My Walkabout Back to HRmarketer.com

“Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” — James Matthew Barrie

“So, how’s your walkabout going?”

When she asked me that about a little over a month ago, at first I was taken aback. Years ago she was an HRmarketer.com client, and now she works for HRmarketer.com, and I didn’t anymore.

That “walkabout” comment certainly hit the mark.

And because everything is correct on the Internet (wink), Wikipedia defines walkabout as “a rite of passage during which male Australian Aborigines would undergo a journey during adolescence and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months. In this practice they would trace the paths, or ‘songlines’, that their people's ceremonials ancestors took, and imitate, in a fashion, their heroic deeds.”

Mine was almost 12 months, and while not quite heroic, I’ve learned a lot about business, myself and the rest of the world while watching it slowly thaw from its latest economic ice age. But I found no matter how I stretched myself, and where, I always snapped back to my “core” of marketing communications, business development, all things people management, all things social and greater marketplace evangelism.

No worries, though. I’ve survived the wilderness and I’ve kept in touch with Fisher Vista, LLC and HRmarketer.com founder and CEO, Mark Willaman, my old “partner in marcom crime,” and we’ve talked about how the HR space has changed, and how it hasn’t, how B2B business has changed and how it hasn’t, and again how too many companies come up short when it comes to their business marketing efforts.

For example, a new study titled 2011 Global Marketing Effectiveness Program found that 73% of CEOs believe marketers lack business credibility and are not proving to be growth generators for their companies. But in the same breath, 69% of CEOs said they believe marketing strategies and campaigns do have an impact on a company's business, although they can't precisely quantify results.

And we thought there was an innovation gap in HR technology. Gadgets be gone indeed. In all fairness there are many HR suppliers who know content marketing and how to make to business cases to the various stakeholders. Yet, there are still too many more who don’t.

These days in B2B we’re not selling in silos, we’re selling to the business at large, and that includes executive management, IT, operations, finance, HR, recruiting, talent management, training, and the list goes on. Not everyone is the primary decision maker (depending on what you’re selling), but everyone in your target companies are influencers, including their customers. It’s become a much more complex marketing and sales effort than ever before.

There is just as much diversity and complexity with marketing and PR “tactics.”

Social media marketing is important today, and more and more companies are coming online, but it should not exclusively be the only activity you engage in. Because while it may be enough to launch a new product or service, particularly one that incorporates “social” functionality and targets “social” buyers, it’s just not enough to build a sustainable growth business long term. I can’t tell you how many small businesses I’ve spoken with who have eventually burned through word of mouth and needed something more substantive in their marketing efforts. Take a look at the most successful HR Tech or other talent management companies. None achieved their success by focusing on just one marketing or PR tactic.

Back to the present, though – in all my collective careers, I have never met someone like Mark Willaman who has been so focused on professionally imparting marketing best practices to the human capital management industry, as well as now across all lines of business (IT, operation, finance). Also, someone in such relentless pursuit of creating a better marketing mousetrap in his software and services that truly help companies generate greater visibility, traffic and leads.

For example, the new HRmarketer.com "online voices" database that’s coming will track thousands of social voices in the HR and B2B marketplace (IT, Finance, Operations, Purchasing). Each "voice" will get a profile that includes an influence "score", recent blog and tweets, links to their social sites, their photo, bio, etc. Users can also search the content (tweets, blog posts, etc.) for each "voice".

And then there’s the aggregation of all tweets, blog posts and other social "conversations" for press contacts, analysts and online voices in the HRmarketer.com databases. With this information they’ll be the first in the HR marketplace to aggregate and analyze the "conversation" in real time and generate powerful trending data.

How cool is all that? And there’s much more where that came from.

This is why I’m returning to my “core” as the Chief Marketplace Evangelist at Fisher Vista, LLC and HRmarketer.com where I’ll be responsible for strategic marketing and business development initiatives, while still at the intersection of supplier and buyer.

You heard me right – I’m returning to Fisher Vista, LLC and HRmarketer.com as Chief Marketplace Evangelist.

In fact, I’ll be hosting webinars on July 19 and July 26, 2011, from 10-11 a.m. PT (1-2 p.m. ET), titled:

Marketing is Much More Than Social. Dude.

Register for July 19 here.

Register for July 26 here.

My brief work at Ventana Research wasn’t all for naught – I learned quite a bit from the very smart principal researchers there as well as helping to launch a research and education partnership partnership between Ventana Research and HRmarketer.com. The partnership will provide technology research insights from Ventana Research to the subscribers of HRmarketer’s news and information services. In addition, we’ll collaborate on HR-related benchmark research projects that will benefit business users and software companies in the business intelligence market. And I will still be an industry analyst of sorts, at least from the marketing communications perspective, taking vendor “briefings” in order to help them with their strategic marketing objectives.

So Katrina, remember when you asked me how my walkabout was going?

Well, now that I’ve finally come home to one of the best marketing software and services firms out there today, let me tell you all about it…

P.S. – If you’re at SHRM 2011 Annual Conference & Exposition as I will be Monday afternoon through Wednesday, then ping me. Here’s how to find me:

• Twitter (@KevinWGrossman)
• LinkedIn
  
• Facebook
  
• Focus
  
• Marketing to HR
  
• Marcom HRsay
  
• TalentCulture
  
• ActionHRM
  
• kgrossman at HRmarketer dot com

A Professional Marketer is Patient.

Ahhhh, if I had a dollar for every HR vendor who suspended or cut their marketing and PR budget because their latest grow big overnight marketing idea or campaign fell flat. And if I had another dollar for every vendor who got all jacked-up about wanting to be more visible in social media and once they realized the amount of work involved in doing so, delayed the initiative or quit all-together.

I'd have a lot of cash.

I was reading the The War of Art by Steven Pressfield last night (cool book) and the following two paragraphs got me thinking about marketing - sadly, most things get me thinking about marketing.

Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him. Resistance gets us to plunge into a project with an overambitious and unrealistic timetable for its completion. It knows we can't sustain that level of intensity. We will hit the wall. We will crash.

The professional, on the other and, understands delayed gratification. He is the ant, not the grasshopper; the tortoise, not the hare. Have you heard the legend of Sylvester Stallone staying up three nights straight to churn out the screenplay for Rocky? I don't know, it may even be true. But it's the most pernicious species of myth to set before the awakening writer, because it seduces him into believing he can pull off the big score without pain and without persistence. - Excerpt from The War of Art, Steven Pressfield.

"Only 50 people registered for my webcast! No more webcasts".
"Hey, that social media news release I sent didn't result in a single media placement. No more press releases."
"None of the 200 downloads from my direct marketing campaign last month bought anything from us yet. No more direct email campaigns."
"The last 5 speaking opportunities I applied for were rejected. What a waste. No more."
"I spent hours applying for that award and I did not win. No more award submissions."
"You mean I need to update my blog at least 4 times a month? I don't have the time. Forget blogging."

The list of excuses goes on and on.

Folks, marketing is hard. Really hard.

I don't know why so many smart entrepreneurs and business owners subscribe to the "build it and they will come" philosophy. It doesn't happen.

Marketing is not only hard, Marketing is Everything as the now famous Harvard Business Review article argued in 1991.

Building a brand (or company) cannot happen without aggressive and consistent marketing - day in and day out, month to month, year after year. Nor can it occur by focusing on a few tactics like only doing social media marketing. Our latest e-book The Right Mix: A B2B Marketing Allocation Guide discusses the importance of incorporating many tactics in your marketing.

Take a look at the most successful companies in the HR space. None - and I mean none - achieved their success without a sustained and broad marketing and PR plan. None.

There are no we-got-big-quick-without-any-marketing case studies.

So why do so many companies skimp on marketing or quit when a few tactics don't pan out?

Great question.

In some cases it's a cash flow reason. OK. Fair push back. But is that REALLY the reason?

More often or not it's cultural or fear of the unknown. Or both.

A lot of business owners - especially those without a strong business or marketing background - are resistant to marketing. Sometimes they've been burned by the promise-you-everything firm. Other times they just feel uncomfortable investing in something that doesn't have a guaranteed outcome. And some are overwhelmed with everything they see they need to do and have no idea where to start.

But the irony is it really isn't that hard (getting started).

Start small. And have a plan and a disciplined process.

And for crying out loud, be patient.

So as we get ready for SHRM and then prepare for HR Tech (you are going to one of these events, right?) I present you with an achievable marketing and PR plan to get you started in the mysterious world of HR marketing.

Think of it as a marketing starter-kit.

1. Create a piece of content like a white paper. Lets say, as an example, you sell a product or service equating to background screening. You might write about the importance of doing background checks for new hires, the proper way of conducting these checks, what's legal, the types of checks you might want to do, how they may be different for full-time employees versus contractors, and current legislation that might impact how you conduct such checks. The point is to make it educational and position your company as a thought leader in the space you compete in. Don't be promotional.

2. Put the white paper on your website. You might want to require a short form to be completed in order for someone to access the content - these become leads for your sales team.

3. Promote the content. Start with an online news release that announces the availability of the content and directs readers to a landing page on your web site where they can download the content.

4. Send the news release to key journalists in your industry. In your email, "pitch" the news in a way that encourages the journalist to write about your content. You might even offer a customer or expert the journalist can interview on the subject.

5. Send a similar "pitch" to prominent bloggers and analysts who might find the content useful and may write about it.

6. Send a direct email to your house prospect list announcing the availability of the content. You can also rent or purchase an email list of prospects in your industry and do a campaign to them.

7. If you have a newsletter, mention the availability of the content in the newsletter.

8. Blog about the content on your company blog. Break it into several blog posts over a several week period, highlighting certain sections within the white paper.

9. "Share" the content on your company Facebook Page. Also share it to your LinkedIn network and groups you participate in or manage. Then tweet about it with relevant hashtags. Do several tweets over a few weeks, each time pitching it it in a slightly different way with different hashtags. And have everyone on your team do the same.

10. Record a short podcast on the white paper topic. Keep it under 20 or 30 minutes and designate someone to host the podcast and interview a subject matter expert on the topic you write about - think of it as a short Q&A session on the key topics in the white paper. Use a service like Skype to do the recording. When done, upload to iTunes and link to it from your web site.

11. Condense the white paper into a 500-800 word article and pitch it as a byline article for inclusion in a relevant trade magazine or website in your marketplace. Every publisher needs content and you'd be surprised at the interest you might receive.

12. If you have a company YouTube channel you can record a short video that summarizes the content. This is easier than you think. It can be as simple as using iMovie and your built in web cam to discuss the white paper, show a few graphs and direct people to a URL where they can access it.

13. Consider a webcast. Use a service like GoToWebinar to host a webinar on the topic discussed in the white paper. Have a guest speaker who is an expert on the subject matter. You can then use direct marketing, a press release and your social sites to promote the webinar - maybe offering the white paper as a perk to attendees. And of course, you can record the webinar and have it on your web site for visitors to view.

Everything i just discussed can be spread out over two to three months.

Then, reload.

If you can produce four quality white papers throughout the year then you have a solid 12 months worth of marketing tactics.

It's a start.

And it's not that hard if you have a plan and a process and stay disciplined to its execution. And not as much of an investment as you might think.

If you don't have the internal resources then outsource part or all of it to a company like HRmarketer. Lots of companies have done so and have great success stories to share.

If you have the resources consider a product like HRmarketer.com software to give you the information and the tools to get the work done. There are also other qualified marketing and PR firms that can help you like Starr Tincup and The Devon Group to name a few. We've all been doing this for a long time and we're all very good at what we do. Very good.

So dip your toes into the water and give it a try. And be patient and stay aggressive.

See you at SHRM. We're booth number 932.

Post by HRmarketer CEO Mark Willaman. Join Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.

"Way to go Nancy" - From Nancy.

Motivation sounds easy, but it can be CRAZY HARD! As I was power walking with my friend Nancy, she was talking about how she keeps continuously motivating herself, offer pep-talks to herself, gives herself “high fives” and how she continues to realize that as a self employed person, she has value and worth. She has a file on her computer called – “Way to Go Nancy”. BRILLIANT. How else will someone who is generally self-employed, positively manage herself?

It really stuck with me because I realized that this is not just true of self-employed contractors, but it is the same for CEO’s, Presidents and Performance/Incentive Managers. Their job is to continue to keep the team motivated, focused, inspired, creative, rewarded, satisfied, stimulated and excited – but who helps them to feel the same way? Yes, it seems like a silly question because you would think that a company who has a manager to oversee a team and make sure that they are successful, would also have a system in place so that there is someone to oversee the manager. But I would hazard to guess that in many companies, it is the manager who’s job it is to keep themselves motivated.

Here are a couple of ways for those that are self-employed, C-level and manager responsible, to get that shot of Positive MoJo:

1/ Find a Mentor - That can be someone inside the organization, or outside of the organization, but truly understand what aspect of your business life you need “jolts of motivation and insight” and find someone who can do that.

2/ Find a Coach – this may not be as financially feasible as a Mentor, but it is a brilliant idea. This will help to keep you successful NOW, but will also help you to grow in your skills and tactics.

3/ Keep open communication with your CEO – I know that I strive to have open and honest communication with my team, and so insist that this also be the case with my CEO. Without that, no matter how much you motivate yourself or inspire your focus – you have no idea if it fits the Company business objective and the vision of the “big cheese”.

4/ Give yourself a prize! – yup I said it – a prize! If you KNOW that you have accomplished something successfully – reward yourself. Ice cream; a walk; go tell someone else; sticker – whatever will remind you that you are doing a great job, OR that you have completing them successfully. Come on your would do it for your team – just reach that hand to pat your back.

5/ Task one of your team to be YOUR recognition manager – if it is very important for you to be rewarded, and your company has a strong Incentive/Reward/Recognition program, assign one of your trusted team to be yours.

6/ Keep your own “Way to Go” file. I have one now, thanks to my friend Nancy.

Tell me some of your Motivate the Motivator tactics.

Selling to HR Means Selling to IT, Finance, Operations and Purchasing. It’s Complex.

Selling to HR isn’t exactly a no-brainer anymore. It never was, frankly. But it seems to grow more complex every year. For instance, the number of tactics and channels you need to master has exploded. (Our latest eBook, The Right Mix: A B2B Marketing Allocation Guide, explores these tactics and channels in depth - and no, dumping all your money toward just one or two marketing tactics does not work).

Equally important, you now need to reach an expanding number of decision makers through your marketing and sales initiatives—and these decision makers are no longer limited to Human Resources.

More and more, HR is working in partnership with senior management and other internal functions (IT, Operations, Finance and Purchasing, among others) to choose products, services and vendors. As a result you need to help HR become a better strategic partner in the decision-making and deal-brokering processes. And you must be prepared to influence non-HR decision makers in your presentations and marketing collateral.

Of course, savvy HR suppliers are going a step further, seeking out ways to continuously influence and create an ongoing rapport with decision makers outside of HR.

These companies know the value of identifying and interacting with the journalists, publications, trade shows, bloggers, analysts and other resources that are critical to non-HR decision makers.

Obviously, you have to understand your non-HR audiences, their needs, their ways of thinking and the concerns they bring to the table. And you have to address all of this in your various marketing and outreach initiatives. As I said earlier, that’s no easy task. But the important thing to keep in mind—especially in the hard-nosed, pragmatic world of B2B selling—is that this takes time. Selling to this complex mix of functions and personalities only adds to the already longish sales cycle of B2B. There are no shortcuts.

The good news is that, even with all of these new decision makers factored in, your basic marketing and sales approach remains the same: your initial focus should be on the overall benefits that matter most to your prospect. Just because IT is involved doesn’t mean you need to come out of the gates with a pitch about cool tech features and product differentiation.

Yes, our challenge is more complex these days and the number of decision makers we need to reach has grown. But the game hasn’t changed completely. We simply need to be more inclusive in our strategy and approach.

At HRmarketer , we recognize that marketing to HR is becoming increasingly complex. To help marketers build awareness with and reach these other B2B decision makers, we recently announced that we're expanding the resources in our HRmarketer.com software’s information databases to include key media outlets, press contacts, conferences, speaking opportunities, analysts, award competitions and buyer guides that reach not only human resource departments but IT, Finance, Operations and Purchasing departments. And to help you quickly locate and manage these resources we’re adding some very cool and powerful “tag” functionality that allows you to create niche campaigns not only across various “buyer” categories like IT and finance but also across industry segments (e.g., healthcare, retail).

Want to quickly find press contacts that cover corporate IT or conferences in the hospitality space? You get it.

We think you’ll love the added functionality as you develop niche campaigns to target these key decision makers across various industries. To learn more give us a call.

Post by HRmarketer CEO Mark Willaman. Join Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Can you handle a little competition?

It is funny that the other day, three times actually, this particular topic came up – should you shun/block competition or embrace it and make it a positive experience – heard once in my personal life, and twice in my business life.

The personal life one is kind of fun and may be considered more interesting because it is NOT about business – as a passionate singer and performer, the question is “is competition good for you or should you try to avoid it”. Sometimes it is hard to follow the star of the show, but other times it also means that you will try to out perform them and usually means that you shine on the stage. It has happened to me a couple of times and the competition made for a more entertaining performance.

But the business one – that was a bit of a shocker. I cannot believe the lengths that some companies will go to, so that their competition is not seen or promoted. Block them from advertising in the same publication that they are in; not allowing their info to be linked on a website; can’t do onsite ads. Conspiracy theory I know, but believe it, it happens; and it often it is the bigger the player, the more they do it.

But the competition situation that always comes about, especially with a large industry conference like SHRM Annual 2011 upcoming in Las Vegas, is not wanting to be seen beside, close to, in the same vicinity, anywhere near their competitors on the exhibit floor.

So I posed a question on Twitter, “To all Vendors attending exhibition at #SHRM11 - what do you think about competition in your row? what about 3 booths away?” and though I did not get much response (crazy as I would have thought that many companies would have used the re-tweet to promote their offering at SHRM) I loved the response from Jason Morris of EmployeeScreenIQ “@EmployeeScreen doesn't mind competition in our isle. If you can't set yourself apart in the hall you shouldn't be there! “

Think about this for a second – Pretty bold statement, almost like it was called out from the playground – ‘if you can’t handle it, you shouldn’t be here!’ I mean you have to set yourself apart when you are “on the table” being considered with these competitors, so you are up against them there, so do it, differentiate yourself BEFORE being in that position, and make sure you set yourself apart. If you can’t defend, educate, justify, endorse, support, vindicate, make a case for your product and offering, while your competition is right beside you (hence those great ShootOuts that are often done at HRTechnology Conferences), then do you deserve to be there?

There are so many great ways to show the industry that yes indeed, you are a company that offers a valuable, strong, reliable offering through marketing, PR, media outreach, thought leadership even doing this new fangled thing – social media- so that when you are up against those competitors on the table OR on the exhibit floor, you deserve to be there.

In the thick of it . . . summer and trade shows

Summer is already here for most of the country – sweltering heat and record temperatures. And this time of year is also busy with trade show activity.

HRmarketer team members returned from the WorldatWork Total Rewards Conference in San Diego, as well as the ASTD Annual Conference in Orlando two weeks ago. And we are now preparing for the SHRM 2011 Annual Conference in Las Vegas in three weeks.

While at the WorldatWork conference I asked many exhibitors and attendees their take on the show. Most exhibitors were upbeat, although several voluntary benefits companies were disappointed that there were so many compensation professionals, not their target buyer. However, there were still many benefit companies that were very pleased with the quality of the expo and the contacts they made.

In talking with conference attendees many of them said they were in search of information on employee wellness. Employers are looking for ways to lower their health care costs by empowering employees to become healthier. And one exhibitor, Alere Wellbeing, had an awesome wellness draw, Top Chef Carla Hall making delicious, healthy recipes right on the show floor!

In light of the just released McKinsey & Co. report stating that 30% of employers plan to cut their health insurance benefits in 2014 when Obama’s health care overhaul takes effect, the focus on employees’ health may shift significantly. So without health insurance as the core of a benefits package, what will employers offer to entice and keep their employees – increase compensation, offer more voluntary benefits, more vacation days, implement recognition programs, or do nothing? The next several years will be interesting to watch in light of the shift we will see in health insurance as a whole and there’s no doubt an organization like WorldatWork will be an important resource for HR professionals.

As we follow up with all the vendors we had conversations with in San Diego & Orlando, we are looking ahead to the largest conference in the Human Resource marketplace, the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference and Trade show. With more than 600 exhibitors and over 10,000 attendees expected, and general session speakers Sir Richard Branson and Michael J. Fox, it will be a hoppin’ place!

We believe trade show exhibiting is one part of a diverse marketing mix. If you have not exhibited at any industry trade show before, it is definitely a great opportunity to get face to face with your prospects, customers, and also see what the competition is up to! For additional insight and help with your marketing programs, download our free eBook, The Right Mix: A B2B Marketing Allocation Guide.

We look forward to seeing you at some upcoming events!