MarCom Writer Blog: Interviews with Fab Peeps Archives

I’ve been paying more attention to Facebook with regard to B2B, especially with all of the changes going down (including Timeline, which deployed worldwide last week). I’m particularly intrigued with the competition between G+ and FB. I absolutely LOVE how G+ has forced FB to become more transparent and easier to use.

I also love how it’s now much more transparent that FB is no longer a strictly social networking platform — which it used to be. It’s now a network marketing platform.

Viewing FB from this perspective has made me re-evaluate it with regard to B2B. Can B2B companies use FB effectively? I say yes, but with a couple of caveats. One, FB is a place where you talk to people versus selling to them, which a huge mind shift for companies bent on measuring “ROI” in hard numbers (i.e. leads that become sales), and two, FB is a place where you can let your hair down a little bit and have some fun, also a huge mind shift for companies that have a more conservative approach to business in general.

With all of this in mind, I was particularly interested in the new report from Eloqua — 10 Ways to “Solve” Facebook for B2B. After reading it, I had a few questions, which Joe Chernov, VP of Content Marketing, was happy to answer.

Dianna Huff: Joe, in this report you talk about sweepstakes. How can B2B use these? They seem more B2C.

Joe Chernov: Dianna, you’re correct. Sweepstakes can be tricky for B2B. After all, the potential audience for a B2B product is typically more finite than for consumer goods. That said, sweepstakes can work for B2B marketers, it just takes a little creative thinking.

For example, we ran a sweepstakes in concert with EmpireAvenue a “virtual” stock exchange in which members invest virtual currency, called Eaves, in one another. EmpireAvenue is immensely popular with our target audience: marketers and digital media professionals. So when we gave EmpireAvenue members a chance to win Eaves by joining our Facebook community, it was a natural fit. We were attracting the right audience.

DH: Interesting! You’re actually the second person I know to mention EmpireAvenue. Now I’ll have to check it out.

Regarding weekend posting, which you talk about briefly in your report, I think this is a really important consideration for B2B, especially since so many companies block FB. Can you expound on this a little bit?

JC: You’re exactly right: the “weekend Facebook” audience is comprised of different people than “work hours Facebook.” The goal on weekends isn’t necessarily to reach massive numbers of business professionals, but rather to reach new members, like those who work for companies where Facebook is blocked, or those who just don’t think to get on Facebook during work hours. A community is comprised of all members, not just the members who are available when it’s convenient for the brand.

DH: Joe, I like how you put that — reaching new members. That ties in with the report comScore and Facebook put out in July, The Power of Like: How Brands Reach and Influence Fans Through Social Media Marketing. According to the report, only 16% of Fans are reached by branded content by a brand that posts five out of seven days. One reason for this is that people miss content if they’re not logged on when you post the content.

In your report, you mention the Golden Ratio. Can you explain what this means?

JC: The Golden Ratio is a mathematical term that is derived from nature. Apparently the shape of a nautilus, the veins in leaves, even the proportions of humans, all share the same mathematical dimensions. So we decided to see if on Facebook there was a “Golden Ratio” … that is, a normal balance between “Likes” and comments, and whether or not that ratio differed between B2B and B2C companies.This data is in the deck so that brands can see if the way their Fans engage with them is consistent with these norms or if it differs sharply from them. It’s a baseline.

DH: Ok, excellent. And one last question. You also mention that automated posting tools have a NEGATIVE impact on posts being seen. Can you talk a little about that, too?

JC: In our experience, auto-posting tools had a NEGATIVE impact on our posts being seen. Historically Facebook’s algorithm has frowned on third-party publishers.That appears to have changed, according to a November 7 post at AllFacebook, but in our experience, our “jobs at Eloqua auto-publisher” had a negative impact.

Joe, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions!

Be sure to download Eloqua’s report. And, if you haven’t already, come join me on Facebook. I post content that you might find interesting — everything from links to new reports and data to articles that have ideas about how to improve your thinking.

What do you think about Facebook and B2B? Do you think Timeline will be a game changer and force more B2B companies to incorporate FB into their marketing campaigns? Leave your comments below.

Content is a hot topic these days. If you read or listen to any number of experts, you’ll hear that content is what drives search, leads, and sales. Content is important, but as with anything, building a good foundation on which your content rests is key.

This month Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings, and one of the top SEO experts, explains the importance of site architecture and navigation.

Dianna Huff: Jill, what do you mean by “site architecture” and why is it important?

Jill Whalen: Site architecture is how every page is linked to every other page within a website. It’s essentially how a person or a search engine navigates through your website. It’s important for both people and search engines as well. The way your pages are linked together is part its overall “usability.” That is, the ease or difficulty your website visitors have when it comes to finding what they’re looking for.

It works the same way for search engines. Pages that are easy for search engines to find, for instance, those linked to in the navigational menu that’s at the top of every page, will be given more weight by them. This is because those pages have more “internal link popularity” within your site.

You may already know about the importance of “link popularity” – that is, other sites linking to yours, and how that provides value. Internal linking is just as important. With the right site architecture in place, you have the ability to tell Google which pages of your site are important by how you link to them.

The way you create your site architecture is key when it comes to B2B sites – especially with regard to getting found for “short-tail” keywords.

DH: Explain the difference between long- and short-tail.

JW: Short-tail keywords would be those that are highly competitive, that is, lots of people are typing them into Google and lots of websites are trying to optimize for them. Where long-tail keywords are those which are not searched on very often at Google, but which when added together can create a nice flow of website visitors.

Many people mistakenly believe that long-tail and short-tail keywords are named that way due to the number of words they contain. They assume that a phrase that contains only two or three words must be a short-tail keyword phrase and one that contains four or five words must be a long-tail phrase.

While this is often the case, it doesn’t have to be. For instance, you could put any two words together and make up your own keyword phrase. Let’s say “banana pickle.” Even though it’s only two words, it would still be considered a long-tail phrase as it’s dependent upon how many people search for it. (I didn’t do any keyword research, but I have a feeling that banana pickle isn’t being typed into Google very often!)

So in terms of a B2B website, a short-tail keyword phrase would perhaps be a general service that you offer, say “content writing.” And a long-tail keyword phrase might be something much more specific, say, “B2B website content writing.” These are just off the top of my head, of course. You’d want to use keyword research tools to know for sure which phrases get lots of searches and which don’t.

It might be that “B2B website content writing” isn’t long-tail at all, but more of what I call a “keyword gem.” Those are phrases that do get a good amount of searches, but aren’t quite as competitive as short-tail keywords. Keyword gems are actually the ones you want to focus most of your efforts on. (See my keyword research articles for more information on researching and choosing keywords.)

A lot of people focus on developing articles (or blog posts) for a site because this type of content naturally drives long-tail searches. That is, the words that you naturally use within your content will often be phrases that people happen to be searching on at Google. Because it’s more difficult, many people, unfortunately, neglect to optimize the top level pages of their website for the keyword gem phrases which are often the keywords people use when they’re in the decision-making phase of the buying cycle.

DH: So why are keyword gems important to site architecture?

JW: This is a good question. Since search engines give extra weight to pages that are easy to find and have lots of links within your site, you have a better chance of ranking them for the more sought after phrases.

On the other hand, blog posts and articles are rarely linked to from every page of your site. They often have just one link and that can be short-lived when newer blog posts get published. So unless lots of other sites link any specific blog post, it is likely to only be found for the less searched upon, long-tail phrases.

The cool thing is that you, as the site owner, get to tell search engines (and people) which pages of your site are the most important (so they get the most weight) by how and where you put them within your site architecture.

For instance, most B2B companies would like to have people coming to their site from Google who are looking for their specific products or services. So the idea is to make sure you have a products or services page that is linked to from your main navigation menu prominently featured on every page. That top-level products/services page would then describe your main categories of products/services with a short summary of each of them, and link to the deeper pages that provide more information.

So you basically have a variety of levels to your site architecture:

1. The first level is your home page, which typically has the most link popularity of all pages, which means it can be optimized (and ideally rank) for the most competitive phrases.
2. The second level is the pages linked to from your main menu, such as your top-level products/services page. This level within your site architecture is your best bet to optimize for fairly competitive keyword gems.
3. The third level is the individual product or service pages themselves. They should be optimized for the very specific product or service name itself. Depending on what you sell and how specialized it is, these may be somewhat competitive, or maybe not.
4. The fourth level of your site architecture would be your added-value content such as blog posts, articles, white papers, videos, etc. These help establish your credibility and expertise within your industry, and bring in those visitors using long-tail keywords at Google.

When I work with clients who are developing new sites, I help them determine their main categories or services and base these pages on keyword research, that is, what phrases people are using to find what they offer. These pages then become part of the main navigation.

DH: What are some mistakes you see people making when it comes to their site architecture or with SEO in general?

JW: A biggie — assuming that your competitors know what they’re doing, and copying them! People will look at their competitors’ keyword tags to see which keywords are being used. Nine times out of ten your competitors have no clue what they’re doing, so this isn’t a good way to find the best keywords.

The other huge mistake is that people get hung up on rankings rather than the website traffic they’re getting. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as where you actually rank in Google anymore because everyone sees a different set of results for any keyword phrase they type into the search box.

The search results you see can depend upon a variety of factors such as:

• Your location
• If you’re logged in or out of your Google account
• What people in your social media networks have recommended
• What you’ve previously searched for

Therefore, rather than trying to figure out where you might rank in Google for the keyword phrases you’ve optimized for, you should be looking at whether or not you’re receiving website visitors who have used those phrases at Google and then clicked through to your site. Web analytic programs such as Google Analytics provide you with all this information and more (and it’s free!).

Another mistake I see a lot is people optimizing for just one or two keyword phrases rather than hundreds or even thousands that relate to what they offer. People search in a variety of ways and there’s no sense getting hung up on a handful of phrases when they may not even be the ones that will drive leads and sales to your website.

I always get calls from marketing people who explain how they were getting thousands of unique visitors for all sorts of keyword phrases but their CEO was mad because the site wasn’t number one for a particular phrase! This is really short-sighted thinking. The best thing to do about this is to educate the CEO, which of course is easier said than done!

DH: It’s hard not to get hung up on rankings because as you say, top placement in Google does get you more traffic. What advice do you have for people on making their sites better so that they do rank well for multiple keywords?

JW: The key to great SEO –- and to making your site the best it can be –- is to first focus on the basics:

• Make sure your site is designed to be crawled by spiders (don’t use certain JavaScript or Flash menus that are invisible to them).
• Give each page unique and keyword-rich Title and meta description tags.
• Be descriptive in your navigation and anchor text links –- instead of the non-descriptive “software,” think about what kind of software you’re actually selling, say “marketing automation software” and use that as the anchor text.
• Don’t put keywords or copy inside of graphics as spiders can’t read them.

Once the main portion of your site (where you provide information on your products or services) is optimized, then focus on the value-added extra things like articles and social media.

DH: Jill, during this entire interview, I kept thinking that SEOers need to think like marketers as much of what you say relates to marketing. I know that to be an effective marketer, I have had to think like an SEOer.

JW: Yep! Aside from the technical issues, SEO basically IS marketing. That’s why I say, if your website is good for people, then it’s good for search engines. Because ultimately, Google wants to deliver content that people find useful.

DH: Thanks, Jill for this terrific interview.

If your site has technical SEO issues that prevent it from ranking well in the search engines, or if you’re redesigning your website and don’t want to lose your existing search engine traffic, then Jill is the person to contact.

She’s been providing on-page SEO consulting since 1995 and currently offers a slew of SEO consulting and website audit services.Check out her site, High Rankings, for details –- and if you aren’t already a subscriber, be sure to sign up for her High Rankings Advisor newsletter. It’s one of the few newsletters that makes it to my Gmail Priority Inbox.

Bloggers (well-known and not so well-known) are prime influencers in your market. Although a blogger may not use your product or service, he or she may track influential trends, companies and events. Get on a blogger’s radar — and follow a few simple rules — and you can easily build a relationship and garner some favorable press.

So how do you win the ear of influential bloggers in your market? I put this question to Mary Sullivan of SHIFT Communications, a PR firm with offices in Boston, San Francisco and New York.

Sullivan is a senior account executive with the firm and the only PR person whose emails land in my Gmail Priority Inbox — which is saying a lot. I receive dozens of pitches each week, all of which end up in the “everything else” part of my inbox, which is basically the “delete without reading” section.

(Priority Inbox is Gmail’s relatively new tool that sorts your emails, separating the most important from the rest, based on your usage patterns. It’s what has motivated me to provide quality, targeted content — but that’s another post!)

According to Sullivan, your messages have to be targeted and genuine to get a blogger’s attention — as most of us are great BS detectors and can spot a “dash and blast” email a mile away. Sullivan recommends that you use whatever tools you have to customize each message to each individual blogger.

Yes, this means you actually have to get to know individual bloggers.

Because individual pitches take more time, Sullivan makes sure she’s cultivating the right bloggers. In deciding whom to pitch, she reads each blogger’s most recent posts and selects (or not) based on what she sees.

When she finds a blogger she wants to engage, her account team follows the blogger’s posts and looks for opportunities to comment and add value. Over time, she and the blogger develop a mutually beneficial relationship: She adds value to the blog by engaging in conversation, providing information, and even (indirectly) generating blog topic ideas. In return, the blogger learns more about the products or services Sullivan promotes and may choose to write about them.

Sullivan prefers Twitter, blogs and LinkedIn as relationship building tools for her B2B clients over Facebook.

What methods have you tried to win the attention of bloggers? What’s worked and what hasn’t? Leave your comment below.

Full disclosure: Neither Mary Sullivan or SHIFT Communications asked me to write this article nor was I paid to do so. Eloqua is SHIFT’s client. I have written and Tweeted about Eloqua’s content in the past because I think they produce content that’s relevant and helpful to marketers. (Especially loved their Wikipedia Grande Guide.)

I first came across San Jose Plumbing when I was part of a Twitter Follow Friday. I tweeted about their social media approach, they featured my tweet on their Facebook page, and soon after Carol Stephen, the voice behind San Jose Plumbing, and I connected by phone.

San Jose Plumbing got on my radar because of the content being posted: lots of relevant how-to stuff.

Owner and plumber Robie Dobkins started the business in 2007, focusing on commercial properties and re-piping services. Like many small business owners, Dobkins soon realized he would rather focus on his trade than tweets. As his business grew, he hired Carol Stephen of Your Social Media Works to manage his company’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and to develop a social media marketing strategy.

What I like about Stephen’s approach is that she’s emphasized research over content creation. She searches the web for interesting links and adds a San Jose Plumbing twist — keeping the content fresh and interesting.

For example, I love this Facebook post, with an accompanying video, about how to change a shower head. (Video posted below.)

Thanks to Stephen’s efforts, San Jose Plumbing’s Facebook page and Twitter account (@sanjoseplumbing) are a watering hole for contractors, businesses and clients. It’s a source of information on plumbing, household maintenance and repair, and company news. Throughout, Stephen’s sense of humor keeps it light and fun.

Their unique approach has won them many Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers, and they were especially excited when renovation and repair expert Bob Vila (@BobVila) started following them on Twitter.

San Jose Plumbing’s Facebook post caught my attention because I need a new shower head and couldn’t figure out how to remove the old one. Secret tip: use a towel!

This is the second in a series of occasional posts about small business owners in my community who embody the idea of being a “Linchpin” as defined by Seth Godin in his book, Linchpin.

I’m fortunate enough to live near the Atlantic coast, which means one thing: fresh fish from Gloucester. I’m even more fortunate that I can purchase my fish from a fishmonger. (Ok, yes! I love it that I can use the word “fishmonger” in a blog post. )

Family-owned and operated by the brother and sister team of Jennifer Donahue and Mark Donahue, Donahue’s Fish Market was started by Jennifer and Mark’s father in 1970 when he began selling seafood from the back of a truck.

What I love about Jennifer and Mark — and their employees — is that they take the time to talk to you. In the years I’ve been purchasing my fish from them, I’ve learned the differences between wild and farm-raised salmon, how much fish to serve per person, how to cook fish and the government regulations regarding commercial fishing.

Technology replaces local knowledge
Just a few weeks ago, Mark spent about 15 minutes explaining to me how he now buys fish. In the old days, a fishmonger relied on his knowledge of the environment, weather, the local fishing industry and the individual fishermen when it came to buying fish. Mark said, for example, that you knew when the boats were going out and that if a boat were out for too long the fish might not be as fresh.

Now, however, technology has replaced the “old ways.” To purchase fish, Mark and others “bid” on lots of fish via an online lottery — which means he drives to Gloucester with a laptop. He has no idea who caught the fish or what the fish look like. He also has no idea who he’s bidding against — but the bidding does include the “big boy” supermarkets, which drives up the cost of fish.

And, because you can now buy your fish at a supermarket, people don’t want the inconvenience of making a separate stop at an establishment like Donahue’s. They also don’t know the difference between fresh fish and supermarket fish. (The difference is that supermarket fish is *nasty.*)

Mark said that he sometimes pays more for fish than what he can charge in his shop. He keeps the price as low as he can; to offset the loss, he and Jennifer offer other items. In addition to fish, you can purchase from a limited selection of meats and veges, boxed pasta and rice, coleslaw and other prepared items, and take-out food, such as fish and chips and fish platters.

Donahue’s makes a mean coleslaw
Yes, I pay more for my fish at Donahue’s and yes, I do have to make a separate stop to get it. However, the benefits outweigh these “inconveniences.” One, I get the freshest fish available and two, I’m treated to excellent customer service, which in this day of rudeness run rampant, is worth every penny.

Because they offer other items I’m able to run in on my “rushed” days when I’ve forgotten to take something out of the freezer and buy the components for a complete meal — without having to stand in the long lines at the grocery store.

And, I get the best coleslaw on the planet. I’m serious. I love coleslaw and Donahue’s make the best stuff I’ve ever eaten. I’m addicted to it. When I told Jennifer that one day, she laughed and said, “You’re not the only one.”

Technology has changed how all of us do business — and it’s changed our business relationships. However, what hasn’t gone out of style is old-fashioned customer service and values such as integrity and offering the best of yourself.

Jennifer and Mark are Linchpins because their “art” is providing these things. Be sure and “Like” them on Facebook.

As a follow up to my post about Cap’n Crunch and its Facebook campaign, Quaker Oats / Pepsico brand manager Barbara Liss gave me the story of how she and her team had to respond to the escalating rumor that Quaker Oats was discontinuing Cap’n Crunch.

Her team’s response, and how the company generated over 560 media placements to combat the rumor, makes for an exciting and informative story.

“I was flying home from South by Southwest a couple of weeks ago and my phone literally lit up with messages,” reports Barbara. “Rumors had surfaced that Cap’n Crunch might be headed for retirement and consumers, media and even our employees immediately contacted the company to find out if the rumors were true. We knew we had to let people know ASAP that Cap’n Crunch was here to stay.”

Social media gives companies lots of benefits: you can “listen” to your market; you get instant feedback; you can respond to people’s complaints (or praise) in real time; you can engage one-to-one.

Social media also had a dark side. One rumor — whether based in fact or not — can set off a firestorm that can knock your company flat on its butt — if you’re not prepared.

Liss and her team were prepared, but not for an Internet rumor of their cherished brand being discontinued. In planning for a few months, Quaker Oats had been developing a Facebook / Twitter campaign for Cap’n Crunch.

The rumor, however, made it imperative that the team get the social media assets live — in less than 24 hours — as well as combating the rumor via the media.

“We had a lot of emails flying back forth between us and our agency, Vayner Media” says Liss. “They worked with us and got everything up and running within the shortened timeframe.”

What can you learn from Quaker’s experience?

1. Have a plan in place — even if you’re not sure you want to do social media

The key to Quaker’s success is that they had done all the back-end work in the months leading up to the rumor. Liss said she and her team realized they didn’t have the bandwidth to run a full social media campaign that a brand like Cap’n Crunch needed — “We really didn’t want to do it half-heartedly,” she says — so they put the campaign out for bid. They chose Vayner Media due to the agency’s solid track record in building online communities.

From there, the agency and the Quaker team created the brand “back story,” with the Cap’n returning from years at sea and having to learn to live in a world now consumed by Twitter, Facebook, smartphones and texting lingo.

2. Have a really close relationship with your agency.

If you’re going to outsource your social media, it pays to work with an agency you trust. Liss says that she and her team are in constant communication with the team at Vayner. “We email back and forth all day long,” she says. The Vayner team knows the brand parameters and knows what it can and cannot post to Twitter and Facebook. “For example,” says Liss, “we have to be really careful about what is said regarding nutrition due to federal guidelines.”

If the Vayner team has any question about what can be said, team members email Liss.

3. Leverage the combined power of traditional media, social media.

In addition to its social media campaign, Quaker Oats was able to pull multiple levers to address the rumor, leveraging social media, traditional media, consumer relations and even employees to help get the word out that the Cap’n was alive and well. The company generated over 560 media placements for 160+ million media impressions — for free.

Today, the Vayner team makes every effort to respond to Cap’n Crunch fans on Twitter and Facebook one-on-one. “We knew people were passionate about the cereal,” says Liss, “but this whole experience made us see just how passionate they are.” In fact, the brand now has over 33,000 Facebook fans, with people telling Quaker to bring back the retro packaging and to issue coupons.

As a Cap’n Crunch fan myself, what I like best are the posts from people who say they’re about to eat — or have eaten — a bowl of the cereal. It just shows that when you have this type of passion from brand loyalists, you really need to take care of them by responding to them and making them feel — dare I say it? — loved.

Dry cleaning as a service is a commodity. One dry cleaner is usually the same as any other. You take your clothes in and pick them up cleaned, pressed and wrapped in plastic a week later.

In my town you can find numerous dry cleaning businesses. Some are family owned, a couple of others are corporate chains.

Since I’m pretty busy running a small business and being a mom, I try to keep things efficient. I plan out my errands and group like-minded tasks together. So it makes sense to pick a dry cleaner in my town — saves gas, saves time.

Except I don’t use a dry cleaner located just minutes from my home. No, I do business with Rick, whose dry cleaning business is located 20 minutes away in Massachusetts.

This is because Rick has made taking care of his customers’ clothes a high art. And, as Seth Godin describes in his book, Linchpin, he’s made himself indispensable, to me and hundreds of people like me. In short, he’s a wonderful example of a Linchpin.

Don’t let appearances deceive you

The first thing you must know, when you walk into Rick’s establishment, is that it is *filled* with clothes and similar items. (That’s how busy he is.) You walk in the door and you get maybe 24 inches of space between the door and the counter.

You can’t even see the back of his establishment. Too many clothes in the way.

The counter is usually piled high with clothes people have dropped off.

You also see dozens of police uniforms hanging from hooks — all pressed to exact military standards.

But even better, you see money hanging from metal clips. I’m not joking. If Rick finds cash in your pockets, he’ll hang it on a clip with your clothing tag so that it can dry out. Then he returns it to you when you pick up your clothes.

One of his customers took a picture of the money, framed it and titled it, “Laundering money.” (ha!) Rick hung it above the counter.

Rick remembers people’s name and asks them when they want to pick up their clothes (as opposed to telling you when they’ll be ready). He also tells you when he’s going to be closed or going on vacation.

What I love best about him is that he’s *smart.* Last year I provided a proposal to a company that sells items to dry cleaners like Rick and started hitting him up for insider information. In just a few conversations I learned more about the dry cleaning industry and its challenges than I would have reading trade journals.

Rick knew to the penny how much his attached laundromat cost him in terms of upkeep and water usage, what it would cost to convert over to energy efficient machines, and why he still used machines that accepted quarters rather than those new credit card type machines (which I hate).

What Rick does is magical

It’s not the fact that he has clothes ready when promised or that he doesn’t lose articles of clothing. Any dry cleaner can do that.

• Rick doesn’t have to return people’s money. If you’re like me, you have no memory of the money you leave in your pockets.
• He doesn’t have to ask people when it’s convenient to have their clothes ready. We’ve all been trained to have service people tell us what’s convenient for them.
• Heck, he doesn’t even have to remember people’s names. How many service people do you do business with that have no clue what your name is?

No, he doesn’t have to do any of this. But he does. And in the process, he’s turned his commodity business into an art, which is why I drive 20 minutes out of my way to do business with him.

Do you have an example of any business that’s indispensable to you? Is it because of one specific person and how he/she treats you? If so, please share it.

How do you generate awareness for your company when your industry is defined by two Goliaths — namely SAP and Oracle? That’s the question that confronted Infor, a company that develops and sells ERP and other software solutions designed specifically for mid-market companies.

With over 70,000 customers, Infor has a strong mid-market presence — with very low name recognition. (In fact, I had not heard of Infor until I first saw their ad in the Wall Street Journal.)

Although SAP and Oracle have been moving into the mid-market with their own offerings, the market has been very poorly served. Designed for the biggest companies, “Big ERP” — as Infor calls it — was retrofitted for the mid-market, and in the process, has created a great deal of frustration.

“According to market research by analysts such as Forrester, people know of Oracle and SAP, and then you drop way down and a bunch of companies get mentioned, including ours,” says Dave Alampi, Infor’s VP of Marketing Strategy and Services.

“We wanted to move the needle on unaided awareness and preference and wanted people to think ‘Infor’ when they considered a business software solution. We wanted to take the big guys to task and create a campaign that would touch a nerve and connect what people were thinking about the market.”

Here’s how Infor set out to achieve these objectives.

Step #1: Develop a message and test it.

Infor’s Cambridge, Massachusetts agency PJA Marketing + Advertising, developed the campaign, which features the “Big ERP” characters who represent the frustrations mid-market companies have with regard to Big ERP software.

“We gave these characters personality,” says Mike O’Toole, President of PJA. “Our creative staff gave them a fun voice — and this voice worked naturally with the social media elements of the campaign. Infor began testing the “Big ERP” concept message to determine if it resonated with customers and prospects — which it did, in virtually every geography tested.”

Step #2: Get C-suite buy-in.

When asked if they had push back with regard to using social media and the Big ERP characters for the campaign, Alampi and O’Toole both said the top brass at Infor believed the campaign was the right thing to do.

One lesson marketers can learn is that it pays to have marketing strategy that’s based on business objectives and real world research — which is especially helpful when you have a new CMO come in when you’re in the middle of creating the campaign.

“We reviewed our goals with Robert Humphrey, our new CMO,” reports Alampi, “as well as the thinking behind the campaign, the details and media strategy, and our research and test results. He became a strong advocate very quickly.”

Adds O’Toole, “Infor isn’t opposed to social media nor do they believe in doing it just because ‘everybody’ else is. To back up our recommendation for social media integration, we used data from IDG Connect which showed that close to 80% of decision makers in the software adoption process use information from social media channels. We were able to prove that prospects and customers in Infor’s industry use social media to make purchasing decisions.”

Step #3: Create external and internal campaign components.

The campaign, which began running in November 2009, features print ads in business publications, a “DownWithBigERP” microsite, YouTube videos, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

In addition, Infor ran an internal contest for employees on who could develop the best video or submit the funniest photos. To generate excitement, the company created full-sized cut-outs of the Big ERP characters, mouse pads, etc.

“We had lots of employee engagement,” says Alampi, “and over 40 submissions, including three videos, from individuals and groups around the world. Our employees really understand the frustration in the market and are very excited about this campaign.”

Once the campaign went live, Infor and PJA began engaging market influencers by following editors and analysts who write about ERP. “We commented on their Tweets and blog posts and after awhile, they started commenting back. We have over 300 followers now for our Big ERP Twitter feed — and while that sounds like a small number, these are highly influential people,” says O’Toole.

Step #4: Measure results.

Because the goal of the campaign was to raise brand awareness, Infor will be looking at its market awareness every six months and retesting to see how far they’ve moved the needle. The team is also looking at the impact on its sales pipeline and the number of hand raises due to the campaign microsite and traffic to the Infor site plus the 29 country sites.

And, the company will be tracking RFPs and RFIs to see if these numbers increase as well as the impact of social media on the broader conversation. The team is using Radian6 to look at naturally occurring conversation around ERP and the mid-market within the blogosphere, list serves, and social networks.

“We want to know,” says O’Toole, “how much of this conversation includes Infor and how we can increase natural mentions within conversations.”

When asked what other large companies like Infor can learn from the campaign, Alampi said, “You have to follow through. Our CEO, Jim Schaper, wanted to be bold and make a bold statement. As a marketer, you hear this often but once the C-suite sees what ‘bold’ looks like, ideas get watered down or campaigns canceled altogether.”

“Schaper wanted a bold campaign with a sense of humor,” continues Alampi, “and this gave PJA the freedom to develop ‘Big ERP.’ It’s different, it’s getting people’s attention, and people are responding to it. The campaign, which has yet to be launched in Europe and Asia Pacific, is already paying off. In fact, we’ve even received a couple of leads via Twitter, which was completely unexpected!”

When Grasshopper became a Mashable Open Web Awards finalist in the Online Voting Round One for their Chocolate Grasshopper social media campaign (see Marcom Writer posts about the campaign here and here), the team began brainstorming ways to engage people and get them to vote for Grasshopper.

“The Mashable Awards voting is very clever,” says Jonathan Kay (@GrasshopperBuzz), Ambassador of Buzz at Grasshopper, “because you can vote once per 24 hours versus one vote, one person. When you vote, a Tweet is sent out. So the question for us was, ‘How do we engage people and get them to vote?’”

The most obvious step included monitoring Tweets — and ensuring they could personally respond to each person who voted for the Grasshopper campaign.

“We began responding to people on Twitter,” said Jonathan, “and here is the wonderful thing about social media. A family-owned ice-cream store, Shorty’s Ice Cream, in Kingston, MA voted for us. They don’t have a huge following on Twitter (@ShortysIceCream), but the fact that they are on Twitter is awesome.

“I personally responded to the owner, Sheila Libby, via Twitter and thanked her for her vote. I later learned that Sheila is a second cousin to one of our IT people. She was very happy that we responded to her tweet and now she knows who I am — hence, a new relationship.”

According to Jonathan, the company uses social media tools like Twitter to listen and respond to people. (One look at Jonathan’s timeline and you’ll see he carries on conversations with people versus posting product pitches).

Using social media to engage customers

As a former sales guy, Jonathan figured he should track the people he met and talked with on Twitter to see if they signed up for the company’s virtual phone system. His boss, however, disagreed with this tactic.

“David [Hauser, the CEO] said, ‘It doesn’t matter whether they signed up due to Twitter or other social media — because they *are* signing up. What we’re doing is engaging people one-on-one and over the years we’ll build a loyal fan base — which will result in sales.’”

This approach to engaging people — both prospects and customers — is the cornerstone of Grasshopper’s goal of becoming the global brand for entrepreneurship.

“When people think of entrepreneurs,” says Jonathan, “we want them to think of Grasshopper.”

Grasshopper = Entrepreneurial thinking

To meet this goal, the company is committed to helping entrepreneurs. Actions include starting The Grasslands Blog, which according to Jonathan, has been a success.

Instead of being written by one person in marketing (i.e. Jonathan), the blog has multiple authors and includes inspirational posts from the CEO to how-to tips, such as how to dial a vanity number on your BlackBerry.

The blog also includes a fabulous list of the top 10 podcasts for entrepreneurs. Writes Jonathan on the blog:

. . . a trend I’ve recognized lately is that podcasts are slowly becoming the most popular and convenient source of information. Unlike blogs, you can take them anywhere and listen to them anytime. So, being the insanely curious person I am (and going back to my opening statement), can you guess what I did? I Googled “Top Entrepreneur Podcasts.

After finding only one site which reviews podcasts for entrepreneurs, Jonathan put together a list of the top 10 podcasts for entrepreneurs — again cementing the company’s commitment to being a resource for entrepreneurs. The post was retweeted dozens of times and is now one of the top results for the search phrase.

“Tell us your story” campaign

The media find entrepreneurs interesting, says Jonathan, because entrepreneurs are different. To take advantage of this, Grasshopper has started a new “Tell Us Your Story” forum where Grasshopper customers can tell their stories. The company then tries to get press for its customers.

“This campaign is a win-win,” says Jonathan. “Our customers win with increased exposure. We win because we get to know our customers on a very detailed level. We’re learning how our customers develop new products and services, how they think, and the challenges they face as entrepreneurs.”

Grasshopper builds on these relationships by sponsoring dinners whenever team members travel. For example, David, the CEO, recently had dinner with 25 Grasshopper customers in Kansas City.

“How many people can say they had dinner with the CEO of the company they do business with?” asks Jonathan. “Not many. This type of engagement is really important to David — he definitely lives what he preaches.”

Company Facts

Founded: 2003 — Started out as GotVMail Communications after identifying the need for an easy-to-use virtual phone system for entrepreneurs that wouldn’t break the bank.

Brand: Changed name to Grasshopper in May 2009

Number of employees: 45

Physical location: Needham, MA

Product: Virtual phone system designed for entrepreneurs

In a recent teleclass, Alan Weiss, author of the book, Million Dollar Consulting, and the Contrarian Consulting blog, gave ten tips on how to weather this recession.

One of those tips was to keep a positive mental attitude by looking for the positive in all of the negative news.

For example, although the media makes it seem like US business is going to hell – bankruptcies, layoffs, financial meltdown, and GE’s stock price down to 2! – Alan said to himself (I’m paraphrasing), “There’s no way GE is going bankrupt. Their financial business is having problems but the company makes refrigerators, washing machines, etc. They’re stable.”

So he bought GE stock and at the time of the teleclass, it was up 10 points.

GlobalLogic, Inc., an outsourced product development firm based in Vienna, Virginia, is another company that is growing in this tough economy by taking advantage of the fact that companies need to develop software – fast – but also need to reduce development costs.

What follows is an interview with John Hitchcock, the company’s VP of Global Marketing, on why the company is doing so well.

Dianna Huff: John, explain what your company does and how it got started.

John Hitchcock: GlobalLogic works with companies that develop products that they sell to other companies.
The company is in a market segment that didn’t exist nine years ago because clients believed that our service offering — software development — wasn’t something that they would consider outsourcing.

To outsource software development or take on a partnership simply wasn’t conceivable. Thanks to changes in our economy, that concept has completely changed.

GlobalLogic is now a 3,000-person company with $100 million in revenue. (We’re venture backed by VCs Sequoia, NEA, and New Atlantic.) When I joined the company two years ago, we were a $27 million dollar company — so you can see the tremendous growth. We’ve been profitable 25 straight quarters.

We work with three types of companies:

• Independent software vendors (i.e Oracle, Microsoft plus small early stage companies)
• Technology product companies such as MedTronics
• Software enabled businesses (which is our own internal term) that do business in the digital world and have Internet-based products or whose businesses rely solely on the Internet.

The Hearst Corporation and Zappos, both of whom are our clients, are two examples.

DH: Ok, got it. But why are these companies now using your services?

JH: In a nutshell: everything changes, including how companies do business.

In the past, companies never outsourced the design, development or support of software products. US and European companies are hungry for talented engineers — and for the last few years they couldn’t hire them fast enough. Before the recession, the cost of hiring engineers wasn’t an issue — finding them was problem. It could take a company 6 – 9 months to find and hire the right team of engineers.

Now, of course, cost is a real issue.

The second issue is time to market; the third issue is quality. Previously it was very hard to convince companies that they could achieve the same quality using outsourced talent.

The quality issue was critical — these are software-based products clients are selling to their clients. We had to convince clients that they would not see a drop-off in quality.

Early on, our marketing was missionary-based because the company had to convince people that outsourcing software development was doable. We had to prove that using an outsourced team would work as well as prove the cost savings, the quality, and the faster time to market.

DH: What can marketers learn from you?

JH: Pay attention to the micro and macro challenges.

A year ago, the major technology analysts were not on our radar screen because our clients were small and mid-size business (SMBs). These companies don’t have relationships with analysts.

Due to the economy, this has all changed. SMBs are hurting and cutting back on spending. Big companies, however, are spending — and they work with analysts. As these companies broaden their client portfolios, they look to analysts for advice on vendors.

Hence, a significant portion of our marketing budget now goes to working with analysts. We attend their conferences and make sure they have enough information in order to get covered in their reports.

This is a huge shift for us.

At the micro level, we’ve also changed our selling position. For example, two years ago, we didn’t highlight the cost savings of using our services – the savings was implied but not marketed.

Now we focus on how companies can reduce operating expenses by 25% plus raise revenue because they can get product out faster with more features.

DH: Are you currently hiring?

JH: Yes, we are! Right now in the conference room next to me are 10 new hires (all US employees).

DH: Thanks, John, for this terrific interview. And, thank you to Vojtech Horna, of Atomic PR in San Francisco, for setting up this interview.