The three biggest shifts in ‪B2B‬ marketing

The three biggest shifts in ‪B2B‬ marketing include performance marketing and intention-based media.

Customer Service Trends 2015

Marketing Technology map

Marketing Technology map

The Passion Pyramid

The Passion Pyramid

There Is No More B2B or B2C: There Is Only Human to Human (H2H)

There Is No More B2B or B2C: There Is Only Human to Human (H2H)

It used to be that marketing was segmented into two categories; business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C). This was done (I assume), to separate specialties, audiences and segments in an effort to more highly target the groups of people who ultimately would consume a brand’s message.

What it really did, however, was create an unnatural language for marketers – with words like “synergy” and “speeds and feeds” – to tell the stories of products to their buyers and partners. It’s become like one massive game of telephone, where by the time a message gets to the person actually buying the product, the things that make it special have been swallowed by marketing vernacular.
Consumers are confused. Why can’t we make it simple for them to understand what we’re selling, to share their experiences and the value they felt with others? More importantly, why is it that what we’re marketing most often does not align to actual consumer experiences?


The fact is that the lines are so far blurred now between the two marketing segments that it’s hard to differentiate between the two anymore. We all need to think like the consumers we are, putting ourselves in the mindset of the buyer instead of trying to speak such an intensely sophisticated language full of acronyms and big words, in order to sound smarter.

Marketing increasingly strives to become one-to-one, with solutions to collect and wrangle the big data about us to serve up more personalized offers and experiences. On the other hand, social has become a more public and vast medium, where the things we share skyrocket quickly to a “one-to-many” experience. The dichotomy between marketing and social has actually flipped… and it’s out of balance. Social and marketing need to work together to personalize individual conversations, as well as deliver shared global experiences that crowds of common values can benefit from. This is what our social and digital mediums have gifted us, and how humans interact and feel more compelled take action.


So, this is how I see it:
Businesses do not have emotion. People do.
People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
People want to feel something.
People want to be included.
People want to understand.


But people are also humans, and with that comes mistakes. Missteps. Failures. As humans, it’s in our nature to say the wrong thing, get embarrassed, and not realize the consequences of our actions. The rise of social media has given a digital platform to the dark side of anonymity, both as individuals and as crowds. I say it’s time to lay down the virtual pitchforks and torches and bring this behavior back into balance. The delightful side of humanity holds with it empathy, understanding, and forgiveness, and when remembered in our communication, it ties us together as a common group.
Communication shouldn’t be complicated. It should just be genuine and simple, with the humility and understanding that we’re all multi-dimensional humans, everyone of which has spent time in both the dark and delightful parts of life.

That’s human to human. That is #H2H.


KEY TAKEAWAY: Human beings are innately complex yet strive for simplicity. Our challenge as humans is to find, understand and explain the complex in its most simplistic form. This means you, marketers. Find the commonality in our humanity, and speak the language we’ve all been waiting for.

40 ways to stay creative

40 ways to stay creative

Growth Hacking: 4 Simple Tactics To Get In The Game

Growth Hacking: 4 Simple Tactics To Get In The Game

The term growth hacking was initially used by entrepreneur and angel investor Sean Ellis back in 2010, when he was hiring for his replacement. While he received many qualified marketing resumes, he felt one key area was missing from potential candidates: growth.

He then added the phrase “growth hacker” in his advertisement instead of “marketing” to explain the profile he’s looking for. The phrase has since been broadly used in the technology startup world and it’s perceived as a new phenomenon to promote and sell products.

Deploying Deep Discipline
The basic ingredients of growth hacking are based on a set of strong disciplines that uses testing and analysis to scale not just marketing promotion, but also product development. Companies like Twitter TWTR +2.49%, Facebook,  Airbnb, YouTube, and LinkedIn LNKD -0.23% owe much of their success to hacking strategies. LinkedIn, for instance, grew from two million to more than 200 million users by simply implementing a growth hacking technique that allowed user profiles to show up in search engine results.  What a phenomenal success!
Growth hacking is not limited to just small companies or start-ups as there are certain characteristics businesses can adopt to create growth.  At SAP, the success of our cloud customers often comes from the simple desire to test, optimize and improve. Here are four, simple traits we recognized from them:

1. • Adopt growth hacker mindset of continuous testing and improvement
2. • Make your ideas shareable, accessible and addicting for users.
3. • Push the boundaries and find ingenious technology based avenues for growth (think of the possibilities between people, machine and channels).
4. • Drive creativity and sustainability. Growth hackers do not see the disciplines as temporary. The techniques are addictive and continuous.

If growth hacking can work without resources, imagine what it can accomplish with resources.  I believe the key to sustainable growth and innovation is to cultivate creativity by allowing people to experiment and learn via the aforementioned growth hacking disciplines. People need to believe in transformative power of their imagination and the imagination of others.  Isn’t that how creativity is born?

success mantra-om

21 Ways to Get Inspired (Infographic) 

Researching and Developing Buying Personas

Researching and Developing Buying Personas

You would have thought that companies would have had buying personas nailed by now…sadly in our experience that is not always the case. 
After all, many organisations have been steeped in sales methodologies where org charts, decision makers and motivations are all mapped out over the period of the sales cycle to close the sale. So why are buying personas not being used effectively?
The trouble is that the world has changed from sales cycles to buying cycles and as a result marketing needs to communicate with buyers much earlier and for longer.

Whether your company gets a chance to engage and close business is dependent on:- 



We have seen .... 

Best Advice: How a Cold Email Can Land You Funding

“If you ask for money, you get advice. If you ask for advice, you get money.”

Brian Wong  -  Best Advice: How a Cold Email Can Land You Funding

Someone once told me, “If you ask for money, you get advice. If you ask for advice, you get money.”
Those words changed the entire course of my career. They helped me launch my startup Kiip, acquire several rounds of funding, and learn from the brightest in the industry.
Why? Because at our basic human roots, we’re wired to help others. If you follow Gestalt psychology, we each work individually to benefit the community as a whole. We learn, remember, and teach different branches of knowledge. We want to impart our knowledge. We strive to become something more than the sum of our parts.
When I first heard those words, I had the advantage of youth. I launched Kiip at 18 and became the youngest CEO to ever receive venture capitalism. I was bright, eager, and ready to learn anything. Here’s the funny thing: when I asked those I admired for advice, they actually gave me money.
That was the case with Ken Chenault, CEO of American Express. It started — wait for it — with a cold email. I always cold-email executives; people usually feel too intimidated to reach out, so executives don’t expect it. You have the unique opportunity to capture their attention. So I sent Ken an email asking for his advice on mobile payments. Several conversations later, after bringing in Harshul Sanghi, Amex’s head of ventures, they invested in Kiip. None of which would have happened if I hadn’t sent that first cold email.

Don’t take my word for it. This philosophy has worked time and time again at other companies. Take Facebook, for instance. It has “client councils,” groups of the world’s top marketers who advise Facebook on advertising. The members, in addition to being renowned marketing masters, belong to companies’ top spending brands. So while Facebook asks CMOs for advice on bringing their advertising game to the next level, the CMOs involved are so excited to be a part of the initiative that they actually spend more on Facebook campaigns.
Even if you’re not a CEO looking to raise funding, you can use this tactic to get a raise or land that initial job. Instead of walking into the meeting demanding a higher salary, ask how you can contribute more to the company. Your boss will examine your work and reevaluate your worth. By asking for advice on your role, you can earn a raise without ever asking for it.
How to do this:

1. Play up the benefits of your age.

If you’re young, you have a fresh perspective that’s valuable to older execs. You can offer crucial insights into trends, newer technologies or social media marketing. Especially in industries like advertising, where brands are obsessed with targeting millennials, you’re walking market research for a coveted generation.
I know what you’re thinking. What if you don’t think you’re young? Turn that frown upside down — youth is a state of mind. It’s a matter of energy, curiosity and wonder. We’re all learning. We’re all growing. If someone can see that, you’ll be young to them.

2. Create an obligation to give back.

When you flatter someone by asking for advice, the inquired often feel a sense of responsibility to give back. The key is to approach the person with thought and research. For example, if you’re interviewing Elon Musk, don’t ask vague questions, like “Where do you see the future of the automotive industry?” Instead, ask pointed questions, such as “How does your marketing strategy plan to address the similarities between the Tesla 3 and the BMW i3?”
When you demonstrate genuine interest, the other person feels obligated to return the same level of involvement.

3. Get them excited.

Don’t hard sell anyone, especially when first reaching out. Ease into the conversation with a relaxed and friendly tone, maintaining an openness about your intentions. The other person will come up with their own ideas on how they want to work with you and get excited about the prospects.
At the end of the day, the worst-case scenario is you learn something new. So go ahead — ask a stranger for advice.
If you'd like to read more thought leadership by me, visit our company blog at blog.kiip.me.

The most effective times to post on Social Media

The most effective times to post on Social Media