MarketingSherpa Blog

by Anne Holland, Founder

If you, like many marketers, are in charge of deciding which domains to buy for your company or brand, this news is for you.

Over the past week, several Sherpa readers received emails purportedly from Internet domain officials in various Asian countries. The letters explain that someone in that country is trying to register a local version of the domain the US brand already has registered as a “.com.” So, for example, if your brand held “widgets.com,” the letter might tell you someone is trying to register “widgets.co.jp” for Japan.

The letter then explains that you as the .com owner have first dibs on international versions, and can stop the other guy from registering your brand in that country by simply registering it yourself right away. “Just click on this link!”

Yeah, it’s a scam.

That doesn’t mean that your domain might not be registered by someone else in a foreign country. Just probably not right at this moment. And the country’s registrar would not email you a warning note in English with a handy ‘click here to buy the domain yourself’ hotlink if it happened. It’s your job (or your legal department’s) to patrol domains, trademarks, and other branding conflicts internationally.

Should you register your domains in other countries? It depends. Consumers and businesspeople overseas are definitely used to going to ‘.com’ addresses. In fact, a lot of businesses based outside of the US have a “.com” as their primary home. People don’t assume a “.com” must be American; .com has become more of a universal term for “commercial web site” for many countries.

However, if you have a specific presence in a particular country – a division dedicated to that country or at least an office and/or dedicated customer service reps there — you may want to own a local domain extension as well as the .com. This is especially important for giant multinational brands. By creating sites with local domains, you show you really do care about the regions you’re doing business in. You add the power of local to your global brand.

One last note, as a part-time resident of Serbia I’m very aware of something that your Web team may not know yet. That is, the old “.yu” domain extension which was originally invented to represent “Yugoslavia” and is used for both Serbian and Montenegrin webites, will stop working shortly.

Yugoslavia no longer exists, of course, and Sedia and Montenegro are no longer a single country. Domains (and matching email addresses) for Serbia should now end in a “.rs” — short for Republic of Serbia. Domains for Montenegro should end in “.me” until such time as they switch to “.ru” (Not really. That’s just a little local real estate industry joke.)

A couple of online resources about international domains:

DNXPERT Daily Domain Blog
http://www.dnxpert.com/DomainsInfo English language version of international site

http://www.domainesinfo.fr/english.php

If you, like thousands of marketers, are considering working as a consultant, my advice is not to quit your day job until you’re far too busy to juggle both. During this time, you should be doing three activities concurrently:

#1. Low-risk, try out
Pro bono work is a great way to test your consulting chops. You’ll discover what being a consultant is really like. (Your feelings may surprise you.) Plus, you’ll get testimonials and creative samples to land paying clients with in the future.

Your best bet is work for a trade association or business club in the niche market you’re hoping to consult for. You’ll get to meet members and grow your reputation with association officials who may recommend you to members later when you officially hang out your shingle. Many associations eagerly welcome help promoting their membership, events, awards due dates, and paid publications.

Another choice is pro bono work for entrepreneurs and startups in the niche of your choice. The experience of working with an actual client is invaluable, and they’ll allow you odd hours in keeping with your day job. Plus, you can require that they allow you to submit the work and results for awards which can lend your future practice invaluable credibility. (Note: MarketingSherpa tracks advertising, PR and marketing awards in our Awards Calendar for Members. Trial Membership is free.)

However, you should swear pro bono business clients to secrecy on your relationship. I’d even suggest a formal contract including this point. The relationship should also have strict time limits and goals otherwise you can get sucked into free consulting for life or risk bad feelings. It’s hard enough to establish solid financial value for consulting in some clients’ minds. You don’t need the “this could be free” whisper going around the community.

The classic pro bono choice is a charity or other non-profit. Frankly, unless you can see a direct connection between your work for the charity and a promotional opportunity to land new clients, I would not recommend this. You won’t get valuable networking, and charities are different beasts than most clients – so the experience will differ as well. Give to charity, but as a personal act, not as a start-up test maneuver.

#2. Reputation & connections growth
Definitely submit pro bono work for awards. In addition, aggressively start online efforts for self-promotion and networking, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and a blog.

Next, make a list of media to which you can submit articles. Media might range from trade association and trade journal magazines and newsletters to email newsletters from vendors in the field. If the readership matches your target niche, chances are the editor may welcome a marketing columnist. In my experience, vendor email newsletters can actually outperform trade association ones significantly.

Use the “about the author” blurb to include a hotlink to your blog, along with a tantalizing note about what the reader might find there, such as a tip sheet. Be sure to add an “As seen in” blurb to your blog as well, with the logos of the publications you’ve written for. (Note: Get formal permission to use logos beforehand.)

Don’t rely on the Web for all of your networking. Most consulting clients come through real-life meetings. Nothing online can duplicate the impact of having met someone face to face.

Offer to speak at industry events, even local club luncheons. You’ll get more experience at public speaking, plus your name will get out there. (Several client-side marketers who’ve spoken at Sherpa Summits have launched consulting practices partly on the strength of that exposure.) Otherwise, attend every possible in-person event you can to meet potential clients and allies. If it means using vacation days to attend a trade show, so be it.

Handy tip if your company won’t spring for tickets: Some larger trade shows will let you in for free as press. Contact a trade journal or business website editor to see if you can get credentialed as a freelance reporter for the event. Include links to sample articles or relevant blogs you’ve written for in the past, and tell the editor you’ll cover your own time and expenses. In all fairness, you will need to write an article or show review and submit it in a timely manner — probably from the show floor itself. If you aren’t a great, fast writer, don’t try this.

#3. Financial padding
Set up a separate bank account for your consulting practice. You don’t need to incorporate or trademark for this; it can be a “dba” (doing business as) account in your to-be company name. Place all consulting checks into this account. Silo this money away from your regular accounts so you’re not tempted to spend it. This will be your financial cushion to pay yourself later when you go full time.

Your ultimate goal is a three-six months’ burn rate (i.e., the amount of money you need to live, pay taxes, and run your business if there’s no income for a month) in this specific account. In the future, when you’ve got steady clients, your company account should never dip below 45-60 days’ burn rate. (Some consultants let company savings dip to 30 days, but I think that’s dangerous because some clients take up to 120 days to pay bills.)

While you still have a steady paycheck, apply for a line of credit or a new credit card if you don’t already have some available. You may only need $5-$10k. Shop for the best possible interest rate at sites, such as BankRate.com. Don’t plan on spending much of it though; this should be emergency funding. Just run a small charge every 90 days or so to keep the card in use so it’s not cancelled by the issuer.

Last, don’t splash out on fancy new office equipment beyond the bare minimum. You don’t need an Aeron chair or top-of-the-line Mac to start a company. (I started MarketingSherpa on a plank of wood laid across two dinged-up filing cabinets.) Save fancy office purchases as rewards when you’ve had your first successful year with more business already contracted for the second.

OK, expenses are mainly anything you need for (tight budget) networking and promotion, which might include relevant trade shows and an email service provider for the back end to build and ping an opt-in prospect list.

Next week: Should you consider being an independent contractor for your current employer?

This year, I suspect that marketers are considering becoming consultants more than at any other time in history. It’s due to a confluence of factors, including recession layoffs and insecurities, boomer demographics, and the work-from-home fad.Is consulting for you? Take this quick quiz:

Read more…

SUMMARY: Networking is a valuable tool for meeting prospects for business relationships. But this tried-and-true marketing tactic can be just as valuable for doing business with old clients as well.

Find out how a professional services firm networks to develop new opportunities with current clients and keeps them even if they move on to a new company. Includes 6 tactics for never losing a client.

Read more…

This year, I suspect that marketers are considering becoming consultants more than at any other time in history. It’s due to a confluence of factors, including recession layoffs and insecurities, boomer demographics, and the work-from-home fad.Is consulting for you? Take this quick quiz:

#1. Networking
Are you the sort of person who instinctively networks with other professionals? Do you actively participate in industry associations or clubs? Do you have more than 50 LinkedIn connections? When you attend a live event, do you mingle with people from other organizations and make new connections or do you stick with people you already know?

#2. Self-Promotion
Are you comfortable with selling yourself? Do you promote yourself in your organization currently or is the CEO unaware of how great you are? Do you have a track record of publicizing your accomplishments or professional opinions? Have you done any successful public speaking? Have you gotten any press? Do you have a blog?

#3. Working Virtually
Have you worked from home for long periods before and gotten much more done than you would have at the office? Will your social life and need for human companionship still be satisfied without office interactions? Do you have a room to work in with a door that can be closed and a family who can respect that closed door?

#4. Business Travel
If you are planning on reaching out to clients and prospects that aren’t in your geographic corner, are you able to travel? Do you enjoy occasional travel, despite airport security lines and having to dress up in business-wear? Will your house, pets, kids be able to cope with your disappearance when a client needs you? Do you have the funds to front travel costs when clients won’t pay you back for 30 to 90 days due to accounting cycles?

#5. Power & Control
Consultants often have little control over which of their advice clients actually take and how it’s implemented. Are you OK with this loss of control over the final marketing product? Being subject to a client’s whims can be tough for marketers who are accustomed to having more power.

#6. Administration
Are you any good at paperwork and office management? As an independent contractor, you’ll spend more hours on administration, such as quarterly tax filings, billing, legal paperwork, software installation, and maintaining office supplies than you imagine. Also, will you happily cope if you have computer problems? If you’ve worked in a larger organization for most of your career, and you’re used to full IT, HR, and accounting support, going freelance may be your worst nightmare.

#7. Money
Are you switching to consulting because you strongly suspect the work will be more satisfying? Or is it just to earn some more dough? (People who are primarily driven by money often don’t do well as marketing consultants because their heart’s not in it.) Are you able to say, “You’ll have to pay me for that,” if someone asks you for free marketing advice? Do you have the chutzpah to ask for a decent rate and to raise rates when merited? (Hint: Have you been able to negotiate higher salaries for yourself at past jobs?).

If you answered “Yes” to questions in at least five of the points above, then you may have a consulting future ahead of you.

Next week, I’ll give some tips on how to start your own consulting business. In the meantime, if you’ve tried consulting and have advice for others considering the same path, please post it here. Thousands of marketers are considering becoming consultants this year and they need all the input from the Sherpa community they can get!

Relevant Sherpa article

So, You Want to Be a Marketing Consultant: 10 Personality Traits You Need, 5 You Don’t
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30524

MarketingSherpa data indicates that 59% of consumers and 90% of business email users view some or all of their email with images turned off. This includes people who may view email in their preview panels with images turned off (remember, this is the default for many email clients including Gmail and some versions of Outlook). It also includes people who view their email on a mobile device, such as a BlackBerry.

All of us in the email marketing world have known for ages that images aren’t always visible. But few marketers have redesigned their campaigns to get around the problem. Today, I’d like to celebrate one of the few email newsletters I receive that breaks the mold: HomeAway newsletter.

HomeAway is a vacation lodgings firm. Just as you’d expect, their newsletter is loaded with photos of enticing destinations. However, HomeAway’s email team obviously includes a smart designer and a great copywriter. If you open the newsletter with images blocked, it’s loaded with text descriptions of enticing destinations.

You don’t have to scroll past lots of dead white space looking for the text either – it starts right at the top of the screen. All of the links are usefully worded, explaining where the URL will take you (instead of a generic “more” or “read on”) and formatted in easy-to-skim vertical lists.

If you have an image-heavy or image-dependent email newsletter, take five seconds right now to click over to the real-life examples I’ve had posted of HomeAway’s newsletter. You can see the image version and the blocked-image version. Both have ideas your email designer and copywriter might be inspired by.
The link for samples is here:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/homeaway/study.html

By the way, if you have redesigned your email program templates to work better with images blocked, or perhaps with mobile devices, let us know at ChrisH(at)MarketingSherpa(dot)com. Sherpa just might want to profile you in a future issue!

It’s the time of year when I get emails from Sherpa readers who are proud parents, aunts or uncles of new college grads. They want to know, “How can my kid land a job?”

The good news: Even in this economic downturn, many companies are hiring junior marketers. The bad news: Most kids are woefully inept at marketing themselves properly to get these jobs.

Fact: When you’re new to an industry or job function, your resume is NOT going to help you much. Not even if it’s polished by a professional writer. Not even if it’s plastered on every job site on the Internet. Not even if it’s emailed out to the universe. Your resume doesn’t contain enough evidence or proof that you can do the job. It can’t – you’re new!

So, what do you do? It all comes down to networking. I’m not talking about an influential mom or dad making a call. That kind of hand-holding won’t help your child build job-seeking skills for the rest of his or her career. Instead, help your child stand on his or her own feet by suggesting these two tactics:

#1. Informational Interviews
Inspired by the perennial bestseller, ‘What Color is Your Parachute?’, I’ve personally used this tactic four times over my own career and, next week, my newly graduated son is launching his own career the same way.

Pick a particular niche you’d like to explore, such as marketing for a publisher in Washington DC. Then, write letters to people in that field asking for an informational interview. Be clear that you’re not asking for a job, you’d just like to hear what it’s like to be in their position because it’s your goal. Also, let them know you’re not asking for much time – just 15-30 minutes at a time of their convenience anytime in a particular week.

Key – the interview must happen in person so you can make that connection. Go armed with questions, including: “How did you start your own career in this?” and “What do you like and dislike most about this career?” Last: “Is there anyone else you’d recommend I meet with in this industry/area to learn more?”

In the end, you’ll have a much better idea if this is the right career for you; plus, you’ll have honed your in-person interview skills to help you land it. And, if a position does come up later at any of the organizations where you did an informational interview, your chances of landing it are 1000% better than anyone else’s in the stack of resumes.

How do you find the people to interview with? Try your college alumni center (the president of Google told me earlier this year he’s always happy to interview an alum), as well as LinkedIn (this is where your parents’ connections can help you) and, of course, the blogosphere (execs who blog are very likely to say yes to info interviews.)

#2. Targeted Temping
Again, pick a target city/area and industry. Then, contact HR departments of your target companies and ask them, “Which temp agency do you use?” Often, most of the companies will use the same couple of temp agencies. From there, it’s a quick day’s work to go down to each temp agency and sign up. Remember that typing tests, a suitable outfit, and office experience count.

Your goal is to get sent into one or more of your target companies in any position at all. It doesn’t matter if you’re at the front desk or back in the files. It doesn’t matter what department you’re in. Don’t be picky. You’re getting a golden chance to schmooze, networking within the company itself while you “work” there, if only for a few days.

Most executives would rather hire that bright young temp for a junior job than sift through the awful pile of resumes trying to figure out who the best one is. I know since that’s how I got my first job in marketing.
By the way, here’s a link to my past blog on how to break into the Internet marketing field specifically:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30191

Thanks for all of your questions before and after our teleseminar, ‘B-to-B Marketing: Top 10 Quick Fixes’, last week. More than 100 Sherpa readers wrote in, and I and our senior reporter Sean Donahue are preparing answers to post with our compliments on Sherpa by next week.

In the meantime, I wanted to address one particular query which came up a few times: “Where specifically did Sherpa get that B-to-B marketing data?”

Here’s the answer on a slide-by-slide basis, along with a hotlink to a PDF of the slides, so that you could review the charts again if you’d like. I understand that many of you may be sharing this data with your management team, and so this question is of high concern.

Slide #3. Internal Search Counts
This example is based on MarketingSherpa.com’s own internal reports of traffic using the search box on our site. We happen to power our search with technology from Visual Sciences, but this type of report is fairly basic and should be available no matter which search technology you use.

Slide #4. High-Quality Leads Generated by Events
Sherpa surveyed 1,038 B-to-B technology marketers in April 2007, asking them about the quality and quantity of leads they received from typical events in the past year. We’ve run this survey annually for five years, and the data on this point is highly similar every time. I feel safe in considering it fairly “evergreen.”

Slide #9. Drop Registration Barriers
These two funnels were created based on aggregated numbers rather than on one particular study or on a single marketer’s Case Study. We reviewed hundreds of Sherpa Case Studies, dozens of Sherpa B-to-B Summit presentations, and five years of extensive surveys of B-to-B marketers and their prospects. These numbers represent the trends evident across all this material. Your own campaigns naturally will have different numbers, but we’re fairly sure that the overall result will be the same: barriers significantly decrease audience.

Slide #11. Typical Lead Database Breakdown
I consider this pie chart to be one of the most critical ones in the presentation. It’s one I strongly suggest every B-to-B marketing department build using their own internal data. Your numbers will inevitably be different because everyone’s business is unique. However, based on Sherpa Case Studies and Sherpa B-to-B Summit Presentations, I’m absolutely sure that your pie will break into the same types of slices.

You’ll have some sales-ready leads – probably in the 5%-12% range if you’re anything like the hundreds of marketers I’ve spoken with. You’ll have a slightly larger group of mid-term leads – prospects who could be sales-ready with a few weeks or months of nurturing. Your largest group will probably be the long-term leads – prospects who have months or even years to go before they are sales-ready but who will either reach that point some day or become a key influencer to the sales-ready crowd. And last, you’ll have some duds – the number often depends on how many students and competitors are in your field.

The specific dollar values we put in this chart were based on assumptions of 10% of nurtured leads converting to being sales-ready, and 35% of sales-ready leads converting at an average $95,000 sale. Obviously, your numbers will vary widely. The important thing is that you know what your pie looks like, and you can assign your own numbers to it. Then, use that pie to convince management to let you spend more time and perhaps budget on nurturing activities!

Slide #13. Telemarketing Timing
These telemarketing results is data presented by MIT Professor Dr. James Oldroyd and Inside Sales’ Dave Ellington at Marketing Sherpa’s B-to-B Summit in October 2007. They detailed study data across lead-qualification telemarketing for hundreds of clients as well as Case Study data for Franklin Covey. Your own telemarketing data will vary; however, the trend will almost certainly hold true. The longer you wait to call an inbound lead, the less positive the result will be. And “too long” might be a matter of just a few hours.

The key to all these slides: You need to start measuring these factors for yourself. In fact, these measurements may be just as or more useful for your marketing programs than the sorts of measurements – email open rates and cost per lead, for instance – that dominate your current marketing reports.

I hope this was helpful and I look forward to answering the rest of your questions by next week! In the meantime, here’s a hotlink to the presentation PDF as well as a transcript from the actual event:

PowerPoint: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/tele/B2BHB08.pdf

Transcript: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30707

Want to keep your job during this recession? If you work for a sales-driven organization, hard work and great measurement may help… but what really matters is office politics.

If the sales department eagerly sticks up for marketing’s efforts and budget, then you are golden. How? You have to focus your marketing skills internally – convincing them that marketing rocks.

First, just as with any outward-facing marketing campaign, start with market research. Here’s my slightly-potted view of how to understand your now most important target market:

The biggest key to a sales rep’s heart is understanding that they are just like big Hollywood stars. They:
– measure their worth by size of paycheck
– adore public awards
– have big egos, but are deeply vulnerable underneath
– continually check their mobiles for messages and calls
– fear the good scripts/leads will be snaffled by someone else
– love eating at famous expensive restaurants
– distrust revenue-tracking mechanisms and are sure they’re owed more commission
– are scared it could all be over tomorrow (one quarter’s slump and their job is gone)
– think of everyone else as “the little people” (the marketing department)
– would like to direct

Once you realize sales are Hollywood Divas at heart, with all the unique talent, fragility, and difficulty that implies, it becomes easier to handle your relationship with them. Even when they drive you nuts, let’s face it, you could never do their job. (If you could, what are you waiting for? Sales will always make way more money than B-to-B marketers.)

To get their support, you must make them feel safe, cosseted, understood, and wholeheartedly supported. Don’t expect recognition. Sales will never fully understand how critical marketing is or how much talent and hard work it takes to do your job. You can, however, expect them to stick up for you in the manner a Hollywood star would if you are a trusted member of their entourage, such as the only hairdresser they’ll ever trust to touch their golden locks. Heck, some stars have even married their make-up artists, bodyguards, or accountants. (However, we all know who the star in the family is.)

The key is: In B-to-B, sales and marketing will never play as one intramural team; there’ll never be equal recognition for all players. The varsity team already exists, and sales is it. As a marketer, you can be a cheerleader, a water boy, a groundskeeper, a ticket taker….You don’t get to play — you get to support.

Make sales love you, and they will stick up for you when you need it – most of the time, anyway. If your other visible allies include people they fear (their boss), you’re on an even safer ground.

Note: If you’d like loads of specific ways to make your sales department adore marketing, check out MarketingSherpa’s new B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook. It includes ways to get sales’ help on lead scoring, market research and lead feedback. Plus, you’ll also get examples of the most useful marcom and sales support materials you can create to help sales close deals more easily.
Go here to get your copy:
http://www.sherpastore.com/b2bleadgenhdbk08.html

Should you file copyright for your online videos, webinar presentations, email newsletter articles, blogs, SEO-ed Web pages, podcasts, white papers … and the rest of the “content” your marketing department produces? Yes and no.

First of all, make sure all your templates (e.g., PowerPoint slides, landing pages, brochures, images, and podcasts) include a formal copyright line. Do this routinely at least once a year. It’s disgustingly easy for the line to get outdated over the years, or to be eliminated during a revision or another format “upgrade.”

The copyright line can be as little as “© 2008, Company name Inc.” Double-check to make sure the copyright line is as impervious as possible being cut off. If someone copies a great data chart, a short video, or a photograph from your marketing materials, will the copyright line show up there too? Or can it be cut off easily? I make sure copyrights are included inside borders of charts and images for that reason whenever possible.

These measures should deter or, at least, help battle situations when competitors, fraudsters, phishers, jokers making derivative material, and even unwitting consumers break copyright in ways that could hurt your brand. It helps you because you can say legitimately, “That material is copyright-protected and we’d appreciate if you didn’t copy it in this particular manner or situation.” A simple cease-and-desist letter can work wonders.

However, if your content is critical to your bottom line, then, you might consider taking the next step and officially registering a copyright with the US Copyright Office (link below.) What’s critical? You sell it as your product, it’s heavily search-engine optimized and look-alike pages could hurt your rankings or, perhaps, it’s the foundation of your brand differentiation vis-à-vis competitors (especially if you market substantially online).

The disadvantage is that it costs $35-$75 per filing, and you have to register each “publication” separately. There’s also a bit of administration work involved. The good news, however, is that you can register copyrights online. Also, once you’ve registered, your lawyers have a much easier time going after troublemakers and seeking damages.

I’m not a lawyer, so you should ask your legal team about copyright. In the meantime, here are some useful links:

US Copyright Office
http://www.copyright.gov/

Past Sherpa articles on copyright:

Blog Copyright Theft on the Rise Part II: Readers’ Advice & 5 Useful Hotlinks:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=27228&pop=no

Interview: How to Stop Plagiarists From Taking & Using Your Valuable Content as Their Own:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30030&pop=no

Legal Spotlight: Copyright & Trademark Primer – 6 Tips to Protect Your Assets
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30102&pop=no