Posts Tagged ‘Lead Generation’

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PRWeb (aka Vocus Small Biz): Nice when something over-delivers.

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

London, Ink isn’t a PR firm but in order to help clients prioritize marketing/comm initiatives it’s a necessity to be familiar with a wide range of marketing tools, services, agencies, etc.   I’m also always looking for creative ways to promote London, Ink in cost-effective, targeted ways.

For those reasons, last year I started using the Vocus Small Business Edition (aka SBE–a version of PRWeb), an online pr management tool that is a scaled down version of Vocus’ widely-used flagship platform.  My hypothesis was that, without much investment in time or money, sending out a series of releases on London, Ink news (client announcements, speaking engagements, new hires) would increase the number of quality mentions of “London, Ink” across the web and of course quality (in the eyes of Google’s algorithm) inbound links to my site.

(A side note: I don’t rely on SEO for inbound lead gen, but ever since Discovery launched the hit tattoo/reality program called “London Ink,” my links have been pushed way down.)

Each release took a few minutes to queue up–Vocus allowed me to target by geography, topic of the release, type of reporter and name of media outlet. I was also able to incorporate a video interview I participated in with Shashi Bellamkonda, Network Solutions’ Social Swami.  I was able to easily link the releases to my various online channels, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and, of course, my site.

My hypothesis turned out to be correct.  After my second Vocus release, the search engine rankings for London, Ink improved and they continued to do so as I sent out more releases.

Now for the over-deliver part.  As I mentioned, London, Ink doesn’t typically provide PR services, but I did support a significant announcement by one of my client’s by doing some basic outreach to my media contacts and distributing the release via my Vocus SBE account.

My expectation was that the media contacts I selected may or may not actually receive the release; may or may not see it among the blizzard of releases they get each day; and/or won’t respond to it. I’m pleased to report that the client received several great media inquiries, including one from the major daily paper in their market and another from a key vertical news outlet. Both of these inquiries resulted in excellent print coverage, which the client of course loved.

So for resource-strapped organizations that need a cost-effective news distribution platform, check out Vocus SBE.

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Posted in Agencies, Online Marketing, PR, Virtual VP of Marketing | 1 Comment »

Veteran marketer and entrepreneur Chris Jacobs joins London, Ink consulting team

Friday, September 25th, 2009


Veteran marketer and entrepreneur Chris Jacobs joins London, Ink consulting team

 

Potomac, MD – September, 2009, London, Ink, a marketing and communications consulting and services firm headquartered outside of Washington, DC, announced the addition of Christina Jacobs to its team of marketing consultants and project managers to meet the demands of the company’s growing client base.

Jacobs, whose background includes marketing management posts at Chris Jacobs joins London, Ink as marketing consultantNextel, MCI and CoStar Group and AMS, is also co-founder of Girls in the Know, the popular and fast-growing online service that provides subscribers with exclusive offers from premier spas, salons, restaurants, designers and events.

“Chris has been a great addition to the London, Ink team,” said London, Ink founder and President Bob London.  “Not many people combine such deep practical marketing experience and expertise with an entrepreneur’s sense of innovation and resourcefulness.”

Jacobs provides on-demand marketing consulting, project management and implementation for a range of London, Ink clients—which supports the company’s lean, on-demand business model and enables clients to receive top-notch, cost-effective marketing support.

“Working with London, Ink gives me a combination of an interesting and engaging work experience with a high degree of flexibility, schedule-wise,” said Jacobs.  “It’s clear that the on-demand model works for clients as well to help them focus their budgets on the right priorities.”

“London, Ink is already known for pioneering the ‘Virtual VP of Marketing’ concept which provides experienced project-based resources on-demand for organizations that need an injection of strategic marketing horsepower,” continued Bob London.  “Having more consultants like Chris means that London, Ink can serve a broader range of client needs with various levels, areas of specialization and price points.”

About London, Ink

 

London, Ink (http://www.londonink.com) is a marketing and communications consulting firm that helps early-stage and established organizations define and prioritize their products, services and marketing initiatives based on what the market needs–or doesn’t need.

 

In pioneering the Virtual VP of Marketing concept, London, Ink president and founder Bob London works with companies who aren’t ready for the cost and commitment of a full-time marketing executive to assess their market opportunity, determine the strategic options and develop a practical go-to-market plan, including market awareness, customer acquisition and retention, prospect “nurture” campaigns and targeted education programs.

 

Bob London has successfully managed marketing initiatives with annual budgets ranging from the $150 million network television launch of MCI Friends & Family (back when network tv really meant something) to under $25,000.  His work and writing has been profiled or covered by the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Miami Herald, USA Today and Marketing News (the AMA’s flagship magazine).  Bob recently spoke at the nationwide Unintentional Entrepreneur series.

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Posted in Agencies, CEOs of Growth-Stage Companies, London, Ink News, New (aka Social) Media, Resources, Virtual VP of Marketing | No Comments »

Great article by WashPost’s Kim Hart: “Firms Take to The Tweetable Business Model”

Monday, March 9th, 2009

 Good “mainstream” insight into using Twitter for business purposes. For about two years people were saying “I don’t get it,” or “seems like a waste of time.” Now the enterprising organizations are starting to figure it out.

Also, as someone who helps companies find the return on investment of social networking for marketing, I have a lot of respect for what Shashi Bellamkonda is doing for NetSol and the business community at large.

Bob London
President
London, Ink
www.londonink.com

Firms Take to The Tweetable Business Model

 

By Kim Hart

Monday, March 9, 2009; Page D01 The Twitterverse is expanding.

Twitter, that microblogging tool that caught on with teens and twentysomethings using it to tell loyal followers what they’re doing at any given time — in 140 characters or less — is now becoming part of the business strategy for a wide range of brands, from Skittles to Fairfax County.

Read full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/08/AR2009030801531.html

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London, Ink Sponsoring ‘Government 2.0 Camp’

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

London, Ink is proud to sponsor an exciting event on March 27 – 28: Government 2.0 Camp (http://gov20camp.eventbrite.com/).  Here’s a brief description of the event and the “camp” concept:

What is Government 2.0 Camp?

Government 2.0 Camp is the unconference about using social technologies (aka web 2.0/social media tools) to create a more effective, efficient and collaborative U.S. government on all levels (local, state and federal).

Government 2.0 Camp will bring together the leading thinkers from government, academia and industry to share Government 2.0 initiatives that are already in process and collaborate about Government 2.0 ideas that are currently just visions.

There is also a wiki for the event where attendees and other can discuss topics and other themes: http://www.barcamp.org/Government20Camp

Why is London, Ink sponsoring this event?

  1. I’m very dissatisfied–to the point of taking action–with the lack of efficiency and abundance of waste in government and am a big believer that new Web technologies, Web 2.0 applications and social media/networking applications can help.  Trimming the Federal budget by a quarter of one percent over the next five years could pay for a lot of fixes (long-term) to our educational system or seed the nascent but promising field of alternative energy.
  2. I fully support transparency in government, particularly government spending–it’s our money after all–and again believe that Web 2.0 technologies and social media/networking apps can enable this.
  3. I believe the Gov 2.0 arena will yield good business opportunities for London, Ink, long-term.
  4. Sounds like a great event!  (I like the participatory BarCamp approach.)

Hope to see you there.

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Posted in CEOs of Growth-Stage Companies, CMOs, Facebook, General, LinkedIn, London, Ink News, New (aka Social) Media, Online Marketing, Resources | No Comments »

London, Ink announces major “green” initiative: changes logo color.

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

For Immediate Release

FEBRUARY 7, 2009–POTOMAC, MD  London, Ink, a full-service marketing and communications consulting firm based outside of Washington, DC, announced today a major initiative intended to demonstrate its commitment to ‘green’ practices that are highly visible and high impact.  Effective immediately, the letter “k” at the end of the London, Ink logo will change to a compelling shade of green from the original basic black.

“London, Ink didn’t just want to jump on the green bandwagon and announce another green initiative,” said London, Ink president Bob London, who is also known as the DC region’s Virtual VP of Marketing for providing marketing expertise on demand.  “Changing the letter ‘k’ in our logo to green represents a major commitment, as it is the letter most people focus on since they are expecting a ‘c’ after the ‘In.’”

Old Logo:

londonink-logo-copy.jpg

New Logo:

londonink-green-logo-copy.jpg

Taking this initiative a step further, London, Ink is issuing a challenge to other Washington, DC area marketing, communications, PR and design firms to make similar commitments towards ‘greening’ their businesses.

Continued Bob London, “I’d like to see some of the more traditional service providers, including ad agencies, public relations firms, Web design and digital marketing agencies follow London, Ink’s lead.  After all, there’s always room for each of us to be ‘greener.’  Take it from me, it feels great doing something good,”

About London, Ink

London, Ink is a full-service marketing and communications consulting firm based just outside of Washington, DC.  London, Ink’s unique Virtual VP of Marketing model differs from other traditional marketing and communications service providers such as ad agencies, PR firms and Web design firms in that (a) the client receives independent guidance on when and how to prioritize, execute and measure a wide range of marketing initiatives, from PR to SEO to lead generation to channel marketing; and (b) all services are provided on an on-demand basis, providing clients with budget predictability and flexibility.

London, Ink’s low overhead, client-focused model eliminates the common conflicts between agencies’ profitability goals and creative philosophies versus the client’s requirements. Please visit www.londonink.com for more information or contact London, Ink president Bob London at info@londonk.com or +1 240.994.7644.

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Posted in Agencies, Bobservsations (humor, satire, parody), Branding, CMOs, General | No Comments »

From LinkedIn Answers: “Improving B2B marketing results”

Monday, October 6th, 2008

 

Question on LinkedIn Answers: “What should a B2B marketing department do to improve the results it’s generating?”

http://www.linkedin.com/answers?viewQuestion=&questionID=336562&askerID=9584467&browseIdx=0&sik=&report.success=vfLh7ZiQxNtkwQoO3efsNN1zAgQ8WXmCT24lKBBmlHq_pfcN7JydQUoVP_zdv4b8

Response from Bob London:

Great question–which begs several precursors: (a) what are the goals? (b) how are “results” defined? (c) what measurement tools are in place today?

Probably safe to assume a B2B marketing department is charged with generating demand (leads) and in many cases educating/priming the market while positioning the company as a thought leader.

Here are some ways in which a B2B marketing department can improve results and not get lost in the characterization that “we’re not sure what marketing does relative to the business.”

*Philosophical/Management*

  • Commit to the challenge of contributing ROI for the overall marketing budget–so that the department pays for itself at least 15 – 20 times over each year.
  • Exert internal marketing leadership–take on the business’s longstanding challenges/dilemmas, whether it’s “why do we churn customers?” or “why don’t we know which marketing programs work and which don’t? or “where is our most profitable 3-year growth going to come from?”
  • Improve accountability–measure everything that moves (and everything that doesn’t for that matter). Every weekly update should include a review of 30 days previous results and forward projections. Integrate all systems (CRM, marketing automation, accounting) that will provide an end to end view of the data.
  • Assume a budget of zero (regardless of how uncomfortable this may feel)–then implement programs in order of priority and results. This will force you to orient the marketing budget and department around the company’s goals.
  • Listen to the rest of the organization–don’t bump heads with it.

*Tactical Suggestions*

  • Devote/redirect as much budget as possible towards lower cost, online lead gen and thought leadership initiatives. For each business challenge, ask the question: how can we address this via online strategies and channels vs. traditional. This will make the entire budget work harder on a dollar for dollar basis since it will be easier to track results.
  • Every B2B marketer should use Google AdWords; at least do a significant test using .05% of your total annual marketing budget. Do not run a generic ad pointing to your home page; rather offer a white paper or other valuable subject matter content, and point the ad to a specific landing page dedicated to that offer.
  • Optimize your site content so that it shows up in targeted searches for whatever you are marketing.
  • Make sure you are using some form of prospecting/hunting to bridge the gap between lead gen programs and sales. Prospecting (i.e. outsourced or in-house telemarketing) serves as a lower cost way to qualify leads as well as gather market data on prospect hot buttons and what competitors/ substitutes/alternatives your prospects are using.
  • Implement a simple but formal prospect nurture process whereby you treat every inbound inquiry as a long-term suspect and stay in touch via e-newsletters, white paper offers and webinars.
  • Have an intern or staffer collect all stray business cards that have not been entered into the marketing database and enter them as part of your nurture process.
  • Have an intern or staffer mine LinkedIn for prospect names using company names and job titles. Relevant contacts should be fed into an outbound teleprospecting process to qualify; interested contacts should then be added to the nurture process.
  • Add a “living” FAQ section to your site and regularly publish your answers to client/customer questions. Your answers will invariably include relevant keywords that can bolster your natural/organic page rankings on Google, et al. Also, we all tend to get the same questions from multiple people, so rather than rewriting the answer each time or searching your hard drive, just send the link to your blog/site where your answer already resides.

Hope this proves helpful!

Best regards,
- Bob London

Bob London
President
London, Ink
On Target. On Site. On Demand.
www.londonink.com

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Posted in CEOs of Growth-Stage Companies, CMOs, Lead Generation, LinkedIn, Marketing Budget, New (aka Social) Media, Nurture Marketing, Online Marketing, Resources, Virtual VP of Marketing | No Comments »

The Entourage: How important (or self-important) do you have to be to have one?

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Greetings, fellow corporate anthropologists.  Today we examine the origins and behavior of the dreaded one-brained, ten-legged, five-Blackberry-wearing entity known as The Corporate Entourage.

The first documented entourage occurred immediately after the appearance of the first sycophant in the year 800 B.C.  The charismatic corporate warlord, Bossus Overthetopicus, began traveling with five eager underlings everywhere he went in a specially designed chariot with third row seating.

Gradually these teams of toadies began taking on the characteristics of their leaders, such as emulating the boss’s style of dress, favorite watering hole, gait, font preference and salad bar choices—practices that continue to this very day.

Today it is commonplace for executive assistants to reserve seats at an event for “one adult and five sycophants, and please make sure we get the special entourage rate.”

Here is what you need to know about having an entourage:

  • Building an Entourage  According to the trade publication, Brown-Noser Monthly, every entourage should be composed of the following personality/skill types:
  • Yes Man/Woman While every entourage member must be skilled at flattery, bootlicking and general suck-uppery, it is important to have one person dedicated to this task as well as to documenting Best Practices in Brown-Nosing to help train new members.
  • Bag Carrier/Heavy Lifter  One sycophant must be strong enough to literally carry the boss’s luggage while also mastering the delicate skill of removing metal objects from the boss’s pockets while he’s on the phone in the airport security line
  • Sergeant-at-Arms  Another critical role is to keep other members of the retinue in line during potentially tricky or chaotic situations, such as the “which way should we pass the cookie plate” conundrum that often occurs towards the end of a business luncheon.
  • Subject Matter Expert (SME)  Of course someone must know more than anyone else in the room–since we know that’s not the boss–and be able to quickly supply relevant factoids, sound bites and counter-arguments during critical meeting junctures or dramatic “Perry Mason” moments.
  • Groomer (AKA “Body Man” in political circles)  This critical role keeps the boss’s person free from debris such as lint, stray eyelashes or dandruff flakes and keeps a comb and travel-size can of mousse at the ready at all times.
  • Joining an Entourage  If you are an aspiring or budding brown-noser, you must know where to find opportunities.  Look for top billing lawyers, particularly litigators who by definition require support teams to carry all those heavy files.  Also well-known for having entourages are sales executives (usually VP and above—everyone else is busy actually selling).
  • Entourage Succession Planning  The most insecure bosses will have a well-defined Entourage Succession Plan in case one of their sycophants gets killed, for instance, by a runaway luggage cart while racing another bootlicker to the curbside check in.  Also check job boards for Entourage Internships, even though one can only imagine the ignominy, drudgery and humiliation of being a sycophant to other sycophants.
  • Faking the Entourage  Bosses in the early stages of entourage-building must be resourceful.  One story emerged during the 1990’s telecom run-up in which an EVP of Business Development kidnapped three bewildered mailroom staffers from their loading dock smoking break and tossed them into his black Ford Excursion (a favorite of entourages for its 12 passenger seating and resemblance to a Secret Service transport) rather than attending his meeting without the appearance of a full complement of parasites.  A number of firms also offer “Rent-a-Suck-Up” services similar to the “Rent-a-Mobs” hired by public affairs firms to create the appearance of widespread support or opposition to an issue.

So the next time you see what appears to be a violent game of musical chairs breaking out in an airport lounge, don’t be alarmed.  Chances are it’s just an entourage fighting over the closest seat to the boss.

 


 

Bob London is president of London, Ink LLC, a full-service marketing and communications firm and serves as a Virtual VP of Marketing for growth-stage companies that need hands-on project-based leadership in marketing strategy and planning.  What is a Virtual VP of Marketing?  Click on http://www.londonink.com/wordpress/?p=22 to find out more.

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Bob on Bisnow, Part II

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_tech_news_story.php?p=1562

092408d.jpg

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Java Blocking, Verbal Bear Hugs and Nuclear Coffee Breath. (Your Networking is Notworking, or How not to work a room.)

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008


Your Networking is Notworking.  (Or How Not to Work a Room)

There’s a highly recommended book called, “The Wisdom of Crowds,” that I have not read.

But hearing “The Wisdom of Crowds,” reminds me of the unwise things people sometimes do at crowded business functions.

Your average business networking breakfast or company event is basically full of insecure people who are forced either by their bosses or by the mortgage on their second homes to show up and attempt something called “schmoozing” with a room full of other insecure people, many of whom are armed with a dangerous thing called a quota.

So understand that no one-repeat no one—is there of his or her own volition.  This forced yet totally unnatural dynamic results in a veritable Petri dish of strange and often boorish behaviors, some of which I will now attempt to describe.

  • I have overheard hotel lobby cellphone conversations where full-grown professionals beg their bosses or spouses for permission to return to the comfort of their Lexus sedans rather than through those dreaded fake-wood paneled double doors.
  • I have witnessed well-dressed and otherwise polished individuals whisper pep talks into bathroom mirrors.
  • I have observed semi-articulate, regionally-accented executives rise to ask a question of a panelist and proceed to deliver a nine-minute preface/soliloquy containing his views on Net Neutrality, Sarbanes-Oxley, the coming of another Cold War and Dilbert, all without taking a breath.
  • I have experienced a phenomenon known as Java-Blocking, where someone decides that the coffee station is the perfect place to set up shop and begin to network, thus creating a backup of which the Woodrow Wilson Bridge would be proud.
  • I have smelled Nuclear Coffee Breath so intense, even at a distance of ten paces, that it caused carbon dioxide detectors to sound and the fire department to show up.
  • I have consoled a colleague who was deemed by a fellow networker not to be Cardworthy—she only had four cards left and didn’t think he merited one.
  • I have talked to people who spent the entire 12-minute conversation looking past my shoulder as if they expected one of the Steves (Ballmer, Jobs, Case, Seagall) to enter the room at any moment.
  • I have picked up distress signals from associates trapped in an interminable conversation known as a Verbal Bear Hug, desperately seeking a knight in shining wing-tips to come to the rescue.

I hope this column will, in some small way, build awareness of these all-too-common dysfunctional behaviors and contribute to their ultimate demise.  Wishful thinking, I know.

Bob London is president of London, Ink LLC (www.londonink.com), a full-service marketing and communications firm, and serves as a Virtual VP of Marketing for growth-stage companies that need hands-on project-based leadership in marketing strategy and planning.
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Bob London being drafted for pres in ‘08?

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

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