Exo Dynamics - Our B2B Marketing Blog (English articles only)

Deficient Marketing

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After 10 years of practice as a B2B marketing consultant, I’ve noticing a preoccupying situation within small and mid-sized B2B businesses (SMBs). This post will present an outline of that situation as well as provide a solution to the problem.

Many B2B SMBs don’t have a marketing department, which is to say, a team dedicated exclusively to the marketing functions of their company. Some employees get assigned some marketing tasks, but usually they have to perform other tasks as well, tasks like sales, customer service, or communication/copywriting. This is a fact.

Is this normal or worrisome?

SMBs spend important sums of money in various marketing activities, but their marketing spending / sales figures ratio is quite below that observed in high-performance companies. This is another fact.

What do we deduce from these two facts? That SMBs only practice ‘moderate’ marketing.

Success stories in marketing are not rare. You’ll most likely agree with me that success in business does not come from moderate efforts. Why then do so many SMBs adopt moderate practices when it comes to their marketing?

Many times, CEOs, Presidents, and other corporate leaders, have shared with me that this moderation stems from not being able to properly measure with precision the results of their marketing efforts, which creates doubt as to the results of their marketing effectiveness.

And when there is doubt, business managers abstain from practicing active and long term marketing. The most optimistic of business managers count on ‘trial and error’ and ‘learning by doing’ when it comes to optimising their marketing performance, the more pessimistic simply do it because their competitors do it, or to keep up their image, but they don’t expect any real results to come from their efforts.

Modern marketing has evolved a lot in the last decade and has become extremely efficient if done right. This being said, ‘modern’ marketing implies the mastery of many disciplines, disciplines that an employee who is assigned some marketing tasks, simply can’t master. The subject matter is too complex and it evolves too quickly.

For these reasons, if we think like an investor, moderation turns out to be bad decision. Moderate marketing simply can’t generate satisfactory results for a business.

What’s even more worrisome for the competitiveness and financial health of B2B SMBs is that the marketing money they do spend with moderation is often spent on the wrong things, or simply wasted altogether.

Waste? No! Really? Can it be? As a consultant, I’ve witnessed marketing practices that drain and progressively corrode a business’s profits and resources on countless occasions.

Here are 3 classic examples of marketing money spent wastefully:

• Focusing too much on market implementation activities to the detriment of analysis and strategic planning. Preferring to navigate by sight in a turbulent ocean without using sophisticated tools and methods that allow for the identification of the most interesting marketing opportunities.
  
  • Action oriented marketing is good. Action without vision is bad.
• SMBs spend 2 to 3 times more on developing presentation tool (brochures, catalogues, web site window dressing, videos, etc) than they spend on market implementation. A presentation tool is simply that, a tool for sales activities, it cannot replace action, and more importantly, it doesn’t multiply action.
  
  • Investing too much on appearance, makes us forget the essentials: Selling.
• Market implementation activities not integrated with sales efforts remain isolated activities that have only a small impact (like throwing a stone into the ocean). It can happen that isolated actions create a sudden interest toward your products… but without them being integrated with sales efforts, the prospects they generate are often neglected, even ignored.
  
  • There is something worse than not being noticed: being labelled as an independent not interested in acquiring new clients

Insufficient investment to generate satisfactory results

Mismanagement of invested money that drains performance

Before such a realisation, there is cause for worry, don’t you think?

Without falling too much into religious metaphor, you can surely agree with me that in life it’s better to be a believer and to practice assiduously, than to practice only part-time, and half-heartedly at that.

Ten years ago, we tested a marketing management approach, and this approach turned out to be very profitable for our client. I’m talking about outsourced marketing.

Because our client outsourced his entire marketing department to us, he no longer had to worry about keeping up to date with the latest marketing practices. To this day that client still benefits from having a multi-disciplinary team of experts. With the money he saved on salaries by outsourcing his marketing department, he suddenly found that he had more manoeuvring room in his marketing budget, consequently that action allowed him to increase his marketing budget, and gave him the piece of mind that his money is being well spent.

Outsourced marketing, either completely or partially, is a financially profitable solution. It can even have a long term impact on the growth of your business.

In a future post, I’ll demonstrate the financial return on investment of outsourced B2B marketing, as well as the strategic advantages it brings to the table.

Follow Stephane on Twitter!

Why Are Teens Leaving Facebook in Droves?

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SEO and Living in a Bilingual Reality

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En Français, Cliquez Ici! 

Bonjour! Hello! Welcome! Bienvenue!

All of us who work in SEO or SEM in a bilingual reality have probably said something like this before: "Why don't we get paid twice as much for doing our job? We have to be able to optimise a site both in English and in French! Man, I wish I lived in a part of the world that's unilingual, my job would be so much simpler!"

Is that a fair statement? I wonder?

I wonder also about the opposite. Perhaps we, those of us who live in a bilingual business reality, are in a privileged position? Perhaps it is because we live in a bilingual reality where all our websites have be both in French and English that we've become so efficient at our jobs? Perhaps it is the challenge that makes us better?

What's your take on this? I'd really like to find out. Are our jobs as on-line marketing consultants more difficult because we live in a bilingual reality? Let me know!

To what extent should a Marketing Specialist be involved with clients?

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I'd like to address you, the B2B clients. You who hold marketing management positions at your businesses. And I'd like to speak to you, experts in Marketing. You who work on Strategic Planning, you who measure results in order to optimise them, you who are in charge of advising or coaching your clients.

Your role as an expert marketer makes you an integral part of the marketing functions of your clients. You don't simply act as a ‘provider' of services, but as a partner (which implies a certain complicity, loyalty, neutrality, and transparency).

If you, as a marketing specialist, have a passion for your work and your client, you want everything you do to work well, because if it works well for your client, that also works out well for you. You get paid for it to work! In fact, it is because you're an expert in your field that you got the job. Otherwise, your client wouldn't need you.

To what extent should we defend our points of view and still have things work out with a client?

In the scope of our work as marketing experts, we need to perform in order to keep a client. 

To do that, we examine in detail the aspects of an issue at hand, and we advise our clients objectively, in a structured but creative and multidimensional manner (which stems from years or experience).

But sometimes, the right thing to do doesn't make everyone on the client side happy, and sometimes the right thing to do doesn't always take us down the road our client expects.

Sometimes internal politics, bruised egos (everyone thinks they're an expert in Marketing), and other such issues, take us to places that are very uncomfortable both professionally and interpersonally.

When these moments arrive, we have to defend the logic behind our recommendations (after all that's what we get paid for), but sometimes we end up surprised by just how big of an issue we create with our recommendations since the Human Factor becomes sometimes a major weight in our profession. 

Hence, my question: To what extent should the Marketing Specialist be involved with their client?

Saying the things that need to be said while knowing that on the client side it might not be positively received? Or, compromise and simply remain content to provide half-measures in order not to create a ‘situation' that in all honesty shouldn't exist in a professional environment in the first place?

As an expert consultant, how far do you go? As a B2B business manager, how far do you want your expert consultants to go in their roles as marketing coaches?

At Exo, our position on the matter is absolute. We are passionate and we desire as much if not more for things work out well for our clients. We defend our points of view in order for our client to understand the reasons behind our recommendations.

We position ourselves as best as we can to eliminate all doubt as to our intentions, but we can't in all honesty do things halfway (in order to spare egos, fit into internal politics, etc) because, after all, we are expected to get results, and it will be us, ultimately, who will be judged and evaluated solely by the consequences of our actions.

So ... What's your opinion ?

What would be your position ?

Facebook Launches Neuronal Interface

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What's the Future of Facebook Marketing?

Got you, didn't I? But it might not be as far fetched as you might think. With technology progressing at an exponentially exponential rate, one has to wonder what the Marketing of 2020 will look like... Being a professional speculative-fiction novelist and on-line marketing consultant, this is right up my alley... I'm sure we're going to see things like this sometime in the coming years... Plus, how fun is it to think about such things?

How to Optimise your Facebook Page for Dopamine Generation

Dopamine, the chemical your brain releases to make you feel good. In the old days of the Internet, facebook users had to click a ‘Like' button to show their appreciation or support for a FB page. With the new Neuronal Interface, FB measures your dopamine receptors and automatically selects which pages you like.

 

Make sure your Content is Gender Optimised

Men and women don't react the same way to the same way Neuronal stimulus. Using the FB app GenderAI, you can design various layouts and virtual environments that perfectly adapt to the gender and sexual preference of your FB page's visitor.

Since the measure of appreciation of your FB page is directly proportional to your dopamine response, don't forget to add stimulating visuals, and gender optimised content.

 

Make sure your Virtual Environment is Engaging

Is there anything worse than arriving on someone's FB page only to find that you have nothing to do in their virtual environment? We think so. Nothing generates less dopamine than boredom. Now, we're not suggesting you dress it up like the Cirque du Soleil, that might not be appropriate for your business, but you might want to add something for the Neuronal user to do while they're visiting. Many great apps exist that can add functionality and purpose to your FB page. ProductionAI, for example, is a great app that generates a virtual environment that represents your production line. Users can see how your products are made, and can even interact and suggest processes to make your product better.

Measure, Measure, Measure

FB's new Neuronal Interface comes with a slew of measuring tools. Get familiar with them. One of our favourites is WaveAI. WaveAI allows you to monitor the endocrine system of your visitors, as well as alpha, beta, and delta brainwave responses to your content.

As we all know, the endocrine system is a system of glands, each of which secretes a type of hormone into the bloodstream to regulate the body. The endocrine system is an information signal system like the nervous system. Hormones regulate many functions of an organism, including mood, growth and development, tissue function, and metabolism.

According to eMarketer, users have an 80% chance or returning to your FB page if it creates an alpha wave response higher than 2.3 and a standard mood deviation of +-8%. Now, we know that alpha2.3 is almost impossible to achieve for most SMB's, and a endocrine system mood deviation of +-8% is lot to aim for, but it just goes to show you that brainwave response and ES monitoring are possibly one of the strongest measuring tools you can use for Neuronal Response Optimisation.

Use Though Association to your Advantage

In the old days of FB, the only way to share content was to click on a ‘share' button. Yeah, we can't believe it either! The Neuronal Interface makes sharing instant and automatic. The Neuronal Interface links your dopamine response with memory association. In other words, if you respond to something that you think one of your friends will respond to in a similar way, facebook automatically shares that insight with your FB friends, or FB page fans.

It works in the same way as "when you think of ‘Cat', what's the first word that comes to mind?" We all have generally predictable responses to these questions (Dog!), and if optimised properly, the Neuronal Interface will be able share quicker, and in a more efficient way, the content that you want others to see (and that others want to see). 

Last but not least: Neuronal Privacy.

There has been much debate about open Neuronal Social Networks. Are we giving facebook too much information? Is our privacy safe? Is ‘Big Brother' now monitoring what we're thinking and how we're feeling, not just what we're doing? Will I get my brain hacked?

I'm here to tell you all to relax. Neuronal Interfacing is just that: interfacing with neurons. We bypass our organic receptors (eyes, ears, skin, nose, etc...) and feed input directly into our sensory neurons. That's it, that's all. It's no more sinister than a dream. When you dream, you see things, you smell things, you do things, but it's not real, and besides scaring you sometimes, it has no real permanent real-world physical side-effects.

Additionally, the gaming industry has been using Neuronals for years now. With over 800 million people constantly plugged into SonyAI and XboxNI, the technology has been proven safe and reliable, and ‘till this day, there is no proof that anyone's brain has ever been hacked!

 

So that's the post, hope you enjoyed it. What did you think? Any ideas about FB of the Future? Will it even exist? Is trying to predict the future in our exponentially exponential technological reality even possible? Let me know! 

Twitter Karma: How to get rid of dead Twitter weight

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I'm sure that you're as annoyed as I am by those ‘people' (and I use the term loosely) who follow you, and the minute you follow them, the next day they unfollow you.

It's a cheap (and most annoying) way to raise the number of Twitter followers a person has, and its only purpose is to be able to say, "Look how cool I am! I have 12,000 Twitter followers".

A great way to get rid of these ‘experts' (and I use the term with as much sarcasm as can be conveyed literally) is to use an application called Twitter Karma.

It will display on one webpage everyone who you follow and everyone who follows you. You can then simply click a convenient ‘unfollow' button to get rid of those who pulled the ‘follow-unfollow' trick on you.

It's like spring cleaning for your Twitter account... Except you have to do it every month.

Enjoy! And remember, we're all in this together!

Market Research in the Product Launch Process

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Will the fast-paced changes in the market drive companies to change their culture from a product approach to a market approach?

How many product launches fail? 

Some experts say:

• 20 to 25% in the industrial sector
• Approximately 30% in the services sector
• 70 to 95% in high technology

More pessimistic opinions estimate that across all industries, approximately 60% to 90% of product launches fail.

The causes are simple:

• The product does not meet the targeted customers' expectations and does not motivate to purchase.
• The value perceived by the customers does not match the price
• The Market characteristics are not well-known

Marketing research can offer some answers. Moreover, when marketing departments work alongside with R&D departments, product launches are considerably more successful.

The role of innovation is crucial for businesses; it enables customer loyalization and can become, for example, a powerful competitive tool able to generate market share gains. Although many companies are willing to spend important amounts on R&D, marketing research is allotted very little to no budget in the new product development and launch process. They simply do not see the benefits of performing this step and are eager to get their product on the market. At first glance this is totally legitimate, but looking closer reveals this to be counter productive. Thankfully, these days people are becoming more sensitive to the importance of marketing research. Considering the risks associated with new products and services, to maximize on investment, it is imperative to do things right, right from the start.

Not long ago, an company was about to launch its new product, P1, which was targeted to customers X. Based on the knowledge the company had of the industry, and through several informal chats with their sales force and product experts, they determined that product P1 would fulfil the customers' needs in the market. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were budgeted for the imminent product launch.

In a discussion we had with that specific company, Exo learned about their product launch plan. It wasn't long before we realized that their plan, as envisioned, was susceptible to failure.

• Targeting errors
• Heavy competition and new market entry barriers
• Slow adoption rates for new technology

No need to say that the launch plan was revised and readjusted! Following that, all objectives were well met.

Numerous research methods can be used. It is important to select the appropriate measurement tools, the right samples, and focus on identifying all potential issues that can (and most often will) arise. Once a product has been launched, businesses must continue listening to the voice of the market and adjust their strategies accordingly throughout the life of the product.

Have you or someone you know lived a new product launch success? We want to hear from you!

 

Luc Provost @ Exo

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Communiqué Média POUR DIFFUSION IMMÉDIAT 1er, Juin 2010
English version below	Exo Marketing B2B acceuille Luc Provost, spécialiste marketing analytique dans son équipe.
	Montréal, le 1er Juin 2010 – Exo Marketing B2B est fière d’accueillir Luc Provost à titre de spécialiste en marketing analytique au sein de son équipe.  Diplômé d’une maîtrise en science de la statistique et d’un MBA option marketing, Luc Provost a occupé au cours de sa carrière des postes clés chez Bell Canada, Loto-Québec ou encore Aviva Canada. Il a participé activement au développement de nouveaux marchés et produits. Son expérience, son esprit d’analyse et sa persévérance sont des atouts majeurs pour Exo. « Dans un contexte économique incertain, le marketing analytique devient une carte maîtresse pour les entreprises du B2B » déclare Lynda St-Arneault cofondatrice d’Exo Marketing. « Aujourd’hui, les entreprises lancent de plus en plus de nouveaux produits dans des laps de temps toujours plus courts afin de rester compétitives sur leur marché. Mais paradoxalement, les importants taux d’échecs de ces produits menacent directement la pérennité des entreprises. Le marketing analytique est là, justement pour éviter ces écueils » Stéphane Poirier, l’autre cofondateur d’Exo Marketing ajoute : « Recruter quelqu’un avec l’expérience et les connaissances de Luc Provost correspond parfaitement à notre philosophie d’évoluer dans un modèle d’affaires dédié entièrement au marketing B2B ». Le marketing analytique englobe les différentes approches d’analyse et de segmentation de marchés ainsi que les techniques de profilage de clientèle et l’analyse des bases de données. Il s’applique aussi bien dans les recherches marketing quantitatives que qualitatives. L’arrivée de Luc Provost viendra appuyer Exo Marketing Intégré B2B dans la croissance sans précédent qu’elle connaît actuellement. Fondée en 2002, Exo s’est illustrée comme une véritable pionnière en développant un modèle de marketing performant, basé sur l’intégration des disciplines marketing et des technologies. Son offre est complète et est dédiée aux entreprises du B2B. Elle se compose de services à la carte, de programmes clés en main et d’impartition marketing. -30- Exo B2B Marketing welcomes Luc Provost, Analytical Marketing Specialist, to the Exo team.   Montreal, April 26, 2010 – Exo B2B Integrated Marketing is proud to welcome to their team Luc Provost as Senior Analytical Marketing Specialist. With a Master’s degree in Statistical Sciences and an MBA in Marketing, Luc Provost has held key positions during his career at Bell Canada, Loto-Québec, and Aviva Canada, where he participated actively in the development of new products and markets. His experience, his analytical mind, and his perseverance are major gains for Exo Marketing. “In uncertain economic times, analytical marketing is a trump card for B2B businesses,” states Lynda St-Arneault, co-founder of Montreal based Exo Marketing. “These days, in order to remain competitive in their markets, businesses launch more and more new products in ever shorter spans of time. Paradoxically, the high rates of launch failures threaten the very viability of those businesses. Analytical marketing exists to prevent these pitfalls.” Stephane Poirier, the other co-founder of Exo Marketing added, “Hiring someone with Luc Provost’s experience and knowledge fits in perfectly with the philosophy of our ever evolving business model dedicated entirely to B2B marketing.” Analytical Marketing consists of different analysis and market segmentation approaches, as well as various client profiling techniques and database analyses. It applies both to qualitative research and quantitative research. The arrival of Luc Provost adds to Exo B2B Integrated Marketing’s already considerable talent pool as the Montreal based B2B marketing firm experiences an unprecedented growth phase. Established in 2002, Exo is perceived as a pioneer with their high-performance marketing model based on the integration of complimentary marketing disciplines and technologies. Exo’s business offer is entirely focused on B2B marketing. They provide à la carte services, turnkey programs, and an outsourced marketing service.
	- 30 -
	About Exo Marketing                              À Propos d'Exo Marketing
	Release by : Exo B2B Inegrated Marketing 514-765-9888 www.exoconseil.com

Who's the Greenest?

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As we all know, all companies are not equal when it comes to being green. Here's a graph by Greenpeace which rates the major high-technology players

 

 

Strategic B2B Marketing: Two Classic Paradigms

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In my first post, I mentioned that a re-evaluation of the way we perceive marketing is necessary, and that implies a change of culture. In this post, I present two classic paradigms that limit the practice of strategic marketing.

The WOW EFFECT Syndrome

• Marketing is a creative function which must seduce the clients that will become interested in a company and their proposed products
• Impressed clients or clients drawn in by the originality of the communication approach will pay more attention to the sales technique and will be more inclined to purchase the product.

What are the limits of this marketing construct (paradigm)?

• Putting too much emphasis on creativity penalises the establishment of the communication message, which must remain pertinent for the different targeted clienteles, as well as communicating the most important benefits sought by these clients.
• Moreover, communication strategies leading to message creation rely too often on biased perceptions about the wants and needs of customers, as well as on an intuitive or incomplete perception of market opportunities.
• Granting too much importance to creativity could imply favouring graphic communication tools (adds, brochures, web pages, etc.) at the expense of content.
• Visuals are significant. It's important not to say too much for risk of loosing the message in verbose noise. On the other hand, not saying enough might only spark a fleeting interest in the targeted clientele or worse yet; it might confuse them

The Risky Wager Of A Product-Oriented Approach

• Many businesses rely too heavily on their product's strengths to generate sales
• They also depend on the strength of their sales force to push their superior product to the clients.
• A superior product does make a difference; even if competitors have an excellent sales force, and even if the product doesn't satisfy all of the clientele's needs.

What are the limits of this marketing approach (paradigm)?

• Markets and technologies evolve rapidly. Clients change and become more sophisticated in their purchasing behaviours.
• It becomes difficult for R&D to anticipate with precision the evolution of various markets and to identify the opportunities to exploit therein in order to develop high-quality products.
• Fierce ever-growing international competition offers clients wider choices of quality products at competitive prices.
• Experienced sales staff can't always rival with a superior product offer despite the application of their best sales tactics.

Sooner or later, companies will face a saturating point in their growth. They must revise their approach and rethink about their corporate strategies. These are the starting points of strategic marketing.

In my next post, I will introduce the notion of continuous process for the practice of strategic B2B marketing.