David Meerman Scott's Blog, page 62

Sales Benchmark Index lists its competitors on its new site

Sales Benchmark Index, a sales and marketing consultancy focused on helping B2B companies make the number, recently updated their site.

Besides going with an interesting black and white design, they also created a page that lists their competitors, including McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, and others. The page also includes links to the competitors sites.

Interesting move!

Sharing the names of your competitors with your buyers

I’m friends with Greg Alexander, CEO of Sales Benchmark Index. We served on the Eloqua advisory board together. @GregAlexander is very active in social media and is someone who understands that in today’s world of wide information availability, the nature of a marketplace and the players in it is no longer a secret.

I asked Greg about listing competitors.

“My buyers told me during many interviews that finding quality sales consultancies was hard,” Greg says. “We are a fragmented industry. Others told me they delayed hiring my firm because late in the decision process they could not find comparable firms, or it took too much time.”

Based on this information from his buyers, Greg and his team moved forward with the new page. “I provide a list of the firms we compete against almost every time,” he says. “I figure the upside is greater than the downside because when we don't get an engagement it is usually due to no decision vs. hiring a competitor.”

What about your market?

Listing competitors like this is a bold form of web content. Has anyone else done this? What do you think about this approach?

Sales Benchmark Index has enjoyed terrific success in recent years. In 2012, I published a 3-part series on Sales Benchmark Index. Here are links to those posts:

Professional Services Firm Grows 50% through Switch from Outbound to Inbound Marketing

How to Target Buyer Personas with the Right Content Created Especially for Them

Metrics to Show How a Content Marketing Editorial Calendar Drives New Business

Marketing got us to the moon 45 years ago and marketing is required to get us to Mars in the future

Forty-five years ago today, the crew of Apollo 11 was on the way to the moon in their historic first lunar landing mission, the most audacious and globally significant accomplishment in human history.

One thousand years from now, only two things from the period we are living in today will be remembered by history: 1) Human’s first expedition to another planetary body and 2) the development of web enabled mobile technology that connected every human on the planet with each other in real time.

Sadly, after the Apollo program concluded in 1972, humans have been stuck in low Earth orbit and since the final Space Shuttle mission three years ago, our nation has lost our ability to return humans to space.

I wrote about this in a new Huffington Post article How NASA Sold Us the Moon 45 Years Ago but Fails to Market Human Spaceflight Today.

NASA losing today's marketing and PR battle

During the Apollo years, NASA was a government agency that got it right. In today's partisan political climate, who can point to a government agency with similar success? That America spent an average of 3.3 percent of the federal budget on NASA during the peak years from 1963-1969, a period when the Vietnam War was in full swing, made the Apollo program not only a remarkable political and technological accomplishment, but also an amazing global marketing and public relations achievement, a subject I covered in my book co-authored with Rich Jurek Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program.

Today NASA consumes less than half of one percent of the Federal budget, and employs around 58,000 people (private contractors and government employees) compared to 411,000 in 1966. NASA continues to shrink, plagued by those in Washington who have neither the political will nor the bold vision of generations past to harness greatness. As a society -- and as the Nation that funded and supported the Apollo Program, and thus own its legacy -- we must ask ourselves: now what? Are we going to simply squander the legacy of Apollo in platitudes of nostalgia? Or are we going to brave enough to not only dream the big dreams again, but also structure them to succeed?

Where are the influential cheerleaders of the U.S. space program today?

The only people I see promoting human spaceflight in America today are Neil deGrasse Tyson and the men like Buzz Aldrin and Gene Cernan, who walked on the moon over 40 years ago. (Captain Cernan, the last man on the moon, wrote the foreword to Marketing the Moon.)

Several months ago, I had an opportunity to discuss the marketing and public relations challenges of a Mars mission with Buzz Aldrin, who 45 years ago Monday was walking on the lunar surface as Lunar Module pilot of Apollo 11.

Aldrin’s passion and his life’s work over the past decades has been to do whatever he can to get humans to Mars which he outlines in his book Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration. Aldrin told me that marketing and public relations are critical to generating interest in future human space missions.

While NASA is doing an excellent job with robotic space missions, human space travel seems an afterthought. The real missing frontiers today are tangible public relations and marketing aspects of a human space program, to persuade the public of the program's direct and long-term benefits.

Today, NASA and our politicians on both sides have failed to articulate the benefits of continuing our space efforts. Not so during the Apollo era, when some 20,000 contractors joined with NASA to promote every activity, every achievement, and every derivative product from wristwatches to rocket engines.

When President Johnson was asked by Congress about the expense he replied, "Now, would you rather have us be a second-rate nation or should we spend a little money?"

The #Social CEO Drives Business for their Company

When I speak with CEOs about generating attention for their business through real-time marketing and sales, most ask me how to staff for success in their companies.

Very few CEOs ask the right question – how do they become a social CEO.

Richard Branson, Marissa Mayer, and Arianna Huffington all have something in common. Not only are they CEOs of large organizations, they are also top executives on social media with a combined 6 million Twitter followers.

I have had the social CEO discussion with leaders of smaller organizations and when done right, being social allows direct engagement with customers. And that connection helps drive business.

Some connected CEOs include Gerard Vroomen of Open Cycle who blogs and tweets and answers emails from interested people and he’s quickly built several businesses based on his open philosophy.

Larry Janesky writes a short Think Daily blog post to his customers and friends every single day. He’s is an inventor with 29 patents and the founder and CEO of Basement Systems and its sister companies, a successful-in-every-way enterprise and number one in its industry with 345 dealers in 6 countries.

The #Social CEO Drives Business for their Company

I recently had a lengthy discussion with Brian Halligan, HubSpot CEO about how he uses social media. Brian is a friend, we wrote Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead together, and I am a HubSpot advisor.

Brian says the Social CEO is a new breed of executive, and their businesses are benefiting because of it. Brian shared a fascinating correlation with me to prove his point.

HubSpot grew by 50% in 2013 and by the end of the year the company served 10,595 customers in 56 countries.

And get this: Twenty percent of the company’s new customers since 2011 have been influenced in the selling process by visiting Brian’s page on the HubSpot site. Twenty percent influenced - an amazing statistic!

What do people find when they go to your CEOs bio page?

Are there ways to connect via social networks like Twitter? Are there links to content they created? Or is there a boring resume of the dusty old degrees they earned decades ago?

Check out Brian’s free 30-minute Social CEO webinar to learn his tips and tricks on what’s needed to become a great social executive.

New Rules of Marketing and PR latest edition now out in audio

One of the challenges with a book that updates every two years is keeping each of the formats current.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR, first published in 2007, is an international bestseller now in its 4th print edition (which released last year).

Simultaneous with the print release, my publisher John Wiley & Sons also released in the various ebook formats like Kindle, iBook, Nook, and others.

New Rules of Marketing and PR latest edition now out in audio

Now the audiobook version of the 4th edition is released. I read the introduction to the book.

The availability of the latest edition in audio format is exciting news because many people who prefer audio have asked me about availability.

Translations coming gradually

Over time, some of the 25 or so languages - from Arabic to Vietnamese - that the book is available in will also be upgraded to new editions, but this process is highly dependent on the sales of previous editions and the speed of translators.

As an example, I was in Rimini Italy for a speaking engagement earlier this year and was delighted that my Italian Publisher Hoepli, had completed the Italian translation of the 4th edition.

Agile Sales Require a Real-Time Mind-Set

The real-time mind-set recognizes the importance of speed.

It is an attitude to business — and to life — that emphasizes moving quickly when the time is right.

For decades the typical Wall Street bond trader has worked in a high-pressure atmosphere ready to make split-second decisions based on information scanned from real-time data and news feeds. The traders peer intently at bond prices displayed on the Bloomberg and Reuters screens, poised and ready to commit huge sums of money when the moment is right. Data from futures markets and stock exchanges update the instant a trade is made.

Fortunes are made in seconds; reputations are lost in a minute.

Now, the same real-time news and data that financial firms used to pay tens of thousands of dollars for each month are available to everyone for free on the web.

All of us now have a new currency of success: the ability to gather, interpret, and react to new information in fractions of a second—in real time. Twitter, Google News, what’s happening on your site right now all play a part.

But success requires a new way of thinking.

With such a real-time sales strategy, you need to develop an agile mind-set, an attitude that recognizes the importance of speed. It’s an approach to business—and to life—that emphasizes moving quickly when the time is right.

Developing a real-time mind-set is not an either/or proposition. I’m not recommending that you abandon your current business-planning process. The smartest answer is to adopt a both/and approach, covering the spectrum from thorough to nimble. Recognize when you need to throw the playbook aside, and develop the capacity to react quickly.

Re: Sleazy PR spam tactic

For years, spam artists have used “RE” in their subject lines to try to trick people into opening the email because they think it is a reply to an email they sent. Many phishing attempts use this tactic.

Here are some examples of this unscrupulous practice I’ve received in the past few days:

Re: HomeDepot Replacement-Windows-Special

Re: AUTO-DEALS - Cars-Below Kelly-Blue Book Value

RE: Your-Energy Bill-was recently-lowered-by 80%

Re: Automobile Bonanza Sales



Now a sleazy PR & marketing spam tactic

Sadly, many public relations agencies and marketing firms are now using this deceitful method too. They send a pitch disguised as a reply to a message.

This is specifically designed by the sender to be confusing. Yes, in normal use “Re” does mean “in regards to”. However, at the beginning of an email subject line, the only correct use of "Re" is in reply to an email.

PR people -- Have you no shame?

Here are a few I’ve received in the past week or so:

Re: What's the "Secret Sauce" to Social Media Marketing?

RE: Story Idea: 5 Steps to Make Your Ad 'Go Viral'

RE: Interested in featuring 'The Value of Coupons in Digital Marketing' [Infographic]

RE: Hope you received my last email

RE: Mad Men vs. Mad Math: How Data (Not Dimensions) is the Future of Online Advertising (Web Ink Now)

Re: Update on social media content optimization survey

What do you think?

I'm sure I'm not the only person who deletes these things unread. What do you think? Am I overreacting here?

Gathering of the Vibes music festival drives success with family buyer persona

Last month my daughter Allison invited me to join her to see Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros at the Boston Calling music festival. It was an epic invitation because Allison, who is soon entering her final year of university, has become a live music fan based on my taking her to shows since she was seven years old. We’ve attended other festivals including Lollapalooza and Projekt Revolution and have seen close to 100 bands together since that first B-52s and Go-Go’s double bill when she was small.

Back then it was my musical taste that ruled. But now Allison is in charge, introducing me to new music! What a great way for a father and daughter to bond over a shared passion.

When Allison was younger, the festivals we attended were not kid friendly. While we had great fun, it felt as if I was bringing my child into an adult world. I couldn’t let her out of my sight and we’d see few people her age.

Gathering of the Vibes, a kid and teen friendly music festival

Unlike many festivals I’ve attended, Gathering of the Vibes, an annual music, arts and camping festival happening July 31 through August 3 at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT is the perfect place for parents to bring kids of all ages. And that’s because the organizers of the festival understand the family is a buyer persona for music festivals today.

“Last year we had 2,200 kids under the age of 15 who came with their parents,” says Ken Hays, Gathering of the Vibes founder. “And that number is likely to be up by 20% this year based on sales of our Family Camping passes.”

One of Rolling Stone Magazine’s 40 Must-See Music Festivals for Summer of 2014 with John Fogerty and Widespread Panic headlining, Rolling Stone editors said: “There are a handful of festivals keeping the Northeast both weird and intoxicated, but none do it quite as successfully as the Gathering of the Vibes.”

Other highlights on tap for Gathering of the Vibes are Umphrey’s McGee, moe., Rodrigo y Gabriela, Ziggy Marley, Maceo Parker, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Slightly Stoopid.

Ken clearly understands that a parent who wants to bring the family to a festival has completely different needs than the same person attending without kids. For example, safety and security are a big concern. Vibes has a Kids Wristband Registration Program where attendees may register children with each child and parent is assigned a matching wristband and number.

Ken and his team ensure there is plenty for kids and teenagers to do at Gathering of the Vibes. “We’re expanding Kids Corner and Teen Scene because they have been so overwhelmingly well received,” he says. Kids Corner and Teen Scene are a clever compromise between children’s need to have fun and play, and their parents’ desire to relax, enjoy the family, and socialize. Kids Corner offers activities such as painting on a community mural, listening to children's entertainers, face painting, costume making, arts & crafts, and dancing with puppets. Teens can also socialize, play games, get hair wraps, learn to juggle, and check out incredible performances from the School of Rock AllStars on the Teen Vibes Stage.

“The only way I could bond with my dad was watching the Mets at Shea Stadium and that was an incredibly meaningful time for both of us,” Ken recalls. “I want people to have an opportunity to slow down and focus on the things that are important in our lives at Vibes.”

Curating musical acts for many ages and tastes

The essence of Gathering of the Vibes is bringing people of many ages together so they can enjoy music and one another. As such, Ken is challenged to curate bands for different age groups and musical tastes.

“It is important to stand out and be distinctly Vibes,” Ken says. “I put myself in the attendees position and think what would I like to listen to. But I also rely on a large group of young interns to bring new bands to our attention. We bring a band like Twiddle that kids love and has an 18 to 24 year old fan base but also John Fogerty who hits the middle age demographic and a band like Slightly Stoopid which attracts everyone from 18 to 65 year olds.”

For 2014, one way Ken is making Gathering of the Vibes stand out is by offering unique musical mashups. On Saturday, Grateful Dead Members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann are joining the Disco Biscuits while on Friday night Lotus will perform an EDM slant on the music of the Talking Heads. Mashups like these work well to bring generations together.

I'm particularly psyched for these two mashups. As a huge Grateful Dead fan - I wrote Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead with HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan - having a chance to hear the trance groove of Mickey and Billy's drumming behind the Disco Biscuits should be a highlight. And the Talking Heads! I'm a huge fan and saw them several times in New York. They haven't toured in some thirty years so hearing an EDM version should be killer.

In a world where most music festivals cater to a particular age demographic, Ken shows that families are a buyer persona worth cultivating.

I am closer to my daughter today because of our shared love of live music built of the past 15 years. We made do with the music offerings of the time. But today, both parents and kids are lucky to be able to bond at Gathering of the Vibes and to build memories.

Hashflags, Twitter, Facebook, and the global World Cup audience

The FIFA World Cup is thought to be the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games. The cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup was estimated to be 26.29 billion with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the final match.

At the World Cup Finals, where 32 teams are now competing in various venues in Brazil for the title, social networking is proving to be a fascinating way for a global audience to come together while supporting their favorite teams.

Social networking and the global World Cup audience

Last week I was in Canada for a speaking engagement and had an opportunity to catch the Japan-Greece match while enjoying a meal at Hermanos South American restaurant. How about that for an international evening?! As I lived in Japan for seven years, I felt an affinity for the Japan side and followed the action on both television and Twitter.

A few days later, back at home in Boston, I enjoyed Sunday’s match between USA and Portugal. Well, at least I enjoyed it until the last 30 seconds.

According to Twitter, there were 8 million tweets about the USA vs Portugal match as it was happening. While that’s not as many as the 24.9 million tweets during the 2014 Super Bowl (including pregame, halftime and postgame), 8 million tweets during just one match multiplied by many matches means the overall World Cup is likely to be the most social interaction of any event in history.

A CNN report says there have been 459 million posts, likes, and comments so far about the World Cup, which is far higher than 185 million interactions about the Super Bowl and 120 million for the Sochi Winter Olympics.

These huge numbers for the World Cup are driven by the global nature of social networking today, with well over a billion people using Facebook and hundreds of millions using Twitter around the world.

Go Team

It’s interesting to note that many of the top countries in social media usage are also teams that are in the World Cup Finals. According to the recent Sysomos report Inside Twitter: An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World, the top 10 countries on Twitter based on number of Twitter users are: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, France, India, South Africa. All but Canada, India, and South Africa are in the World Cup.

While social networks bring the world together for the month of World Cup mania, it also allows fans to show their allegiances.

Indeed, Twitter has created “hashflags”, a cool feature that displays a nation’s flag when someone tweets a hashtag for one of the world cup teams such as #USA or #POR (Portugal).

Okay, time to show my colors: Go USA! Go USA! Go USA!

Communicate with customers in an agile and human way

When customer service communications and online content seem created by some nameless, faceless corporate entity, it doesn’t entice us, and often it alienates. And as a result we’re just not interested in doing business with that company.

People want to do business with other people.

We’re human, and we crave interaction with people who know us and respond as individuals. That’s why the real-time customer service techniques practiced by companies like Vodafone Egypt, Quark Expeditions, and Boeing work so well.

These companies interact with people on a personal level. The representatives are hired for their social skills and traits like empathy. And they understand context before they act.

When you communicate with customers in an agile and human way, you build a relationship with people much like you would if you met them in person.

We all want to do business with other humans. We want to know there’s a living, breathing person behind the communications. And we want reassurance that those humans on the other side understand and want to help us.

There’s no secret to building great customer service. The answer is to be human.

"The Art of Asking" the new book by Amanda Palmer

I just finished reading an exclusive excerpt of Amanda Palmer’s new book The Art of Asking, which is scheduled for release in November 2014. My daughter Allison scored signed copies for both of us at Book Expo America. (Trivia alert: both Amanda and Allison graduated from Lexington High School in Massachusetts).

I loved the book excerpt and wish I had the entire thing to devour right now. If Amazon lets me pre-order, I’ll be reading it right away upon release (alas Amanda is publishing with Hachette, the publisher currently in a spat with Amazon).

Just like in her blog, her social streams including @AmandaPalmer on Twitter, and in her live shows, Amanda really puts herself out there in the book. She’s not afraid to show emotion and to be honest. Indeed the book opens with a description about how she asks for a tampon in public restrooms (some co-ed) around the world. Much like her TED talk of the same name, Amanda’s vulnerability is a large part of her charm.

“Almost every important human encounter boils down to the act, and the art, of asking,” Amanda says.

She asked as she wrote the book, such as this ask of her fans on her blog Moar book help, it's question time again! "SO... the questions... what do you think men have a hard time asking for? -and- what do you think women have a hard time asking for? think deeply about this. it’s a trick question. and... GO! discuss." When I checked there were over 100 comments and many answers.

I’ve been a fan for more than five years, first writing about Amanda in this post, which includes a video discussion about social networking. (If you watch... Alert! I was 50 pounds heavier then.)

A memoir of human interactions

While the book’s title The Art of Asking implies a how-to book (and there are elements of how to ask in it), The Art of Asking is really a memoir.

We learn a great deal about how Amanda, using only her eyes, asked for human connection (and money) while remaining motionless standing on a box in the middle of a busy city dressed as a white-faced bride. While we learn about asking, the stories from this period in her life are about human nature. What makes a person stop and make eye contact with a street performer? Why are some people compelled to kick in a dollar or two? How do these ideas lead to a music career based on fan interaction?

After reading about Amanda’s work as “The Bride”, I’ll never look at street performers the same way again. If the performer is interesting I stop. I’ll catch the eye. I’ll drop in some cash. I’ll forge a momentary human connection.

Social media

Celebrated by many (and derided too by some) because of her social media success - a million Twitter followers and a very active blog, Tumblr, and whatnot - Amanda’s fans propelled her to score the most successful music launch in Kickstarter history. She divorced her record label, struck out on her own, and by asking, she raised well over a million dollars for her album Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra, Theatre Is Evil. (I backed the album at a level that got me to an album launch party and rock show in Boston.)

As a marketer, I was intrigued to learn more about the Kickstarter in the book. Was there some “secret”?

Of course, I knew the answers before I even cracked the book. Social media success isn’t about social media at all. It’s about communicating with fans, putting yourself out there, being vulnerable, and sharing the most intimate moments. There are no secrets. And no shortcuts.

Some of the ideas Amanda explores in The Art of Asking:

How do we ask each other for help?

When can we ask? How often?

Who’s allowed to ask?

“We, as 21st century human beings, have an incredibly hard time asking for certain things,” Amanda says. “Something, somehow, has blocked us from feeling like we can turn to one another for help.”

Connecting the Dots

There’s a wonderful riff in the book about how artists connect the dots. Amanda asks: “Have you ever thought about that THIS looks like THIS?”

YES! I HAVE!

And I’ve written about it in my books and in posts like Great content creation ideas come from seeing patterns.

Connecting the dots. What it’s like to be an artist. Sharing. Asking.

I was so glad to see parallels between my work and Amanda’s.

As I was reading, I kept coming back to the idea that what I’ve been doing for the past decade – writing books, delivering speeches, engaging on social networks – is my form of art. The more I’ve thought of my work as art, initially prompted by Seth Godin's writing, the more fun I’ve had and, I hope, the better I’m able to connect with audiences.

And isn't that true of all of us? We all create art of some kind and connect with other people on a human level.

“In both the art and the business worlds, the difference between the amateurs and the professionals is simple,” Amanda says. “The professionals know they’re winging it. The amateurs pretend they’re not.”

The themes explored in this part of the book are similar to those of Seth and Chris Brogan. I wrote a little about these ideas in a post a few months ago Being a Freak and Making Art.

The Art of Asking

In his book The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Amanda’s husband) included this dedication: "For Amanda, who wanted to know."

I wonder how many people wanted to know details about Amanda’s early life. About being The Bride. About how she became who she is. Did Neil? Fortunately Amanda shares.

I’m predicting that there will be two bestselling authors in the Palmer / Gaiman household come November because The Art of Asking is that good.

Amanda: Thank you. I see you.