directing them to it.