Brand Central Station

Vancouver-based Vitrium Systems announced the launch of a new, online service that allows marketers to embed a registration form into PDF’s. The new system, dubbed PDFSalesLeads, allows marketers to take advantage of the portability of electronic sales literature while providing an interactive form inside the document that will allow the reader to provide the contact information required to carry the sales process to the next step.

During a sneak peak of the new service, Vitrium’s Manager of Marketing and Communications, Randa Codron, explained how PDFSalesLeads provided a solution to the dilema of making prospects register to download PDF’s online or giving digital documents away without any idea of who’s reading them. “PDFSalesLeads allows users to complete their registration information inside the PDF while they are engaged with the content,” she explained. “You can set the form up to appear on any specific page, so the reader has a chance to decide whether the information your providing is something they want more information about.”

Furthermore, the technology stays with the document, so PDF’s that are passed from one user to another also pass along the interactive registration form. All registrations are collected in real time back at the PDFSalesLeads web site and can be integrated into SalesForce.com.

View an online demo.

This is a handy break-through for small and mid-sized marketers who want to expand their reach via the Internet but can’t spend a lot of wasted time sorting through irrelevant leads or trying to follow up on bogus registration information. At just $49 per month, the service is affordable.

The possibilities of this technology appear to go beyond simple registration. During our conference call, I asked if there were plans for creating other interactive forms that could be imbedded into PDF’s. While Randa couldn’t be specific, it does sound like PDFSalesLeads may be just the first of a number of utilitarian products to roll out of Vitrium’s R&D team.

We’ll be watching for more developments from Vancouver in the future.

For some, the mix of social media with B2B marketing is a tough one to swallow.  While several business marketers were quick to jump onto web sites, the communications tended to be one-way (not interactive), with many web sites becoming little more than electronic brochures that were cheaper to produce and easier to distribute than their paper predecessors.

But with the ‘web came the promise of interactivity.  And that promise is now starting to mature in the form of social media (or Web 2.0).  But what’s a business to do if it sells, primarily, to other businesses?

Thanks to Brandon Bryce, President & CEO of Large Mouth Communications and an article that recently appeared on the Large Mouth web site entitled “Who’s afraid of the Web 2.0?”

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It’s not “greenwashing” per se - but more than a few people are skeptical of catalog and direct mailers when they say they’re concerned about the environment and want to cut the wasted circulation out of their marketing efforts.

As far as I’m concerned, if they save a little “green” (money) and a few trees in the process, I’m all for it.

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An article posted to BtoB Magazine’s web site a while back pointed out an interesting result from a recent Hearst survey: nearly 50% of all b-to-b marketing budgets are spent on online programs.  That spend covers everything from web site development/enhancements to online advertising to SEO to webcasts to Social Media … you get the idea.  The survey goes on to explain that trade shows account for 17% of marketing budgets, direct marketing (12%) and print (11%) account for most of the rest.

But like most media property-driven market research, it ignores a significant pool of resources that often go untapped by most b-to-b marketers and the media.  I understand why.  For a magazine or other media outlet to try and identify how much money and human resource is dedicated to internal communications, training and organizational behavior, they would have to step waaaaaay out of their comfort zone.

It’s kind of like asking an amateur astronomer to find Dark Matter in the universe using his existing, backyard telescope.  They may have an idea where to point the telescope, but they can’t really see what they’re looking at.

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One of my favorite B2B Marketing Blogs (the Red on Marketing Blog) posted this great little article on B2B copywriting at the end of last week.  In fact, the lesson to be learned here applies to all kinds of copywriting – whether you’re writing for the Internet, for the news media or to sell something in an ad:

Don’t bury your lead.  Tell people who you are and what you do.

Clearly.

In fact, I can remember the day I first heard an advertising colleague refer to a client’s service as a “business solution” – I thought it was brilliant.  Apparently, so did every other B2B copywriter in the 1980′s.

And when everyone uses the same words to describe different things, everything starts to sound the same.  Even when they’re not.

Learn the lesson the easy way now.  Check out Robert Celashi’s post here.

I found this very helpful post on the Small Business Trends blog on developing a “marketing kit.”  There are some very helpful tips here for B2B marketers who typically have to rely on a library of brochures, spec sheets and direct mail pieces to educate a prospective customer. (more…)

Leave it to John Jantsch, the author of the Duct Tape Marketing blog, to provide yet another great idea for those of you who need to make a big impression on a new business prospect.

John points out that with the new, low price of the iPod Shuffle, it makes a very appealing (and impressive) premium vehicle to carry your B2B pitch via podcast.

Read the whole post here.

The headline in this week’s edition of B2B Magazine proclaims the good news that marketing budgets for B2B marketers is going up in 2008.  The survey of 213 marketers found that the majority of those interviewed (over 50%) anticipated a budget increase in the 5-14% range over last year. 

That sounds great on the surface, but what a closer examination of the story will tell you is that the biggest parts of the budgets seeing increases are online marketing and event marketing/trade shows.

What’s this mean for agencies and trade pubs trying to ride the wave of increased budgets for 2008?

It means it “ain’t gonna happen” – not this year, anyway. (more…)

Can companies that specialize in selling to other businesses find legitimate opportunities related to cultural diversity and ethnic markets?

The question itself indicates a subtle ethnic bias that most white business people can’t see. But while white business owners may suffer from an ethnic blind spot, minority-owned businesses have more to do to bring attention the opportunities they represent.

First, for traditional B2B companies (usually owned and operated by whites), understanding the diversity of the American business culture as well as the consumer culture can yield a fresh perspective and new opportunities in a variety of areas:

Employment – Minority groups today account for 25% of the US population. That number will more than double over the next generation. The ethnic shift is likely to be even more pronounced among those people of employable age.Employers who recognize this trend and work to develop corporate cultures that are more open and accessible to people of various ethnicities will be positioned to review and select from a significantly larger talent pool of job applicants. An additional benefit to such an employer would be the positive “word of mouth” within various ethnic communities – resulting in a likely reduction in employee recruiting costs.

Client Relations – Just as it is likely most B2B companies’ own employment base will change over the next generation, it is fair to assume the employment profile of their clients’ will change over time as well. The ethnic/cultural background of your key client contacts may necessitate a change in your company’s approach to cultural diversity.

Growing and Start-Up Businesses – Today, ethnic businesses are growing faster and increasing spending more quickly than the national average for all businesses. Minority start-ups outnumber white start-ups by a ratio of nearly 2:1. Sales for minority businesses are growing at a dynamic rate of nearly 24% per year.

Healthcare and Related Markets – The health needs of some minority groups are more pronounced in some areas (e.g. Hispanics and the incidence of diabetes, African-Americans and the incidence of heart disease). While these tendencies have been identified by several drug and device manufacturers, there are several opportunities for companies who produce goods that support the lifestyle changes that go along with treatment. Food companies, financial service companies, technology companies, etc. can all benefit from getting to know and understand the needs of these markets in greater detail in order to stimulate more sales and product use.

Pull-Through Opportunities – Identifying cultural opportunities in the end-user market can create new business opportunities with existing customers.

For minority-owned businesses, there are a few significant challenges they need to overcome in order to break through the “checkmark” mentality so many white-owned businesses have when it comes to accommodating ethnic markets and minority-owned businesses.

Awareness – Opportunities in minority and ethnic markets need to be brought
forward and explained to companies that have traditionally operated in “the mainstream.” And with the mainstream, nothing succeeds like success. A coordinated push of positive examples and subsequent opportunities will get noticed by the more savvy entrepreneurs.Education – Many white business owners and managers are intimidated by cultures they don’t understand. The only way to overcome those fears is to spend the time required to educate and inform them.

Partnership – True partnership is a two-way street. Inter-racial business relationships need to start out slow, allowing the white partner to catch on and catch up. Both parties need to make their intentions clear and to put matters of difference on the table so they can be addressed. A clear understanding of the give and take of the business relationship will help make a stronger, working partnership when things finally hit their stride.

Finally, it’s up to all of us to recognize and celebrate the success stories. We all need to do what we can to commend businesses that find new ways to work together and benefit from the partnership. These stories will be of interest to the media and to the public because as the population continues to diversify (ethnically), the media will be searching for ways to entertain and inform that new public.

In the B2B segment, there is a distinct opportunity to lead consumer trends and benefit both strategically and economically as a result.

Not all innovation is technology-driven – sometimes re-thinking how things are done can bring real value. And the best inspiration for finding that new line of thought is the customer (whether they are external or inside your own company).

Charlotte Sibley, with Shire Pharmaceuticals, uses customer reaction as a barometer of innovation inside her own company. “… if I get a lot of pushback from internal customers, I know I’m pushing the innovation envelope,” she says.

Blogger Dave Pollard provides a list of non-technological ways of looking for innovation (from his How To Save The World blog:

• How you design your core offerings (e.g. the Mercedes Smart Car’s unique and imaginative attributes)
• Product system: How you link and/or provide a platform for multiple products (e.g. the Microsoft integrated productivity suite)
• Core processes: How you create and add value to your offerings (e.g. Wal-Mart’s reinvention of retailing as shelf-space leasing)
• Enabling process: How you support the company’s core processes and workers (e.g. Starbucks’ premium wage and benefits packages to attract superior staff)
• Service: How you provide value to customers and consumers beyond and around your products (e.g. Singapore Airlines’ thoughtful and pampering extras)
• Delivery Channel: How you get your offerings to market (e.g. Martha Stewart’s multi-media ways of getting her ‘home’ stuff to your home)
• Brand: How you communicate your offerings (e.g. Absolut vodka’s “theme and variations’ advertising concept)
• Customer experience: How your customers feel when they interact with your company and its offerings (e.g. the Harley Davidson owners’ community)
• Networks and alliances: How you join forces with other companies for mutual benefit (e.g. Sara Lee sticking strictly to branding and outsourcing all manufacturing)
• Business model: How you make money (e.g. Dell’s pay-in-advance for a custom-made PC model).

If you’re interested in investigating the concept of customer-driven innovation further, you may want to check out this white paper by Howard Moskowitz, Ph.D.

I had a delightful lunch with an old client the other day. In fact, every time Juan and I get together for lunch it turns into a kind of “mutual admiration society” meeting. I guess that’s because either he’s smart enough to agree with everything I say or vice versa.

Juan’s consulting now – the great beyond for all of us who cooked ourselves to a crisp either working for “the man” or working for someone who works for him. Juan’s a smart, affable guy, though and he’s doing well, but he’s frustrated. “I just can’t seem to land clients who understand the difference between a strategy and a tactic,” he tells me.

I know what he means. I subscribe to several discussion groups and am constantly amazed how often the two terms are used interchangeably. It’s clear to me that someone out there, with as much credibility as me (which may, at times, not seem like much I realize), is providing definitions to these essential marketing terms that are diametrically opposed to the definitions I’ve used my entire career.

It’s no mistake that one of the greatest advantages Brand Central Station brings to its clients and partners is a common lexicon. I insist on it. A client in France and an agency in the US have to agree on a common terminology in order to work together – that seems obvious. But just as importantly, a client in Illinois has to be able to understand what their agency in Missouri is talking about when it comes to marketing objectives, goals, strategies and tactics.

So, now, for better or worse, here is a written explanation of what strategies and tactics are and – more importantly – why business owners and managers need to “think” strategically rather than tactically:

What is the difference between a strategic and tactical approach to business?
To understand the difference between strategic and tactical thinking, you have to understand the essential difference between strategies and tactics. Both are required to make your business a success – but, all too often, business owners and managers spend too much time on the smaller, tactical issues rather than on the larger, longer-range, strategic ones.

In short, they spend too much time working in their business and not enough time working on it.

In order to achieve any goal, you have to have a plan in place. That plan usually consists of one or more strategies – general directions or intentions that lead you to the goal. The actions you take to follow these directions or act upon these intentions are tactical by nature.

Imagine you have a very simple goal in mind – say; you want to travel from your home to New York for a vacation. There are a variety of strategies available to you: you could fly, you could travel by car, you could take a bus or a train. These are obvious strategies. Less obvious strategies are available as well: you could walk or hitchhike, you could package yourself up in a crate and go parcel post (don’t laugh, someone’s done this before).

Some strategies are inherently more risky than others (flying coach versus cargo, for example). But identifying the strategy is just half of the battle. Once you’ve selected your strategy, you actually have to do something. You see, a strategy helps you focus on the tactics that are best suited for that strategy. This process – referred to as planning – is one of the side benefits of thinking strategically. The clarity that comes from adopting a strategic plan can be tremendously empowering because you are able to compare available tactics against the strategy and determine very quickly which are appropriate and which are not.

For example, buying an airline ticket may be an appropriate tactic if you’re going to fly (or ship yourself) to New York. But building a crate is a tactic that only works for one strategy. No matter the price of nails and boards, you’re not likely to buy them if you’ve already landed on the strategy of traveling with other humans rather than the suitcases.

Now while our example was rather silly, I used it to make a point. Business owners and managers are constantly confronted by “tactical” solutions to their problems. Some are right, some aren’t. And even more are sort-of right/sort-of not right. It can be terribly confusing and horribly expensive.

It’s human nature to default to those tactics with which we feel most comfortable – and that means we doom ourselves to continue repeating what we know whether it’s worked for us in the past or not. You see, without a clear strategy for a business, the owner/manager has no standard for evaluating the relative significance of one tactic against another. The result is slow growth or, even worse, stagnation.

Why a business strategy can make all the difference in your future.
There’s a second reason why having a clear business strategy is key to your growth and prosperity: innovation.

Too many times, business owners feel like they are constantly responding to market forces that are beyond their control. A major reason for this is that these owners and managers are often managing on data collected in the past and spend a great deal of time trying to interpret this historical information that looses its relevance over time.

Businesses who adopt a strategic approach to their growth and development still track what they’ve done – but that information is only part of the data they evaluate when making forward-looking decisions. Strategies are based on research and analysis of market factors that help define customer needs, competitive supply levels and other market-making trends.

In the United States, growth of market share is increasingly dependent upon clear, value-driven business strategies. Businesses who are not thinking how to improve their customer relationships, open themselves to new markets or re-position their USP (unique selling proposition) in a relevant and compelling manner are doomed to stagnation, declining share and eventual failure.

You see, the total number of consumers in the US is still growing but at a significantly slower pace than it has over the past fifty years. That means businesses have to lure customers and clients away from competitors in order to continue growing. For those business owners and managers who are not fiercely guarding their existing client/customer relationships and aggressively going after new ones, this means they are under siege. Sales will decline. Margins will shrink. Profits will evaporate.

Having a well-defined business strategy will allow you to be more creative in how you approach prospective customers – maybe even open up entirely new markets never-before explored. Innovation in positioning, products and service can lead to significant breakthroughs and, more importantly, make you the only player in the field – if even for only a short time.