Midnight Oil Writing

Marketing automation is a large and growing market.  Marketing automation software offers many benefits to its users — it offers processes for closed loop marketing, nurturing sales and more.  Generally, companies purchase marketing automation software to help maximize marketing dollars, understand marketing ROI and ultimately, increase sales conversions.

Recently I’ve worked with a few startups who’ve purchased and used marketing automation software.  While I’m not sure I would spend precious startup money on marketing automation, I understand the need for accelerating sales.   (more…)

The ROI of social media is a hot topic.  How do you measure – and therefore – assess the value of social media?  If you are like me, I’m sure you’ve heard many approaches to measuring social media.  Some people think it’s akin to measuring the value of talking; some think (like a CFO, not a CMO) it needs to be measured quantitatively.

I suspect the answer is unique to each organize, the value of and role of communications.

But I do know there is a return on investment in social media.  As an example, let’s take a look at my day on Saturday. (more…)

My last blog post (we won’t point out how long ago that was!) talked about how hosting a webinar is like crab fishing.  The gist was: enough bait (marketing) and soak (lead time) and you’ll have enough crab (attendees).

But there’s one more aspect: what kind of crab is in your pot?   (more…)

Viewers of the Deadliest Catch might think crab fishing is all about treacherous waves, drama on the deck, and dealing with Captain Bligh in the wheelhouse.  That definitely makes good TV.

But from the crabbers’ perspectives, it is all about catching crab.  And there are a few similarities between catching crab and hosting a webinar.   (more…)

Getting customer references is sometimes the biggest challenge faced by B2B marketers.  It can be tedious and labor-intensive, but it is also strategic and often of vital importance.

Over the course of nearly 20 years I’ve worked with a wide range of companies to develop customer references.  From start-ups to blue chip firms, all B2B companies struggle with having enough of the right customer references.

I recently shared some of my thoughts about working with the sales force on customer references as a guest blogger on Pixability’s blog.  Pixability is a really cool, local start-up focused on helping organizations tell their stories using video.

I’d love to hear how you work with your sales team to cultivate customer references.

- Kelley

@kelleylynnk

Scheduling posts is tempting.  You can write a month’s worth of blog posts and just queue them up and forget about it.  Oh, so tempting.

But what if something happens between the scheduling and going live.  Say, for example, in early January 2009, you wrote a piece about the improbability of birds getting sucked in to both the engines of a plane.  Then comes the Miracle on the Hudson, and you have egg on your face.

Or maybe you had a nice, post-Thanksgiving blog on the greatness of Tiger Woods.  Hanging out in your turkey coma, you think…. now when is that post supposed to run?  Did it go live yesterday?

Recently, I had a night of fitful sleep.  Strange dreams.  Not very restful.  I was awake — trying to get back to sleep — at 5am.  OMG!  I realized I had a post scheduled for sometime that day.  And, due to some external events having nothing to do with me, but related to my content, the timing of that post could napalm some business relationships I’d been building.

I doubt I’ve ever bolted out of bed so fast.  Yup, the post was scheduled to go live at 11am that morning.

Don’t have a 5am panic attack.  Don’t schedule your posts.  Draft and save, but don’t schedule.  You’ll enjoy a solid night’s sleep.

I’d heard consumer PR is different from B2B PR.  Now I know “Hollywood” PR is very different from technology PR. 

Through a perfect storm (sorry, had to) of coincidences and personal contacts, a friend, Jamie Marshall of Gloucester, asked me to donate some PR services to a fundraiser in Gloucester.  Jamie and the apparently indefatigable Kristin Michel pulled together a sell-out fundraiser for the Gloucester Little League.  Community fundraisers aren’t always a sell-out, but they are when you get guest stars from Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch! (more…)

Last week we wrote about public relations transitioning into storytelling.   Storytelling as a career/industry is on the rise, but is the art of storytelling coming through, or getting lost.  (more…)

Public relations is going through a massive transition.  The reasons are many, and frankly, I’m not going to delve into them here.  As the public relations industry, and its practitioners, evolve, they are starting to use different terms to describe what they do and who they are.  (more…)

OK, it’s pretty clear Tiger Woods is a womanizer and a serial cheater.  In my opinion, he’s not husband material, and Elin should cut him loose.  As someone once said to me, if they cheat once, they’ll cheat again.

Truth is, lots of guys and gals cheat on their partners.  Few lose their jobs over it.  Few have the public outing Tiger did.  Most just keep on doing what they do. (more…)