January roundup: What does it take to bring technology to market?

January calendar  300x225 January roundup: What does it take to bring technology to market? This week marked the one-year anniversary of our new blog. We thank you for being with us and participating in our conversations, which covered a whole host of technology marketing issues.

Last month, we offered new counsel for startups from startup founders themselves. Screenreach, Host Analytics, CommentAir, Genevolve and NanoScale all weighed in on the specific issues that all entrepreneurs should be aware of, including the importance of strong teams, ways to overcome the status quo, how to ensure your product meets a specific market demand, attracting a flagship customer, and how to bring to market a compelling product that is protected by a rigorous intellectual property strategy.

We also explored the benefits that could come from industry and academia working together, what an IP coordinator should know and tribes in a techno world. Of course, this list just scrapes the surface. Read ahead for more.

January 3: When selling yourself as faster and cheaper is no longer enough: Part 2 by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

January 10: Putting your assumptions to the test by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

January 18: Wanted: Partners willing to take a leap of faith by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

January 23: What an IP coordinator should know: Are we getting value for our money? by David French

January 25: Dealing with the devilish details by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

January 30: Preparing for a major offensive by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

January 31: You really can achieve great things when industry, academia work together by Jason Flick

And on a related note…

In addition to our series, our associates and guest bloggers were also busy writing on a great range of topics. Here are our other posts from January, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:

January 17: The impact of infographics on marketing, journalism by Linda Forrest

January 19: Why we value blog comments, even if they’re not all constructive by Alexandra Reid

January 26: The camel’s nose marketing strategy by Francis Moran

January 24: Five reasons why B2B businesses should start looking at Pinterest by Alexandra Reid

January 5: The two-horse race most startups don’t even realize they’re running by Francis Moran

January 11: Important points B2B businesses should consider before launching a Facebook brand page by Alexandra Reid

January 12: Best of: Embargos and how to use them effectively by Danny Sullivan

January 20: How are you writing the story of tomorrow? by Francis Moran

January 4: The big and bold social media issues raise by Noah Kravitz vs Phonedog.com by Alexandra Reid

January 16: The prime minister is calling: Are you prepared for success? by John Craig

January 9: Tribes in a techno world by Bob Bailly

January 6: I’ve got some bad news…The role of PR in sharing bad news by Linda Forrest

January 27: Best of: Online communications can make or break your reputation for customer service by Linda Forrest

January 13: Have you got the write stuff? by Linda Forrest

Image: Yahoo

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A year of blogging about bringing technology to market

By Francis Moran

This blog was launched one year ago yesterday.

On February 1, 2011, we officially re-striped our long-standing inmedia Public Relations blog to indicate that I was evolving — pivoting would be the verb if I was a tech startup — my consulting practice. While the (now) 13-year-old technology PR agency I founded in the heat of the dot-com and telecom bubble in the late 1990s would and does continue, I wanted to spend more of my time tackling the higher-level marketing issues with which every B2B technology company must grapple. “For too long now, I have been painfully aware of just how dimly acquainted technology is with marketing,” I wrote in that first post a year ago, and I set out to change that.

A huge part of my effort to start a more constructive conversation around technology marketing was this blog. We launched it with an ambitious special report series we called “The commercialization ecosystem,” something we anticipated might span a dozen or so articles. A year later, we are still publishing pieces in a series that now counts more than 70 entries. In the meantime, we have launched two additional special series of articles. “A startup story” is tracking three — and soon to be four — tech startups at various stages of their early lives while “Technology marketing 101″ is a running case study of best practices as implemented at one technology company. In between, we run posts on a whole host of technology marketing issues and solid tactical counsel.

Every metric has been achieved. Save one

Those of you who know me know that I am a measurement fanatic; I insist that unambiguous and readily measured objectives be established for all marketing programs. It was the same for our new blog. Recognising that it takes a long time for any marketing activity to achieve the only objective that really matters — new revenue — we began by setting targets for what we could measure.

In the first instance, as with most marketing endeavours, we measured activity levels — how many posts a week would we run, how many authors would we recruit, and so on. From the very outset, we have demolished our four-posts-per-week target, running a total of 252 posts, which translates into more than 4.8 per week. Similarly, we have over achieved on the contributors front — I wanted at least 20; to date we have had 28 different authors share their wisdom and experience with us.

BlogTraffic 3 A year of blogging about bringing technology to market

The next set of targets were around traffic levels, and I set goals for what I wanted those to be by the 90-day, 180-day and one-year mark. We blew through our 90-day target in our first month and our 180-day target by the end of the first quarter. Traffic dipped during July and August but recovered in the fall, hitting our one-year target in November. Numbers dipped again during the holidays but have been trending back up over the last couple of weeks.

BlogCountries A year of blogging about bringing technology to marketOur focus from the outset was to generate a readership beyond Canada, particularly from the United States and, to a lesser degree, Britain. We seem to have achieved this, with the U.S. accounting for 32.44 percent of all traffic, followed by Canada at 29.76 percent. Britain is third (6.75%), followed by India (5.29%) and Australia (2.7%). Altogether, our blog has been read in 176 different countries.

So much for interim objectives. I can almost hear you all saying, “Show me the money!”

Like any marketing program, this one must start producing a clear ROI. Again, generating new revenue is a process, one that begins with lead generation. I wanted the blog to produce one unsolicited new lead per month starting at the six-month mark. I wanted at least one of those leads to convert to revenue before the end of the year, and then convert one every six months thereafter. (This may sound like a modest objective. However, I wish to work more intensively with a much smaller number of companies, so having the blog generate two new clients per year, companies with which I would never otherwise connect, would be just dandy.) Here’s where I provide full disclosure. Our first lead came in halfway through month five, and we have had at least one per month since. Wonderful. However, none of those leads has yet converted to revenue, although some good conversations continue. (This is not to say that Francis Moran and Associates has been without clients, just that all of our new business this past year came from other activities, mainly referrals, word of mouth and networking.)

Now, setting objectives is not a guarantee that the desired outcome will be achieved; it’s a yardstick against which performance can be measured. Whether you hit them, overshoot them or fall short, objectives provide a frame of reference within to evaluate whether a program was successful, and why or why not. Our blog has fallen short on the most critical objective I set for it, and I have to ask why. The answer I came to, and one that has been borne out by many other people I asked, is that the blog is far too subtle a marketing tool. I am sure that many, many of our regular readers probably don’t even realise that behind this blog, there is a consulting company that can be hired. We’re going to get a little more assertive about that, without in any way compromising the very high editorial standards that have made our content so popular.

Thank you all for your readership, your many comments on the blog and your many encouragements when you talk to me about what you like about the blog. If you have any suggestions about how we can make it an even more useful tool for entrepreneurs seeking to bring their technology to market, please let me know.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , ,

B2B businesses should establish a PRO presence on Vimeo ASAP

vimeo  300x166 B2B businesses should establish a PRO presence on Vimeo ASAPBy Alexandra Reid

Vimeo recently announced a number of site upgrades that will help businesses upload, showcase and share videos faster, wider and more beautifully than ever before.

The video hosting and sharing platform’s popularity skyrocketed last year, with an 82 percent membership and 48 percent unique visitor increase from 2010. It’s a good thing then that Vimeo decided to update its features to compete with other popular video channels in 2012. As a huge fan of Vimeo myself, I look forward to seeing these numbers increase further, and with all the hype surrounding “new Vimeo” I suspect they shall. Vimeo even attracted the attention of BBC News, which reported that the channel could pose a significant challenge to YouTube in the coming year.

Vimeo is a popular channel among B2B businesses because of its PRO accounts, which are designed specifically for commercial purposes and therefore have superior player, compatibility and video quality. As explained by VentureBeat, “Vimeo has worked to differentiate itself from YouTube by providing a more professional, commercial-free service with fewer restrictions.” It also intended PRO accounts to be affordable for small businesses, providing a great platform for new ventures to showcase and promote their products and services, without the worry of advertisements creeping up in their videos.

With PRO, businesses can enjoy advanced statistics, unlimited HD uploading and HD embedding with mobile, tablet and TV support. PRO accounts also allow businesses to create unique, stand alone, fully customizable portfolios with built-in video SEO without any Vimeo branding. Businesses can choose to keep their accounts separate from the Vimeo community or join the community through a “Community Pass” system.

Vimeo’s upgrades are primarily intended to maximize the video sharing and viewing experience with a redesigned video page that allows faster uploading with simpler and more organized features that help users “share, connect and learn” more easily.

Vimeo says on its blog that it will share more information about its new features as they are rolled out in the coming weeks. For now, users must request to try the new site.

Features include: a new video page that provides bigger videos, better tools and new keyboard shortcuts, better browsing and search options, the introduction of a newsfeed to provide more information about your community, a follow feature, a recently viewed and related videos feature, faster uploading with the option to upload multiple files, better privacy control and the ability to search videos with creative commons licenses, which is possibly a reaction to the SOPA/PIPA protests, reports CMS Wire.

Some features, such as follow, news feed and multiple file uploading, resemble those provided by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, so you can see the strategic moves the channel is making to compete.

The surge in new membership and visitors combined with these new features will make Vimeo a powerful social channel in 2012. For these reasons, I suggest B2B businesses establish a presence there ASAP.

Questions or comments?

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , ,

You really can achieve great things when industry, academia work together

According to Statistics Canada, expenditures by Canadian universities on research and development totaled $11 billion in 2009-2010, up about 0.8 percent from the year before. Spending by Canada’s top 100 R&D companies, meanwhile, fell 9.4 percent in 2010 to $9.4 billion [...]

Read more...

Preparing for a major offensive

When we introduced NanoScale Corporation a month ago, we talked about how the company is faced with the challenge of expanding into a conservative market wary of new products or technologies which represent a significant departure from the tried and true [...]

Read more...

Online communications can make or break your reputation for customer service

Customer service is an area of keen interest for us, as those who regularly read this blog will know [...]

Read more...

The camel’s nose marketing strategy

There’s an old Bedouin metaphor I love that says you should never let a camel get his nose inside your tent. The metaphor alludes to the reality that many small, seemingly harmless situations ought to be prevented whilst it is still easy to do so for fear they become very [...]

Read more...

Dealing with the devilish details

According to Matt Lemelin, CEO of Genevolve Vision Diagnostics, there are more than 100 occupations which rely on workers having normal colour vision. As we explored in our last post, civilian and military aviation, where there is no room for error, ranks high on this list. Job performance and passenger safety depends on [...]

Read more...

Five reasons why B2B businesses should start looking at Pinterest

Although still an invite-only platform, Pinterest is skyrocketing as a popular social media platform among businesses and consumers. And while it’s not critical that B2B businesses launch their own boards right away, it’s certainly worth your while to check out the site [...]

Read more...

‹ View Archives