Highly Competitive - software industry insights

Self-Serve Analytics Really Aren’t DIY

 

Data analytics need to become more accessible to many roles that have not previously been the 'traditional' users of such solutions. To accomplish this, analytics solutions have to change to match the faster pace of business decisions to deliver intelligence when it is needed. And, in this vein, the notion of self-service analytics is a good one: to put increased access to data and intelligence in the hands of business people, without having to constantly involve IT in the process. The solutions that provide self-service analytics are available on-demand, and are oriented to "easier" and faster paths to intelligence results. These solutions also must have sophisticated but cleanly designed UIs, and an approach that guides and educates business users through every step.

Behind the scenes, a lot of heavy lifting has to be done to deliver the right data that is trustworthy and timely to business users for self-service analytics. Instead of direct involvement in various analytics and reporting projects, IT now must support systems that collect, validate and integrate information, frequently from multiple disparate sources, preparing data for 'unknown' business user protocols for accessing the data. IT will have to set up separate analytical processes to continuously test and validate the data, as well as ensure data security when accessed by business users on various devices.

Analytics that benefit business users include:

• Decision-making processes where analytics meet business process management, relying on right-time data, faster data access, and intelligent business rules.
• Predictive analytics where business users explore potential outcomes, such as predictions for future customer behavior based on past behavioral patterns.
• Situational awareness where timeliness trumps 100% reliable data because situations demand quick decisions. Real-time analytics are combined with data mashups from various sources, including pre-prepped data.

All of these trends are highly dependent on reliable data and frequently dependent on business users who are substantial subject matter experts – to ensure that the results or intelligence are realistic, accurate, relevant, and usable. Behind these analytics usually are processes for data integration on-demand. To supply trustworthy data for right-time integrations, data quality is especially important. And IT is an important partner to ensure that consistent data quality is maintained.

The practices and processes for using self-service analytics should be implemented with a business focus from the start. A critical factor for success pivots on IT partnering with business users to achieve optimal and reliable outputs for analytics. IT and tech-savvy power business users must provide training for the other business people in the organization who can gain value from analytics. Such training must address not only how to access the right data and the effective use of self-service applications, but the essential need for critical thinking to determine if the analytics are delivering accurate intelligence.

As self-service analytics evolve, this solution increasingly becomes an important decision-making capability for midsized businesses that is cost-effective and uses IT resources more productively, while allowing business users to step in and do more with the organization's data sources. This is also an opportunity for midsized companies to learn more about the company itself, the way it does business, and its customers and markets. With more people throughout the organization accessing and analyzing data from all over the organization and from external sources, opportunities for new insights are extended greatly, particularly when people in the organization do more cross-functional collaboration working with analytics results.

 

Image source: http://suroscopia.com/do-it-yourself/

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

‘Tech Savvy’ for Midsized Companies Means ‘Customer Savvy’

 

Technology is no longer simply back office automation or work productivity tools addressing the day to day of the business. Technology has become a core pillar for company strategies, as well as for change and success. The biggest transformation any midsized company can make to become a business that sustains growth over time is to strategically and proactively use technology to achieve the goals of the business. Such a transformation through technology often takes midsized companies into new markets and new ways of doing business. The strategic positioning of technology leads to strengthening the organization, improving competitive edge and opening new doors for growth and opportunity.

In parallel to technology considerations, the single most important success factor for most companies is The Customer. These days all activities related to the customer must be ramped up and more responsive to customer needs and desires. Companies must change how they function to better serve customers. Proactive use of technology in many areas is essential to ensure top notch customer experiences and interactions at any time and place.

Midsized companies that make the customer a core focus will achieve better outcomes. When deciding on how to best leverage technology, companies should use customer strategies to drive and define technology strategies. When companies combine technologies with effective practices and processes around meeting customer needs on every level, competitive edge and revenue growth usually follow as natural outcomes.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) completed a global study focused on midsized and smaller companies to assess the impact of technology on business performance and growth:

Adopting technology in an intelligent way is critical to the future business success of many SMEs. More than 90 percent of leaders said that IT is important to their business's future, and almost two-thirds said that new technologies will lead to higher revenues and profits or more jobs at their company.

The study presents clear evidence that midsized and smaller businesses with higher rates of technology adoption grow faster and create more jobs than their counterparts that maintain low levels of technology adoption. Looking at U.S. SMB companies, BCG projected that if 15 percent of technology 'laggards' and 30 percent of technology 'followers' evolved into high technology adoption companies, the result would be the addition of more than two million jobs and an additional $360 billion flowing into the U.S. economy.

 

Midsized companies that want to be top competitors should evaluate all functional and operational areas that help the company shine as a customer-responsive organization to see how improvements can be made with the right technologies:

• Marketing and business interactions through mobile devices and digital channels
• Customer service and support
• eCommerce and payment services
• Gaining insight from data analytics for everything Customer
• CRM and Marketing Automation platforms
• Customer onboarding and education channels
• Deployment of Cloud / SaaS solutions for enterprise capabilities that keep up with customer and market trends

 

The goal should always be to wow customers. There are many robust technologies that can help midsized companies do that every day, in every interaction and channel. Companies that are "tech savvy" quickly show how they are "customer savvy".

 

Image Source: Sabre Travel Network

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

Meeting the Business Technology Needs of Midsized Companies

 

Current technology trends are important for all organizations. Most midsized companies have these technologies at the top of their lists: Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, and Security. And each year many midsized organizations dedicate more budget for technology as a strategic investment, as Deloitte noted in a recent study:

 

                                                                                        

Source: Deloitte

 

Midsized organizations gain competitive advantage not just from the technology itself but through the use of third party services that help organizations do more with technology purchases and their current organizational structures. Often services firms help these companies understand faster and implement better the technologies that can set midmarket companies apart from their competitors.

 

Obstacles to Taking Full Advantage of Technology

Of course, midsized organizations have challenges that block the way to fully capitalizing on new technologies. The predominant obstacle comes from a lack of the right IT people with the right skills, since many midsized organizations have constrained IT resources. Technology vendors that want to successfully sell to midmarket companies have to ensure that their solutions require as few IT resources as possible, to get up and running. For this reason midsized organizations are turning more and more to cloud / SaaS services.

Unfortunately technology vendors themselves add obstacles that make it difficult for midsized companies to connect to the right technologies. All too often these vendors and their sales and products teams repeatedly fail to:

• Explore the goals and needs of each customer organization
• Understand the industry and the specific business of a midsized company
• Make sure discussions are realistic for the midmarket
• Clarify overall business impact both for outcomes and for organizational situations
• Connect products and services offered to what they will accomplish for a midsized company

The midmarket is not one big blob of companies, but is comprised of multiple diverse tiers from the high end to the low end. Technology vendors must fully understand the customer perspective for each tier when developing products, and then for how they market and sell them -- if they want to acquire and retain midsized companies. To further attract and keep midmarket customers, vendors should be easy to work with, technology solutions should provide excellent usability and value, and pricing should be realistic for midsized organizations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Julie Hunt Consulting

 

 

Why the Right Technology Investments Matter

Midsized organizations have to put serious thought into their technology purchases and are best served by developing strategies around how these purchases and their subsequent use will help improve the performance of the company. Strategies should also focus on how budget cycles are handled. With constant and rapid changes in technology, midsized companies can't operate solely on an annual basis. Budget cycles are more functional on a semi-annual or quarterly basis, to keep pace with continuous business changes and market volatility.

Successful midsized organizations usually focus investments on the technologies and practices that most benefit their customers – larger enterprises could learn a lot from these organizations.

 

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Smart Cities Technology -- Opportunities for Midsized Vendors

 

The term 'smart city' is becoming familiar around the world as urban areas realize that a great deal of benefit can come from connecting physical and digital worlds to better serve the needs of citizens and the administration of the city. A smart city doesn't just result from changes in infrastructure and technologies – it must embody new ways of thinking and planning.

And smart cities aren't just limited to large metropolitan areas. Many midsized cities need smart city technologies to better manage growth and provide quality of life and work for their citizens. Just like large metros, many midsized cities want to ensure the sustainability of resources and services, by using technologies and digital systems to improve operations and efficiencies, and to innovate how cities and citizens interact.

At the core of smart cities is the Internet of Things (IoT) – where many systems and networks interact with each other and often run without human intervention. The Internet of Things for the smart city can include not only municipal systems, but machine-generated data created by citizen-owned items such as home environment management devices, smart appliances and vehicle sensors.

With midsized cities pursuing smart city strategies, opportunities are quite promising for midsized technology companies to help these cities realize their plans. Cutting edge and forward-looking initiatives – using the latest technologies – are often thought to be the domain of large vendors working with large cities. But many midsized and smaller cities need and want to take advantage of similar technologies and capabilities to operate more effectively. Often smaller technology vendors are the better choice as a strategic partner for midsized smart city projects that are frequently implemented incrementally and at lesser scale.

The market for smart city technology solutions is still very young and in formative stages, which means there's plenty of room for midsized companies to enter this solution space. Midsized technology vendors who fully understand the needs, desires and challenges that midsized cities have for smart city initiatives will find success in this market. Part of meeting midsized needs includes in-depth understanding of what will work for the people in these cities. So the right solutions aren't just about technologies but must have a strong focus on the sociology of living in a smart city today and into the future.

 

Midsized Smart Cities Need Big Data Analytics

One important technology solution area for midsized smart cities: big data analytics for the volumes of data created every day by city systems. This data increases exponentially as more smart city technologies are implemented. Technologies for transportation, utilities, communications, and many other aspects of urban life are evolving faster than overall management strategies. All cities lag on fully gaining advantage and innovative benefit from this information.

Big data analytics technologies are continuously evolving to better collect, integrate, process, and analyze this highly disparate information to both improve the systems of the smart city and to apply results to other needs and opportunities. Midsized technology companies have new ways to deliver cost-effective services and solutions through cloud platforms, lower priced data analytics tools, and mobile applications.

As a solution example, midsized technology vendors could provide services for midsized cities for the continuous data analytics needed to govern and improve urban transportation:

• Real-time operational responsiveness
• Personalized interactions with citizens using transportation systems
• Creating new services and changes to policy more quickly and accurately
• Measuring the effectiveness of current decisions and actions

Such services and solutions should be tailored for midsized cities to keep costs down and provide exactly what these cities need for faster, more effective implementations. Understanding future direction will help midsized technology vendors build in the right scalability, usability and interoperability capabilities to keep smart cities continuously smart in real time.

 

 

Image source: archivenue.com

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

Fighting Cyber Crime – A Critical Priority for Every Business

 

No organization is immune from cyber attacks. So it's fitting to address cyber security challenges for midsized companies since October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. The main message: your midsized business is a prime target for cyber attacks.

Speaking at a recent government cyber security briefing at the Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association he (Bill Wright) cited Symantec's 2014 Internet Security Threat Report, noting that targeted attacks on mid-sized firms (those with 251 to 2,500 employees) and small firms (those with 250 employees and fewer) rose by 61% in 2013 from 2012 levels.     (Source: Information Week)

 

Often midsized organizations help cyber criminals succeed in their attacks through lack of preparation and company-wide awareness. Many companies think cyber criminals only target large enterprises. This is a dangerous assumption to make. Fortunately, cyber security technology solutions are becoming more affordable for midsized organizations to empower them to fight back.

The approach companies take to cyber security is crucial for success. Organizations can no longer view digital security as a function of "wall building" and defensive maneuvers. Attacks by sophisticated cyber criminals call for proactive security processes, where enterprises continuously hunt for current and potential threats. Big data analytics have an important part to play for proactive protection initiatives that continuously get smarter for anticipating future attacks. The availability of less expensive technology for big data processing infrastructures is making a positive impact on using advanced analytics in support of cyber security.

 

Cyber security threats often show up as patterns that usually deviate from the expected behavior for most authorized users or for activity on particular devices and technology platforms. To identify and fight such attacks, security teams need technology that can find and analyze deviant trends. This is a natural fit for big data mining and analytics -- predictive analytics in particular.

Data that has been extracted from big data sources can be enriched with other kinds of data and information to reveal patterns and trends related to cyber attacks. Analytics now take on a forensics mission while searching through data for patterns of irregular, suspicious or unexpected activity. Organizations can now take the necessary actions to block such cyber threats and make improvements to prevent future attempts.

Big data analytics provide faster access to continuously updated information from diverse sources – speed is essential to head off many cyber attacks. These days cyber criminals move more quickly to foster attacks and digital thefts, to try to subvert current security systems and measures. Analytics and monitoring approaches have to be constantly altered and fine-tuned to anticipate such ever-changing tactics.

Often overlooked, awareness is an important weapon against cyber threats. When midsized businesses accept that these threats are ever-present and educate their staff on how to secure their data and equipment, quite a bit can be achieved. But with the growing sophistication of cyber criminals of all kinds, midsized organizations must also arm themselves with smart technologies like big data analytics to keep ahead of the continuous attacks that threaten their businesses.

 

Image source: uwf.edu

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Data Smarter Marketing: Big Data Analytics for Continuous Customer Insight

  

Comprehensive customer intelligence has become a priority for midsized companies. Insight derived from advanced analytics expands understanding of current and potential customers, and helps to achieve competitive advantage based on improved and more targeted marketing and sales. Sophisticated marketing technologies such as adaptive marketing and marketing automation require very precise customer knowledge to provide value both to companies and to their customers. To accomplish these imperatives, marketers need continuously updated and full-bodied views of customers and prospects to strengthen communications and support for all interactions and activities during the customer lifecycle.

McKinsey has focused on the ROI of big data analytics for marketing functions:

McKinsey analysis of more than 250 engagements over five years has revealed that companies that put data at the center of the marketing and sales decisions improve their marketing return on investment (MROI) by 15 – 20 percent. That adds up to $150 – $200 billion of additional value based on global annual marketing spend of an estimated $1 trillion.

 

            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 Source: IBM (full infographic below)

 

Many relevant information sources for advanced analytics related to marketing fall into the 'big data' category, which requires specialized skills and analytics processes. Marketing groups in midsized companies still have obstacles to overcome to gain the full use and benefits of advanced analytics, including adding more team members with the right skills and finding the right-fit analytics solutions. Information Week shared this information from a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit:

When asked which skills were most necessary for a successful marketer today, 37% of executives said that "using data analysis to extract predictive findings from 'big data'" mattered most. Five years ago, just 17% of executives said this was true, the EIU report says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: IBM (full infographic below)

 

Marketing investments for working with a wider range of data sources through sophisticated analytics can bring big dividends to the entire organization. The results of customer and product analytics are of great value to functions across the organization including: customer service, product strategy and development, corporate strategies, and financial planning. In this sense, marketing analytics should be a holistic investment and obviously a strategic initiative from top to bottom for midsized companies.

Making use of advanced analytics is not meant to replace the creative vision and innovative ideas that humans develop and that are so important for effective marketing endeavors. But marketing functions need advanced analytics to keep the customer in full focus as the most important element for applying insightful context and relevance. In many cases, creativity is made better with insight from analytics for validation and amplification of the creative spark, as well as indicators of how to apply creative thinking. Marketers in midsized companies need to be 'data smarter' so as not to waste valuable (and frequently expensive) creative efforts and programs.

 

IBM Analytics Infographic: A Big Advantage for Midsize Businesses

IBM provides a great deal of research on analytics for Midmarket organizations, including the white paper: Analytics: A Blueprint for Value in Midmarket Organizations

 

IBM Infographic

 

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Analytics Fortify Resilient Midmarket Companies

 

In the U.S. midmarket companies constitute a unique and highly fruitful business realm. Many midsized firms are purposefully not on a trajectory to become large enterprises. These firms are finding continuous success because they know how to operate well as midsized companies, and have advantages not available to much larger organizations. Lighter on their feet than larger enterprises, midsized companies can more quickly adapt to change and opportunities. And unlike small companies, the midmarket has stronger finances to fund growth and weather down times. Growth for the midmarket often comes from organic expansion – and understanding what it takes to engender it, including business model innovation and re-invention.

Midsized companies are much more in touch with customers and their own employees. They are truly interested in nurturing both of these relationships because they know that the right employees foster distinctive and positive interactions with customers. Midsized companies offer talented employees a better chance to stand out and drive innovative efforts, both for offerings and for how the business is run.

 

 

The most recent performance data from the National Center for the Middle Market provides more insight into the success of midmarket companies over time:

• Consistent with the past 12 months, a solid majority (63%) of middle market leaders continue to report improved overall company performance versus one year ago.
• Companies have sustained the rate of increase in year-over-year revenue growth as reported in the last quarter, with a mean total revenue growth of 6.6% for Q2 2014.
• While the proportion of middle market firms experiencing revenue growth consistently outpaces the proportion that added workers in the past year, middle market firms have maintained the significant increase in hiring reported in the first quarter of 2014. For Q2 2014, more than 40% of firms report increased employment compared to one year ago.
• Middle market leaders from all revenue segments continue to express higher levels of confidence in the global, U.S., and local economies. The percentage of respondents expressing some level of confidence in the local and regional economy is an impressive 77%.

A final statistic: 63% of midmarket companies plan to continue to invest in the growth of their companies. This last statistic is interesting since part of that investment continues to flow into the implementation of cutting edge technologies such as advanced analytics (including big data analytics) to help fuel growth, innovation and competitive advantage. There has been a steady increase in analytics solutions that are a good fit for the midmarket, as well as providing better access for less technical business users.

 

Analytics are not limited to the functions of operational performance, financial and risk management, and supply chain optimization. Midsized companies are especially interested in analytics in support of improved marketing and sales, with customer insight as a top priority. Midsized companies have competitive advantage over larger organizations when it comes to more quickly implementing the results of analytics processes, through decision-making processes and actions.

Analytics options that currently appeal to midsized organizations include reports and data visualizations that help all levels in the business make good use of data to recognize patterns of change, as well as new trends that impact target customers and markets, products and services, and revenue. Predictive analytics help midsized companies pull in new kinds of data to go beyond traditional BI to anticipate future and unexpected trends and changes. Big data analytics provide the means to use large datasets and non-relational data sources to improve and expand intelligence initiatives.

 

Midmarket companies seek many of the same outcomes that larger organizations want:

• Faster, more informed analysis for making better decisions, identifying compelling opportunities, and spotting market changes (good or bad)
• Continuous customer intelligence to improve customer experiences and relationships
• Timely insight for the development of products and services
• Business model innovation
• Operational improvement and reduction of risk

 

Image source: National Center for the Middle Market

                        (a collaboration between The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and GE Capital)

 

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Content Marketing for Midsized Companies: Who to Target, What to Create

 

An integral part of creating a strategy for content marketing initiatives is to identify which of your customers are the targets of your content: what are their roles in their companies, what part do they play in the buying process, what are their preferred channels for different kinds of content. Then decisions must be made for the types of content that will be created, based on the preferences of target customers and different phases of the customer or buying journey. Just as companies should be segmenting target markets and target customer roles to better connect their products to customer needs, the same segmentation should be used for content.

 

Software solutions are important tools for learning more about customers and their buying behaviors, to provide the continuous intelligence needed for effective content marketing. Advanced analytics can process data from many disparate sources, such as social media, master data and CRM systems, and provide customer insight that helps with customer segmentation, mapping customer journeys, and relating customer content preferences to specific channels for publication. Content management and marketing automation solutions enable dynamic management of the customer / content matrix as it relates to buying processes and customer desires. Various software solutions also nurture consistent customer experiences across channels, to enhance positive perceptions. Most of the above technologies provide capabilities for tracking activities and outcomes, to be able to repeatedly measure effectiveness, and fine tune approaches and processes.

 

 

What Kind of Content Should You Create?

Forcontent to provide superior customer engagement, the focus is no longer on vendor offerings and product features. It's about content that helps prospects and customers solve their problems and improve the performance of their organizations. The kind of content that attracts your customers will change on a regular basis, as media options evolve along with customer interests and needs. Companies must keep on top of these changes through different industry reports, analytics on the effectiveness of current content marketing activities, direct feedback from customers, and continuously tracking changes to buying / customer journeys.

 

Content categories that currently catch the attention of different kinds of customers include:

à Content Optimized for Mobile Consumption

Mobile is rapidly becoming a top channel for connecting to customers. To engage customers, content must be specifically optimized for the device, particularly smartphones where display real estate is at a premium. Content has to make sense for how customers use mobile devices and generally should be simple, very interesting and to the point.

à Video

Customers like video content when it covers topics relevant to their needs. High quality, sophisticated video is greatly preferred over amateurish efforts. Customer expectations for engagement look for entertainment combined with information.

à White papers and Product Information Sheets

These types of content are primarily of interest for B2B customers. White papers will only be useful if they cover topics and issues that matter to customers. Customers are strongly turned off by marketing "brochureware" masquerading as a white paper, and may well reject the vendor that created it.

à Customer Stories and Case Studies

Customers still find great value in customer stories with useful details around the customer problem and how it was solved. Include the value and benefits that were gained by the customer after solving the problem – and keep the focus on the customer, not your company.

à Interactive Elements

Engaging customers with interactive elements, such as embedded video or hyperlinks, frequently builds customer interest in your content, and can take customers further into the buying process. Be sure to overtly identify what each interactive element will do. For example, you may be losing customer follow-through on links if it's not clear what will happen when the link is clicked.

 

Content Marketing Doesn't Stop at Purchases

The bonus value of content marketing is to nurture and build positive customer experiences beyond the purchase, throughout the lifecycle of a customer. Customers and markets can change very quickly; agile and sophisticated software technologies, processes and creative practices are needed to grow and sustain positive customer relationships. Content marketing is an integral part of what it takes to positively engage customers on any channel at any time.

 

 

Image source: ironpaper.com

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Content Marketing Strategies for Midsized Companies

  

Content marketing isn't anything new but it has proven to be an effective marketing strategy for companies of all sizes. For 2014 the Content Marketing Institute reports that overall amounts spent on content marketing is segmented by B2B companies allocating 30% of their marketing budgets, while B2C companies earmark 24% of their marketing budgets. In 2012, midsized organizations spent 22% of their marketing budgets on content marketing.

 

Midsized organizations are using content marketing to support multiple objectives:

• Brand awareness – thought leadership and trusted source of quality information
• Customer retention and loyalty – nurturing ongoing relationships
• Lead management activities (lead gen, nurturing, presales buyer journey touchpoints)
• New customer acquisition
• Improving website traffic and eCommerce activity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Image source: Post+Beam

 

 

 We see a lot of articles about how organizations go wrong when it comes to content marketing.And most of what's called out is not surprising: failure to write properly on topics that customers prefer or to even find out what customers want to read; poor writing quality and non-engaging material; promoting marketing brochure-ware instead of useful, thought-provoking material. Organizations can fail to understand how to match the right content to the right channel, or lack the knowledge as to which channels different customer segments prefer for various kinds of content. These organizations may not even have clear customer segmentation for their products.

The existence of these missteps usually indicates the lack of a cohesive long-term strategy for content marketing. And it's just as likely that there is no overarching marketing strategy that ties into corporate goals and objectives. This may mean that not only does content marketing lack executive backing, but the overall marketing function is suffering the same fate.

 

Well-Crafted Strategies

So before an organization can create a well-crafted content marketing strategy, upper management must make the commitment to be customer-focused and marketing savvy. The value of content marketing to reach the customer-as-buyer must be given credence, support and enablement. Content marketing is not a short term campaign or project; it's a strategic commitment that impacts the entire enterprise.

Content marketing (if done well) keeps the company focused on understanding and meeting the needs of customers – something companies should be doing anyway. Align the business with the customer, align content with the customer. Content marketing is a natural progression from recognizing that the customer-as-buyer drives more of how, when or even if sales happen. The work to be done to understand how to deliver the right content to customers and prospects is the same work that organizations should be doing to deliver the products and services that customers and prospects want and need.

Strategic decisions need to be made regarding the technology tools to assist content marketing initiatives. For well-targeted content, marketing teams need sophisticated analytics for customer segmentation and behavioral insight to create the right content for the right customer segment, delivered where the customer wants to find it. Digital marketing technologies interoperate with content marketing initiatives, including marketing automation and omnichannel experience management platforms.

 

A comprehensive content marketing strategy provides a wellspring for all company content so that organizations connect with customers consistently and clearly. The content marketing strategy pulls together individual marketing programs and initiatives resulting in a more seamless transition for the customer from channel to channel. Connecting the tactics of marketing to a content strategy makes it more possible to construct metrics that track the effectiveness of quality content, that then can be mapped to functions such as lead gen, sales funnel and overall marketing ROI.

 

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

 

Shaping the Future of Customer-Responsive Marketing Automation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marketing automation has shown that it can be a smart tool (when done right) for shepherding and converting leads, and automating marketing processes. The near future role for marketing automation has begun evolving as MA technologies have become more sophisticated to deliver customer-responsive interactions on any channel. If this evolution continues, the name 'marketing automation' will become inadequate to describe what can be accomplished with these technologies when combined with customer-focused processes, practices and strategies.

Within the marketing realm, marketing automation capabilities are becoming an important component of integrated marketing and communications, for seamless interaction management on any channel and support for omnichannel customer experiences. Marketing automation is also converging with cross-enterprise customer-adaptive processes and 'sense and respond' models, both of which have been in practice for quite some time for various enterprise functions, with customer needs as a strong focus.

Marketing automation has growing relationships with 'anything customer', such as customer service and customer master data. Content marketing strategies and initiatives are essential partners for effective MA. To deliver better buying experiences, marketing automation integrated with other customer-focused systems can reveal a great deal about customer behavior, motivation, and needs. Organizations can interact more authentically with customers anywhere using such intelligence.

 

Speeding Past 'Sense and Respond' to "Predict and Act"

Retail and eCommerce take advantage of customer-adaptive processes to personalize and propel buying journeys. And supply chain management and retail have successfully utilized 'sense and respond', aka agile/lean or just-in-time management, to optimize supply chain functions while speedily fulfilling end customer requirements. For these models, important common denominators aren't just responding to customers more quickly and accurately, but also delivering more value to customers - on customer terms.

The increase in real-time multichannel communications and interaction touchpoints has brought 'sense and respond' processes to marketing. Mobile is a particular focal point for sense and respond, particularly with the increasing use of 'in the moment' marketing and buying opportunities. Touchpoints become more effective with sense and respond and customer-adaptive processes behind them. The customer intelligence attained through integrating data and analytics from marketing automation, customer service and other customer-focused functions will power smarter touchpoints that include faster, more customer-accurate responses. The implications for competitive advantage are clear.

The strategic combining of marketing automation with cross-functional integrations results in continuous highly personalized communications delivered to customers. Adaptive processes based on context continuously respond more accurately to every customer action on any channel. Marketing and other customer functions are now in the world of real-time, location-aware customer experiences, moving past the basic mechanics of interaction.

Predictive analytics behind both customer-adaptive processes and 'sense and respond' are moving organizations from analysis of past and in-process interactions to anticipation of near future activities in order to better understand and fulfill customer desires. The continuing transformation of marketing automation is rapidly changing to "predict and act".

But all of this takes strategic commitment, the right experts, much preparation and testing, improved processes, and a lot of hard work. Done right, there is much to be gained for nurturing and growing ongoing customer relationships. To achieve more valuable use of marketing automation, you have to start with thoroughly understanding customers, buyer journeys, trigger events and key touchpoints. This means a great deal of research, analysis and segmentation at sophisticated levels – all of which will have to be constantly refreshed.

    

Technologies as Evolutionary Tools

When marketing automation is first introduced into an organization it's easy to get caught up in the tunnel vision of how to use new technologies and the tactical tasks that can be accomplished. It's easy to fail to see the big picture of how all the pieces fit together to achieve higher level objectives and corporate strategies. Many are still struggling to connect these technologies to overall marketing functions, and larger objectives – and to add all of the right people: designers, marketing technologists, analytics experts, data managers, content professionals, and strategists of all kinds.

As marketing automation technologies have progressed to better manage multichannel interactions and an omnichannel customer experience, they're addressing the complexities of understanding interactions during buying journeys, accurate customer segmentation and better personalized communications. A comprehensive view of the customer requires more than what the marketing automation platform covers. Extensive integrations are essential with other systems and processes, such as CRM, content management, content marketing, and social media tools. Marketing automation works best when it includes bi-directional integrations with other customer and product focused systems to deliver the most accurate intelligence in real-time - to any function.

Business process design, automation and event processing must be done at sophisticated levels to respond to circumstances and participants that can change at any time. All of this comes into play to both manage and maintain response-ready processes for today's more complicated customer experience lifecycles.

 

Overcoming Organizational Obstacles

Like much in the enterprise, cross-functional collaboration and integration of business processes are key elements for successful outcomes. The entire organization must be empowered to make a strategic commitment to the customer and to nurturing improved experiences. Upper level management must ensure that the entire organization can focus on the customer first, with top notch execution of practices and processes.

Organizations that continue to see marketing as an add-on function will not achieve improved customer experiences. Organizations that allow functional silos to persist are equally destined for failure. Because of these organizational flaws, most obstacles to successful marketing automation and customer-adaptive processes are not directly related to marketing automation itself:

• Inadequate budget for all aspects of marketing automation and multichannel interactions
• Reluctance to invest in quality content creation for all customer interactions (which also impacts the content marketing strategy)
• Lack of the right staffing and skillsets -- and no budget to invest in them
• Poor cross-team integration and collaboration
• Lagging systems integration across the organization
• Deficient data quality and analytics processes
• Badly designed business processes across the organization

 

The Future is Now

The idea of the customer-focused organization has been around for a while, but there's still a lot to be done to do it well – and to earn value in the eyes of customers. Continuously positive customer interactions obviously create immeasurable return for an organization. Such experiences result in more resilient customer loyalty – but to achieve them requires sophisticated actions and orchestration of practices and processes across the organization. Non-integrated silos for communications, marketing, customer service, and product development cannot ever achieve a holistic customer experience that matters to customers.

The strategic potential of marketing automation isn't about a single campaign or even the marketing function, and it isn't about the technology platform. It's about customer experiences throughout the lifecycle of a customer with a particular organization. Customers and markets can change very quickly; agile and sophisticated technologies, processes and creative practices are needed to grow and sustain positive customer relationships. Marketing automation can evolve into a customer-focused platform that offers new possibilities as an orchestration hub for a significant portion of customer interactions and for nurturing improved customer experiences with a vendor.

Marketing automation has the potential to become an important catalyst for the multi-dimensional intelligence that is critical for digital marketing processes and many other corporate functions . To achieve this, not only is a change in the marketing mindset essential, but the overall corporate mindset where marketing objectives become an integral part of corporate strategies.

 

Image Sources   business2community.com      clarkstonconsulting.com

 

 

About the author: Julie is an independent consultant and industry analyst for B2B software solutions, providing services to vendors to improve strategies for customers and target markets, products and solutions, and future direction. Julie has expertise in several solution spaces including: data integration and data quality; analytics and BI; business process, workflow and collaboration; digital marketing, WCM and social media; and the pivotal importance of user and customer experiences. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective