Yes, bees are sentient – and so are slugs, fish, monkeys, dogs and people.  Being sentient comes in degrees. Generally, I accept that other people are sentient because they are likely to be somewhat similar to me; their me-like behaviour persuades me that they are sentient. That’s the case we make for dogs. Exhibiting happiness,…

With Gordon Glenister on The Strand Review of Books. Influencer marketing can no longer be ignored.  The enthusiastic, entertaining and energetic Gordon Glenister brings a fresh eye to influencer marketing for B2B companies in his book Influencer Marketing Strategy, the ultimate guide to developing a successful influencer marketing strategy—and building campaigns that create real value….

Prediction for the year: the first AI will be considered ‘conscious,’ and it will pass all tests designed to prove otherwise.

  Here’s to the generous, the visionaries, the world-changers – to you! Your generous donation of $2,500.00 will make lasting safe water and sanitation solutions possible for people in need. Here’s to you and here’s to changing lives with safe water! To learn more, visit Water.org.

History is written by triumphant leaders and their acolytes. Lost in the miasma, middle management tends to get bad press, along the lines of “You can’t manage your way out of a crisis.” I’d argue that success arises from the capture marginal gains, and that’s where middle managers are at their strongest. Let’s take two…

Delighted that the conference has launched, with an outstanding session from Chris and Daniel.

Are you ready for the New Customer Economy? It’s a world where *everything* is available as a service. The peril is that you can sign customers up quick, and in the next breath they quit for the competition. How do you respond, how do you drive growth?

Found this on the Apollo Research site, here: https://www.apolloresearch.com/blog/the-top-10-technology-analysts-2020/ “In total, we at Apollo Research recorded 3,960 different technology analysts quoted over the last year. With that much competition for coverage, Patrick Moorhead’s achievement in 2020 is quite exceptional.”

Came across this: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/becoming-inbound-business-what-does-mean-fundamental-steps-maurice/ Worth five minutes of your time, perhaps.

Thoroughly modern management is focused, for the large part, on the definition, automation and industrialization of business processes. For example, today’s sales process is seen as a function of pipeline, qualification, and deal-closure, all to be measured and managed. And note the use of the word ‘process’ next to ‘sales.’ The true foundation of business…

WOWSERS! Just finished the world-first Customer Catalyst Online Conference with speakers from Zoom, Cisco, Advanced, Slack, Ritz-Carlton, ServiceNow and many more. FOMO? If you are hungry for great content but short on time, ON DEMAND is the way to go. Pick and choose from TED-length presentations on a grab-and-go basis. REGISTER! To watch these world leaders, register…

WHO? If you sell or market enterprise IT solutions, or are engaged in customer advocacy or reference programmes, then The Customer Catalyst Online Conference is specifically and exclusively for you. ONLINE? If you are hungry for great content but short on time, online is the way to go. Pick and choose from TED-length presentations on a…

Welcome to the survey results from the Technology Marketing Managers’ Index, June 2020. I invite you to compare the results with your own views. Should you be reining in, or trying to out-market your competitors? On that topic, the Budget Barometer hints that people may be increasing their marketing activity: Confidence has declined slightly, from…

Welcome to the survey results from the Marketing Managers’ Index, May 2020. Scroll/swipe down for the interesting bits! The results may give you some insight into current industry sentiment. I have not commented on the data, and leave you to draw your own conclusions. If you have any questions, please let me know and I…

How do we assign value to what we hear? How about this: 1 Zero Value: Me telling me how great I am 2 Some Value: Me telling someone else how great I am 3 Fair Value: Someone else telling me how great I am  4 High Value: Someone else telling someone else how great I…

Every day I try to think of new, gripping, ripping yarns to post: Five-Point-Plans, Fascinating Facts, Illustrative Alliteration for the Amusement of Muddled Marketers. You get the picture. But today I gotta tell ya about the Most Successful Marketing Campaign Ever – and it wasn’t even intended as a marketing campaign. We changed our switchboard…

The internet is a land of numbers: hits, conversions, dwell, rankings & more. It is now possible to measure almost every aspect of our web interactions, holding out the prospect of validated ‘performance marketing.’ And, as we all we know, “What gets measured gets managed.” (Peter Drucker never said or wrote this, but thanks to…

Foreground The Marketing Managers’ Index is based on a four-question survey of execs in the enterprise technology sector. The aim is to build a picture of confidence and future prospects. The questionnaire link changes each month. Mail surveys@strand-uk to find out more. Background You may have heard of the Purchasing Managers’ Index, which surveys the…

LinkedIn is one of my favourite business tools right now. Yet with the sheer volume of traffic, how do you cut through the cr** and have your messages seen by the right folk? First, if you’re posting or advertising on LinkedIn, have a look at the scale of the challenge: https://blog.hootsuite.com/linkedin-statistics-business/ https://www.oberlo.co.uk/blog/linkedin-statistics https://kinsta.com/blog/linkedin-statistics/ How about…

Sorry to jump on the coronavirus bandwagon, but it’s on everyone’s mind…  These days, if you find customers are reluctant to host a visit from your video team (and their dirty germs), then all is not lost!  Create the video from stock, b-roll, animations and graphics.  You may be surprised at what can be done…

What’s the most-prized profile photo on Linked In? Yep, the one with the microphone. Why is that? A photo or video of yourself striding the stage, microphone in hand (or better yet, with a performer’s wearable set) sends a powerful message. And boy-oh-boy, that sure feeds the ego! Look at all those fawning acolytes, just…

Whatever you might think and whatever the customer might say, a good technology case study is *never* about the software – or the hardware, or even the services & support. A great case study is *always* about the outcome, and the outcome is *always* about something personal that somebody wanted to achieve. Why? Companies –…

Normally I avoid ‘top ten’ and ‘tips’ articles. It’s all too easy to say how *someone else* should write a case study; the only real test is to write the darn thing. On the shaky ground that two negatives make a positive, I am adding ‘top ten’ to ‘tips’ for my Top Ten Tips for…

Without question, Strand’s clients are among the brightest and best, easily capable of writing their own blogs, papers, case studies and clerihews. So why do clients, every single one of them an IT marketing leader, hire Strand? In economics terms, it’s down to the rules of comparative advantage, defined by David Ricardo in 1817. In…

Recently I read an article focused on the value of storytelling, couched in terms of a coherent, compelling, persuasive piece of writing. The author recommends that you create a connection, provoke the audience, offer evidence and empower action, etc etc. In one section, the author writes “implement these steps to craft your own stories and…

Faced with case study writing, it’s all too tempting to report what the customer said. But is the customer always right? Take a case study sparked off by an ‘enforced upgrade,’ moving from out-of-support software (which works perfectly well) to a new version. The typical customer (often the CIO) will say “We needed to upgrade.”…

Here’s a story. Often we are commissioned to create case studies on your clients who are upgrading their software. You know, Version 2 to Version 4. SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA. That kind of thing. And the upgrade is a big sale, and the team wants a case study to help push along the next sale….

Writing for clients can be a revealing exercise, especially when it comes to what we clumsily call ‘approval.’ When we send draft text to clients, we so often find ourselves drowning in a sea of feedback from multiple individuals, all with their equally valid opions. I realized that we usually invite clients to *approve* the…

Does ‘digital marketing agency’ or ‘video marketing agency’ sound worrying? When faxes were new, new ‘fax marketing’ agencies sprang up, possessed with the immediacy and urgency of faxes. When email arrived, new ’email marketing’ agencies sprang up, determined that email was the way to grab people’s attention. Right now, video is a hot medium –…

A new client has asked to re-position the [perfectly good] brand. The fundamental point, though, is that while we can create video, written, infographic, press and social pieces until they come out of your ears, we believe that the first step is to re-position yourself. What on earth does that mean, ‘re-position yourself’? Here’s a…

Events, whether technical, sales or marketing, are huge opportunities to beef up your customer testimonials output – and yet so rarely are the opportunities truly siezed. We have found that even at the busiest events, your clients are surprisingly willing to find 30 minutes for a conversation that can lead to a reference either on…

Like lasers, blockchain started as a solution looking for a problem – and of course lasers are now ubiquitous (theodolites, DVD players, display pointers, scalpels, optical tweezers…). Practical blockchain applications are emerging – for example, blockchain technologies will enable automated, secure micro-trading of energy generation and consumption. What does it actually mean, though? It’s easy…

There is no question that video is hot, but the big debate is short- or long-form? Budweiser might spend millions on a 30sec ad to air at the Superbowl, and yet so many companies insist on four-minute product-focused, feature-led talking heads. Aaargh! My Ridiculous Video Rules: Shorter Cut out the intro Shorter, please It is…

As a rookie journalist I learned the Iron Rule: get the punter’s name right. Why? Because in print, the first thing anyone checks is their name. Katherine not Catherine. Thompson not Thomson. MacDonald not McDonald. (I could go on…) Today, we’re more visual. When you see holiday snaps or video, who do you look for?…

If you fancy a refreshingly direct view of marketing, I recommend The Enterpreneurs’ Marketing Manual by Chris Willman. Visit the site, too.

From: Susan Date: 26/06/2019 18:11 Subject: Re: Year to Date Report: Case Studies and Videos June 2019 ________________________________________ Wonderful work!!! Thank you so much for all you do and to your extended team of writers/designers etc. -Susan Global Product Marketing Manager

There’s a good deal of talk about video taking over the world, displacing the written word. Here’s my take on it: Yeeeaaars ago, when faxes (remember them?) were new, ‘fax marketing,’ blossomed. The idea was that faxes commanded immediate attention, and fax marketing was a way to cut through the clutter. Ring any bells? The…

In a recent client meeting, their social media guru reported in tones of breathless excitement – how hits, posts and tweets were soaring. Not only that, the rate of soar was itself soaring. Bearing in mind that I’m a miserable curmudgeon, the presenter – an enthusiastic, personable West Coaster – really had me interested. Gee,…

Nobody ever needs to do anything. What about if I hold a gun to your head and demand you give me access to your super-secret codes? Even then, you have a choice – give the codes or be shot. There is no ‘need to.’ People want to avoid a consequence or achieve an ambition, and…

It’s a commonplace to talk about ‘requirements,’ as in “to meet your business requirements.” Well, Yes and No. Using ‘requirements’ like this is lazy shorthand, which covers up the underlying decision points and motivations. It is far more powerful to spell out what is actually going on: maybe the company is drowning in costs or…

Brevity can be the heart and soul of clarity, for both video and written pieces. Here’s a thing: a 30-second TV ad lasts an aaaaage. You can grow a spare head watching a John Lewis ad (two minutes, twenty seconds). And even though the advertisers spend a TON of money on these efforts, they are…

Advocacy is somewhat like loyalty: if you have to ask for it, then you probably won’t get it – and you might even create the opposite effect. The next-best-things to advocacy are probably referrals and testimonials, because you can certainly ask for those. If the answer is positive, you may incidentally create advocates. If the…