When I left management consulting and joined my first start up, one of the most memorable experiences was the launch of that company and the associated effort that went into preparing the "press release." 

It was ridiculous – wordsmithing, a dozen iterations, everyone with an opinion but only a few with a clue, concern and finger pointing because no one picked it up when it was released, etc.

I thought it a function of the time and people involved but as I have progressed through the product ranks to lead Marketing departments, I see it play out all the time…and, quite frankly, I have become less and less tolerant of it.

Why it happens?

• Marketing messaging not tight or agreed to – if you haven't agreed to what words to use and not use, this is not the time for it.
• Everyone fancies themselves an editor but not a writer – lots of opinions and not everyone is entitled to one. 
• Lack of understanding of the process and/or role of a press release in a broader marketing effort – it is important, but not that important.
• A bad PR firm – if they are not process driven, you are hosed.
• General arrogance – if you or your exec team believe you know better, be prepared to be disappointed.

The standard formula is to have something worthy of saying, put a pithy quote in from an executive, and a third party like an analyst or, more importantly, a customer.  Here are a few types of press releases and my opinion on each:

• Company launch – no one cares externally but an important symbolic step in the lifecycle of a company.  Better with a customer reference.
• Product announcement – no one cares unless a customer is quoted about using it but also an important symbolic step for those on the dev team that killed themselves to get it done.
• Partnership announcement – no one really cares unless it is significant meaning a reseller/OEM type relationship.  Marketing relationships add logos but if you have a story about who you are doing this for together (a customer) it is huge.
• Customer announcement – these are, hands down, the best ones you can do
• Research/survey announcement – good for establishing thought leadership and reinforcing your expertise in the market.  Also provide great content for your PR firm to pitch stories around.
• Executive/board appointment – no one cares unless it is a new CEO and then make sure it is a good reason there is a new one.
• Funding announcement – no one really cares but if it is a new company it is a stamp of credibility.  If the company has been around a while it lets people figure out your valuation and hurdle for exit.
• Business results announcement – no one really cares unless you are shopping yourself as private companies don't report results.  Will get your competitors' attention which can be both good and bad.
• Awards/certifications – important as they demonstrate 3rd party validation and credibility
• Analyst coverage – very important if it is magic quadrant or wave placement, unfortunately

Remember, your press release matters more to you than anyone else and it's what you do with it once it is out there that matters.  Articles, interviews, mentions, re-posting, etc. are what you are looking for and the longer the tail the better. 

Also, there still is a role for a press release in a world full of blogs.  Issue the release and use the blog to drive the conversation about it.

Going to market through someone else can be both very lucrative and very complex at the same time.  As you are shifting responsibility for your market success to a 3rd party, marketing must focus on enabling the partner to sell the solution which includes both educating the partner sales force as well as conditioning the market to receive the offering through market awareness efforts.

I believe channel marketing requires a "services orientation" and has a heavy emphasis on enabling a partner, their partners, and the respective sales teams.  Here are some considerations:

Marketing Programs Guiding Principles

• Easy to execute
• Focus on differentiation
• Make repeatable across partners
• Drive awareness, create leads, yield revenue

Focus on delivery and executing

• Use a standard Bill of Materials (BOM) for channel sales enablement that is email distributed, a physical versioned CD, and/or web hosted (partner internal and company partner portal)

Marketing Services

• Telemarketing/prospecting
• Web presence
• Newsletter & nurture programs
• On-line/print promotion
• Case studies
• Research & thought leadership

Marketing Training/Education

• Workshop (partner site)
• Webcast (virtual)
• Certification program

Marketing Communications

• Monthly/Qtrly Channel newsletter (partner specific) which includes news, upcoming events, promotions, case studies, product updates to their sales, mkting, ops, support, client services – anyone on the contact list for that partner
• A web-based partner portal that includes sales tools, marketing collateral, partner handbook

This calculation is not "the market is forecasted to be $x million/billion and 1-10% of that is $x million/billion" nor does it have to be
an overly precise calculation initially.

It is one that requires more emphasis on how you calculate it vs. the end result as you evaluate a market opportunity.  If you apply some rigor,
you will have a better overall indicator of the size of the market and how to reach it.  In a way, it reminds me of the case questions from
consulting interviews where you were asked questions like "calculate the number of plumbers in the US."

The answer is not so much the point
as much as how you calculate your answer isolating out known inputs and assumptions.
Your addressable market analysis can be the first step in segmenting and understanding your market with your level of analysis influencing your marketing messaging, your sales approach (direct/indirect), and what the whole solution looks like from your target
market's perspective.

Let's say I want to try to size the total addressable market for CRM-based SaaS integration:

• Input:    Subscription CRM revenue is $1.4B in 2008, $1.9B in 2009, and $2.3B in 2010 (according to the folks at Forrester Research)
• Assumption:    "Subscription CRM revenue" = SaaS delivery models
• Assumption:    Average CRM customer deal size = $50k per year
• Calculated:    Today there are 28,000 subscription-based CRM customers
• Calculated:    That grows to 46,000 by 2010
• Input:    75% of SaaS will require at least 5 integrations to existing systems by 2010 (according to Gartner Group)
• Calculated:    SaaS CRM customers in need of significant integration by 2010 = 34,500
• Assumption:    Percent of SaaS CRM customers seeking to purchase a solution to this problem = 50%
• Assumption:    Average customer pays $10,000 to solve SaaS integration need

Addressable global market in 2010:  17,250 companies X $10,000 = $172.5MM

This is the revenue available to the companies competing for it in 2010 – both products and consulting services.  Your company will
get some portion of this amount.

Could the assumptions be wrong?  Yes.  Can you use this basic model to run various scenarios?  Yes.  Should you refine and improve the
accuracy of calculations like this as you enter and gain experience in a market?  Absolutely.

Designing, building, and launching a new product or service is both complex and exhilarating.  I believe one of the keys to doing this successfully is to write a narrative about how your target user uses your product/service in the context of a day in their life.  I can't claim credit for this approach as I learned it from the guy who gave me my first shot as a product manager (thanks again Jim). 

This sounds easier than it is but thinking through what your target does before, during, and after using your product/service forces essential features to the forefront, surfaces substitutes, flushes out bad assumptions, and adds a persona to your internal engineering and marketing meetings.  Instead of "the user does this or that" you discuss how "Jim does this or that."  This also further crystallizes thinking on target markets and go-to-market approaches.

If you can't tell the product/service story through the eyes of a target persona, you're not as focused as you need to be.  Start with what they do first thing in the morning and describe everything they do in a given day until they go to bed working your product/service into the story.  Give it a try.  I promise it will be a revealing exercise.

This came up twice last week and is consistent with a realization I came to some time ago regarding search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM).  No, I'm not hating on these disciplines or the service providers that deliver them.  I am, however, trying to shine some light on what to expect from them and how to use them to your advantage.

I heard (roughly) the title of this post twice last week – once from Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez and again in the Dharmesh Shah video and notes posted Saturday (BTW, very cool of Dharmesh to thank me for the post in a comment – he gets it). Phil used a phrase I really like during his panel – "being smart in the market."

Being "rank worthy" is not about picking the right words and bid price to make sure you are in one of the top four ads served or trying to use words in your web site content that will get you search hits.  It is about being smart, relevant, and compelling in what you project to the market. 

Static content is out of date the minute it is posted.  Dynamic content like blogs and even micro-blogging services like Twitter allow those that are looking for products or services like yours to find them without an ad and on their terms.  The bar is higher, but buyers have access to more information than ever before and if you aren't part of the resources they tap during the information gathering process you will be left out in the cold.

This series of posts has proven popular so thought I would re-post the complete list with hyperlinks.  Enjoy.

1. Brokered introductions
2. Partner marketing
3. Direct outreach & appointment setting
4. Tele-prospecting/tele-surveys
5. Guaranteed lead generation programs
6. Sponsored email blasts
7. On-line advertising
8. Email newsletter nurture programs
9. Direct mail
10. Events
11. Market awareness – self generated
12. Market awareness – through a PR firm
13. Analysts
14. Print advertising

Keep this in mind – it is always easier to go from a simple product to a more complex one than the other way around. 

A classic 'shoot your dreams' down critique of start up pitches is that something is a feature vs. a product.  Newsflash – all products start as features.  How you grow them, make them valuable to your customers, and position them within a broader ecosystem of other products is what makes a company scale and a product roadmap shine. 

Start simple.  If you are trying to take something complex and "dumb it down" make sure you have both the support and tolerance of investors as well as other members of the team as it is a tough road.

And the fine folks at the Harvard Business Review agree with me.  John Quelch puts forth a great article talking about the marketing aspects of this most recent Presidential election going so far as to call it a case study in "marketing excellence."  Quelch lays out eight ways Obama and his campaign nailed it but the final sentence of the article caught my attention:

One of my main concerns about all of this (as a US citizen, not a partisan) deals with the reality that the best packaging, positioning, messaging, and branding might not always generate the best leader for the United States.  And, all this costs money…and lots of it.  According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the spend for the 2008 federal contests will top $5billion when it is all said and done.  That's billion with a 'B' and five of them with the Presidential contest being about half of that.  Wow.

This is a good article via destinationCRM about a recent report from Laura Ramos of Forrester Research on the role of social media and the like in B2B marketing entitled  "Making Social Media Work in B2B Marketing." 

I think it's a good write up and consistent with some of the things I have experienced as I have tried some of the new tools and techniques available.  Of the many good nuggets, I think this one is very telling both in terms of the challenge and stage of maturity of these tools: