Marketing when your customers hate each other, and more CMO Panel lessons at TriAMA

Think your marketing job is hard? Imagine if you were in charge of marketing at a utility company whose customers are forced to do business with you, a medical software provider whose users hate the insurance companies that pay the bills, or a non-profit that hasn’t done product development in 127 years?

Triangle AMA recruited a great lineup of Chief Marketing Officers and other top marketing executives for its annual CMO Panel last week in Raleigh, NC. Panelists included:

• Moderator Todd Barr of Alfresco Software (an open-source CMS provider with 1,100 enterprise customers)
• Stephen Chiles of ShareFile (a file-sharing provider with 2 million users in 120 countries)
• Lisa Gonzalez of the American Kennel Club (a non-profit representing purebred dog owners since 1884)
• Kimberly Labow of NaviNet (a healthcare communication provider that links 30 health plans to 950,000 physicians)
• MaryLynn Peek of Progress Energy (a utility serving 3 million customers in 3 states)

We had plenty of time for Q&A, including my question about how marketing agencies can better serve them as clients. Couldn’t spare the time or the money to go? Here’s my recap of the marketing lunch-and-learn event in Raleigh, NC.

Top Marketing Trends: Lead-Gen, Analytics, and More

The biggest theme was the challenge of lead-gen in a shifting marketplace. Beyond lead-generation, other common themes included analytics, segmentation, mobile marketing, new business models, and finding employees and contractors who just “get it.”

These were my favorite key points from each panelist:

1. Todd Barr: Regarding how marketing agencies can serve him better: “I’d pick a great account executive over great creative every time.” He assumes good creative will come, but not every agency can provide good client service.
2. Stephen Chiles: There’s a disconnect when it comes to paid search marketing — he’ll get an agency’s best PPC person until the person gets promoted, and then he’s stuck with a mediocre PPC rep. This leads to mistakes and lost opportunities.
3. Lisa Gonzalez: The AKC has been around for 127 years, but this is the first time they’ve really focused on marketing. The non-profit “hasn’t done product development since 1884!”
4. Kimberly Labow: NaviNet sells its service to 30 health insurance companies, who then provide NaviNet as a free service to 950,000 physicians. The problem is, health plans and physicians hate each other. It’s a zero sum game.
5. MaryLynn Peek: When your customers have no choice but to buy from you, marketing is about earning their trust, and later selling them add-ons.

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Karl’s Marketing Discussion, Analysis, and Comments

Looking for a new job? Lisa at AKC is switching from contractors to hiring full-time marketers. And if you’re a senior database/CRM director, Kimberly said NaviNet is hiring someone to help segment their 950,000 physicians for lead-gen outreach.

I liked the panel’s variety — kudos to Triangle AMA for recruiting everyone. I’m surprised how many people had moved to the Triangle to avoid cold northern weather… then again, after five years in New Jersey, I can understand that.

Todd made a great point about the value of software developers — they help him get things done faster as a marketer. I’ve seen that at Coalmarch — our developers can quickly produce code that converts data into actionable information, for me or our clients.

NaviNet is attempting to create a new market category called Unified Patient Information Management (UPIM), which seems to be a mashup of electronic medical records and more. Kimberly made a great point about being the leader in defining new markets — she said, “someday, we hope our competitors will say, ‘Yes, we do UPIM, too.’” More generally, I was surprised to hear NaviNet’s fax marketing campaigns get 20-25% response rates.

Brier Creek Country Club is getting passive-aggressive about parking — there were “no on-street parking” and “member parking only” signs everywhere. Unfortunately, their visitor parking lot is too small to accommodate a full ballroom, much less their regular patrons. But that’s their problem, not ours. Considering TriAMA probably pays them $30K+ annually, I think we should expect better than whiny customer service, no?

Want more details about what each CMO shared with the Triangle chapter of the American Marketing Association? Read on!

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CMO Panel 2011: Detailed Notes from the Triangle AMA Event

Todd Barr from Alfresco Software (@tbarr)

• Background
  • Company: They’re an open-source enterprise content management system (CMS) provider. For marketing, he focuses on growing net new customers.
  • Todd: Previously at Red Hat and Bandwidth. MBA from UNC.
• My question: What can agencies do to serve you better?
  • “I’d pick a great account executive over great creative every time.” He said he assumes great creative comes standard, but that client service isn’t automatic.
• What certification or training does he look for from team members?
  • Wants talent in three areas: Analytics (understand data), Design (or at least think like designers do), and Development (the mindset… developers help him get things done faster)
• Audience question: What are your top methods of lead-gen?
  • After saying he’d never do it, they’re ramping up tradeshows. But he won’t sponsor unless he gets access to the attendee list. That followup marketing works decently well.
• Question: What does he forecast to be the next cutting-edge marketing tool?
  • Mobile, especially to deliver video.

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Stephen Chiles from ShareFile (@ShareFileSteve)

• Background
  • Company: ShareFile is the 8^th fastest-growing software company, with 14,000 corporate customers and 2 million users in 120 countries.
  • Stephen: Previously, he did UX for AOL 3-7, and the UX for AIM 1.0 Headed marketing at Insurance.com, as cost-per-click went from $15 to $60 in six months. Graduate work at MIT.
• Current focus in marketing?
  • At ShareFile, seeking to reduce dependence on paid search, and seeking to expand horizontally.
• Question: Are you focusing on lead-gen or awareness advertising?
  • In ShareFile’s lifecycle, they’ve been busy focusing on proving the business model. They’re still committed to remaining a bootstrapped organization. “Now, we’re becoming more extroverted.”
  • They’ve seen 100% growth in the SEO channel this past year. Next, have a great content strategy.
  • They did their first-ever PR campaign, regarding a new launch. Site traffic was +200% day-over-day, +400% month-over-month, and +1,000% year-over-year. They want to get into buyers’ consideration set.
• Question: What’s their biggest marketing investment this year?
  • Better predictive analytics and segmentation. They hired a graduate from NC State’s analytics masters program. Very data-driven business.
• My question: What can agencies do to serve you better?
  • Honesty. Don’t say “Yes” to everything. He appreciates candor; he wants to see the agency as an extension of his business.
  • Be clear about what you can and can’t do.
  • When he was on the agency side, Martha Stewart Omnimedia hired his agency to do social media. This was just six months after Facebook started. He explained they’d be a partner and they’d learn together. And seven years later, MSO is still a client for the agency.
• Question: Does he look for Google certification, for people or agencies that do SEO/SEM for him?
  • No. He’s more concerned about the depth of the bench, and employee churn.
  • In PPC, there’s a premium for great talent. There’s lots of mediocrity in day to day tactics. He wants to ensure he has access to multiple people.
  • The problem? Good PPC people leave or get promoted… so his new PPC account executive has, literally, 3 months of experience. This has led to costly mistakes and missed opportunities.
• Question: What does he forecast to be the next cutting-edge marketing tool?
  • Mobile. But it’ll be interesting to see how consumer behavior evolves, especially with tablet adoption.
  • Adoption rates for PCs, mobile phones, and tablets have each grown faster than the last. Some analysts predict 75% tablet adoption by 2014.

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Lisa Gonzalez from the American Kennel Club

• Background
  • Company: The AKC has been around since 1884. She’s the first marketing head since the organization started.
  • Lisa: Experience in consumer products and healthcare. MBA from UNC.
• Question: Are you focusing on lead-gen or awareness advertising?
  • It’s definitely about target audiences. For instance, they have several subsegments: Breeders, Clubs, and Dog Owners.
  • Her goal is to gain awareness, and then change behaviors. Need to make customers aware of all the things AKC already does! Their surveys show very low awareness.
• Question: What’s their biggest marketing investment this year?
  • Infrastructure. Previously, there was no marketing. It’s been eye-opening.
  • Strategic Triangle: Strategy, Culture, and Structure.
  • She’s been using marketing contractors, but she’s now hiring people.
• Audience question: What’s the value of dog registration?
  • AKC has been around since 1884. When it started, people used horses and buggies. The organization hasn’t done product development since 1884.
• Question: What certification or training does she look for from team members?
  • She wants people who can lead, think, and make things happen.
  • Lately, there’s been a push for people who understand social media and the web, the “bright shiny ball” on customer interaction.
• Audience question: What are your top methods of lead-gen?
  • Some of their segments have their own professional associations (for instance, professional breeders have one). So they connect with their associations, and with distributors (e.g., pet stores).
• Question: What does she forecast to be the next cutting-edge marketing tool?
  • Agrees about mobile.
  • But… even with mobile and social media, it still comes back to the 4P’s marketing mix. Strategy comes first.

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Kimberly Labow from NaviNet

• Background
  • Company: Connect health plans to physicians.
    • Very complicated business model: they sell the service to 30 health plans, which then provide the service for free to 950,000 physician users… but both sides hate each other.
    • Reimbursement is a zero sum game, and that extends to doctors’ and insurers’ other relationships.
    • NaviNet is in the middle, bridging the relationship with services. They cover 120 million patients.
  • Kimberly: Knew she wanted to do marketing since her junior year of high school, so it’s always been clear to her. Eventually realized she likes messaging and positioning, instead of product marketing or communications marketing. MBA from Northeastern.
• Changing business models at NaviNet
  • Shifting course: Now, selling directly to doctors (who were previously just 3% of the business.
  • Needs to build her lead pipeline on the clinical side.
• Question: Are you focusing on lead-gen or awareness advertising?
  • They’re trying to do a lot at once. They’re creating a new market space, Unified Patient Information Management (UPIM). They’ve been spending time on analyst relations, with Gartner and others.
  • She hopes that someday, their competitors will say, “Yes, we do UPIM, too.”
• Challenge, in selling to physicians
  • They’ve been providing EMB; now they’re providing EMR.
  • The issue is they know exactly where the health plans are (there are only so many) but there are tons of physicians.
  • Problem: They’re dis-intermediated by existing practice management systems.
• Question: What’s their biggest marketing investment this year?
  • Seeking a Senior Database Director, to help them understand and segment the 900K users.
• My question: What can agencies do to serve you better?
  • “Ditto” (to Todd’s response, “I’d pick a great account executive over great creative every time.”)
• Question: What certification or training does she look for from team members?
  • It’s a struggle to find people who understand talking to different people at different times in the sales cycle (e.g., buyers vs. champions, etc.).
  • She wants people who understand messaging throughout the sales cycle.
  • She can teach people the industry, if they understand the fundamentals.
• Audience question: What are your top methods of lead-gen?
  • Fax, surprisingly — “healthcare is firmly, comfortably in 1973.” She left healthcare and came back 7-8 years later, and it was like she was never away. But for her, fax works — fax campaigns get her a 20-25% response rate.
  • She also works on email, and on building influencer partnerships.
• Question: What does she forecast to be the next cutting-edge marketing tool?
  • Mobile.

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MaryLynn Peek from Progress Energy

• Background
  • Company: Progress has 3 million customers in NC, SC, and Florida, with primarily a “captive” customer base (as a government-regulated monopoly).
  • MaryLynn: She’s sitting in for communications VP Cari Boyce. MaryLynn has been at Progress Energy for 10 years.
• Key premise
  • When you have a captive customer base (most of their customers, apart from some non-regulated services), marketing is about gaining their trust, and then attempting to sell customers additional services.
• Question: What’s their biggest marketing investment this year?
  • Completing a new web redesign; this is a major investment.
  • The goal is to need fewer customer service representatives (CSRs), by making the website more customer-centric, with more personalized messages.
• Audience question: How does the upcoming Duke/Progress merger affect their marketing?
  • It’s about being open and honest at various stages.
• Question: What certification or training does she look for from team members?
  • She wants flexibility and mobile experience.
  • Recently hired an analytics person and a copywriter experienced in short-piece copywriting.
• Question: What does she forecast to be the next cutting-edge marketing tool?
  • Mobile.

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Conclusion

It’s hard for marketers to reach customers and prospects, and it’s getting harder. What were your biggest takeaways from the Triangle AMA’s 2011 CMO panel?

Photo credits: Karl Sakas

Tagged as: agency relations, Alfresco Software, American Kennel Club, Brier Creek Country Club, email, experience, Kimberly Labow, Lisa Gonzalez, marketing, MaryLynn Peek, mba, Navinet, Progress Energy, recap, research triangle, SEO, ShareFile, social media, Stephen Chiles, Todd Barr, Triangle AMA, UPIM, web design