1. Determine how extensive of a mobile web presence you want to have. A dedicated mobile site? Landing pages, etc.
2. Evaluate the channels and decide what kind of content you need to create for your mobile users. SMS. MMS. Applications. Content. Email, etc. Of note: Forrester Research sees mobile devices and content marketing as two of the top three marketing trends to watch in 2012.
3. Build an integrated strategy that includes apps, display ads and email. Nothing successful stands alone, and your mobile strategy shouldn’t either.
4. Create multiple calls-to-action. Don’t assume your mobile audience wants to connect to you via a single connection point. Include multiple ways to connect in your promotions — from QR codes to text messages.
5. Finally, don’t forget to measure! If you can successfully track prospect interaction with a mobile device, you can justify your mobile program. But if you can’t quantify the value your mobile program is delivering, it’s likely to go the way of the landline phone.

Keep in mind that these tips just scratch the surface in everything you can do to market to mobile users. If you need more assistance, we are always happy to help.

Arketi recently launched Arketi Insights – a regular thought-leadership series of publications that examines top and emerging BtoB marketing topics, and what they mean for high-tech BtoB marketers. The first Arketi Insights focuses on mobile marketing in the BtoB space. The time has come for marketers to past their procrastination and give mobile marketing a serious look – because buyers are. Learn more about how to make mobile a part of your BtoB marketing mix. For a free download of Arketi Insights: Time for Mobile Marketing to Go BtoB, visit ww.arketi.com/2012mobileinsights.

Scanning the recent issue of Fast Company, I came across a blog post that would be of interest to many B2B marketers. The blogger acknowledges that while “content is king” for most marketers, the quality of the content is even more important. The blogger goes on to say that the current state of business writing — whether it be a website, press release, white paper or whatever — is, in essence, deplorable.

As a marketer in the B2B space, I must admit that I’m not surprised by this assessment. In talking with many of our clients and colleagues in the industry, we’ve heard them echo this same sentiment. These days, companies need marketing and PR materials that talk benefits and address customer needs, rather than focus on the latest product features and functionality. Don’t get me wrong, “speeds and feeds” are important, but only later in the buying cycle.

As a B2B PR and marketing agency, we represent clients from a number of industries who share one common thread — they are all in the technology space. As a result, we look for writers who can write in a number of different styles and on a variety of topics. When in the market for writing talent, here are a few tips we suggest you keep in mind:

• It takes a slightly different skill set to write for marketing than it does for PR. Marketing is persuasive. PR is factual.
• Ask the job interviewee how he or she would refresh your website. If the person starts out wanting to talk about your company first, as opposed to your customers’ needs, you probably want to keep interviewing.
• Ask to see short writing samples. The shortest writing assignments are the toughest because they must be concise. Look for copy that introduces the problem first, followed by a value statement, then additional details (if needed) and finally a call-to-action in the closing. If the writer is good, all of the above can be accomplished in 200 words (or less!).
• Consider giving a potential new hire a writing test on site.

One last tip to take into account if you are looking to improve the quality of your marketing content: writing is a skill part learned and part talent. Meaning, high school English teachers can only do so much; writing is a talent not everyone shares. Therefore, once you find someone who can write relevant, personalized, high-quality content for each of your audiences (customers, employees, shareholders, etc.), hold onto that person. In today’s market, people with this skill are hard to come by.

After several years of zero, and even negative, growth, it appears as though some companies, including a couple of our clients, are taking advantage of the down economy to add revenue — through acquisition.

As a PR agency, we’ve been part of numerous market events over the years where we’ve played a variety of roles — from strategizing market messaging and positioning to getting the word out to the press. If you are a marketer who has found yourself going through such an activity for the first time, you should be prepared for a fast pace and long days because once the ink on the deal is dry, you must be ready to pull the trigger on your go-to-market strategy.

Whether you are the company doing the acquiring or the company being acquired, here are a few tips to keep in mind as your company starts down the acquisition path.

• Time is of the essence. Completing an acquisition is like riding a roller coaster. You should expect some ups and downs, as well as a few curves. Sometimes you’ll be moving really, really fast, and other times you’ll be waiting, and waiting and waiting. Then there are those times you feel like you are going to fall right out of your seat. Despite all this, one thing is certain: the ride will eventually come to an end. Once this happens, you need to be prepared for how you are going to communicate to anyone who will be affected by this acquisition news. This includes your customers, prospects, partners, the press, industry analysts and employees.

• Stand up and take the lead. The process of acquiring a company usually involves a lot of people, especially if each company has a PR firm. For this reason, the senior marketer at the acquiring company should be at the center of all activities, directing all marketing strategy and tactics for the acquisition. By having one point person at the center of all activities, it will ensure things continue to move and balls are not dropped.

• Develop a plan. There are a lot of moving parts to an acquisition, and the tiniest details must be planned — everything from updating the company websites and contacting current and prospective customers to developing spokesperson talking points and preparing to onboard new employees. Therefore, it is critical you immediately map out (1) how you want to communicate with each key audience and (2) what tools will need to be developed and/or updated. From there, you can develop a more detailed production schedule that assigns a deadline to every activity you need completed before the deal is official.

• Understand your new strategy and story. There’s a reason why this acquisition is taking place, and now’s the time to sketch out the value proposition so that all audiences understand why they should care about your news. As part of the process, make sure you develop customized messaging for each audience, if necessary, and weave it into your communications.

• Stay in the loop. As the company doing the acquiring, you need to make sure you know where each team stands with their assignments. At a minimum, setup weekly calls where everyone comes together to provide status updates on their activities. Be sure to include key players from the company you are acquiring too. That way, everyone knows what’s going on and can be held accountable to the same expectations.

• Conduct a post mortem. Feedback is key to ensuring you grow as a marketer. Once the buzz surrounding the acquisition has died down, hold a team post mortem to understand areas of success and improvement for the future. Whether you go through another acquisition or not, you can always apply any lessons learned to future marketing activities.

Keep in mind that these tips just scratch the surface in everything you need to do to prepare for a market event. If you need more assistance in preparing for a market event, we are always happy to help.

With half of 2011 in the rear-view mirror, now’s a great time to do a quick check-in to see how some of your marketing strategies are progressing. If you are like a lot of my clients, many are using video. In fact, I just returned from customer user conferences hosted by two of our clients, and video shoots factored prominently in both.

Still skeptical about using video in the B2B space? Consider this. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more online Americans are using video-sharing sites, and more frequently. As of May 2011, 71% of online adults reported watching videos on a video-sharing site, such as YouTube or Vimeo.

As you know, user conferences are a great place for your customers to learn more about your products, meet members of your company, and provide valuable feedback on your products and services. On the flip side, though, user conferences are a great venue for gathering valuable content for your website and YouTube channel.

To get the most out of your next user conference, consider these video tips:

• User conferences provide an ideal setting for securing customer video testimonials because everyone is in one location, usually for a couple days. When you start recording, though, don’t limit yourself to just customers. Your executives – especially those out-of-town – will be onsite for the conference too, so it’s the perfect time to record thought leadership videos of them speaking on a topic of special interest to them.
• Book ahead. Identify the top customers/company executives who plan to attend the conference and invite them a week or so ahead of time to shoot a video with you while at the event. That way, they can make time between sessions to meet with you, and you won’t have to scramble to find video participants when onsite.
• Develop a standard list of questions. Not only does this ensure a consistent interview for everyone, but it also guarantees you create content that is compelling and addresses your audience’s needs. The absolute worst thing to do is to put your customer in front of the camera and start asking questions off the top of your head.
• Having trouble getting customers to sign up for a video? Then consider an incentive. Even a small one, like a Starbucks card, will encourage people to participate.
• When you start to produce the videos, be sure to add “supers.” This copy, which is superimposed over the video, helps reinforce the main points the speaker is making.
• Once the videos are complete and ready for upload to YouTube, take a close look at your channel. If it isn’t branded with your company logo, colors, etc., take the time (it won’t take long, I promise!) to incorporate your company brand.
• Finally, think beyond YouTube. Once you have some videos in the can, they can be great pieces of content for your automated marketing campaigns.

If you think Vegas is the number one destination for a tradeshow or conference, think again. As companies continue to watch their budgets and try to reach a larger audience for fewer dollars, the ideal event location may be just a mouse click away.

According to a recent survey from Unisfair, more marketers are taking their events virtual. Key findings of the research include:

• 60% will increase spending on virtual events and environments in 2011, while 42% will decrease spending on physical events
• 67% would like to host 10 or more virtual events this year
• 87% predict hybrid (part physical, part virtual) events will represent at least half of all events in the next five years
• 62% want the ability to attend a virtual event from a mobile device

As marketers, one of our top reasons for hosting a virtual event is to generate leads. Think webinars. However, organizations aren’t limiting their use of technology just to that. In fact, over the next 12 months, survey respondents said they will host virtual events for a number of purposes, including:

• Training (42%)
• Customer engagement (36%)
• Internal collaboration (34%)
• Lead generation (29%)
• Networking (8%)

As you might imagine, saving money and increasing productivity are two of the primary drivers why organizations turn to virtual events. But one additional fact might surprise you: 24% of survey respondents say they can get the same or better results as a physical event for less effort.

If you are starting to think virtual events might be right for your marketing program, there is a drawback: the participant’s level of engagement. For instance:

• 58% of survey respondents cited the ability to multitask as the best part about attending a virtual event
• 42% of respondents have attended virtual events from a variety of locales, including the car, the kitchen, a baseball game, the patio and a retail showroom
• 14% find the ability to be “invisible” until they want to engage with colleagues or vendors to be a primary benefit of attending virtual events

Whatever your goal may be – save a few dollars or be more productive – it may be worth it to poll your prospective audiences – customers, employees or partners – to gauge their interest in going virtual. It may turn out that meeting in cyberspace is more popular than a trip to Vegas!

As any good marketer knows, content is at the heart of every successful inbound marketing campaign. But it can’t just be any content – it has to be specialized to meet the needs of a specific audience. To prove the point that “content is king,” nine in 10 BtoB organizations are now marketing with content, and, believe it or not, more than a quarter of a BtoB organization’s marketing budget, on average, is spent on content marketing, according to a study from MarketingProfs and Junta42.

Thanks to marketers assuming the role of content creator and publisher, prospects now have access to a plethora of content on almost any topic – everything from articles and videos to photos, blogs, podcasts, and tweets. That’s the upside. The downside to this story is that now prospects are simply being inundated with information. This content overload means that, as a marketer, you are going to have work even harder to ensure your unique material is watched, read and heard by the prospects you want to reach.

Faced with what might be considered an insurmountable problem, should marketers abandon this role of content creator and publisher? We think not. In fact, we see this as an opportunity. In some of the news we’ve been reading recently, we’ve noticed a new term being bandied around the industry – that of content curator. Similar to how a museum curator is responsible for an institution’s collections, a content curator is one who identifies, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online.

As a marketer, your goal is to help advance your company’s voice, whether through content creation or content curation. By adding content curator to your job description, you will have the opportunity to help your audience understand a topic of importance to your industry, understand what it means to them and what are the best next steps.

If you are still questioning the importance of content curation, consider this: A recent report from Forrester Research named content curation as a top technology BtoB CMOs should investigate in order to engage their customers in 2011. In addition to content curation, Forrester also recommended CMOs explore listening platforms to gauge customer sentiment; brand advocate platforms for spurring word-of-mouth; and appointment scheduling applications to engage potential customers who are ready to buy.

When you get a chance, check out these technologies to see how they can improve the way you communicate with your customers and prospects.

Star VanderHaar, account director or Arketi Group (http://www.arketi.com), a high-tech BtoB PR and digital marketing firm, shares strategies on effective media relations so you don’t miss a media opportunity at your next tradeshow event.

Tradeshow media opportunity strategies:

1. Make a plan
2. Identify your top publications, bloggers and analysts
3. Reach out early
4. Be prepared

For more tips on media opportunities at your next tradeshow, visit http://arketi.com/blog/archives/512.

Share your pre-tradeshow media opportunity strategies in the comment box below.

With so many products and services on the market today, it’s easy for the public to confuse your product or service with a competitor’s. That’s why it is critical that marketers trademark any word, name or symbol (or service mark a service) used in commerce that identifies and distinguishes it from others. Trademark rights entitle the owner of a mark to prevent others from adopting similar marks in the same geographic area.

Trademarks come in a number of different styles—everything from word and design marks (think the NIKE swoosh) to initials, slogans and sounds (i.e., AT&T, “You deserve a break today,” and the NBC chimes).

To keep your intellectual property safe, follow these tips:

• Use legal counsel to determine the availability and risk of adopting a mark.
• Don’t pick marks that are…
  • Already in use
  • Similar to other marks
  • Likely to be used by competitors
  • Federally registered for similar goods or services
• The simple act of incorporating or registering a tradename with the Secretary of State Office does not provide a business with any trademark rights. Common Law rights arise from actual use of the mark. Therefore, senior user defeats junior user.
• Use a trademark as an adjective rather than a noun or verb (i.e., Kleenex brand tissues as opposed to “please pass me a Kleenex”).

To minimize problems registering your trademark, be sure to avoid:

• Marks with geographic origin (i.e., Georgia wine) or a surname (i.e., Smith’s tires).
• Scandalous or disparaging marks.
• Insignia of a government agency or of certain organizations protected by law.
• Marks that identify a living individual or deceased president during the life of his widow without consent.
• Famous marks (i.e., Rolls Royce or Coke).
• Clever misspellings of otherwise unusable marks (i.e. Koke or Codac).
• Marks using elements (like Mickey Mouse’s ears) that are protected under other laws.

Finally, it’s important to appropriately designate your rights in the mark based on where it is in the registration process because TM, SM and ® don’t all mean the same thing:

• TM designates a trademark prior to registration
• SM designates a service mark prior to registration
• ® is the federal registration symbol, which may be used once the mark has a registration certificate issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office

Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that corporate blogging is finally going mainstream. When attempting to schedule appointments with the press at a recent tradeshow for one of my business-to-business clients, we walked away with twice – yes twice! – the number of meetings with bloggers versus traditional media outlets. Wow, things have changed.

In the “old days,” we never would have devoted time or dollars toward securing appointments with bloggers. But that was then, and this is now. This shift in industry influencers – away from traditional reporters toward bloggers – definitely speaks volumes to the impact emerging media sources are having on consumers.

What’s interesting is that my personal experience isn’t isolated. A recent study by eMarketer says that 34 percent of U.S. companies will use a blog for marketing purposes this year, a proportion that will continue to grow to 43 percent by 2012.

And not surprisingly, as consumer trust in blogs has grown, so has journalist trust. According to PRWeek and PR Newswire, about a third of journalists used corporate blogs as research sources in 2010, up from a quarter last year.

So what does this all mean? Keep blogging, of course! It’s another great tool for companies of any size to use to generate leads and position themselves as industry thought leaders, while keeping control of their brand.

Most companies consider tradeshows a great opportunity to meet potential prospects and reconnect with current customers. While this is true, tradeshows also draw another audience that you shouldn’t overlook—key media outlets and bloggers.

Follow these tips to schedule face-to-face media appointments at your next show:

• Make a plan.
  • If your company is exhibiting, most tradeshows provide exhibitors a pre-registered press list. Refer to your exhibitor manual for the person to contact about the list.
  • If your company isn’t exhibiting, then research which, if any, publications are sponsoring the show and reach out to them for an appointment. If no publications are sponsoring the show, then reach out to any key media on your list and inquire if they are attending.
• Start early. Pick the top publications and bloggers you’d like to meet with, and focus your efforts on them. Ideally, you should start media and blogger outreach three to four weeks in advance of your tradeshow. If you wait until the show is two weeks out, you may find most media calendars are booked. In your outreach, suggest a couple meeting locations, such as your booth, the press room, or a concession area.
• Be respectful. Many times bloggers, and sometimes editors, will provide tradeshows their cell phones. Only reach out to someone’s cell phone if it is critical you reach that person. Otherwise, limit your outreach to email and office phones.
• Be realistic. Just like you, editors, reporters, and bloggers want to meet with a number of people while at the show. That means they may only have, at most, 30 minutes to meet with you.
• Be prepared. Do your research on who your executives will be meeting with. Find out what beats they cover, as well as what they most recently wrote about. Also prepare a few talking points that you can comfortably discuss in 30 minutes. Be sure to allow enough time for the reporter/blogger to ask questions.
• Confirmations. Two to three days before the show, reach out to every appointment you’ve scheduled and make sure you know when and where you are meeting. Always have everyone’s cell phones in case people are running late.
• Follow up. Your job doesn’t end once the tradeshow is over. Be sure to follow-up with everyone you met with, preferably within five business days of the end of the show. Thank them for meeting with your executive, provide any additional information they requested, and offer to be a resource for them in the future.