Mobile technology has landed in everyone's laps with a massive 'I AM HERE'. It’s now very common to see the average person wielding a wide array of devices to support their frantic lifestyles.
And I don’t need to tell you this... but it’s because of these mobile devices, and forever being connected that we are all now busier than ever! When did you last have time to read a newspaper on the train..?
But do these devices benefit our lives or do we secretly despise the constant red light that flashes at us from our work BlackBerry, or the never-ending vibrations the iPhone emits when we receive an email..? Ask yourself, could you live without your hands’ new permanent addition? I will let you in on a little secret of mine; I don’t even own an iPod! Let alone an iPad!
I know; I’m a failure to all man-kind!
These smart mobile devices are becoming such a part of our daily lives, that if you leave the house without it, you literally feel like a part of you is missing! So it’s not a surprise that PC sales were down last year due to the popular tablet! The tablet sales forecast for 2012 is set to increase by 52% compared to last year, and 2013 it is another 27%. Tablet accessories are allowing us to use the tablet as a laptop, our smart phone is becoming a mini-tablet, and the laptop has become the desktop! So why have we lost faith in our trusty PC? Why are we not buying them anymore?
Is it because we now have so much choice, we don't know what we need or want? Is it because, consumers are so bombarded with marketing messages on a daily basis that they eventually switch off, or is it because they now have a device that can do everything, apart from feed the dog, for them? Safe to say, if you want an 'App' to do something, it’s probably already out there!
Perhaps it’s a combination of all those things. I’m currently writing this on my smartphone memo app (it’s turned into my loyal laptop for the day!) on the way back from the PCR Retail Boot camp. Now I am not a techie, I don't usually get excited about the latest product or gadget, but some of the things I have seen today were incredibly exciting. There were products that are going to shape the future of our lifestyle, how we interact with our devices, how they can help us, with products that are thinner, lighter and more dynamic than ever!
We are evolving into a society that relies heavily on smart devices. In the UK, 40% of us are dependent on smartphones because of their ability to enhance user experience. Mobile devices can adapt the way we deal with our daily lives, and make things a little easier, whether it’s your phone that can record your favourite program whilst on the move, or your TV that can become your photo album and music store at the same time!
Cloud computing, the ability to store information ‘somewhere in the universe’, gives each device the ability to access any content from anywhere, which negates the need for the memory rich, heavy, slow performing laptops of the past.
MicroP is one of the UK’s leading B2B and retail distributors. They also offer a service called ‘Connected Home’ which they believe will maximise retailers’ revenue streams. The ability to have all your internet devices speaking to each other throughout the house, and on the go is a technology which is available now, but many aren’t aware it exists. MicroP have advance technology products at their fingertips which allow your TV to turn into a SmartTV within an instant, connecting it to a whole host of online capabilities.
This generation and the next will access content, files, films etc from the cloud. Paper and CDs are becoming a thing of the past. We are aware that technology is developing at an increasingly fast pace, and a company called ‘Corning’ have already developed an innovate product that will eventually be in everyone’s homes. The company have created a thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) glass. It has the ability to become a multi-sized touchscreen, and can be shaped to any surface. This will transform our home, work and education environment and the way we communicate with one another. Take a look at their YouTube video.
Are you sad to see the traditional notepad go? Will it go and will you miss it? One major problem for the future is competition. The tablet market is largely owned by Apple, and unfortunately for the competitors, that doesn't look like it will change anytime soon!
Yesterday's panel discussion at the PCR Retail Boot camp, which our very own Shane Redding was a part of, spoke about the "Issues with Online Selling". The key discussion point was how can small resellers compete with large market leading companies to sell technology products. One major factor which was continually brought up was that smaller companies must offer the whole package; and they'll have to work harder in other areas. Unfortunately, small resellers can't compete on price, but they do have the opportunity to excel on service! For Shane Redding’s ‘Top Tips for Online Selling’ visit www.cyance.com/onlineselling
Cyance have been shortlisted in the category of “Best Channel Marketing Agency” at the CRN Sales & Marketing awards. We are very proud and wanted to share this with everyone. It is purely down to the hard work and dedication our team has given to each client and we can’t thank them enough.
The CRN Sales and Marketing Awards ‘will recognise and reward the achievements of those individuals and teams that are responsible for making the UK IT channel truly great.’ The judging will focus around elements such as innovation, evolution and development.
The awards ceremony is on the 21st June so we are keeping our fingers crossed until then. We also want to wish the very best of luck to our client Steljes who have been shortlisted for an award too. They are in the category for ‘Best Marketing Campaign’ for their SMART Meetings Campaign which we help run for them – fingers crossed for us all!
Would you be happy to hear that there may be a solution to all the disputes between departments? Our advice; bring someone in who is objective! They must only have one main priority in mind; the revenue of the company.
So is it time to get a CRO within your team?
A Chief Revenue Officer can create a highly integrated team within large fast-paced companies. This part-sales, part-marketing, part-customer service, part-product development and part-corporate strategy role can focus fundamentally on revenue in all aspects of the company. This isn’t a job for everyone, you need key experience within sales and marketing, whilst being able to understand the issues the CEOs deal with.
In this tough climate, where revenue is a key indicator on whether the business will continue to grow or fail, linking all aspects of the team under one key objective is a growing trend. When implementing a marketing or sales strategy, in some cases, there is often little communication between the two departments after the initial brief meeting. The result? A company with departments working against each other, leaving resources, staff and otherwise exhausted!
The CRO has to ask the challenging questions such as; what does our revenue strategy look like in order to accomplish the corporate targets? How much is direct sales? What kind of marketing programs will we need to fill the pipeline? How full does the pipeline need to be? Are we filling our direct pipeline or our channel partners’ pipeline? What metrics will we use to make sure everything works?
A CRO has the tough job of weighing up competing demands, and making difficult decisions. However, with a CRO in the company it is much more likely that you will achieve your revenue goals. A company will need to invest in the right tools before hiring. A CRO will need access to information that gives them insight into value, conversion, velocity, reach and return of the company.
Now is the right time to align marketing departments with sales in order to support an overall revenue plan. Let’s banish this tiresome ‘elephant in the room’ and make some progress!
Social media, for many of us, has become a way of life. We have seen it emerge, grow and develop in front of our very own eyes. As businesses, we have begun to utilise social media platforms for many different purposes whether it is to communicate with customers, showcase products or engage with news content. It has changed the dynamic in which we, as a society, absorb news. However, it is only recently that B2B companies are changing their views towards social media as a sale and marketing tool and increasing spend to integrate it into their business strategy.
Social media is allowing B2B companies to relate to one another, to build relationships and to adopt a much more ‘human’ approach. Speakers at the TFM-A event this week focused on an ever- changing social platform, integration being key, and the importance of personalisation and social segmentation:
1. The social platform is forever changing
We already know this as we have seen it develop throughout the past 5 years. However will it continue at this rate? What many marketers are saying is plan your social media activity for the next 6 months, but be able to adapt and change. Social media will continue to grow and 2012 is already showing niche platforms emerging.
2. Integration
Social business is a new term. It is the ability to integrate your internal with your external social strategy. It is the business response to customers’ conversation within social media.
3. Personalisation and Social Segmentation
I touch on this in the last blog post, however it is a really important tool for social media in 2012. Google + is built around this idea of ‘social segmentation.’ It gives you the ability to share certain content with a selected group of contacts. This could work well within an agency environment where you want to share information through social media with one group of clients and not others.
Social media is a brilliant tool and has transformed the way we communicate. Before integrating social media into your marketing strategy, understand the wider relationship you want to create. Once this has been outlined, it allows you to be selective and understand the benefits for each platform, and you can target your clients and present your business in the best light.
During this TFM-A Event, our very own Shane Redding spoke about ‘How to power your business for international marketing that works’. She presented a Cyance client campaign, where a US brand called Kensington came to us with the objective to enter the European market. The brand had a high sales target of 30,000 units, and unlike in the US, Kensington was an unknown brand throughout Europe. Below are the slides from the presentation which highlights how this target was achieved and the how a lead generation campaign was created.
What a fantastic evening at the new Google offices on Wednesday evening! We hope you were all able to follow our live Twitter stream during the evening. If not, go take a look now . The Google offices lived up to our expectations, featuring think-spaces, amazing canteens, gyms and office spaces to die for.
The ‘Smarter Social Media’ evening held by the IDM started with an entertaining introduction from our very own Director at Cyance, Steve Kemish. A fantastic and insightful evening starring a range of well-known keynotes speakers was in store for us.
Benefits of Google +
Paul Coffey, industry leader at Google was the first speaker of the evening. His 15 minute presentation highlighted the benefits of the new Google + social networking platform. Although many of us still use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it was clear last night that this up and coming social network was proving itself to its competitors. In the first 6 months Google + gained a massive 90 million users with over 3.4 billion photos uploaded.
Google + focuses on the key factor that many of us dislike sharing every detail of our lives to everyone we know. The platform enhances ‘Social Media Segmentation’ which allows you to be selective with the information you share with your separate interest groups. Social business is becoming much more of a project than a network platform.
Another aspect of Google +, that many of us are unaware of, is the ‘Hang Out’ conference facility, a conferencing device on the social platform which can hold up to 10 people in a conversation, allowing your brands to become far more personal with a human face involved.
BT tackles social media head on
The next speaker of the evening Bian Salins, Head of Social Media Innovation at BT, was enthusiastic and passionate about the subject. She covered a number of topics focusing on key case studies of BT. She began the presentation by sharing the now common fact; social media has allowed customers to gain more knowledge and instantly demand transparency from any brand. The only effective method to grow a customer base in this current climate, is by building a relationship with your target consumer. This is relevant whether you are selling B2C or B2B; social platforms give your company the power to become more engaging and personal.
Social media is now integrating into any CRM strategy. At the beginning of any new online tactical planning, company's must start by asking who their audience is, what that audience engages with and where they have their conversations. Bian Salins realised from the offset that BT were not offering a good social media service, and she needed to convince the ‘big bosses’ that more engagement and social marketing would generate ROI in the long term. She understood that with social media, you had to take the conversation to where the customer base is, not the other way around - and if you were able to identify your influencers, you could get the customer to tell your story for you.
IBM instigates internal social media
The last speaker of the evening was Delphine Remy-Boutang, WW Social Media Marketing Director at IBM. She started with the following statement,”The employees are the brand, you no longer have one company voice, and IBM, for example, has 460,000 voices.”
Delphine discussed how social networking has been around since humans existed - and online social networking is just the new tool to communicate with. She went onto say that no company should be scared of social platforms or communicating with their customers through them. Social networks will continue to grow, and we are only just seeing the beginning of how companies can utilise the platforms’ abilities.
Delphine emphasized that the way to protect a brand socially is internally. To celebrate IBM’s 100th birthday last year, the company offered every employee the option to take day off. However in return, each employee had to give that day to a charity and share it through social media. This day resulted in 300,000 global volunteers, 120 countries impacted, 5,000 service projects and 2.5 million hours of service. http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/service/
Delphine shared a key IBM / Wimbledon ad campaign case study with us, showing how social media can target your demographic in an innovative and fun way…
IBM got creative and display match updates alongside flight details for passengers at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 such as;
“Attention passengers on flight BA1454 to Edinburgh. We are pleased to announce Andy Murray is 2 sets up!”
Clever stuff…read the press release:
In a first-of-a-kind digital advertising campaign for Wimbledon, IBM (IBM: NYSE) is keeping passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5 up to date with the latest championship information right to the boarding gate.
The panel finished the evening by answering a round of questions. Below are some key points on the outcomes which we hope will provide you with some thought-provoking and useful snippets:
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Social networks will continue to grow and we are only just seeing the beginning of how companies utilise platforms’ abilities to their gain.
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Allow Google+ to communicate your brand through different networks, and use the tools provided to enhance your social networking ability between businesses. Why not try The Hangout which provides conference calling?
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Measure your social reach and layer your monitoring tools. Remember, pure engagement levels aren’t a true ROI - only when you see conversions and new business sales will it be.
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Always ask yourself what you can contribute to the company’s bottom line by investing time into social media.
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Be selective with the networks you publicise on. Where are your potential customers communicating?
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Communicating through social media is the same as real life; do not allow social media to become a 9-5 aspect of the job, it should become part of the brand through employees.
One crucial aspect with B2B marketing is to create a relationship with future clients through social media before approaching a business meeting – look and learn about your prospects. Do your research.
Remember; when planning a social media campaign - ensure you have a good enough story to tell and be selective about where you share that story. Otherwise, there’s little point to your efforts!
On the 22nd of February, Google will be opening their brand new London office doors to the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) for an evening on ‘Smarter Social Media’. Keynote speakers from Google and BT will be attending, and specialists at the event will include senior practitioners from Nokia, Google and Juniper Networks. They will all be sharing their knowledge and insights of Social Media with an audience of 200. This evening will not only be a chance to listen and absorb the wisdom of this impressive collection of speakers, but you’ll have time to ‘pick their brains’ as well.
Fortunately for us, Steve Kemish, Director at Cyance, is the Chair at this upcoming event.
Here at Cyance we believe in sharing our knowledge and offering you a sneak peek into the interesting world of B2B Marketing - whether that is Digital, Data, Social, Direct or Telemarketing. We hope over the next few months this blog will turn into a source of inspiration, and insightful information for those who wish to learn and expand their understanding of the marketing industry. We plan to bring you closer to exclusive events and share with you knowledge from the inspiring people we meet along the way.
During this ‘Smarter Social Media’ event, there will be an opportunity to ask the panel questions.
We’re keen to make sure that B2B gets its fair share of the limelight and discussion time.
So if you’d like Steve to take a question or discussion point about B2B and Social Media to the event on your behalf, then simply leave us a comment on this blog. This could be anything you may want to know about marketing, social media or the future trends of the social industry.
So if you’d like Steve to take a question or discussion point about B2B and Social Media to the event on your behalf, then simply leave us a comment on this blog. This could be anything you may want to know about marketing, social media or the future trends of the social industry.
For more information on the ‘Smarter Social Media’ evening this coming Wednesday please visit: http://www.theidm.com/marketing-events/digital-knowledge-and-networking-evening-smarter-social-media/#agenda
If you wish to ask a question or a discussion point then please post them as a comment below – we will report back live at the event (via our twitter account, @cyance) and will also write up a report of the night – ‘Social Media and b2b in 2012’.
Cyance Limited and 360 Business Marketing Limited are delighted to announce they have completed a merger of their businesses. Both companies have experienced rapid growth over the last year and have significant plans to build on this by combining their skill sets and services. Based in Oxfordshire, Cyance is an award winning B2B multi-channel marketing company with a UK and international client base including Motorola, Steljes and IBC; whilst 360 Business Marketing is an expanding B2B telephone & digital marketing company with particular strengths in advanced IT Channel Marketing.
The deal involves a share exchange, with Cyance shareholders Mike Housley, Steve Kemish and Shane Redding becoming directors of 360 Business Marketing Limited; and Jon Clarke, owner of 360 Business Marketing Limited becoming a director and shareholder in Cyance Limited. As well as becoming a Board Director of Cyance, Jon Clarke will retain his role as Managing Director of the specialist IT channel marketing operation based in Milton Keynes.
The merger enables the combined group to offer a full range of results-based multi-channel marketing solutions. These range from data targeting and database management to email marketing, telephone marketing and social media & PR. These solutions alongside their renowned strategic planning services mean they can offer a fully outsourced B2B marketing services solution.
Mike Housley, Managing Director of Cyance said:
"We are delighted to welcome Jon Clarke to the board of Cyance. We have already proved we can offer clients a powerful combination of multi-channel services by working together as close business partners for two years. This move further cements that bond and will enable us to provide an even more powerful and integrated service for clients."
Jon Clarke, Managing Director of 360 Business Marketing Limited said:
"This is a very exciting development, which I believe strengthens our position as a rising star within the B2B marketing industry, with a unique set of compelling services and know-how. This merger further builds upon our successful partnership over the past two years, where we have jointly delivered fully integrated, multi-channel lead nurturing services with outstanding results for many customers including ACCO, Avnet, Kensington, Steljes & Motorola."
About 360
360 Business Marketing Limited is a B2B multi-channel lead generation and lead nurturing company. They help B2B organisations, especially high tech businesses, to bridge the gap between marketing and sales, by delivering high-impact, multi-channel lead generation & nurturing services with a strong return on marketing investment. Seewww.360businessmarketing.co.uk
For further information please contact:
Mike Housley: mike.housley@cyance.com
Steve Kemish: steve.kemish@cyance.com or call 01865 885040
Cyance and clients celebrate our recent victory at the B2B Marketing Awards, in the only way we know how! See the photo
We have moved office, and here is the view from the window! http://twitpic.com/5zakvv
Cyance are delighted to announce that they have just been shortlisted for the 2011 NMA Effectiveness Awards.
Shane Redding from Cyance recently presented a brilliant session on "Creating customer engagement using relevant content" - see theslides for yourself online now
We won! Cyance and Sodexo Prestige pick up award for "Best use of email" at the 2010 B2B Marketing awards - read the case study
Cyance and Sodexo Prestige are shortlisted for "Best use of email" at the 2010 B2B Marketing awards. Read our blog post to learn why...