by Jacqueline Koch | May 14, 2015 |
We recently sat down with David to talk about climbing mountains… at work and on weekends.
Janinne: Where did you fall in love with the magic of marketing?
David: For me, it started in that most magical of places – Pittsburgh (laughing). But seriously, it began back there in an early job on the agency side as I helped clients tell the stories of their brands, and then the real catharsis came in my next role with a Boston management consultancy.
I was having such a blast learning how to drive growth for small- and mid-sized businesses that it gave me the bug for entrepreneurial marketing, which led me to pursue that focus in my MBA at Babson. I then joined what some at the time were calling a “ten-billion-dollar start-up,” Amazon! At the time it was the right choice for me. My wife and I were starting our family, so it was a great time to balance the fast-paced dynamism of a sky’s-the-limit business environment with the stable security of a large corporation. I loved that mix, and got to help launch a number of Amazon’s marketplace stores, then moved over to manage their Music and Movies third-party businesses.
Janinne: Can you tell us about the biggest marketing challenge you faced so far in your career?
David: That came next, while working at Microsoft. My role was to bring products to market globally for the Display Advertising group, working closely to set up field sales for success while bringing the clear voice of customers to the engineers building what’s next. The scale, international/organizational complexities and pace of change were both exhilarating and challenging. For example, we launched the industry’s first true multi-screen targeting, allowing an advertiser to tell a sequential story to a desired audience across their daily use of MSN, Skype, Xbox, Outlook and Windows. One challenge we faced was moving our salespeople from telling ‘silo’ stories (say, the MSN pitch or the Xbox value proposition) to a narrative that conveyed the power of the unified Microsoft media ecosystem across 35 different countries. Long story short: the global sales trainings, demo videos and pitch collateral we built helped Sales make that leap with clients, and the launch had the positive splash we sought. Being able to work on projects like this made my seven years there pass by in a flash.
Janinne: Even with those challenging work pursuits, you must have time for other interests?
David: I love spending time in the mountains and oceans, and some of my favorite memories are of climbing Alaska’s Denali, mountain biking from Telluride to Moab and paddling a wooden kayak I built around Orcas Island. Kids naturally usher in a different stage, and my greatest recent joys have been coaching their soccer teams and teaching them to ski and sail.
Janinne: What brings you to Boost!?
David: I love the variety of client engagements Boost! offers. We deliver projects for high-scale, matrixed organizations, while simultaneously engaging with budding ventures who have complex, early-stage needs of a very different type. That diversity energizes me. Frankly, I also prize the flexibility my current role offers me. It’s a cliche, but halfway through life, I’ve come to greatly appreciate the ability to work hard, play hard… and attend my daughter’s dance recital.
by Jacqueline Koch | May 12, 2015 |
A baby boomer, a Gen-Xer and a Millennial walk into an incubator.
Sounds like a joke,right? Nope, in fact it was the scene unfolding at a recent B2B Startup Weekend event hosted by 9MileLabs in Seattle where all three age groups ended up on the same team. The goal: Listen to one minute product pitches, pick one, join a team, develop a minimum viable product concept, validate it with potential customers, build a business case and present it to a panel of judges including entrepreneurs and VCs on Sunday afternoon. Whew!!
Now it’s starting to sound as though there could be some humor involved.
Why? I was there and I was the Gen-Xer. And I’ll be frank: Millennials make me nervous for a lot of reasons, many of which are outlined in this Marketwatch article. The bottom line is that we’re being upstaged by the kids we baby-sat and our salaries are starting to look like baby-sitting money. So, hey Millennials, yes you, I’m trying to figure you out.
Want to Connect? Got Content? Get talking
A recent Forbes article shines a reassuring light on the effort to market to Millennials: It’s not business as usual. Millennials don’t want to be talked at. They want to engage, to be engaged, and they want rich, original content.
For a Gen-Xer like me who has a journalism background, this sends a pleasing tingle up my spine. It’s my “I-told-you-so” moment. Here’s why. I’ve always been perplexed when corporations feel they need to bludgeon their audience with their brand. Instead of pelting us with logos and branding, let’s embark on a “conversation.” It’s been a long time coming and I’m finding myself grateful to Facebook. Intended or not, the power of 1.3 billion active users will ensure the shift will happen through a revised newsfeed algorithm: According to a recent article in Social Media Today: “This change further underlines the need for brands to move from a broadcast focus to making themselves part of the conversation.”
Strength In Diversity
Anyway, back at the incubator. A collaboration is underway and the process has gone a long way toward defanging the Millennials working by my side. A remarkable age-span, from senior in college to pre-retirement, has infused a powerful mix of varied experiences and perspectives in a complex project. Yet it’s gotten us over the finish line—from “I have no idea if this is a good idea”— to a compelling pitch. I’ve always been a proponent of strength in diversity, cross-culture, cross sector and now, more then ever, cross-generational.
by Jacqueline Koch | May 7, 2015 |
Our friends at 9MileLabs hosted a fascinating talk on b2b content marketing last night. The speaker, Rich Stillman from Altus Alliance, did a great job demystifying the basics.
First, let’s be clear on the definition of this popular buzz-phrase. The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) describes b2b content marketing as, “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
And for those who may have been under a rock for the past few years, a recent CMI study reveals that 86% of b2b marketers are ‘doing’ content marketing.
If you haven’t dipped your toe in the b2b content marketing pool yet, Rich suggests there may be a few reasons why you’re a bit gun shy:
- You think it’s too labor intensive
- You won’t be able to get customers to talk
- You can’t generate enough content for all use cases
- You don’t want to waste money because you can’t get specific stats or metrics
Rich thinks this is all just whining and that you have no option but to jump in head first because content marketing is the way b2b companies connect with customers today.
Ok then, let’s head up to the diving board and get ready to drive in. But wait, what do you need to think about before you get started so that you execute an elegant swan dive rather than a messy cannon ball?
Develop, document and actually stick to a marketing strategy
Whether you are a startup without a marketing budget or a more established company, you must have discipline around developing your marketing strategy. You must understand what your value proposition is and who your customers are and your content should flow out of that in a disciplined way.
Be fanatically market driven
A winning b2b content marketing strategy must be built on a deep understanding of what your customers need. For startups, identifying this is usually part of developing the business plan. But understanding what customer characteristics are more broadly is critical to informing your content strategy. It is also important to be informed what is happening in your competitive landscape.
Convert website analytics into funnel mathematics
Rich suggests that if you think about b2b content marketing as leading someone through the decision making funnel, you realize that it’s about understanding what information you need to provide your customers along the way. There is a natural progression from “I don’t know who you are” to “I can’t wait to open up my wallet and give you money” and content marketing should pave the way.
Execute content around bigger ideas
Your customers are busier than ever and are constantly being interrupted by people trying to show them content that may be valuable to them.
In the social media-centric world we operate in today, we have to work with a small headline and a small amount of copy and an image. To rise above the noise and find your audience, there should be a big idea behind your 140 characters. A campaign theme that is connected to something deeply held by your target audience. And, your content should be consistent with your mission and your message. You can always create a thematic connection with a powerful visual.
Measure leads not traffic
Website traffic is not leads – but traffic can become leads. In the world of B2B marketing, the goal is to create leads that become customers – not awareness.
Rich suggests that we learn a thing or two from Lean manufacturing and keep iterating:
Try something, measure it, optimize. The task at hand is to keep trying different keys until we can open the door. Don’t stay loyal to an idea that isn’t working.
Tactical ideas to get you started
In closing, Rich shared some tactical ideas for creating and sourcing content:
- Enlist outsiders to create content for you
- Customers, industry experts, college students
- Record interviews with people and transcribe them
- Learn from the best – or at least those better than you and copy with impunity
Ok, I think you’re ready to take the plunge. If you need help, contact us!
Janinne: Where did you fall in love with the magic of marketing?
David: I love spending time in the mountains and oceans, and some of my favorite memories are of climbing Alaska’s Denali, mountain biking from Telluride to Moab and paddling a wooden kayak I built around Orcas Island. Kids naturally usher in a different stage, and my greatest recent joys have been coaching their soccer teams and teaching them to ski and sail.
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