So I may have killed you with content on this multi-part post by now and I am sure there are some things I glossed over that need further detail and explanation.  Topics for another day…

Here's the final two entries below the full list linked to previous posts as appropriate:

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

13. Analysts

• There are two types of analysts – the large firms (Gartner, Forrester, etc.) and all the rest.
• The large firms need to be approached and managed much like your prospects with a nurture program of their own – keep them updated on product releases, customer wins, etc and put regular briefings on the calendar.
  
• The others are small firms or individuals that cover your space. 
  
• Build these relationships, spend some dough on them to write a whitepaper or the like (that you can then use in a campaign per above), and collaborate with them on the challenges you face and ask for their perspective.  They are great sources of expertise and candid feedback. 
  
• These are the same ones that will take a reference call, provide a quote, or make an introduction without the hoops required at the larger firms.
• Analysts are not lead sources in and of themselves, but the large firms are often asked about vendor choices and your prospects will most certainly ask you for the latest analyst research on you.
  

14.  Print advertising

• This is last on my list because it:

Apologies for being silent for a few days but wanted to continue this series of posts about lead and demand generation for enterprise products.  Below are numbers 10-12 and here is the complete list linked as appropriate:

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

10.  Events

• In many cases, I think event companies are the only ones that make money in the technology business.  That said, if you get really specialized in terms of vertical industry or user target they can be worthwhile.  Avoid horizontal or technology shows where there are no prospects.  Submit someone as a speaker or panel member for those (and highlight some of those survey results).
• Look at where your competitors go (should be listed on their sites) and where your target distribution partners go (on their sites as well) 
• Focus on professional associations or narrow targets if you are inclined to go and exhibit.  Even then, you will not get much lead activity other than contact info to drop into your nurture program.
• If you have a customer that is game, submit a case study for them – most events don't want vendors on stage that have not paid to sponsor.  Makes the high dollar sponsors grumpy. 
• If you find a good one, get the list of attendees beforehand (if possible) or afterwards and add them to your nurture program. 
• If you can swing it, work that list and set up meetings (or even agreements to spend 10min) in advance.  You can also secure a hotel suite in the same location as the event to serve as demo room/escape from the crowd.
• You'll also get a bit of market intelligence, but a booth and sponsorship is a lot to pay for something you could have gotten with a ticket.
• Also focus on local/city specific interest groups or focused professional gatherings.  You can sponsor a meal and submit to present on the problem you solve.  Remember to be on a topic, not on your product/service as they want to learn something new, not hear a sales pitch.

11.  Market awareness – self-generated

• This is about identifying those that write about your space and competitors including analysts, journalists, and bloggers and doing direct outreach to them about what you are doing (or your survey results).  They tire of being pitched by PR firms so direct outreach from an exec at the company is a nice touch.  Do a Google blog search on your company, your competitors, or terms about your space and you will quickly assemble a list of targets.
• Consider a blog.  Yes, it is work but allows you to generate dynamic content and have a platform for information sharing.  You can have a company one with multiple contributors just make sure you have an editorial control in place to review what is written before it is published.  Check out Typepad (this is the service I use) or WordPress.  Nothing wrong with free blog options but if you're serious, you can come up with 5 bucks a month.
  
• If you blog, you will be linked to by others.  Linking drives traffic and allows people to find you.
• Even if you don't blog, comment on the posts that others make.  Even established publications are getting the fact they should open comments on stories.  Do not shamelessly pitch your company, but do have something meaningful to say and identify where you are from.  If someone writes about you, thank them.  If they write about a competitor, add something to the story not a compare/contrast. 
• Look into things like putting a demo up on Youtube.  Record a presentation or demo with a product like Camtasia and upload it.  It can then be linked to, shared, or tagged a will.  Plus it shows up on search results.
• Do podcasts.  All you need is a reasonable microphone and freeware like Audacity.  Post them on your website.  Things like this (and video) will get more clicks because they are more consumable than documents.  But, remember to be brief and succinct in your message.  Shoot for 2-4 minutes and if you have more content break it into 'chapters.'
  
• To track all this either use an RSS reader (like Google Reader) or just set up a handful of Google Alerts that will email you when your company, a competitor, or a particular word or phrase is used pretty much anywhere on the web. 
  
• If you are ready to go advanced, check out Twitter and what micro-blogging is all about.
• I am not hugely convinced that search engine optimization (SEO) is in itself a path to lead gen/market awareness.  I believe that dynamic content generated by blogging is more relevant and interesting.
• Make sure your site and blog are being indexed and incorporate SEO best practices in your copy but don’t waste huge dollars on it.

12.  Market awareness – PR

• Finding a good PR firm and justifying the dollars you will spend is a tough road.  After many years and both national and small firms, I found one I really like and have mentioned them before – VisitechPR out of Denver.  Small shop, tech focused, and understand their role – get you coverage.  Spending big bucks to get a junior level staff member to represent you is a waste of dough.
• These folks can serve as your force multiplier to get the word out but they have to be armed with something to say – customer case studies, survey results (picking up a theme here?), unique perspective, etc.
• Getting coverage is like getting sales.  Both take a lot of activity to generate a few results.  Consider building a coverage pipeline as important as a sales pipeline as it creates the reinforcement and validation you need to drive sales wins.

Here's the third post on my thoughts around lead and demand generation for early stage companies.  Below are points #7, #8, and #9 and here is the total list linked back where appropriate.

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

7.  On-line advertising

• Google Adwords is pretty simple to set up but I'm not sure of the ROI here for enterprise products.  It drives some web traffic & clicks but conversion measuring is tough. 
• It is important to watch your budget as clicks can add up quickly especially as you bid higher and higher on specific keywords to game your placement (I shoot for top 4 or 5)
• It is also a good way to test marketing messaging as ads that get more clicks have more compelling messaging. 
• Other ad platforms: I ran pilots on both LinkedIn and Facebook.  They were pretty cheap to do but not sure how effective for enterprise products.  Facebook really struggled to hit my meager $5 per day budget.  For both I was using links to existing assets (Gartner webcast, whitepaper, and even my blog).
• Banner ads via the publishers previously mentioned:  I'm not sure how effective these are and my experience is that they get thrown into a proposal as gravy (X thousands of banner impressions).

8.  Email newsletter nurture programs

• For all of the above, you will get at least an email address.  Make sure you capture them all and drop them all into nurture program. 
• This can be very complex or way simple.  Use something like Vertical Response  or Constant Contact to manage lists, send emails, manage unsubscribes, and not be a spammer.  I even got a cool one the other day from a company called Emma.  The cost is not high to send to lists of thousands.
  
• The content of these is important as is the timing.  I shoot for every 6-8 weeks but this depends on what I have to share.  Generally I package up press releases, media mentions, and the like. 
• Place a summary in the mail and hyperlink back to your site.  Also, take the opportunity to highlight key technical differentiators, customer quotes, etc. to contribute content.
• The key is to make these meaningful and content rich.  Do not indiscriminately spam your database with each new idea or pitch as this will make people very grumpy.
• Remember, this is an indirect sales pitch platform.  You will know you are on to something when people send you new email addresses to keep receiving it when they switch jobs.

9.  Direct mail

• I’m not a huge fan of this but it can be effective.  Target this to your same nurture list but it assumes you have a physical mailing address. 
• Postcards are cheap but can get lost. 
• A letter with an insert (that falls out when opened) is pretty effective.  The insert should highlight something you can download or other call to action (discounted pricing, special deal, etc.)

Continuing my previous post on lead & demand generation for early stage companies, below are #4, #5, & #6. 

I also wanted to share that  I received a nice email from Jim Fowler, CEO of Jigsaw, about my first post thanking me for the mention.  Very cool on his part and a great example of proactive marketing.  I'll cover blog commenting and follow-up as part of #11 below.

Here's a recap of the entire list:

   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

4.  Tele-prospecting/tele-surveys

• This is a softer outreach approach not solely intended to drive to a meeting (although that can happen); mostly you will get information about your targets and possibly stumble across an active project
• There are many different vendors that can provide this service and they generally price on a per company/number of contacts defined per company model.
  
• I am a fan of defining a set of target companies and canvassing them with a 'survey' – questions that help you qualify them as a candidate for your product/service as well as provide you a bit of market research that you can a) use to sharpen and focus your sales efforts and b) package into marketing collateral for a sales tool and PR efforts (survey results)

5.  Guaranteed lead generation programs

• These programs are when you take something (a whitepaper, a webcast, survey results (per above), or the like) and push it out through a publisher (Ziff Davis, IDG, etc.) who then drives traffic to your stuff.  All horizontal and vertical publications should offer some type of option here. 
  
• Generally you will get a guaranteed lead count based on some qualification criteria.  You can probably also ask qualifying questions that you can fashion into "survey results" as well.
• Understand that the qualifying questions are generally not going to identify which leads are best as most people select whatever to get to the download they are seeking.
  
• Also bear in mind that these are warm contacts who have raised their hands about being interested in something about what you do, not you specifically.  It is important to properly manage internal expectations on how strong these 'leads' are.

6.  Sponsored email blasts

• These are generally available through the same publishers as above but these allow you to sponsor or promote on some type of daily, weekly, quarterly email to their subscriber base.  Have some type of marketing asset (whitepaper, case study, survey results, etc.) to promote/hyperlink to that lead to a landing page to capture contact information.
• These are pretty easy to do but offer varying degrees of success.  Again, expectations are important as a list of 40k recipients may generate only a handful of clicks and even fewer downloads.

I connected with a good friend a couple weeks ago who asked me for my thoughts on enterprise lead and demand generation for early stage companies.  I am way overdue in getting back to him and over the weekend ended up pulling together a pretty lengthy write up on the topic.  In addition to finally getting back to him, I thought I would share it here over a few posts starting with #1, #2, and #3 below.

I am a firm believer in building a layered approach to lead and demand generation where simultaneous programs are running over time to build awareness and generate interest.  Obviously, your results will be better if you have achieved product/market fit and know who you are targeting.  If you are still figuring this out, you can use these efforts to include/exclude targets and learn along the way.  Just make sure to watch your budget and ensure there is institutional patience to go through the process.

For this exercise, I came up with fourteen areas that can be used ranked based on degree of "touch" and, in many cases, dollars required:

   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

1. Brokered introductions

• The elusive warm introduction that gets you to the decision maker who has the budget and is open to doing business with someone they have never heard of.  It does happen…but rarely.
• These types of relationships are important if you are looking for your first deals.
• Some VC firms can broker these discussions based on their relationships or find you the person who use to be the SVP of something important at BigCo who knows the CEO at BigCo.  Be prepared to pay 10% of the deal value if something closes.
• You may also be able to find folks that are willing to walk you into opportunities for a cut as well.  These may be independent sales reps, retired/out of work major account managers, etc.  Be prepared to be disappointed so don't pay a retainer, pay a commission.
• There are firms that provide services like this as well.  Their models vary but generally include some type of retainer plus commission percentage
• Searching on "sales acceleration" or the like will turn up some options
• Also take a look at companies like Landmark Ventures, Insight Ventures, or the Roundtable Network which is security focused

2.  Partner marketing

• Bar none, partner leads are the most qualified you can get.  If you don’t have partners, get some
• Keep in mind partnering is time and resource consuming.  It can also be perilous so don't put all your eggs in one basket
  
• A referral selling agreement is a must have in the legal docs arsenal.  It should be short and sweet that allows both parties to get paid if they refer business to each other.  Either a fixed dollar amount per deal or something like 8-10%.  Maybe has a co-marketing or press release agreement as well.
• Companies that you combine with to offer a whole solution will be more amenable to referral agreements and I believe they are the first step to securing reseller/OEM type deals because it allows both parties to formally work together and test the market.
• Reseller/OEM relationships are more complex w/ VARs and resellers wanting 20-40% depending on how far they carry the deal.

3. Direct outreach & appointment setting

• This can be done with a dedicated inside sales person or contracted consultant.  Consider compensation tied to meetings secured, those that convert to forecasted deal, and/or those that convert to close
• This can also be done with a 3rd party although I have never seen this work well.  It will, however, rapidly generate sales pipeline activity.  They generally get the right people to the phone but rarely qualify them as interested buyers. 
  
• Lean on your own sales team to prospect and set appointments themselves.  A territory/major account plan can help with this.  Hoover's is the standby contact manager but check out Jigsaw for more meaningful/relevant contacts. 

I read this post from Seth Godin last week and it has continued to be on the mind since.  It is framed around how frequently you should publish be it personal (ie blog) or professional (ie company news/updates).  The notion of a "frontlist" and a "backlist" relates to the type of content that is created and where that content resides.

If you embrace the Long Tail concept, this will make sense.  If not, then here is my attempt at simplification.  The frontlist is what, traditionally, the target of PR efforts has been focused on – the front page of the WSJ, a CNN interview, etc.  The backlist is the rest of the discussion generally fed and guided by the frontlist but is a place where the conversation takes place about you – self-generated or otherwise.

I know I have touched on this before in previous posts but it is on my mind a bit so thought I would share.  Building and launching a new product or service is an exhilarating task – I have come to realize I really like figuring it all out.  I also learned a long time ago that building what you think the market wants is perilous without embracing those you will target as buyers early and often.  Opinions are like, well, you know. 

This task is even more complicated when you are building for a new or emerging market or even trying to stimulate growth through a new product or service offering.  What is best for you and your company does not always align with market realities.

I have learned to take a methodical and measured approach to all this using live fire exercises and true market feedback to guide product direction vs. arbitrary gut feelings or suspect 3rd party "research."  Don't get me wrong, these things provide good input and can paint a good macro trend picture but they are not a replacement for legitimate target end-user feedback.  This approach requires patience and maturity in your organization but the costs of being wrong far outweigh the perceived costs of this approach especially if you can quickly and efficiently create and test assumptions – a critical piece of the equation in an early stage company.  If both what market and product capabilities are in flux, this becomes even more complex as you have just doubled the fun.

Tossing the responsibility for the product roadmap and plan over the functional wall to "marketing" really misses the point because in an early stage company this is the roll up of everyone's collective expertise as well as true customer requirements.  Marketing owns the document but the leadership owns the content.

Sales and business development should get an earful every time they pitch or demo.  If they are not, you have bigger problems.  Also, the coolest things to build are not always the most important to your chosen market.  Remember this as engineers lose interest when building mundane but critical capabilities.

You will know when you hit on something because the market begins to give you an earful about all the things you need in addition to what you are showing them.  This is a sign that you are on the cusp of product/market fit and the ride gets even more exciting from here.

This thread appeared recently on the Seattle Tech Startups (STS) and occurred around the same time as this approach by Jason Calacanis began to get some coverage.  While I think Jason's approach is creative and agree with some of it, there are still some hard truths about building market awareness.  PR firms are only as good as the material, market, and people they work with.  That said, I have had too many poor experiences with bad PR firms including both local boutique shops as well as national/global players.  Local players can be clueless about the national or international stage and big players will sell with seniority and then staff you with a freshly minted college grad as your day-to-day contact. 

If you expect your business to soar by blindly hiring a PR firm, you will be disappointed.

Here's my response to the thread about company launches on STS:

Identify the issues that are core to the problem you are solving and own them. Add something to the discussion about the problem you are solving and back it up with your expertise, customer value realized or even survey results.  Stats will get you coverage.  Also, building a coverage pipeline is like building a sales pipeline.  Lots of activity to get the results you desire.

PR can have a good ROI if the firm you work with gets it and makes themselves accountable to hard metrics.  Your job is to give them something to work with and view building market awareness in the broader context of growing a company.  If you are in the market, I strongly recommend VisitechPR out of Denver. I have worked with them in my last two companies and can't say enough great things about them.

In this day and age, there are no shortage of Powerpoint presentations to explain who you are, what you do, and why the audience should care.  Beyond the societal implications of releasing so much graphical presentation power to the masses, most customer facing presentations lose there way somewhere between “About Us” and “Questions?”

I continue to sing the praises of Blank’s Four Steps to the Epiphany because it nails so much of the reality of building, launching, and selling pretty much any product.  He covers the customer “problem” presentation and suggests the following simple to say but a bit more complicated to create three column approach:

1. List of problems
2. Today’s solution
3. Your company’s solution

Pretty straightforward but gets at the essence of what you are trying to do.  Odds are if something is a big enough pain, something has already been purchased or is being done to alleviate that pain.  You need to understand this and be able to explain how your product or service addresses the pain and is better than the current approach.

Having now done a fair amount of board meetings as the executive in charge of the marketing and product management functions at a couple companies, I’ve settled into an approach that seems to work.

First and foremost, provide your operational update through the lens of the sales pipeline.  Ultimately, this is what the investors care most about.  Is there one?  Is it growing?  Do people care about what we are saying?  Do they want to buy it? Do they have a pain? Can we solve it?  Are we winning, losing, or not even in the game?

All of the other aspects of marketing should influence, align, or support this effort.  I spend most of my time covering not just how we generate leads/demand but what we are seeing in terms of conversion to sales pursuit and deal.  It is essential to have these details at the program level and makes it easier to cost justify the marketing dollars being spent.

On the product front, an 18 month product roadmap that is informed by and aligned with clear market needs and requirements is essential.  You won’t cover this every time but it is important to reinforce that development is being driven by the market and business strategy.

I prepare my obligatory slides but always spend extra time writing up a Board summary that I use for my talking points.  This helps sort my thoughts in advance and forces me to a “just the facts” report keeping with the “less is more” approach.  It also provides a nice way to document activities and progress over time.

I circulate my slides to sales and business development even before we gather as an executive team.  This ensures an integrated report where all the numbers, measures, and themes match.  I also distribute this report or highlights to my team afterwards so that they can see how our efforts are rolled up and reported.