September 26, 2008
John Gallant, Network World, Inc. – Is thin in?
Paul Gillin, Paul Gillin Communications – Why Social Networks Work
Elyse Tager, Elymedia, LLC – That's Mine! It's My Behavioral Targeting!
Dave Paradi, ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com – Best Practices for E-mailing Sales Presentations
Bill Golder, Miller Heiman – Chronicles of a Sales Leader: Dare to Differentiate
Aaron Kahlow, Online Marketing Summit and BusinessOnLine – Top 10 Challenges Interactive Marketers Face
Is thin in? More IT buyers considering the thin computing model
John Gallant, CEO, Network World, Inc.
Thin computing isn’t a new idea. Those of you with some institutional IT memory will recall the launch of Citrix’s WinFrame software and all the hoopla around the introduction of Oracle’s Network Computer in the 90s. (Interestingly, Oracle is getting back into the hardware business, as you can read about in this piece: Ellison pitches high-speed data warehouse server).
In the thin client model, the server handles all the processing and a stripped down piece of client hardware simply handles the presentation and end-user input. The idea became a cause célèbre in the previous decade, often championed by executives and companies whose primary goal was to undermine Microsoft’s desktop hegemony. Most of the thin client devices that were rolled out never caught on, although Citrix built up a healthy business around its software-based approach.
Today, thin client computing seems to be picking up steam again, at least based on my conversations with IT executives — a growing number of whom are deploying or exploring the model for their organizations. In a roundtable discussion with IT leaders at our IT Roadmap Dallas conference this month, half of the participants were moving ahead with thin computing initiatives. More specifically, these companies are exploring desktop virtualization, which enables end users to have a full desktop experience delivered from the server.
What’s prompting the interest?
- For some customers, desktop virtualization offers an escape from the PC refresh cycle, which is costly and tough to manage. These customers are looking to take advantage of the existing generation of machines in a new way. With budgets likely to get tighter in light of our current economic mess, you can expect more technology executives to explore this option.
- Desktop virtualization also offers advantages from a security and management perspective and can reduce the strain on staff that’s already stretched thin. Virtualization reduces the need to touch the client device to load software and patches, which bring their own management challenges.
- Desktop virtualization also fits in with current data center consolidation initiatives. Companies are trying to reduce the technology footprint in branch offices and have more control over the end user experience.
- The technology also aligns well with the explosion in mobility. Companies can deliver key applications and information to end users wherever they log in. For example, medical personnel working throughout a hospital can access information from a variety of locations and the IT shop doesn’t have to worry about controlling what’s on the different devices they might use.
Of course, desktop virtualization doesn’t come without challenges. Adoption could strain server resources and delivering all those desktop images can also pinch wide-area network resources. (Which is why Citrix complemented its server and desktop virtualization software through the acquisition of the NetScaler application acceleration technology.) But with cost containment, security and systems management pressures growing, you can expect more and more IT shops to explore building their own cloud computing environments. Savvy marketing pros will consider how that trend could advance their own product agendas — or undermine them.
JG
Why Social Networks Work
Paul Gillin, Social Media Consultant and Author of The New Influencers
Last fall, I shared a lunch table with a group of Twitter enthusiasts at a social media event. One of them said something that crystallized perfectly the reason that social networks have taken the world by storm.
My lunchtime companion was a career public relations professional who had grown up reading an assortment of daily newspapers. They were his principal news source. Since adopting Twitter, however, he had stopped reading newspapers almost entirely. The service they had historically provided — directing him to the most important stories of the day — had shifted to his network of online friends. He now relied upon his contacts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sources to tell him what was interesting and what should matter.
Bolt From the Blue
This insight was a bolt from the blue for me because it summed up the reasons people are shifting so rapidly to friends networks and away from conventional media. Think of your own reading habits. Chances are you get several newsletters each day from various trusted sources. You also probably get the occasional e-mail from your friends pointing you to interesting stories on the Web. Which of these messages are you likely to open first? Which are you faster to click on? If you're like most people, the message from the friend is always going to get your most immediate attention.
We trust our friends because we know them and they know us. Whether we've shared a workplace, a living space or some other experience with them, we have given them insight into our interests and motivations that no institution can match. Professional editors are very good at assessing relevance, determining importance and creating hierarchies of information, but they don't know us as people. We'll never let them in like we let in our friends.
Life Feeds
Facebook pioneered a concept called the News Feed that has been widely adopted by other networks. When you log on to Facebook, you're treated to an immediate stream of information about other people in your network. You immediately know about changes in their lives, where they've gone on vacation and what project they're working on. You also know what they're reading, what conferences they're attending and what they think you should be reading and attending. By virtue of their familiarity with you, they have a higher priority in your life. Other services like FriendFeed have expanded this idea to a broad range of online services. Twitter adds immediacy and certain intimacy that the other services don't.
The "friending" feature of social networks is the single most important factor underlying their success. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for marketers. The challenge is to get behind the many walls that people have thrown up around themselves to screen out marketing messages. The opportunity is to find a way to connect with them at a level that grants us admission to their inner circle. As we know instinctively, that's a very good place to be.
Author Profile
Paul Gillin is a writer, speaker and content marketing consultant specializing in technology and new media. He has been a technology journalist for 25 years. His next book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, will be published in the fall of 2008.
That's Mine! It's My Behavioral Targeting!
Elyse Tager, Founder and Principal, Elymedia, LLC
As a mother of two I have seen my share of my children battling it out with shouts of “That’s mine! It’s my toy!” With varying degrees of physicality involved, depending on how strongly either child wants the toy, the end result is that someone is going to lose and not get to play with the toy they wanted. It seems the toy that everybody wants to get their hands on nowadays is “behavioral targeting.” With such combative titled headlines such as these – “ValueClick Sues Tacoda Over Behavioral Targeting Patents” and "AT&T Vs. Google on BT Battleground” – there must be a lot at stake for all this fighting to be going on.
In the first article, leading behavioral targeting ad networks, Tacoda is accused by ad network foe ValueClick that their two BT platform patents have been infringed upon by them.
The two patents in question are²:
- “Method and Apparatus for Determining Behavioral Profile of a Computer User (1998),” which involves creating psychographic profiles of Web users “by recording computer activity and viewing habits.”
- “Computer Program Apparatus for Determining Behavioral Profile of a Computer User (1999),” which also “deals with creating behavioral profiles of Web users.”
Obviously, the patents are significant in the BT space since ValueClick also had to file lawsuits against Blue Lithium and Revenue Science over the same two patents. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out with Tacoda since the other two ad networks settled, and who else will be served up next with infringement allegations by ValueClick.
All this litigious activity by ValueClick seems to reveal that they’re looking to dominate this increasingly crowded BT space. Since their first foray in the BT space in 2005 with their Precision Retargeting offer, ValueClick continues to build upon their BT capabilities, with the recent release of Precision BT, a new behavioral targeting suite for online advertisers. In the meantime, it seems like media buyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the dust to settle from all these lawsuits and for ad networks to figure out themselves.
“The business of brokering ads across clusters of Web sites has become one of the most popular — and overcrowded — niches on the Web. The result is a glut of networks competing with each other, confusing media buyers and guaranteeing that some sort of shakeout is inevitable.” ³
Amen.
In the other article, corporate giant, AT&T, accuses Google of being privacy pirates: "Advertising-network operators such as Google have evolved beyond merely tracking consumer web surfing activity on sites for which they have a direct ad-serving relationship," AT&T stated to Congress in response to an inquiry about behavioral targeting and privacy. "They now have the ability to observe a user's entire web browsing experience at a granular level, including all URLs visited, all searches, and actual page-views." ¹
As they try to position themselves as “privacy champions,” the line of logic that AT&T presents in their argument is offset by their own intent to use BT for themselves through invasive online advertisers like NebuAd. "The largely invisible practices of ad-networks raise even greater privacy concerns than do the behavioral advertising techniques that ISPs could employ, such as deep-packet-inspection." AT&T assures customers that if they were to deploy BT that they would do it the right way and “seek subscribers’ affirmative opt-in consent.” It seems like AT&T is the child not getting their way so they’re taking it to “mommy and daddy” (i.e., Congress) to try to get their way. As stated in the article, “No matter how much Google (which operates network-based targeting) has about a particular user, and ISP will always have more.” Will we ever know who’s the real wolf in sheep’s clothing?
It remains to be seen who will come out on top of the BT battles, but as the fight rages on we can only hope that the one who walks away with the “toy” will be kind enough to share later on.
¹ http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/online_examiner/?p=1801
² http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=87909&Nid=45708&p=461086
Author Profile
Elyse Tager is founder and principal of Elymedia, an online and traditional media agency that has worked with many of the world's most recognizable brands, from Microsoft to PowerBar. With 20 years of executive marketing experience in direct response and 10 years of Internet marketing experience, Elyse has gained a thorough understanding of both types of media and how they interact. This depth of experience and knowledge has benefited her clients as they strategize marketing objectives in both on- and offline worlds. Contact her at info@elymedia.com.
Best Practices for E-mailing Sales Presentations
Dave Paradi, ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com and author of The Visual Slide Revolution
Many times we are asked to e-mail a sales presentation either as a substitute for a live meeting in the early stages of the sales process or so the prospect can share it with others. Here are four best practices to make sure your presentation gives the prospect the best image of you and your products or services.
1. Save the presentation as a show file.
In PowerPoint, you have the option of saving the presentation as a PowerPoint Show (using the PPS extension instead of the normal PPT extension). The advantage of doing so before sending the file to a prospect is that a PPS file automatically opens in full-screen show mode. This means that the prospect immediately views the information instead of having to load the file and start the show themselves. It is better than how they receive most presentations, and makes you get noticed. It gets them—and anyone they forward it to—to view the key information quicker instead of wasting time loading and running your presentation.
2. Add navigation instructions.
Why should you add navigation instructions to the bottom of every slide? First, not everyone knows how to advance a set of slides using the keyboard to go both backwards and forwards when necessary. You want them to know how to get back to that previous slide if they need to. Second, if you use timed animation builds on the slide, you don't want them to advance through your planned animation inadvertently. You can have the navigation instructions appear only when the builds have finished. The navigation instructions can be as simple as "Press the right arrow to move to the next slide. Press the left arrow to go back one slide." Place the instructions in the same spot on every slide so the viewer knows where to be looking for them. You can include graphic arrows as well as text to make the instructions more clear.
3. Include hyperlinks to information on your Web site.
The sales presentation slides should only contain a limited amount of information or else they will be too overloaded to be understood. Direct the prospect to more information on your Web site for more details on certain products or services. On the relevant slide, include a hyperlink to the specific page on your site that contains the detailed information. For example, “to see the full product specs, click on this link to read the full list on our Web site.”
4. Include a call to action.
At the end of the presentation, make sure the last slide is a call to action slide where you detail what you want the prospect to do and how to do it. The "what to do" may be to call you to schedule an appointment, to visit your Web site to complete an assessment that will indicate specific benefits or to attend an event you are holding. The "how to do it" needs to be clear and give options if possible. You should always have your contact information listed, with options of phone or e-mail given as a minimum. If there is a spec sheet that they may want, give the option of downloading it from the Web or calling a customer service number to get a copy faxed or mailed.
Author Profile
Dave Paradi teaches professionals and executives from Fortune 500 corporations to non-profit agencies how to transform the overloaded text slides they currently use into persuasive visuals that sell ideas, products and services effectively to decision makers. He is the author of "The Visual Slide Revolution" and co-author of two "Guide to PowerPoint" books from Prentice Hall. His ideas have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail and BusinessWorld India. Learn more at www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.
Chronicles of a Sales Leader: Dare to Differentiate
Bill Golder, EVP of Sales, Miller Heiman and online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management
Let's face it. Despite what your marketing brochures say, there's very little difference between your products and services and those of your competitors. I applaud you if you've convinced your organization otherwise, but you should ask your customers and prospects to quickly rattle off the qualities that make you stand out from the others in your arena. You might be surprised by the uncomfortable silence that follows that question.
I realize this is a harsh generalization, and that there are those that are doing a fine job differentiating themselves. However, the point that differentiation is harder to come by these days cannot be argued.
First let's explore why we're in this pickle, and then I'll give you my two cents on what best-in-class companies are doing about it.
Hey, Who Stole My Elevator Pitch?
The rapid pace of globalization, sprinkled with a pinch of regulation and an extra punch of the Internet have come together to create the ultimate recipe for a level playing field across many industries and time zones. This has resulted in easier replication of product/service advantages while providing the buyer with greater access to information (without having to talk to anyone in your organization) than ever. The days of buyer beware are over. The sales process has experienced a hostile takeover by the buying process.
What The Best Are Doing…
When you remove the product and service advantages, the only element left is how your people interact with customers before, during and after a sale. In fact, we conducted a survey of about 100 CEOs in 2006 and asked them the primary reasons they selected suppliers. The number one answer, by a long shot, was the competence demonstrated by the sales or account executive. I get a bird's eye view of what some of the most successful companies in the world are doing to differentiate themselves with client interaction, and here are the three things I find to be most compelling:
- Investing in building business acumen, not features and benefits. Our annual research study, the largest in the world of sales effectiveness, found that high-performing organizations are spending more on sales-related training vs. product training. If you go one layer deeper into that story, organizations are getting a terrific impact by investing in processes that provide a repeatable framework for understanding the buying process. The most effective organizations are not just teaching their people how to manage an effective sales process, but also putting rigor to understanding the details behind client decision making. They are throwing the elevator pitches away for client-specific value propositions.
- Involving clients in strategic activity. Another clear factor that separates what we call "winning sales organizations" from all others is their discipline around inviting clients to the table when setting product and service strategies. It's one thing to have a business review and get feedback on how you can service your clients better, but that's not different. To dare to be different is to get your best clients behind the scenes and have them help shape your product development and overall product/service enhancement. This brings the organization closer to the customer and transforms your role from supplier to partner. It also helps your customer articulate the ways you are different from the others.
- Getting executive involvement. One thing I always see that says an organization is serious about staying ahead on the differentiation curve is evidence that the most senior executives are engaged with customers. I'm not talking about reacting to client satisfaction issues or sitting in on a couple of business reviews a year. Top-performing organizations have formal executive sponsorship programs in place. C-Suite execs in these organizations are involved in internal opportunity and account reviews. They can speak the language that their sales managers speak. They view accounts as strategic assets. Client centricity is in the culture because it is a strategic priority at the top, and it is seen by strategies focused on understanding customers.
Whether you've read this and think my advice is basic and your company is already there or I've caused you to think about this topic, I want to leave you with one challenge; a dare, if you will. On your next business reviews with your biggest clients, take a moment to ask them why they do business with you. I guarantee you will learn something that will take you one step closer to understanding how to differentiate yourself.
Author Profile
Bill Golder is a monthly online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management. As EVP of sales at Miller Heiman, Golder has a reputation for taking on tough assignments and successfully turning around difficult situations. He has extensive sales and operations experience, especially in leading business-to-business sales of professional services and multi-unit operations management. Available for keynote speaking opportunities, Bill can be reached at bgolder@millerheiman.com. In addition, Bill contributed to Miller Heiman’s recently published Sales Management Guide, which provides career transition advice to new and seasoned sales managers. To request your free copy call 877-678-0397 or order online.
Top 10 Challenges Interactive Marketers Face
Aaron Kahlow, founder and chair of the Online Marketing Summit and managing partner of BusinessOnLine
The top 10 challenges facing the interactive marketing community are very much the same as those facing the entire marketing community... in that almost every marketing professional must address the interactive/online marketing medium.
Having spent the last two years traveling the world for the Online Marketing Summit events (more the United States, but you get the point), educating marketers on the best practices of online marketing, I've had a chance to interact with thousands from all areas of marketing.
When they are asked about top challenges, many marketers say things like "social media" or "search engine optimization" or "integrating online and offline." But I think the challenges are much more fundamental to the individual and the organization.
Here's my list of the top challenges, and my recommendations for dealing with them.
No. 10: Time
"I have to get this e-newsletter out tomorrow; can we talk about our landing page strategy next week?"
As marketers, especially online marketers, we are all stretched way too thin. So, I put time at No. 10 because it's never really about a lack of time—it's about prioritizing time. Right? We can do whatever we want; it just depends on what we decide to do first.
As it applies to online marketing, we get so caught up in the day-to-day execution of existing campaigns that we never take the right amount of time each week, month, or year to say, "What can I do that will have the largest impact on my marketing goals?"
I'd argue taking the time to properly research what your customers do online and where they spend their time would be paramount, but rarely do we do our homework.
Recommendation: Familiarize yourself with "Web site usability" and start testing or learning from others who have already done so.
No. 9: Saying No (to Client, Agency, Boss)
"I just read about a blog that the Starbucks CEO does... we need to do that!"
This ties in with the issue of time. Saying no to the thousands of ideas that are out there is imperative, regardless of whether it's a request from your boss, client, or agency. Have the courage to ask for the research, the case studies, and the plan for execution first, before taking on activities that are hot or sound cool but, in the final analysis, have very low utility.
An example would be saying no to building a blog until you have mapped out the audience, the time it takes to maintain it, and what the desired outcome would be.
Recommendation: Write down your list of priorities for the year, and if the new idea does not help one of these, put it in the idea box for next year.
No. 8: Getting Involved
"Facebook is for kids. I don't really see why I'd want to join, plus who has the time for that?!"
One of my favorite conversations focuses on social media and social networking. Most marketing professionals over age 30 are skeptical about social networks like Facebook—the reason being that they've never taken the time to explore the medium. The psychological impediments inherent here cannot be explained away; people must experience the medium, only then can they judge.
Recommendation: Join Facebook. It's not going to be of huge utility at first, but put in some time and poke around; you'll then see some possibilities. To encourage you further, I'd be happy to be your first friend and connect you to hundreds of marketing leaders across the United States.
No. 7: Unifying Stakeholders
"IT doesn't think we need it, boss-man/woman is too busy for it, and the marketing department has all sorts of opinions."
Many people these days have opinions on what's best as it relates to online marketing. IT professionals feel they can create everything; your executives are not willing to spend time thinking about it because they are too busy; and your peers have certain opinions based on what they read and see. Your annual budget and strategy meetings seem to default to whoever has the loudest voice or the biggest ego.
Recommendation: Spend a day learning best-practices together as a team. Have an executive briefing (a consultant or adviser who will share what's happening in the marketplace and why companies are successful).
No. 6: Budgeting
"Got shot down again on getting budget for a new analytics tool; not going there again."
Most companies still have the same formula for allocation of marketing budget that they've had for years. In fact, I'd say the majority of marketing departments take a look at last year's budget and tweak it, taking some dollars here and placing some there. I bet if you were able to find your company's marketing budget from 20 years ago, you'd see the same layout.
Recommendation: Take out a blank sheet of paper, write down top 10 things your target customers do with their time on a daily basis and the top three places they will search for your offerings, and then start talking about where to spend your money.
No. 5: Evaluating Communication Channels
"If 92% of people use the Web to evaluate purchase options, why do we spend only 20% of our budget on our Web site?"
Most people don't realize that all of our marketing efforts flow through our Web site at one time or another. Whether it is a search campaign, which obviously starts the buying cycle by linking to the Web site, or whether it's a print ad that has the URL, no one today will pick up the phone and ask your sales people to explain the product or service; they will find that information on your Web site. So, to get that right is critical!
Recommendation: Build some real-world user personas and use cases observing how easy it is to find your product/services (as if you are that customer); or, better yet, have five random people go to your Web site and watch them (no guiding).
No. 4: Removing ROI
"What will be the new ROI?"
ROI is absolute, but if a company based all decisions on guaranteed ROI, that company would not have started in the first place. Much of marketing is testing, research, and learning how to effectively communicate with our customers. So our budget must reflect this, or our company will never see incrementally better results.
Recommendation: Fight for R&D in your budget so you will have the latitude to discover the one killer campaign or marketing idea.
No. 3: Willingness to Take Risk
"We never really did much for SEO, because there are no guarantees and we know nothing about it."
Today's technology is intertwined into marketing (CRM software, Web analytics and important elements like search engine optimization). As marketing executives, we tend not to be so comfortable with the technology side of the equation, so we shy away from what we don't know because it bodes a risk for us. So, we must go out there and talk to those who do know; otherwise, it is a massive opportunity lost. We must educate ourselves and get over the fear (as FDR said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself").
Recommendation: Find your most feared technology element and search for a consultant or education material to just educate you first; and only then decide what your next step will be.
No. 2: Education
"We really need help on how to proceed with next year's planning... We don't really know where to start."
This one ties nicely into No. 3 as we need to first seek the education before we make decisions. Online marketing is so new and constantly changing that if we don't take the time to educate ourselves (team, boss, and agency), we will be stuck with half-baked opinions vs. hard-and-true, fact-based best-practices with which to drive our efforts.
Recommendation: Find an educational event on the online marketing areas of greatest interest and treat your key stakeholders: Go to this event and learn from the experts.
No. 1: Understanding Human Behavior
"Why would anyone want to go to a Web site and read the user reviews or ratings on our product/service when they can just call us?"
It may seem strange, but human behavior is what drives all marketing. It's the understanding of how your customers behave that drives which communication channel (TV/radio/print/online) you chose to spend money in. It is the behavior of your customers that drives your messaging to resonate with them. And now, human behavior has changed forever. The preferred method of communicating is electronic (e.g., email); the preferred information source is online (e.g., RSS); the preferred pre-purchase research channel is Google.
So, we must go back to human behavior again—as in the 1950s with TV—and understand what it takes today to get the message out, loudly and clearly, forever embedded in the memory of our customers/clients.
Author Profile
Aaron Kahlow is founder and chair of the Online Marketing Summit (www.onlinemarketingsummit.com) and managing partner of BusinessOnLine (www.businessol.com).