Listening with Intent

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I’ll admit what everyone else is doing.  Yes, I do other work while attending webinars. 

I know it’s heresy to say it.  After all, the webinar ‘how to’ white papers will give you tips on keeping the audience completely engaged.  Webinar hosting vendors have tools to show you how many attendees have left your presentation to do other things.  Taking polls during the webinar is supposed to keep your audience glued to the screen.

And yet… the truth is that we are all so busy that having the opportunity to listen to an interesting webinar while we try to get other work done is simply too appealing.  I believe it’s one of the reasons that webinars work so well as a marketing vehicle.  Being able to garner nuggets of good information and still make the deadline for that press release?  Now that’s a winning combination.

One could argue that Webcasts are the answer and I would agree that the flexibility of choosing the date/time I receive information is the ultimate new consumption method.  However, there is something intriguing about a live event, if nothing other than I get to ask my question and receive a live, human response.

Recently while attending a webinar, I drifted back to my email, when I discovered that the speaker at this particular event was so compelling, I found myself switching back again and again to see his fantastic slides and to hear more.  It occurred to me that this was the secret to keeping audience attention:  keep it relevant and persuasive and you’ll keep ‘em coming back for more.

Does that mean I’m giving up my mult-tasking ways?  No way!  But a webinar’s ability to pull me back in will be a true measure of its success.

New Media – What’s it all about for B2B Marketing?

Any new venture deserves at least one defining moment and writing the first blog entry of Chocolate Vine feels like such a moment.  The tagline for Chocolate Vine is “Growing Business with New Media Marketing”.  So I think it’s fitting to explain what is meant by New Media Marketing to the B2B Marketer and how Chocolate Vine envisions a role therein.

To be clear, there is no consensus on exactly what constitutes “New Media”.  Wikipedia has one definition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media ), Whatis (http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci213507,00.html ) has another and the hundreds of marketers caught in the middle have still others.  However, I believe that most would agree that the primary goal of New Media is to reach communities of users where they live online, rather than through other traditional media, such as print, outdoor or direct mail.  The hype is furthered by the use of the “Web 2.0” term which has been described as “a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.” (source: Wikipedia).

The following could be considered “New Media” vehicles: Webinars, Podcasts, online paid advertising (especially using behavioral targeting), search engines (and associated optimizations), email marketing, online video advertising, social networks (communities), social bookmarketing (news sites), blogs, Wikis and RSS.  I’m sure there are more than a few I’ve left off the list, but my point is that it’s a bit daunting for a B2B marketing executive to understand if and how venues can be used.

The shift to open communications and an emphasis on the individual represents a change in how B2B companies will be communicating with their constituencies.  An open exchange of opinions and information is rapidly becoming the norm.  It’s frightening to essentially give control away of branding and product messaging, but the benefits of engaging in value-based exchanges with prospects and clients can out way the risk.  However, even if a company accepts and embraces this new form of engagement, there are so many new media opportunities, there is a real danger of fragmentation such that one’s messages may become lost.Still, statistics bear out that more and more marketing dollars are going to reach audiences online. 

-     Jupiter Research recently reported that 48% of brand marketers plan to use social marketing tactics in the next year, a 10% increase over the past year.

-        In February of this year, the American Advertising Federation issued a press release from a survey that stated “Seventy-three percent of respondents said that one to 20 percent of their budget is reserved for experimentation and new media properties. Significant, however, is the finding that 12.37 percent of respondents list 21 to 40 percent of their budget as reserved for these items.”

-        Another Jupiter Research study for iProspect found that the top reasons for placing content on social networking sites include driving traffic (51%); creating brand awareness (32%); direct selling (25%); and influencing a purchase decision (15%). 

-        A study by MarketingSherpa found that free trials, webinars, white papers, blogs and podcasts topped the list of the most effective lead generation tools used by business technology marketers

  Let me circle back to Chocolate Vine here and address the vision for it’s participation in this New Media wave.  First, as a marketing professional, I’ve never been afraid to try new things, but prefer to put most of the eggs in my basket into the tried and true.  Hence, the first services offered by Chocolate Vine are Webinar Services.  This is because, if executed properly (and that means with highly valuable industry informative content), webinars are a proven method to attract qualified prospects in an online environment.  I believe that offering this content through some of the New Media venues can be one way to create a valuable interchange between a company and it’s target audience.

 Chocolate Vine is committed to using New Media venues in a socially acceptable manner, with best practices and non-intrusive methodologies.  I will be happy to share my experiences using New Media venues and encourage you to provide comments here as well.  Together we can crack the New Media nut for B2B companies and marketing professionals.