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Avatar of Kevin Browne

by Kevin Browne

Interview with Chris Farias of KITESTRING

May 14, 2013 in Marketing, Social media, Startup

KITESTRING (@KITESTRING) multiplies creativity with strategic thinking for resonating branding results. Creative Director Chris Farias (@ChrisPaulFarias) talks about KITESTRING, branding, Hamilton and the upcoming The Right Angle event being put on by KITESTRING on May 21st.

 

chrisfariasTell me about yourself and KITESTRING.

My name is Chris Farias and I am both Creative Director and partner at KITESTRING. We’re an agency comprised of strategists and creative inventors who solve brand equations.

 

Why did KITESTRING rebrand itself recently?

The agency is now in its sixth year, and just like the world around us, we’ve changed a lot in that time. The evolution of our brand reflects the caliber of work our team is creating for our clients.

 

What happened to Ben?

His internship came to an end and he moved on to a career in theatre. He came to visit recently and told us he was working with Hammer Entertainment on a production of Avenue Q. You can find out more by visiting: http://www.kitestring.ca/social/blog/community/ben-follows-his-dreams-and-hits-stage

 

What is The Right Angle?

The Right Angle is a KITESTRING event focused on strategies to help communicators and business owners engage in the conversation on social media. Attendees will learn from experts in the field how to manage your message online, protect your brand image, and problem-solve with confidence and creativity.

 

therightangle

 

Why should web, mobile, and video game companies in particular care about social media management?

It’s up to innovative businesses to lead the way in terms of adopting and understanding new technology. Web, mobile and video game companies need to lead by example. If you’re positioned as a knowledgeable expert, your clients are more likely to follow suit.

 

What are you most hoping participants take away from The Right Angle?

We’ve noticed a big shift in attitudes about the relevance of social media in the eyes of regional organizational leaders. Leading up to this shift, we were often asked in a presentation or workshop, “Why is social media relevant?”

Now we’re consistently being asked, “How do I make my brand relevant on social media?” I’m hoping participants leave with an idea about how to accomplish that for their brand.

 

Hamilton in particular seems to have really embraced social media, between the popularity of the #HamOnt hashtag and the relevant communications and business courses at McMaster. Why do you think this is, and are there ways our community should be taking advantage of this strength?

There is a groundswell of citizens doing some amazing things in support of their city within our community. Of course, engaging communications are a part of making these incredible ideas sprout into mini-movements. The reason for this is complex; the perfect storm of timing, economics, culture and spirit.

Last summer we did an experiential meets social campaign at Art Crawl involving a new hashtag. We were shocked by just how encouraging the flood of response was. Three years ago, doing a similar self-promo campaign at Supercrawl garnered completely different levels of engagement. It’s clear to us that this city is now ready for more.

 

hamont

 

What trends have you noticed lately in social media marketing and branding and where do you see it going next?

I don’t have a crystal ball (Although some days I wish I did!). So, it wouldn’t be prudent for me to guess what the future holds. What’s really got me excited about the industry lately is a turn towards elements of social good becoming a natural part of any organization’s marketing mix. When a brand can create a hybrid of social good, digital engagement and a relevant connection to the everyday lives of its target audience, that’s something to take notice of. These principles have been guiding a few of our newest campaign strategies for our top clients.

 

Some people in the tech / startup community believe that the best product development talent is in Waterloo, and that the best sales and marketing talent in Toronto. Google has followed this sort of model, with a development studio in Waterloo and advertising / sales in Toronto. I think it’s great for the different cities in Southern Ontario to specialize and have strengths, but it’s concerning to me when it leads to people thinking there is a magic wall that somehow stops world class product development from being done in Hamilton. Is there a similar concern for somebody working in creative branding?

Of course! That may be a tired perception, but that hasn’t stopped us from working with the region’s top health care, education and innovation technology clients. A lot of people are surprised to know that we’ve also created campaigns for international clients. KITESTRING has created a niche for itself, and more and more our location is being viewed as something that is in our favour.

 

Can “big league” world class marketing be done out of Hamilton?

Yes. We have a close-knit community of talented marketers in this city. We’re a fierce bunch who isn’t afraid to change the landscape for local organizations and make a name for ourselves beyond the 905 area code. It’s going to be our ability to support one another and be proud of one another’s successes that will define the next while in terms of local progress for our industry.

 

Has KITESTRING worked with any tech companies in particular?

We’ve collaborated with Innovation Factory, the local technology SME hub, on a really neat integrated campaign. The STARTOFF campaign was a contest for local Innovation Factory clients, which involved videogame themed digital engagement in collaboration with Orbital, and pop-up 8 bit art installations around the city. We also work with EllisDon, an innovative, international construction company, helping them to define a new software launch set for the summer of 2013.

 

startoff

 

How did that work out for them?

Innovation Factory’s campaign has come to a close, so I can share these results. Combined with the engagement campaign, STARTOFF’s digital execution in mobile, social and desktop online developments were explored by laptops and computers, by iPhone, Blackberry, Android smartphones, and had been accessed through 2913 social media buzz mentions on Twitter and 17,102 visits from Facebook.

 

Where do you see Hamilton in 5 years? 10 years?

I know I would like to see Hamilton become a more walkable city. It would be great to see more people living and working downtown. I’d love to see a Yogen Früz in walking distance from my house. That’s just me.

 

Hamilton has a lot of hidden gems. There’s different blogs and websites devoted to spotlighting them. What’s your favourite hidden Hamilton gem?

It’s hard to keep hidden gems a secret in Hamilton because of the widespread adoption of the #HamOnt hashtag on Twitter. I’m not complaining, it’s actually a good thing. I think a great hidden gem is the Ottawa Street strolling district. The Ottawa Street BIA is a client of mine and I love when I get to get down there for a visit. There are great restaurants, a farmers market, fabric and crafting outlets, antique stores and clothing boutiques.

 


Register for The Right Angle

 

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Avatar of News Desk

by News Desk

The Right Angle coming up on May 21st

May 13, 2013 in Marketing

Originally posted at kitestring.ca/right-angle

 

In a world beyond websites it can be a challenge to let your brand take flight in the digital sphere.

KITESTRING presents a morning focused on social strategies to help you engage in the conversation. Learn from experts in the field how to manage your message online, protect your brand image, and problem-solve with confidence and creativity.

KEYNOTE with SCOTT STRATTEN

Learn about how engaging your online community can make your business thrive from Scott Stratten (President, Un-Marketing) as he shares his expertise in Viral, Social, and Authentic Marketing which he calls Un-Marketing. It’s all about positioning yourself as a trusted expert in front of your target market, so when they have the need, they choose you.

Scott Stratten - F.I.R.E. Sessions 2011

 

KITESTRING #QandA

You ask, they’ll answer! This panel is a powerhouse of crisis resolution and this audience-led session is your chance to ask the experts everything you ever wanted to know about social media management but were afraid to ask.

  • Panel moderated by Chris Farias (Partner + Creative Director, KITESTRING)
  • Featuring Scott Stratten,
  • Jamie Stein, (Senior Manager – Social Media, ING Direct)
  • Christine Zakrajsek, (Web and Social Media Manager, EllisDon)
  • Michelle Dias (Social Media Specialist, Goodlife Fitness)
  • Kyle Kuchmey, (President, New Motto; Alumni Officer – Digital Communications, McMaster University)

 

Formerly a music industry marketer, national sales training manager and a College Professor, he ran his “UnAgency” for a nearly a decade before solely focusing on speaking at events for companies like PepsiCo, Adobe, Red Cross, Hard Rock Café, Cirque du Soleil, Saks Fifth Avenue and Fidelity Investments when they need help guiding their way through the viral/social media and relationship marketing landscape.

He now has over 145,000 people follow his daily rantings on Twitter and was just named one of the top 5 social media influencers in the world on Forbes.com. It’s the only time he’s felt comfortable being compared to Ashton Kutcher, P Diddy and Justin Bieber.

His book “UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging” became a national best-seller before it was released and was also named one of the top business books of the year by 1-800-CEO READ and a top 10 book by Under30CEO.com.

His new book entitled “The Book Of Business Awesome: How Engaging Your Customers and Employees Can Make Your Business Thrive” is also a best-seller, breaking the rules of how companies are truly marketed and grown through the current online/offline world.

 

Recognizing a growing market for web design, video, and social media support, Kyle founded New Motto in the Summer of 2010. Kyle’s versatile background in digital technologies as well as his passion for creative collaboration shapes the direction of New Motto. He strives to bring his clients’ vision to reality, by finding the right teammates and technologies for the right project. Kyle also believes firmly in strong client support and delivering effective solutions for any budget.

Kyle spent five years at McMaster University’s Alumni Advancement department, where he lead digital communications initiatives including web, video, email, and social media campaigns, to engage the university’s 150,000+ alumni. He also co-chaired the Social Media Working Group, tasked with developing and evolving McMaster’s social media and mobile app development guidelines. During his tenure, Kyle and his teammates received several industry awards for outstanding university advancement communications from CCAE (Canada) and CASE (International), including categories such as Best Online Video and Creativity on a Shoestring.

Kyle believes every organization and individual can benefit from using social media, by finding the right platforms and the right motivations.

 

With her bold natured personality, and innovative thinking Michelle Dias has successfully lead social media, and public relations campaigns for leading Canadian brands. As a communications professional Michelle sharpened her expertise in developing and executing strategic communications campaigns through her consulting roles at Hill + Knowlton Strategies Canada, and as an Account Executive at NKPR, in Toronto. She currently holds her dream job of Social Media Specialist with GoodLife Fitness.

At GoodLife Fitness Michelle manages and executes digital marketing efforts on the company’s multiple social media channels. This includes the engagement, education and communication of the benefits of exercise to all Canadians.

Michelle has earned a reputation for driving sales through online marketing efforts, building strong online community cultivation and, creative thinking. Since working in the field of public relations, Michelle has worked with numerous consumer lifestyle brands in developing marketing communications programs, clients include: Loblaw Companies Ltd.,Reckitt Benckiser (Lysol, Clearasil, Air Wick, Finish Quantumatic), New York Fries & South St. Burger Co., and Kiehl’s Canada.

As an active fitness enthusiast Michelle maintains a health and fitness blog that promotes simple diet changes and easy fitness tips. (http://eatcleanfitnesslean.wordpress.com). She gives back to the field by participating as a member of Sheridan College’s Program Advisory Committee.

 

Christine Zakrajsek is EllisDon’s Web and Social Media Manager with a growing responsibility for mobile usage and applications within the enterprise. EllisDon is a values driven employee-owned company that delivers construction expertise with a growing range of construction services in risk management, sustainability and technology. Given the inherently public nature of EllisDon’s business coupled with the public’s interest in their built environment Ms. Zakrajsek has connected people from coast to coast with EllisDon’s values, career opportunities, senior leaders and latest news and updates via social media.

One of the most rewarding aspects of Ms. Zakrajsek’s role at EllisDon is reaching out to industry partners and associations to help foster social media adoption within their own organization. To this end, Ms. Zakrajsek authored a series of articles titled ‘Social Media Masterclass’ for the Daily Commercial News, the industry’s leading trade publication in Canada. In the coming months, EllisDon will be rolling out an internal social network and Ms. Zakrajsek is extremely excited to see what happens when you get 1,500 building technology experts, engineers, MBAs, accountants, and sustainability experts talking with each other irrespective of corporate hierarchy and geography.

 

Jaime Stein is recognized as an industry leader for his expertise in digital marketing. He currently manages the social media team and strategy for ING DIRECT, Canada’s leading direct bank. He delivers a proven record of success from his four seasons as the Canadian Football League’s head of digital and social media where he redefined the content strategy for CFL.ca and launched the CFL’s involvement in social media. A journalist by training, Jaime has worked in the SPORTSCENTRE newsroom at TSN and served as radio play-by-play voice of the Toronto Argonauts Football Club.

Jaime is a graduate of the Rotman School of Management in Toronto where he was selected valedictorian of the Morning MBA Class of 2011. He has a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Montreal and a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto.

Born and raised in Vancouver, B.C., Jaime currently serves as a member of the fundraising cabinet for the Canadian Blood Services campaign ‘For All Canadians’ that is dedicated to building Canada’s new national public cord blood bank.

Jaime lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.

BUBBLY BRUNCH

Indulge in morning marche stations featuring crepes, mini waffles, fresh fruit, parfaits and pastries. Of course, no brunch is complete without a bubbly bar!

CREATIVE CONVERSATION

Meet other creative professionals in marketing, corporate communications, not-for-profit, and innovative industries – just like you. Share your strategies for integrating social media in your brand.

05.21.13

Join KITESTRING for an exclusive morning at the Art Gallery of Hamilton – Tickets are limited

Eventbrite - THE RIGHT ANGLE: Shape Up Your Social Media With Process + Purpose

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Avatar of Sam Brennand

by Sam Brennand

What Starbucks can teach us about B2B marketing

April 22, 2013 in Marketing

starbucksI never used to understand the appeal of Starbucks.

Before becoming an avid coffee drinker, I couldn’t grasp why the alternative atmosphere, odd ordering system, or premium (sometimes crazy) pricing was so appealing to so many coffee loving consumers. It all seemed like a bit much.

Everything changed for me while at university. A lack of in-school study space and a need for caffeine suddenly made Starbucks a whole lot more appealing. As both a newfound coffee connoisseur and a marketing student, I spent a lot of time thinking about what makes Starbucks so successful. Howard Schultz is also a favourite of a lot of business school professors. Here a few of the top things I feel B2B marketing professionals can learn from the phenomenal success of Starbucks:

  • Start with Culture Great brands are almost always reflections of great cultures. As Bill Taylor has written for HBR, success is “about caring more than other companies — about customers, about colleagues, about how the organization conducts itself in a world with endless opportunities to cut corners and compromise on values.” A unique aspect of Starbucks’ marketing efforts is that internal culture is as much of a focus as external activities, and Starbucks is reknowned as much for its unique culture as it is for its coffee. To be truly successful, B2B marketing professionals should expand their thinking beyond the scope of traditional marketing and ensure everyone in the organization ‘lives the brand’ (through regular training initiatives and openness).
  • Create Authentic Experiences As I’ve written about previously, great brands are a summation of experiences created, conversations fostered, and feelings elicited. Where Starbucks excels is in creating a range of authentic customer experiences that are collectively designed to allow customers to satisfy their own unique needs. There’s no cookie cutter experience and a Starbucks experience is always an authentic, personal one regardless of where you are in the world. It’s been well written about that Starbucks’ goal is to become more than a coffee shop, striving to be a “Third Place”. Accordingly, the company structures itself from top to bottom with the goal of fulfilling that defining idea. B2B marketing professionals should take a similar approach to B2B products and services and design marketing programs that emphasize flexibility and relevance at every stage of the B2B sales cycle. Ensuring that ‘customer experience management’ is chief among the buzz words around your office should be a key B2B marketing priority.
  • Foster Communities At the end of the day, a great product or service will naturally generate a community of fans. But as Starbucks has proven with MyStarbucksIdea and other community building initiatives, great brands help to enable their most passionate brand advocates. From a B2B marketing perspective, fostering communities can help maximize the value of long-term customer relationships at minimal cost. Engaged customers may have information about your products and services that could be extremely valuable. Why not harness that knowledge for the benefit of all of your customers?
  • Marketing Tactics From 1987 to 1997, Starbucks spent less than $10 million per year on advertising as it expanded its empire across the globe. From a very early point, Starbucks understood that the most effective marketing tactics for the brand weren’t paid mediums, but simply word of mouth. Because of the nature of B2B business, organizations would be wise to place an equal emphasis on generating ‘offline’ buzz. Starbucks also excels at embracing opportunity with its marketing tactics, whether during holiday seasons or because of the performance of particular products. B2B marketing professionals should focus on utilizing B2B marketing tactics that are agile enough to adapt to changing circumstances and take advantage of market opportunities.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Venture Accelerator Partners can help your growing business with B2B marketing or startup marketing, please don’t hesitate to contact me or download one of our marketing white papers to continue learning.

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Avatar of Sam Brennand

by Sam Brennand

6 Top B2B Lead Generation and Prospecting Tools

April 2, 2013 in Marketing, Startup

Conversations are important. Before you can win a sale, you must always first start a conversation with your prospects. But how should you reach out to them, and what prospecting tools can help you along the way? At VA Partners, we work with a variety of clients who sell to a number of industries. Whether we are helping to sell email receipt solutions to ecommerce and retail organizations, or fleet management solutions to industrial and construction organizations, choosing the right B2B prospecting tool can be the key to getting your message heard.

Here are the mediums of contact we use and the tools we recommended to maximize value:

  • A CRM for All Mediums I want to begin this list by recommending the use of a CRM. Your CRM can be your best friend in making sure that you stay in touch with your prospects, allowing you to organize information, record interactions, and schedule future activities. My coworkers and I use Salesforce, and I personally recommend it. For tips on using a CRM be sure to check out our thoughts on the 5 best practices for utilizing a CRM for Sales.
  • Skype for Long Distance Calls If you’re a startup or small business, you’ll understand the value in finding ways to do more for less. At VA Partners, there are times when some of our clients choose to target international prospects or when an international inbound lead comes in. With Skype we can make more long distance calls to reach a wider area of prospects without running the risk of incurring significant long distance phone charges.
  • ContactMonkey for Emails ContactMonkey is the most recent tool I have tried and I strongly recommend it. ContactMonkey is an inexpensive plugin that can be associated with your Outlook or Gmail account and can show you when your e-mails are opened, what time and where they were opened, and how many times they were opened. Take advantage of ContactMonkey to become more responsive to your prospects’ interest.
  • Excel and Word for Mail To mention the use of traditional mail in today’s digital era might earn a few chuckles, but it is important to remember that your medium needs to match the industry and prospects that you want to target. Recently, on behalf of a client, a mail-out was sent to a number of industrial and construction prospects. Microsoft’s Excel and Word mail merge helped me create a professional looking document, complete with a personalized touch, in a fraction of the time it would have taken to do every letter manually. If you are interested in learning how to perform a mail merge Microsoft has instructions that can help you out.
  • HootSuite for Tweets If you use Twitter as part of your social selling toolkit, I recommend going one step further and trying HootSuite or other free social media management tools as a B2B prospecting tool. HootSuite allows you to maintain a strong digital presence throughout the day through the use of scheduled tweets, and can help you monitor activity through the use of custom searches. If your organization manages multiple twitter accounts, be sure to read up on how to be successful.
  • Mobile App for LinkedIn In sales, timing and responsiveness are critical. With LinkedIn’s mobile app you can have the power of LinkedIn wherever you go. Your mobile app can allow you to view accounts,  message contacts, look for information updates, and conduct research even while out of the office and away from your computer. Stay up to date on new developments with your prospects to help win new business.

Be sure to try these B2B prospecting tools to maximize the value of their respective mediums and boost your B2B selling power. If you enjoyed this post and are fired up to learn more about prospecting and social media tools, Venture Accelerator Partners has a number of free white papers you’re sure to love.

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Avatar of Sam Brennand

by Sam Brennand

Top sources of startup marketing wisdom

March 18, 2013 in Marketing, Startup

As part of my job at Venture Accelerator Partners, I’m tasked with curating great sources of startup marketing content to share with our prospects and customers.

Not only does curating great 3rd party content help build the Venture Accelerator Partner brand, but getting the chance to read so much great marketing material builds my own knowledge base and is helping me become a better marketer for our clients. I highly recommend building some time into your daily schedule to learn about leading marketing tactics and strategies; it can only benefit your business or startup, even if you don’t think you’re a marketer.

Here are a few of my favourite sources of great B2B marketing and startup marketing content:

  • B2Community B2Community is perhaps my favourite spot for insightful, original marketing content. B2Community’s mission is “to create an open community where business professionals can establish their thought leadership, increase exposure for their business/organization, and network with others.” It’s a great source of straightforward yet intriguing material.
  • HubSpot HubSpot publishes so much marketing content, at this point I’m unsure whether they sell software or are a publishing house. Despite the absolutely incredible number of emails I receive from HubSpot each and every day, it truly is a fantastic source of content. Their Inbound Internet Marketing blog is an amazing source of SEO, branding, social media, lead generation, email marketing, lead nurturing & management, and analytics content, and their eBooks are great to keep on file as quick reminders.
  • KISSmetrics In the words of those who run it, the KISSmetrics blog is “a blog about analytics, marketing, and testing”, and it’s doubtful you’ll find a better spot on the web to learn about how those three subjects relate to one another. Be sure to check out their awesome library of infographics on sales, marketing, technology, and social media.
  • RocketWatcher Run by startup marketing junkie April Dunford, RocketWatcher is a go to source for startup marketing content. Full of first-hand tactical and strategic insight from April’s time working with a number of successful startups, RocketWatcher has great advice for launching and growing new products and services.

If you’re interested in learning more about Venture Accelerator Partners can help your growing business with B2B marketing or startup marketing, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Avatar of Jim Rudnick

by Jim Rudnick

A social media metronome…

March 1, 2013 in Marketing, Social media

Originally posted on CanuckSEO.com

 

fridayIt’s a fabulous Friday once again, and there have been some real “timely” infographics that have recently sprung up and I thought that I’d bring some of same up to our readers.

First, the word metronome - it’s a word that means a device that produces regular, metrical ticks and in this case…what I mean by same, is that when it comes to social media, that time is important to try to understand just how “quick” the social media world is growing.

jess3First up today, is a great all-encompassing infographic done by the folks over at jess3.com, via their blog and this one is a look at the overall whole annual growth…and it’s a bit daunting too. It’s the big influx of mobile apps to the social world, via apps that exist for Facebook’s Poke or SnapChat that is a real eye opener for me as I had no idea that this area was so quickly becoming a major segment. The infographic goes on to show all the major players and some real new ones too that can give you a true sense of the real rising stars like Pinterest and Google+. This surely needs to be clicked, eh….so that you can ramp up your knowledge on same! Kudos to the Jess3 folks then!

60secsNext up today, is a real look at just what happens in a minute…a 60 second look at social media…tick tock tick tock…and this one comes from socialjumpstart.com via Infographr…and it’s a great look at those 60 seconds, eh!

One thing that I found odd, was that LinkedIn has only 120 new members every 60 seconds….or 2 per second. Surely that can’t be correct, I thought….as they have surpassed even my own expectations on growth…but maybe I’m incorrect here…what do you think on this…is it your opinion too? But in any event again Kudos to the socialjumpstart folks for this one!

workflow.Lastly today is the great infographic I found over at intersectionconsulting.com and it’s located here. This is also an interesting infographic, in that what this one does is to try to estimate the time we all spend on social media.

Here’s how they put the premise behind it -

“The general consensus is that companies need to dedicate resources to social media (in the form of time and labor) in order to be successful. I would agree with this statement. But the question is, how much time exactly? Here is where things can get a little sketchy. For many organizations, social media hasn’t become part of the operation yet. As a result, a lot of work is still being done off the corner of people’s desk…or by interns.

This infographic is my take on the time investment required to develop an effective social media workflow. Major caveat – of course, every organization is different and any workflow that is designed and implemented needs to work towards the achievement of business goals. That being said, I feel the time scope represented here is far more realistic than the notion that organizations can get value from the social channel by investing “15 minutes a day”…”

As you can see, there is a note that we should remember that as a firm, we’re all different…but the time scope shown is pretty interesting and yes Kudos to the intersectionconsulting folks for this great one too!

Which brings us to the question…what do you think? How does time play a function within your own firm when it comes to social media….

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Avatar of Sam Brennand

by Sam Brennand

4 Key Benefits of Content Marketing for Startups

February 28, 2013 in Communications, Marketing

Chances are you’ve probably heard marketers throw around the phrase “content is king”.

While the phrase has joined ‘big data’ in the pantheon of overused marketing idioms, it remains true. Content marketing, defined by the Content Marketing Institute as “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience”, can be one of the most cost-effective (and highest ROI) marketing tactics for startups. Content marketing tactics like blogs, white papers, newsletters, case studies, webinars, videos, amongst many others, are all great ways to ensure your startup has a consistent supply of inbound leads.

If you’ve been reluctant to dive into content marketing, here are 4 of the key benefits of content marketing that might change your mind:

  • Educated Customers Educating your customers and prospects should be a key goal of your marketing and sales strategies, and marketing content is one of the best ways to do it. Providing your customers and prospects with the key information and tools they need to make decisions helps build trust and credibility. Content marketing is especially well suited to B2B, as tactics can be closely tailored to each stage of the traditionally longer buying processes of B2B businesses. For example, you may write a blog post to catch a prospect’s attention by highlighting an issue important to them, publish a white paper to help them learn more about their options and the range of available solutions, and then produce a case study to highlight the quantitative benefits of your product or service.
  • A Framework for Decision Making I came across one of the best pieces of content marketing I’ve ever seen during a search for a marketing automation vendor. New to the subject, I was looking for a set of criteria to evaluate each solution on the market, and came across the Marketing Automation Buyer’s Kit from Marketo. The kit outlined different areas required for success with marketing automation tools (each listed criteria was, of course, subtly skewed towards Marketo) and helped me tailor my search. In the end Marketo was top of mind and was the first meeting I set up to learn more about marketing automation. Ultimately, great content can help establish selection criteria and a framework for decision making that favours your product or service over a competitor.
  • Subject Matter Leadership Perhaps the chief benefit of content marketing is that content can be the best way to demonstrate to your customers and prospects that you are the best at what you do. Sharing key insights and identifying ways to relieve customer pain points is the best way to paint yourself and your company as thought leaders and ensure success.
  • SEO It’s well documented that keeping your website fresh is a best practice for SEO, and a content marketing strategy will do just that. Content marketing also encourages active content sharing, which can help link building efforts. As Rand Fiskin of SEOmoz has said, “delivering an exceptional experience and building a true web brand are now essential to long-term SEO success.” Content marketing is the key.

Don’t forget that social media plays a key role in ensuring your marketing content reaches the people you need it to reach. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use different types of content marketing to sustainably generate inbound leads, feel free to contact me via email or over the phone.

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Avatar of Sam Brennand

by Sam Brennand

Can milkshake marketing help your business?

February 11, 2013 in Communications, Marketing

After spending some time cleaning up my desktop recently, I stumbled across an old folder of articles from a marketing strategy class I took while studying at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Despite a few painful memories of long nights spent reading lengthy HBR articles, I flipped through a few and came across an old favourite. Finding the Right Job for Your Product, originally published in 2007 in the MIT Sloan Management Review, is an article that resonated with me as a marketing student and still strikes me as being particularly poignant as a practicing marketer.

In brief, the article contends that traditional marketing segmentation schemes miss the mark in today’s marketplace. The authors argue that while companies tend to segment their markets along product or customer characteristics, customers “just find themselves needing to get things done” and “hire a product or service to do the job.” Few could disagree with the premise.

For example, the authors highlight the case of a fast food company that wanted to increase sales of its milkshakes (hence milkshake marketing). Traditional marketing wisdom meant the company segmented the market for milkshakes based on product or customer categories, and subsequent product variations based on these segmentation insights didn’t impact sales.

After careful market analysis, the company eventually realized that 40% of milkshakes were being sold in the morning and customers were buying them because they helped to relieve the monotony of morning commutes, not just because they’re a tasty beverage. Understanding the milkshake’s true ‘job’ and its true competition (any other product that solves the boring commute job, like a bagel or a donut) allowed the company to tweak its products to do the ‘job’ better. As a result, the company gained market share.

Ultimately, as the article’s authors’ note, the benefits of segmenting by ‘job’ and milkshake marketing can be readily applied to the 4 P’s of any marketing plan:

    • Promotion Segmenting by ‘job’ allows for the creation of purpose brands that decrease advertising costs for early stage businesses, as purpose brands “link customers’ realization that they need to do a job with a product that was designed to do it”.
    • Product Understanding the true ‘job’ your product does will help you design your product or add features that actually improve customer experience, rather than superfluous fluff that you think your target customer might value.
    • Price Understanding your product or service’s ‘job’ and your true competition will help you set the right price for the right customers (who may not be who you initially think they are).
    • Place Understanding the ‘job’ of your product or service can help you tailor your distribution strategy and get your product to the right place at the right time.

As a growing business, choosing to segment by ‘job’ rather than traditional methods can increase the size of your market, help you to understand your true competitors, tweak your value proposition, better target your products or services, and help you “escape the traditional positioning paradigm”. Always be sure to perform situational case studies, such as the milkshake marketing example outlined above, to gain actionable and practical sales and marketing insights.

If you’d like to understand more about how milkshake marketing could apply to your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me at Venture Accelerator Partners.

 

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Avatar of Sam Brennand

by Sam Brennand

4 Key Elements of Market Analysis

January 30, 2013 in Marketing, Startup

by Marc DeAmorim

I recently attended a lecture on market analysis as part of the MaRS Entrepreneurship 101 lecture series. For those unfamiliar with the Entrepreneurship 101 series, it is a free weekly lecture series featuring key topics related to starting a successful business, aimed at social innovators, and technology and life sciences enthusiasts. Topics in the series include funding your business, marketing, recruiting, intellectual property and more.

This blog post will provide a brief recap on some of the main points of the market analysis lecture presented by Usha Srinivasan, Program Director at MaRS.

  • Primary and Secondary Research Data Research is essential for any entrepreneur looking to build a good understanding of their market. Research data can be divided into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary research data can be defined as information collected by the researcher directly through instruments such as surveys, interviews, observations, or focus groups. Secondary research data is data that has been collected by someone other than the user. Secondary data is often easier and less expensive to collect than primary data, but it is wise to utilize more than one source for secondary data in order to validate the information available. By utilizing primary and secondary data, an entrepreneur can better understand their market, validate their assumptions, and adapt their ideas.
  • Sources of Information In order to collect secondary data, it is necessary to know where to look. Usha explained that government statistics agencies, like the Conference Board of Canada, industry and market research firms, various professional organizations, the MaRS startup library and Entrepreneur’s Toolkit, are all great sources of information. One particular source of information that I use quite often is data.com. With data.com’s “find companies” feature, you can set your own criteria to generate a list of organizations in your market segment. The more sources of information you know, the more likely you will be to find the information you’re looking for. It will be important to gather data throughout the life of your company in order to watch for changes in the market and be prepared to adapt as needed. When it comes time to prospect research, feel free to try a few of my personal research tips.
  • Important Questions to Answer With the types of data outlined above and some sources of information identified, Usha provided a variety of important questions that should be answered by entrepreneurs before launching their business. The questions she put forth included:
      • Who am I competing with?
      • What is the size of my market?
      • Who are my customers?
      • What is my business model?
      • What is my value proposition?
  • Tips To Be On Top of Your Industry Towards the closing of the lecture, Usha provided tips on how to be on top of your industry. She recommended that we attend industry and trade show events, track industry analysts, and subscribe to relevant industry journals and newsletters. By staying immersed in the news of your industry, you will be able to keep your market understanding up-to-date as the landscape changes. If you’re looking to stay up to date on sales, marketing and social media content, be sure to subscribe to the VA Partners newsletter.

To quote Schoolhouse Rock, “It’s great to learn, ‘cause knowledge is power!” The more an entrepreneur knows about their market, the more likely they are to succeed and grow.

 

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Avatar of Sam Brennand

by Sam Brennand

Why you should be using a social media content calendar

January 11, 2013 in Marketing, Social media, Startup

In a world of content marketing, the one with a plan is king.

Now that the production and curation of quality marketing content is widely viewed as the best way to engage customers and drive meaningful leads, it’s crucial to have a plan that lets you take advantage. And in a world where social media has become a primary means of communication, insightful timing and dogged consistency are the keys to success.

A social media content calendar, a detailed management schedule of how you plan to leverage social media to support your sales and marketing activities, will help keep you focused, save you time, and enhance your social media ROI.

Here are 3 reasons to create a social media content calendar:

  • Integrated Sales & Marketing Support Social media is a tool to support your sales and marketing strategy – not a sales and marketing strategy unto itself. Aimlessly tweeting or posting links to Facebook without an overarching strategy doesn’t add a whole lot of value. To be successful, social media can’t exist in a silo. It must be closely integrated with all other marketing and sales elements to be worthwhile, and a content calendar can help align your social media efforts with your greater strategy. For example, if you’re planning to launch a new product in February, use your content calendar to plan your social media efforts now. Plan to write a series of blogs that help define the problem and demonstrate the need for a solution; schedule a series of escalating tweets and Facebook posts that shift the conversation towards awareness and desire as the launch date nears; plan a Facebook contest that will spur continued engagement post-launch.
  • Better Efficiency & Organization As the number of social media tools used in B2B marketing continues to grow, it’s certainly a challenge to keep track of everything. At VA Partners, our social media content calendar lives in an Excel spreadsheet that gets updated and assessed on a week-to-week basis. Though seemingly simple, our content calendar saves us a huge amount of time and effort with regards to researching and scheduling social media activity. It’s a wonder for 3rd party content curation too, providing us with a guideline/template from which to source great material from top industry sources. Other key benefits are that it keeps us focused and on message, prevents overloading on a single topic, and keeps everyone on the team on the same page.
  • Take Advantage of Timing Different social media tools work best at different times. For example, research has shown that content posted to Facebook garners the most shares around 6:00pm, the most likes around 8:00pm, and Facebook also seems to be more effective at driving engagement on weekends. For its part, Twitter seems to be most effective at driving engagement between 3:00pm-6:00pm (in terms of RTs). Of course, the best time of day will vary for every company, but using a content calendar can help ensure you’re using the right tool at the right time to reach the right audience.

Given that it’s the holiday season, it also seems worthwhile to mention that looking ahead is never a bad idea. Identifying key dates throughout the year (whether they’re holidays, birthdays, customer milestones, etc.) will help ensure you don’t miss out on an opportunity to leverage a special day to engage with customers, employees, or partners.

Does your company use a social media content calendar?

If you’re looking for help streamlining your social media efforts, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

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