Weekly Roundup: 8/31/12

by
Marketing Musings

Welcome to the Projectline Weekly Roundup. We know that the week can move pretty fast. Since Fridays sometimes offer a chance for a breather, we wanted to share links to some of the articles we liked this week. As always, we’d love to get your take, so feel free to leave a comment or chat us up on Twitter. Happy reading and have a great weekend!

Weekly Roundup

Business Intelligence
The Advanced Analytics Degree: Worth Its Weight in Debt—This piece talks about preparing for data analysis, a hot topic in marketing to be sure. How do we train people to deal with the massive amounts of data that we can now collect?

What Data Can’t Tell You About Customers—While data is great, there are times when you can’t get the entire picture. Don’t worry, just turn to some other techniques.

Customer Engagement
Customer Experience Should Be Part of Your Business—You absolutely need to know what kind of experience your customers have with your company.

Harvard Business Review Customer Intelligence—The HBR has some very good articles about customer engagement on their site. It is worth your time to read through them.

Projectline Posts
Bending Without Breaking Your Customer Reference Program Part 2—Lauren Lundy is back for the next part in her customer reference series. Just like the Godfather series, Part 2 is even better than Part 1.

Bending Without Breaking Your Customer Reference Program

by
Marketing Musings

Lauren Lundy, who has helped product groups within some of the world’s largest technology companies develop and strengthen their reference programs (CRPs), writes about the importance of taking a more holistic approach to CRP management. This post is the second in a three-part series (You can find Part 1 here). Follow Lauren on Twitter (@laurenlaundry) to share your thoughts about this post and get updates throughout the series.

Part 2: Avoid Painful Limitations
Part two of this series takes a closer look at the importance of incorporating flexibility into your Customer Reference Program (CRP), especially when your organization is constantly innovating and creating new products! When your program bumps up against a short product lifecycle, it’s critical to take an approach that allows you to bend and stretch your program to its full capacity without overloading your best customers.

To add some of this “flex” into your CRP, first consider the ‘gate’ of entry into your program. Case studies, or written testimonials outlining the challenge, solution, and benefits of investing in a product or solution, often serve as the natural point-of-entry to other reference activities. It’s easy to understand why this happens. Case studies are credible, educational documents that can speak powerfully to the needs of prospective customers considering similar investments. Since they are packed with information and exposure of the reference customer, it’s very common for CRPs to slowly (often subconsciously) develop an approach where a reference is rarely used without a formal case study in place first Opportunities are missed when CRPs are designed in this fashion. Case studies require specific components in order to be successful, including a customer signed legal agreement, production time final approval, publication, amplification and more. Relying on case study publication before inviting customers to join your reference program can slow down your ability to respond to reference requests or promote success in the press. It’s especially problematic in organizations with fast moving product lifecycles. The answer is not to eliminate case studies, but simply change the reference program’s Point-of-Entry.

Continue reading →

Picture of the Week: 8/27/12

by
Pic of the Week

Every weekday morning at 10:42 am, our team is invited to send in a picture of where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with. We post our favorite picture from each week and share its story here.

10:42 August 22, 2012 - The ladies of Customer Reference!

Hello there, Ladies! Caitilynn, practically a Projectline veteran, and our two newest Reference Rock Stars: Lindsey and Cheryl, are onsite at our client’s office ensuring that their customer reference program is prolific and professional. How does your company handle connecting your product advocates with your newest prospects?

Weekly Roundup: 8/24/12

by
Marketing Musings

Welcome to the Projectline Weekly Roundup. We know that the week can move pretty fast. Since Fridays sometimes offer a chance for a breather, we wanted to share links to some of the articles we liked this week. As always, we’d love to get your take, so feel free to leave a comment or chat us up on Twitter. Happy reading and have a great weekend!

Weekly Roundup

Marketing
5 Things Toddlers Can Teach You About Marketing—As somebody with a toddler, this post really hit home. You’d be surprised how similar good marketing is to good parenting.

8 Ways to Keep Your Brain Innovative—I put this under marketing because I think it is important to keep your marketing fresh and to try new things.

10 B2B Companies that Create Exceptional Content—Creating good content is one of the most important things a business can do to help their marketing. There are some good examples in this post.

Business
Top 25 Websites for CEOs—I thought this was a pretty successful list. You probably already know about some of these, but I’m sure there will be some new ones to you.

Social Media
Women Are From Pinterest, Men Are From Google+?—Good article that reminds us that demographics are not the same across different social media websites.

Projectline Posts
She Said, She Said: The Case Study Process in Dialog—Two Projectliners in one post! Jessie Alan and Molly Dee Anderson discuss the case study process. Nice inside look at the process.

She Said, She Said: The Case Study Process in Dialog

by
Marketing Musings

Projectline has a highly streamlined and effective process for delivering case studies to its clients. In this post, project manager Jessie Alan and technical marketing writer Molly Dee Anderson use a respected literary form—the dialog—to illustrate how they work together.

Alan: Case study production requires the tricky combination of multitasking and paying careful attention to detail. As a project manager, it’s my job to be the benevolent taskmaster from beginning to end. When starting a new set of evidence, the development and vetting of a solid pipeline of story leads is critical. What are customers really ready to speak to, and how will it meet the client’s marketing goals? Simultaneously, I’m gathering information and resources that writers will need in order to conduct successful interviews and nail the messaging.

Anderson: High-quality marketing communications deliverables are like a magician’s tricks. A lot of coordination, preparation, and technique goes on behind the scenes, but to the audience, it’s a fine-tuned, flawless narrative on a customer’s experience. Because I have a project manager coordinating scheduling and communications with the stakeholders, I can use my billable time to write copy. Writers should write, because that’s what they do best. It’s a specialty.

Alan: Ha—agreed. I’m no writer. There’s no way I could do what Molly does, and if you’re not a writer either, just try putting yourself into her (most stylish) shoes for a minute. Imagine interviewing the chief technology officer of a Fortune 500 company: you have to be approachable yet highly professional and efficient; you have to “listen on your toes” and decide which storylines to travel down by asking the right questions to get the best possible case study; and then you have to transform the information from that interview into a written piece that captures the customer’s story and engages the reader, all while staying on message for the technology.

Continue reading →

Picture of the Week: 8/21/12

by
Pic of the Week

Every weekday morning at 10:42 am, our team is invited to send in a picture of where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with. We post our favorite picture from each week and share its story here.

10:42 August 16, 2012 - It's just like we're kids again!

Do you remember the excitement of taking a permission slip home for a school field trip? That’s how several Projectliners felt this week as we put on our work gloves to volunteer at Alleycat Acres newest Urban Farm 2.0. We assembled a nesting enclosure, mulched, harvested, and celebrated a new way of connecting to the planet in the middle of the city.

Weekly Roundup: 8/17/12

by
Marketing Musings

Welcome to the Projectline Weekly Roundup. We know that the week can move pretty fast. Since Fridays sometimes offer a chance for a breather, we wanted to share links to some of the articles we liked this week. As always, we’d love to get your take, so feel free to leave a comment or chat us up on Twitter. Happy reading and have a great weekend!

Weekly Roundup

Big Data
Data Scientists: Explore Game Theory to Boost Customer Engagement—Business intelligence, data, and game theory! What more could you want from a blog post?

Marketing
How To Go Viral On YouTube—This post is full of insights about the wonderful world on online videos. Well worth your time to read if anybody has ever suggested: “let’s make it go viral.”

5% Better Customer Service= 50% Better Revenue—This was an interesting anecdote about how a little love for your customers can go a long way.

What CMOs Can Learn From VCs—Does a CMO need a venture capitalist frame of mind? There are some interesting points in this article.

Continue reading →