This week, Tech Startup School started up. It’s another round of informative sessions with industry experts imparting their advice for those starting out in the technology sector. After the success of last year, this year should be even better.

The sessions are aimed at those who are either thinking of starting or have started a high growth technology or science business in the region. Supported by Science City Bristol and the British Computer Society, it’s specifically aimed at encouraging budding entrepreneurs to unleash their talent.

This year, Nicola will be the keynote speaker at the Bristol Sales and Marketing session on Monday 21st May. She’ll be supported by Helen Waller from Mubaloo who’ll be sharing a relevant case study.

There are several other sessions over teh coming weeks as well including master classes on finance, IP and pitching. You can find out more and book tickets on the Science City Bristol website.

See you there…

April’s been a great month. We’ve been getting some wonderfully positive feedback from our clients, but better than that, we’ve landed two more clients and we’re thrilled to welcome onboard Vivantio and EKA. (More on the positive feedback another time).

Vivantio are a local, award-winning technology company based in Weston-super-Mare specialising in service desk software. They’re looking to grow rapidly over the next three years and have asked us to support them with their digital marketing strategy, in particular lead generation. It’s a great brief involving international markets and new product launches and we’re looking forward to getting our teeth stuck in.

Our other new win is EKA, a software company that develops enterprise level commodity risk management software. Based in India and well known across Europe, they’ve now got the Asia-Pacific region in their sights and we’re supporting them by gathering prospect data and market research. An interesting and challenging project using LinkedIn to identify prospects and create company information packs. The aim of the project is to arm the Australian sales team with high quality, accurate information on C-level executives within the mining industry and ultimately reduce the sales lead time.

Welcome to you both and looking forward to getting down to delivering results.

With youth unemployment at its highest in decades, we felt compelled to get involved in something that addressed this head on. The media don’t exactly portray the youth in the kindest of lights and knowing how difficult it is to get a job these days, anything employers can do to bridge the gap is really important.

So, recently I signed up for Working Knowledge and attended one of their programmes which was highly enjoyable and hugely rewarding. Basically the event is a cross between Dragons Den and the Apprentice and as a local business I played the role of ‘expert’ advising students from the local college on their new business ideas.

Working Knowledge is a social enterprise and nationally award winning educational training company founded by Dr James Lott.

The events Working Knowledge run have been shown to have a profound impact on the students and tutors in colleges throughout UK, bridging the gap between education and the workplace. As a business expert volunteer you play an integral role in the success of the events and thereby raise the aspirations of young people in your region.

The event was fantastic and I’d highly recommend it. Not only did you see a massive change in the students on the day, they came out with a recognised qualification for their trouble and fistful of cash for those teams that excelled.

If you’d like to get involved, you can find out more about Working Knowledge here or register as an expert for one of their events.

Last week we were at the Bath Digital Festival running the Business Clinic. We met several diverse local businesses with exciting ambitions and lots of questions on digital technologies. The feedback was really positive and we’re looking forward to a bigger and better Business Clinic next year.

Thanks again to the panellists: Steve Richardson from Mr B and Friends, Paul Cross and Richard Godfrey from iPrinciples and our very own Nicola from Modern Media.

Big thanks to Nigel at WorxID for documenting the sessions.

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These days digital is at the heart of every business. Whether it’s the technology in the palm of your hand or how your business systems run, digital technology is driving British business forward.

Smart phones, tablet computers, web apps, mob apps and cloud computing are all big business changers. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to integrate new technologies into your business, then we’ve got just the event for you.

As a celebration of digital technology, Bath Digital Festival is running from 15-25 March and will an eclectic mix of digital based events to showcase Bath’s contribute to digital.

Get your digital questions answered

During the festival, we’re going to be running two free Business Clinics where you can talk, in a private and confidential environment, to a panel of experts about how to integrate digital technology within your business for successful growth. Sign up now >>>

The expert panel will be made up of marketers, technology strategists and creative thinkers from the south west. They’re leaders in their field and it will be a rare opportunity to pick the brains of industry experts.

The 20 minute lunch time sessions are open to businesses in and around Bath and will run on 20th and 21st March from 12-2pm. These are offered on a first come, first served basis and are completely free, so if you want to meet our experts, then add your business to the wait list now. >>>

Follow us on Twitter: #bizclinic

The expert panel are:

Richard Godfrey

Richard is the CEO of iPrinciples, a software company that harnesses the power of cloud computing to unleash highly interactive applications. Richard has over 20 years experience in the software development industry, both technical, managerial and in business development with consultancies and large software vendors including Deloitte and Microsoft. Richard is the panel’s technology expert and perfectly placed to address concerns about integrating digital solutions into a business.

Nicola Ray

Nicola, the founder of Modern Media, is a digital marketer with a passion for technology and experience across the B2B and B2C sector. Having worked in London agencies on brands including Coca-Cola, Eurostar, Sky and Virgin, across customer acquisition and retention, Nicola is well placed to answer your marketing questions. Nicola’s an expert in understanding customers and determining the best way to communicate to them so that sales targets are met.

Finbar Hawkins

Finbar brings the magic of creativity to the table. As part of the original team that developed Channel4.com, Finbar’s career has seen him become an expert in mobile, tablet and web apps. He injects creativity into technology, making it functional and beautiful. Finbar is entrepreneurial-minded having co-founded several digital ventures, and is currently MD of Moon, a digital agency based in the south west. He’s the panel’s expert in creative app solutions for mobile and web.

Simon Stapleton

Simon has 18 years experience in delivering cost-effective, value-added solutions to businesses of all sizes. Simon has managed technology and innovation in several FTSE100 companies, yet he particularly enjoys the challenge of using technology to enable growth in the SME market. Simon talks in business terms, and applies a straight-forward approach to helping business leaders make practical, implementable decisions.

Steve Richardson

Steve is a multi-award winning creative with over 19 years international experience. Prior to joining Mr B & Friends in 2008, Steve was the creative director of Interbrand, New Zealand. Steve’s experience ranges from managing large scale brand development and online projects for a wide range of multi-nationals, corporate and B2B brands. Steve has the rare talent of being able to think strategically as well as creatively across a range of media including digtal, brand, advertising and literature.

Bristol digital marketing consultancy Modern Media, launched recently to help technology companies create effective campaigns, has secured high-growth funding.

The award from EU-funded Solutions for Business has enabled Modern Media to take on a coach to enable it to grow quickly.

The firm is targeting the large number of technology companies clustered along the M4 corridor between Swindon and Bristol – recognised as the world’s second-largest area for silicon design.

Director Nicola Ray said: “Also based in this area, known as Silicon Gorge, are the Bristol & Bath Science Park and Science City Bristol. “When you add in the fact that both the University of the West of England and Bristol University have business support units, which help nurture a large number of companies – many of them technology-based businesses – we feel we are perfectly placed to support this growing sector.”

Gaining the award from Solutions for Business, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, was a key part of Modern Media’s strategy for quick growth. Businesses are given the award if they can demonstrate they are capable of achieving turnover of at least £500,000 within three years. Modern Media also plans to move into new offices by the end of the year.

The award consists of a minimum of 12 hours of coaching and coach Kim Jones has already helped the business with its strategic development and positioning. “Our key strength is demand generation,” added Nicola. “We get to really know a business and who its target market is. Then we develop a campaign which will drive quality traffic to the company’s website, leading to a high sales conversion rate.”

Marketing automation is one of the buzz words so frequently used by B2B marketers. Not surprising when it can be reduce time and cost, nudge leads gently along the sales funnel and increase the number of conversions. I personally relish the chance to get sophisticated and smart with marketing automation and the software tools out there allow just that, without the heavy investment you traditionally had to put into new systems, creative and processes.

Earlier this week, I attended a demo and best practice session by Marketo. They’re the fastest growing company in this sector and there’s no surprise why. I was absolutely blown away by the functionality of their CRM and marketing automation system.

I use several tools for monitoring and tracking our marketing efforts. From Google Analytics for website traffic through to various social and search results aggregators. It’s tedious, arduous and sometimes soul destroying trying to determine what worked best and how it delivered an ROI.

What I want is a tool that can deliver all my campaigns from organic search through to sales conversions – a place where I track and measure everything in one go, get ROI metrics linked to Salesforce and one user interface that’s seamless, intuitive and easy to use. That’s just what I discovered with Marketo. (May I say, they’re not paying me to write this, I’m simply impressed).

The power behind Marketo is truly awesome. Every single individual that comes to your website is tracked as a lead whether you know them or not. The time spent on your website, the pages they visited and the links they clicked are all monitored alongside other behavioural factors. At the point where they give you their data, usually through a download form or live chat, the database is enriched with their details and previous behaviour linked to the IP address given. What were once anonymous leads can now be marketed to in a variety of different ways depending on their behaviour and their propensity to buy.

When the lead has been sufficiently nurtured through a series of well planned and automatically designed, coded, tracked and despatched emails that deliver relevant messaging and valuable content, they drop into sales’ lap. Sales are presented with all the click behaviour, emails sent and their lead score, ready to pick up on a conversation about what the lead has engaged with. The conversation probably goes something like this:

Sales: Oh, I see you downloaded our white paper on nano-chip technology. That’s interesting. What did you think?

Lead: It was fascinating, it addressed all my concerns over some of the major issues with “sniffing” technologies. Your products are quite cutting edge…

Sales: That’s interesting. Our most appropriate product for compound analysis is the RKK133. Are you aware of this product? (Knowing very well that the lead is interested as he’s just spent 11 minutes on the page looking at the spec).

Sales also knows that the lead has downloaded two other white papers on “sniffer technology” and entered the site through a search on “chemical sniffer nanotechnology”. The sales guy knows exactly where the lead is in his evaluation of the product and can pull on this information to create real and valuable conversations with the lead. Oh and did I tell you the information is presented to sales in a clear and simple way, so it’s easily understood, fits on one small pop-up on the screen and the core details are pulled out clearly?

It also gives valuable insight into the return on investment from each and every marketing campaign, tying revenue to everything from Twitter to direct mail. The Salesforce integration is seamless ensuring that opportunities are followed up and closed faster than ever before. The reporting functionality is vast, but importantly, it can generate combined sales and marketing reports that your board of directors or investors will value.

So what’s this got to do with you? Well, if you’ve got a product to sell, whether its microchips or a SaaS subscription model, this kind of automation is ideal for you. You don’t need beautifully crafted emails and you don’t have to call up hundreds of cold leads. You simply make more of those who have expressed interested in your products and service, including those people that were once anonymous, and work them down your sales funnel fluidly. It’s a completely awesome, end-to-end marketing solution for lead management.

If you want to talk about marketing automation and how it can drive your technology business forward, then get in touch.

For years, buying technology has been the remit of the CIO or IT Director, depending on the size of the organisation. They had the power to determine the IT infrastructure, hardware, software and any technology devices. They had control over budgets and of suppliers. These days, things are very different.

Who makes the decisions

IT decisions are influenced by, and even made by, those outside the IT department. The way that technology permeates our very lives means that most of the organisation has an opinion on which technology is used and how it is used. The end user has an opinion and they’re very vocal about it.

With the cost of technology decreasing and being more accessible, department managers are also able sneak under the radar of the IT department to purchase IT. With low subscription costs, it’s easy to simply expense it without the IT department even knowing. For example, an HR manager could easily outsource payroll to the cloud or the sales director could sign up to a CRM tool such as Salesforce.com.

Furthermore, as Generation Y, a generation that has grown up with technology all around them, enters the workplace, they simply won’t stand for slow, cumbersome IT systems and technology.

Then there’s those around the CIO that have influence too. Gone are the days where there is simply a huge budget set aside for IT infrastructure. CFOs, COO and even CEOs are keen to slash costs in the current economic client and with the potential costs savings offered up by the cloud, there is likely to be significant pressure from above for change.

The challenges for marketing

So what does this mean for you? Well a few years ago, finding your buyer was easy. You simply bought an email/DM data list and hit them with some smart comms that resonated with the type of person you identified in your data request. Today, things are different. Your market is more diversified with those that influence and those that hold the purse strings.

Above all, know who your core target market is. Then, be smart with your creative. Each audience will require a different message that resonates on an emotional and rational level with them. What appeals to Gen Y will be completely different to those at the top. It makes our job more challenging and a hell of a lot more interesting.

As specialists in technology marketing, we get the chance to talk to many technology businesses about their marketing strategies and what types of marketing they have explored – or even discounted.

There are common issues which arise again and again in our discussions, issues which have either deterred an SME from exploring marketing options or, having delved into marketing, led to disappointing results.

So here we’d like to explore those common issues and examine why they need not be a stumbling block when it comes to instigating a successful online marketing campaign.

Plan? What plan?

Many technology SMEs have either no business plan or no marketing plan. Without an overall strategy any approach to marketing is likely to be scatter-gun and unmeasured, making the results impossible to evaluate.

Business strategist Keniche Ohnae summed it up perfectly when he said: “What business strategy is all about, what distinguishes it from all other kinds of business planning, is, in a word, competitive advantage. Without competitors there would be no need for strategy, for the sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as effectively as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors.”

Marketing doesn’t work!

We promise you it does, but it has to be part of a sustained campaign. A one-off leaflet or email isn’t going to bring in a flurry of new customers – many technology SMEs try this and are disappointed in the results.

Any marketing activity has to be well thought through and tied into the wider business objectives. KPIs need to be set to ensure the effectiveness of any campaign can be measured, and they need to be realistic.

Finally, any campaign has to be accurately targeted at the right audience. An advert for retirement planning is likely to fall on deaf ears if placed in a magazine or on a website for 20-year-olds! Likewise, your technology marketing needs to be in front of the right people at the right time.

Where do I find more ‘good’ leads?

Many business realise they need more clients like their best 20 percent but don’t know where to find them.

To do so, businesses need to look at your data. Work out who your best clients are and what media they consume. Having a better understanding of your customers and who you’re targeting will ensure more effective campaigns and improved results.

We don’t have the money

Budgets need to be taken into consideration, but please don’t assume all marketing is expensive, as there are plenty of low-cost tools which can still produce an effective campaign; the clever use of social media – Twitter, LinkedIn et al – is a prime example. Absolutely free, they just cost you your time.

However, it’s preferable to think not in terms of budgets but in terms of the value to be gained from marketing – what will the return on my investment (ROI) be if I spend £X? If you think in terms of ROI, then investing in an effective marketing strategy may not seem so daunting.

Setting sights too high

Unrealistic targets can only lead to disappointment. Determining a useful set of KPIs is just as important as coming up with a creative campaign. If the KPIs aren’t right from the outset, then the campaign is doomed to failure.

Lack of marketing experience

This is inclined to lead businesses to adopt a scattergun approach – a quick burst here, an email there. Here’s where a professional can really help, by drawing up a structured campaign, to suit your budget, which will meet a realistic and achievable set of KPIs.

Most technology companies have a simple brochure-style website, which – as the name suggests – has the function of showcasing products or services. These sites carry some details – perhaps ‘about us’, ‘what we do’ and, of course, ‘contact details’ – but aren’t there to simply to make sales. Their purpose is more to provide another platform on which to engage with customers and find potential leads.

But simple though they are, brochure-style websites still need to function effectively if they are to be found by potential customers.

So as with any website, the question of SEO needs to be addressed. How well does the site rank? Are the pages optimised?

There may be few words on the site, but these need to be chosen carefully to ensure they include the keywords and phrases for which customers are searching.

Brochure-style websites must be easy to use. Can your customers readily find the information they are looking for? How well organised is your site structure? Is the navigation clear? Is the information on the page presented in a way that is easy to understand? Cluttered, difficult to navigate sites are one reason why your visitors may leave to go to your competitors.

Imagery is important in brochure-style websites and visuals must accurately represent your brand, products or services. If the colours or visuals are too strong, they may distract your visitors from the important information you want to convey. A good balance is needed.

Analyse how your website is performing – because perform it must. Websites are an investment and if they don’t bring in leads and business they aren’t functioning effectively. Is your website generating leads? If so, are the leads of sufficient number and quality? There are steps you can take to generate more leads. For example, you could offer a free download (such as a magazine or ebook), but be sure to make this offer targeted at your core audience to ensure you capture their data.

By analysing your website statistics you can get an accurate picture of how your website is performing: where traffic comes from, where it drops off, which keywords/phrases are being searched for.

Google Analytics provides a wealth of information, so if you want to understand how your website is performing and make it work better, then that’s a great place to start. Alternatively, if you’d like to talk to us about making a brochure-style website perform better, get in touch.