Anyone wishing for 2008 to return?  For most companies, 2008 was a year of strong performance, and many of us are anxious for those marketing patterns and programs to return.

But they won’t.  The financial collapse and global recession hasn’t been just a momentary pause in the way we do business – it’s led to a significant change in how companies operate.  It’s certainly led to a change in how they go to market.  The way we built marketing campaigns for business-to-business companies has changed structurally and permanently.  Things will not get “back to normal.”

In developing an approach for marketing going forward, there are several structural factors we’d suggest applying to b-to-b and technology marketing: 

1. The idea that marketing is shifting from traditional to online methods is so well-documented now that it’s become an inadequate and even incomplete explanation for what’s taking place in marketing today.   Online is here.  It’s where engineers live.  Embrace it in every way you can.
2. The structure of trade media that has existed for 60+ years is irrevocably splintering.  Once the dominant path to customer communications, it has now been replaced by more than a dozen other new avenues.
3. The few media outlets that survive will be stronger, not weaker, and they will remain a viable partner for gaining access to customers and prospects, although in new ways.
4. Marketing is math.  The role of analytics and ROI performance tracking will assume a greater priority for the successful b-to-b marketer, and anything created will have metrics and analytics attached to it that measure its impact.  Google is driving this movement, as the adoption of Google Analytics takes hold and spreads to dozens of other marketing automation and analysis platforms.
5. The philosophy of mass lead generation and low cost-per-lead programs will be replaced by “engagement.”  Companies will use technology more effectively to target and cultivate relationships with customers and prospects in ways that don’t generate a lead, but foster relationships and experiences with individuals.  There will be some high-tech/high-touch moments connected to this, which explains the growth of video and face-to-face event marketing in the past 12-18 months.  Content, particularly for technical companies, will be critical for creating meaningful engagements.
6. The velocity of marketing will increase.  It will be faster to build a brand, as well as easier to harm it.  The risks in marketing for b-to-b companies have increased along with the greater transparency inside companies that new social media networks have created.  (Example:  Twitter post on 4-30-10 from rickyg_sco – “Woohoo no longer an Acme employee)

http://www.ggcomm.com/ggc/Ideas8-10/index.htm

Enjoy.

But I wonder.  Social media in particular is so fast-moving, so prone to change, and so deep in its complexity, that it’s impossible for someone to carry the same level of expertise in Wikipedia strategy as they might offer in building engaging customer web experiences.  As an agency, our role has to be in understanding the very latest in “best practices.”  Then, the question becomes, how do we deliver this level of best-in-class performance?  A team of generalists isn’t equipped to do so.  There’s too much change to keep pace as a generalist.

I had a similar conversation with a young professional, a few years out of school, who asked whether it was better for her career to focus on PR, or to broaden her experience to include the wider variety of marketing programs.  If I were thinking of my career just starting out, I’d look to become a marketing strategist able to apply the full spectrum of disciplines in ways that impact brand, preference and lead generation.  I think those are the people who will have the most value to any organization. 

The fact is, there’s never been a time when so much marketing technology was available to create customer engagement.  Our jobs have changed dramatically just in the past 12 months, as the Great Recession has brought about a total re-thinking in how companies go to market and build presence and generate leads.

We’ve changed our thinking a bit at the agency during the past few years, because frankly we have to offer BOTH strategists and specialists with deep expertise.  We’ve concluded that it’s impossible for a single individual to offer deep knowledge of the varied levels of new technology.  How can someone with particular expertise in managing paid search programs and deliver impressive metrics know just as much about getting 1000 fans on Facebook within 6 months, and how to leverage that Facebook following into marketing advantage?  Yet, our clients depend on us to offer this deep expertise, this best-in-class level of service.  How do we provide both, then? 

We’ve taken a page from companies that use an inside-outside sales team approach, where an inside salesperson with particular support skills are effectively coupled with outside salespeople who have a different set of skills.  We’ve begun to use, with great success, the strategist-plus-specialist approach.  Our internal account manager teams have broad knowledge for how to build a program, what metrics are relevant, when to use direct mail vs. a trade show strategy, etc.  Then, as we move into implementation, we call in our deep specialists off the bench, some on staff, some even outside specialists, who live and breathe their daily fields of expertise.  Cyndi Friedel, for instance, spends all her time thinking about email and paid search programs.  Jeff Spencer has been our creative guru for the past two years who consistently creates branding programs that leave clients saying, “Wow!”  Keith Mayer brings the very latest ideas in search engine implementation that have proven so critical for our clients lead generation success.  Jamie Ginsburg brings a client a wealth of experience in social media from a business-to-business perspective.

We’re still a have-it-all society, and providing marketing services is no different.  The tools have changed, and they’ve certainly become more varied and complex.  But the bottom-line measure of success is still the ROI found at the bottom line.  And that means applying the right marketing strategy, and doing it with unparalleled expertise in every discipline.

I was checking into some new ESPs (Email Service Providers) recently.  While talking to one of the well known ESP companies was told about a new technology they will launch soon.  The new technology will monitor when someone opens their emails the most – morning, noon, evening hours, etc.  After receiving 10 or so emails, the tool will determine your preferred time, and deliver future emails within that time frame.  Pretty clever.

Another new tool to be offered by some publishers relates to message relevancy. If you visit a magazine’s site, for instance, and click to read articles or banners that relate to a specific product category, the next time you visit that site, banners in that product sector will be served up, rather than general/unrelated ad messages.

Just more developments in the ongoing march to leverage marketing and technology to create greater customer engagement.

1. Disclose when you are being compensated–whether you are being paid for the endorsement and/or have been given a free sample of the product (traditionally known as “not-for-resale” copies).
2. Be truthful in your statements…and make sure they can be substantiated.

1. Speak from actual experience–meaning you can’t just regurgitate the sponsor’s marketing speak if it isn’t an actual experience, opinion, or belief of your own.

And the fine for not doing so? $11,000 big ones.