I love reading and recently came across a great book written by Keith Pigues and Jerry Alderman, “Winning with Customers: A Playbook for B2B”. Practical and entertaining, “Winning with Customers: A Playbook for B2B” explores the science of creating value for customers in the B2B commerce world.

The book is divided into six steps:

1. Discover: Learn to understand what value you offer to your customer’s business
2. Analyze: Collect all information and prioritize opportunities
3. Executive: Create a plan to capture value for you and your customer
4. Measure: Create a dashboard to help you track the results
5. Certify: Spread knowledge throughout your organization
6. CVC Management System: Combine people, processes and technology to ensure long-term results

“Winning with Customers: A Playbook for B2B” is also filled with case studies, examples and workable tips to give your business everything it needs to succeed including:

• Hands-on advice about what winning with customers means and measurements that really work
• Guidance for moving you from anecdotes and gut feelings to sound metrics for success
• Resources you need to collect your customers’ perspectives on the value you create for them
• Step-by-step customer plans that can be executed by the organization
• An accompanying website

Consider picking-up a copy of “Winning with Customers: A Playbook for B2B”. And, if you need more guidance about how to win with your customers, give Canyon a call at 480.775.8880.

Do you subscribe to Groupon? If not, you should. I’ve been a subscriber of Groupon for a few months now and I love taking advantage of the deals they provide in the Phoenix area. If you aren’t familiar with Groupon, it is an e-commerce phenomenon that features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat and buy in cities across the nation.

The history of Groupon is quite interesting – Groupon grew out of a website called The Point. The Point launched in November 2007 and allowed users to start a campaign asking people to give money or do something as a group. Basically, it helped people come together and solve problems that couldn’t be done alone. Founder Andrew Mason, came up with the idea of Groupon as an antidote to a common ailment—to spread the word to others about new and cool things that our cities have to offer.

Now that you have the background on Groupon, let’s move on to its brand development. I just read a great article about Groupon in Advertising Age. The e-commerce entrepreneur has been among the best case studies for the power of word-of-mouth marketing, having grown in 2010 from having a presence in one country to having a presence in 35, with nearly 400 million subscribers. However, a little over two years into its existence, Groupon thinks “spreading the word” is no longer enough. The company will be extending its brand into traditional advertising, beginning with pre-game spots in the Feb. 6 broadcast of Super Bowl XLV.

Groupon’s President and chief operating officer Rob Solomon thinks it is time to experiment with traditional offline media to maintain momentum and extend the Groupon brand. William Baker, professor and chair of the marketing department at the University of Akron, ties in Groupon’s brand development with credibility. He believes the act of Groupon going on TV around the Super Bowl will add credibility to the Groupon brand and boost top-of-mind recall.

Other observers of Groupon’s shift from online to offline media are not as happy about this transition. Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research, believes Groupon’s transition to offline marketing will get them a lot of PR; however, she also thinks that PR doesn’t always translate into sales.

Although I am a developing PR pro, I have to say that I do not agree with Ms. Mulpuru. Groupon making its way onto TV, particularly around a huge televised event, will definitely create buzz that will, in turn, broaden its reach. I think this will definitely help drive sales for Groupon.

What do you think? Do you think that Groupon’s move to traditional advertising will gain credibility and most importantly, will offline exposure drive more sales?

2011 is “The Year of Mobile” – again.

Please, you had me at mobile. As a long-time smart phone user and mobile marketer, it seems (and is) natural – even expected – to me that mobile usability is maturing.

Industry experts MarketingProfs go as far as to say “mobile was officially given a seat at the adult table” in 2010 with mobile advertising outperforming on-line advertising. Sure we can debate chicken-or-egg evolution as to if usability is accelerating the mobile adoption curve or vice versa, but that isn’t crucial to discussing tactical implications in our 2011 marketing mix.

We do know that today’s B2B customer is changing due to technology. It is no longer enough to simply know how to market using technology. We need to be proactive in optimizing our marketing efforts to an increasingly mobile-empowered prospect. But, what does that really mean?

Do we need to create a mobile site?

Do I need to offer a mobile delivery option for my e-mail marketing campaigns?

Now we need to make a mobile app…everyone has them!

Must we have KDL SERP dominance?

Maybe so, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Admittedly it is easy to become glassy-eyed and overwhelmed in our mobile manic society. Snap out of it and do some due diligence at the strategic level before throwing time and money at mobile channels.

1.  Determine the appetite of your target audience for mobile content consumption. Move beyond thinking of your audience as titles and develop personas for your prospects.

Answer detailed questions such as:

• iPhone or BlackBerry or Droid ?
• Fast Company and/or WSJ? (+ print or digital)
• RSS or e-mail subscriber?
• Gartner or UCG reviews?

Answers will help segment your audience based upon comfort, adoption, technology and channel preferences. The goal is to make informed mobile marketing decisions rather than reactive bandwagon choices.

2.  Next engage with the persona(s) asking detailed and measurable questions on interacting with content, using e-mail as an example.

• Do they read your e-mails from their desktop or mobile? More than 1 billion consumers will be accessing email on their mobile phones by the year 2013 -The Radicati Group (2010)
• How long do they spend viewing your message?
• How many mobile platforms are in your collective personas?  

Answers to the above will help you determine if you need to create a mobile delivery channel/option. You may choose to make all e-mail mobile aware (think skinny, concise + easy engagement), offer a “view on mobile” option in the header, or create a 3^rd subscriber option for mobile (to complement HTML and text options).

And hopefully you are already testing your e-mail campaigns for deliverability and rendering, which mobile additionally warrants.

3.  Define your digital approach as mobile aware or mobile optimized.

Mobile isn’t simply a smaller version of the desktop (for both e-mail and web clients). Mobile browsers often can’t render JavaScript and Flash. And viewing a website from your mobile is not the same as viewing a mobile website as visible below.

Mobile design and development are directly impacted by your decision. Page width and height, text size, and clickable button specs all have mobile design impact. A mobile aware site maximizes the desktop display while ensuring the mobile experience is functional.  Conversely, mobile optimized sites prioritize mobile rendering without sacrificing desktop display and usability.

4.  Understand the distinctions between a microsite and mobile site and a mobile application. “There’s an app for that”, or so we’ve heard.  But as a marketer, you need to evaluate which web and mobile options meet the needs of your audience, not just sound cool.  And get clear on the tradeoffs of your decision.

• Is display control critical – not desirable, but critical - to your content delivery? Will the information simply not be understood if the display width changes?
• Do users require off-line access to functionality?
• Is loyalty a key driver of revenue?

If yes, then an app may be a good choice. Note that budget implications – time and dollars – for both development and support increase accordingly with the complexity of an app vs. a website. Many people want an app when demand is satisfied with a mobile site or even a content-focused microsite. Pay for [only] what you need or at least make an informed decision.

5.  Be cognizant of the off-page impact of your mobile strategy. Mobile market maturity is beginning to have significant implications for search and SEO. As the algorithms adjust, you will need to do the same.

• Manage the differences of mobile search behaviors and results (different than desktop web, especially for paid).
• If geography drives your business, get hands-on with Keyword Defined Local Search Engine Result Pages (KDL SERPS). 
• Don’t let a mobile site trip up your SEO performance by inadvertently creating duplicate content issues.

Mobile is not [just] a trend. It is here and now. Treat it like other tools in your marketing mix – with strategy, measurement and performance driving your decisions – and “dial it in”!

What do you see driving mobile adoption in your marketing? And how are you planning to make the tough funding decisions as mobile expands in 2011?

mobile screen graphics courtesy of Juicegraphic, Inc.

I’m proud to say I was one of the lucky few who were able to attend the wildly popular BCS National Championship football game in Glendale, Arizona the other night. Although my surrogate team, the Oregon Ducks (go Pac 10), didn’t pull out the win against the Auburn Tigers, I still had an excellent time cheering them on with the rest of the yellow-clad yellers. Plus, I noticed many parallels between the game and business-to-business marketing that I’d like to share with my faithful readers of the B2B Fishbowl.

1)      Image is everything: from the Oregon Ducks’ strategically designed uniforms to the Auburn Tigers’ marble-white cleats, it was all about projecting an appropriate image on the football field. For the football squads, they’re using this image to intimidate the other team, and even to appear fast. For your B2B brand, it is important to have a professional, polished image to attract prospective customers by inspiring trust and credibility for your organization.

2)      Competition is key: By playing on a national stage for the honor of being known as the number 1 NCAA football team in the country, the Ducks and the Tigers know the true meaning of competition. B2B marketers also know how critical it is to gain an edge over marketplace competitors. That’s why a unique positioning and differentiated value statements are so vital to success. And, generating more leads than your competitors will help you pave the way toward increased market share. Canyon and Loop can help with both of these initiatives.

3)      Opportunities are everywhere: I saw many B2C and B2B companies, including our friends over at Insight, taking advantage of the sponsorship and promotional opportunities at University of Phoenix Stadium. From the goodie bags taped on our seats to the rolling electronic signs, companies developed clever ways to reach the nearly 160,000 eyeballs at the game, and the more than 25 million viewers following the action on TV. Sometimes B2B marketers get stuck in a rut in terms of the marketing communications vehicles they utilize to raise awareness and generate new leads, but there are always new unconventional opportunities that are worth exploring to garner extra attention.

4)      Scarcity breeds value: If the skyrocketing ticket prices taught us nothing else, it’s that scarce items are highly valuable, especially for highly engaged stakeholders. That’s why ‘limited time offers’ and ‘exclusive content’ prospects can’t get anywhere else are still huge motivators for B2B buyers. In addition, it’s important for B2B marketers to attract brand ambassadors and help them carry your messages and value propositions to other target prospects.

5)      Real-time information is critical: It’s a little-known fact that GE deployed mobile ultrasounds and X-ray machines to monitor player injuries in real time at the game. Just like the teams’ trainers employed technology to track injuries, your business should be able to monitor prospect and lead information instantaneously, so you can act on that data quickly. Marketing automation applications and CRM systems can help you accomplish this.

Did you learn anything else from the BCS Championship game that you can apply to B2B marketing? What other events or industries do you look at to draw parallels with your marketing efforts? How is your business taking advantage of unconventional marketing vehicles to generate new leads in 2011? Was anyone else at the game cheering on the Ducks with me?