Everybody Works in Smaller Marketing Organizations

There is an excellent chapter in the book Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeir entitled “Everybody Works.”  The authors state that “With a small team, you need people who are going to do work, not delegate work…Everyone’s got to be producing…No one can be above the work.”  The authors go on to say that “Delegators are dead weight for a small team.”  The authors did not target a particular function within organizations with their comments, which begs the question – Is the delegator a friend or foe in the marketing organization?   Of course, it depends upon the size and style of the company.

Everyone is in Marketing

There is an excellent chapter in the book Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeir that explains the concept that “Marketing is not a department.”  The authors state that “Marketing isn’t just a few individual events.  It is the sum of everything you do.”  I have often heard senior executives state that everyone is in sales or everyone is customer service.  But Rework provides a rallying cry for marketing executives to seek greater enthusiasm from employees across the business.

Advanced Considerations in Podcasting

Contrary to popular belief, podcasts were not named after Apple’s revolutionary iPod device.  The name “podcasting” was first introduced in a February 2004 article in the Guardian.  Podcasting is new word that was generated from pod (playable on demand) and broadcasting.  The etymology of the word podcast is one of many common misconceptions about this form of social media.  I have been recording podcasts for two years.  While I am certainly no expert I have learned a few techniques which can enhance content and broaden listeners.  Below are recommendations for intermediate-level podcasts who have established a recording series but are seeking to “take it to the next level.”

10 Recommendations for Starting a Podcast Series

Although the idea of starting a podcast may be intimidating at first, I have found it actually to be one of the easier social media strategies to employ.   And while it may be relatively easy to record a podcast series, building a community of regular listeners can be quite challenging.  Podcast content must be engaging, short and thought-provoking.  Success requires that you differentiate your content not only from other podcasts, but from what many consider to be more engaging forms of media – videos and blogs.  Below are the recommendations I would offer to those who are contemplating starting a series or are already in the planning stages.   

Use Online Content to Judge Marketing Candidates You Are Considering Hiring

37 Signals book, Getting Real, recommends judging potential technology hires based upon their open source contributions. Using open source provides an unparalleled level of transparency that cannot be achieved by placing reference calls, reviewing prior work samples and verifying educational history. As I was reading this essay, I could not help but think that one should apply the same principle with marketing personnel, especially for roles which require content creation.

Make Your Events and Conferences less Boring

One of the key challenges that marketing leaders facing in planning events/conferences is how to generate dynamic and compelling content that will engage the audience. The de facto approach to conferences remains a back-to-back series of PowerPoint presentations which are interrupted only for lunch and vendor exhibits. While formal presentations remain the best way to educate a large audience about a topic, too much repetition in this format will lead to declining audience interest. I recommend mixing up the format of conference sessions with four alternative session approaches to keep the audience better engaged.

Ten Guidelines for Panel Moderators

A panel can be a very effective technique for sharing information on a particular topic at a conference or tradeshow. The panel format is becoming increasing popular alternative to formal PowerPoint presentation sessions. Many have found that the multi-speaker, informal nature of the discussion tends to lead to more audience attention. However, there are several best practices that should be employed to ensure that the panel does not fall into the pitfalls commonly associated with formal PowerPoint presentations.

Extending Your Customer Profile Library

In my last post I described a best practice that marketing professionals can employ to track, trend and analyze customer profiles. If you are agreeable to the concept you may want consider extending the profile data you track to a broader set of information such as investor filings, press releases, executive biographies and 3rd party vendor case studies.

Building a Library of Customer Profiles for Your Major Accounts

A key factor in any marketing organization’s success is the ability to understand customer needs. Having a repository of customer data both quantitative and qualitative will greatly simplify your ability to analyze market trends. For example, if you need to trend requests for a particular product capability or feature, it is useful to have a repository of all recent RFPs from which to start the analysis. If you need to build a case study for a particular customer, the process can be greatly accelerated if you can quickly assemble everything that you know about the account.

Every Tech Vendor should have an Eponymous Law

An eponymous law refers to a prediction or observation which is credited towards a specific person. Perhaps, the best known Eponymous law in the technology industry is that of Moore’s law which states that the complexity of integrated circuits doubles every 24 months. But Moore’s is just one of many such as Metcalfe, Reed and Amara credited with a technology law. Technology vendors should leverage these types of laws and observations in their marketing approaches. However, there will undoubtedly be scenarios in which none of the existing eponymous laws apply to your market sector. In such a scenario, I would encourage you to create your own. Of course, the law will not be taken seriously by the PhDs in the Silicon Valley community. However, such eponymous laws can be quite effective in illustrating concepts for investors, analysts, partners, customers and employees.