Blog Written by Nan Hill   

Revenue Architects had the pleasure of presenting a workshop entitled “Designing the New Revenue Engine in the Age of Digital Marketing” to members of TiE Boston. Unfortunately, A/V malfunction, room reshuffling, and a little “musical chairs” delayed the presentation. We had to cut the workshop portion examining the revenue engine in greater detail (my personal sweet spot). Rats.

But, it’s not about me.

The workshop participants were engaged and raised many good questions. Several questions were centered around the metrics and cost/benefit benchmarks of social networking and digital marketing. Is it worth investing the time, energy, and expenses in building a web presence strategy, or is this all just a fad? I’m pretty sure we agreed that social media and digital marketing are here to stay.

Why? The explosive growth of social networking - with tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BlogTalkRadio, and YouTube – has fundamentally changed the way customers learn, evaluate and ultimately make their decisions. Anyone trying to grow their business and generate revenue knows that they need to have web presence, beyond just a website.

What role does social networking and digital marketing play in the revenue engine?

First, fundamentally, a revenue engine is comprised of:

• A well thought out market strategy, at any level (enterprise or campaign specific)
• A customer-centric process for finding, attracting, nurturing, acquiring and caring for customers
• A set of tools/technologies that enable the process
• The people who are skilled and organized to follow and execute the process
• GOOD CONTENT (not just quantity, but quality and different from the competition)

Next, you need to determine what kind of social networking / digital marketing makes the most sense for your business. For example, would your target customer…

• Use LinkedIN?
• Follow you on Twitter?
• Subscribe to other sites/groups to get more information?
• Are members of special interest groups?

Then, examine if your sales and marketing teams have the process, tools, and skills to deploy social networking /digital marketing to:

• Attract leads
• Nurture leads who are “on the fence”
• Convince leads to buy
• Create advocates / best customers

Finally, but most importantly, determine if you have or need to create valuable content.  Also, it helps to determine the right mix:

• Written (papers, briefs, emails, blog posts, new website content)
• Audio
• Video
• Web or live events
• Direct mail
• Email drip campaigns

Let’s face it. We’re in a social/digital world. There are massive amounts of information out there. If you’re going to include social networking / digital marketing in your revenue engine, at the very least, be sure your content doesn’t get lost in the crowd. Make sure it is searchable and relevant. Also, don’t forget the “long tail.” If you’re very focused in a certain niche or in a specific target industry, you’ll have a better chance of standing out and increasing your conversion rates with “a long tail” approach.

Anyways, these were some of the key points we hoped to discuss in the workshop.

Maybe we’ll just have to record a webisode and post it on our youtube channel.

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Blog Written by John Stone   

This week, I was invited to speak at a Content Marketing Webinar with BrightTalk (http://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/21775 ) - Other than learning to turn off the mute button when speaking (gulp!) it was a good discussion.  In preparing for the meeting, I was asked to consider best practices and thought I would offer a few from my perspective here.

Is Content Marketing over-hyped? 

My answer is yes- but I think it is still critical to an effective online presence. By embracing some solid practices, content marketing is an effective and a critical component of a marketing strategy, sales strategy and revenue architecture.

Today businesses need to attract and engage audiences with content - the trick is to make sure you focus on relevance!  There is a proliferation of content as businesses are scrambling for search visibility and placement and it is easy to get caught in the noise.  This article may be hard to find through search unless I pack it with the right key words that are relevant to the searching audience. For broad topics like this, I recognize that the article may get a little lost among the noise - but at least I am engaged in the conversation and offering a perspective, perhaps maintaining a level of credibility.  If a potential client is considering Revenue Architects, they will at least see that we are engaged in these important revenue architecture topics.

I advise my clients to really think long-tail and relevance if the content goal is visibility and awareness through search marketing. With so much content on the web, what can you add to the conversation?  For Revenue Architects, we will start to write more about how integrated sales and marketing is applied in different industries we work with - these articles will increase relevance for our target segments.

What were these best practices we were talking about? Here are a few from our perspective:

1) Relevance - as just discussed, try to ADD to the conversation by bringing in new relevant content to your audience. Repeating and repurposing what is already out there is not "digital native" and also not helping differentiate.

2) Integrated Programs: Think about the mix. More digital video combined with blog posts, white papers and briefs. Webinars and video together? Connected into a trackable program with tools like Marketo or Eloqua and applying personalization.

3) Audience Aligned - obvious but we often forget. Are we writing for the CIO? CTO? CEO? VP of Sales?

4) Pipeline Aligned: What content works to generate interest? Educate? Facilitate decisions? Modular content will help your audience get just what they need and not be forced to navigate through your entire story.

5) Top-down:  Use persuasive communications to drive your message forward.

6) Peanut Butter:  Make your content sticky and spreadable: These are Amy Hunt's words. Make your content sticky "I want to check this out" and spreadable "I want to share this with Jim"

7) More Free:  We all think we have premium content and that we deserve your personal information in order to share our great insight. Increasingly your content will need to be more distinctive and value-add before you should expect to get people to register for it - or hand over extensive demographic information. Permission marketing suggests a value exchange - make sure you have one. Premium content should be valuable enough to collect profiling information from your audience - and the more relevant the questions are to the content, the better.

These are a few thoughts on content marketing, there are many more. What do you think?  Good luck and good selling...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Blog Written by John Stone   

As the 4th of July approaches, I want to wish all of our friends and our clients our best wishes. As I was listening to Dan Rea's NightSide - WBZ Boston - tonight,  I was inspired to offer my pledge of allegiance ..

Happy 4th!

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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Content Marketing Written by John Stone   

As we develop digital videos for clients as part of integrated marketing campaigns, we often see nervous executives that are concerned that their Hollywood training may be inadequate and they might both embarrass themselves and the company with a poor acting performance on the corporate video. 

Our message: Relax….

 

Today audiences are looking for authentic messages from companies and when the CEO speaks to us on video, we feel a greater connection to the company.  The face of the company becomes more human. So rather than rely entirely on “Madison Avenue” advertisements, your strategy should include digital videos and conversations about your company, your brands and your offerings.

 

We need to walk the talk. I just won a Flip Video Camera at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium (and I never win anything), so this must be a sign!  Videos will come for Revenue Architects....soon.  In the meantime, I am focusing on our clients and their vision to embrace digital video as part of a broader Revenue Architecture and integrated marketing campaign.

So, how do we ensure the executives are comfortable in front of the camera?

The answer is to forget the camera, trust the Creative Director…!

 

Some things to consider:

 

• Share in advance a list of the key discussion points so the video team can facilitate a conversation, not a script
• Trust the video team. A talented creative director will guide the conversation so you don’t need to think about it
• If you know your company and your message, your story will come out naturally in the video
• You don’t have to get it “just right”. The magic of video editing will allow the story to come through for you.

If you have an experienced creative director, relax, you are in good hands.

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Blog Written by John Stone   

"I will pretend to sell if you pretend to buy" This is one of my favorite quotes from Sherwin Uretsky, one of our Revenue Architects advisors and one of the top revenue architects that I know!

What does it mean?

So many people engaged in sales imagine that they can win business after gaining access to a particular client – or after a warm meeting with a prospective client. But too often, they fail to really listen to their gut . They fail to perform the basic qualification that they need to do:  BANT -  Budget, Authority, Needs and Timeline. Or SCOTSMAN: Solution; Competition; Originality; Time Scales; Size; Money; Authority; Need.

They are kidding themselves… meeting after meeting of friendly banter with the client….pretending to sell, and the client pretending to buy.

• Wrong opportunity
• Wrong decision maker
• No BANT
• Free consulting
• Long sales cycle

When you see it, stop it. Ask yourself the question - what is the compelling event? What is the implementation date? What happens if the client doesn't buy? There likely won't be an answer and you will see that there likely is not an opportunity after all!

 

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Social Media Written by John Stone   

I enjoyed a Harvard Square coffee visit at Peet's the other day with Nat Welch, a consultant at CFAR: Center for Applied Research.  I checked in on Foursquare of course :)

Nat and I used to work together at Viant and it is always good to catch up. Nat is already an expert in collaboration and in particular in helping people impact change in organizations.  Naturally the conversation led to marketing digitally and using social media. I was giving Nat a few of my headline perspectives on why he might want to use Twitter to establish an online presence.  There is a lot written about this already and for many of you this is "101", but here are some of the points that I shared that I think might provide a summary framework for management consultants and business professionals on how to think about using Twitter vs. other tools like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Summary takeaways – for those of you getting started:

1. Pick your place on the long tail. Clarify your unique position and area of expertise. Identify your perspective and core messages. It is hard to track all the conversations that may interest you – the more focused your area of expertise or offerings, the easier it is to follow and be followed in the space.
2. Set up your Twitter account and link it to your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts
3. Use nice tools like Tweetdeck where you can set up columns for the areas you like to follow. HootSuite is good for team collaborative tweets and managing multiple identities.
4. Set realistic expectations. Most of your clients are not looking for you on Twitter, but over time a presence will reinforce your credibility in the space. Think of Twitter as another outpost in your digital presence.
5. Listen and follow. Find people talking about and sharing information about your area of interest, follow them,  Retweet the good ones, click on and follow the blogs that interest you. Very quickly, you will have a mosaic of content and people that surround the subject that you are focused on. Good etiquette suggests we do not use Twitter as a bully pulpit, but rather add to the conversation. Ask yourself if your tweets are adding value and adding content. Twitter is not for direct self-promotion.
6. Weigh in on the conversations – offer your perspectives
7. Set up a Reader account and follow the blogs.
8. Syndicate your own blog. If you don’t have one, it may be worthwhile to set up a blog where you can share your content and articles about your area of expertise. Blogs use RSS standards that make it easy to share through tools like Google reader. You don’t have to write something every day- even once a month would be valuable from a presence and credibility perspective
9. Maintain presence. LinkedIn is particularly valuable for the management consultant and business user. Facebook extends your personal networks online.
10. Do what I say, not what I do. I wish I had more time to follow and engage in the conversations. Pick a window of time each day or two to follow the conversations, people, and weigh in with your comments, share your posts and find the valuable expertise that you can bring to your clients and enhance your value.

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Content Marketing Written by John Stone   

Yesterday I was the guest speaker at an IdeaLaunch Webinar - the slides are imbedded below and on Slideshare. The discussion focused on 4 takeaways:

• Content Marketing drives the revenue engine.
• Good content is “sticky and spreadable” and digital video is hot.
• Strategy should be driven by a Revenue Architecture.
• A case study illustrates an integrated marketing campaign.

We introduced some context slides on digital marketing building on Byron White’s introduction to content marketing best practices. I then took a deeper dive into digital video marketing which is taking off for both small business and enterprises.  We discussed the revenue engine and I introduced the concept of a building a “Revenue Architecture” that defines the critical elements of a revenue engine. Here is my definition:

A Revenue Architecture is the blueprint for a revenue engine to attract, nurture, sell and expand profitable relationships with chosen customers.

We talked about the Revenue Architects approach including our scorecard model and how this applied to a particular client case. We explored the revenue engine for a leading technology Value Added Reseller (VAR) and described how we helped them shape an integrated marketing campaign using a mix of content including video, solution briefs, white papers and emails all engineered in a marketing automation platform and tied to a social media awareness campaign.

Enjoy the slides via Slideshare. Had this been recorded as planned, I would send you to the webinar itself, but unfortunately there were technical glitches and we don’t have this one on “tape”. Next time! Contact me jcstone@revenuearchitects.com if you want me to take you through the content one-on-one!  Good luck and good selling!

 

 

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Revenue Architecture Written by John Stone   

I thought it would be interesting to journal our way through an engagement with one of our clients. There will be a series of posts sharing the "Case Study" title that will hopefully tell a story about building a revenue architecture that really works.

Revenue Architects was retained by a marketing agency with a focus on digital content that drives SEO. The company is unique in its value offerings. With their permission, we are tracking our approach and progress along the way.  The elements of the assignment, approach and outcomes will come together a bit later in a more comprehensive case study.

Who is our client?

The client is an emerging company (under $5M) with terrific strength in digital content marketing. They are in a strong position for accelerated growth with today’s focus on search visibility, page views and listing positions.

 

What are we doing for them?

We are working through our Revenue Architecture engagement process (depicted below).  In the course of our work, we are performing a diagnostic of five dimensions of an effective revenue engine:

• Market Strategy
• Lead-to-close Process
  • Structure and Organization
  • Content and Process
  • People and Skills
  • Technology and Data
• Incentives and Metrics
• Customer Delivery

 

We began by building a scorecard for current performance across over 200 factors and elements (within the five-dimensions) that we know make up a successful revenue engine. Coming out of this review, we will create a “heat map” that depicts more clearly where we see gaps and opportunities for revenue acceleration and performance.  This is a collaborative process. We plan to launch the Revenue Grader soon to help businesses conduct this self-assessment. This will be a tool located at the URL revenuegrader.com and will help sales and marketing leaders self assess the revenue engine.

As we go through the review, we are looking at key levers that impact revenue, including:

• Crafting the right go-to-market strategy
• Clarifying product and service offerings
• Retention and expansion of existing clients
• Generating awareness that drives leads
• Pricing for maximum competitive value
• Capturing inbound opportunities
• Nurturing pipeline opportunities
• Selling persuasively to increase win rates
• Motivating sales and retaining sales leaders

 

The following are the steps in our engagement:

 

 

 

What are some of our early findings?

Like most organizations, this company is a work in progress. They have created a terrific and differentiated service process, including some unique technology that helps score content and orient competitive content scoring strategies. They have an ambition - supported by market opportunity - to double sales within 18 months.

 Some of our early hypotheses and opportunities we have identified include:

• We can enhance our client account management process to ensure greater long term revenue from our existing client base.
• If we segment the target marketplace and organize the sales teams around those audiences, we can improve our client response hit rates and conversions.
• We can better align sales goals, targets and metrics to drive motivated behavior.
• We can build a culture for thoughtful, planned and incremental enhancements.
• A partner approach and channel strategy can enhance revenue opportunities.
• We can walk-the-talk with more focus on effective content marketing to drive the nurture process.
• A sales operating model, with forecasting rules and pipeline processes should be standardized and adopted consistently across the company.
• Tactical improvements – emails, call lists, etc. will improve conversion rates from stage to stage.
• We need a revenue dashboard to help us align our management activities to our target outcomes.

Next week we will work on a refined version of a "Delivery Playbook" and a "Business Development Playbook" These two assets will help the company define their selling messages and standardize how they operate on a day-to-day bases - it will also help them "onboard" new members of the team.

More updates later!

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New Marketing Written by John Stone   

Speaking with NAPFA at the Bentley University Campus

John Stone and Kristen Luke (via Skype from San Diego!) spent the morning with a group of financial advisors as part of their monthly program.

We discussed the landscape of new marketing including the key elements and concepts that drive the adoption on digital marketing strategies. We also took a tour of the "tools of the trade" and discussed ways that advisors are using social media today. Finally we discussed the call to action - how to get started with social media and new marketing.  Our new program: Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors is launching this Spring and offers advisors an opportunity for hands on workshops to build their web presence - social media, content development and website strategy.

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Content Marketing Written by John Stone   

An intelligent and authentic content marketing strategy can realize a substantial ROI.

I have been working with a leading content marketing agency as they enhance their business plans and also helping financial advisors, mutual fund companies, private equity firms and mid-market B2B services companies execute revenue strategies. These intersections had me asking questions about the return on investment (ROI) for content marketing.  I built a spreadsheet to look at the various dimensions of value and the results were promising - well over 100% ROI in most cases.  These kinds of results are most likely to achieve when a company has the right leverage and embraces an authentic content strategy across the sales-marketing-service pipeline.

First, what do we mean by content marketing? Content marketing is a hot topic in digital marketing circles. Companies have been pursuing content strategies focused on driving SEO with inbound links for years. More recently, focus has been on demand and lead generation with permission marketing strategies. Today, marketing and sales leaders are taking a much harder look at the content strategies that engage customers across each stage of the buy-sell-service lifecycle.

• Awareness content and brand communications
• Value proposition information
• Features and functions of products and services
• Value added insights to reinforce brand leadership
• Service content that reinforce core messages

Various content types are being published on websites and syndicated with RSS to be accessed via Search, on YouTube, in blogs and forums and through traditional and online media:

• Articles
• Whitepapers
• Blog Posts
• Fact Sheets
• Research
• Explainer Videos
• Branding Videos
• Webcasts/ Webinars
• Directory Submissions
• eBooks
• Facebook and LinkedIn Content
• Twitter Content
• Website Copy

 

When I looked at the business case, I modeled some of the classic dimensions of revenue performance through the lense of content marketing. You can build a similar model for your business to see how effectively an aligned content strategy can drive your revenue performance. Often, content marketers are primarily focused on the top of the funnel - I am instead suggesting we equally consider the bottom of the funnel - helping ensure customer retention and drive referral advocacy.

Here are the dimensions in the model:

1. Customer Retention: Usually we think of content driving new leads and new customers - which it will do - but every company should be considering retention and existing client expansion as a first priority. So what is the role of content in retention? If you continuously engage your existing clients with meaningful, relevant and personalized content, what impact can that have on retention?  How can communicating the success in one division, help expand the footprint/ share of wallet across the client organization?
2. Customer Advocacy: If you empower your delighted customers with information and content they could share, how might that impact new referrals and new customer acquisition? See Net Promoter scoring for more insight here.
3. Awareness:  Your web presence - across websites, social media outposts and through your PR initiatives - drives the inbound connections that result in deal flow. Digital PR strategies and sharable content and widgets bring the network effect to your lead generation strategy.
4. Lead Capture:  There is a log of focus on lead capture with content marketing efforts. The movement around inbound marketing and marketing automation is centered on this approach of permission marketing whereby companies exchange valuable content and insight in exchange for the "permission" to engage the client in further dialog - usually in the form of email marketing, drip campaigns,  and further nurture programs to engage additional content through the cycle.
5. Lead Nurture:  This is a huge area of focus for the content marketer. We can measure the impact - even a 3-4% increase in the conversion rates at the middle stages of the sales funnel can result in over 50% increases in sold business. This leverage impact is highly dependent on effective content marketing.
6. The Sale: Now that so much time and money has been invested in creating quality content and messaging through the marketing cycle, how well are your sales teams reinforcing these core messages? Are they using effective problem solving and consultative approaches? Are they communicating reinforced messages? Are they using top-down logic and addressing the core needs of the customer? How well enabled is the sales force in delivering content that supports sales conversions?
7. Customer Service:  You thought content marketing ended with the lead? The sale? I think it needs to extend to customer service. How well are we reinforcing value after the sale? Does our content support service and product delivery? What impact will this have on client satisfaction, referals and advocacy?

 

This is a "list" of 7 areas of value, but it is clear that these areas are highly interelated and to get this right, businesses can create a content map that considers each dimension. This can be aligned with the target customer (sector, level, role, bias) and the stage in the customer life-cycle (awareness, considering, evaluating, buying, engaging). Armed with this insight, a business can implement the right media mix (words, video, etc.) and build an intelligent and aligned content strategy that drives ROI.

 

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