October 31, 2012
Recalibrating Today’s Marketing Mix to include Social Media
The more I read about the adoption, influence and stats on social media the more I question how to best recalibrate ones marketing mix to compete in the B-to-B enterprise space.
As with anything in today’s online world you can read countless articles on any topic including the topic of social media. After reading many of these articles I feel that the social media train has not only left the station but it’s on a high speed trajectory to hyperspace and if your company hasn’t jumped on board you’re already yesterday’s news. But not so fast…..A few interesting articles that caught my attention included “99 New Social Media Stats for 2012” by Cara Pring and “3 Waves of Social Media and Why Social Activation is What Matters Today” by Blair Heavey.
Here are some stats from Cara Pring’s article …
- “43% of marketers have noticed an improvement in sales due to social campaigns”
- “91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social media campaigns and 79% are generating more quality leads”
So what are my key take-aways with these impressive stats? First I whole-heartedly agree that social media is a very important element to today’s marketing mix, that is if done right. Problem is more often than not organizations don’t intertwine social media components strategically into their overall go-to-market strategy. Typically they are random posts and tweets based on topics deemed important by the rock star bloggers and tweeters. (Don’t get me wrong, I love these guys especially since they’re so hard to find and to get commitment from, but there’s got to be some intersection!) That said if an organization truly want to reap the benefit s of a low cost inbound marketing channel such as social media, then proper thought and alignment needs to be planned for at each stage of the buying cycle – from creating awareness, to focusing on specific use-cases, to countering competitive FUD, all with mindful consideration of the psychological needs of buyers and influencers.
Next take-away; once you’ve increased your website traffic due to ongoing social activity you’ve got to keep the prospect engaged as they navigate through your website. That means you’ve still got to provide compelling ROI reports on your product/offerings, a library of customer case studies, in addition to well scripted and produced whiteboard recordings that provide visual renderings of your technical story and differentiation.
Now onto the bottom line; can you measure the ROI of your social media efforts? It’s pretty easy to measure number of times a blog was read, number of followers, entries re-tweeted , blogs reposted, videos viewed, but the most important metrics are effects of social media on web traffic, quality of leads, number of leads, length of sales cycle, and influence in the market and analyst community. Sorry to say most organizations are not equipped to identify, track and link these activities with each phase of the buying cycle. Sure there are many marketing automation platforms and some that are specifically targeted to measure social marketing, but from what I’ve seen few organizations have achieved the marketing processes, automated tools, and dashboard reporting , all needed to track the linkages and claim success that might lead to abandoning all other traditional outbound marketing. Perhaps one day but not yet.
October 17, 2012
The Power of The Patent
I have had the pleasure of working with market leading management technology for the past 5 years. Wait! Let me rephrase that, it’s actually the market leader. Forrester Research positioned Progress® Actional® as the only vendor in the leader category for SOA Management, citing its broad and deep functionality as a key strength. This was a great win for Actional, well deserved, and shows great trajectory after receiving the highest accolades in Forrester’s 2007 SOA Management Wave.
Actional has a true differentiator that puts it in a league of their own, and that differentiator is their patent. As a product marketer, I can’t begin to express how valuable a differentiator backed by a patent is. Competition is tough out there, and all too often messaging for each solution sounds like the next, each claiming the exact same features and benefits, to the point where there’s no black and white, it’s all diluted to a hue of gray. That’s where I’d like to scream from the rooftops that Actional really is DIFFERENT! Patent Track and Trace – Number US 7,330,889 enables organizations to ensure the success of every business transaction through automatic discovery and correlation, in real-time and with minimal overhead providing complete visibility and control over each transaction.
So what does that mean? Glad you asked; It’s about getting information while it’s happening rather than after the fact, and being able to act upon the information before it’s too late and when it really matters! For example, if you’re a doctor and you have a patient with a fatal drug reaction but the data showing this interaction shows up seconds after the patient is dead, it’s too late. You need the information in “actionable time” and the control to act on that information in a meaningful way.
Actional provides interceptors which are lightweight components deployed throughout systems so the interceptor is “in the circuit” traveling with the transaction. We drive our interceptors in between the application code and APIs thus enabling Actional to look at any transaction that passes through. This translates to NO custom coding. And as these transactions pass from one system to the next, we automatically stitch together the entire path – thus giving you end-to-end visibility. Actional shows you what’s happening and gives you the opportunity to react to a situation that is not being acted upon correctly and in due time. Translation – take an airline scenario where you’re flying to Milan and your luggage is on its way to Paris, with the Actional solution the airline baggage captain is alerted to the problem through policy alerts and he/she makes adjusts so that your baggage is automatically rerouted, and you are advised about it upfront, so that you don’t waste your time waiting for your luggage, but know it will be personally delivered to your final destination. End result; greater customer satisfaction, better for business and in many cases; lower passenger blood pressure.
So with Actional’s patented Byte Code IP, previously referred to Patent Track and Trace – Number US 7,330,889 , it’s clear the engineering team was leaps and strides ahead all the competition when architecting the management solution. Gallant efforts that has afforded a solid position as a true leader in our market space. To quote Will Cappalli, Top Gartner Analyst “The IP underlying Actional – one of the first offerings to deploy a dope-n-trace mechanism for profiling transactions – is heavily protected by a range of patents, which continues to circumscribe the efforts of some of its closer competition”*
In closing, if you’re looking for a great read detailing more of Actional’s architecture I highly suggest downloading “Actional Architecture – Core Operational Management”
* Gartner Research, “Magic Quadrant for Application Performance Monitoring”
October 1, 2012
On the Wings of Hope & Humanity – Delta & Habitat for Humanity
The time was 4:30 A.M when we (about 400 volunteers) left our hotel for the Atlanta airport. Upon arrival it was with great anticipation and excitement that we approached the gate for our flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. We rounded the corner and much to our surprise was our Delta plane adorned in the Habitat for Humanity logo – symbolizing a united partnership to build homes for low-income/no-income families around the world. What a great beginning to an unbelievable week. (More on that in another post) With an established partnership between Delta and Habitat for Humanity, Delta pays for the transportation of volunteers to their “build locations”. Just as important as their financial sponsorship is their level of service to volunteers. They gave us First Class service starting out with hot towels before our gourmet meal, fresh fruit and snacks, and after landing they dealt with customs as we were sent directly from the plane to the buses. Can I just say I LOVE Delta.
Strategic partnerships in business are typically core to their go-to-market plans, but I didn’t realize the extent to which many non-profit organizations also rely heavily on partnerships to meet corporate goals and optimize effectiveness within the organization. Thanks to Delta a greater percentage of funds donated by volunteers can go directly to the cost of construction material, tools, contractor support and general costs for design and building. What makes this story even more interesting is that Delta funds their financial support from their onboard recycling program!! So when you’re on your next Delta flight, be sure to recycle your cans, newspapers, and plastic with you flight attendants. You can be part of making a difference in communities and the environment worldwide.
Another example where “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.
Thanks for reading,
Julianna
September 16, 2012
Importance of Branding & The Cost of Missing Your Mark
The local mall has a variety of stores, from anchor stores to sports and jewelry, and everything in between, but for me there’s always been one store that raises a question in my mind about what they’re actually selling. As you walk along the outer perimeter of the store it’s very dark, similar to a cave and frequently in the widow display there’s some scarcely clothed youth that looks as though he or she is about to tear off what little cloths they have on. What could they actually be trying to sell in there? Oh wait a minute that’s Abercrombie & Fitch, but of course.
Well it looks like their marketing tactics, specifically branding, has fallen short of staying ahead of what the market is looking for. The pricey, edgy and supposedly hot apparel is being snubbed by teens. According to BusinessWeeks August article on Abercrombie & Fitch,71 U.S stores closed in its most recent fiscal with another 180 targeted to close through 2015.
Amazingly Abercrombie was originally a company that made safari and camping gear for Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway!! CEO Mike Jeffries, who has been with the company since 1992, strategically shifted the company into an expensive clothing store for teens who wanted to be hip, cool and maybe in the right outfit look like one of the buffed models sensually posed in the window. Seems no one at corporate had their pulse on their customer base within the last few years. They’ve become disenchanted with cool and sex appeal but more money conscious and astute to new options in the market.
Whether you’re in technology, apparel or even personal branding, it’s all about being in-synch with, communicating and understanding your target market, what their current needs are and how they connect with you. So as it turns out many of those stores will in fact be in the dark, the lights turned off and closed for business. I’ll be curious to see if and what new branding comes out of the corporate offices to win back the youth.
Thanks for reading,
Julianna Cammarano
September 12, 2012
Reaching For the Brass Ring
The vast array of business challenges and the software solutions to address those challenges, reminds me of the old adage “Reaching for the Brass Ring”…. Back in the day on the merry-go-round, as riders on wooden horses circled around the center where the organ played, rings were fed to one end of a wooded arm suspended above all riders. As each rider rounds the bend, with baited anticipation, they approach the bright shinny ring; Would the timing be exact? Would their horse be in the right position to grab the ring? At this point you might be wondering what’s the connection, or perhaps I just have an affinity towards merry-go-rounds? It’s not so much the merry-go-round but the thought of wanting to succeed with a business software/application deployment, the ultimate thrill of success, grabbing the ring. Everything lines up; timelines, user needs, and the return on investment, or just maybe far exceeding expectations!
I mean how often do you hear about organizations singing praises of glory over the success of deployment? Not too often, frequently you hear about software becoming shelf-ware or not meeting expected goals of the initial purchase. More often than not, I continue to hear about failures that stem from the lack of education or technical understanding on product features and business application, no ongoing best-practice guidance on deployment or perhaps misalignment on initial requirements of the business problem and technology solution… Organizations go through endless rounds of POCs (Proof of Concepts) and vendor analysis and after weeks, months, sometimes years finally make their vendor selection. There’s an overwhelming cheer on signed contracts and creating the initial project deployment plan. But then things start to break down.
Let’s face it; success with software deployment is akin to success with relationships. After the honeymoon period is over, it requires work, commitment, ongoing learning, communication between both parties and application of lessons learned. And so too is the importance of the relationship with your software vendor, being in-synch lock-step, not just how the product behaves today, but how it might behave tomorrow and ways to have an influence over it. If you sign on the dotted line, it should not only be a commitment of purchase and sale, it should also be an agreement of success based on some of the key tenants I mentioned above.
Progress Actional, providing business transaction management for today’s interconnected applications, recently introduced a Tech Center. The Actional Tech Center does a great job of addressing an ongoing commitment to its customers. The Tech Center, now in Beta, isn’t full of marketing fluff but contains material from the trenches, with contributions from Technical Support, Professional Service, Product Management and Engineering, with topics that range from Best Practices on Iterative Deployment with Actional, to Tips-N-Tricks on addressing Memory Errors, through Performance Tuning. Just a few of the first nuggets of intelligent insight that will help Actional customers both begin and continue to realize the benefits of Actional in its ability to ensuring the success of every single important business transaction.
September 5, 2012
Triangulation & The Balancing Act – Welcome
And so a new journey begins… my first blog entry – Equipoiseblog! While I have on occasion blogged for my employer I felt it was important to set out on my own and thus liberated to write on all topics close to my heart. Hence the tagline “Technology & The Human Connection – Balancing Technology, Marketing & Philanthropy”.
I’ve been in the technology sector throughout my career, specifically software, hence it will always be an integral part of my world, but software/technology without marketing falls short, frequently falls on it’s face, no matter how superior the software may be. So how in creation does philanthropy fit into my theme? Actually it’s the most important part of the equation, if not for contributing to the greater good of the world then what’s the point of all the blood, sweat and high blood pressure that we put into the world of technology and marketing. It’s tough out there, actually it’s cut-throat, conversely it is through the power of technology and the discipline of true marketing and the human touch that philanthropic activity can gain greater success. And so the journey begins …..learning more, balancing, sharing ideas and hopefully having some fun along the way.
Thanks for reading.
All the best,
Julianna
equipoiseblog 