First off, I want to point out how excited I am to be writing this blog. For those who haven’t noticed, I’m new here at Canyon and this is my first post. I am super-excited to be a part of this great and talented team, and I look forward to posting more in the future.

There has never been any real doubt that social media is big. However, recent valuations of some of the social media giants provide us some insight as to just how big they really are. While it does not come as a shock to most to see the values of social media bigs like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Groupon to be substantial, the fact these companies have annual revenues that are a small fraction of what they are worth is intriguing.

Facebook received a recent valuation of $75 billion, making it more valuable than Disney. This is despite the fact that Facebook only has an annual revenue of $2 billion, while Disney on the other hand has pulled in over $38 billion in 2010.

To see these companies valued at so much more than their revenue is confusing for some. Marketers however, should be enthused by this. The valuation of these social media giants is reflecting their utility. Facebook may only gross $2 billion a year, but how many other mediums allow you to engage, interact, and network with over 700 million people?

The fact that these social networking mediums are growing not only by users but also by value, is testament to the fact that marketers are on to something when then invest in social media marketing. They have recognized that social networks have extreme value and potential in regards to connecting with consumers on multiple levels, and it appears that financial investors have jumped onboard as well.

These extremely high valuations and bubble margins exemplify the effectiveness of social media, and represent just how much potential they have (an apparent potential that is worth about 50 times the annual revenue).

So what are you waiting for? Social media is booming, you don’t want to be left out. While some of these companies like LinkedIn are publicly traded (and trading for a solid $100/share), I don’t mean join into a piece of shareholders pie, but rather, become active in the extremely successful, scalable, and ever-catchy social media world that nearly 10 percent of the world’s population is already involved in.

For some B2B marketers, social media can be a new and unfamiliar, so they have been avoiding it, or afraid to try it. However, there is so much material and guidance available, than anyone can dive into it and with a little research and effort, become effective at it.

The beauty of social media is that there is plenty of room around the fire for whoever wants to join in.

There is so much opportunity and room for growth. This is why investors recognize the immense power and potential that social media has, and why they are willing to place such a large price tag on it. Is your latest B2B campaign tapping into the power social media? Can 700 million people be wrong?

My name is Brad Whitford, I’m 25 years old and I am a Google-holic.  Wow, it feels good to get off my chest!

But seriously, I find that most of my online activity stems from some sort of Google function.  I indulge in many of the Google offerings, including email, calendar, maps, pictures, documents and of course, the original Google function, search.

Google’s description on its own search site claims you can, search the world’s information, including webpages, images, videos and more and that Google has many special features to help you “find exactly what you’re looking for.” I can’t think of a better single source to find any piece of information I need.

And I’m definitely not in the minority.  Many people worldwide have discovered the power of Google, and not just the functionality of its applications, but the power of the brand as well.  In fact, Google has become such a powerful name that it has reached the echelon of elite brands where the name is often times used as a verb (Rollerblade, Xerox, etc.).

Just think – how many times have you asked someone a question and gotten the reply, “Just Google it?”  I’ll bet it’s more times than people say, “I’m going Rollerblading.”

But the real purpose of this blog post is not to gush over the seemingly endless awesomeness that is Google (even though the awesomeness is seemingly endless).  It is more-so to provide an example of an innovative brand that has somewhat of an identity crisis and uses that issue in a creative way to enhance its brand equity.  Just to show you how strong Google’s brand identity is, the company alters its logo on a daily basis and people across the globe still recognize it.

Now that’s brand equity that even Apple can be jealous of.

By continuously changing its logo, Google is committing one of the cardinal sins of marketing that usually makes professionals such as myself cringe – and it’s awesome!  Referred to as “Doodles,” these artistic logos provide a way for the company to celebrate unique events and people worldwide, while also “illustrating the creative and innovative personality of the company itself.”  The history of these little gems is quite fascinating as well.

Google Doodles range from static images to animated pieces to video clips to interactive games (I know there are some of you out there who were much less productive the day of the PAC-MAN game logo).  But this past Thursday’s “Les Paul’s 96^th Birthday” doodle was by far my favorite of the bunch.  I think I recorded enough songs to fill an entire box set of albums.  You can check out all the Google Doodles online.

Google admits to having an identity crisis, and claims that “having a little bit of fun with the corporate logo by redesigning it from time to time is unheard of at many companies but at Google, it is a part of the brand.”  I can’t think of any other company that has successfully implemented this tactic.  After all, it goes against everything we marketing folks were ever taught.

But in a time when the margins of competitive advantage are becoming thinner and change seems to happen at the speed of light,this kind of innovative thinking is what keeps companies like Google ahead of the curve.  And let’s face it, you can’t argue with a brand that gets stronger by continuously changing its identity.

Can you think of any other company that has been successful in continuously changing its brand identity?

You might be wondering how I am going to begin to tie the B2B sales cycle and brand loyalty together. Well, the story starts with a very poor customer service experience I had the other day with a third party merchant and how it affected my brand loyalty overall with the discount company that I purchased the deal from–and the third party of course.

But bigger picture, I want to talk about how each step of the purchase process – from marketing to attention to conversion to delivery is as important as the last, and how missing one step can ruin the entire experience!

Every single step in the B2B sales cycle is crucial to the overall success of the product/service offered and brand loyalty. Let’s dive into the pieces that make up the B2B sales cycle to determine their relevance in a conversion and how one phase affects the other… a domino effect if you will.

The B2B sales cycle is made up of the following steps:

1.  Marketing

Many companies largest budget category is marketing, therefore a B2B – or a B2B2C –  company will want to invest the proper amount on marketing and make sure that their budget is very well spent. Getting the right message in in front of your prospects is key to raising…

2.  Attention

Be sure that your marketing effectively communicates the value and benefit of your product/service to capture your prospects’ attention in a productive manner. Failing to capture the target markets’ attention, means marketing dollars wasted. But if you hit the sweet spot, where your marketing attracts attention that prompts engagement, you can nurture and grow that attention into…

3.  Conversion

Once you are able to get the attention of the target market, you then need to focus on converting that lead to a business transaction. Without the proper lead nurturing/marketing automation and follow-up, closing a deal becomes almost impossible. Keep in mind that marketing and sales are equally important in the sales cycle and there needs to be alignment between who the marketing department targets and the quality of the leads that the sales department targets. When the process works well, your conversion then leads to…

4.  Delivery

The job doesn’t stop at the conversion phase of the cycle. The delivery phase is the last and most important piece that ties it all together. Whether it be a product or service, the delivery of it must be efficient, consistent, easily accessible and of high quality, but most importantly, exactly what you promised. If your Unique Value Proposition doesn’t line up to what you’ve promised, you quickly lose customers trust, respect, brand loyalty, and ultimately, their future business!

And that’s what happened to me – I traveled the sales cycle smoothly through the first three steps, but when it came time for delivery, everything fell apart and it left a bad taste in my mouth. All of those marketing dollars and lead capture efforts wasted, because I’ll never go back.

Let’s face it, in this economy brand loyalty isn’t an option, it is a necessity. Therefore, make sure your B2B sales cycle is solid! Do you need help building your ladder to B2B sales cycle success? Give us a call at Canyon today!

image credit: Spoken Communications

I was recently introduced to a market research app called GigWalk, an app that gives businesses the ability to verify information, conduct market research and more by ‘hiring’ people with smartphones to complete tasks on the fly for varying costs. What’s more – anyone can post a ‘gig’ or project using the app—so within minutes you could have hundreds of people performing tasks or responding to a market research survey across multiple cities for anywhere from $7-25 a gig.

Market research can be incredibly valuable to your company whether you are dealing with consumers or the b2b world. While GigWalk is specific for consumers, there are numerous market research options for businesses that target other businesses.

Market research is often considered an unimportant step in product development. Yet, companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars investing in concepts, brands and identities that may not have failed if they had just asked their audience what they thought up front. Let me ask you this – how many readers out there purchase or believe in insurance? IMHO (In my humble opinion for you non-texters out there), market research is merely a form of insurance that protects your company’s investments.

While Gigwalk takes this approach with consumers via mobile devices, we at Canyon could help you conduct your market research in a multitude of ways:

• Online surveys
• Telephone surveys
• Focus Groups
• Social media surveys
• Mail-in questionnaires
• Product trials…and more

It’s also important not to limit market research to your physical brand or products when you can also use market research to perform gut-checks on your company’s employees, processes, programs and more. Recently, Canyon and our sister-company Loop Demand Gen conducted a market research survey with more than 400 of our clients’ ‘best,’ ‘existing’ and ‘dormant’ customers, and what they found both confirmed their concerns regarding one program but pleasantly surprised them on another. And yet, asking your customers what they want and are looking for is a step many of us forget.

Unfortunately for me Gigwalk is a startup and not yet available in Phoenix, but I plan to take advantage of this tool as soon as I can. Do you think an app like Gigwalk would work in the B2B space? Have I convinced you to engage in market research?

Image credit: GigWalk