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The “Bad” – being a lazy marketer who doesn’t focus on the details of execution and doesn’t regularly  test/tweak  to improve effectiveness and ROI.       

I just
re-read this great report by MarketingSherpa and thought I’d share the list of
“bad marketing” as a public service.  The full 10-page report is available for free (note the short reg form).  I’ve listed their ten mistakes below and added my commentary …

1. Calling a
   monthly email newsletter a “nurturing program.” Leads are so valuable that you should score the newest/best ones and contact
   them personally versus just sending them a generic one-size-fits-all
   newsletter.
2. Phoning
   leads to qualify them … days later. Leads go cold so fast that you need to call
   them the same day, and even within an hour if possible which is when your
   product is on their mind. If your
   company has enough lead volume you’ll need to hire a dedicated phone rep but
   the ROI will be worth it.
3. Big booths
   at the big national shows. The bottom
   line is that the ROI is terrible. At my
   last company I tracked big show leads for years and can honestly say I never
   saw one of them convert into revenue. You are much better off sponsoring a dinner off-premises or conducting a
   regional series of breakfast briefings with key customers/prospects.
4. Using a
   free trial or free demo as your mainstay offer. You need to have other offers for people who are further up the funnel
   and not ready for a free trial. Though
   boring, I’ve found issue-focused whitepapers and guided presentations get great
   conversions.
5. We, us, our. If your collateral or web copy uses these
   words then you are talking too much about yourself and not enough about the
   customer. I’ve seen this when a marketer
   takes the easy way out and relies too heavily on the product manager for
   content.
6. Art-Director-Itis
   (stock photos, hard to read type). Rather
   than boring stock photos, why not use some decent pictures of your own lab,
   your own people and your own customers. Take
   some yourself for cheap or hire a pro, but either way your materials and your brand
   will be more authentic. And, there is no
   excuse for having small, unreadable fonts, but it happens all the time when
   agencies get caught up in trying to be stylish (e.g. I’ve seen lots of grey
   fonts lately). Don’t let them put form
   over function.
7. Not working
   referrals. Everyone is talking about
   word-of-mouth marketing these days but very few B2B companies are doing
   anything about it. Why not poll your
   user group for referrals? How about
   having customer service reps and CRMs ask for referrals if the situation is
   right?
8. Lack of
   investment in PR. Prospects trust trade
   journals and analysts way more than any ad or direct piece you can ever put out. Don’t spend too much time on press releases
   since they mean very little to customers. Instead focus on getting speaking
   slots at major shows, mentions in influential blogs, articles in trade pubs,
   product reviews in magazines and best of all mentions in analyst reports.
9. Blocking
   search engines from your best content. This is a no brainer.  You probably have tons of older whitepapers, technical
   docs and recorded webinars that are behind registration forms. Why? Take away the form and pump up your Google rankings. Moreover, isn’t it better to have satisfied
   prospects who got what they were looking for with minimal hassle? They just might become leads later!
10. Registration
    forms that appear daunting or too time-consuming. Do you really need all that
    info or can you get it later after you engage the prospect? Test a short form for 30 days and I’ll bet
    your abandon rate drops significantly. Wouldn’t you rather have more leads?

The "Bad" – developing and implementing marketing plans/programs with product-focused messaging and one-size-fits-all sales tools.

The
American Marketing Association just launched a great new resource focused on
driving higher sales and marketing effectiveness. The Marketing and Sales
Alignment (MSA) Forum is divided into three practice areas: demand generation, sales effectiveness and
customer messaging. I really like the
AMA’s structure since it represents three-legged stool of great B2B execution.  I’ve seen too many excellent marketing strategies collapse due to failure to
execute on one or more of these areas.

· Demand Generation – In my experience, this is a B2B marketer’s primary objective
(driving revenue) and is also the primary concern from sales reps, who always
want more leads and higher quality leads. Therefore, it is essential for marketers to partner with sales/sales
operations to jointly create a lead management system. And critical to that system is Sales
defining their EXACT criteria for targeting and their EXACT criteria for an A
lead vs. a B lead vs. an inquiry.

· Customer Messaging – Foundational to all great marketing and sales
programs is the right message.  I’ve seen too many marketers that develop
inward-focused, product-centric messages that talk about how great they are,
how well their stuff works, and why it’s better than the competition. Instead, they need to create messaging that
shows the customer how they can help them accomplish a goal, solve a problem or
meet a need.  Customer focused messaging is essential to power compelling
Sales meetings/proposals and compelling demand generation campaigns.

· Sales Effectiveness – Hitting revenue goals requires
that marketing properly equip the sales force to build customer solutions,
communicate value, and clearly differentiate from the competition.  As described above, standard product
brochures and presentations are a complete waste of time. Marketing has to develop tools that the
sales force will actually want to use! For starters, marketing must develop a library of presentations that
addresses each of the top pains customers have (i.e. helping them solve a
problem). In conjunction, there should
be a well-written business case for each pain, including a customizable section where the
sales rep can leverage an interactive TCO / ROI calculator to model the
customer’s unique situation. The icing
on the cake is proof-proof-proof in the form of customer case studies and video
testimonials.

These
three areas might not be as sexy as branding, advertising or viral marketing,
but they are where B2B marketers should spend the bulk of their time if they
want to impact the top and bottom line.

The "Bad" – thinking you can beat the competition with Sales and Marketing in separate silos.

I attended a great presentation yesterday by Mary Delaney, Chief Sales Officer at CareerBuilder.com.  The event was hosted by the Chicago chapter of the BMA
which is really good compared to some other trade groups. They get top
notch executive speakers and 200 – 300 attendees per meeting, with more
execs than vendors, but I digress. Mary’s topic was bridging the
Sales-Marketing gap. Its an issue that all marketers face, especially in
B2B companies where the sales force is the primary link to the customer, and it can lead to really bad marketing.

Mary
discussed how CareerBuilder.com’s model of strong sales-marketing
partnering was one of the primary reasons they were able to overtake
Monster.com and become the largest online employment site in less than
3 years. Mary advocates that all marketers create a Sales Advisory
Council that provides systematic and candid input on strategy and
tactics. CareerBuilder.com takes this council very seriously . . .
Account Execs are elected or "hired" to the council and have to be top
performers, making quota for two consecutive years. Moreover, they must
actively contribute or risk being "fired" from the council. Among the
keys to success, Mary listed listening and recognition as the most
important. The marketers really listen to Sales and take actions based
on their advice. Additionally, they go to great lengths to recognize
top contributors. For example, one particularly creative Sales manager
helped lead the development of their high successful ad campaign
featuring monkeys and was bonused for all commercials that finished in
USAToday’s Top 10. Another example involved flying the Mother &
Father of the council member to the national meeting and having them
participate in his/her award ceremony. Now that is recognition!

The
bottom-line is that to be a successful marketer you have to get both
the strategy and the tactics right. You can’t sit in your office and do
it alone. You must have a regular process to get real input from the
field, and you have to make it worthwhile for the Sales people or they
won’t do it.

In my next post I’ll outline some of the methods I’ve used that really worked.