Marktd recently posted, 8 Ways The Internet Changed Software Marketing based a recent talk by Tien Tzuo, Chief Strategy Officer for Salesforce.com, a company that has transformed their sales and marketing processes by leveraging the internet. Many others are doing this and Web 2.0 has raised the explorations into greater customer participation in marketing efforts. Here is a brief summary of what was written and I added comments to most of them. You will find more details on their site. I did not find any surprises here but it is a nice summary of points I certainly agree with.
Greater awareness can be generated much more quickly and buyers are more proactive in seeking information which fuels the speed of awareness. “When buyers want to research a topic, they search for it on Google, check out blogs and news sites, and network with colleagues as well as broader the online community. Companies have much less control over this process, meaning B2B marketers must practice attention marketing.”
Segmentation and Targeting (the long tail and all the points along the way) – although the post talked more defensively by saying you cannot control who comes to you so be ready for all segments. I would amend this to saw go after a broad array of segments as it is more possible to do this now.
Buyer Education – more buyers want to educate themselves before they speak with anyone from sales, and over 93% of prospects start their research online (not sure where they got that number). In the old days, the sales person got the first chance at setting the context and doing the education. So it is a competitive necessity to have more comprehensive and accessible about your products online.
Free trails had become the expected norm because of the ease of use. And actually much of web software is free, not just the trial.
The old days of RFPs with many check-boxes rewarded complexity and encouraged vendors to jam-pack their products full of features. Unfortunately, it complicated the software, made it harder to use, and led to most features being unused by most users. Now with free trials vendors want their tools to be as simple an as focused as possible since users rather than selection committees will have a larger influence on buying. This is consistent with the repeated advice of keep the software simple.
Sales are more at the micro level but some human contact if often still needed, but there is much less need for the high priced high ticket sale guy with the big Rolex. Because human contact is still often necessary, few to many events (rather than one on one) such as webinars, road shows, and conferences can reach more people. Buyers may still purchase online, but the direct contact helps build the relationship and establish trust.
Software as service has changed the old model of make a sale and move on, leaving the customer to implement or use a high priced consultant. Now the customer relationship is continuous and service has to be good for it to stay continuous.
web 2.0 marketing
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