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Virtual events may be sexy, but they're no match for their face-to-face cousins, says Margit Weisgal, executive director of the Trade Show Exhibitors Association, in the latest edition of BtoB.
"Webinars, virtual events, Twitter and Facebook status updates all have their value," she writes. "But getting in front of someone, face-to-face, in-person, creates an immediacy of interaction, a responsiveness of active dialogue that cannot be replaced with technological tools."
Not only is the immediacy of face-to-face irreplacable, Weisgal argues, but so is another crucial aspect of real-world encounters: serendipity.
Unlike live events, "virtual events don't allow you to connect with others in spontaneous ways," she writes, because they "demand that you purposefully 'sign in,' search out and interact with 'avatars' through the use of a keyboard."
Weisgal cites adman Spencer Jarrett, who made her case succinctly when he told Business Week, “Asking if virtual meetings will replace live meetings is like asking if singles chat rooms will replace real dating.”
Disclaimer: Trade Show Exhibitors Association is a client of mine.
The best days of e-mail marketing are behind and that's given good old-fashioned direct mail a chance at a second life.
According to David James, president of Bethesda List Center, the quantity of postal mailing lists rented by his firm increased 20 percent during the second half of 2010, as compared to the first half of the year.
The surge comes as the result of “a wonderful opportunity for direct mail marketers,” he says.
Direct mail has all but disappeared from in-boxes during the past decade.
“The disappearance of direct mail from in-boxes has created a huge void that marketers should take advantage of,” David says. “It’s almost a novelty to get a piece of direct mail nowadays and that scarcity is creating an unprecedented boost in response rates. All marketers should think hard about testing postal right now.”
The surge in the volume of direct mail marketing has prompted David and me to co-author a new how-to primer, The 3-Minute Guide to Direct Mail.
If you feel the need to become better acquainted with direct mail fundamentals, our new primer's for you.
Want more good news?
The new primer is absolutely free.
Feel free to share it with colleagues!
My buddy Gary Slack is about to launch Bizy, a new Website offering small businesses the same bargains on business products and services you'd find on consumer goods and services on Groupon.
Businesses can procure things like payroll services, janitorial services, trucks and vans, meeting rooms and retreat facilities, smartphones and more.
The projected average savings will be 50 percent.
Gary heads the Chicago-based B2B marketing firm Slack & Company, which helped launch eBay Business.
So he knows what he's doing.
When launched, the site will serve Chicagoans, although most of the deals offered will come from national companies. It will roll out beyond Chicago afterwards.
Bizy will be a great way for B2B sellers to introduce themselves to large numbers of buyers.
Good luck, Gary!
BNET columnist Steve Tobak provides a peek inside Apple in his article "10 Ways to Think Different."
"Apple’s culture is like a genetic mutation of the corporate America genome," Tobak writes. "A mutation that should be studied and replicated wherever possible."
One way Apple thinks different?
It "gets" marketing.
"Marketing is the one great weakness of the technology industry. For some reason, high-tech CEOs don’t get it, understand it, or value it as they should."
By that, Tobak means the company devotes real resources to dreaming up better mousetraps. "Apple spends a great deal of effort divining the next big thing—figuring out what people want—even when they don’t know it themselves."
Apple also "gets" highly orchestrated marcom.
"Few companies truly get communications and PR the way Apple does," Tobak writes.
"A big part of its formula for creating a buzz like no other company is its famous secretiveness. Considering the sheer number of people, companies, and news outlets that would give anything for a tip, virtually nothing leaks until Apple’s ready to spill it."
Got marketing?
In her blog, Ardath Albee (my favorite B2B marketing guru), laments marketers' obsession with lead generation.
Leads are like kids. Generating a bunch means little, if you don't nurture them as well.
"Lead generation is a hello and a handshake," she writes. "Lead nurturing is the art of building a relationship with purpose. Big difference."
Albee cites new research from Marketing Profs that shows marketers consider their primary goals to be (in order) branding, customer retention and lead generation. Lead nurturing is the last goal on the list.
Marketers are missing the boat.
As Albee notes, someone who "opts in" isn't really a "lead." She's just a gal who's interested in information you're offering. She'll never become your customer unless she's cultivated.
That's because, at this early stage, she isn't "sales-ready." She's just educating herself.
"The evidence exists that buyers spend more time self-educating via the Internet than they do in conversations with salespeople. There's also proof that, due to this change, sales is only invited into the last one-third of the buying process."
If you're not providing the continuing education she needs, you're not cultivating that gal.
Worse, if you're tossing her name to sales, mixed in with a bunch of other so-called "leads," what do you think happens to her when sales discovers she's not ready to buy?
The short answer: like a lot of children, she's neglected. That's sad.
"What's the benefit of spending all that budget to let non sales-ready prospects languish unattended?" Albee asks.
None.
