April 10, 2012
8:30 am – 12:30 pm

Learn how to leverage the key social media strategies and platforms for a truly integrated business-to-business marketing campaign.

This isn’t your typical “how to do” social media session. At BMA-NJ’s half-day SMS, you’ll see real-life case studies from some of social media’s leading companies, including:

• Google: Judith David, Social Specialist
• LinkedIn: Carrie Craig, Senior Account Executive

And you’ll come away with actionable ideas to solve your own marketing problems.

Keep an eye out for emails with more details.

Haya F. Taitel, marketing director, CORDIS, a Johnson & Johnson company, uses market assessments to determine the right lever for the most efficient and successful product marketing. And she’ll share her secrets with BMA-NJ at this event!

Because pharmaceutical marketing relies on targeting both consumers and medical professionals, these campaigns cross the boundaries between B2B and B2C for a truly integrated marketing strategy. Through case studies, Haya will share how she identifies and integrates multiple elements into a successful product launch addressing various buying levers within the buying cycle, increasing significant product penetration and market differentiation.

Speaker:
Haya F. Taitel, marketing director, CORDIS, a J&J company

When:
March 13, 2012 from 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Where:
Hamilton Park Hotel & Conference Center, 175 Park Ave., Florham Park, NJ

Cost:
$45 members / $65 nonmembers / $25 students
At door (regardless of membership status) $75

Deep content marketing encompasses the strategy of placing online ads deep within the websites of third parties. The idea is to specifically target pages directly relating to your own products or services.

In 2007, National Starch/Corn Products, the leading supplier of innovative food ingredients, successfully ventured into the world of deep content marketing. Avoiding the home pages of third-party websites, they placed ads on pages deep within the sites, on pages matching their own goals and initiatives. The result … impressive numbers of click-throughs and content downloads.

Want to learn more? Then join BMA-NJ as Marc Green, senior manager of marketing communications for National Starch/Corn Products, when he shares their deep content marketing strategy, results and key learnings. Marc Green also is a former chairman of BMA National and continues to serve on its board of directors. In 2011, B2B magazine named Marc Green as one of the country’s top 25 digital marketers: “b2b marketers who are doing exceptional interactive work.”

Speaker:  Marc Green, senior manager, marketing communications, National Starch/Corn Products

When:       Feb. 21, 2012 from 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Where:      Wilshire Grand Hotel, 350 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ

Cost:          Advanced Registration*: $45 members / $65 nonmembers / $25 students

Registration* after Feb. 16 or at the door (regardless of membership status) $75

Advanced registration for this event closes at 5:00 pm on Thursday, Feb. 16.

The QR code has gained popularity outside of the auto industry because it has a comparatively large storage capacity and can be quickly read by smart phones using a code reader and the phone’s camera.

Today, QR codes are being used to as a tool to link offline marketing collateral to online media. They are wonderfully convenient to use, very versatile in where and how they can be used, readily accessible to people, allow campaign results to be easily tracked, and inexpensive. So, how can one possibly misunderstand or misuse this tool?

First, while most people in the marketing industry have heard about the wonders of the QR code, people outside the industry have not. They don’t know what that little box is, what it does or how to use it. Thus they don’t care about it. So, until the boxes are more common and understood, clear instructions should be included on how to scan a QR code and how it will benefit the user.

Second, the QR code will be scanned with a mobile device, but we often forget to optimize the linked Web pages for mobile device viewing. People do not want to waste their time trying to download or open a webpage that just won’t work or cannot be easily read. And, especially important to note, Apple products like the iPhone can’t view Flash items.

Also, problems arise when we use proprietary codes that require a specific QR code reader.  No one is going to download separate apps to just to read a code that may or may not benefit them.

QR codes can be printed anywhere – from magazine ads to t-shirts to direct mail. And more frequently, they’re being used in places that aren’t conducive to scanning, particularly via a mobile device. Such places include billboards – which are too high up to get a clean scan from a car – on ads in the PATH station – where, to my annoyance, there is no cell service – or on the back of a delivery van (can you see the police report for that accident?!).

So, now that you have your QR code and you know what marketing collateral you want to put it on, how do you maximize the chances of having a great campaign? Two things come to mind. First, always, always, always test the code, with a variety of smart phones, to make sure it works. Second, always offer value. Make it worth the person’s time to scan the code and go to your webpage. Whether it’s a free download, a contest, coupons, or special gifts, just make sure it holds some value for the target.

QR codes are a marvelous new tool. But like any tool, they need to be used properly to reap their benefits.

Date: January 10, 2012

Hours: 5:30 – 8:30 pm.

Location: Famished Frog, Morristown, NJ.

Advance Registration:

BMA-NJ Members & Future Members: $25*

Student Price (w ID): $10.

At the door: $35 regardless of member status.

*Includes one “FREE Drink” Coupon. Advance registration must be completed by Sunday 1/8 Midnight. If closed, use the waitlist and you will be contacted if space is available.

When people think of social media around products and companies, they immediately think of complaints. And Mike showed that it’s true that this is often seen on many message boards and blogs. But since these comments are out there, it’s better to be aware and respond, than to ignore what’s being said about you. For example, a blog posting that stated “Never buy from Buy.com” was, for a while, the #4 result on Google for “Buy.com” searches.

Brand Reputation

Mike made the point that your brand reputation used to be how you act and what you did. Now it’s what other people say about you online. Since these comments are kept as a “permanent record” online, there are no more 1-day PR stories – anything negative must be dealt with in a way that shows you care. Feedback is also immediate – many restaurants are now reviewed by diners while they are still in the restaurant, waiting for their check, not by an annual visit from the local newspaper editor.

“If you’re talking in Social Media, you’d better be listening” Mike warned the BMA group. Imagine walking into a cocktail party and immediately start talking loudly about yourself – it would be rude and counter-productive, and people would avoid you. So listen to some conversations first, and then start to add valuable comments in the same tone and manner as the discussions around you. Mike described his recommended process of “Listen – Plan & Organize – Engage – Measure”.

Since there is so much data available, you need a way to track and analyze the 3 types of conversations described by Mike – Public  (Twitter, Blogs); Private (Facebook, LinkedIn): and In-between (Ratings, Reviews). The “In-between” category can be the most valuable, but also the hardest to track since most review sites prevent search engines from using this data. Several tools such as Converseon, Radian6 and Nielsen can be used to assist in this analysis (Mike Moran serves as Chief Strategist at Converseon).

Analyzing the Conversations

Listening tools gather data from many sources including Twitter, blogs, Facebook and message boards, and then analyze them for keywords, patterns and “sentiment” using boolean logic. Sentiment analysis is critical to identify negative comments but, as Mike described, there are many hurdles to accurate sentiment analysis since words have multiple meanings dependent on the context.  For example “unpredictable” is probably a negative comment for a restaurant, but positive for a movie. Another challenge with listening tools is when the brand or product name is also a generic word. For cellphone companies “T-Mobile” is easy to isolate, but “Sprint” tends to find results of high school athletics!

To analyze the data, visualization techniques can be used to combine and present the conversation data in appealing formats, to highlight the relations between comments and the relative influence of certain participants.

Visualization of Social Media Listening

Mike concluded his presentation with a vision of how listening tools will develop. Detailed, multi-layer listening dashboards; non-text objects; multilingual capabilities; and predictive modeling techniques will all be introduced to improve the capabilities of Social Media Listening.

BMA-NJ thanks Mike Moran for taking the time to share his expertise with the B2B marketers of New Jersey.

You can hear more from Mike in his regular posts at Biznology.com or follow him @mikemoran.

Paul, the author of “Social Marketing to the Business Customer”, kicked off the evening with some statistics to highlight the ubiquity of social media – the average length of a Facebook session is 51 minutes; 152 million blogs exist on the internet; and 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Following the theme of his earlier book, “The New Influencers“, Paul suggested that the Influence pyramid has been inverted. A few years ago, there were only 50,000 key influencers in the US ( the top newspaper editors), whereas now they can come from any background, via the web.

In a lighthearted example of the power of influencers, the BMA attendees were treated to the story of Universal’s launch of the Harry Potter theme park. Instead of a traditional mass PR campaign, they chose to hold a private event for the seven most influential online Harry Potter fans. Within 48 hours, Universal claims that 250 million people knew of the launch through peer networks.

Paul started a lively debate when he talked about the impact of TripAdvisor on the hotel industry, as he cited the example of a hotel in Martha’s Vineyard which was able to cut their marketing budget by 60% after achieving a #1 ranking on the site.

In addition to case studies from Dell (using Facebook to turn complainers into fans), and UPS (cutting recruitment costs using social media channels to find applicants), Paul made the point that Social Business is primarily about Thought Leadership and “the Big Idea”, not necessarily direct ROI.

Finally, when considering your Social Media strategy, Paul urged BMA members to ask the question “Do you have a plumbing strategy? A hammer strategy? A copier strategy?”. Instead, realize that social media is a set of tools, and the key is to use the right tools for the job at hand. To underline his point, he suggested that, if you are in a niche business with a small, well-defined customer base, “…your best Social Media tool is the Golf Course!”

BMA-NJ will continue the discussion of Social Media Marketing on December 6th when Mike Moran,author of “Do it Wrong Quickly” and founder of the Biznology blog, will discuss the value of Social Media Listening.

The biggest event of its kind in New Jersey, NJ MarCom welcomes up to 350 guests from the marketing, communications, and ad agency industries. Join the talented and creative professionals of NJ for a night of networking and opportunity.

When
13 Dec 2011
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Location
Mayfair Farms, West Orange, NJ

Registration

• 1. Sign-up by November 27 – $42.00 (USD)
• 2. Silver Sponsor – $500.00 (USD)
  In exchange for the dollar figure noted, you will receive:
  o One (1) admission
  o Share a 6 foot table with another Silver Sponsor
  o Logo on email blasts (6 scheduled blasts).
• 3. Gold Sponsor – $1,000.00 (USD)
  In exchange for the dollar figure noted, you will receive:
  o Two (2) admissions
  o a dedicated 6 foot table (for your handouts or a tabletop display)
  o Logo and link on email blasts (6 scheduled blasts).
  o Final attendee mailing list spreadsheet
• 4. Platinum Sponsor – $2,000.00 (USD)
  Exclusivity on being the only sponsor from your particular industry with a table at the event:
  o Three (3) guest admissions
  o a dedicated 6 foot table (for your handouts or a tabletop display)
  o Logo and link on email blasts (6 scheduled blasts).
  o Final attendee mailing list spreadsheet

But how do you keep up with what people are saying about your brand? How do you know if they are positive or negative? Do you know how computers “listen” to social media?

Well the answer to those questions and many more can be learned through a social media listening program. A social media listening program is one way you can “listen” to what’s being said about your company in the social media world and actively protect your brand and reputation

So what is a social media listening program and how do you put one in place?

You could start your social media listening program with a basic tool, such as Google Alerts, but many businesses find that they need more. So Mike Moran, author of Do It Wrong Quickly, co-author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc. and founder of the blog, biznology.com, will answer these questions, and many more.

Mike will show you:

• Why social listening is important
• Real-world case studies that show social listening in action
• How social media listening tools are evolving
• What tools are available today
• How today’s tools work, including their shortcomings

Come and learn how to keep up with all the conversation about your company and your industry in social media.

Speaker: Mike Moran

When:  December 6, 2011 from 8:00 am to 10:00 am

Where:  LaQuinta Inn, 60 Cottontail Lane, Somerset, NJ

Advance Registration:

Must complete registration by Friday 12/2 for rates of $25 BMA-NJ Members / $40 Non-Members / $15 students

At the door: $45 regardless of member status.

Advance registration must be completed by midnight on Sunday 12/4. If the event is closed, please use the wait list and you will be contacted if space becomes available.

Brands make billions of impressions online every day – 2.4B online conversations mention a brand every day, with an average of 1.4 brand impressions per conversation. Google research has shown that 45% of B2B customers go online before making purchases (compared to 78% of all US internet users), and 32% of internet users have posted product reviews or comments online.

Procter and Gamble originally  identified the concept of “First Moment of Truth”, as that point when a shopper is looking at your item on a store shelf, and decides to make a purchase. They built a marketing philosophy around maximizing their impact at this moment.

Now Google, in conjunction with partners such as P&G and GE, have focused in on the “Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT). Traditionally, someone saw a Stimulus (print ad, TV commercial etc), then went to the store to find out more and possibly purchase. But now, the first instinct is more likely to be a web-search after seeing the stimulus – looking for product reviews, opinions pricing and competitor info. So your brand needs to be visible when your customer first searches the web.

Google reports that search volume has grown 109% for the Travel industry and 104% for the Finance industry since 2009, with similar numbers across most major categories. Add to this the fact that 1 in 4 B2B purchasers have used a mobile phone to research a product (compared to 1 in 8 when buying shoes!) and that 36% of US consumers use a smartphone to make a purchase, and it’s clear that your web presence is critical to your success.

One of the critical elements to success is ensuring that you can be found with the search terms that your customers are using. Desmonique used the example of UPS who optimized their research for the words “I heart logistics” as a tie-in to their recent ad campaign. She recommended the use of the Google Insights tools to determine the most effective search phrases for your product, and also highlighted it’s capability to track trends. For example, a graph of “cloud computing” shows a spike in 2008 as the concept became a hot topic.

Desmonique concluded the discussion with an overview of Google+, and the potential to influence larger circles of customers through peer recommendations.

You can download a free copy of Google’s eBook “Zero Moment of Truth” here.

BMA-NJ continues the exploration of online marketing with Paul Gillin’s “Creating a Social Business for B2B Companies” on Wednesday November 9th.