SVForum Marketing SIG

The Product is You. Managing your Career in a Social-Centric World

2012-01-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

PLEASE NOTE: THIS MONTH THERE IS A ONE TIME CHANGE IN MEETING LOCATION.

Our January meeting will be at EMC on 2441 Mission College Blvd in Santa Clara. This set of buildings is on the other side of Great America Parkway from where we normally meet, right near the Marriott. Back to normal next month......

The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least in terms of the core elements of your marketing strategy. Some people think that technology, particularly social media, has changed everything, but these only changes the tactics. The key questions - what makes your product better, and who will care - still need clear answers.

At next Monday's SVForum MarketingSIG meeting, the focus won't be on marketing systems or software, instead the product will be you.

Linda Popky will speak on the topic Marketing Brand You: Managing Your Career/Business in a Social-Centric World. Popky is founder and President of Leverage2Market Associates, a marketing consultancy that helps companies of all sizes, startup to Fortune 500. Part of her business is to help and mentor individual consultants in improving their personal brand and business marketing - she is a Certified Master Mentor. In addition to her consulting practice, she is an instructor in marketing as Cal State San Francisco, and was part of the team that designed a new certificate program in Social Media Marketing.

Her 2009 book is titled Marketing Your Career: Positioning, Packaging and Promoting Yourself for Success, which would seem to be about her topic on Monday. Available here or here.

From Popky's perspective, the basic marketing issues have never changed. She used the model of "I have too much grain, you have a cow with too much milk." How do we exchange what we have for what we want? You need a quality product, it needs to be in the right place, you need to know who the buyer is and what they want, and you need to have the write price. The same marketing thinking applies not only to a business selling a product but also to you as an employee, individual consultant, or a job seeker.

If you have a hot technical skill that Google needs, they will find you. But as you may have already noted, it's not quite the same for marketing people.

"You need to take control of the situation, you can't expect others do it for you," said Popky. The positioning and branding process for brand you is your job. And you need to show up better than the competition.

"There's always competition."

She says that just showing up on Monday and thinking about the problem for an evening will put you "head and shoulders" above the rest of Silicon Valley.

One hurdle is the lack of resources in solving any marketing problem - lack of time, expertise, ideas, or money. Leveraging what you have to get the maximum effect is part of her practice, and will be one of the topics at our meeting.

I also asked her about the process for those people (like your humble blogger) that are at the upper end of the Silicon Valley new-tech age range. Part of her presentation will cover how to take your experience and turn it into a positioning advantage.

So come by next Monday, and make "brand you" an irresistible sell.

PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE at our meetup page:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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b-to-b social media. Harder than it looks....

2011-11-29T21:04:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

Social media has become something of a code word that can mean many things. A way of keeping personal connections. Networking with professional associates. Keeping up with the news.

Not to limit to using Facebook. Twitter has become a way to both keep in touch, communicate, and sell a brand or product. LinkedIn for business connections.

But in addition to person-to-person connection, Facebook in particular has become a way to manage a brand, promote and generate consumer interest, and just plain old sell stuff to consumers.

But what about business-to-business? Not only selling, but also communicating with everyone in your sales channel, keeping people informed, motivated, and helping their success. And yours.

The Monday, December 12 SVForum Marketing SIG will focus on how social media can be used in business-to-business marketing, sales, and channel management. In a panel titled Forecast 2012: The Challenges and Opportunities with Social Business, six marketing experts will discuss using social media in b-to-b applications.

Well, maybe not experts. I discussed the panel with two of its members: Panel chair Laura Ramos, Vice President, Industry Marketing Service NA at Xerox Corporation, and Natascha Thomson, Senior Director, Social Media Audience Marketing, SAP.

What I heard was that "this area is so new," anyone who claims to have all of the answers is just making things up. So our panelists are all experienced marketers, and have the informed opinions of practitioners who are implementing social media in a business setting. But all of the answers don't yet exist.

There are a lot of moving parts that need to connect. People within your company, your customers, channel partners and distributors all could benefit, and might have useful information to share. But how to keep people engaged, even "delighted," and not make this just more work on top of what they already do - to avoid "social burnout," or "social fatigue."

One example is Cisco, where there are over 1 million external customer engineers, some working for large businesses, but many in small operations or individuals. Keeping them informed, connected with each other, with Cisco, and with their customers is a big job. Social strategies could help.

All of this new openness and communications adds risk. So the panel will discuss how to minimize "risk and complications" in implementing your social strategy.

According to Ramos, lots of people are talking about b-to-b social media, but you might be surprised how few are actually doing it. It's more difficult that it seems.

So come to the next Marketing SIG, and get a first hand perspective on business social media.

PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE at our meetup page:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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What's Hot, What's Not - in Mobile Marketing

2011-11-08T20:44:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

Marketeers seem to have a wealth of new ways to reach their market. In fact, so many ways that the technology seems to be well outpacing a clear marketing understanding of how to use the tools and the data. And how to spend money wisely.

Last month the topic was social media engagement via Facebook, with a presentation by Justin Kistner of Webtrends.

This month's MarketingSIG meeting - Monday November 14 - will be a panel on using mobile technology to reach your market. And as you will learn, the abundance of new tools, channels, and information sources is only matched by the new questions that are raised.

The panel discussion is titled What's Hot, What's Not - in Mobile Marketing. I spoke to moderator Giovanni Rodriguez. Rodriguez has the title Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Deloitte Postdigital Enterprise , and is a contributor at Forbes.com. You can see his latest blog posting here.

Rodriguez listed four questions that the panel will address:

Trust:
Mobile devices give businesses the opportunity to collect lots of new data. As two examples, smart phones add location data to the mix of other types of information a company will know about you. Advertisers can also develop applications that supply value to customers, but also collect data at the same time. For many people, they're smart phones are always on - people even sleep next to them. Maybe even more so than a laptop or desk side system, smart phones seem to be a personal part of people's lives.

People are continuously being sensitized by news stories about how much information about them is being collected and how its being handled, or mishandled. Rodriguez believes that this issue has become visible and of concern to the general public.

If advertisers want to communicate on mobile devices, they need to set up a trust relationship with customers, or potential customers.

Privacy and security:
It's not just collecting the data, its what do you do with it. Over time, a large amount of data can be generated. Once you have it, how do you protect privacy, secure data, and keep the promises you made to earn your customers trust.

In addition, making use of the data requires some level of analysis. You need to make it useful, but be sensitive to how putting together disparate pieces of data to form a more complete picture of a customer can violate privacy and trust.

Budget:
Developing iPhone or Android apps, collecting data, storing and protecting it, all cost money. As each new mass-market advertising technology has come along, methods to understand if the money is being well spent are developed. For mobile advertising - a technology in its very beginnings - measurement is just starting. The panel will discuss some ideas of how to understand if you are getting your money's worth.

The in-store experience:
One of Rodriguez' focus is the "in store experience" - when the customer finally shows up in your store what experience do they have. He rates the Apple store as an example of a great experience, which is a result of careful thinking, not an accident.
The panel will discuss how mobile advertising and interaction can improve the in-store experience.

PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE for What's Hot, What's Not - in Mobile Marketing on our meetup page.

Until you have squeezed significant value from Facebook, forget all the other social marketing channels.

2011-10-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Social media marketing is all Facebook. Forget the others.

Or so says Justin Kistner, speaker at the next SVForum MarketingSIG meeting, October 10 at our regular place, EMC. His topic will be Feeding the Beast - Taking Advantage of Facebook's New Marketing Opportunities.

Kistner is Director of Social Products at Webtrends, and was a key player in developing their Facebook Analytics products. He will be joined by Hope Frank, Webtrends Chief Marketing Officer. Webtrends has a range of marketing and analysis products, including a free version that can be used by small startups he describes as the "Swiss army knife" or social marketing tools.

Kistner has been around the internet marketing world for a while, starting out as a blogger attempting to get noticed, eventually helping other companies with the same problem, then on to Search Engine Optimization. When Facebook first was available, he "hated" it, and compared it to the "internet on training wheels."

But starting in 2008, there was a "severe" shift. Facebook became the dominant social media site.

"There is a much wider gap" between Facebook and other social sites, than between Google and other search engines, said Kistner.

"Until you have squeezed significant value from Facebook, forget all the other channels." This thinking would be "incredible offensive" and contrary to other social marketing experts, but Kistner says he has the numbers to back up his opinion.

Just to show that the MarketingSIG plays no favorites, last month's speaker claimed the listening was the most important marketing activity on social media, a statement that I don't think Kistner would agree with.

The tactics have also changed. In the search engine world, the idea of organic search optimization - building links and lots of content, is no longer the best choice. The most effective strategy is now "performance marketing" - paid advertising, the design of landing pages, and analytics to see what works.

Social media marketing with Facebook is following the same path.

How can you get your wall posts noticed in the Facebook world? He has advice on that also, noting that not all posts get to everyone. Facebook has a "suppression" algorithm, attempting to only show you posts that you might be interested in. By increasing "engagement," your wall posts can get higher in this ranking to get a broader distribution.

Kistner will also discuss the recent changes to Facebook. He believes that the news ticker, just implemented, will be a new channel that your marketing can use.

You don't need to be major player or lots of money to use these strategies. Just start with the right plan, and you (or at least your business) can become famous on Facebook.

PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE for Feeding the Beast - Taking Advantage of Facebook's New Marketing Opportunities at our Meetup page:

You would "be surprised by the degree of listening involved" in your social media strategy. You don't just "deposit information," it's a conversation

2011-09-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

You would "be surprised by the degree of listening involved" in your social media strategy. You don't just "deposit information," it's a conversation.

So says John Thyfault, speaker at the next MarketingSIG meeting. Thyfault is Vice President Search Engine and Social Media Marketing at Beasly Direct Marketing. His topic will be Search and Social: Making the Sum Greater Than the Parts.

The meeting will be on Monday, September 12 at our regular EMC location. Please sign up in advance on our Meetup page - a requirement of EMC security.

Thyfault has been at Beasly Direct for 5 years, originally managing their Search Engine Marketing practice. But it turns out that there is a lot of synergy between search engine optimization and using social media for promotion. Helping clients with both is his current focus.

Social Media marketing, if done properly "naturally reinforces your search engine ranking," said Thyfault. Mentions of your product or company on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin in and others increase the "social authority" of your web site, and can get noticed by Google and other search engines. The effect can be long term, or immediate. Google can "quickly pick up" mentions on social media and can change search ranking.

Developing a social strategy starts traditional marketing thinking - understanding your product, audience, values, and benefits. But there are new twists applying these in the social arena. Thyfault works on identifying the small number of thought leaders that effect opinion and develops a strategy of direct communication with them. In some ways it's a traditional P.R. strategy, applied to a new target.

Thyfault's analysis divides people who are talking about your product into four categories:

Creators - who create new thinking about a product or service - about 1-2%
Critics - who take the ideas of creators, add their own thoughts or "flavors" - about 5-10%
Collectors - who pass on information to their social circle without comment - about 30%
Everyone else.

The idea is to identify Creators and Critics, which are typically only a small number of people - 5 to 10, listen to what they are saying, and then communicate with them directly. In some ways similar to how you might have targeted an editor or reporter in the past.

If you are a startup with a new product, no one is talking about you yet. So the same strategy is applied to the problem or need your product will address. Just listening on social sites might help you define and articulate these ideas.

Finding these key communicators could be a lot of work, but there are software tools to help you locate them. But once you find them, the communication isn't automated. This is a human skill of understanding what these thought leaders are interested in and looking for. By carefully crafting your messaging and communication, you both get people to help with your message, but also assure that its worded in a way that help with search engine optimization.

If you are looking for a way to do social media marketing on autopilot, it doesn't sound like this presentation will help much. But if you want to apply your marketing experience and intelligence to new strategies, come by next Monday.

PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE for Social Media in the Real World at our Meetup page:

Social Media 101: The First Question To Ask Yourself Before Getting Started With Social Media

2011-08-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

By Natascha Thomson

As a social media professional at SAP, I get many questions from colleagues who are new to social media and would like to add social media to their marketing mix. The learning curve on social media is still steep for most people, and in this blog, I have aggregated the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
Many of my consulting engagements start with the sentence "My team wants to have a Twitter handle" or "I need to increase the number of fans for our Facebook page".
To that, there is only one answer: "Why"? And ,"Let's take a step back".
Before you get engaged in any kind of social media project, please ask yourself the following questions:
1. What are my social media objectives (these should align with your marketing, and on a higher level, your business objectives)?

Maybe you are trying to create awareness for a product offering?
Maybe you want to extend the reach of an event beyond a physical location?
Maybe you are tasked to generate leads?
Maybe...(fill in here)

2. Who is my target audience?

I struggle with the answer "anybody who might want to buy my product". Keep in mind that the less homogenous your target audience is, the more high level your messages will have to be. The more targeted you can get, the better you can address specific business problems.
Or in simpler terms, if you are a B2B social media marketer and somebody sent you a Tweet about "The top 10 ways to create a lead", you'd be somewhat interested. But if they sent you a Tweet saying: "10 tips how social media can be used to create leads that close", you'd be very interested. On a busy day, you might click on the Bit.ly on Tweet number two but ignore Tweet number one.
An example target audience could be: Retail, IT management, North America.

3. Where does my target audience participate in social media?

It is a fallacy to think that "if you build a social media channel, they will come".
I've only recently learned that Global 2000 companies in Finland are not very active on Twitter; but they like to engage on LinkedIn. Hence, for every target audience you define, you need to do research where they lurk (= read) or engage (= comment, ask questions etc.). Your audience might frequent existing communities like IT Toolbox or read blogs on CIO.com. Wherever they are, that's where you want to be.
Of course, you can also create your own social media channels on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc., but remember that you'll need to dedicate resources to manage these channels continuously. The only thing worse than no presence on social media is a social media channel where the last post is a month old.

Once you have answered these basic but often not easy to answer questions, you will need to develop an editorial calendar to feed the channels you have selected and define a cadence (e.g. blog once a week).
You'll also need to define metrics to measure your success. For example, if your target audience likes to read blogs, you can measure views and comments on your blog. But you can also measure things like click-throughs to media (e.g. YouTube videos) embedded in your blog, referrals back to your web site, or the completion of a registration form; to only name a few.
I hope you found this blog (written during the summer solstice) useful, and I'd appreciate it if you could add your own "most asked" social media challenge or question and how you have addressed them.

The tech folks tend to over estimate the state of thinking. There is an impedance mismatch between the state of the art and the state of the buyer.

2011-07-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

"The tech folks tend to over estimate the state of thinking," said Kelly Dempski. "There is an impedance mismatch between the state of the art and the state of the buyer."

Dempski is the speaker at the next SVForum MarketingSIG, 6:30 on Monday, August 8 at EMC, our regular meeting place. In his presentation, titled "Social Media in the Real World," he will discuss what he has learned in his 17 years at Accenture, where he currently holds the title of Senior Director, MultiChannel Interactions R&D Group at Accenture Technology Labs.

Dempski's role at the labs is to investigate new products and ideas, targeted to keep Accenture's client base educated and ahead of the technology curve. He both produces written documents of what he learns, and presents to executives. Given the customer base of Accenture, its not surprising that the viewpoint of the executives he interacts with is different than the typical Silicon Valley crowd. The majority of Accenture's 200,000 consultants are installing and implementing IT systems at "old line" companies - CRM systems, or financial systems like SAP. A typical example might be a manufacturer, selling to other businesses. Dempski used the example of a business that sells large tanks of compressed gas.

"Its eye opening what real people say about technology trends, like social media," said Dempski. The differences are not only generational, though that's a partial explanation. Industry, location, culture, and market all can affect this. People in a "different context" have different preconceptions.

"The rest of the world is quite different than we have in the valley."

Geography and national identity also make a difference. Dempski spent time in Europe, taking with executives and heard a very different story than the U.S., particularly about privacy.

The job of technology marketing is to "connect the dots," explaining and translating products and ideas to the language used in this world. There are business opportunities missed because these ideas aren't considered.

Even savvy companies sometimes have problems with this. Dempski told of having some conversations with people at Google as Google Apps became available, and there was not much consideration as to how a "60 year old IT guy" might think about shared applications replacing something installed on a system, like Microsoft Word.

So come to the August meeting, and get some understanding about the rest of the world, away from the valley.

ALSO The MarketingSIG and the Engineering Leadership SIG are co-hosting a meeting on August 18 - Rapid Rapport: Creating Influence on Demand. Check it out here

PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE for Social Media in the Real World at our Meetup page:

The main cause of the death of Marketing VPs are Sales VPs....

2011-06-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

"The main cause of the death of Marketing VP's are Sales VPs," said Dave Kellogg, speaker at the July 13 SVForum Marketing SIG.
(You might notice that the SDForum is now the SVForum. New name, same pizza....)

Kellogg's history gives him a unique viewpoint. Starting out in marketing as a product manager, he eventually moved up the ranks and became CEO at Marklogic, a software firm.

He views marketing as a service organization. The marketing department "doesn't have to exist. It's only purpose is to make others productive," particularly sales. As soon as the marketing VP forgets this, he and his department are in trouble.

Most CEO's don't come from a marketing background, and even have less appreciation than Kellogg does, viewing it as a "sink hole," or "money vortex."

"Deep down, they don't understand," what marketing does, and feel vaguely uncomfortable writing the check to pay for it.

Even Kellogg, wearing his CEO hat has a cautious view of marketing, noting that "Marketing is easy to cut, and delivers the least tangible direct value."

So how can marketing be successful, get funded, and continue to exist. The trick is to have a "mantra" or "guiding light" - to make sales successful. But don't just think that you're doing this - actually ask to find out.

He suggests regular surveying of to find out what the sales department thinks of marketing. Ask how your department contributing, who does sales trust and value. Measure your helpfulness.

Eventually, "the CEO will ask anyway. You should already know the answer."

The marketing department needs to be accountable. The sales department is highly accountable, with requirements to make specific monetary sales goals. Sales looks across the hall and views marketing as the "non-accountability department."

Marketing needs to state objectives, and then show that it meets them, to be accountable.

So for more hints on how to keep those marketing paychecks flowing, come to Monday's meeting. Please be prepared to demonstrate your contribution.....

Please register in advance at our Meetup page to attend.

Use "gutsy, scrappy" marketing to bend Facebook to your will....

2011-06-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Can you get rich using Facebook? How about not just get rich, but get rich quickly?

Well, maybe not. But Facebook can be a low cost but very effective part of your marketing strategy. You can connect to a large number of very targeted Facebook "friends," with little cash investment, and make a real bottom-line difference in your small company's finances.

So says Evan Bailyn, speaker at the next SDForum MarketingSIG meeting, June 13 at our regular meeting location, EMC. His talk is titled "How to Build a Massive Facebook Audience that Converts to Profits," which is a pretty clear explanation of what you will learn.

Bailyn, CEO and founder of First Page Sage, has shown it can be done. When I interviewed him, he said that he had started eight internet-based businesses and sold five of them, some for multiple millions. The businesses were of different types and products, but all used his expertise in Google and Facebook to find and communicate with his market.

His strategy is to "beat the system" - to go right up to the edge of Facebook or Google rules, but not cross the line. Definitely an example of guerrilla marketing. But what would you expect from someone who wrote a book called Outsmarting Google: SEO Secrets to Winning New Business. The Facebook version is in the works.

The strategy is to use Facebook ads and generate a large number of highly targeted prospects for a very low cost. Bailyn said that you can acquire Facebook connections for less than 25 cents each.

No special skills are needed - Bailyn said he was an English major in college, and had his businesses going in just a few years. It just takes "creativity and hard work," and a willingness to use "gutsy, scrappy tactics." Perfect for small, entrepreneurial startups.

You can get a great deal of marketing results "for a fraction of the budget others are spending."

While large companies might also benefit, they might not have the flexibility to be quite so scrappy.

One discovery that Bailyn made using his tactics is the importance of word choices in the ads he develops, something this writer already knew. In running A-B tests, some words generated a much higher response - words like "excellence" or "blanket." He might be persuaded to share a few more of his favorite words during his presentation, or his methodology for finding them.

He promises "real hard facts", and "on the ground" tactics that you can use. So come to next weeks meeting, and start making new friends - at least on Facebook.

Please register in advance at our Meetup page to attend.

Marketing Operations can save your life. Or at least your marketing sanity.

2011-05-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

If you've been in marketing for a while, you know that the job can range from merely difficult, to completely impossible.

It's hard to manage the individual parts of the marketing mix.
It's very hard to do well
It can range from hard to beyond hope to control, or even influence all of the other parts of your organization that have to work in sync to make your marketing strategy effective.

Or to paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, marketing gets no respect.

At last weeks SDForum marketing SIG, Gary Katz outlined the answer to these problems - the effective implementation of Marketing Operations. Katz is founder of Marketing Operations Partners, a consulting group that helps companies get their marketing operations in shape.

He began by outlining a long list of the problems marketing faces, which if not exhaustive, was at least exhausting.

A few select ideas:

Katz asked five brave volunteers take a 20 question self assessment test of "how your organization is doing.... related to marketing operations." The first question was whether the rest of the organization has clear objectives and understands the outcomes that marketing is targeting. In your humble bloggers opinion, there are few companies where every department puts marketing's objectives first.
The rest of the questions covered what might be categorized as marketing and general organizational best practices. The 5 test subjects reported final scores in the 60s, out of a possible 100. (All 20 questions are included in the presentation, on the SDForum web site.)
Marketing information is in overload mode, with way to much data, and little ability to assess its validity, much less turn the data into action that could be agreed on across the corporation.
The lack of a dashboard to summarize information for senior executives.
People, specifically marketing people, are just plain too busy.

While the list is long, the basic idea is that the corporate marketing strategy needs to permeate and influence, if not control, all parts of the company, to assure that customers get a consistent message, and the actions of the business actually match that message. Or...you need to live your brand.

But all the news isn't grim. Implementing a successful marketing operations function will go a long way to resolve the difficult.

Marketing Operations is a relatively new idea, first defined by IDC. Here is an extract of their definition:

The purpose of the Marketing Operations function is both to increase marketing efficiency and to build a foundation for excellence by reinforcing marketing with processes, technology, metrics, and best practices. Marketing operations enables an organization to run the marketing function as a fully accountable business. (You can see the complete definition, and other versions, on Wikipedia, here. )

Katz discussed an equally long list of solutions, described as Marketing Operations 2.0, as a response to the list of problems he started with. Here are a few selections of how an effective marketing operations function can help:

Benchmark best marketing practices. Determine the resources that competitive, or at least similar businesses are investing in marketing, and compare with your marketing budget.
Calculate customer lifetime value. Understand how much business individual customers are likely to with your company, and use this information to make informed decisions about investments. Not to mention that having this (and many other) facts at hand increases the credibility of marketing and helps drive the implementation of marketing operations corporate wide.
Live the brand. The task is to persuade all parts of the company to act in ways the match what we say about ourselves.
"Make sure your message has some integrity," said Katz. Make sure you company can actually deliver what it says. "We're all getting tired of brand promises that don't deliver."
The big idea is to turn marketing into a profit center, like other operational departments. By having enough information and control of the companies revenue generating behavior, marketing can establish a return on marketing investment.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Successful marketing operations is "a much bigger hairball than meets the eye."

2011-04-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Mastery of marketing operations is key to the success of your business, and may be a key to your own career success.

Or so says Gary Katz, President, CEO, and founder of Marketing Operations Partners, a consulting group that helps companies get their marketing operations in shape.

Katz will be the speaker at the May 9 SDForum MarketingSIG, with a talk titled Marketing ROI: It's Simpler... and Way Harder...Than You Think.

His history includes more than 20 years of experience with marketing, change management, and public relations. In various roles, he has directed or managed corporate marketing, communications, public relations, lead generation and qualification programs, investor relations, and employee communication programs. He is a past president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

From his PR background, Katz became interested in marketing operations when he noticed that the messages he created seemed to be disconnected with the actual performance of the company that was using them. A more operational approach was needed to make actual behavior match the external message and branding.

The role of marketing operations was defined about 12 years ago by IDC. Katz defines it as "everything to enable the marketing strategy to be realized." While it has a large "left brain" component - systems, software, metrics, there is also a soft side - getting people in marketing educated, trained, and engaged in making the strategy work.

"The metaphor is a transportation model," says Katz. If you imaging the marketing program as cars being driven, the Chief Marketing Officer provides the strategic navigation. Marketing operations builds the car, tunes the engine, maps an optimal course, and builds the transport system.

Katz says that it all starts with a "marketing operations mindset," which he will explain at his presentation.

The objective is efficiency and accountability. By using this methodology marketing can actually be a profit center

How can this affect your career? IDC says that marketing operations is the fastest growing job segment in marketing, the fourth largest job category in marketing departments. Marketing departments are being held accountable for results, and all marketing functions are seeing marketing operations ideas take off.

While the results sound great, it's a difficult challenge to get all parts of your marketing function, human and technology, aligned.

Or as Katz says, "It's a much bigger hairball than meets the eye."

Please sign up at our meetup page if you plan on attending:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Panel forecasts explosive growth for cloud computing

2011-04-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Cloud computing has an "explosive" growth forecast, driven by a better economic model, faster implementation time, and less risk. But along with the upsides, security is still an issue that requires close attention.

These were some of the conclusions or the panel discussion at last Monday's (4/11) Marketing SIG. Included on our expert panel were:

Bernard Golden - CEO of HyperStatus, a Silicon Valley Cloud Computing Consultancy.
Mathew Lodge - Senior Director of Cloud Product Marketing at VMware.
John Morley - Director of EMC's West Coast Executive Briefing Center.
Chenxi Wang, PhD - Vice President and Principal Analyst for Security and Risk at Forrester Research.
The panel was moderated by Sheryl Chamberlain, EMC's Senior Director for Technology Alliances. (More detailed biographies for the panelists are in the SDForum Marketing SIG meeting preview.)

The panel forecast rapid growth in the cloud computing market. In response to a question about which segments will grow the fastest, Golden's answer was that all segments were growing.

"The scale of cloud computing is going through the roof," said Golden. Fast enough that it's hard for people not directly involved in the business to grasp. As an example he noted a recent report from Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) that showed that number of store objects grew over 5 years from 2.1 billion stored objects to 212 billion through the end of last year. Amazon forecasts that by the end of 2012 they will be storing 1 trillion objects.

The pace and scale is just "exploding," said Golden.

VMware's Moody echoed this, saying that VMware grew by a billion dollars in the last 12 months.

Platform as a service (Paas - defined as a development framework separated from the operating system) was called out as an area that is just beginning a growth curve.

Forrester's Wang said the Forrester had forecast Paas would grow to a $16 billion market by 2017, though in 2010 the segment hadn't grown as much as they had predicted.

"We expect Paas in a few years to see tremendous growth," said Wang.

There are several factors driving this growth. Scale, and the ability to rapidly scale an application is one. Lowered capital investment is also a factor. Expertise is another - the people running a cloud service usually have a lot of expertise in security and the other aspects of making a cloud product successful

And implementing an application in the cloud helps "eliminate the likelihood of failure," according to Colin Earl. While not an official panel member, Earl who is CEO of Enterprise Wizard, a Paas cloud product, was invited to address the audience.

According to Earl, most IT projects fail. Twenty percent completely "crash and burn." But including being overdue by an order of magnitude, or cost overruns by the same amount, you get to 75% failure rate. A Paas environment lowers this risk.

Security in the cloud is also an issue. It's possible to get a more secure environment in the cloud, because of the expertise of the people managing it. But the risks are never really shared.

According the Wang, "a breach of security is your responsibility." The cloud vendor won't share the cost or risk of a failure. To lower the security risk of cloud based products, you must put cloud products and vendors "through a vigorous vetting process," and insist on transparency and a security audit of your cloud vendor.

This was only a brief overview of a wide-ranging discussion. For more details please contact the panelists directly.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Have your head in the cloud? Hear expert insights on marketing Cloud Computing at the SDForum Marketing SIG

2011-04-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Which part of the cloud market is growing the fastest?

Does cloud computing make it easier to launch a new product?

Clouds computing, along with mobile applications, are two of the top technologies getting both media and industry attention. Both are new concepts, not fully defined. Both seem disruptive, changing the competitive landscape. If you are responsible for developing or implementing marketing programs, the disruption offers both advantages and challenges.

If you manage the marketing of technology products, how do cloud products change your world - whether marketing cloud services, or products based on cloud architecture? If your product serves end users, or the most critical IT application, how should your marketing program respond? Does cloud technology make your job easier, harder, or just impossible?

At Mondays (4/11) MarktetingSIG meeting, a panel of experts moderated by EMC's Sheryl Chamberlain will discuss the cloud computing market, starting with the two questions above. A rare opportunity to get answers from a group with their heads deep in the clouds, in the most positive sense.

Included on our panel will be:

Bernard Golden is CEO of HyperStatus, a Silicon Valley Cloud Computing Consultancy, working with clients in the US and throughout the world. He is the Cloud Computing Advisor for CIO magazine, where he writes a widely read blog. Golden is the author of Virtualization for Dummies, and is co-author of Creating the Infrastructure Cloud Computing.

Mathew Lodge is Senior Director of Cloud Product Marketing at VMware. He is responsible for go-to market of vCloud services with VMware's service provider partners. His background includes work at Schlumberger/Omnes, Cisco, and Symantec.

John Morley is Director of EMC's West Coast Executive Briefing Center. In this role, he leads briefings and workshops with several hundred companies each year, including discussions of best practice cloud models. Before EMC he was Business Program Manager for the Enterprise Product Group at Dell in Europe.

Chenxi Wang, PhD is Vice President and Principal Analyst for Security and Risk at Forrester Research. She is an expert on content security, application security, and vulnerability management. Wang leads Forrester's research program in application and Web 2.0 security, covering topics like best practices for content application and security, emerging threats, and operational aspects of security deployment.

Sheryl Chamberlain, EMC's Senior Director for Technology Alliances will moderate the panel. She is a 10 year EMC veteran, responsible for aligning EMC's corporate strategy with VMware and adjacent partners. Her focus includes programs to accelerate the customers journey to the private cloud.

She will get things started with some initial questions for the panel. But if your favorite question isn't covered, ask your own and get an expert opinion on the cloud market.

So come to Monday's MarketingSIG, and get your head in the clouds.

If you plan on coming, please sign up at our Meetup page.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Product Camp Silicon Valley - Apr 2 - a free barcamp for product managers

2011-03-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

P-Camp - Product Camp 2011 - is an annual barcamp for people who are product managers and in related fields. I have been at the last few, and it is a day well spent.

Barcamp's (barcamp.org) are free or near-free, open source meetings - the agenda is usually set at the start of the day.

Product Camp this year will be April 2. It's free. but you must register to get a space.

Sponsored and organized by SVPMA - which is a great service for the Silicon Valley tech community.

Your Linkedin network - the one you already have - can be the key to getting your startup moving, with investors, partners, customers, or employees. Hear one of Linkedin's founders explain how.

2011-03-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

As you try to start up your startup, you have no brand, or at least no brand recognition. Making it difficult to attract investors, partners, employees, and customers - the very things that would get you some recognition. The result, according to the speaker at next MarketingSIG meeting (March 17) is a "catch-22."

But by using Linkedin and the personal network you already have, you can break this cycle, and get the contacts you need to get your business going.

Our speaker, Konstantin Guericke, was one of Linkedin's founders, and its first marketing VP. He is currently a partner at 50505 labs, which helps entrepreneurs get the business running. Before that, he was CEO at Jaxtr, a social communications startup.

In speaking to him about his presentation next week, its clear he is both a fan or Linkedin, and expert on startup entrepreneurs using the network, and he will share some of that knowledge in his presentation.

Guericke wants to encourage startups who feel like they have hit a wall in getting noticed. The network you already have on Linkedin is "highly likely" to be a source of investment, customers, partners, or employees. The overall Linkedin network is certainly large enough - over half of all professionals on the U.S. are already on Linkedin.

There are many ways of using Linkedin. At one end, the most closed networkers only connect with people they directly know, as a way of keeping in touch. At the other extreme are "Linkedin Open Networkers (LION), who connect with as many people as they can, whether they have any personal connection or not.

But the second level - the people who are connected to the people you know, is the "sweet spot," that Linkedin was designed to optimize. If you have 200 linkedin connections, and each of your connections has 200 of theirs - there is a good chance that the contacts you need will come from this pool. As an entrepreneur your personal network is already in place - you just have to tap in and build some new relationships to make it work for you.

Linkedin has changed and added capabilities over its life, including tools, some to specifically help this process. Guericke is frequently surprised, or perhaps frustrated, as to how little people know about what it can do.

"Most people only 20 percent of the features, barely scratching what it can do."

Guericke promises to both explain, and demonstrate the tools that can be most effective for a startup to overcome the limits of being unknown.

If you plan on coming, please sign up at our Meetup page, here.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Content is (still) king, and email is (still) a "really efficient" way to deliver it.

2011-02-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

At last weeks SDForum Marketing SIG meeting (February 14), speaker Daniel Greenberg presented examples of a carefully designed strategy for internet B2B sales.

But given all of the technological sophistication available, the monitoring and distribution tools that can be used, a couple of older ideas are critical - content is still king, and email is still a "really efficient" way to deliver that content.

Greenberg is Chief Marketing Officer for Simply Hired. But his presentation discussed strategies he used when he worked (also the CMO) at TrialPay.

Simply Hired is a web aggregator that searches job listings on many web sites - a specialized search engine. This was not the focus of his presentation, and Greenberg gave only a brief overview of the site. The conclusion is that if you are looking for a new or different job you should check it out.

TrialPay's marketing strategy was the topic of the evening. TrialPay "helps online companies sell more by placing advertising around their transactions," and his task was to get more of this business at a minimum cost, with the least human intervention. From his perspective, marketing's budget is decided by how much revenue the marketing strategy delivers, which is a motivation for an effective plan.

Marketing is moving from an art to a science. The web has made things much more measurable, and new tools allow you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.

But "you still need to be creative. You still need to get into the mind and the emotions of your prospect."

His methodology is to first map out a blueprint, or funnel, that describes the path to acquiring customers. As you lead prospects through the funnel, analyze why and how many fall out at each stage. As prospects move along, gather more and more information about them, a process of "progressive profiling."

And how do you lead prospects along your funnel? By content, delivered by email. Content could be a white paper, a webinar, a video presentation or another path. But the content must be of "extreme value" to your prospect in his professional role, be highly relevant, and offer something really useful.

Marketing demonstrates creativity by brainstorming ideas to get at the heart of something that will interest your prospects. Meet with some members of your target market and "ask them what keeps them up at night, what are the pains that they are most concerned about addressing."

To get this content, the prospect must give up some information. The cost and time of supplying this information must match the value delivered and not be a barrier. Of course, you build up a profile by collecting information about your prospect over time.

Delivery is through email. Greenberg suggests using one of the email marketing systems that automate the process - "email on steroids." Examples include Constant Contact, Marketo, or his favorite, Eloqua.

The result is a sophisticated, mostly automated process, only touched on in this post. You can get more details looking at his presentation here.

=======================================

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=======================================

Closing B2B business without your prospect being touched by a human being...

2011-02-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

Find business prospects .. nurture them to close .. with no human intervention?

Its common in the consumer world - when was the last time you called someone at Amazon for a book recommendation? But less so in business-to-business marketing, where customers expect to speak to a human before purchasing.

But at Monday's (February 14) SDForum Marketing SIG meeting Daniel Greenberg will explain how it's done. In his last position, he designed a closed loop system to get business without sales intervention.

Greenberg is currently Chief Marketing Officer at Simply Hired. He has more than 20 years of marketing experience, including 5 years as a C-level executive. He has a BA in economics from Oberlin College, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

According to Greenberg, you can close business "without your prospect being touched by a human being."

Greenberg's system sources prospects from social media, and then nurtures them along to a close with marketing automation and CRM software. While the tools are high tech, the products sold don't need to be. Greenberg says that a wide range of products can be sold this way, all except the very high end.

Designing his initial system was hard said Greenberg. So he has some techniques, tips and tricks so you gain from the benefit of his experience.

A few examples:
- How to set up a flow chart to manage prospect nurturing.
- How to do mass customization of emails.
- He will share the metrics and measurements he uses to manage the process, and the "CMO dashboard" he used to monitor the marketing process.

Please note that the MarketingSIG now has a Meetup page - Please sign up if you plan to attend. If the meeting lists full, please sign up to be wait listed.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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2011-01-14T20:09:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

"Your brand yourself every day."

"You have a brand, whether you like it or not."

"Great work does not equal a great reputation." (Perhaps this last one could be the most difficult for engineering types.)

These were a few of the things you would have heard at the last SDForum MarketingSIG (January 10) from speaker Karen Kang, an expert on personal and corporate branding. Kang is principal of Branding Pays, a consulting practice that helps both corporations and individuals brand them self. Or maybe more accurately, helps them establish and manage a reputation that helps with their marketing.

Kang, a former partner at Regis McKenna, one of the valley's premier PR firms, spoke to an overflow audience at the regular monthly meeting held at EMC. (And thanks to EMC, both for the space and the food.) Her presentation focused on the idea that your brand, or the reputation that you have in the eyes of others, needs to be managed. Just doing your work expertly isn't enough.

"Brand is both a noun and a verb," said Kang, meaning that your brand is your image and reputation, but developing or changing your brand is an activity that requires work.

The work starts with both your professional competence, and your core values. Your brand starts with results you can actually deliver.

You need to "start getting expert in something, to make you stand out from the pack." Most people have skills and competence in their background that can be the core of their brand. But as with all marketing, doing everything isn't a good strategy. You need to focus on a small number of things that match your core beliefs and objective, and that will make a memorable impression with your target market

Kang's model is a cake with icing. The cake represents what you are really good at - what you can deliver. The frosting is your presentation - the outside layer. Maybe your personality - the immediate thing people feel when you walk into the room. Being "attractive, engaging, and likeable."

Once you have developed your brand, at least to your own satisfaction, the next step is to make it visible to others. One step is developing a "third party reference structure of endorsements." This could include writing, blogging, or speaking.

Kang also has a 90/10 rule - 10 percent of the people have 90 percent of the influence. Part of your branding strategy is finding those 10 percent - your brand "eco-system" that helps transmit your branding message.

The end is a reputation that is focused, clear, and compelling - what people will remember about you - your brand.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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You don't have to be a brand victim... Personal Branding at the January 10 SDForum MarketingSIG

2011-01-03T19:58:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

You don't have to be a brand victim...

At next Monday's (January 10) SDForum MarktingSIG meeting the topic will be personal branding. Our speaker, Karen Kang will give some insight in how you can manage your personal brand.

You might think of branding a company, or a product, but you also have a personal brand, whether intentional or not.

Kang is a positioning and brand expert and founder of Karen Kang Consulting. She has experience as a newspaper reporter, with advertising firm BBDO, and was a partner at Regis McKenna. Her practice includes both helping businesses develop their branding, and helping their executives develop their personal brand.

"Some people have a very quiet brand," said Kang. Others have a strong brand, but the image could be positive or negative. Branding that doesn't fit your objectives can hinder your progress.

"Some people guide their brand, but most do not," said Kang. "It's a competitive environment now. People have to differentiate to stand out.

The idea is to define your own brand, instead of letting other people define you.

There are two parts to your brand - rational and emotional components. The rational portion includes your skills, education, and accomplishments. The emotional part is how you connect with people, and could include how you dress, carry yourself, or your energy level.

Kang makes the analogy of a cake. The cake itself is your rational positioning - the foundation. The emotional part is the frosting. (Given that this is an SDForum SIG, pizza might be a better model - crust and cheese. I'm not sure where the pepperoni fits....)

Key branding tools will be introduced that can be used assess your current branding, and develop a strategy to align your brand with your professional objectives, along with concrete examples putting the tools to use. At least one volunteer will get their personal brand analyzed as a practical demonstration of how to apply Kang's methodology.

Most people never think about their own brand says Kang. But her methodology will help you figure out the rational and emotional components of your brand, and develop a strategy to align your positioning with your career objectives.

So come by Monday, and you can build your own brand cake. Or pizza.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Looking at the same facts from a new point of view can create a new understanding

2010-11-17T16:24:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

Sometimes looking at the same facts from a new point of view can create a new understanding, a new marketing strategy, even a new way of designing a product.

At the November 8 SDForum MarketingSIG meeting, Adrian Ott, CEO of Exponential Edge, presented some new ways of thinking of time, and how it effects your products. If you were there, you would have heard phrases like:

- Time-onomics
- Attention bottleneck
- Inattention economy
- Time value innovation

The basic idea is to factor your customer's time, or more specifically the lack of time, into the design and marketing of your products.

The latest technology funnels huge amounts of data into our brains. The result is that we have to triage our attention.

"Time is driving so many of our decisions," said Ott, factored into everything. It isn't just price that is the basis of a purchase. Decisions are made by comparing value to price, plus the time that needs to be invested in buying or using a product or service.

The day has always been 24 hours long, and marketers have always competed for attention. But technology continues to create new ways to communicate, and increases the information we must confront, or attempt to ignore. And people seem to have even less time to spend on the things you want to sell.

Ott's response to this problem is time value innovation - new ways to think about time and how your customer's time relates to the design and marketing of your product.

She gave a few examples of products that create a new relationship to time. For example, Twitter, which time-slices blogging into 140 character segments. Or a digital video recorder (like Tivo) that allows customer to time-shift their TV viewing.

The analysis of time is broken into four categories (on a four quadrant layout, a requirement for all consultants.) A time saver is that requires your attention, but the minimum time possible. An example is that emergency tube of toothpaste you need to buy at your hotel - price and choice aren't really an issue; you just want to get something quickly. Federal Express is a business that occupies this quadrant.

The value quadrant is where you minimize time and attention to buy the cheapest product. Autopilot is where time is required, but attention is minimized, like using your bank to automatically pay your bills.

And a time magnet is a product that you willingly give time and attention to - an example might be Farmville for on-line game players.

Analyzing your product this way, and deciding which quadrant your product fits into is a way of making time work for instead of against you - time value innovation.

You can learn more in Ott's book - The 24-Hour Customer. A copy of her presentation to the MarketingSIG is available here.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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There are still only 24 hours in a day - your need to fight for your customer's time and attention

2010-10-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

There are still only 24 hours in a day - your need to fight for your customer's time and attention in an ever more difficult environment.

As the number of products available and ways to communicate with your customer explode, your life as a marketer gets more difficult. It almost seems impossible.

At next Monday's MarketingSIG, Adrian Ott, CEO of Exponential Edge will speak about how to successfully compete for time and attention in a today's market. Her talk titled "Snack, Trigger, and Shop! How to Attract and Retain Today's 24-hour Customer," will describe some new ways of thinking about time and attention.

PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION - After many years of meetings at DLA Piper (many thanks for the help) this month we will meet at a new location:

EMC
2831 Mission College Blvd Santa Clara CA 95054
In the San Francisco Conference Room
Same time - 6:30 p.m.

map here

And thanks to EMC for hosting the location (and food!)

In researching her book The 24 Hour Customer, Ott learned about "the dynamics of time and attention," and developed a framework to make this work in your favor - Time Value Innovation.

According to Ott's research, people spend only about six minutes a day on e-commerce web sites. They spend only two to three percent of their time researching, looking up and buying things, both on-line and in person combined, a figure that hasn't changed since the 60s while the number of products available, and the ways of reaching your customer has "exploded." The result is a time war - companies battling for customer's limited time and attention. Trying to occupy as much time as possible - the time you spend on Google is time your not spending on Facebook.

My initial thinking was that this was only about advertising, but when I spoke to Ott she showed that thinking about a customer's time can help with the design of all kinds of products and services, both business and consumer. She gave several examples of how time, and thinking of time, can change a product:

Time slicing - Writing a blog entry took too much time, so Twitter created shorter time slices.

Time shifting - Your favorite show is on at the wrong time, so Tivo, or Hulu lets you shift time.

Time Sharing - Zip cars allow you to share the use of a car without ownership.

So come by Monday, and hear about the eight triggers that can help redirect customer time and attention in your favor. So you can make time, as little as there is, work for you.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Its more effective to nurture the relationship with a current prospects than to find a new one...

2010-10-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

► Instead of the marketing department just finding more leads and throwing them over the wall to sales, how about prospects that get nurtured until they become real sales leads.

► Instead of trying to sell potential customers who aren't interested, or at least aren't interested yet, how about letting customers educate themselves until they are interested in your product.

► Instead of your direct sales force spending time prospecting for customers from large list of unqualified names, spending time educating early stage prospects and working a wide pipeline, how about those same reps spending time with people who are ready to buy, or at least educated enough to decide if they are interested.

At Monday's (October 11) SDForum Marketing SIG, Jon Miller, VP of Marketing at Marketo, talked about broadening your thinking from a sales cycle to a highly effective revenue cycle.

According to Miller, "the internet has changed everything," and the result is "customers have seized control of the [sales] process." Marketo's model reflects the change in power from sellers to empowered buyers. Potential customers can get information about your products with no help from you or your sales force. They won't speak to sales reps until they want to. They're in charge.

Marketing needs to take responsibility for the entire revenue cycle, including the sales cycle, and 'nurture relationships" with potential customers not yet ready to consider buying. Miller said that just like its easier and cheaper to sell to an existing customer than a new one, its easier and cheaper to sell to a prospect once they have a relationship with your company, than to start with a new prospect.

In this model, marketing finds names, and nurtures them until they become leads. Marketing becomes a publisher, providing useful information - documenting best practices, or generating white papers. Eventually Miller plans to ad video to the mix.

By providing valuable information you gain permission to keep in touch and stay in contact. By tracking your prospects interests and their activity on your web site, you can find when there is enough interest for a name to become a lead, and it's given to sales.

Marketo's software system tracks information about names and leads, and generates statistics on how the whole process is working. Miller claims that the information tracked allows him to predict the number of leads that will be given to sales over a quarter, and visibility into revenue that will be generated.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Can you read the "online body language" of your prospects?

2010-09-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Given how much the internet and social media have empowered your potential customers, how can business efficiently sell complex products with long sales cycles?

According to Jon Miller, "social media has changed the relationship between sellers and buyers." Companies have to respond by changing the relationship between marketing and sales.

Miller, VP Marketing at Marketo, will be the speaker at the SDForum Marketing SIG meeting, 6:30 p.m. on October 11. Marketo is in the business of "revenue cycle management... revolutionizing how marketing and sales teams of all sizes work - and work together - to accelerate predictable revenue." At our meeting, he will discuss his ideas of how you can better manage the process that starts with finding new sales leads and ends with closing business.

Please note that this month we are at our normal location - DLA Piper in Palo Alto. NEXT MONTH we move, but those details will follow in a future post.

Miller's presentation is targeted to anyone responsible for driving revenue - lead generation, online marketing, or demand generation managers, and Directors and VP of sales or marketing. His ideas apply to complex business-to-business sales.

The change in social media has changed the relationship between you and your potential customers. In response, you need to "transform" the way sales and marketing interact to close business. When I spoke to him, he listed four key ideas that he will discuss next week.

1. Focus on the entire revenue cycle, not just the "top of the funnel," meaning lead generation.

2. Don't contact a lead before its time. Prospects now have a lot of information they can get on their own, and don't need you to contact them until they require help to move forward. For example, most companies in this category don't list their prices on their web sites, hoping that potential customers will get interested first and then ask. This is pointless from Miller's perspective - if you don't list your prices, people will find them a different way.

3. Make sure the process keeps moving - don't let it sit idle. Don't dump a bunch of leads in a sales reps lap and let them turn cold.

4. Understand your buyer's online behavior. Use web measurement tools to see what interests specific buyers, what pages they look at. Or, their "online body language."

So come to the next Marketing SIG meeting - online body language might not be as enjoyable as the old fashioned kind, but could be much more profitable.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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There's more out there than Google, especially for marketing and sales managers. You will be "surprised" by what you are missing in web searches.

2010-08-31T20:51:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

If you thought the ultimate internet search tool was Google, come to the next combined meeting of the SDForum Marketing and Search SIGs. According to our speaker, you will be surprised by what you're missing.

Penny Herscher will speak on the topic Intelligent Business Search. Please note that this special combined meeting will be on a different day, and at a different location than our regular monthly Marketing SIG. We will be at the LinkedIn campus, 2027 Stierlin Court in Mountain View on Thursday, September 9. Details here.

This will be the only Marketing SIG meeting in September. In October, the Marketing SIG will return to its regular schedule, the second Monday of the month, at DLA Piper.

Herscher is President and CEO of FirstRain, a company that offers "intelligent business search." The idea is to help their customer "get unique insights and information that will impact their business." FirstRain's products access the publicly visible web, pulling together information and track trends over time about companies and markets that would be difficult to do on your own.

The web is "vast, messy, and voluminous," said Herscher. How can a marketing strategist find information on competitors, markets, and potential customers? Herscher will explain how a marketing manager can track changes in relationships, unannounced partnerships, personnel changes, or other information that is there on the web, somewhere, but you wouldn't find without knowing what to look foe.

"You can't do this with Google," said Herscher. She will explain why and what you are missing with just Google as your search tool. The information may all be there, but putting the pieces together is a lot of work.

There are fee-based services that access non-public information. Herscher named Factiva as one example. But these are expensive to use, and information about a company that is behind a pay wall quickly propagates into the broader, public web and becomes available, if you can find it.

FirstRain's search strategy doesn't include social media sites - Facebook or Twitter, which don't yet include "business quality content," a topic that I'm sure will be discussed at our meeting.

So come to next Thursday's meeting (remember, Thursday, not Monday) and see what part of the web you've been missing.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

How can product managers show leadership on privacy issues?

2010-07-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

It's scary out there, and Phil Burton has the stories to prove it. Customer profiles and data put at risk by poor design, poor testing, and just not caring.

Burton is Principal Consultant and Trainer at the 280 Group, who bill themselves as "Product Marketing and Product Management Experts." Burton has been with them for four years, and has a 25-year career in product management and product marketing focused on information security, data communications and networking.

The problems come from three source - policies that the company decides on, or maybe ignores making a decision. Operations that don't work well, and customers that aren't educated. In the end, product manager will need to provide leadership in all three areas.

At Monday's (7/12/2010) SDForum combined Marketing and Security SIG meeting, Burton discussed a long list of companies where poor decisions and operations about privacy put their brand image at risk.

Facebook is in a class all of its own, maybe because of its size. If you were alive and breathing over the last 90 days, you couldn't have missed the huge controversy over their new (and newer again) privacy settings. According to Burton, the privacy policy reflects Facebook's long-standing strategy to "monetize their customers private information.

In Burton's estimate, Facebook is "cavalier" about sharing users private data. "Its astonishing how much information they consider public."

In a famous speech, Facebook's founder said, "the age of privacy is over."

Blippy is another example. The company lets their users share limited information about their credit purchases with their friends, who can see what their friend's latest purchases are. But in an example of an operational failure, the system exposed information it wasn't supposed to - the credit card numbers of their users.

ATT When the iPad was released, ATT accidentally released the phone numbers and cell phone identifiers of thousands of their customers.

Problems in user education could be illustrated by phishing attacks - emails that look like something official, but a click on a web link takes you to some place malicious. Maybe a simulation of your banks web site. Or maybe to a page that will do a "drive by download" of damaging code to your system.

Phishing is only one of a large variety of scams that can be attempted over the net. Because of the combination of anonymity, geographic freedom, and the almost zero cost of sending out huge volumes of bogus information, it's an easy way to make money. While no astute Marketing SIG member would be so uneducated to fall for such a fake, cyber crime is really big business.

"International cyber crime is bigger than international drug trade," said Burton.

In the internet space, damage to the reputation of your brand can be quick and long lasting. Large companies like Facebook or Google will probably recover. Smaller for companies, the effect can be fatal.

====

So what's a product manager to do?

Your job is to exercise leadership in making the product a success. There is always a battle between time to market, and privacy and security concerns. The product specification, whether in an MRD or another format needs to help strike the correct balance.

Both privacy - the policy, and security - the technological implementation, can be quite complex, and product manager specialized in other market areas may not feel they have the expertise to develop privacy requirements.

Burton suggested a checklist to help product managers get the right privacy requirements for the product:

Specify privacy requirements, both for you and your partners.
Insist that someone other than the people who wrote the code test security and privacy.
Work with a specialized security vendor on emerging threats.
Make it easy for customers/users to remove their own information.
Simplify the data sharing options. Quoting Steve Jobs, "customers should know what they are signing up for."

====

Privacy and security requirements are only going to get more critical as "things" that currently are stand-alone become networked and connected to the internet. This "internet of things" will become widespread and pervasive.

For example, to control energy use, your houses electrical metering system will be on-line. This will allow electric utilities to vary their charges by time of day. In areas in California serviced by PG&E, this has already begun, with the installation of "smart meters." These meters are network enabled, using a radio system to send your usage data to a local access point, and eventually back to PG&E. There have been complaints that the information is not sufficiently secured, allowing someone driving by to read the information. Among the possibilities are that people could cheat the utility out of money, or infer the times and days you are not at home.

Burton supplied another example of heart pacemakers where settings can be changed by an external signal. Heart rates could be sped up or slowed down.

"Imagine if the information is not secure," said Burton. "If I know someone has a pacemaker, I might use that information to blackmail them."

"Imagine this in a worldwide cyber crime sense."

Privacy issues are going to play an ever-larger role in the design of products in a connected, Web 2.0 world, and product managers can't avoid their part in attacking the problem.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

How can product managers show leadership on privacy issues?

2010-07-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Privacy is becoming more critical, both to consumers and to businesses. While the underlying security technology may be complex, you don't need to be an expert to exercise leadership and help assure that your products meet market expectations.

At next Monday's (July 12) combined SDForum Marketing and Security SIG meetings, Phillip Burton will speak on the topic "What Every Product Manager Needs to Know About Security."

Burton is Principal Consultant and Trainer at the 280 Group, who bill themselves as "Product Marketing and Product Management Experts." Burton has been with them for four years, and has a 25-year career in product management and product marketing focused on information security, data communications and networking.

When I spoke to Burton this week, he said, "There are an alarming set of privacy issues" showing up with social media and Web 2.0, but some companies don't seem to care.

While raising alarms, he insists that "I'm not being alarmist."

"A single incident can damage your brand," said Burton. While he thinks that large companies are more likely to have their act together, recent incidents involving Facebook and Google Buzz show even they can get bitten by privacy problems, gaining bad P.R. in the process. For small businesses, a privacy breach can cause permanent damage.

The privacy issues will soon enter a whole new realm, with the "internet of things." Devices in your home, possibly something as critical as your home security system, or your maybe just your refrigerator - also critical if you like to eat - will be connected to the broader internet, allowing both the snooping of privacy violations (is anyone at home tonight?) or hacking (turning off your alarm system). Computers that manage or run medical diagnostics or tests are also an example of things becoming internet connected, with privacy and security risks that never existed before.

Smart phones are another example, where hacking incidents have already occurred. Burton told the story of Android applications that spoofed being legitimate banking applications, stealing account information.

"As a product manager, you are responsible to identify market opportunities, and provide leadership on product directions," often by generating marketing requirements in some form. But according to Burton, privacy and security are sometimes left out, either because product managers don't understand the issues, don't care, or feel they are so obvious they don't need to be mentioned.

While privacy issues are a moving target, "consumer perceptions are changing," and can't be ignored.

So how can a product manager respond?

"You don't need to understand the technology to raise issues and exert leadership," in privacy requirements for your product. Burton will list the key issues that a product manger needs to point out to be sure that privacy issues are addressed in the definition of the product.

So come by Monday, and you can provide privacy leadership for the products your manage.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen
follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Social Media Seminars with discounts for SDForum members

2010-06-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple seminars in Social Media, with special pricing for SDForum members:

http://snipr.com/xevg7

Kevin Heney was a speaker at the March MarketingSIG meeting and gave an informative talk on branding. You can read a summary of his presentation here.
I know Steve Farnsworth and can recommend his expertise.

Description (copied from the event web page):

Social Media and Branding Workshops

The same organization that brought the Silicon Valley Brand Forums to you for over a decade is now offering workshops in branding and social media. These intensive half-day sessions will teach you the skills and knowledge to advance your organization’s mission and your career.

Creating Preference for Your Products and Services

This half-day workshop gives attendees an understanding of the value of brand management and the steps involved in creating a brand strategy.

Attendees of this class will learn:

* What a brand is and why it’s important

* How to plan a brand strategy

* Common mistakes in brand management

* New opportunities and challenges in branding

Date: Tuesday June 22, 2010 ‑ Time: 8:30 am to 12:00

Location: Redwood Shores, Redwood City, CA

Cost: $119

Instructor: Kevin Heney, Executive Director, Silicon Valley Brand Forum

Using Social Media Strategically to Grow Your Business

This half-day workshop walks you through the steps in building a social media roadmap that gives you an action plan to succeed in your social media marketing efforts. By showing a clear process, the low cost and free resources, and how to make sense out of the social media landscape. You will be able to implement a strategy that creates awareness of your brand, shortens the sales cycle, and grows your brand as a preferred choice on your prospect’s short list.

Attendees of this class will learn how to:

* Set realistic and achievable goals

* Developed a social media strategy that helps sales people close more business

* Collect marketing intelligence on the competition

* Implement social media without adding headcount

* Choose which tactics are most effective, and where to start

* Build a loyal following of prospects and customers who will rave about your company

Date: Tuesday June 22, 2010 ‑ Time: 1:00 pm to 4:30

Location: Redwood Shores, Redwood City, CA

Cost: $119

Instructor: Steve Farnsworth, Chief Digital Strategist, Jolt Social Media

Digital initiatives can create RABID customers

2010-06-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

=============

Communities of common interests have been around as long as humans. Maybe longer.

But the ever wider distribution of the web, supporting networks and social networking software have changed the dynamics, allowing the creation of digital communities that can have a large effect on the success of your business or organization. These "digital initiatives" (in the terminology of our speaker) can:

Improve, or damage, your relationships with your customers.
Improve positive images or your company, or strengthen negative images.
Improve customer service and satisfaction.
Give your customers a voice, which can supply innovative ideas that you might never have thought of.
Help create a population of not just customers, but committed, even "rabid" fans.

At Monday's (6/14/2010) SDForum Marketing SIG meeting, Dylan Thomas, Digital Director at Rassak Experience, discussed strategies for developing your community initiative plans, but spent most of his talk describing digital initiative successes and failures.

Thomas gave a few ways of developing a strategy for community initiatives. This is part of a larger list limited by the time allotted to his presentation:

A digital community includes all of the people interested in your company, organization, or product. "The scary part about that is that you already have a community," said Thomas, even if you have done nothing to develop or communicate with it. Your first task is to figure out who these people are, and where and how they communicate.
Set goals for you digital initiative. Are you trying to increase revenue from existing customers, find new customers, increase the quality of your leads, build brand loyalty, or something else.
Decide on joining an existing community (Facebook being one example) or building a custom community.

Thomas gave a number of examples of businesses or organizations that have used community initiatives to improve their results. I will describe just a few of these:

The Axiom Group puts on conferences targeted to C-level, senior executives. Rassak Design created an on-line community (in this case built on Ning, a social media platform) to give conference attendees a controlled, and exclusive place where the can converse, both before and after the conference. Thomas reports that conference attendees felt that the overall value of attending (and paying for) the conference was increased by the digital community.

Factory Five cars, which are "kit" cars built by race car enthusiasts. Owners have formed their own community, ffcars.com, completely independent of the company that sells the kits. This community and the web site that supports it give the company a competitive advantage over other kit car companies. The combination of the product and the independent community created rabid fans. Thomas said that people chose Factory Five products in part because of the large community.

Dell computers represents its own MBA case study, right up to the present day. In this part of their history (2006), Dell was having problems with customer satisfaction, and getting a terrible reputation in the market. The first attempt at fixing this was to create a blog called "Direct to Dell," where the company explained (to liberally paraphrase Thomas) why they were right, and customers were wrong - describing how difficult it was to make personal computers, Dells problems, and why customers should like them anyway. That didn't help.

Pass two was to create the Ideastorm, a web site that still exists. Here, customers were able to complain, make suggestions, and get social credit from other users for having good answers and ideas. Even better, customers got more credit when Dell adopted one of their ideas into the product line. The results were happier customers, and Dell getting better ideas. Dell has also adopted Facebook and Twitter to communicate with customers and prospects. A happy ending for all.

You can find a copy of Thomas' presentation on the SDForum Marketing SIG web page.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Don't outspend. Outthink! Power up your marketing programs with the power of communities

2010-06-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Community initiatives can enhance your marketing communication program, make a small company look big, and help gain momentum for startups, all without big time or money commitments.

Even better, their impact can be measured, and they can even make money for your company.

Or so says Dylan Thomas. Thomas holds the title of Digital Director at Rassak Experience, a digital brand building and communications group. (My favorite quote from their web site - Don't outspend. Outthink!)

He will be speaking at next Monday's SDForum Marketing SIG (6/14) on the topic: Using Community Initiatives to Build Your Brand and Drive Business Results.

The current hot buzzword of social media is subset of community initiatives, which Thomas views with a "broad brush." He includes Facebook, Twitter, email marketing, and proprietary community web sites in his overall idea of a digital community.

As an example, Rassak Experience built a digital community for a marketing conference in Barcelona, allowing the participants to communicate with each other before the conference began.

"It enhanced the value of the conference by allowing people to connect in advance," said Thomas.

Monday's meeting will cover the different ways companies to get started, without investing a lot of time or money. One of the key questions that Thomas will discuss is whether to build or join - to build a custom site controlled by the company, or join an existing conversation about your company or products. Companies build and own their own site to better control what is being said about them. While the decision is not simple, in any case "you are better off being there than not being there."

If you attempt to control what people say, "they will just say it somewhere else." Plus, Thomas believes that with a little TLC, your critics can sometimes be turned into your vocal supporters.

Startups and small companies get a particular value from using community initiatives - they can build marketing momentum for their products with limited investment of the two things that are in the shortest supply in a startup - time and money. They cost little to start, and get a great return for their investment.

A community can make your company look larger than it really is. And if done right, it can almost run itself.

So stop by Monday night, ready to start your own community. Thomas promises both an informative and fun time.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

SIG TOPIC SURVEY - How should privacy be included in your marketing mix?

2010-05-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

Your help is requested in an informal survey of SDForum Marketing SIG members.

Would you be interested in a SDForum Marketing SIG meeting on the the topic:

How should privacy be included in your marketing mix?

Some topic ideas:

Is privacy, both policy and technology, a required part of your marketing mix?
What do customers, both business-to-consumer, and business-to-business, expect for privacy policies and practices.
What are some of the best privacy practices that work well, and what doesn't work.
What are some of the changes coming down the road, and how can marketing programs, and marketing managers, be prepared.

===

Any speaker suggestions would also be welcome. If there is interest expressed, either by commenting on the MarketingSIG blog, or by emailing me directly, we will try to schedule a session.

===
Your suggestions requested and appreciated,

Mark Helfen

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Not in any Job Description -- The Unwritten Role of Marketing

2010-05-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

by: James Downey

Think Avatar, iPad, Pablo Picasso—there’s gold on the right side or your brain.

Inviting audience members to rethink their marketing careers using the right sides of their brains, Joe Cullinane, executive advisor, consultant, educator, and author of two books on sales and social media, told the May 10, 2010 meeting of the SDForum Marketing SIG at DLA Piper that even in left-brained Silicon Valley there is “a shift toward creativity and relationships.”

As a first step, Cullinane instructed the crowd of marketers, use your right brain to build a better relationship with your boss. The baby boom generation grew up in an analog world of televisions and transistor radios; Generation Y in a digital world of ubiquitous computing. When boss and employee hail from different generations, Cullinane said, the marketer must negotiate communication styles—is it a phone call or a text message.

And it is relationship building, Cullinane explained, that is demanded of marketers who face a technical boss who not only disparages marketing but believes that he or she knows marketing better than the professional. And the technical boss who sets out not just to solve a problem but to change the world in ways as yet unarticulated forces the marketer to understand and communicate a vision.

Likewise, creativity and relationship building apply to the marketer’s participation in teams. Cullinane told the marketers in the audience to use their communication skills to align team dynamics with the strategic objectives of the organization. In seeking alignment, a marketer must understand the politics of an organization, the factions, the infighting, and the informal relationships that speak more to the distribution of power than formal titles and organization charts. This is not to say that a marketer must play politics, Cullinane continued. Rather a marketer should gain influence through integrity, achieving a reputation for trustworthiness that is the foundation of relationship building.

Right-brain thinking applies to career growth, Cullinane stated, asking audience members to examine “the stew called you” and to better understand that “special sauce” that makes each one of us unique. While it is helpful to overcome weaknesses, Cullinane said, we gain the greatest advantage by matching our careers to our strengths. Discover your bright spots through strength assessments, Cullinane told the audience, and involve others so as to see into blind spots and possibly earn a reference.

Marketers should not only know their bright spots, Cullinane said, but advertise those strengths. Get out and network, whether it is at a church, an alumni association, or a professional gathering like the Marketing SIG. Make yourself highly visible—volunteer, blog, write a book, record a podcast, post a video on YouTube.

Cullinane encouraged audience members to stimulate the right sides of their brains by making time for creative activities, whether painting, crafts, or music. If you enjoyed a creative pursuit when younger, Cullinane said, return to it. Regardless of your talent, time spent in a creative activity unleashes the powers of the brain’s right side to solve problems and inspire new ideas.

Imagination is at the core of brain’s right side, Cullinane told the audience, so imagine your future career in words that evoke the senses, words of feeling, smell, and taste, words that go beyond mere titles and salary expectations. Keep the picture clearly in mind, Cullinane exhorted, and please stay on the path.

=======================================

James Downey is an IT consultant and freelance writer who blogs about technology and process improvement at CloudOfInnovation.com.

A SDForum First?? Presentation by iPad

2010-05-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

Right or left brained, our speaker next Monday still has the tech bug, and will try something unique. Maybe a first for SDForum, certainly a first for the Marketing SIG.

Speakers usually bring their own laptop as a way to show presentation materials in our meeting room. But Joe Cullinane will bring his shiny new Apple iPad as a way to show his presentation, with hardware to connect it to the rooms projection system.

And, in good right brain thinking, also his laptop as a backup. Just in case.

Not in Any Job Description: The Unwritten Role of Marketing

2010-05-05T19:44:00.000-07:00

An appeal to the right side of the brain...

By Mark Helfen

Joe Cullinane wants to appeal to the right side of your brain.

Your left brain is the part that writes code, crunches numbers, or focuses on logic. But getting organizations and teams to work well, and allowing you to better support you manager and your team needs some right brain focus.

"Its surprising that this side - the right brain - gets so little attention when its so important," said Cullinane when I spoke to him about his presentation. "It's a skill you don't learn anywhere, yet it can help in your career."

Cullinane is an executive advisor, consultant, and coach who helps executives and entrepreneurs achieve their business goals. He is also an author of several books, including his latest, Surfing the Rift: The Executive's Guide to the Post-Web 2.0 World. He will speak on the topic Not in Any Job Description: The Unwritten Role of Marketing at the SDForum Marketing SIG meeting on May 10.

The human relations skills, or "the mortar between the bricks" as Cullinane describes it, are not in any job description, and is "not stuff they teach you in business school. Nobody teaches these things."

But from three perspectives, Cullinane will show how they can be key to your success - with your boss, your team, and yourself.

CEO and Leaders:

Cullinane has spent 15 years coaching CEOs and leaders, and has an understanding of what they are looking for in high-level executives.

"As an executive coach with CEOs and leaders, I understand their perspective. Their different view of things," said Cullinane.

Leaders are looking for people to "help make their vision a reality." The people who support them effectively need to understand power, politics, ego, and relationships. The boss needs to know that his or her people will "watch their back."

Teams:

By learning what's valuable to your team, and becoming more attuned to communications within the team, you can help get alignment between individuals and the organizations objectives. By understanding these issues, you can become a "linchpin" of your team, critical to its success.

Individuals:

Finally, these skills allow individuals to focus on strategies that allow them to position themselves to become a leader. You can come away with a plan to move your career forward by becoming the boss yourself.

So come next Monday night, and bring both sides of your brain.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Webguild Social Media Strategies Conference - special deal for SDForum members

2010-04-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

Webguild.org is putting on their Social Media Strategies conference on May 18 and 19 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.

If you are an SDFORUM member, you can get quite a break on the price.

Here is the deal, courtesy of Jeffrey Blake:

Social Media Strategies is a conference on social business, social marketing, advertising and optimization. Social media technologies are fundamentally changing the sales, marketing and operations. It is changing the way businesses acquire customers, market to, interact and communicate with customers. This conference features cutting edge topics, keynotes, workshops and discussions that provided strategic knowledge, insights and real world examples on how to successfully plan, implement and manage your organizations social media efforts to achieve your business goals.

http://www.webguild.org/events/socialmedia/ May 18-19 at Hyatt Regency Santa Clara

Exclusive discount for SDForum: $595 - use discount code: sdforum

Additionally - there will be some periodic raffles for free tickets - see the website.

Jeffrey says the code saves $555 off the non-member price of $1150.

Let me know if you decide to go.

When do you need a product strategy?

2010-04-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

=================

When your tiny technology startup is scrambling to get its first product out the door, or struggling to make its quarterly numbers, or responding to an unexpected sales opportunity, why should you take time away from such critical problems to develop a long term strategy?

Last Monday's SDForum Marketing SIG addressed this question, along with suggestions to get strategy development off the ground. The answer, according to Rich Mironov, is that having a strategy may save your company from a "post course correction."

Mironov is a principal at Mironov Consulting, where he helps early stage startups with their product management, and agile development. He is on the board of SVPMA, and writes the Product Bytes blog. He is also the author of The Art of Product Management.

Having a written strategy, and process to keep it updated, can save your budding business from problems, including what Mironov refers to as a "post course correction" - figuring out what really works in the market after all of the money is used up. He uses the analogy of the NASA moon landing, where a mid-course correction was planned. A change of direction early in the process is much easier than waiting. Of course, if you wait too long - the post course correction - it's too late.

Without a written strategy, companies respond to the "latest and loudest" problem - a new sales opportunity, or an interesting idea. While these may be valuable, the business needs to stop, compare, and validate ideas to make sure they will be successful the only place they matter - with customers that will pay for the result enough times to make the business prosper. Frequent changes can cause the business to thrash, wasting time, money, and market opportunity.

While the need for a strategy may be clear, the process of getting it started can be hard. For one thing, no single part of the company can own the result. The businesses strategy needs to involve all of the company's functions, and everyone needs to buy in. At an early stage, there may not yet be a person with the title "product manager" to run the process.

To at least get started, Mironov described the steps for a "barely sufficient" product strategy, taking from 4 to 8 hours:

Get a handful of key contributors together
Discuss and write down assumptions about your products, target markets, delivery dates, and how customer will use your product
Repeat monthly for a startup company, or quarterly for a product line in a larger business.

The idea is that strategy development isn't a one-time event, but an ongoing and evolving process.

The next step after getting your strategy on paper is to validate it where it counts - with people who have the money to actually buy what you plan to sell. This doesn't happen in your office, but out in front of potential customers. Mironov recommends that you ask your customers or prospects open ended questions, listen carefully, and take good notes. Don't form any conclusions until you see a clear pattern develop, usually after more than 8 interviews. When you report back to the company, the data in your notes will help support your conclusions.

Who the "you" is who does this work is one of the difficulties. When a company is tiny, it's probably the technical or marketing founder. Mironov recommends that a full time product manager get hired before the company reaches 25 people.

That product manager can now make the strategy development process run, keeping all parts of the company in the loop. The job of revisiting the business or product strategy never ends.

You can see a detailed presentation of Rich Mironov's presentation here at the SDForum Marketing SIG web site.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

PrivacyCamp - a barcamp in S.F, May 7

2010-04-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Privacy Camp - a free "unconference", will be held in San Francisco on Friday, May 7.

More data at their web page, here.

Here is a descriptive quote from their web page:

The San Francisco camp, held May 7 after the Web 2.0 Expo, aims to examine privacy and social networks.

Barcamps are user generated conferences. The agenda is typically decided in the first few hours by the participants. If you have a session you would like to moderate, propose it, and if there is enough interest it will happen. You don't need to be an expert to moderate a session, just willing to stand up in front of a small group and manage the process.

Privacy camp is a three part event this year. The San Francisco event is part 2. The first part already happened on April 17 in Washington D.C., with a focus on the government policy and privacy. Part three is scheduled for Toronto, in June (exact date not yet decided).

Barcamps are a great way to learn and network.

=================

Mark Helfen

.

Strategy development doesn’t naturally live in any organization. So where should it live?

2010-04-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Where should strategy live in your company?

The job of strategy development for your company “doesn’t naturally live in any organization,” says Rich Mironov. So where should it go?

Mironov will be speaking at the April 12 SDForum Marketing SIG meeting on the topic “Where does/should strategy live in your company.” He is a principal at Mironov Consulting, and the author of the book The Art of Product Management.

Mironov clearly has a soft spot for people with the title “Product Manager,” who should own the process of developing company and product strategies, describing them as “the concentration point”, “the rallying point,” and “the organizing principle” for the development of a company’s strategy.

But where should a product manager live in the organization?

In his experience, they actually live all over. In companies he has examined, one-third live in marketing, one-third in engineering, and one-third in “other” – somewhere else in the organization. Product strategy development doesn’t seem to have a natural home.

Whichever organization its part of, the resulting strategy can appear to have a bias based on its place in the organization. If the strategy is owned by one department, “it will fail.”

So while there is no natural home, it has to live somewhere. Larger organizations can have separate strategy groups, but for small startups and mid-sized companies this isn’t affordable.

It’s critical that even for startups that haven’t shipped their first product, a corporate and product strategy is developed.

If a startup doesn’t have a good strategy, “every sales call with every prospect disrupts the strategy,” putting companies in “thrash mode.” A good strategy helps small companies from being buffeted by “pseudo market input,” which is my candidate for the phrase of the month. Each piece of new data can be considered, instead of forcing the company to react instantly.

Ultimately, strategy development is a process, not a deliverable.

Monday night’s presentation will help you bridge the divide between the reality that strategy development has to live somewhere, and the ideal that it’s a company wide process responding to the requirements of every business function.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:

mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

ACM Data Mining Camp, March 20, 2010

2010-03-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

Here is another Barcamp - this one on data mining, this Saturday.

Barcamps are free, a great way to increase subject knowledge and to network.

Barcamps usually create their own agenda at their start, and this one is no different.

Details here

Here are some details from their email announcement:

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery SF Bay Area -- the professional
organization for those who work in computing -- is putting on a one-day
Data Mining Camp this Saturday in San Jose at the offices of eBay.
Registration starts at 11:15; the event's close will be at 7:30p.

Anyone interested in data mining, cloud computing, or related fields is
welcome to attend. There is no charge. Lunch and dinner will be provided.
We will have a recruiting session during the event, open to all job seekers
and all recruiters/hiring managers.

At an "unconference", any attendee is welcome to present a session (space available) -- just ask. We will provide a classroom and a time slot. Also,an excellent plenary opening session will feature many top people in the field.

A pre-conference class from 9 to 11:30a will be presented by Salford
Systems. This optional training session is $30.

We expect 400-600 attendees;

Branding at SDForum

2010-03-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

One of our attendees, Michal Lenchner, wrote two articles covering our meeting.

Check these out:

How to build a strong brand and gain trust?

http://bit.ly/94e7CT

http://bit.ly/8YA1Hj

=====

Mark Helfen

A brand is an emotional conclusion to a logical process...

2010-03-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

“A brand is a promise. An emotional conclusion to a logical process.”

So says Kevin Heney, speaking at last Monday’s (March 8,2010) SDForum MarktingSIG meeting.

Heney runs Kevin Heney Design (www.heneybrand.com), a consulting firm that helps businesses with their branding. He is also the founder of the Silicon Valley Brand Forum (svbrandforum.com), a professional association where branding professionals can discuss the challenges of branding. (Check the forums website for their next meeting, coming up on May 4.)

Marketers frequently discuss the idea of a brand, but people using the same words sometimes mean different things. Heney’s definition is more precise, developed after a long focus helping companies with their brand identity.

“Brands are an emotional relationship to a company,” said Heney. “Companies produce products, but customers buy brands.”

Positioning is another term frequently discussed in marketing circles. The two are distinguished by logic versus emotion. Positioning is a logical result, branding an emotional one.

Brands can carry a large part of the value of a business. By Heney’s calculation, the value of the Coca-Cola brand (sometimes referred to as brand equity) accounts for 91 percent of the market valuation of the Coca Cola Company.

In fact, a brand can exist without a company behind it. Pan Am is a widely recognized brand and logo, even though the airline of that name has not been in operation since 1991.

The critical information for businesses is that they must manage their brand.

‘You can’t decide to not have a brand,” said Heney. Your audience, or customers, creates the perception of your brand. You need to assess their perception, and adjust both your brand and your company’s behavior to support the brand you want to have. In both your marketing materials, and in the on-line/web 2.0 world, be aware of your brand image, what other people are saying, and manage your brand.

Heney presented a number of ways to assess the value and perception of your brand, in the process of developing a formal brand strategy.

But the list was pretty long for a new company just getting its brand act together. So if you are a start-up, how do you start creating and managing your brand?

The key is consistency. Brand building starts within your company, and is both “top down, and bottom up.” Meaning that everyone in your company needs to give the same answer when asked what you do, and what your best at. Everyone needs to use the same logos, wording, and images to identify your brand. You should establish a central repository of branding materials that everyone draws on when presenting your company to the world.

You can see Heney’s complete presentation on the SDForum web site, here.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

P-Camp 2010 Silicon Valley - March 13

2010-03-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen
=============

P-Camp 2010 Silicon Valley will be on March 13, and if you are a Product Manager or Product Marketing Manager, you don’t want to miss it. I was at last years, and it was quite an event.

P-Camp is a barcamp. What’s a barcamp?

Well, there is a whole history of where the idea of a barcamp originated. You can read about it here, but it isn’t really relevant to deciding to attend. Barcamps have nothing do to with bars, beer, or other alcoholic beverages, at least not during the session. What you do after is your own business.

There are barcamps all over the world on a large variety of topics. (The Nairobi 2010 barcamp is currently being planned.) I recently attended Freelance Camp (for freelance writers) in Santa Cruz – it was a great day.

The idea of a barcamp is an “unconference,” - an open source meeting where the conference attendees make up the days agenda when the morning starts. P-Camp is a little more organized – morning sessions are set up in advance by a vote of the attendees, while afternoon sessions will be decided on the morning of the event. If you have a topic you would like to discuss with fellow marketers, you can organize it and run it. You don’t need to be an expert to run a session, you just need to be willing to stand up in front of a group and manage the process.

Whether you run a session or not, its worthwhile. A whole day devoted to product management and marketing topics, all surrounded by your peers. A great learning and networking opportunity.

You should register in advance. In prior years, registration filled up. Cost is…. free.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

For most people there’s not much training in branding. They learn it in the field.

2010-03-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen
=============

“For most people there’s not much training in branding. They learn it in the field.”

So says Kevin Heney, speaker at next Monday’s (March 8) SDForum Marketing SIG meeting.

Heney runs Kevin Heney Design , a consulting firm that helps businesses with their branding. He is also the founder of the Silicon Valley Brand Forum , where branding professionals discuss the challenges of branding. (Check the forums website for their next meeting, coming up on May 4.)

Heney’s presentation will cover the value of a strong brand and what branding can do for your business, how to strengthen your brand, and some of the new challenges in brand management.

Many companies do nothing to manage their brand. Some technology companies are lead by “brilliant people that are strong on technology, but not strong on branding.” Heney’s talk will explain why ignoring your business brand isn’t a good strategy.

He will bring a number of real world examples of brand positives and negatives. Although following good branding strategy, the negatives aren’t negative, just “more challenging.”

Like other areas of marketing, new technology shakes things up and changes the balance. In the case of branding, social media has changed the landscape.

“Most people underestimate the effects of social media in their brand,” said Heney, both in the positive and negative direction.

He related the story of a brand “challenge” faced by United Airlines, involving the airline, a guitar, Youtube, and potentially $180 million in value. I won’t repeat it here – you will need to show up next Monday to hear all of the details.

So come to Monday’s meeting, and start your field training on branding.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Email should still be a part of your marketing mix.

2010-02-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

The worlds second oldest form of Internet marketing*, email, can still be an effective part of your marketing and sales strategy.

But as described by Laurie Beasley, founder and president of Beasley Direct Marketing, there is a great deal of strategy, tactics, and - mostly - thinking needed to run an effective campaign and get results.

Beasley was the speaker at the February 8 SDForum Marketing SIG meeting.

Beasley is also President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California, and an instructor at U.C. Berkeley Extension.

"Email marketing is old. It's been around for 7 to 10 years. But people are still as crummy at it as they ever were," said Beasley.

Beasley was the speaker at the SDForum Marketing SIG meeting for February, and she offered a number of suggestions on how to make email marketing pay off.

Email marketing needs careful thinking about content, the construction and look of the email, the frequency of emailing, and even the time when it's sent. Not just a "batch and blast" mentality. "That fills up their in box with worse than SPAM, with crap," said Beasley.

The email content needs to be written so that "every word needs to be relevant to the person you are sending to." Keep it light in text and graphics, with lots of white space.

"You need to invest in content to make it interesting and lively," words which this writer certainly approves.

"The longest people will spend on an email is 55 seconds, so you have 55 seconds to convince them to do something, and then they're out," said Beasley.

The email construction, or layout, needs to reflect the email programs your customers use. The things people look at are the from field, the subject, the preview pane (for Outlook users), and if you get them to open the email, to portion that is visible without any scrolling.

The time you send an email is important. Don't send overnight, or your customers will arrive at work with your message as one of a large pile that needs to be looked at. Beasley recommends the time before or after lunch, where they may be fewer meeting and less competition for attention.

How do you get addresses to email to? One way is to rent lists where people have opted in to receive third party emails. This is a way to contact potential customers (prospects), but the best strategy is to combine email with telemarketing. Direct human contact is still more powerful then just email.

One of the best ways to build you in-house list is to allow people to sign up on your web page. People opt-in for newsletters more than any other reason. Which gets back around to being sure that your newsletter is relevant and interesting to your readers. Emails that aren't relevant to the person who receives them are one of the main reasons that people later opt-out of your email list.

=============
* The (almost) first Internet marketing.
Back in the early days of the Internet, the backbone was owned and operated by government agencies - the principally National Science Foundation. When you got your personal email address, you had to agree that you wouldn't use the Internet for commercial purposes (really!). The first advertising SPAM was posted to Usenet groups by the still notorious Sanford (Spamford) Wallace, advertising green cards for immigrants.
=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:

mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

The first internet marketing strategy - email - should still be a key part of your marketing mix.

2010-01-29T16:21:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

What might be the original internet marketing strategy – email – is still alive and kicking, and a can be a valuable part of your overall marketing mix. Or so says Laurie Beasley, founder and president of Beasley Direct Marketing. She is also President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California.

Beasley will speak at the Monday, February 8 SDForum Marketing SIG meeting on the topic “Building Blocks to successful B2B Email Marketing.”

Email is still a widely used strategy, and its use is growing in a difficult economy. As one example “every software company does email marketing,” according to Beasley.

From her perspective, email marketing includes a broad variety of information sent by companies to their customers, or potential customers. Software updates, company news, customer retention marketing, and prospecting all fall in the email marketing area.

“Its difficult to pack everything into a single hour,” said Beasley, but she commits to giving attendees the “core foundation for success” of an email marketing strategy.

Since much of the email marketing I get has subject lines like “Size does matter,” or “Term Life With No Physical?” I asked her about how spam affects the strategy.

Her answer was that spam isn’t illegal, just not very effective.

The idea is to use opt-in marketing. When you send email to a rented list, everyone on the list has opted-in. The objective is to get a relevant offer in front of the right people, something that spam isn’t very good at.

Beasley listed three main topics for her presentation:

1. What a relevant email offer is.

2. Tried and true techniques for growing your own email list.

3. Why subscribers choose to opt-in for an email list.

So come to the Feb 8 meeting, and “If you are, or will be responsible for email marketing, you will learn how to plan and resource an effective email marketing project.”

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Search Engine Optimization for Beginners

2010-01-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

The objective is to get attention and traffic to your web site, to sell your products or services, by getting on the first page or two of results when potential customers use a search engine – Google or another.

The strategy is to use a new version of public relations – that is, getting other people (or in this case, search engines) to get your web site and your business noticed, without paying for it.

The tactics are Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. At last Monday’s SDForum MarketingSIG, Athol and Dan Foden described a large number of techniques and tricks to help make sure your web site is seen when prospects are searching for what you sell.

At one time, businesses pursued SEO strategies to get a good placement in search results, But then search engine marketing (SEM), or paid search engine advertising, took over.

SEM has become less effective over the last few years said Foden. In fact, his consulting business, Brighter Naming, has dropped almost all paid search advertising.

At the same time search engines are smarter. Intelligent, relevant, and regularly updated content on your web site can get you up in the search engine output, instead of 5 or 10 pages down the list.

The result is “the best ROI on your marketing dollar,” and you can start “on a shoestring.” As in close to free. It all starts with a web site. It’s even a low investment of time. After getting set up, Foden says that 10 minutes a day can keep your web site fresh enough to keep you well up in Google’s search results.

The balance of the presentation was a large number of hints and tactics to make your web investment pay off. I will only list a few of my favorites here. If you are interested in the complete list, check out his book Brighter SEO Organic Search Engine Optimization.

1. Two views of your web site:
There are two views of every web site – the human view, and the robot view. The robot is the process from Google and other search engines that indexes your web site with occasional visits.
Two web sites were shown side by side, both dentists who compete in the Dallas area. One was based on interesting graphics, the other text heavy. By looking at the page source (which most browsers let you see) the difference in what the search robot sees was clear. Robots can’t read graphics, so you need to be sure that there is plenty of text to describe your business and target market. This is part of the text that allows your web site to be found.

2. Keywords:
In addition to the text displayed on your page, there are keywords and meta-tags that are not visible to the end user. But they are visible to the search robot. While the tag values and the text on the page are different, they should be aligned, covering the same topics. For at least one example of tags, check out Foden’s Brighter Naming web site, and view the page source. The tags are

A search on Google for “meta tags google” generates a lot of information, including some documentation directly from Google.

3. Content:
Content, in this context, means words strung together that provide meaning and value to your potential customers. This could be a description of your business or services, or articles you write that show your expertise and inform your prospects and customers. More useful and compelling content means more that you web site has more “stickiness” – people spend more time looking at it, and you have more chances to sell them something.

Search engines value content also. They are looking for results that will deliver value to their users, and they are getting better at finding it. So more content helps raise the position you appear in a search, and increases the search terms that will find you. According to Foden, the days of just repeating paragraphs of junk with the right words to fool a search engine are past.

4. Regular updates:
Search engines also value change. So after you get all that valuable content in place, it immediately begins to go stale. You need to keep adding information to your web site. That’s where 10 minutes a day comes from. Newer content will help your web site show higher in search results.

5. Tools to help:
There are a number of mostly free tools to help you understand what key words are most frequently searched, how your web site is viewed by search engines, where people spend time on your site. The ISP where your web site is hosted probably keeps statistics on your web pages – contact them for information. Google analytics is a service that gives you “rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness,” and its free from Google (www.google.com/analytics.) A paid service is Keyword Spy (www.keywordspy.com)

6. Register you web site:
You need to register your web site with a potentially long list of search directories. Starting with Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc… A key directory is the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org/). These directories are where search engines go to find new sites.

Foden’ new book has a four-page list. A Google search for “search engine registration” will return about 52 million hits that you can check out.

7. Inbound, relevant links:
One of the factors that Google uses to determine the popularity and value of your web site is to its users is by the number of other sites that point to yours (inbound links). In the past, whole systems of interlinked sites were set up to try to achieve this end. Supposedly the now smarter search engines value “relevant links” more highly than a random collection. Foden suggests posting on blogs with links back to your site. Or exchanging links with friendly, non-competitive businesses or partners, each site pointing to the other.

This is only a small sampling of last Monday’s meeting. And the meeting is only a tiny fraction of what has become an entire industry – SEO optimization. There are many web sites and newsletters that cover the area. Or you can buy Foden’s new book for an introduction.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Win the Search Engine Wars – or – Your graphics designer is screwing up you website rankings.

2010-01-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

You can win at the search engine wars, and Athol and Dan Foden will show you how at next Monday’s SDForum Marketing SIG meeting.

Foden is president of Brighter Naming, which helps companies develop names both for their products and for themselves. He also consults on internet marketing, search engine optimization, and is the author of the recently released book Brighter SEO: Organic Search Engine Optimization. He will be assisted by his son Ben, also a freelance marketing consultant.

Foden has been a popular speaker at previous Marketing SIG meetings.

I spoke to him Tuesday, and he said that his presentation would be practical advice, using real web sites, starting with his, for a detailed description of how you can get a high page rank on Google.

As search engines have gotten more intelligent, “honest citizens (or webizens) can play again,” said Foden. “You don’t have to game the system.”

Foden promotes a balanced approach, including a web site, search engine optimization, blogs, and social media that form the “SEO Power Pyramid.”

The result is “free” visibility, without paying for advertising. Perfect for small businesses, departments, or the individual consultant, including those just starting out. No need to pay Google for Adwords.

“If you are out of work, starting a business, this is a low cost way to get noticed,” and you can do it yourself said Foden.

The wide reach of the web will widen your visibility beyond the limited circle of friends, family, and your contact list to an international audience, and Foden says his own business is “living proof,” attracting clients from well beyond the valley within the last month.

Monday’s meeting will cover four topics:

- How to do integrated internet marketing on a shoestring.

- How you can start getting visibility for your small business tomorrow.

- How to stay a step ahead of the curve in the internet space.

And, perhaps most surprisingly,

- How your graphics designer is screwing up your website rankings.

“There are two views of a website. The human view, and the robot view. People don’t think of the difference,” said Foden.

You will learn the difference at Monday’s meeting.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Dump the Plug! - your wireless future at the SDForum Marketing SIG

2009-12-09T21:07:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

Next Monday's Marketing SIG meeting (December 14) will be about wireless power - a future where wall warts, extension cords, and floor spaghetti will all disappear. Eventually....

I managed to talk to two of the evening's panelists. Christopher Surdi of PowerBeam, and Afshin Partovi of Mojo Mobility, and here are a few predictions:

"In 5 to 10 years, the word 'recharge' will be deleted from every day vocabulary"
"Your sons and daughters will never have to plug anything in for power"
Furniture will be designed and built so that wires will disappear. Simply by putting your cell phone, desk lamp, or wireless on your desk it will be powered.
People at the local Starbucks will no longer compete for tables close to wall plugs. Just by being there, your cell phone or laptop will be recharged.

In addition to Surdi and Partovi, Steve Day of Malabar Technologies will also be a panelist.

PowerBeam and Mojo Mobility both have different technologies, but both panelists believe there is a large consumer demand for wireless power. Think WIFI, but instead of a data signal, the power necessary to run the device, or charge the battery, will be available without a physical connection.

The initial products are charging pads that are plugged in, and cell phones or laptops that have batteries with "receivers" to get power.

The market is just starting up. According to Partovi, Dell has released a laptop with a wireless charging unit. The Latitude Z business laptop can be placed on a special stand that recharges the battery. But the stand and laptop only work with each other.

The eventual idea is "ubiquitous access to power. In your car, at Starbucks, built into furniture, on the tray table of your airplane seat. In any public area," said Partovi. "Easy, universal access."

Think about the stuff you need to haul along when you travel - chargers for each of your battery powered items, maybe an extension cord. The idea is to leave them all at home

This future is still a ways away. Both companies are working with OEMs to design their technology into products, and said that consumer products will be available in late 2010 or early 2011. And both forecast wide consumer adoption in the 5 to 10 year time frame.

Standards are also just starting to be developed, to allow power supplies and devices to interoperate. Both products are intelligent and don't consume power when there is no demand.

So come to the MarketingSIG on Monday - we promise that everyone will get a charge out of the meeting. You might even walk out with your cell phone battery topped up.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Marketing the new-new v.s. the old-new: clean tech v.s. high tech marketing

2009-11-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

By Mark Helfen

The new-new was on display Monday, as a panel of marketers from clean tech businesses described clean tech marketing, and compared it with marketing the old-new - high tech products.

The panelists, both with high tech marketing backgrounds, said that clean tech marketing has similar tactics, but different strategic thinking - with a different language, a different technology, different customer motivations, and a different eco-system.

The panel, held Monday November 9, included Kate Gerwe, COO of Lucid Design, and Marcia Kadanoff, Vice President of Marketing at Sustainable Spaces. Moderators were Kathleen Gilligan and Karen Janowski of the EcoStrategy Group.

Before Lucid, Gerwe had been in marketing leadership positions at Yahoo, and Netscape. She also led the volunteer "Green Team" at Yahoo, which was a factor in her move to Lucid.

Lucid describes itself as "The pioneer in real-time resource use feedback technology." They offer instrumentation and software to help evaluate building energy use and other factors of environmental impact. Gerwe says that universities are one of their principle markets.

Kadanoff held marketing leadership positions at Zannel, a social media company, and had positions in marketing and management at other technology companies, both startups, and Apple. Her company, Sustainable Spaces does "green energy remodeling," both to reduce a homes energy footprint, along with making it a more comfortable place to live.

So how does clean tech marketing compare with high tech marketing?

"At some level, marketing is marketing," said Gerwe. The hardest part is figuring out what customers are looking for, and how you solve their problems. But from that point, the tactics fall out and are similar to high tech marketing.

Kadanoff had a similar view.

"I was hired because I knew the technical side of marketing." The company wanted her background in social media, knowledge of how to build a web site to drive business, and strategic pricing.

But at a deeper level, the marketing is different. For one thing, it's a "different language, a different ecosystem," said Kadanoff. Instead of dealing with computer scientists, you're dealing with building scientists.

And the customer drives are different. Return on investment is lower on the requirement list. It's less an economic decision, or the coolest product. It's more about sustainability and improving the global environment.

Moving from high tech to clean tech marketing requires some extra steps. Both panelists said that current tactical marketing skills, while a requirement, were not enough.

"I don't think I would have been hired without some previous experience in clean tech,' said Kadanoff. In her case, she had been a customer of the company some years before, and had her house remodeled to be more energy efficient. It would be fair to say that she was happy with the results. In addition, she had done a consulting project looking at franchising a home remodeling company.

Gerwe concurred. Her time managing Yahoo's volunteer Green Team made the difference.

Knowledge and demonstrated passion for clean, green products and ideas need to be in your background.

"Take a pro-bono, or low-bono project in clean tech," said Kadanoff. "I know I would not be sitting in this chair if it were not for that experience."

Seek out people in the business, and learn the language. And you need to be really committed.

"I'll be honest with you, clean tech pays 20 percent less" than comparable high tech jobs, said Kadanoff. "The salary scales are lower."

Gerwe had a similar answer.

"We used Linkedin when we post jobs, and we do want to see some sort of commitment to something in the green space," said Gerwe. "If I hadn't been on the Green Team for a couple of years getting into that mind space I wouldn't be here."

"We recently hired someone who had a couple of different volunteer things where he was interning for free, and was really passionate about it. You could see that. It comes through."

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

2009-11-04T15:34:00.000-08:00

Marketing - Moving from High Tech to Clean Tech

By Mark Helfen

It will be a clean, green evening at the November 9 SDForum Marketing SIG meeting, where an expert panel will discuss marketing clean technology, and in particular how clean tech marketing differs from high tech marketing.

The moderators, Kathleen Gilligan and Karen Janowski, are co-founders of the EcoStrategy Group, a consultancy that helps companies in "Bringing Clean Technology Products to Market" and "Helping Businesses 'Go Green.'"

I spoke to Janowski about what to expect during the evening.

For people who are interested in marketing clean tech, they will "learn the kind of career paths that it takes to get from where they are," marketing high tech, to marketing clean tech, said Janowski.

Techniques and tools that come out of high tech marketing can sometimes be applied to clean tech. The panel will talk about where things are the same, and where they diverge.

The topic fits the "classic MarketingSIG audience," according to Janowski. She lists people who currently market high tech but want to move toward clean tech, marketing managers already in the clean tech space, and startups that plan to be selling clean tech products. People marketing high tech products will also gain fresh perspective about new marketing techniques.

I asked her about the three panelists will speak at the meeting.

Marcia Kadanoff is Vice President of Marketing at Sustainable Spaces. Sustainable Spaces describes itself as "Bay Area's leader in green energy remodeling." Kadanoff has been around the valley for a long time, and is an expert at creating "demand by key decision makers," said Janowski.

Kate Gerwe is COO at the Lucid Design Group. They describe themselves as "The pioneer in real-time resource use feedback technology." One of Lucid's primary markets is universities, and according to Janowski, Gerwe's background at Yahoo helps her "create communities" with early adopters, administrators, and students.

Tom Tansy is Vice President of Marketing at Fat Spaniel Technologies, who "the leading independent provider of critical monitoring and reporting services for the renewable energy industry." According to Janowski, Tansy has experience in several clean tech businesses. His prior job was selling clean tech to consumers, while Fat Spaniel sells to businesses.

Where does the "fat spaniel" come in? You will need to show up Monday to find out.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing

2009-10-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

If you have ever worked in marketing, you probably have noticed a certain disconnect between corporate marketing and the field sales organization. There is a “constant tension” between the organizations, according to Sandy Hawke, who is a Senior Director of Product Marketing at BigFix.

But Hawke has had some success in “bridging the gap,” and will share some of her strategies in a talk titled The Zen of Sales and Marketing Teamwork, next Monday at the October 12 SDForum Marketing SIG meeting (details here).

I spoke to Hawke on Wednesday, October 7, and asked her about her presentation.

She takes a broad view of marketing – and includes not only product marketing, but also product management, marcom, PR, web development, and lead generation – anyone who helps sales but doesn’t directly carry a quota.

Working well with sales, especially in these tough economic times, can help both your company and your career.

Hawke was once one of those quota carrying sales reps, and when she went from a field position to a product marketing role back at corporate headquarters, she vowed to “remember how tough the battle is.”

“The sales force is my customer,” she said, and described herself as their advocate.

She will use her first hand experience to help you “get inside the sales person head,” and understand what its like to walk in their shoes.

“You need to understand the challenges in another department that you rely on for your success.”

Hawke explained how she considers special product feature requests from sales reps, something that happens regularly in large, complex software products – she evaluates the revenue the change will generate for the company.

But as a former product manager, I pointed out that there is a weak correlation between the revenue a new product feature will generate, and the noise level the request generates from field sales. After all, sales reps are particularly good at persuading people to their point of view.

“I will say no, but I’m not Doctor No,” said Hawke. “You can still get along with sales without saying yes to everything.”

Some of her response is based on the personality and reputation of the person who is requesting the feature.

“Within a month I know which ones to believe.”

You can learn how to decide who to believe at next Monday’s meeting.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Your Launch Strategy - An Apple a Day...

2009-09-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Responding to his client's request that he wanted to "launch products like Apple," Josh Weinberg developed "a whole new field of study." Perhaps "launchology" might be the term. (Not a word used by Weinberg.)

At the SDForum Marketing SIG meeting on September 14, Weinberg, President of the Digital Life Consulting Group, described his study, summarized in 11 rules, for successfully launching consumer technology products. His presentation showed examples of great launches, mostly starring Apple Computer's Steve Jobs.

But I would summarize his lessons with a single idea - that the launch, and planning for the launch, is an equal partner to every other part of creating the product, at least for products targeted to consumers. Equal to engineering, product development, product marketing, and all of the other functions in getting a product out of the door. Launch planning needs to start early, not when the product is almost complete.

Weinberg advocates appointing a launch manager to run the launch team, with the product manager one of the attendees at the team. The launch manager is responsible for the product launch, instead of the more typical approach of handing the job to the product manager.

By focusing on the launch, your product gets off to a successful start. This can help move your product out of the price wars. He supplied some examples (Cuil.com, the search engine - remember them?) where the damage of a muffed launch is never undone.

Apple figured prominently in Weinberg's presentation. In fact, it would be fair to say that launchology is largely a study of Apple launch strategies, which he has decoded from outside the company.

He may have picked the right target. Last week, the market research firm Interbrand moved Apple up four places on its list of the 100 best global brands, calling Apple "among the most iconic of relatively young brands in the world." Following the 11 rules in his list must play a part.

You can get the complete list of rules from Weinberg directly, but here are a few favorites:

1. It's a product experience.
Meaning it's everything about the product, not just the technology. The box it's packed in, and everything included in the box. The manuals. How it assembles, how you upgrade from the prior version, how you get support, and lots more. The complete experience of purchasing, opening the box, and owning the product.

6. Products have names.
Ipod, Flip, Blackberry are names. SGX2275 isn't a name, it's a number.

8. Communicate clearly.
As a writer, one of my favorites. If you live in Silicon Valley and work in technology, you speak a different language than the rest of the planet. Information about your consumer product needs to be written for normal people.

10. Launches are theater.
You will have to watch Weinberg's presentation and its video clips of Steve Jobs to see some examples. As a one time product manager (of business technology products) I have to admit that I never considered the product launches that I worked on even mildly entertaining, much less theatrical. But then not every company has Jobs to front for them.

You can contact Weinberg through his Digital Life Consulting Group Web site, www.Dlifegroup.com.

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Don’t Just Plan the Party

2009-09-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

“The consumer technology industry needs to forget it’s a technology industry, and must move to being a consumer product industry.”

Or so said Joshua Weinberg, President of The Digital Life Consulting Group, when I interviewed him to ask about his upcoming SDForum Marketing SIG talk. He will be speaking at the Monday, September 14 meeting, and you can check out the meeting announcement here.

Weinberg has studied companies that do a great job of launching consumer technology products, and has developed a list of rules for the perfect launch. The idea is to have everything ready when the product publicly launched. The same rules that apply to physical products also apply to web based consumer products. Business products also benefit from following the rules.

Apple is a company that does a great job, and Weinberg studies Apple's product launches, which helped him crystallize the rules.

“A launch is not planning six weeks for a big party,” said Weinberg. “It’s a year long process that starts at the moment the product starts.”

He referred to his recent blog posting “Why would Sony launch a product that consumers can’t buy?” which compares Sony’s Reader launch to product launches from Apple and Bose.

“Sony is not a failure, but clearly Apple has mind share.”

The “little things” matter a lot, like the product having a name as opposed to just a meaningless string of letters and numbers. Every accessory in the box is as important as the main product. For a web product, the sign-up process is as critical as how the product works day to day.

While companies can be “somewhat successful” without using his strategy, they can be “more successful the more rules they follow.”

Here in the valley, there is a long tradition of delivering the absolutely newest technology even if it’s not fully productized. If you have purchased technology products recently, you may have seen that some, or many, companies don’t have everything together when the product is launched. I related my recent purchase of a (name brand withheld) router where the User Guide is not yet finished.

Weinberg’s response is that “if the only thing you have is being first to market, there is not a lot there.”

“Most of these rules are blatantly obvious,” said Weinberg. “But if it’s so obvious, how come people aren’t doing it?”

You can ask him yourself at our next meeting on the 14th.

You can reach Weinberg at http://dlifegroup.com/

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Pre-Networking Preparation

2009-09-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

From
Leslie Butlar
"Public Relations Director"
SDForum Marketing SIG

September 14th's SDForum Marketing SIG is approaching quickly and I'm reaching out with encouragement for our first time guests, and suggestions for returning members, on how to get the most from your time at our events.

What might I do in Pre-Networking Preparation which would benefit might attendance for the upcoming meeting?

Networking Preparation 101!

There are some critical points you need to
consider prior to attending a networking event.
Then, before walking into the room, go through your checklist:

If this is your first visit, did you research this group?
Is this an event at which you'll find your target market?
Do you know the names of the board members so you can meet them first?
Are you wearing your million dollar suit?
Do you have the perfect haircut for the shape of your face?
Do you have the best make-up strategies in place?
Have you packed your business cards? (Make sure they don't look like they went through the wash)
Are you carrying your cards in a nice container?
Do you have a pen that works?
How is your overall hygiene?
Are you setting your intention prior to entering the room?
Have you left drama at the door?
Are you going in with your heart instead of your head?

If you are prepared for any event, you will
have a maximum return on your investments. It is
a good idea to make a list and be prepared.

You want to make sure that all these questions
are answered so that you have a GREAT experience
and your networking dollars are not being
wasted. You only have one chance to make that
"first" impression. Make sure it's a good one!

At each Event there is an "opportunity to
connect" when you share the space with another person.

Tips borrowed from Kathleen Ronald's Speaktacular Connection Newsletter - September 2009

==================================================
Article Submitted by Leslie Butlar
"Public Relations Director"
SDForum Marketing SIG
Committee Member

it takes a valley to raise a company

2009-07-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

Strategic Partnerships for Early Stage Startups

By Mark Helfen

During his July 13 presentation to the SDForum Marketing SIG, Brad Reddersen played off the well known quote (and book title) that "it takes a village to raise a child," changing it to "it takes a valley to raise a company."

Reddersen is CEO of Stranova, a consulting firm that focuses on strategic planning through the use of Business Ecosystem models. In his experience, finding the right set of strategic partners is a key factor in the success of a startup business.

"These are people who are going to be with you for a very long time," said Reddersen. "A strategic community, not just partners."

The ideal place for a startup is to either create a new business ecosystem, or find an existing one where it can take a critical place, and this requires strategic partners.

Reddersen described a process or methodology to find a good match in strategic partners, first by carefully defining your business in the broader marketplace, and then evaluating potential partners. There are three steps or factors to consider.

I. The first step is to define your companies core essence. Reddersen lists three factors in your essence - the new field you are trying to create with your business, your core processes, and you're your core values.

The field is the environment, or ecosystem that the new business will either create, or fit into. This is the complex web of products, processes, services, and companies that provide value to customers.

The core processes are the way you supply value to your customers. Reddersen uses the example of the iTunes store, which while not a startup enterprise, was a startup business for Apple. The core process in this case was to supply single songs, at a fixed price, available for easy download, while preserving digital rights management. Since no on would pay to hear Steve Jobs sing, finding partners with content (record labels) was key to the iTunes store (and the iPods) success.

Core values define the positioning and competitive place of your business or products. For example, it could be where your products will be priced, how they will compete. Another example of values are attached to companies in the green space, and how they will effect the broader environment.

II. The second step it to understand at what level you want to compete in your ecosystem. He defines six levels of competition, from the lowest - your product meets minimum standards, to the highest - your company sets global standards, and your business is critical to the business ecosystem. Partners should want to live at the same level in Reddersen's model.

III. Third, decide on the type of strategic partner that is the best fit. There are three types - operational, product or service related, and blockers or enablers.

Operational partners help your company function more effectively by providing part of the product or service your offer.

"Don't do it all yourself, " said Reddersen, "[find] who can you go to, who can you partner with."

Product or service related partners provide a value added product or process, and depend on what type of value add your company and your potential product offer. Redderson has a six part model of different types of value adds.

Finally, blocker or enablers. These are partners that enable you to get into a space you couldn't on your own, or block a competitor from the market.

According to Reddersen, a good strategic partner will share five characteristics with your company:

1. Common business objectives.
2. Complementary strengths.
3. No obvious collision courses.
4. Common business practices.
5. Common competitive threats.

You can get more information, and a copy of his presentation materials, by contacting Reddersen directly at: brad@stranova.com

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

Strategic Partnerships for Early Stage Startups

2009-07-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Most technology entrepreneurs think "they need to do everything by themselves. But it doesn't have to be that way. Partners can improve you chances for success."

So says Brad Reddersen, CEO of Stranova, a consultancy in strategic planning and innovation for emerging businesses and startups. Reddersen will speak next Monday at the July 11 meeting of the SDForum marketing SIG about "The Role or Strategic Community for Early Stage Startups."

I spoke to Reddersen about his presentation a few days ago. His talk will cover how a startup can determine the kind of partners that can help a new business be successful. And for potential strategic partners of an emerging company, how to work effectively with a startup.

By finding the right strategic partners, a startup can create a "consciously created community" of people and businesses that can increase the chances of success.

Reddersen defines strategic partners as people or companies with who you share a common interest. People that you can rely on to do certain things. Companies that have a complimentary set of skills. A common way of doing business. Common competitors, or even common enemies.

A partnership results in mutual benefits to both sides.

"Companies need the right partners at the beginning," said Reddersen. "More than your board of advisers." Partners that are "strategic, not just someone who works on your web site."

The right partners can bring a variety of skills to your startup. Reddersen listed some examples: Technical ideas. A distribution channel for your products. Or a unique network of contacts.

In addition to guidance for startup entrepreneurs, the presentation will present information for marketing managers in established companies that might benefit from strategic partnerships with early stage companies: What to look for in an emerging company, and how to position yourself to be available.

You can find more details about the meeting on the Marketing SIGs web site, here

Stranova's web site is here

=============

Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at:
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mark.helfen

follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============

CLV – CCA = profit

2009-06-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

By Mark Helfen

Its not a pipeline, it's a refinery…

When David Tabor spoke to the SDForum Marketing SIG on Monday (June 8) his objective was to show how to optimize the following equation:

CLV – CCA = profit

Where:
CLV = Customer Lifetime Value
CCA = Customer Cost of Acquisition
Profit = the part you get to keep.

Tabor is CEO SalesLogistix and the author of the recently published
Salesforce.com Secrets of Success: Best Practices for Growth and Profitability

His focus was on CCA, and his prescription for reducing the cost of getting a customer is to re-architect the way you handle leads in your company.

His methodology is targeted at large enterprise sales, where a direct sales model is required - real people who visit real, if still potential, customers.

Despite the advances of E-commerce models, Tabor lists three reasons why direct sales is still a winning, or at least a required, model:

For some types of products, you just have to.
Some types of customers won't buy any other way
There is no other way to do $100K deals.

But the cost of acquiring a customer this way can be more than $40,000.

Tabor's strategy is to move away from looking at the pure number of leads sent to sales. Lead number aren't what causes business to close. It's the number of sales cycles started. Leads need to be highly qualified. By the time the information is given to the sales force, prospects need to be ready to enter a sales cycle – ready for an appointment with a sales rep.

The strategy he proposes has three layers:

1. An initial response. In particular, this response need to be quick - within 48 hours maximum.

"By the time 48 hours have passed, most people will have forgotten their initial inquiry," said Tabor. " Business aren't losing to competitors, they're losing to inaction."

Tabor describes these leads as "low grade ore."

2. The "lead refinery." Instead of a pipeline that all leads follow, the refinery engages prospects over time, turning the low grade ore into qualified sales prospects. These are people who are expert at qualifying leads.

New leads are "new members of your community of interest." This new lead qualification layer communicates and keeps prospects informed about your business and products, and when a customer seems ready to consider a purchase, delivers a lead, in the form of an appointment, to the sales rep.

When it comes to qualifying leads, "marketing doesn't know how, and sales hates doing it," says Tabor, so the lead qualification team does it. Tabor suggests "burned out" customer support reps, or systems engineers, who have strong product knowledge, know how to talk to customers, but want to apply these skills in a different way.

3. Layer three is the sales force, handed fully qualified leads. Sales reps get only qualified leads, and don't spend time with the low grade ore of unqualified leads. Giving a rep a large pile of random leads "gunks up" the sales team. Instead, they are given prospects ready to start a sales cycle.

To understand how your system is working, you need to "go backwards," starting with closed business to see where those leads came from. Don't rely on peoples impressions – instead use some real statistical data.

You can see Tabor's web site here.

You can view a copy of his presentation materials here.

=============

Mark Helfen is a journalist, writer, and marketing consultant.
He can be reached at:

email: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mark.helfen
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

Who Needs Leads?

2009-06-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

Who Needs Leads?

By Mark Helfen

On Monday June 8, David Tabor will speak to the SDForum Marketing SIG on the topic "Who Needs Leads?"

Despite the provocative title, Tabor is not suggesting that you throw out all of your sales leads. But he will explain how they need to be looked at in a different way. According to Tabor, 95 percent of your leads are worthless, and the job of sales and marketing is to find those that have value and use them start a sales cycle.

Tabor is the CEO of SalesLogistix, and the author of a new book, Salesforce.com Secrets of Success. His consulting firm specializes in "re-implementing broken Salesforce.com implementations."

"We don't do initial implementations," said Tabor. "People don't want to listen until they've tried it and goofed it up." Their thinking needs to change to reflect new ideas of how a sales force needs to in today's environment.

Sales management is too focused on getting more leads. They are very low value, a "low grade ore," in Tabor's words. Marketing management gets incented to just generate more numbers, and "leads will never make a sales guy's numbers." Its how you manage them to get sales cycles started.

Since most of the people attending the marketing SIG are primarily focused on marketing, I asked what benefit they would get from the presentation. Tabor has been doing technology marketing for more then 20 years, and has been marketing VP at a number of technology companies. He has experience in both the sales and marketing roles.

Marketing objectives change under Tabor's methodology.

"The right way to generate more business is for sales and marketing to both work on exactly the same measurement - revenue, not leads." Sales and marketing must act as one cycle. Just generating more leads doesn't get results.

Tabor will bring copies of his new book to the meeting.

You can find the meeting location and details on the SDForum web site, here.

=============

Mark Helfen is a journalist, writer, and marketing consultant. He can be reached at mhelfen@wordpixel.com
- or -
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/people/Mark-Helfen/1423354725
Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

2009-06-03T16:38:00.003-07:00

Thanks to Nearsoft for hosting the food at our May meeting.

Here is a brief introduction, and a short video about them.

Nearsoft is a software product development, with operations in Mexico. We work with ISVs, SaaS companies and consumer-facing sites.

Clients come to us because they are,

Disappointed with offshore development
Frustrated that they can’t find developers with the right skills
Upset because they can’t scale their software development team
Tired of late product releases and poor quality

As a startup you can not afford to do it more than once, it has to be done right the first time. We help launch your product.

Thanks to our software engineering approach and experience, we help our clients get their products (and their companies) out to market faster. And we have the track record to prove it, with clients like INgrooves, TierraNatal, Axolotl, TIBCO, and others.

Here is a brief video introduction:

http://www.nearsoft.com/the-nearsoft-quick-intro.html

Would you hire you??

2009-05-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Would you hire you?? Notes from the SDForum May 11 meeting.

By Mark Helfen

Your resume is the principle piece of marketing material in your job search according to Denise Pringle. Yet many resumes do a poor job at addressing the key issues.

Pringle, a long time HR manager, was the speaker at the May 11 meeting of the SDForum Marketing SIG.

From the hiring managers perspective, your resume, your interview, and your references need to address two main issues - are you a good fit for the job, and will hiring you be a low risk decision. Not that you skills, education, and job history aren't important. But they are less unique, and take second place in the decision.

Hiring managers are "highly risk averse," according to Pringle. The cost of hiring the wrong person can be very high. It's difficult to fire an employee, and the manager might even lose the employee budget for the position.

During times of rapid economic expansion, managers make one judgment about hiring risk. In today's tight economy, with an abundance of highly skilled candidates, managers make a different decision, and are even less willing to accept risk in who they hire. Your marketing message, your resume, needs to create a "cushion of least risk," assuring a manager that they won't be making a mistake by hiring you.

Managers assess three things as they go through the hiring process:

can you do the job - do you have the necessary skills
will you do the job - meaning your work ethic. Will you show up every day, and get the job done.
your fit for the job. This includes chemistry, appearance, and personality. "Fit is huge," said Pringle. "It's not a fair world out there."

There are three ways that a job candidate presents their fit for the job - their resume, their interview performance, and references.

Resume

Many resumes look like job descriptions, listing the functions of the job you want, instead of showing the benefits to the manager of hiring you.

Resumes need to be concise and "crisp" and explain your accomplishments. "Crisp" is one of Pringles favorite words - in today's market a long resume will never be read.. Accomplishments should be quantified if possible - listing a percentage of sales increase, a reduction of time to market, an increase in customer satisfaction. Once you submit a resume to a company, it gets put into the company database and in future job searches that need your skills it might pop up.

Interview

Most hiring managers are very poor interviewers according to Pringle. It's your job during an interview to "gently guide the interviewer," to focus the discussion on your accomplishments, how you can help the hiring manager, and how you will fit the organization.

Pringle recommends thinking about the questions you will get asked, and practicing them out loud in front of a mirror. Just thinking about them, or writing them down isn't the same.

References

References are important, as a way of getting that cushion of least risk - someone who knows you can vouch for you. The person who is the best networked, best referenced, has the best relationships is the least risk.

Some references are more valuable than others, but any reference is valuable.

"Charles Manson is better than no reference at all," said Pringle.

A copy of Pringle's presentation materials can be found on the SDForum web site, here.

Pringle can be reached by email at denise_pringle@yahoo.com

=============

---
Mark Helfen is a Marketing Consultant and Freelance Writer. He can be reached at mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Helfen/1423354725
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

Going Viral (by Filomena U)

2009-05-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

From SIG co-chair
Filomena U

Topic: Going Viral

The first article I read, when I get the latest issue of FastCompany magazine from my mail box every month, is Dan & Chip Heath's, co-authors of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

Their May 2009 article is particularly interesting and timely to me, as we hear every day how companies are slashing marketing budgets, amongst all kinds of other cuts. I also think the article is very relevant to Marketing SIG based on the feedback from our monthly surveys. The title of the article is: Three Secrets to Make a Message Go Viral.
Here's an excerpt:

"Viral marketing has become a hip, low-cost way to reach a lot of people very quickly -- with little effort. But as marketers, including giants such as Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble, slash ad budgets, "viral" needs to mean more than "free" and "fueled by prayer." Making an idea contagious isn't a mysterious marketing art. It boils down to a couple of simple rules."

The article concluded with: "Viral doesn't have to be a crazy YouTube video -- Here's our CEO on nitrous! Start thinking about emotion, public service, and triggers."

I strongly recommend reading this article at FastCompany. It's also a fun read.

So, any suggestion on putting together a viral topic for the SIG later in 2009?? Email me directly or blog it here.

Filomena U

Marketing SIG co-chair

www.livelyhues.com

Introducing the MarketingSIG team

2009-05-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

The SIG doesn't run itself, and the volunteer team puts time and energy to help make it a valuable experience for our SIG members.

We recently held a planning meeting. Here is a photo of the team, and a brief introduction to each of them.

Marketing SIG Co-chairs:

Filomena U:
I'm one of the co-chairs of the SDForum Marketing SIG. I collaborate with the SIGs core team to ensure the SIGs overall program offers a rich learning experience and meaningful networking opportunity for the vibrant SIG community. Some of my responsibilities include seeking interesting topics and speakers, and managing operational details for monthly events.

I am a Program manager with over 15 years of R&D experience leading initiatives including customer requirements, design, development, usability, and delivery to the market. Domain specialty includes applications software and solutions, imaging, document management, and digital printing and publishing. Recently started my company, www.livelyhues.com, creating, designing, and publishing childrens original art books.
You can reach me at:
email: filomena_u@sbcglobal.net

Vladimir Gostrer:
With the help of my co-chair and the core team I do my best to take care of the details, big or small, that are required for the SIG to run as smoothly as possible.

I am a senior software engineer for Electronics for Imaging, or EFI. So far in my career I have been working exclusively on embedded software projects. I have BS in Computer Science from University of California at Riverside.
You can reach me at:
email: vgostrer@gmail.com

The rest of the team:

Leslie Butlar - Public Relations Director:
My role in the SDForum Marketing SIG is Public Relations Director to promote the best practices in "Marketing Yourself" and "Leveraging Your Strengths" in building new relationships and keeping former contacts current.

I am a Senior Events Manager specializing in managing strategic executive level/sales and marketing meetings/events in large multi-national corporations. Also a worldwide sales force development training coordinator.
You can reach me at:
email: lmbutlar@comcast.net
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lesliebutlar

Mark Helfen - Communications Director:
My role in the SIG is Communications Director, which means that I manage this blog. I try to give SIG members a preview of upcoming events, and at least the key points of a speakers presentation if you miss the meeting.

If you have an interest in contributing to the blog, and getting your 15 minutes (or maybe just 30 seconds) of fame just let me know and I will get you going.

I am a marketing consultant, journalist, and freelance writer, specializing in product marketing strategy and technology writing. And an extra hand when you need some marketing help.

I have degrees in Engineering and Computer Science from U.C.L.A., and experience as a reporter at a daily newspaper.
You can reach me at:
Email: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Helfen/1423354725
Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

Paul Wcislo - Investor Relations Director:
The Investor Relations Director is responsible for sponsor development. My objective is to promote donor value in enabling ongoing marketing education on the best practices for entrepreneurs and the marketing professionals that serve them.

I am an accomplished marketing communications director. When I'm not running marathons, I bootstrap impactful communications, marketing programs, and sales tools for startups in wireless, telecommunications, and disruptive technologies that enhance the company image, attract buyers, and increase sales. I earned an MS in Journalism in integrated marketing communications (IMC) from Northwestern University.
You can reach me at:
Email:pwcislo@sbcglobal.net
www.linkedin.com/in/paulwcislo

Would YOU hire you? and a FREE resume analysis

2009-04-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

On May 11, Denise Denise Pringle, has agreed to come and speak on the subject of "Would you hire you?"

Ever wonder what those recruiters and hiring managers think of your resume when they see it lying on their desk? Can you imagine what a person who has seen hundreds if not thousands applicants thinks? How do they dissect the resume?

Denise Pringle will use her expertise to help people who want to gain fresh insights into their resumes and interviewing skills.

And... a special offer...

If you would like to have your resume analyzed, mail a copy in to the sig - to MarketingSIG (at) sdforum.org. Ten resumes will be randomly chosen for an analysis at the meeting. And don't worry - you can remove your name, or we will do it for you - you will be the only one who knows its really you...

Denise Pringle has extensive experience in both domestic and international human resources. She has held executive HR positions in high technology and medical device industries. She has worked on transition teams for mergers and outsourcing and has had responsibility for training, organizational development, staffing and university relations. Denise received her Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences with a concentration in History from San Jose State University. She has been the principal for Pringle Consulting, an HR firm providing HR services and training and has held an adjunct faculty position at San Jose State University's Professional Development Center

The meeting will at the regular time, at the regular place...details here

Social Media Marketing Best Practices

2009-04-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

A few notes from Sudha Jamthe's April 13 presentation at the SDForum SIG meeting.

By Mark Helfen

On April 13, Sudha Jamthe spoke on the subject Social Media Marketing Best Practices - For You, Your Product and Your Business. Her presentation was wide ranging and covered many topics. Here are some of the key ideas.

Marketing jobs are changing. In two years, social media will be part of your job. Each of us has the power to change now and add value to your companies marketing, and to increase your value to your employer.
Over the evening, the three main social media sites were discussed - Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. Jamthe is a fan of what she calls the "platform play" - using the API that these sites support to build applications that interact with them. Companies can use these applications to increase their brand awareness and loyalty.
The old model was to speak with customers at specific occasions, for specific purposes. In the new model customers are holding a conversation on-line, whether or not you are there, even if your not listening. You need to measure your visibility, and you need to be there now.
The objective is to form a deeper, longer lasting relationship with customers. An example is someone who is in the PR world, who forms a relationship with opinion leaders, journalists, etc... This relationship transcends a single job or product, the PR person knows at least some of the personal interests and facts about the person. Their value is in maintaining these relationships over their career.
Social media is an additional part of your marketing mix. One more area to assign budget to - not a replacement for any current part.
Even someone as "passionate" about social media as Jamthe can be overwhelmed. There are "too many sites, too many technologies." She focuses on Facebook. Her advice is to use the tool/site that makes you most comfortable, but for her everything is linked - she posts at Facebook, but her postings show up everywhere else.
There was some discussion of Facebook versus Linkedin. For Jamthe, Linkedin is another channel, Facebook is a two way conversation. But between the three sites, the particular choice for a marketing campaign depends on the particular customer base.
The first part of a social media marketing campaign is to try to analyze the current discussions about a product or idea - Jamthe's first action when helping a new client.
Facebook now supports profile pages. You can create a profile for a product, person, brand, company etc... At no charge. Visibility at no cost

Some of the tools that she discussed include:

These sites can give you analytic data to understand your current visibility, and the effect of your marketing programs.

A good source to follow to keep up on these is Mashable:

(As an exercise for the reader, go to search.twitter.com, and enter your favorite consumer product. You might be amazed as to how much is being discussed. )

Jamthe related several stories about her experiences:

When she started consulting at Intuit, she first developed an "asset list" of their social media resources. The executives were "blown away" to find that there were 14 people using social media resources to contact customers. This is an example of the disconnect between parts of the company.
On the last election day, Starbucks gave a free coffee to people who voted. Jamthe went to the local Starbucks, took pictures of people waiting for their coffee, posted this on her Facebook page, and got a surprising amount of reaction - she described it as "the thread that wouldn't die". This "keeps the brand alive for people who are loyal, and gives a venue for people who are not loyal to comment." In any case, it generates lots of PR for Starbucks.
She told the story of "Natalie at Dell," a Dell computer employee who developed a following on Twitter about computers. Eventually Natalie changed jobs. She became "Natalie at Petco," taking her Twitter account with her. Suddenly all of those followers were seeing postings about pet food. According to Jamthe, the managers at Dell learned a lesson from this, as should all companies using social media, about who owns the on-line identification.

You can reach Sudha Jamthe at:
A blog: http://coolastory.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sujamthe
Facebook: http://sujamthe.socialtoo.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sujamthe

=====

Mark Helfen is a Marketing Consultant and Freelance Writer. He can be reached at
Email: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Helfen/1423354725
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

============================

NETWORKING

2009-04-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

SMILE! A positive attitude is infectious...FIRST AND FOREMOST!!

1) Wear your name tag on the RIGHT side to provide easy viewing when shaking hands.

2) Stand with open arms instead of arms crossed, you want to look inviting and approachable!

3) Be sure to introduce yourself!

Say your name clearly: "Hello my name is Jane Smith. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Shake hands.
Use an elevator speech: Describe who you are or what you do in 10 seconds or less.
Be clear about who you help and what problems you solve so people can remember you and refer you business.
Include what might be a good referral for your business.
Offer a business card, and ask the other person for his or hers.
Be sure to ask about the other person's business. Be a better listener than a talker... listen for a reason to follow up.
Follow up with the people that you meet.

4) Make notes on the back of the person's business card of important information that you might want to remember later.

5) Follow up with a thank you note, email or phone call. 90% of all business cards exchanged at events don't get followed up on, so by following up you will automatically be in the top 10!

6) Don't sit down until the actual meeting starts. Some of the best contacts are made BEFORE and AFTER the actual meeting!

7) Don't stay too long in one place. After 5 - 6 minutes, excuse yourself with a pleasantry such as, "It was nice meeting you..." continue networking to meet new people & form new contacts.

8) Approach groups where you don't know anybody.

9) IF YOU ARE AT AN EVENT - SERVING A MEAL: Select a dinner table where you do not know most of the people.

10) If you feel stressed, take a break & enjoy the moment! Networking is best when you feel relaxed!

Remember, you are here to build relationships, not make sales pitches.

Enjoy the process & HAVE FUN!!!

National Association Women Business Owners - Silicon Valley Chapter NAWBO
http://www.nawbo-sv.org/memb_get_active_networking.html

posted for:

LESLIE BUTLAR
Marketing SIG Public Relations Director
lmbutlar@comcast.net
www.linkedin.com/in/lesliebutlar

The MarketingSIG Marketing Dog.....

2009-04-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

VIP Networking Tips = Play The Contribution Game

2009-04-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Step One. Connect deeply with everyone you meet.

Step Two. Find out about people
a. Be interested
b. Seek to understand them
c. Find out WHO they are
d. Discover thier Goals and Dreams

Step Three. Contribute to People. As you discover what they are up to, think about these questions.
1. How may I serve?
2. How can I help this person?
3. How can I contribute?
4. How can I support?

By following these steps in your Social Media Network, You will build a "strong personal brand".

Best Regards,

By LESLIE BUTLAR
Marketing SIG Public Relations Director
lmbutlar@comcast.net
www.linkedin.com/in/lesliebutlar

Check this blog out!!

2009-04-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Since I started as co-chair for the marketing SIG I have been exposed to an onslaught of information on marketing - how surprising.

Being a nerd of sorts and not used to taking things at face value I set out to make sense of all this information, by doing the one thing that we nerds do when we need to learn something new. I went to the library, checked out a hefty stack of books and set out to read them all. The reading material was very nice and educational but something was missing, there was no excitement in their writing. None of the pleasure that a live person makes you feel when they speak to you about the subject that is close to their hearts.

I figured I have a better chance of finding something like that in blogs about specific marketing subjects. This way I could pick out the ones I was interested in faster. Right now, after doing my blog research, one of the blogs that I enjoy reading tremendously is Seth Goldin’s blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ ). In my opinion it is very well written, very informative, very concise and always up to date with amazing insights - exactly what I was looking for.

To conclude my long intro and the short point that I made. Books are great if you know what you want to read. If you are new to the subject picking a bunch of books may prove a disappointment and drive you away. Find a good blog (pick your own criteria for what constitutes a good blog) and go on from there. I hope that my blog pick will help you lay one more brick in your brick path to a successful marketing career.

Social Media Marketing Best Practices

2009-04-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

Meeting Preview
SDForum Marketing SIG April meeting - 4/13/09
By: Mark Helfen

Your marketing job is likely to completely change over the next two years, as social media becomes an ever larger part of the marketing mix. So says Sudha Jamthe, who will speak at the next Monday's SIG meeting, helping you get ahead of the curve.

I spoke briefly to Jamthe about her upcoming talk. She said that social media - Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter among others - will become an increasingly important part of your job in marketing. A "social media mix" to add to the marketing mix.

"But only a handful of people know this. You should be one of them."

She believes that the combination of Web 2.0, and the new social media tools will change every role in marketing - product management and marketing, corporate communications, public relations, and the rest.

Jamthe works as a consultant to companies like Intuit, AOL, and Bebo, helping create a social media strategy in their marketing campaigns. She finds that customers are ahead of her clients in using products like Facebook and Twitter.

"Its more ubiquitous than people think," she said. Most of the marketing people she works with are knowledgeable about Linkedin. But her clients are "blown away" by what their customers are already doing, telling her "they had no idea that they can to that."

Jamthe's bio describes her as "passionate about social media," so I asked her what drove her interest.

She said the social media bug bit her about two and a half years ago. As a marketer, she likes to engage in conversations with customers. Before, she could only speak them at specific times - events, meetings, phone calls.

Now she can be connected all the time, and really get to know people. It takes the conversation to the "next level."

Like all good social media marketers, Jamthe has lots of ways to reach her:

A blog: http://coolastory.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sujamthe
Facebook: http://sujamthe.socialtoo.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sujamthe

You can read more details about the meeting here

Getting in the spirit of the topic, I guess I should also show the following for ME....

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Helfen/1423354725
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_helfen

Happy tweeting......

---
Mark Helfen is a Marketing Consultant and Freelance Writer. He can be reached at mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Upcoming meetings - April 13 and April 20

2009-04-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

This month, the SDForum Marketing SIG will have two meetings.

On April 13, at our regular meeting, Sudha Jamthe will speak on the topic:

Social Media Marketing Best Practices

And on April 20, the Marketing SIG will co-host a meeting with the Startup SIG:

Strategic Pricing for Start-ups, New Products and Innovations

I will try to post additional information on both of these meetings over the next week, but in the meantime mark you calendar.

You can see more information on the SDForum meeting schedule at the SDForum calendar

Mark Helfen
mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Photos from the March meeting

2009-04-06T20:59:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos from our March meeting, courtesy of SIG co-chair Filomena U.

Write a book for fun and profit

2009-03-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Meeting report

SDForum Marketing SIG March meeting - 3/9/09

By: Mark Helfen

You may have thought that writing a book was a difficult task, taking months or years to complete, with little chance of ever getting it published and even less chance of making the effort pay off.

But at the SDForum March meeting, Mitchell Levy painted an entirely different picture.

According to Levy, CEO of Happy About Publishing, the correct thought process is that writing a book will help you gain credibility and drive customers to your service, consulting business, or company. A book you can write in as little in a few weeks to a few months.

If you have a reasonably good idea and marketing plan, Happy About will be happy to publish it for you.

“A book is the number one tool for a person or company to drive business,” said Levy.

The difference in thinking starts with Happy About’s business strategy. According to Levy, most publishers have a “venture capital” model – they fund a number of attempts with the objective that at least a few are “home runs” – very profitable books.

But Levy isn’t looking for home runs. He’s satisfied if “every book is a single.” A book can turn a profit if it sells between 200 and 300 copies. While the author can make money from the book, Levy prefers that they think of it as a form of business development.

Levy claims that being a published author gets the same credibility as getting a PhD, but faster and with much less work.

Getting Started

So if you think you want to be a published author, what is Levy looking for? If you send him an email (see below) he will respond with an outline of the marketing plan he needs. But he summarized with three main points.

1. You have credible expertise in the topic you want to write about. Someone reading a short biography would believe that you have enough knowledge to write your book.

2. You can write a good book. It doesn’t have to be a great book, just a good book. Or, as Levy phrased it, at least good enough so “it doesn’t suck.”

3. You have a marketing plan that will sell at least 200-300 copies.

The first part of your marketing plan is to purchase the first 100 of those copies, a requirement. Happy About is not a subsidy or vanity publisher, where the author pays for and buys all of the books - they invest their own money in the project. But authors do have some financial skin in the game – about $1000 for those 100 copies. Authors pay about half the list price, which is usually around $20.

If you don’t have 100 clients, prospects, or business partners to who you could either give away the book at no charge and gain resulting business, or who would pay for the book, you might not be a prospect for Happy About’s publishing program. But Levy’s entire premise is that the credibility you gain will pay this amount back many times over.

The rest get sold, either by you, directly by Happy About at their web site, or on Amazon. You promote this channel by a combination of public speaking, blogging, or being active on social media sites like Linkedin or Facebook. If you want to sell off your own web site, Happy About has the tools to allow you to do this. Their strategy is to do “print on demand,” so there is no inventory to carry.

You might make money from books sales – Levy claims that 80 to 90 percent of what he publishes turns a profit. But your principle objective should be the credibility you gain as a published author, and how a book can fit into your overall marketing plan. Writing your book will typically take 50 to 150 hours, or about 1 hour a page from start to finish.

So… pick a topic you are passionate about, fill out Happy About’s proposal and marketing plan, and start writing. I hope to see you interviewed on national TV in the near future…..

Happy About’s web site is here. Take a look at their range of titles for an idea of what they publish.

Levy’s email address is: mitchell.levy@happyabout.info, where you can request a copy of “Happy About Author Questions” to get your proposal started. ---

Mark Helfen is a Marketing Consultant and Freelance Writer. He can be reached at mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Marketing Yourself Through a Book: It's easier than you think!

2009-02-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

By: Mark Helfen

Ever thought about writing a book?

According to Mitchell Levy, the speaker for the March 9 marketing SIG meeting, it's easier than you think, and will do great things for both your career and your business. The title of his talk is "Marketing Yourself Through a Book. It's easier than you think."

I spoke to Levy briefly about his upcoming talk at the Marketing SIG meeting. He is the author of 11 business books, and the CEO and Executive Editor of Happy About, and independent publishing house.

Levy says that the reputation you get from writing a book is the same as "spending 3 years getting your PhD." The book will take 50 to 150 hours to put together, considerably less.

"It's instant credibility."

Anyone interested in establishing themselves as a "thought leader" should consider the idea, says Levy.

He expects to publish between 25 and 50 books this year, and says that 90 percent of what he publishes is profitable, so the author makes some direct income from the book. But the key benefit is "indirect income," consulting and speaking fees.

What if you aren't a consultant or independently employed? Levy recommends a book on your product, which could bring benefits both to you and your company.

He summarizes his talk with three points:

- If you ever had an idea that you thought should be in a book,

- If you didn't realize how easy it can be,

- If you have no clue to the significant benefits having "author" next to your name will bring you,

... than the Monday meeting is for you.

You can read more about Mitchell Levy's publishing business here

For the details of the next SDForum MarketingSIG, see here

Hope to see you there..

mh

---
Mark Helfen is a Marketing Consultant and Freelance Writer. He can be reached at mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Job Resources II

2009-02-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

I attended the SDForum Volunteers Meeting last night (my first one).

I want to thank Nixon Peabody LLP for hosting the meeting. The food was at least 10 steps up from the pizza at the SIG meeting - not that I don't like pizza, but its nice to take a break.

One discussion topic was how SDForum can help people who are looking for work in these difficult times. A few things that I learned (or knew but hadn't thought about recently).

The SDForum web site actually lists jobs available. There aren't a lot there (but you only need one)

at http://sdforum.org/, -->resources-->classifieds

You kind of need to know where to look, but if you know of a job that would fit the profile of forum members you might list it here. I would vote for this to appear in a much more prominent place on the web site.

ALSO - did you know the SDForum has a Linkedin group?? Currently there are 1,235 members. I believe that you must be a paid member to join the group.

Groups on Linkedin are a great way to find out about people you are otherwise not linked to, and to communicate with them. If you are a paid member and aren't in the group, you can request membership from the web site.

We discussed how the forum can help members get work. I'm not sure we resolved anything specific, but the need came through loud and clear.

If you have an idea of what SDForum could do to help you, either email me (and I will post it here) or the forum management info@sdforum.org

Mark Helfen

Job resources I

2009-02-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

At our meeting Monday, 12 Rules for Marketing Yourself, was packed. I would guess 75 to 100 people, maybe more - we had to move chairs in from another room.

Thanks to:

Sue Connelly,
President
Connelly Communications, Inc.
Founder of the KIT List

and

Gretchen Sand,
Senior Partner and Co-founder
Skyline Recruiting Corporation

For an excellent and informative talk.

The presentation slides (50 pages worth!) is slowly making its way to the SDForum web site. If you just can't wait, drop me a line and I will be happy to send out a pdf.

I plan to write a somewhat longer article on the meeting highlights in the next few days. But here are the 12 Rules:

1. Pay Attention to First Impressions
2. Focus on the Details
3. Make Your Interview Special
4. Choose your Attitude
5. Practice, Practice, Practice
6. K.I.S.S.
7. Dinosaurs CAN Fly
8. You Don't Have to Do It Alone
9. Button it Up
10. Dump Networking - its about Relationships
11. Have a Smart Job Search Strategy
12 Just Do One (Little) Thing More

Not much detail here - I will write more when I get a chance. But the slides are pretty complete, with lots to read and lots of detail.

Mark Helfen

Need a job/have a job???

2009-02-09T17:33:00.001-08:00

Need a job? Please post a short bio in response to this post (ie: 1-2 paragraphs) and a url where people can see more information. Maybe your Linkedin page, or your web site.

Have a job? Please post a short description in response to this post and a url for more information.

Marketing Yourself in a Tough Market

2009-02-04T15:23:00.000-08:00

Meeting preview
By: Mark Helfen

Our meeting next Monday (2/9) is on the topic:

Marketing Yourself in a Tough Market

Speakers are

Sue Connelly
President
Connelly Communications, Inc.
Founder of the KIT List

and

Gretchen Sand
Senior Partner and Co-founder
Skyline Recruiting Corporation

You can read the full details of their backgrounds, along with the meeting announcement here:
( http://www.sdforum.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Calendar.eventDetail&eventID=13306 )

I spoke to Sue Connelly briefly and asked her what people would learn by attending.

"We both want to share our life experiences" in the job market, said Connelly. She had tips and techniques to share, not only for a normal economy, but also for these "historic times."

The objective is not only find work, but to find a job you really enjoy, for which you are fairly compensated.

She said that the real issue is "people helping each other." While there are tools to aid this, the "person to person personal touch" is what is key.

People will leave the meeting with some practical steps.

"There are some commonsense things that people actually don't do. And some common mistakes that cause you to shoot yourself in the foot," she said.

If you aren't getting called back, aren't getting follow-ups and return phone calls, her advice can help you analyze why.

Connelly promises that you will leave the meeting with some practical steps that you can take the next day.

-- -- --
I saw an advance preview of part of the presentation, which included a bullet point "Dinosaurs CAN fly." This I got to see.....

mh

---
Mark Helfen is a Marketing Consultant and Freelance Writer. He can be reached at mhelfen@wordpixel.com

What's your mindset?

2009-02-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

Meeting report
SDForum Marketing SIG 1/12/09
By: Mark Helfen

What's your mindset?

Or more importantly, what is the mindset of a successful entrepreneur?

That was the question covered by Frauke Schorr at the January 12 SIG meeting. Schorr, who provides "Coaching for Professional and Personal Excellence," discussed the results of her research that characterized the mindset of successful entrepreneurs.

She described the output of her work as defining "how successful people think."

A mindset is a specific way of thinking, leading to a specific way of acting. It might be described as how you see the world. Schorr claims that the success of entrepreneurs is only based 20 percent on specific skills, and 80 percent on the thinking and acting mindset.

Her May 2008 study was based on in-depth interviews with ten successful entrepreneurs. They ranged from 23 to 67 years old, were located in several countries, and owned between 2 and 42 business over their professional careers. They founded, inherited, or purchased their businesses, and at least one of their business needed to have "sustained, consistent asset growth for at least the last three years."

The types of business ran the gamut from photography to technology, and were not all the typical Silicon Valley high-tech startup.

Analyzing the responses to her questions, Schorr divided her subjects into "growers", and "maintainers." In each of these groups, they were either "satisfied" and "unsatisfied," for a total of four categories.

Schorr was asked if an individual's mindset could change over time. Her answer was that different people would have different answers, but in her opinion a new mindset could be learned.

Growers see their career as a path they are traveling on, and work at ways to keep moving along the path. Maintainers see their career successes as discreet points or plateaus, and work to maintain the success that they have.

"Growers are always looking at the next opportunity, there is always something else," said Schorr. "Their past achievements were not a success, but more of a stepping stone."

Growers tend to shift their roles within their companies frequently over time, "innovating who they are in their business."

Maintainers reflected on specific points in time when they felt they were successful. They said they "want to maintain that level," They like what they have and how things are working for them, and want to keep that level of success.

Some maintainers start out as growers, but over time shift their mindset.

The satisfied - dissatisfied scale reflected whether these entrepreneurs were focused on the present, versus feeling a constant internal pressure to either achieve more and focus on the future, or to keep themselves sharp and competitive.

"The satisfied growers were really curious,' said Schorr. "Lets see what's on the next level, lets explore the next thing."

The dissatisfied growers felt more "internal force."

"They said things like 'I really need to be uneasy, because as long as I'm uneasy and keep myself on the edge it keeps me going, If I get too comfortable I'm not going to achieve anything any more."

Overall, Schorr found that the satisfied growers increased the values of their business the most.

Despite their differences, all of the people she interviewed had a number of common behaviors, though they acted differently on them depending on their mindset.

You can view the presentation materials that were used at the meeting on the SDForum website, in the archives (listed under "resources")

You can find more information on Frauke Schorr at her web site:
www.fraukeschorr.com

---
Mark Helfen is a Marketing Consultant and Freelance Writer. He can be reached at mhelfen@wordpixel.com

Introducing - Communications Director

2009-01-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

Hi -

My name is Mark Helfen, and I’m the new communications director for the SDForum Marketing SIG (which mostly means managing this blog) so I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.

My objective is to make this blog as useful as possible to members of the SIG, and I encourage discussions of topics related (even distantly) to technology marketing. We’re going through tough economic times, and frequently a community of people generate the best ideas.

The initial postings have been summaries of meetings for those people who may have missed them. But I would also like to encourage everyone, whether you were at the meeting or not, to comment on the topic and the speakers ideas.

If you have something you would like to get posted, please email me and I will post it on your behalf. I’m also willing to consider making you a guest blogger for a week – just let me know, and keep your postings on-topic.

Any other ideas?? Please email me, I would be happy to consider them.

The blog software is set up to require registration before you can post comments to reply to postings (only the forum administrators – like me – can generate original postings.) Anyone with a Google mail account is already registered.
OpenID is also accepted (http://openid.net/get/).

There is a place at the top right to set up your RSS reader to follow changes as they happen, and to be a “follower” in blogspot terminology.

As for me: I am a specialist is researching, analyzing, writing, and consulting about technology markets and marketing. I have experience as a product marketing manager, marketing director, and print journalist.

You can see more about me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/markhelfen

You can reach me at mhelfen -at- wordpixel (dot) com (sorry for the anti-spam address).

Surviving The Storm – Smart Use Of Your Limited Marketing Budget

2008-12-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

By: Mark Helfen

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

The SDForum marketing SIG December meeting, “Surviving The Storm – Smart Use Of Your Limited Marketing Budget” gathered a panel of seven executives from web startups and VCs to discuss how the difficult economic times has changed their strategy and operations.

But while times may be tough, the panel, an optimistic lot, mostly discussed how their companies would survive and turn the economic situation to their advantage.

Ezra Roizen, Partner at Ackrell Capital, moderated the panel. He began by noting, “In the current environment, surviving is winning.” Business models have changed from “customer acquisition to survival.”

But overall, panelists said that this could be a great time for their businesses. Companies need to carefully focus their strategies, but those that survive the downturn can emerge at the other end as market leaders.

“You need to be really clear about what you are doing,” said Tom Patterson, CEO and President of Wise.com. “It doesn’t cost money to be really clear about your message.”

“This is a great time to be selectively aggressive,” said Benjamin Wan, Vice President of Marketing at Hit Profile. According to Wan, advertising for brand awareness is down, but performance advertising – ads that deliver leads – is “robust.”

Ranjith Kumaran, CTO of YouSendit.com, had a similar message, stressing the need to focus.

“The less moving parts to your business, the better it is,” said Kumaran.

Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer, a Senior Associate at Sierra Ventures and the sole VC representative on the panel, noted that while times are difficult, “the VC firms are still open for business.”

“We just signed a deal last night,” he said.

Companies may need to cut their budgets so they don’t run out of cash, and push for finishing their products features so they are ready to go when the economy picks up. Firms need to plan for a longer time horizon. “Visibility may be a few quarters away.”

But most of the executives said that the current problems would be an advantage for their ultimate success.

Surviving is a competitive advantage, according to Kedric Van de Carr, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Vator.tv. “Companies are pulling back, dying. It’s a huge opportunity to gain market share.”

Patterson of Wize.com can see other advantages.

“During a downturn it’s tough to raise capital, and tough to sell a company. Everything else is easier,” said Patterson.

“It’s a good time to rethink your human resource strategy, and get more value for the buck,” he said. “The quality of the resumes we get are much better, and the people we couldn’t get to talk to us before are coming back.”

“It’s a great opportunity to upgrade your team,” he continued, and to renegotiate contracts. “Companies dying is a good thing. The talent pool has been spread really thin.”

It’s an opportunity to “get high value employees inside and out.”

The state of the economy is an “opportunity to cut without feeling bad,” said Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix. “If you lose your job now, the best thing is to start a company.”

Patterson agrees.

“There has never been a time you could start a company so cheaply,” he said. He mentioned web services using Amazon S3, and the availability of lower cost engineers.

Tolles believes that small companies have an advantage in these times. “Big companies are run more poorly and you can go after them.”

For at least one of the companies, web traffic, if not money, seems independent of the economics. Topix is a news aggregation site, carrying local, national, and international news. According to Tolles, web traffic is most affected by world events.

“Disaster is good,” said Tolles, noting that important or popular news, such as the big fires in San Diego, or Hurricane Katrina, drives traffic to his site.

The circulation problems that newspapers are having also drives traffic to Topix.

”The fewer newspapers the better,” said Tolles.
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Mark Helfen is a Marketing Consultant and Freelance Writer. He can be reached at mhelfen@wordpixel.com

On Networking and Match-Making (job/skills, that is) -- Thoughts from the Nov Marketing SIG event

2008-11-13T14:12:00.000-08:00

Every time I do the meeting introduction at the beginning of the Marketing SIG, I always like to give a quick overview of the SIG for the audience -- for the first time attendees as well as others. Here are 2 key goals for the SIG:

1) To provide a learning experience that’s useful and practical that is worth spending an evening for; and knowledge that people can apply at work the next day; and
2) Equally important, is to provide networking opportunity for the community to build and maintain professional relationships which is a critical career survival skill in any economy

I’m coming to the conclusion that networking is well-understood and well-practiced in Silicon Valley. I’m always enlightened when I meet people from all over the world at the SIG. This time, it’s a pleasure to meet Etan from NYC, and Marie from Spain, who are here to set up new sites for their startups. They have been here for only a matter of days or weeks, but they’ve found SDForum, and made their way to Marketing SIG!

And speaking of networking, our quick, informal survey indicated that in the room we have roughly about the same number of people hiring as people who are job searching. I hope good matches were identified. But it also got me thinking: can the SIG provide a more “robust” system to do better? Any volunteers?

Lastly, many thanks to Athol Foden, president of Brighter Naming, http://brighternaming.com/ , to come and shared his vast knowledge on naming and trademarks. Very interesting topic, and one that requires as much process, analytical, and linguistics skills as it also provokes emotions. Feedback from the audience encourages us to plan a part 2 for the topic. So stay tuned… Many thanks also to Jep Castelein for volunteering a case study for the naming exercise. So after the discussion, did he like “Axometric”? Did he, did he?

Join us in the Dec 8 Marketing SIG – Surviving the Storm – smart use of your limited marketing budget in tough times

Survival Marketing: What, When and How to Market in a Recession

2008-11-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

Recession, recession, bailout, recession seems to be the words on every ones lips these days. We at the Marketing SIG always try to help our audience turn every situation into an advantage. One of our friends at Impact Marketing Group (http://www.impact-mg.com/) suggested the following workshop that they are holding. For anyone who is interested, here are the details:

When the going gets tough, the tough get marketing! Businesses who invest in marketing during economic down turns are the businesses that survive. Join marketing expert and author of “42 Rules of Marketing”, Laura Lowell to learn the marketing “must-haves”…no matter what your budget.

After the workshop, you will be able to:
Know exactly how to spend your marketing dollars
Create an actionable marketing campaign that drives results
Differentiate yourself from the competition

In this intense 3 ½ hour hands-on workshop, you will learn:
What’s really required for an effective marketing campaign
Who is your best target customer
When is the best time to launch a campaign
How to combine online and offline marketing tactics
Where is the best use of use SOCIAL MEDIA for business
Why some campaigns fail (even though they had lots of money)

All workshop attendees will receive:
A FREE copy of “42 Rules of Marketing” by Laura Lowell.
The companion 42 Rules of Marketing Workbook.

When: Friday, November 14, 2008 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: Toll House Hotel & Restaurant in Los Gatos, CA
Early-bird registration $169.00 until Nov 7
Registration $196.00
Space is limited to 30 attendees. Register now.

CLICK THIS LINK TO REGISTER: http://www.42rules.com/marketing/workshop/

Thoughts on the October Event

2008-10-19T16:33:00.000-07:00

The Oct Marketing SIG meeting speaker, Dominic Haigh, VP of Business Development at Agilis software, gave a very educational talk on License Management and how it can be used to the best advantage in marketing products. Clearly Dominic is very knowledgeable and experienced in the subject. His presentation was so well-organized and well-presented that everyone took home some useful and practical information. It also showed that some of the audience have thought deeply about the subject and its challenges based on their questions and insights. Mr. Haigh was able to answer all questions in a calm and easy-going manner which this Marketing chair found very inspiring.

I hope everyone who attended enjoyed the presentation. As well, the presentation is available on : [www.sdforum.org/marketingsig] in the "Resource" section. I hope to see you all at the Nov 10 SIG [www.sdforum.org/marketingsig]

Upcoming event - OCTOBER 13 - Marketing and License Management

2008-10-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

I know many of you already received an email with the upcoming event and I am sure everyone is extremely excited about it so just to spice things up we decided to give you a little preview of what is going to be in the presentation. This way you can come with the right questions and get the most out of every moment.
Dominic Haigh who is the VP of Agilis Software (www.agilis-sw.com) is going to be presenting the topic. Some of the issues that he is going to touch on (this list is by no means comprehensive)
- Why should we use license management.
- Where does license management fit into the company and how can your marketing team take advantage of this technology.
- Go a little bit into how license management works.
- And few others

For those who are still wondering about the logistics: The event is going to take place at our usual place on our usual time (www.sdforum.com/marketingsig)

Hope to see everyone there!

The Inside Scoop on Outsourced telesales

2008-09-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

Monday September 8 Marketing SIG meeting kicked off our Fall season with a very interesting speaker, Sridhar Ramanathan, who shared his vast knowledge on the topic of outsourcing telesales. He provided practical advice that audience could apply to their strategy planning when considering outsourcing telesales. He kept the audience well engaged and the meeting interactive.

Sridhar Ramanathan is the founder and president of Pacifica Group (www.pacifica-group.com). His company specializes in product launch, demand generation, and alliance/channel development.

First One -> Stay Tuned!

2008-09-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well this is it. The official beginning of SDForum Marketing Blog. Of course we don't have much at this very moment but stay tuned. You will not be disappointed.