It is becoming increasingly clear that the move to digital means that more businesses will be going online to communicate live and enhance their digital presence at the same time. This has become prescient through several trends, as outlined below.
1. Scattered business
In these straitened economic times, organisations have embargoes on travel unlike a few years ago when a manager could fly off across Europe or the world on a whim. Yet you still need to meet with prospects, colleagues or customers who are scattered throughout your region.
2. Value
Reductions in the workforce and the need to ‘do more with less’ mean that the decision to go to an event, a trade show or a meeting has to be scrutinised by bosses and weighed up against the impact of being away from the office. We need to feel it offers real value before we go.
3. Less high-fliers
CSR policies place more emphasis on cutting carbon footprints. A July 2008 report in The New York Times suggested that the alternative meeting facilities used by Cisco, for instance, have reduced their airtravel greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent.
4. The ‘now’ factor
Our demand for instant gratification has turned us into real-time purchasers and prospects; this in turn means that we want satisfaction and excitement now.
5. Videos
Video conference calls have been around a surprisingly long time (since 1956, in fact). Then, a still image was updated every two seconds; today, video is the de facto standard online.
6. Web-savvy
The web is moving from experience (‘wow – look at that cool site’) to participation (‘wow – look at the cool things I’m doing’).
The upshot of these trends for B2B marketers is the need to communicate and interact online in real time as effectively as you would face-to-face with prospects, customers and colleagues.
What I mean is being able to get together – in self-selected groups of any size – meet over the web using video, uploaded assets, chat facility, whiteboards, polls, Q&A, instant feedback; creating virtual meeting rooms, presentations, round tables and training.
It’s not just web conferencing. It’s a way of offering surprise and value, and the best way to explain is by giving some possible scenarios.
Imagine you need a response mechanism for a campaign. Your B2B c-level audience is a little more exclusive; they’re hard to attract. Rather than yet-another-white-paper, invite them to a virtual round table instead, hosted by a recognised industry face.
It takes one hour of their time, and no travel. You don’t have to hire locations or an event crew. Everyone can listen, then participate in a peer group. Or how about extending the concept to a regular series of forums to help build your relationship with a select group of customers?
Next scenario: a new product launch. Build up to a day of online activity. On the day itself, run presentations and live demos, and give participants access to the movers and shakers: the business people who envisioned it, the technicians who built it and the designers who created it.
It also can provide a fast way to demo a product, a beta version, or a soft launch. Invite some of the recipients online and have a virtual focus group.
It can build exclusivity. Create a series of invite-only masterclasses with a tame guru. Attendees receive valuable training and interaction and access to your experts. Meanwhile, your brand’s stock rises.
What’s more, you can record it to add valuable content to your site. It will help in universal search, get you noticed, get your chatter up and increase your digital footprint. It puts your company at front-of-mind, helps it be perceived as a thought leader, and ultimately contributes to building communities with a subliminal brand focus… on your brand.
Make it convenient
All these opportunities can be powered off the same global system, which means you can run online events across the entire region, with different rooms for different languages. Your presenters can also be distributed globally. Need an expert? Let him stay home instead of flying in from Japan or Colorado.
Technically, it’s simple stuff for any web development company worth its salt.
So move online and connect. Surprise people and get them talking. Generate valuable video content for your site. Make it convenient. And always make it the fulcrum of your marketing.
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