VIRAL MARKETING: Let the World Tell Your Story for Free

VIRAL MARKETING: Let the world tell your story for free

Avoiding the “Netscape Moment”

Your Prospects Love White Papers: Are you giving them what they want?

Seven Ways to Acquire and Retain Customer References

Add “Quick Hits” and (Finally) Address Those Priority 3 Enhancements Viral Marketing? Search Engines? Blogs? N E W SEMINAR! Contact us to conduct this seminar on-site at your companyCreate a Strategy to or see back cover for upcoming dates and locations.Reach Buyers Directly

The New Rules of Marketing™ seminar shows you how to leverage the potential that web-based communication offers your business:

• Establish a personal link with your current and prospective customers. Reach niche buyers with targeted messages unlike “old-school” advertising they’ll likely ignore.

• Learn to publish content that people want to read and search engines reward with high rankings. Understand how tools like blogs, podcasts, webcasts and social networking enhance your online presence.

• Learn a step-by-step, practical framework for building an online marketing strategy and an action-plan to create online thought leadership for your organization.

Based on the best-selling book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing & online media to reach buyers directly by David Meerman Scott, the New Rules of Marketing seminar will show you how to reach buyers directly with information they want to hear.

New Rules of Marketing™ Create a strategy to reach buyers directly Visit www.pragmaticmarketing.com/newrules or call (800) 816-7861 to register

The Industry Standard for Technology Product Management and Marketing The Pragmatic Marketer™ Viral Marketing? Search Engines? Blogs? 8910 E. Raintree Drive What’s new at Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. Pragmatic Marketing? CEO Craig Stull Pragmatic Marketing is writing a book! President We are very excited to announce a new initiative at Phil Myers Pragmatic Marketing. Phil Myers, Craig Stull and David Editor-in-Chief Meerman Scott are writing a book. Tentatively titled “Tuned In: Kristyn Benmoussa Develop real and deep connections to what your market values most,” it will be published by John Wiley & Sons and released in mid-2008. Editor Linda Sowers The book is based on more than 10 years of collected market ––––––––––––––––– information and research on how to develop strategies that lead markets, how to create products that people want to buy and how to create Interested in contributing an article? communication programs that your buyers believe. The core of these Visit www.pragmaticmarketing.com/submit concepts tie directly to the Pragmatic Marketing Framework as they apply to executives (and their desire to create winning outcomes), No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in managers (and their desire to implement standard processes) and any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical executors (and their desire to improve productivity). photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. In conjunction with the book, the Tuned In blog at TunedInblog.com The Pragmatic Marketer™ is available free of was created to test some of the concepts and further refine the material charge to qualified subscribers. For subscription or back issues call (480) 515-1411; or visit for the book, and we appreciate any and all comments you might have pragmaticmarketing.com/subscribe about the topics. We believe there is an interesting story to tell here To be removed from the mail list, visit and welcome everyone’s participation in bringing it to life in a pragmaticmarketing.com/unsubscribe way that resonates. or send an email to [email protected] For advertising rates, call (480) 515-1411. Other product and/or company names mentioned New webinar series in this journal may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are Recently, we began hosting webinars presented by today’s the sole property of their respective owners. The Pragmatic Marketer, a Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. industry experts and thought-leaders. With topics including the role publication, shall not be liable regardless of the of product management in an Agile development environment; how cause, for any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or other defects in, or untimeliness or unauthenticity effective product managers know their market; building strategies for of, the information contained within this magazine. reaching buyers directly online; and why effective product marketing Pragmatic Marketing makes no representations, is not about the product, this free series provides information on warranties, or guarantees as to the results obtained from the use of this information and shall not be a broad range of issues affecting today’s technology product managers liable for any third-party claims or losses of any and marketers. Be sure to check out the schedule of upcoming kind, including lost profits, and punitive damages. events at pragmaticmarketing.com/webinars. And if you would like to The Pragmatic Marketer is a trademark of present a webinar, drop us a note at pragmaticmarketing.com/submit Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. All rights reserved. Annual product management and marketing survey

ISSN 1938-9752 (Print) It’s that time of year, again! Our annual survey of product managers and ISSN 1938-9760 (Online) marketers will be open from October 29th until November 21st. Be sure to stop by our website and participate. The results About Pragmatic Marketing® will be published in January, 2008. Founded in 1993, Pragmatic Marketing provides training, consulting services and an online community for product managers, marketers and business leaders at thousands of technology companies. We have trained more than 40,000 product management and marketing professionals using the Pragmatic Marketing Framework, a common sense approach to identifying market problems, building ™ the right solution and creating effective go-to-market strategies. Over 90% of attendees rate the training New Rules of Marketing as essential or very useful to their careers. Our consulting services provide implementation Create a strategy to reach buyers directly support and custom services. The online community at PragmaticMarketing.com Visit www.pragmaticmarketing.com/newrules is the first-choice destination for technology product management and marketing professionals. With more than 35,000 visitors per month, this dynamic or call (800) 816-7861 to register resource center contains hundreds of articles, a job board, book reviews, instructional webinars, links to peer networking groups and much more. Visit www.PragmaticMarketing.com to learn more. The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 3 VIRAL MARKETING:

4 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 For marketers, one of the coolest things about the Web is that when an idea takes off, it can propel a brand or company to Let the world tell fame and fortune. For free. Whatever you call it—viral, buzz, word-of-mouse, or word-of-blog marketing—having other MARKETING: your story for free people tell your story drives action. Many By David Meerman Scott viral phenomena start innocently. Somebody creates something—a funny video clip, an e-book, a cartoon, or a story—to amuse friends or inform buyers, and one person sends it to another, then that person sends it to yet another, and on and on. Perhaps the creator might have expected to reach just a few dozen people. One of the first examples I remember was the “dancing baby” from the mid-1990s. It was grainy and low-tech, but it was cool. And it spread like crazy. Instead of reaching a few hundred friends and colleagues, dancing baby struck a nerve and reached millions.

The challenge for marketers is to harness the amazing power of viral. There are people who will tell you that it is possible to create a viral campaign that is guaranteed to be a hit, and there are even agencies that specialize in the area. But when organizations set out to go viral, the vast majority of campaigns fail. Or the viral component has nothing to do with the company and its products (“Free iPods!” will drive viral but probably not sales) Worse, some companies set up fake viral campaigns where people who are employed or in some way compensated by the company write about a product. The Web is hyperefficient at collective investigative reporting and smoking out trickery, so these campaigns rarely succeed and may even cause great harm to reputations.

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 5 Viral Marketing: Let the world tell your story for free

Often, a corporate approach is some Technology and software of ideas. To minimize poisonous gimmicky game or contest that just companies: Create viral buzz by internal groupthink, invite people from feels forced and advertisement-like. the outside to help. If you can recruit I think it is virtually impossible to thinking like a venture capitalist some teenagers to join you, you may create a Web marketing program While I think it is difficult to purposely end up with some great ideas. I’ve that is guaranteed to go viral. A create viral marketing buzz, it is gotten involved with Facebook, which huge amount of luck and timing are certainly possible. Technology has started to go viral for me, and now necessary. A sort of homemade feel companies and software companies have 100 or so “friends” as a result of seems to work, while slick and should create viral programs the way my 14-year-old daughter’s help and polished doesn’t. For example, the that venture capitalists (VCs) invest in encouragement. Numa Numa Dance that was popular start-up companies and studios create several years ago was about as films. A typical VC has a formula that Online video goes viral homemade as you can get—just a guy states that most ventures will fail, a with a Web camera on his computer— few might do okay, and one out of 20 I’m seeing more and more technology and it helped to popularize the song or so will take off and become a large companies and software companies and sell a bunch of downloads. enterprise that will repay investors using online video for marketing purposes and as attempts to go viral. Of course, it’s not just crazy dancing many times over the initial investment. Prior to YouTube making video that goes viral. The formula is a Record companies and movie studios commonplace on the Web, you’d only combination of some great (and free) follow the same principles, expecting see small forays into corporate video, Web content (a video, a blog entry, or that most of the projects that they and usually these efforts were an e-book) that is groundbreaking or green-light will have meager sales, but mundane and predictable—things like amazing or hilarious or involves a that the one hit will more than repay a broadcast of the CEO’s speech at the celebrity, plus a network of people the cost of a bunch of flops. The annual meeting. Well, OK, some to light the fire, and all with links problem is that nobody knows with people might watch, but unless the that make it very easy to share. certainty which movie or venture- CEO makes a dramatic gaffe, (picking While many organizations plan viral backed company in the portfolio will his nose while talking would work), a marketing campaigns to spread the succeed, so it requires a numbers video like that is unlikely to go viral. word about their products or services, game of investing in many prospects. don’t forget that something may go The same goes for viral efforts. Create The idea of companies using video for viral that you didn’t start (remember a number of campaigns and see what Web marketing is still new. Video the Mentos and Diet Coke geysers?). hits, then nurture the winners along. follows both blogs and podcasting on And it may show you or your products To create a viral marketing strategy the adoption curve at organizations in either a positive or a negative light. using the VC model, brainstorm lots that don’t have a service that naturally Monitor the Web for your organization lends itself to video. Some companies and brand names so you are quickly are certainly experimenting, often by alerted to what people are saying. And embedding video (typically hosted at if a positive viral explosion that you YouTube) into their existing blogs. didn’t initiate begins, don’t just hang on for the ride—push it along! When I deliver the new Pragmatic Marketing seminar, New Rules of Marketing, I often get questions or comments about video use by corporations. People say things like “But we’re a ____ company. We can’t put video on YouTube!” (Fill in the blank with “big” or “famous” or “conservative” or “business-to-business.”) The fact is, some of the best online video comes from unlikely sources. One of my favorites is a series of “mockumentaries” produced by IBM. The multi-episode “The Art of the Sale” (youtube.com/watch?v=MSqXKp-00hM)

6 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 Viral Marketing: Let the world tell your story for free is a terrific spoof on corporate training companies create a regular series of Tip #6 Consider inviting your videos. Until the end of the video, you video content that might be delivered customer communities to submit video don’t even know who produced it. through a video blog (vlog), an online One of the most effective ways to use Tens of thousands of people have video channel at a company site, or a video to drive viral marketing is for watched it, and the viral efforts are a “vodcast” (a video series tied to a companies to develop a contest for success—my writing about it is proof syndication component with iTunes people to submit their own video, that it has gone viral. and RSS feeds). which then is made available for others to see. Would-be directors are Another fascinating example of a viral given prizes, and the best videos are video comes from Tubes by Adesso. Ten tips for using usually showcased on the company Tubes is an online desktop file-sharing YouTube for viral marketing site. In some cases, the winning videos service designed to let anyone create are also played on TV as “real” instant personal-sharing networks of Tip #1 Creating a video is easy, commercials. friends and colleagues. The marketers and posting on YouTube is free at Tubes have created a number of Copy the video to your computer, and Tip #7 Try a series of tongue-in-cheek viral campaigns. For then either upload your video as is or similar videos to build interest Mothers Day, they released Tube Your edit it with such software as iMovie or Sometimes a series of videos works Mom, a campaign to give away the Windows Movie Maker to add titles well as in the case of “Will It Blend?”. Tubes application as a last-minute and special effects. Mothers Day gift. The campaign Tip #8 Tell everyone about your video included a YouTube video, a press Tip #2 Homemade is just fine When you upload your first few release, and a landing page. “Not You don’t need to hire a professional. videos, you are likely to hear a going to make it home for Mother’s A homemade-quality video can work deafening silence. You’ll be waiting for Day? Send Mom a Tube. She’ll be able well. But plan ahead and shoot several comments, but none will come. You’ll to enjoy photo memories all year.” takes to get it right. check your video statistics and be Sometimes a series of videos works Tip #3 Your video should be no disappointed by the tiny number of well as a mechanism for people to longer than two minutes (preferably less) viewers. Don’t get discouraged—that’s normal! It takes time to build an download additional videos from Think very short. Although YouTube audience. When you’re just getting the marketer. For example, a small will accept a video that is less than 10 started, make sure people know it is company called Blendtec makes minutes (smaller than 100MB), try to there and can find it. Create links to household blenders. They created a make the video between 30 seconds your video from your home page, huge hit with their series of YouTube and two minutes. videos called “Will It Blend?” These product pages, or online media room. videos each have been seen more Tip #4 Make your description Mention your video in your email or than a million times: clear and specific off-line newsletters, and create links to your video as part of your email To best promote your video, create an Will It Blend? iPod: signature and those of other people accurate and interesting text youtube.com/watch?v=B8H29jU8Wrs in your organization. description. Use descriptive keywords Will It Blend? Golf Balls: and language that people will use Tip #9 Make sure bloggers youtube.com/watch?v=MC8Zvl-8ziA when they search for videos like yours. know about the video. And use the correct categorizations on Sending bloggers a link to the video Will It Blend? Marbles: YouTube so people will find it. youtube.com/watch?v=3OmpnfL5PCw or commenting on other people’s blogs Tip #5 Don’t attempt “stealth” (and including a link to your video) is Organizations of all kinds are now fake customer insertions a good way to build an audience. If busy posting video content on you comment on blogs in the same Some companies attempt sneaky, YouTube and sending people links space as yours, you might be surprised stealth insertions to YouTube of to the content (or hoping that it goes at how quickly you will get viewers corporate-sponsored video in a way viral). Creating a simple video is to your video. really easy; all that’s required is a that makes it seem like the video is $300 digital video camera—or even consumer-generated. A typical case is Tip #10 Experiment! Try it! Have fun! happy twenty-somethings at a party a mobile phone—and a YouTube Video content on the Web is still doing fun things while using a certain account. There are all sorts of very new for marketers and brand of technology. The YouTube enhancements and editing techniques communicators. But the potential to community is remarkably skilled at to make video more professional, but deliver information to buyers in new ratting out inauthentic video, so this some organizations go with the grainy and surprising ways is greater when approach is likely to backfire and and jerky “homemade” look. Other you use a new medium. And while cause harm to a brand. your competition is still trying to figure out “that blogging thing,” you can tap into the world of video and leave the competition behind.

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 7 Viral Marketing: Let the world tell your story for free

E-books go viral I’ve been fascinated recently by Tips to make your the power of e-books. My own e-book more compelling Coming Soon Web content sells and has the power e-book, The New Rules of PR: How to go viral. An effective online content to create a press release strategy Think like a publisher by understanding strategy, artfully executed, drives for reaching buyers directly (www. your audience. Consider what market Annual Product Manager and Marketer Survey action. Organizations that use online davidmeermanscott.com/documents/ problems your audience has, and content have a clearly defined goal: New_Rules_of_PR.pdf), has been develop a topic that appeals to to sell products, generate leads, secure downloaded a remarkable 250,000 your readers. contributions, or get people to join. times since it was released in early And they deploy a content strategy 2006. Imagine how much you would Write for your audience. Use examples that directly contributes to reaching have to pay to get an equivalent and stories. Make it interesting. that goal. Content on the Web takes number of people to download • You will need a great title that grabs many forms besides video, including something via such traditional attention. Use a subtitle to describe an effective content-centric site, marketing as an advertisement! what the e-book will deliver. Webinars, blogs, podcasts, and Millions of dollars, perhaps. Wikipedia entries (wikis). • Hire a professional editor to do E-books have a bit of intrigue to them. a second draft, and a proofreader People instantly see the value in what to finalize the copy. they have downloaded for free. In my opinion, e-books are things people • Have the e-book professionally want to read, compared to white designed. product management and product marketing? papers, those things that our buyers feel they should read (but often don’t). • Put a Creative Commons license on the content so that people I recommend that e-books be know they can freely share presented in a landscape format, rather your copyrighted material than the white paper’s portrait format. (http://creativecommons.org/ Well-executed e-books have more licenses/by/2.5/). white space and interesting graphics and images. And the copy is typically • Create a landing page from written in a lighter style than the which people can download your denser white paper. In my view, e-book. For an example, check e-books (as viral marketing tools) out the Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. are always free and there is never e-book The Secrets of Market-Driven a registration requirement. Leaders: How technology company CEOs create success (and why most fail), by Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott (pragmaticmarketing.com/secrets). • Promote the e-book like crazy. Offer the e-book on your site with easy-to-find links. If you have a blog, write about it there. Add a link to employees’ e-mail signatures. Get partners to offer links. • To drive viral marketing, alert media, bloggers, and analysts that the e-book is available and send them a download link. (Don’t send a PDF document directly.) This is a new world for marketers and corporate communicators. Never before has a medium allowed an idea (or a product) to spread to millions instantly in the way that the Web does. E-books are true examples of thought leadership at work and hold the potential to influence many thousands of people in ways that traditional marketing cannot.

8 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 Coming Soon Annual Product Manager and Marketer Survey

What is the difference between product management and product marketing?

0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% There’s an on-going discussion in virtually every company about titles and Researching market needs responsibilities in product management. Preparing business case This graph from our 2006 survey Writing product requirements (pragmaticmarketing.com/survey) Writing detailed specifications shows that, in practice, these titles have much overlap. Monitoring development projects

Writing copy for promotional material Each year, Pragmatic Marketing conducts a survey with product Approving promotional material managers and marketing professionals. Creating sales presentations and demos Our objective is to provide information Training sales people about compensation as well as the

Going on sales calls most common responsibilities for product managers and other Visiting sites (without sales people) marketing professionals. Performing win/loss analysis

Planning and managing marketing programs

Measuring marketing programs The survey will be open

Working with press or analysts from October 29th until November 21st so visit Creating material for external audiences (blog/newsletter) www.PragmaticMarketing.com Creating material for internal audiences (intranet/wiki) to have your say!

Product marketing manager Product manager Viral Marketing: Let the world tell your story for free

Monitoring the blogosphere (technorati.com) is an excellent On October 31, 2005, in a post on his for viral eruptions blog search engine. It allows you to blog called “Sony, Rootkits and Digital instantly see if any of the 77 million Rights Management Gone Too Far,” Every day, bloggers, podcasters, and blogs that it tracks has information you Mark Russinovich detailed an analysis vloggers promote and pan products. need to know. I can’t imagine an he conducted about characteristics of Consumers tell good and bad tales in organization that wouldn’t find value the software used on Sony BMG music which products and services play a in knowing what’s being said on blogs CDs to manage permissions for the starring role. For example, nearly 200 about it or its products or the industry purchased music. Russinovich argued bloggers wrote about my book The or market in which it participates. that shortcomings in the software New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to design created security issues that use news releases, blogs, podcasting, Such interactive forums as blogs, chat might be exploited by malicious viral marketing & online media to rooms, and message boards are often software, such as worms or viruses. reach buyers directly in the space of seen as insignificant backwaters by He also showed that both the way the just a few months of release— PR and marketing people—not worth software is installed and its lack of an propelling it for many weeks to the the time to even monitor, let alone uninstaller utility were troublesome. number one position in the Public participate in. I’ve heard many Relations and Marketing category marketers dismiss online forums The reaction to Russinovich’s post was on Amazon.com. A blogger writing with disdain, saying things like “Why immediate and dramatic. In the next about books is free advertising for should I worry about a bunch of geeks several days, hundreds of comments, the author, while the cost of launching obsessively typing away in the dead many harshly critical of Sony BMG a number-one best-seller by using of night?” But as many marketers Music, were posted on his blog. traditional marketing and PR have learned, ignoring forums can techniques would be hundreds be hazardous to your brand, while of thousands of dollars. participating as a member reaps rewards. But there’s another aspect of viral marketing people sometimes forget. It can go the other way! People can pan your products and services online via blogs, forums, and chat rooms. Sadly, most companies are clueless about what’s going on in the blogosphere. At a minimum, marketing professionals need to know immediately when their brand names or executives are mentioned in a blog. Beyond mention- counting, analysis is important. What are the significant trends in words and phrases currently popular in the blogosphere as they relate to your organization, product, and industry? At the least, you should learn the reason for any spikes in blog mentions about your company and products and should alert executives. When the Wall Street Journal calls for comment about your failed product, “Huh?” is not the savviest response. As a starting point, all marketing and PR people need to go to blog search engines and run a query on your organization’s name, the names of products and services, and other important words and phrases such as executives’ names. Technorati

1 0 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 Viral Marketing: Let the world tell your story for free

Hundreds of other bloggers jumped Online debate intensified. On participants who see your posts on in with their own take on the issue, November 18, 2005, Sony BMG one forum or blog will link to them and chat rooms and forums such as reacted with the announcement of from other forums and blogs, so you Slashdot were abuzz. Many people an exchange program (http://blog. don’t have to worry about contributing expressed frustration that the music sonymusic.com/sonybmg/ to multiple places. industry disapproves of music piracy archives/111505.html). and sues music downloaders, yet treats Viral marketing—having others tell its customers poorly (which reflected Unfortunately for Sony BMG, the your story for you—is one of the most negatively on the entire industry, not exchange program didn’t end the issue. exciting and powerful ways to reach just on Sony BMG). Soon, reporters On November 21, 2005, Texas Attorney your audiences. It’s not easy to harness from online news sites such as ZDNet General Greg Abbott sued Sony BMG the power, but with careful preparation and InformationWeek wrote their under the state’s 2005 spyware law. when you are sitting on news—and own analyses, and the issue became California and New York followed with with clever ideas for what has the international news. class-action lawsuits. Soon after, law potential to create interest—any student Mark Lyon started a blog to organization has the power to So where was Sony BMG during the track Sony BMG XCP rootkit lawsuits. become famous on the Web. online hullabaloo? Not on the blogs. Several cases have been settled since, Not on the message boards. Nobody and Lyon continues to cover all from Sony BMG participated in the the action on his Sony Suit blog online discussions. Nobody spoke (sonysuit.com). with online media. Sony BMG was dark (not participating in the Of course, we will never know what David Meerman Scott communities at all), which added to would have happened if someone from is an online thought the frustrations of those who were Sony BMG had quickly jumped into leadership and viral concerned about the issues. Finally the blogstorm, apologized, stated marketing strategist, on November 4, 2005, Sony BMG’s Sony’s plan of action, and offered the and the programs he global digital business president exchange program immediately. The has developed have negative effect might have been Thomas Hesse went on NPR’s won numerous awards and are substantially diminished. Morning Edition to defend the responsible for selling more than one company. The choice of NPR What’s important for all organizations billion dollars worth of products and (radio) as a forum to react to to take away from this incident is that services worldwide. He is the author a storm of protest on the Web it is critical to respond quickly to of the number-one best-selling PR and was a poor one. Had Hesse situations as they unfold on the Web. immediately commented on marketing book, The New Rules of Reacting quickly and honestly in the Marketing & PR: How to use news Russinovich’s blog or agreed same forums where the discussions are releases, blogs, podcasting, viral to speak with a technology taking place is essential. You may not reporter for an online be able to completely turn a negative marketing & online media to reach publication, he could have situation around, but you will instantly buyers directly, and has lived and gotten his take on the be seen as a real person who gives a worked in New York, Tokyo, Boston, issue onto the screens of name and a personality to a large, and Hong Kong. He has presented concerned people early seemingly uncaring organization. Just at industry conferences and events in the crisis to help by participating, you will contribute to in more than 20 countries on four diffuse the anger. making the situation right. The Web’s continents. Check out his blog at power of linking should ensure that http://www.webinknow.com

Editor’s Note: Pragmatic Marketing offers a new seminar called New Rules of Marketing™, based on David Meerman Scott’s best-selling book The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing & online media to reach buyers directly. This seminar, conducted by David Meerman Scott teaches a step-by-step practical framework for building an online marketing strategy and an action plan to create online thought leadership for your organization. To learn more about the New Rules of Marketing seminar, visit pragmaticmarketing.com/newrules

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 11 Pragmatic Marketing Seminars for Product Managers and Product Marketers

Practical Product Management® Requirements That Work™ Practical Product Management is for product managers and those who manage or contribute to aspects Requirements That Work is an intensive one-day course that of product marketing and management. This two-day seminar fully explores the role of technical introduces a straightforward method for creating product plans that product management, providing tools and a framework to help get products to market more efﬁ ciently. product managers can write, developers readily embrace, and that produce solutions the market wants to buy.

Days 1 – 2 (this is day 3 of Practical Product Management) I. Strategic Role of Product Management IV. Product Strategy VIII. Building the Market Requirements Document (MRD) UÊWhat is marketing? UÊBusiness case UÊWriting requirements UÊDefinition of the role of UÊPricing UÊImplementing use-case scenarios product management UÊBuy, build, or partner? UÊProgramming for the “persona” UÊContrasting product UÊThought leaders management and product UÊDetermining product feature sets UÊInnovation marketing UÊCreating the MRD UÊAssigning ownership of V. Product Planning responsibilities UÊPositioning IX. Analyzing Business and Technology Drivers UÊReviewing specifications UÊIdentifying the “first steps” UÊSales process with gap analysis UÊPrioritizing the product feature set VI. Case Study II. Market Analysis X. Getting (and Keeping) Commitments UÊDistinctive competence VII. Delineating Responsibilities UÊProduct contract UÊMarket research UÊCommunicating market facts to Development, UÊGetting the product team in sync UÊMarket problems Marketing Communications, UÊGetting executive support UÊTechnology assessment and Sales UÊCommunicating the plan in the UÊCompetitive analysis UÊDrawing the line between company and in the market Product Management and III. Quantitative Analysis the other departments UÊMarket sizing UÊProduct performance UÊOperational metrics © 1993-2007 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. UÊWin/loss analysis

™ think with the grid. Effective Product Marketing Effective Product Marketing is a two-day seminar that delivers practical tools and processes for product managers and product marketers who want to improve their strategic contribution and align with the sales organization. Learn how to build a repeatable process to develop, execute and measure go-to-market strategies that ensure product success. I. Roles and Responsibilities III. Building a Strategic Product V. Goal-Oriented Program Execution The recognized expert in technology product management and marketing, Pragmatic UÊDifferentiate roles of product Marketing Program UÊManaging and measuring lead management and product marketing UÊCommunicating the business case quality and throughput Marketing’s common sense approach is built on years of experience and best practices. The UÊDistinguish sales support from for product marketing programs UÊIntegrating programs by market Pragmatic Marketing seminars introduce a framework that gives technology marketers the product marketing UÊSupporting sales goals segment and target audience UÊEnsure effective hand-off between UÊMetrics that build management UÊMeasuring results with or tools necessary to deliver market-driven products that people want to buy. Our framework is Product Management, Marketing, support without CRM and Sales the foundation for all our courses, from identifying markets and their problems to writing UÊCreating the right marketing budget UÊInfluencing customer retention and migration II. Segmenting and Targeting Audiences UÊA strategic approach to the market requirements to creating a go-to-market strategy that meets your corporate and UÊ Segmented marketing strategies marketing program mix UÊBuilding and measuring positioning awareness revenue goals. Since 1993, over 40,000 attendees have been trained to “think with the grid.” UÊBuying criteria and program IV. Align with Sales influences VI. Start Where You Are UÊResponding to endless tactical UÊBuilding market messages requests UÊPrioritizing next steps UÊMeasuring and improving sales UÊImplementing new ideas processes/productivity for current programs UÊOptimizing web content UÊContinuously measure and improve and sales tools UÊWorking with Sales to sell new The Industry Standard for Technology Product Management and Marketing products and enter new markets

Visit www.pragmaticmarketing.com or call (800) 816-7861 to register Complete seminar agendas are available at www.pragmaticmarketing.com Pragmatic Marketing Seminars for Product Managers and Product Marketers

Visit www.pragmaticmarketing.com or call (800) 816-7861 to register Complete seminar agendas are available at www.pragmaticmarketing.com Competition in the technology industry is fundamental. Without it, we would never have seen the innovations and “ ” incredibly cool stuff that have informed, AVOIDING THE Netscape Moment transformed, and improved our daily lives. Think about search engines and By Nilofer Merchant how often we use them to find anything, anytime. Or email tools that allow us to connect and exchange ideas with one another. Or blogging that enables the creation of valuable ideas. Or—well, you get my point. We want that process to continue to raise both the caliber of what is created and the value it offers. But there’s a caveat that goes along with the process: When there’s a winner, • Completeness of the solution. others can’t—it’s the vision thing. there’s also a loser. Is there an underserved piece of They can design something and the environment? For example, solve a problem that a customer Several companies are facing their when Shutterfly launched, it wasn’t isn’t even aware exists—until the “Netscape Moment.” No, not the planning to beat out Adobe’s customer uses the software that “everyone who matters wants to work Photoshop with its built-in editing solves it. Consider how many here, and we’re making $1 million for solution. It just made sense for thousands of phone designs each day we show up to work” kind Shutterfly’s solution, and thus the existed before the iPhone. of business insanity. I’m talking about company integrated editing into the day Microsoft announced it would what it was building. These opportunities are what make enter the category. Netscape never a market attractive enough to enter. recovered. It lost its mojo—and, along • Pricing-value mix. Can I do it Then the challenge begins. with it, the market it created. cheaper and provide better value? There was a time when computing Some think that once a bigger technology was a couple thousand competitor enters the space, it’s just Four things that drive dollars. Now it’s possible to own a a matter of time before the death competitive play $500 Dell computer. That’s what knell sounds. I think the opposite is makes a market viable: operational true, because there are competitive There are just a few things that and technical efficiency. rules that create wins and others that inevitably create competitive dynamics. result in abdicating the market to These are the things that make a • Customer gaps. Is the customer the new entrant. company say, “Yum, that looks good pain still unresolved? Technology enough to eat!” innovators can sometimes see what

• Viability of the market. Is the

opportunity big enough for me and

my band of investors to make lots

and lots of money? Almost any

company in the social networking

space today will answer “yes” to this

question. But the point is, everyone wants to answer “yes”—regardless of the market.

1 4 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 AVOIDING THE “Netscape Moment” The rules to win What it did was two-fold: First, it known and having their likes (and created a low-end offer that matched dislikes) noted; that tells them you’re To develop an effective competitive the competition point-for-point; resonating with them. People like plan, you must understand the four second, it innovated toward high-end sharing their favorite ice cream flavor types of swords you have in your vertical solutions that added much or making a comment on a book they armory—then figure out which one more customer benefit than it had bought, so be inclusive and let them applies to your situation. They include: before. This kind of product evolution have their say. Delighting customers provides great armor against attacks. can mean simple appreciation. And 1. Differentiate your offer. what customer doesn’t appreciate a Successful firms must differentiate their 2. Create customer loyalists. Notice business that provides him or her with product from all other products in the that I didn’t start with having a better the knowledge needed to navigate market. Differentiation is possible on product. Making a better widget isn’t a a too-busy life? the basis of five fundamental factors: competitive strategy. But having crazy, love-like affinity between you and A good example of a company with • What it does (function) your customers is. Do you think that strong customer affinity (considering • How fast/cool it is (utility) many vendors can come between a seemingly inconsequential software Apple and their Mac users? No, of market) is Intuit. Microsoft tried to • Being able to use it exactly when course not. I take a tremendous buy the company, then entered you need it (convenience/elegance amount of teasing for wanting to use the financial software space. The of use) my Mac and only my Mac. But it helps extremely strong, loyal user base was me work faster, I’m synced with the one of Intuit’s biggest assets in that • Price intuitive interface, and I have fewer war. When AOL was trying to win • Perception “down” moments than my colleagues the dial-up market, it was extremely who use PCs. That kind of customer aggressive with promotional CD These five elements can be mixed into passion allows a defensive posture that mailers. Someone at the company an almost infinite variety of patterns. is priceless. In the technology field, could have pointed out that there Keep your eye on out-innovating and sooner or later you will be attacked wasn’t a person who didn’t know adding value. by a competitor. Don’t get caught in AOL existed. But it was the relentless Autodesk is a technology vendor a fantasy that they won’t attack. Make pursuit of each and every customer, that has done this well. The company sure that your customers are so in love repeatedly, that made AOL the was starting to lose market share and with your company and your products dominant leader of its space and mindshare to low-end vendors and that the enemy can’t attack. also made the company very difficult to displace. a big vendor named Microsoft. How? Here are a few ways: Be generous, resonate with your Lest this come across as a “hug your customers, be inclusive, and delight customers” thing, let’s be clear: Don’t and educate people. Generosity is love ’em—build an affinity so you much like love: The more you know exactly what they need. Don’t give, the more you receive. just give away everything they need; Customers like being be a champion for services and products that match the needs customers know they have, as well as those they don’t yet know they have.

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 15 Avoiding The “Netscape Moment”

3. Establish the right competitive 4. Find new users. Sometimes the All this is motherhood and barriers. Traditional barriers to best defense isn’t defending at all; it’s apple pie, isn’t it? competition, as defined by economists, finding ways to grow the market. If are of little value in the technology your customers are still early in the Competition is healthy. I praise its space. These conventional techniques adoption curve, especially if there are results. I offer all of this discussion are mostly designed to prevent market new segments you can open up, it’s as a way of encouraging better entry and tend not to work in a usually more cost-effective for you to competition. I want to see the technology-based business. The bring in new users than it is to defend development of services and products most effective competitive barriers every inch of the turf you hold today. of such value to consumers and in technology are the perceptions businesses that everyone gains. Maybe held by customers, prospects, and This concept stands traditional with that kind of competition, those involved in the supporting industry wisdom on its head. It’s companies like Apple, Nokia, and infrastructure. supposed to always be cheaper to Google will bypass the wireless keep an existing customer than to get companies and get their best VMWare is facing that situation today. a new one. But think about it—if your products to market. It has virtually created (pun intended) market isn’t already flooded with the virtualization category, yet the competitors, a new entrant can usually These suggestions to find new company has done it in such a way get 10% market share just by showing customers, differentiate your offer, that no one is inclined to create more up and being different. You should create customer loyalists, and establish market momentum in that direction. always defend the core of your market, the right competitive barriers might VMWare has also created the but that 10% at the fringe can be too seem like “motherhood and apple pie” category—without ensuring the expensive to keep. If you made the statements, which any of a thousand company is the rightful beneficiary same investment in a new part of the business books could provide. The of the category growth. This, while market where there’s no competition, question really is: What are the tools notable and worthy in the category of you might be able to grow in the new to win regardless of the situation? innovation, is like spending money to area faster than you lose customers water the neighbors’ yard and not your in the current segment. own. It makes the neighborhood look Competitive advantage starts good, but it doesn’t build value in This means that, before you can with the right approach your own real estate. decide what to do about a new competitor, understand where you are All this suggests that being competitive To overcome this challenge, you on the demand curve. If your market is a matter of doing a specific set of need to become a brand bulldog. Pick is close to saturation, there’s no “right things.” I disagree. So would your turf carefully, and then defend it alternative to hunkering down and C.K. Prahalad, professor of strategy with the tenacity of a junkyard dog fighting an all-out defensive battle. But at the University of Michigan. In an guarding his bone. Forget about parity if you’re not saturated, driving new article in BusinessWeek magazine, and go for distinction. Get clear growth may well be the best option. Prahalad was quoted as saying, on your brand position and ensure “Whatever advantage you have, everyone in your company knows it Finding out where you are on the someone will take it away from and can articulate it. Also ensure that demand curve is a lot trickier than you.” Andrew S. Grove articulated however you define your offer, it is most people think. Marketing theory a similar premise in his book Only truly unique. With that, you can lay says that market growth is supposed the Paranoid Survive. claim to it, and you have a different to go through an S-curve, with a slow takeoff, followed by rapid growth, Competitive advantage doesn’t come way to fight. Customers want you to from a checklist; it all starts with an articulate why they need to follow you. then declining growth as the market saturates. If you grew rapidly last year, approach: Regarding vision, don’t leave things you’re probably in the steep part of • Be the one for the one. unchallenged, don’t be a target for the curve. If growth has started Uniqueness is a lost art—with the bully, and give customers and to slow down, you’re probably companies such as Gap and advocates a view that includes why approaching saturation. Unfortunately, Abercrombie & Fitch turning out they should choose you. The absence real-world market growth usually mass-produced clothing. But there’s of your voice on the podium leaves a moves in fits and starts. It’s hard to a reason why Whole Foods can vacuum. Don’t let that happen. Fill the tell whether you’re close to saturation. compete with Safeway or Apple can auditorium with the sound of your Alcatel Lucent has been facing this win against Dell. Companies have to vision and direction. Don’t wait until battle for the last few years, and it pilot like crazy. Experimentation has you have your product management continues to hold on strongly to the gotten a bum rap. Established team in place. Vision is vision because old market and old customer sets, software companies often balk at few people have it. The only way to while refusing to invest in driving creating web applications because develop vision is to force yourself to the growth of a new cash cow. they’re not sure how they’ll make articulate and develop it. money in that world. Real web

1 6 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 Avoiding The “Netscape Moment”

applications companies don’t let sticky piece of paper as a market. Company executives wanted to that stop them. They know that the Don’t be like Netflix: The company invest more money in marketing. industry is still in its infancy, and knew Blockbuster was entering its My question was, “Why?” It was you can’t figure out the revenue market two or three years ago, but clear that the product had already model until you dig in and kept thinking that it could do online won 70% of the category. Spending try things. delivery and leave the DVD/shipping additional dollars to get the business to its competition. When remaining 30% was probably a So get started, and run a series of the market didn’t mature fast wasteful exercise. There were experiments that will tell you where enough, Netflix started to look like a rumors that the product was you can make money. You may find big bull’s eye—not an innovator and getting long in the tooth, maybe that it’ll be a mix of advertising, not a company with thousands of even over-designed and bloated. professional services, support fees, customer loyalists. Why not move to a business model charging for premium applications that harvests the old, then do an and services, and commissions for • Forget the “me-too” innovation Etch A Sketch moment: Shake it up people who sell products and model. I’ve seen too many product and start over. Surround your fort. services through you. As long as you managers get the competitive Nokia has its flanks for suppliers keep your expenses low (like web products at a tradeshow or via and networks. Apple and eBay do, applications companies do), you’ll be a download, make a list of key too. It’s called an ecosystem. Success able to afford these experiments. features, then submit that list to their in the web applications world isn’t Then pour on the resources when engineers. No one—and I’m serious, just about setting an application you find the right mix. Run the no one—wins using this model. The standard that other web applications businesses side-by-side. thing with value chains is that embrace. For example, Google Maps they’re always morphing. What That’s my strong advice. Now that is a nice service, but is also being creates power in one market over widely adopted by other web you’re actively developing the Web time becomes an Achilles heel as 2.0 version of your company, defend applications that need to display some new cultural, technological, or maps. By sharing this way, Google your existing applications’ franchise leadership change shifts things. What for as long as you can. That means cuts off competitors and gets free is hard to know is how the value advertising. What core functions focusing on the functionality that’s chain is changing right now, while hard to implement using web should you try to own on every you’re in the midst of change, rather other website? Build those functions, applications tools—and keeping your than seeing it in hindsight. core customers buying upgrades for make sure your brand is visible as long as possible. Your goal is to • Create an Etch A Sketch. If it’s within them, and expose APIs so make sure that as your users get old, it’s old. If it’s the next new other companies can use them. cannibalized by the web applications thing, figure it out. One of our world, they get cannibalized by you clients had a product that was a rather than someone else. You’re long-standing market leader. not trying to dramatically increase the rate of cannibalization. In practical terms, this means you shouldn’t artificially constrain either your web applications team or your traditional applications team. But you should assign the traditional applications team the goal of generating profit, while the web applications group pursues user growth, API adoption, and Why not move to a business model that alliance building. • Find something new. It’s easy harvests the old, then do an Etch A Sketch moment: to sit back and think you’ve done all you can. But if you love what you do, you have to be thinking: Shake it up and start over. What else is there? Is it what Cirque Du Soleil did 23 years ago when it combined circus with theater? Or what 3M did with Post-its 20+ years ago? Maybe those examples sound simplistic, but it took vision to see a

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 17 Avoiding The “Netscape Moment”

• Purple, banded collars. TAKE THE QUIZ People like the convenience of mass production, but long for the How competitive is your firm? recognition of their uniqueness. The kid who wears a different 1. Personal leadership 4. Our team color high-top Converse old-school A) I eat nails for breakfast! A) We’re so hungry to win, basketball shoe on each foot wants we’ll do it. her or his singular style noticed. B) I want a promotion, and I’m People are crossing consumption focused on being named vice B) We have a playbook of competitive boundaries in multiple ways. Your president next. scenario plans in place; they only neighbor who is obsessive about need to be implemented should his lawn may also be into cashmere C) May I have some oatmeal, please? warning signs appear. sweaters, ride-on lawn mowers, books about China, Cuban cigars, 2. Customer advocacy C) We’re panicked. I think half bespoke suits, and the Oakland the team has their resume on A) Every customer lost is a sad, LinkedIn. Raiders. Claire, the senior citizen sad event. down the street, drinks Brazilian caiparinhas, hikes at least three B) My normal churn would happen, 5. Our design model miles every weekend, is a member but just as many new customers A) Our engineers are adaptive and of a romance book club, and wears would join because we treat able to come up with products J. Jill clothing. What we thought we them right. linked to customer affinity. knew about others by looking, we now know we don’t know at all. C) Customers? What customers? B) Our engineers have had several People have differing, sometimes wins—we’re waiting for another conflicting, tastes. What about the 3. Our product has stayed right now. 16-year-old sophisticate who’ll be innovative accepted by Harvard, lives in C) Our engineers won’t look at A) We’ve hired every innovator in the anything Not Invented Here Seattle, and whose favorite singer area, and we enable them to create is Reba McEntire? (NIH), and they all went to the new markets for us. C.O.P.Y. school of design. We need to see what customers B) We own the category. We’ll keep are really like. Provide the kind of owning it because we have a 6. Our business model experience, information, services, franchise now. and products they want. The more A) We keep fresh by bringing in detail and depth we give to the C) Whatever…we just look at the best-of-breed resources. individual, the more we can provide “best of” and emulate it. B) We don’t want to outsource our highly efficient customer segmentation, brains to anyone. We should have instead of depending on product best-of-breed people in house. differentiation. This is a shift in our thinking and behavior—and an C) We don’t have a business model— entirely different way to create viable we wait for business to come to us. business and market strategies. Scoring An interactive web platform Give yourself 10 points for every A answer, five for every B, and zero for every C. encourages co-creation with customers and enables conversations. Let the 50–60 points: Celebrate for a couple of hours, then get back to business. context help drive their experience. Treat users differently than non-users. 30–50 points: Too much pride involved. Think back to when you were young and Cultivate that highly desirable striving, then come into work tomorrow and do it again. influencer. Your individual customer can reach millions; respect 0–30 points: You already know the answer—you don’t need me to tell you. them for it. Underlying all these things to do is to believe. Believe in your customer, Nilofer Merchant is an advisor, writer, conference speaker and believe in the opportunity you have, the CEO and founder of Rubicon Consulting, a strategy and and believe in your team’s ability to marketing consultancy designed specifically for the needs of invent and serve. Your belief and tech companies. She and her team of principals and staff have ability can change the world. launched nearly 100 products, created five developer platforms, designed 18 channel vendor programs, run numerous user influencer marketing initiatives and defined more than 30 new markets. To contact Nilofer, visit her blog, www.winmarkets.com or email her at [email protected]

1 8 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 Your go-to-market plan BEFORE AFTER attending the Effective Product Marketing seminar

Are you struggling to deﬁ ne the Learn how to develop the targeted buyer proﬁ les, role of product marketing? messages and program strategies that enable an effective hand-off between Product Management, Marketing Communications and Sales.

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Are your salespeople asking for Learn why most sales tools and programs fail to inﬂ uence too much hands-on support? the buyer’s decision process, and what you can do to enable efﬁ cient direct and indirect sales channels.

Download “Strategic Marketing: Your Untapped Attend the Effective Product Marketing seminar and learn a repeatable, structured process that Source of Competitive Advantage.” aligns the entire organization for successful at www.PragmaticMarketing.com/epm launch, market and sales alignment strategies.

Effective Product Marketing Develop successful go-to-market strategies for your product

Visit www.pragmaticmarketing.com/epm or call (800) 816-7861 to register The Industry Standard for Technology Product Management and Marketing Your Prospects Love White Papers: Are you giving them what they want?

By Michael A. Stelzner

Is your business struggling to So what is a white paper? A white What makes white papers attract prospects? Are you wondering paper is a cross between an article so attractive? how can you stand out in a sea of and a brochure. The effective white marketing noise? paper weaves together the informative Are you wondering whether a white material found in an article with the paper is the right marketing tool for Ultra-short attention spans make it persuasive messages typically found in your business? Based on recent studies, exceptionally difficult for businesses brochures. Thus, the white paper is here are six reasons why you should and marketing professionals to gain designed to inform and persuade. seriously consider adding white papers mindshare. to your mix of marketing tools: White papers are very popular in So what can you do to reach out the technology industry. They’re also 1. Top source for lead generation. to people in a positive way? equally effective in nearly any other 74% of professional services The answer rests on this premise: business-to-business market. They can companies ranked white papers If you provide something of value also be used in business-to-consumer as an excellent source of lead 1 to prospects, they will give you applications under the guise of free generation. reports or guides. their respect, time, loyalty, and 2. Most-consumed form of ultimately their business. White papers are excellent lead- marketing. White papers are People are hungry to learn, and they generation tools. There are many types read more often than case studies, find great value in educational content. of white papers, such as technical and product literature, articles from Perhaps nothing is more valuable to government white papers. However, industry journalists, analyst reports, your prospective customers than the white paper designed to generate company websites, webcasts, blogs, 2 white papers. a lead is unique. online videos, or podcasts. In Confessions of an Advertising 3. Highly viral marketing tool. A white what? Man, marketing guru David Ogilvy Nearly three in five technology said, “The more informative your professionals (57%) pass white The best way to describe white papers advertising, the more persuasive it papers along to colleagues and is first to talk about how they are will be.” Even though a white paper co-workers.3 used: White papers help people is not an ad, there are some great make decisions. Typically, people insights to be gained from Ogilvy’s 4. Most people are willing to read white papers because they are words. Information is ultimately the register for a white paper. trying to solve a particular problem. key to effective white papers. White Almost 80% of readers are willing Those problems could include paper information must be perceived to complete a registration form anything from low employee as valuable and highly relevant to to gain access to a white paper, performance to network latency. The readers who matter. Ultimately, this validating a white paper’s ability 4 possibilities are endless. means educational content. to generate leads.

1) www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/2007/03/06/raintoday-study 2) www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/2007/03/27/major-white-paper-study 3) Ibid. 4) www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/2007/05/10/white-paper-registration

2 0 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 5. Number-one way businesses Here are the core character traits of There is a right way and a wrong way evaluate solutions. For evaluating effective educational white papers. to do this: technology, white papers are used Great white papers: more than email newsletters, Mistake #1. How many times have product literature, articles, software • Downplay the mention of the you seen a single sentence or downloads, webcasts, or case product or company paragraph summary of a white paper studies.5 and then a long registration form? • Focus on problems or needs faced Unfortunately, many white paper 6. Popular for people looking to by readers introductions fail to provide enough solve problems. The majority of • Examine trends and look at history content to engage readers. Or, the people use white papers to find registration form scares people away solutions to their problems.6 A great white paper starts with with 20 questions, such as “What is problems or needs faced by the your budget?” Are white papers a part of your reader—rather than with the product marketing mix? or service offered by the company. Mistake #2. On the flip side, how often do you see a white Because white papers are pulled into a This helps build affinity and trust. It also draws the reader into the white paper that is instantly displayed prospect’s company, white papers have with the click of a link? While this the ability to linger and travel around paper by discussing issues to which the reader can relate. provides immediate access for the the business, persuading along the reader, it fails to capture any way. It’s not uncommon for a well- Another important tip is to take an lead information. written white paper to travel across educational approach to your specific the desks of dozens of people in a solution. For example, discussing how The ideal registration page contains single company. overnight air transit from China can substantial sample content before speed business transactions is much asking readers to trade their contact better than talking about the benefits information for access. This strategy Using white papers appeals equally to readers and for lead generation of FedEx next-day services. By introducing the solution “generically,” businesses. Revisit the earlier premise: To generate leads with white papers, the paper is perceived to be more When you provide value, you content must avoid a hard sell. This educational. The details of your gain respect. means avoiding the mention of your solution can be revealed later This idea flows from the videogame company or product in the beginning in the paper. market. Remember playing videogame of the white paper. When prospects demos that provided access to the first begin to sense a sales pitch, the white Other educational content could include key trends, how an industry few levels? By first providing a good paper shifts from a valuable resource taste of the product, the hope is that to just another marketing message. has evolved over the last few years, and what to look for in an ideal people will want to buy the full game. “Successful white paper marketing solution. By guiding prospects with The same strategy can be applied to hinges almost exclusively on the a well-crafted white paper, you can white papers. quality of the white paper itself. Still, gain the attention of readers. The By providing a sufficient sample many vendors expect great things from result is often a qualified lead. of the white paper, you: their white paper marketing efforts but give very little thought to the actual While white papers are very • Increase the likelihood that people development and creation of the popular right now, most fail to will complete the registration form; white papers used for these efforts,” bring opportunity. explained Peter Spande, director, • Improve lead quality—if people TechRepublic.com and ITPapers.com. don’t find the opening words Leveraging white papers relevant, they will never scroll down Chances are, your company has to grow your business the page and see that there is a knowledge that people would find Once you have written your registration form at the bottom; and valuable. If you give away some of masterpiece, it’s time to put the • Create a content-rich page for that proprietary, hard-earned insight document to work for you. in the form of a white paper, you can search engines. actually propel your company to a If your goal is to capture a lead, you position of thought leadership and should place the white paper behind attract opportunity. a registration form on your website.

5) www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/2007/04/11/white-paper-revelations-should-surprise-marketers 6) Ibid.

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 21

Your Prospects Love White Papers: Are you giving them what they want?

When the registration form finally As marketing guru John Reese appears, this is the prime opportunity explains, “People are becoming bored, to ask readers if they want to opt into numb and almost trance-like when your email list in addition to receiving it comes to navigating the vast the white paper. amount of information that is freely available in today’s Thus, providing a compelling networked society. But when there sample of the white paper improves is the opportunity to look forward the likelihood that people registering to something, it breaks the cycle. are truly interested and gives an Anticipation has been a marketing opportunity for opt-in lists to grow. weapon for years. The bottom line, ‘anticipation’ does one thing and Delivering the white paper does one thing well...IT INCREASES RESPONSE.” Today’s “I want it now” culture dictates that you make people happy by providing what they want, when The common delivery mistake they want it. Need information? Let’s say you have some great Google it. information and have formatted it Is it really wise, however, for into a white paper. You are presumably marketing folks to satisfy people’s presenting a sample of the content, as desire for instant access? discussed earlier, and then asking people to do something to gain access M. Scott Peck, M.D. in The Road to the rest. Less Traveled, describes delayed gratification as a sacrifice of present Now here’s the big mistake many comforts for future gain. By not just marketers make: They simply send giving people what they want, when the requested information immediately Delayed-response marketing they want it, you can actually improve after the form has been completed. There are acceptable ways to get a your image, enhance your branding, The logic goes like this: “I have few marketing messages delivered and increase your sales. captured my lead, and that’s all I care and improve your image—while Why? about.” There is, however, a much maintaining your reader’s interest. By bigger marketing opportunity you may slightly delaying the delivery of the Unlike at any other point in be overlooking. With immediate access white paper, you leverage the power history, we can immediately access after registration, you end up simply of anticipation. information. With this great making a very quick impression on accessibility comes information readers that is easily forgotten. Because Here is the delayed-response overload. With information overload the only post-registration touch point marketing principle applied: comes poor retention. With poor is the document itself, you are banking Touch point 1: the “thank you” retention comes weak branding results. fully on the strength of your paper to page. After you receive the registration And if no one remembers your brand, do all of your selling. form, send the reader to a “thank you business stagnates. If you could, wouldn’t you rather have for registering” page. This is where four or five touch points? you make your first pitch for some of your value-added services. You should also include the email address from which your document will be sent, so recipients can add it to their “white lists” (increasing delivery rates). See a sample here: www.stelzner.com/copy- HowTo-thanks.html

2 2 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007

Your Prospects Love White Papers: Are you giving them what they want?

The benefits of delay By not sending what readers want right away, you can: • Increase your name recognition. Every time prospects read something from you, your name becomes etched in their brains. More touch points mean more chances to gain their business. • Establish a relationship. By sending well-crafted messages, you begin the process of establishing trust with your prospect. These relationship-forming steps help transform you from an information dispenser to an advocate. • Increase your open rates. Because readers are expecting an email from you, your “thank you” message and follow-up message will have very high open rates. This is the prime time to mention related products and services. Touch point 2: the “registration Touch point 4: the actual • Improve the desire to read the confirmation” email. Set up an document. The white paper is the document. When the final autoresponder that immediately final touch point. By this time, the document arrives, the reader will sends a “thank you” message to new reader has been expecting your have been prepared for this great registrants. This is where you can content and should be familiar with piece. The delayed gratification confirm receipt of the request and your company and brand. concept kicks in, and the reader remind them that, “While you are will likely treat your work as waiting for our paper, you might be Optional touch point: your newsletter. If you have a newsletter, special, devoting time to your interested in this other information.” useful resource. You can link to some of your it would be wise to add the option services, your blog, or other to subscribe to it on your registration This article exposes a few proven information. form. Set up a three-day delay and marketing strategies that revolve send a special, prefabricated edition around white papers. If your business Touch point 3: Send the content of your newsletter. This provides sells complex or costly products, one hour later. Set up a delayed another opportunity to get your white papers should be at the top message that sends the requested name in front of prospects and of your list of marketing tools. document (or a link to a page that also provides valuable content contains it) after an hour has passed. to readers. To learn more about marketing white Be sure to again mention some of papers, a great free resource can be the other services you offer. found at www.whitepapersource.com/ marketing

Michael Stelzner is the author of the bestselling book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged. Michael has written white papers for many of the nation’s largest businesses, including Microsoft, FedEx, HP, Motorola, SAP, and Monster. Subscribe to his 20,000-reader newsletter at www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 23 Seven Ways to Acquire and Retain Customer References By Joshua Horwitz

Does this sound like a typical scenario in your company? You get an S.O.S. email at 5:00 p.m., blasted out to 20 people asking for a customer willing Implementing a In truth, customers are often the best to serve as a reference. Oh, and the seven-step customer reference program spokespeople—even the salesperson needs to get the information best salespeople—a company has. Oftentimes, the customer is to the prospect first thing in the morning. There is a better way. These seven strategies help you avoid the stressful flattered to speak of his or her A chain of email continues until noon and unproductive customer reference expertise and experience with your product. two days later, when the prospect finally scramble. Using this approach, you can systematically acquire and retain receives the reference information. If Set up a consistent and easy customer references that will help process to make asking for the only there was a better way. grow the company, increase the reference a top-of-mind and bottom line, and build credibility painless process for sales. Satisfied customers willing to serve as and brand equity. • Broach the subject by including 1. Ask for a reference. references for your new prospects often It is vital to reference language in the final have a process and communications negotiations of a deal. make the difference between winning in place for Sales to ask customers and losing the sale. Getting and keeping to provide a reference, and then • Designate a marketing specialist make it easy for Sales to nominate those references, however, is a to work with sales representatives customers who agree. on opportunities to secure new challenging and time-consuming job. references. Surprisingly, many companies simply While critical to the success of sales, this don’t ask customers to serve as • Keep track of the sales responsibility often falls into the lap of references. Sometimes, sales representatives who contribute representatives want to protect their references, and make their marketing and product management customers by not asking for “favors.” contributions known to others. professionals who may not be as close Other times, it’s not top-of-mind or encouraged internally. Or there’s no Once Sales sees the value of to the individual customers as their process in place to make asking for customer references in influencing sales representatives. references easy and worthwhile. the next deal, the process gets better and better.

2 4 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 Seven Ways to Acquire and Retain Customer References

2. Set proper expectations with Setting expectations also applies to great troubleshooting and potential references at the outset— the situations in which you place customer service with a prospect and then meet them. Let customers your customers. Don’t ask them to who has questions about your know how you intend to use speak on a topic with which they company’s support. the references. For example, will aren’t familiar. And always try to you use the reference in public match the job level and subject By keeping track of which relations activities with the expertise of the person with customers have participated media? Do you intend to use the whom they’ll be speaking. Putting in which activities and how customer’s name and quotes on customers in situations that aren’t this activity stacks up against the website and in collateral well aligned with their expectations reasonable thresholds, you’ll materials? Or will the reference can quickly lead to frustration and be in a better position to be asked to speak directly with minimize the business benefits communicate why a particular future prospects? you hope to achieve. customer “needs a rest.” Find out whether your customer’s 3. Avoid reference burnout. The other key to avoiding company has tight restrictions on You’ve worked hard to acquire burnout situations is to make public testimonials. As a general these customer references, so don’t sure you have sufficient back- rule, you will have more luck with scare them away by asking them up resources. If you have only customer references if the customer to do too much for you. Know one customer willing to speak contact doesn’t have to go through how much is “enough” by asking about your new product, you elaborate internal approvals on his them in advance, and check back are heading for trouble. With or her end. Often, getting approval regularly to ensure that they are some visibility into your portfolio to connect a customer with a peer still happy to act as a reference of customer references, focus is acceptable, and ensuring you for you. Implement a system for the company on nominating don’t overstep those preset rotating and ranking references additional customers where boundaries can establish a for the best fit with a prospect. they are most needed. successful, long-term relationship. For example, match a customer who has recently experienced

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 25 Seven Ways to Acquire and Retain Customer References

4. Stay in contact with customers. 5. Centralize and have a champion Get creative. Everyone likes to feel Learn their business for the most for the corporate customer reference appreciated, and proper etiquette relevant, up-to-date references. program. Customer reference efforts and timely follow up just might The best way to match the right often fail because once you provide improve your customer satisfaction reference for a prospect or for a reference and win a deal, it’s ratings, too. marketing purposes is to learn how time to move on—until the next your customers have implemented scramble ensues. The problem 7. Consider automating your your product or are using your can arise because no one owns customer reference program service. How happy are they? Have customer references. Or because for a more effective, systematic they bought subsequent products no one champions the need for approach to customer reference from you? Has your contact changed a formalized reference program. management. Although you can positions or left the company? Or because there is no central manage a customer reference There’s nothing worse than serving repository for reference information program without sophisticated up a customer reference who’s just with notes about accounts and or pre-packaged technology had a hiccup with your product. activities. Information often resides solutions, as your organization Have an efficient way to update in individual spreadsheets and grows, it becomes more difficult information in a centralized place, emails. A champion communicates to manually track and manage the and always ask the sales rep and demonstrates the benefits of details, interactions, and activity for last-minute updates just a formalized reference program. with homegrown spreadsheets before using that customer A champion also maintains and processes. There are software as a reference. the momentum of valuable solutions that can help keep all reference activity. your reference program activities It’s also important to keep it personal. organized, productive, and moving With numerous customers and a lot Finding a champion often comes in the right direction. If you have of activities happening at once, it from a marketing or sales executive more than a few dozen customers can be hard to keep track of it all— who understands the benefits or a fast-growing pipeline, it might but most of the time, a customer’s and challenges associated with make sense to evaluate some of willingness to be a reference is customer reference management. the technology tools designed ultimately based on a relationship From Product Management to PR specifically to solve this challenge, either with you or with other to Sales, effective customer reference streamline your program, and individuals in your organization. management helps all facets of improve your results. Keeping track of these relationships the organization, but it often can go a long way toward takes a whisper in an executive’s Customer references are often the “hot creating success. ear to get the ball rolling and potato” between the sales, marketing, formalize the effort. and account management areas of One often-overlooked angle is an organization. Done correctly, an maintaining some visibility into 6. Let customers know their effective customer reference program customers who may be willing references are appreciated. can help close sales faster, give your to serve as a reference, but for Just as you would thank a friend entire company more credibility, lead whatever reason, have not recently who gave you a gift, it is important to more media coverage, and provide participated. You can track to acknowledge the value your great marketing content. underused customers with some customer has given to you. Send of the same methods previously handwritten thank-you notes. Find mentioned. Find ways to reach out out what is important to that client to these customers and either get and start there. It might be as them involved or let them know simple as getting connected with a that they are still top of mind. product manager to give feedback.

Joshua Horwitz worked in marketing for several software companies in the late 1990s and quickly learned many companies struggle when it comes to leveraging customer references during the sales cycle. In 2003, he founded Boulder Logic. Companies with complex products and selling cycles rely on Boulder Logic for an easy-to-deploy, highly customizable enterprise solution that can be integrated into existing environments.

2 6 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 Is your implementation on track? Are you getting out of the ofﬁce? Do you know your buyer personas?

Pragmatic Marketing’s Consulting Services can help you accelerate your transition to market-driven success.

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Visit www.PragmaticMarketing.com/services or call (800) 816-7861 The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 27 The Industry Standard for Technology Product Management and Marketing Add “Quick Hits” and (Finally) Address Those Priority 3 Enhancements

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512 Second Street, San Francisco, CA, 94107 (415) 296-9000 [email protected] http://www.quinn.com Add “Quick Hits” and (Finally) Address Those Priority 3 Enhancements

By Chloe Morrow

Woe to the minor enhancement One of the challenges with minor I know what you’re thinking: Your request that gets tagged as a dreaded enhancement requests is that they projects are often late and features Priority 3 or nice-to-have feature are minor; even your customers would always end up getting cut…how could during the prioritization phase of a agree their priority isn’t as high as there possibly be room for bonus project. All too often, it will get other, more important features. features to be implemented? The pushed into a future-release black Accumulate enough of them, however, reality is, unless you have the most hole—never to be seen again. These and you start to feel the impact—with efficient development team ever, there are not features that will win the big a product that has usability issues are pockets of time to be found in deal, leapfrog the competition, or get a and lacks polish. Companies will almost every project. There might be sexy write-up in the product brochure. often wait to compile enough minor a small, two-day gap between the These are little tweaks your current enhancements to create a single completion of one major feature and customers would really like to have— release. But if you wait too long, the start of another. Or you might find and they can make the difference your customers’ reaction might be a bit of down time while a developer between a product that is good “What took you so long?” rather is waiting for another team member to and a product that is great. than “Wow, great feature.” finish something. These pockets of time are unpredictable, and probably When I worked for a former employer, not large enough for any major features we struggled to find a way to address to be implemented. But, if the developer at least some small enhancement has a list of Quick Hit features at the requests in each release—without ready, they just might get one or two cutting bigger, higher priority features. of them implemented. We developed an idea called “Quick Hits.” For each release, we completed Implementing any new process or our standard process to define, refine, strategy will only work if you have and negotiate the scope and timeline buy-in at the start from those involved. of the release with Development. Next, So sit down with the right people in the product managers identified a pool your organization, talk about the of possible Quick Hit features to add. challenges around your growing pool In our “contract” with Development, of nice-to-have features, and see if we agreed that these were features to implementing a Quick Hit idea in be implemented at their discretion, as your next project will work. time permitted. Development wouldn’t implement the features if it might There are huge rewards to be gained affect the overall project schedule—and when you include a handful of nice- the product manager would accept to-have features in each release. Your the possibility that none current customers will see you as of them might be being responsive to their needs, your implemented. new customers will benefit from a We considered product that has been fine-tuned using any Quick feedback from other customers, and Hits that were you will make a dent in that future- implemented as release checklist! bonus features.

The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 • 29 Add “Quick Hits” and (Finally) Address Those Priority 3 Enhancements Quick Hit Checklist

This handy checklist helps you choose the Quick Hit features that will make this technique successful. Be sure to involve your development team in defining the appropriate criteria for your organization.

1. Quick implementation time. 3. Low impact on the rest of your 5. Have enough on your list, Quick Hit features should be small development organization. but not too many. In addition and able to be implemented Since you don’t know whether to picking the right features, rapidly. In our case, we set the bar or not these features will be ensure you have the right at features requiring less than two implemented, ensure that quantity of Quick Hit features days’ effort. More often, they were other teams (such as QA or identified. You don’t want to features requiring two to four documentation) won’t be forced select so many that the list is hours. If the product management to scramble if something doesn’t overwhelming, but you do want team at your organization is not get done. to ensure you have enough so able to accurately select features your developer or project manager that are quick to implement, 4. Related to code being changed has flexibility in choosing a consider involving your developers anyway. Ideally, your Quick Hit feature based on the amount of in the evaluation process. features should be related to time available and within the aspects of your product on which application area where they are 2. Light requirements effort. you are currently working. If the already working. Also be sure To give your development team developer already has the code for you have a selection of Quick maximum flexibility, provide module X checked out and is Hits for each developer or a long list of possible Quick making changes related to one of development team. Hits. Only a fraction may be your major project features, it may implemented, so you don’t want be a perfect chance to make a 6. It’s not a must-have feature. to waste time writing long small change to address one of The last, but most important, requirements documents for your Quick Hit features as well. element in deciding whether a features that will never be This will also help your QA team, feature is a good Quick Hit is implemented. Ideally, these are since (presumably) this was a whether you, as the product features you can describe in a product area they would already manager, can live without it. couple of sentences or for which be testing. Remember, these are features that you can quickly write details if a wouldn’t otherwise have made the developer finds extra time. cut for the release. If your feature is a must have for the release, no matter how small, it needs to be scheduled into your standard release process.

Chloe Morrow has over 10 years experience in software organizations, leading both product management and development teams. She is currently the VP of Operations at IDELIX Software where she helped the company to redefine its strategic direction and brought a new product to market. Prior to that she was a Senior Product Director at WebCT, leading their product management team through four major product releases and helping the organization strengthen its position as a market leader in the e-learning space. You can reach Chloe at [email protected]

3 0 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 5, Issue 5, 2007 Communicating Strategy and Vision for Your Product

Planning PRAGMATIC ROADMAPPING™ is a one-day, facilitated session offering techniques for planning, consolidating and communicating product strategy Resource alignment information to different audiences. Using practical, real-world examples and best-practice techniques, attendees will enjoy a fast-paced, content-rich Building the roadmap curriculum combined with practical hands-on application.

Communicating internally and externally Course designed for Members of the product management, marketing and development teams tasked Tracking progress with planning product direction and communicating product strategy. Attendees should have some experience or knowledge of their product lifecycle.

PRAGMATIC ROADMAPPING™ Align your Product Strategy with the Market Visit www.pragmaticmarketing.com/roadmapping or call (800) 816-7861 to register

The Industry Standard for Technology Product Management and Marketing Upcoming Pragmatic Marketing Seminars Call (800) 816-7861 or go to www.pragmaticmarketing.com to register!

Practical Product Management® Requirements That Work™ Effective Product Marketing Introduces a framework that gives product managers the Provides a repeatable method for product planning resulting Delivers practical tools and processes for product marketing, tools to deliver market-driven products that people want to in a Market Requirements Document that others read and industry marketing and marketing communication managers buy. Focuses on the practical aspects of juggling daily tactical use. Establishes clear roles for product planning team who want to improve their strategic contribution and align demands of supporting the channel with strategic activities members and teaches a process that creates an executable with the sales organization. Learn how to build a repeatable necessary to become expert on the market. plan that delivers solutions that sell. process to develop, execute and measure go-to-market strategies that ensure product success. November 14 - 15 (16)*.....Bedford, MA November 16...... Bedford, MA November 14 - 15 (16)*.....Flushing, NY November 16...... Flushing, NY November 28 - 29...... Atlanta, GA November 14 - 15 (16)*.....San Francisco, CA November 16...... San Francisco, CA December 11 - 12...... San Francisco, CA November 28 - 29 (30)*.....Costa Mesa, CA November 30...... Costa Mesa, CA January 8 - 9...... Boston, MA December 3 - 4 (5)*...... Research Triangle Park, NC December 5...... Research Triangle Park, NC January 29 - 30...... San Francisco, CA December 3 - 4 (5)*...... San Francisco, CA December 5...... San Francisco, CA February 12 - 13...... Durham, NC February 19 - 20...... Vancouver, BC, Canada December 10 - 11 (12)*...... Bedford, MA December 12...... Bedford, MA March 18 - 19...... San Francisco, CA December 17 - 18 (19)* ...... Santa Clara, CA December 19...... Santa Clara, CA December 17 - 18 (19)*...... Toronto, ON, Canada December 19...... Toronto, ON, Canada January 14 - 15 (16)*...... Bedford, MA January 16...... Bedford, MA January 14 - 15 (16)*...... San Francisco, CA January 16...... San Francisco, CA January 22 - 23 (24)*...... Austin, TX January 24...... Austin, TX January 28 - 29 (30)*...... Durham, NC January 30...... Durham, NC January 28 - 29 (30)*...... San Francisco, CA January 30...... San Francisco, CA NEW SEMINAR! February 5 - 6 (7)*...... Seattle, WA February 7...... Seattle, WA February 5 - 6 (7)*...... Tampa, FL February 7...... Tampa, FL ™ February 11 - 12 (13)*...... Bedford, MA February 13...... Bedford, MA New Rules of Marketing February 11 - 12 (13)*...... San Francisco, CA February 13...... San Francisco, CA February 19 - 20 (21)*...... Denver, CO February 21...... Denver, CO Teaches technology company marketers how to harness February 25 - 26 (27)*...... San Francisco, CA February 27...... San Francisco, CA the power of online marketing using blogs, viral marketing, podcasts, video, search engine marketing February 25 - 26 (27)*...... Vancouver, BC, Canada February 27...... Vancouver, BC, Canada and online thought-leadership. Learn a step-by-step March 3 - 4 (5)*...... Minneapolis, MN March 5...... Minneapolis, MN framework for building an online marketing strategy and March 3 - 4 (5)*...... Toronto, ON Canada March 5...... Toronto, ON Canada a tactical, actionable plan to reach your buyers directly. March 17 - 18 (19)*...... Bedford, MA March 19...... Bedford, MA November 30...... Atlanta, GA March 10 - 11 (12)*...... Reston, VA March 12...... Reston, VA December 10...... San Francisco, CA March 10 - 11 (12)*...... San Francisco, CA March 12...... San Francisco, CA January 10...... Boston, MA March 25 - 26 (27)*...... Atlanta, GA March 27...... Atlanta, GA February 14...... Durham, NC March 25 - 26 (27)*...... San Francisco, CA March 27...... San Francisco, CA March 20...... San Francisco, CA

*Day 3 is Requirements That Work New seminar locations! PRSRT STD ™ The Pragmatic Marketer US POSTAGE Pragmatic Roadmapping™ 8910 E. Raintree Drive PAID Scottsdale, AZ 85260 PHOENIX, AZ PERMIT #995 Offers techniques for developing, consolidating and communicating product plans and vision to multiple audiences—both inside and outside the company. Designed for members of the product management, marketing and development teams tasked with planning product direction and communicating product strategy.

December 6...... San Francisco, CA December 13...... Bedford, MA