Are you a B2B Technology Sales Specialist tasked with generating leads and building email lists?
Then, perhaps you’ve heard of Angelina.

No?

She’s that IT Professional hanging out in Afghanistan.
You know, the one with the big budgets and the bat phone, ever reachable on +123456789…

You think I’m joking?

Back in the IT networking stone age (circa 1990), we used to get UK weekly/monthly computer magazines delivered to our desks.
Unfortunately, most were free and therefore 95% filled with vendor ads and useless articles (sponsored by vendors). They became an endless source of amusement for cynical tech support engineers in quieter periods, especially when our own product marketing folks were within earshot!

Of course, to receive these rags we had to complete a postcard with real contact information and send it off.
A few weeks later, our 100+ page glossy arrived, and the publishers and vendors had ‘access’ to real, live IT people.

I have a theory that, in those pre-Internet marketing days, it was when many techies started to let callers go to voice mail en-masse because that zapped 95% of vendor followup tele-marketeting efforts.

Step forward twenty years and we now have the always-on, globally-available Interwebs, along with tons of connectivity toys.

And yet some b2b marketers are still playing silly games…

Here’s an example.

As an IT freelance case study and white paper writer, I’m always interested in seeing how companies use such items in their marketing. So, I regularly sign up for offers using my real name and contact details.

A free ebook from a company in the “networked computing” space attracted my attention. Their landing page was aimed at b2b readers investigating the viability of the technology. As such, there was little hard sell, and the subscription form required only name, email and phone number.

The ebook was an excellent overview of their target market’s concerns and included just a brief mention of the company at the end.
A “thank you for downloading our ebook” email, and then a followup mail with a case study link, along with another containing a short video clip, rounded out this company’s efforts in assisting my information search.

Off to a good start here, I thought.

But warning signs of my psychological resistance to covert sales pressure tactics began flashing with these additional emails:

+1 Day (after the video clip email mentioned above):

“Let me know if you would like to further the conversation and see ??? in action.  Would you have time over the next week?” 

On the very same day, another email arrives with a Google Calendar invite for a chat at 11pm my time…. er, big FAIL; since I gave a Japan phone number it should be easy enough to figure out business hours here!

+3 Days:
This email regrets that “we never got a chance to speak” and suggests next Wednesday as a possible date.
(Hint to sales specialists: this is known as having a one-way conversation. Good luck with that…)

The kicker is in the final sentence:

“If you still aren’t ready, no problem, everyone’s cycle is different and we understand that.  I would, in that case, slow the tempo of my communication down and touch base in a couple of months.  Just let me know.”

Remember, I didn’t ask for this whole “let’s chat” conversation to begin, but already the sales specialist has me tasked with letting him know how to proceed with his sales campaign.

Oh dear.

Do you know what I would probably do if I was still working in corporate IT and received these offers to “chat”?
I’d click Gmail’s “spam button” – because I’m too busy to be interrupted, I’m not ready to be sold to, and there’s no unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of their emails.

Problem solved.

Are any B2B Technology Sales Specialists out there still surprised when told why ”Afghan Angie Will Never Die“?

Mark ‘freelance b2b tech writer‘ McClure

PS - If you’re still wondering, Afghanistan is the first country in A-Z country drop down menus.
Angie is the first ‘A’ name that comes to mind.
She’s not all alone, though. I’m reliably told that Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Arnie, Pluto and Astroboy are all in-country and regularly sign up for b2b email tech lists. However, they’re not very responsive and none have been known to buy anything from all those emailing vendors. What a sad waste of relationship selling potential.

Much time and money goes into creating b2b white papers. But where’s the ROI? Sales want leads while marketing stoically tracks metrics about visitors brave or curious enough to register an interest.

Meanwhile, hovering over the tech sales funnel entrance is a mysterious black hole known as “prospect engagement”, where information about how prospects actually use and distribute white papers never seems to escape the post-download event horizon.

However, in the comments thread of a LinkedIn discussion group, I discovered one company with an enterprising solution.

B2Lead.com is offering vendors with white papers the opportunity to securely and privately host html versions of their papers, along with a set of integrated social media tools. These tools allow registered readers to use Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and email to spread the word. On receiving social media updates, interested parties can then freely register with the site to access the white paper content and join the discussions.

I was curious enough to register and check out how b2lead are using the product with their own white papers.

Their business model is based on charging only a cost per lead, so there are no large, up-front fees.

Another very attractive feature are the metrics on the who, how, what, when and where concerning distribution of your white papers.

This has long been an irritating problem for b2b marketers who know that people share their white papers but have no easy way of tracking and engaging with these folks.

Are White Papers Destined To Migrate to Social Delivery Platforms?

Much will depend on the value that b2b white paper readers assign to the time cost of registering and regularly visiting a social delivery platform. And this, in turn, will require marketers using such platforms to really think through exactly how they’re making the visitor’s experience a useful and interesting one.

Because the b2lead experience is designed to be social, a big opportunity exists for word-of-mouth referrals to become viral, or to die a quick, digital death should the value for the reader soon evaporate.

This could happen if the white paper sponsor sees this social delivery platform as yet one more place to mine prospect data for lead and demand generation activities.

(Of course, accurate data is important for the marketer but it’s the kiss of death when strongly sensed by the potential prospect.)

I’ve got some additional questions on the viability of private label versions of this social delivery platform but those can wait for another day.

How about you? What value do you see in hosting white papers as ‘cloud papers’?

- Mark ‘white paper writer’ McClure

2011′s underway and I thought I’d start with a post about giving customers what they want.

Take a look at how my local Japanese supermarket went about serving their customers in the final days of 2010.

This is a slightly blurred (sorry!) photo of a double-sided, A3-sized ad that was delivered to our house.

The black headline in the middle refers to the “end of year” and clearly states (in red) the 9am opening time on 30 and 31 December.

Some scarcity and urgency is also introduced because only shoppers present between 9 and 1 will get triple points on their store loyalty cards.

Starting from the top left hand corner, and moving clockwise, all the traditional Japanese favorites are shown, along with their prices.

Sashimi, sushi, fried food (chicken), tempura prawn with ‘long life’ noodles (soba), a selection of beers and sakes and, in the bottom left hand corner, thinly cut slices of meat for ‘shabu-shabu’.

Interestingly, the fact that the meat was domestically produced is quite visible. There was some Aussie and American meat for sale but not a lot.

Taken together, this Ad’s a great example of making it real easy for the customer to know (and see) what they’re buying, how much it will cost, and what benefits there are to being first in the queue.

Attention! Marketing Managers in the Business of Selling Computer Networking Solutions…

1) What types of solutions do you need from freelance technology writers this year?

2) Are these technical copywriting solutions what you’re looking for?

3) How can a freelance writer make your job less stressful – beyond delivering quality writing within agreed deadlines?

I have my own views on what the answers to these three questions might be.

However, I’m very interested to hear my customers tell me what they really, really want.

You can use my contact form or email me: samuraiwriter <at> gmail.com.

‘Replace the <at> with the @ symbol, and remove spaces between the words, samuraiwriter and gmail.

I look forward to hearing from you.

- Mark McClure

PS – My case study special offer is now accepting just two customers for January’s limited slots. The monthly offer finishes once the mentoring course is completed in March 2011.

OK, so the post’s title doesn’t exactly score a bulls-eye but since 2011′s indeed the ‘year of the rabbit’ in these parts, it somehow seems appropriate.

Joe Pulizzi, of junta42.com and content marketing institute fame, has just released a collection of social media and content marketing predictions for 2011 .

As Joe says in his post introducing the collection:

“Well over 150 predictions from more than 100 of the leading marketing thought leaders in the business.”

You can view and also download a free e-book containing all the predictions by clicking on the image in this post.

Alternatively, you can click on this url:
http://www.zmags.com/social-media-predictions-2011

(Note: I found the pdf button in the bottom right hand corner of the zmags screen interface.

Some predictions that jumped out at me:

• Ever shorter white papers (this is something that Jonathan Kantor has been highlighting for a while now.)
• E-books for mobile Internet devices (I think this also applies to traditional marketing content such as case studies and, yes, white papers.)
• Content marketing being freely distributed via social media.

It was a great honor to be included alongside many very experienced and skilled marketers. You can find my prediction on page 18. With hindsight (ha!) I should have written more.

- Mark ‘mystic marketer’ McClure