David the cleaning dude

These are the little things. But, it just hit me last week that I have no idea what is the name of the janitor who came in every day in the evening to clean up the office. Since I am usually still in the office then, I have been smiling at him all this time. But, who is he or at least what is his name. So, I asked. His name is David. So, now, when I see him, I greet him by saying "Hi, David." I am not sure what all these means, but sometimes, there is no point in asking too many questions.

(Maybe I am going soft...)

The webinar thing started with a bang. It was made official last Thursday. I set up all the Google stuff and make sure all the links works. Then, when I come into office on Friday, there were five requests for webinar. Then, through out the rest of the day, additional requests came in. It is pretty cool! The first webinar took place yesterday and of the nine people who ultimately requested it, four of them showed up. So, that is a decent ratio that nearly 50% of the people came. In my prior experiences, I would be happy with a 25% attendance rate. Then, I blasted our existing leads to remind people that we also have a Thursday webinar session. Right now, between those new requests and people who missed the first session but asked to attend the next one, we are looking at a list of about ten people.

What I find interesting is that none of the requests came from Google. Because we pass a text string when somebody clicks on our Google ad, I can tell that these requests came from our website directly due to the absence of the text string. I think partly it is a function of the first batch who signed up were people who worked at different divisions of the same parent firm. So, I can only guess there is a bit of network effect at work here. We did move the webinar to the most visually prominent location - upper left. So, that probably helped a bit too. But, it is curious to me on how people would rather come to the site and sign up than just sign up directly via Google ad's. I need to think about this.

One side thing that I have noticed with the new landing pages is that the number of junk leads seems to be lower than before. This, I, too, have no obvious answers. Partly this could be cause more fields are mandatory so that it is more "painful" to leave junk request. (And, by junk request I am referring to requests that came from a Yahoo.com address with no name, no company info, nothing.) A second thing could be that we now have a more professional looking interface from both the text description, color/design template, and that we now have two attractive female images on the landing pages.

Oh, another thing about Google that I thought was fascinating. I have separated out each campaign between Search and Content network so that I can control the cost in each. Theoretically, these are two distinct networks. However, they do intersect when you search on the Google site where it would serve the ad with higher CPC. How I found out was that I keep seeing a Content network ad when I do a Google search where I was expecting to see a Search network ad. After going back and forth with Google help, they figured out that because my CPC is higher in the Content network for the same key words, it crowded out my Search network ad. Talk about logical yet technical answers. So, the first thing I did after learning it was to scrub through the Google campaigns to make sure that all my Search network key words have higher CPC than the Content network counterparts.

This is a busy week. We came out with a press release on company momentum on Monday. Followed Tuesday by another press release announcing our relationship with a major Silicon Valley technology vendor. Finally, we also have a white paper published by an analyst on our product. I am not a big fan of momentum release since I always find it suspect - after all I have never seen anyone issue a release about losing momentum. On the other hand, this is probably the easiest way to generate some buzz or, at least, have something on the wire. The momentum got picked up at the usual suspects - Yahoo, Google, Excite, etc. Financial Times also picked it up. That was kind of cool since I am a fan of FT. The second press release was shorter but has a marquee name that also has been in the news lately. It got picked up at more outlets and I can only assume it is because of the name. I guess I should be nicer to customers so they would let me use their names in publicity. :-)! As for the white-paper. It was sent out to the analyst's database as a new white-paper. I do not know how many pick up we will get out of it. So, I need to think of some other ways to promote the white paper - I am paying good money for it after all.

This must be the "find an analyst" season. After talking with an analyst who write for Network World, I was alerted to another one by a colleague. So we went through the courting ritual of saying hi and we love to know more about your products. This guy is a bit more work. He wants to sign us up for a $20K annual contract and he becomes a retained analyst. This is the typical Analyst/Gartner model. There is merit to the model for large ticket enterprise solutions. But, in our case, it has not been a good fit after trying several variations of the same idea. Of course, I did not say it out loud. Instead, I asked that he writes an article about us since how we found him was through an article he wrote that purport to address the specific vertical that we are in. I do not know if he would bite, but I did send him all the official propaganda. Fingers crossed.

Oh, a side note about the prior analyst. For some reason, she decided to do an article on us sooner rather than later. So, we quickly did a demo for her, gave her all the key talking points. The article is supposed to come out sometime next week. And, from the draft copy that she sent me, it looks like she drank the Cool-Aid! Gotta love it!

Okay, the last rumbling of the day. We got into this rather heated debate last week on some marketing terms. What it boils down to is should we do a blanket statement that is clean and intuitive but somebody can argue is not completely accurate from certain technical angles or should we put in the relevant qualifiers so that the information is technically factual from the very start. Being the marketing guy whose mission is to never confuse good marketing with reality, I am firmly on the side of using a clean and intuitive copy and just tell the sales people to blame it on those clueless marketing folk who come up with these lines. On the other end of the argument is Mr Proper who is the head of Sales. Unlike a lot of sales people I know, he insists on full disclosure up front. This may have something to do with the fact that his prior incarnation was in the legal world. Well, Mr Proper has done a great job as a salesperson so I certainly would value his input. On the other hand, I have done a good job marketing the company, if I may say so, so I must value my own judgement too.

I think this is partly a philosophical debate. I do not believing in lying. But, at the same time, I do not think it is wise to water down the effects of first impression with all the details to either bore and scare away a prospect. This is a ginger balance. My current position, after taking into consideration of Mr Proper's views, is to keep the marketing message simple and clean. However, in our technical documents like data-sheet, there will be an asterisk to explain some of the "practical" limitations as a result of the browser features.

(Maybe I am not going soft after all...)

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Simpering UK-92480

Okay, this is cheating a bit but I have been dying to use the word "simper" meaning to smile in a silly, self-conscious, often coy manner. Or, the shorter form for the expression "grinning like an idiot." Something that I do with some degree of frequency.

Oh the UK-92480 bit was the initial name for the pharmaceutical compound that eventually came to be Viagra. I thought you might enjoy this bit of lore that is becoming part of the popular culture. Viagra, that is.

But, back in the ranch, things are busy as always.

The latest website revision have been pushed to the live site. Of course, I immediately found some errors. Fortunately, with the help of Contribute, I was able to make the correction in minutes on the staging site. But, the problem is that I have no way of pushing the quick fix out. That is, not until earlier today when our head of engineering walked me through the process via an home-grown website management tool that I can control through a browser. As the saying goes, I am now armed and dangerous! With Contribute and the home-grown tool, I can pretty much do all kind of strange stuff to the website without having to wait for the webmaster. Not that I would do that, but the potentiality is there. Heh!

We are at the late stages of preparing for launch our webinar program. The website is ready. The email reminder text has been prepared. I am ready to add a new set of key words and ad's in Google to drive traffic. Pretty much the only thing that is holding me back is time. Because this is a weekly program, I want to wait until tomorrow for the promotion because I do not want people to sign up for this week's non-existent program. I am curious to know how the webinar will do as part of the lead-gen and sales process. Fingers crossed.

The website revamp is coming along. I had a good discussion with the designer and gave her some detail information on the components needed in the new site design. It is not meant to be something revolutionary so a lot of stuff will be from our existing site. On the other hand, it is good to have a professional build a foundation that we can work from.

One thing that I am thinking of doing is to add web click path tracking on the website. It helps to collect information such as where users go and the most popular page of a website. From that information, we can infer what page/information need to come forward so it is easier to find as well as what kind of information that are of particular interests to viewers. My original plan is to run it in conjunction with the new website. However, the head of engineering was pretty psyched for the idea and he wants to deploy some resources to get it done in the current site. Cool!

I have been staring at Google and not doing a heck of a lot for a while. It is partly a function of fatigue since I was monitoring it every day for about two months. And, of course, now that I am busy doing other stuff, it is just not the most pressing issue. Anyway, I finally got my acts together and cleaned up the Google AdWords account. Specifically, I added a new campaign because one of our prospects told us what key words they searched on and a few of them were completely off our radar. That was pretty cool. Customer input complements nice with the program of looking through the daily web log to see what search terms that lead people to us as well as running a Google tool to find out other related terms that people search for given a set of key words. Long story short, I run the Google tool and now have a few hundred new key words.

Of course, it is a good deal for Google because it means I am paying more by the sheer increase of key words which leads to wider coverage. But, if it brings qualified leads, I am all for paying a few extra bucks. The interesting thing about the new key words is that they are all variations of the major key words that we are already using. For example, adding a "Windows" in front of the key word. I guess people just search for different flavor of the same idea and it is good to cover all bases. As a result of the increase in key words, one of my campaign is getting blown out of water in terms of hitting the daily budged limit. It is a good problem to have because it also means that we are casting a wider net. We will see if the extra expenditure and efforts are warranted in a few months.

My latest project is to come up with a game. The idea is to let viewer play a simple game/quiz and get a score on their knowledge level. This would, in theory, pique their interests so there is a higher level of recall and, if the goddess of fortune smiles upon me, get the viewers to sign up for more information. Game is hard to make. Distilling a list of questions is tricky enough, then, there is question of how to score the answers. Originally, I was going to come up with a formula, but it turns out to be a rather difficult one. So, I have changed tact to brute force and created a spreadsheet with all possible variations of answer combinations. Then, I will assign a score for each combination. I know, it is not the most elegant method, but sometimes, elegance takes too much time.

Life on the PR front is going okay. I am asking a bunch of customers to okay a press release and some of them are saying we cannot mention their name. Not what a marketeer wants to hear. Then, there is the case study pending approval from the customer. I plan to call him later in the week to follow up. The case study re-write is going slowly. I am hoping to have a new first draft this week - but I am not holding my breath. But, whatever happens, I will have a PR piece hitting the wire and a white-paper posted next week. That, I should be thankful for.

Oh, I tracked down a regular contributor to Network World magazine because she wrote an article that touches on some of the issues that our solution addresses. We had a good chat and she indicated that she would be interested in writing an article about us! How cool is that! That will not happen for a few weeks due to other articles in the queue, but that is fair. I suggested that I would buy some reprints once it is published. Yeah, it is all very mercantile. It is alright though, if the rules are understood.

Arms akimbo, simpering, and dreaming of a world without UK-92480. (Yeah, akimbo was another word that I was dying to use. And, yes, I seriously need to get a life.)

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Keeping the momentum

The latest thinking is that cold call operations via Harte Hanks, third party, or internal team would not be a cost efficient method to generate leads.

HH program has come to an end and the stat's are: 173 hours of call for 180 completed interviews and 21 appointments. According to HH's own matrix in their project proposal, they have exceeded their expectation of 110 completed calls. My thinking, however, is that HH probably sandbagged the numbers so that they can exceed expectation. I would. But, at the same time, I also think that we cannot expect much more than completing one call per hour which is what HH has done. And, this, again, leads to the conclusion that this is a very expensive way of generating leads.

The highly recommended consultant got back with me and advised that she is not willing to drop her prices. (If she can get people to pay that kind of money, more power to her.) I think partly, this is a function that she deals mostly with enterprise solutions costing from several hundred thousand dollars to a few millions. In that price range, her fee would be quite minuscule. But, this is not how it works for us.

I have finally finished the first case study and fired up to the customer for reaction and approvals. Writing case study can be a bit exhausting mentally, so I have outsourced that operation to Mr Whup-ass since he volunteered. I am not sure if it is a good idea. Case study writing is a specific way of thinking and takes somebody with ability to feel detached so you can keep up the BS while having a nice touch with the language so that the story/case maintains a momentum to the logical conclusion. Mr Whup-ass does not seem to have that touch from the first draft that he came up.

I am too lazy to deal with it for now. But, I will probably take a crack at it myself and find a professional writer for this kind of work. Mr Whup-ass is excellent as an editor in providing additional perspectives. But, as the first draft, I need somebody else.

My major focus is now on PR and website update. PR is moving along. I am loading the PR agency with information and ammunition. So, I expect to see some firework in August. Otherwise, I will change pitcher.

The website thing is kind of interesting. I am now set up with Contribute which is a website collaboration solution where I can go into our website and make changes directly without having to wait for the change by the webmaster. This also significantly speeds up the revision process because I can see the change in real time and make adjustments accordingly. For non-technical (HTML) editing and some light technical work, I highly recommend Contribute.

So, we are making some additional changes to the existing site while a new site is being designed. The major ones are the new landing pages. I commissioned a design house to give us a landing page design and we now use it as a template for three different type of landing pages. The key things about the new design are twofold: the color coordinates and there are two female images on the top banner. I know it seems silly, but studies have shown that attractive images helps with recall and conversion. And, since we target technical people who are mostly male, two female images are surely better than one. Ha! The other thing is that we will be starting a weekly webinar program so there is a series of stuff that need to be taken care of. Actually, most of the work is done and, theoretically, I can push the changes from staging to live tomorrow. But, since our webmaster is out for the rest of the week, the head of engineering and I agree that we should wait in case the process did not work as planned that the webmaster is there to fix our mess.

For the new site, design work is just starting. For my part, I am collecting user requirements and putting the outline on a board to review. My plan is to have a detail listing of each page in a Word document including all the links, images, and functionality. This will serve as a guide to the designer on what are the needs of the new website as well as being the blueprint when we actually implement the site. This is a daunting task since there are many conflicting demands on the site. I have done the easy parts and will embark on the difficult ones.

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Scaling cost of selling

There is something to be said about long weekend. On the other hand, it is also doubly difficult to come into office after a long weekend. The funny thing was that I was the first person who made it into the office after the 4th of July long weekend. At first I thought I missed the memo about taking an additional day off until people started to slowly file in.

Another thought on long weekends. I am envious of the French with six weeks vacation to start. Ay... I still remember getting an e-mail from Isa a few years back saying that she is so sad that she only has six weeks of vacation because she was a newbie college grad! Man, talk about rubbing it in, eh!

Anyway, all is quiet on the marketing land. I have been busy playing catch up in terms of phone calls and negotiations. Today, for example, I negotiated for a volume discount to publish four of 'em white-papers. Then, I had an inconclusive discussion with a lead-gen consultant. She will get back with me on a new proposal. Oh, I also got a call from Dell asking if we would be interested in using them as our hardware OEM. Then, I got a phone call from a perspective customer irritated that nobody followed up with him since he requested information. (The truth is that we have tried to contact him seven times via phone and email.)

Maybe it ain't so quiet after all.

Oh, the Harte Hanks program is coming to an end. I am in negotiation with the HH rep on price. And, since we are negotiating, I also asked for tape recordings of the calls. The rep will get back with me in terms of pricing. We are currently paying approximately $55 per hour for the HH caller. The caller is able to complete 1.2 calls per hour with an actual appointment made at 0.14 per hour. I am not rendering any judgement on these numbers. These are our new baseline.

So, talked with a lead-gen specialist in our area on retaining her for lead-gen work. the thinking is that she will be better at qualifying prospects and providing higher quality leads in the process. Got her proposal today but the cost number was a bit out of my reach. So, we went back and forth a bit about the structure of the proposal and the costs. She promised to get back with me on the counteroffer. Will let you know if we decide to go forward with her.

Busy working on some PR pieces. I am done with the white-papers and just need to figure out how to best publicize them with our PR team. I have gotten the first draft of a customer case study. The content is more or less in place. I will probably get it to the customer for approval then get it beautified. It is a bit tedious but necessary.

There was an interesting discussion last week. Mr Whup-ass wants Marketing and Sales to assign rating for the same lead. So, as a lead comes in, Marketing enters the info and provide a rating opinion based on the available information. Then, Sales would also render a rating opinion on the same lead. Now, this is not a difficulty thing to do mechanically. On the other hand, it is not clear to me what is the point of this exercise. My argument is that it does not provide any meaningful insight since these ratings are liable to be highly biased and variable. Mr Whup-Ass wants to have these numbers as an early warning systems on the lead flow. We went back and forth on this issue and, frankly, I do not believe that anyone is convinced of the other's position. Nevertheless, we decided to humor him since it is a very minor incremental process given what we currently do.

Of course, I need to keep open-minded on this issue. Nevertheless, I am not sure if the data is action-able. We'll see.

Along the line of lead gen, we had another discussion on what is the strategy for lead gen given the performance of HH. The concern is that on a per completed sale basis, HH and other cold-call operation would be extremely expensive for our average sales price. More specifically, this makes the business model significantly less scalable.

This will be an on-going discussion of course, but looking at the initial numbers, I think the concern on the cost per sale is valid. One possible way is to bring this function in house which we estimated to cost about 2/3 of what we currently pay. The other possibility is to scrap that program and pour the resources into more PR work since it seems to increase the lead flow every time we do something.

I think partly this is a discussion on the price points. As we move downstream in price points to soak up user demand, the cost of selling needs to be able to scale downward accordingly. This is a critical insight but I do not know what the answer is. Yet.

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