How the internet and mobile force companies to implement new customer acquisition strategies

By Knowlton Thomas

The AQT’s ninth Big Bang ICT Sales & Marketing Forum held in May was attended by 200 leaders and partners from the technology industry. Major topics of discussion at the event were the Internet, the Web, and mobility—and how these three intertwined game changers have forced companies to implement new customer acquisition strategies. These new business models have a direct impact on human resources, the role of management teams, and even corporate structure.

Ally Motz of SiriusDecisions gave a presentation on the results of a recent B2B marketing survey highlighted this rapidly changing landscape: 58 percent of prospects originated from the web and this is estimated to rise to 71% by 2015, and companies that use social media generate 30 percent more information requests. The research also found that elements of mobility should be incorporated into the business immediately.

Entrepreneur Denis Lavallée called a number of industry practices into question. He called for a shift in the corporate structure that would focus all departments on the customer experience. He also noted that we should now be focussing on the five Ps of marketing, with Participation (conversation, community, collaboration, etc.) joining the already familiar Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement.

Nicolas Arsenault, CEO of Inovacom, spoke of mobility’s increasing influence, particularly with the constantly connected Generation Y. He encouraged participants to integrate mobility into their preferred media.

Reposted from Techvibes Media

Knowlton Thomas is the Associate Editor of Techvibes Media. He is also the Web Editor of The Other Press, a weekly newspaper, and a regular columnist for them as well.

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers provide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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Tech and the city: Toronto is Canada’s high-tech hub

By Vanessa Caldwell

Toronto is Canada’s high-tech hub

Toronto is known for lots of things. The longest street in the world. The tallest freestanding structure in the world (at least, such was our claim to fame until 2007). North America’s largest continuous underground pedestrian system.

Toronto is also gaining global steam as Canada’s leading high-tech hub: home to 30% of Canada’s ICT workforce and a thriving entrepreneurial environment where the number of ICT service firms has increased by 2,000 since 2002.

A recent report, Canada’s High-Tech Hub: Toronto, showcases highlights from Toronto’s high-tech scene, including an overview of the entire sector and details about our city’s research and innovation community, talent pool and investment environment.

The report also details Toronto’s emerging tech scene–including mentions of many MaRS clients.

Mobile device proliferation will drive mobile platforms and apps

By the end of 2010, 4.6 million smartphones made their way into the hands of Canadians. Businesses are looking at how these devices can be used to improve efficiency and accuracy across all fields, from health care workers to sales staff. The mobile scene has exploded in Toronto in recent years, growing to include events such as MobileMonday @ MaRS and Mobile Innovation Week.

MaRS clients in the mobile space:

• Clip Mobile
• MiiToU
• Burstn
• Peraso Technologies
• Common Enterprise
• JBB Mobile

Digital media will transform creative communication and interaction

Digital media is well positioned for healthy growth in Canada: 42% of Canadians share pictures online, 41% play games, 36% download music and movies and 35% access online newspapers. Businesses are going digital too–think paperless education, reviewing presentations on the fly and sales presentations with clients onsite.

MaRS digital media clients:

• Shiny Ads
• Jigsee
• PushLife
• Uken Games
• CognoVision (acquired by Intel in November 2010)
• InGamer
• InteraXon
• ARB Labs
• LeanIn

Social networking mania will demand attention and insight

Social networking is playing an increasingly important role in the ways people connect, from our personal lives to our interactions with organizations. According to a 2009 consumer survey, 74% of respondents participated in or posted to social networking or community sites. 50% of Canadian organizations use social networking for recruiting and 40% use it as an information source when making ICT purchase decisions.

Toronto is home to Facebook’s Canadian office and will soon be home to a LinkedIn outpost. With two of the biggest social networking sites setting up their Canadian offices in Toronto, opportunities for thought leadership, knowledge sharing and partnerships will undoubtedly arise.

MaRS social networking clients:

• Sysomos (acquired by MarketWire in July 2010)
• Rypple
• MyCityLives
• Bitstrips
• TeamSave

Canada’s High-Tech Hub: Toronto (download the PDF here) illustrates and confirms the City of Toronto’s motto: Diversity is our Strength. The breadth, depth and scale of the tech sector in Toronto is enormous and is poised for tremendous growth in the years to come. Where will you fit in?

Reposted from MaRS

Vanessa is a writer at MaRS. She writes all kinds of things, like posts for the MaRS blog, articles for Convergence (the MaRS magazine) and the weekly MaRS eNewsletters.

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Is Social Media Starting to Die Out?

By James Burchill

Trends on the Internet are fun to watch and move very quickly compared to some other markets. For instance, while the Web’s trends tend to go in cycles of one or two years, trends in food and restaurants tend to go in cycles of nearly a decade. So the fast-changing world of the Internet can be exciting.

The latest trend to be noted amongst those who watch such things is that social media is losing some of its lustre with some users. A visible decline has been seen starting in February of this year, denoting a possible plateau during the Christmas Holiday and now falling steadily.

The Trend Itself

The trend is a 10-day moving average in terms of number of tweets on Twitter using The Daily’s iPad application. The app’s usage peaked at about 220 tweets per day in early February, then dropped quickly and significantly down to about 85 per day by the end of the month.

It’s since shown steady usage with ups and downs until mid- to late-March, when it began to decline again though at a steadier pace. On about March 20, it had been averaging around 85 tweets per day, but at the end of the month had dropped to about 50 per day.

You’ve probably noticed two things about this data.

What It Really Means

The trend itself is not about social media at all, though that’s where most of the headlines discussing it have gone. The truth is, these numbers represent a drop in the user activity and interest in one of the newest news outlets – this one being The Daily, the iPad-specific news app.

Let’s face it, though: a headline saying that social media is dying gets a lot more reader interest than one that says The Daily is dying.

To be fair to the information’s collectors at Niemen Labs, though, the numbers of some other gadget-specific news outlets were also considered. They show roughly the same results, though not in as dramatic a way as those of The Daily.

What the data really seems to be saying is that current (paid or unpaid) applications for finding news using the iPad are lacking. Users seem to be dropping them, or at least not using them as often. The high point for The Daily was during the Holiday season and into the New Year when the app was brand new and was getting heavy publicity as part of Apple’s push for the release of the iPad 2.

Since then, users have complained about the app’s shortcomings and basically heard the “we’re working on it” line. In the fast-paced world of the Internet, “working on it” for more than a few days or even a week means losing users. The longer you take, the more you’ll lose and the harder it will be to win them back. The Daily seems to be missing that point.

The Future of The Daily

With the losses over time that The Daily appears to be sustaining, according to Niemen Labs’ information, it’s not likely that the app will survive without a major publicity effort. In their favor, though, Daily promoters can also note that Twitter itself is losing users as well. Many use it as a glorified RSS feed for their blogs and despite its best efforts, the Twitosphere has become inundated with spammers.

So where will The Daily go? If they’re smart, they’ll revamp their app to match user expectations and then they’ll make another huge marketing push. If they wait too much longer, though, they’ll have a tough row to hoe and may have waited too long.

JAMES BURCHILL shows individuals and companies how to profit from the innovative use of Internet technologies, strategic content and social media marketing. You can find out more at James’ website and you can subscribe to his J-List and get over 40 articles, reports and advice on Internet Marketing today.

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers provide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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Small Businesses Planning Techie Marketing

By James Burchill

According to the Ad-ology 2011 Small Business Marketing Forecast, small business owners are increasingly optimistic overall, and 46% plan increased marketing spending in 2011, up from 29% who planned increases in 2010. Email marketing and company websites continue to be the most popular online marketing methods, but 45% plan to do more with online video and 35% said the same for mobile advertising.

Interest in using Facebook, Twitter and other social networks for business is up considerably over last year. While generating leads continues to be the top perceived benefit of social media, more businesses recognize the value of social media for improving the customer experience.

JAMES BURCHILL shows individuals and companies how to profit from the innovative use of Internet technologies, strategic content and social media marketing. You can find out more at James’ website and you can subscribe to his J-List and get over 40 articles, reports and advice on Internet Marketing today.

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers provide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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The use of social media tactics for B2B

By James Burchill

Participating on company-branded or managed social networks is the most commonly used tactic, with 87% of study participants indicating that they execute it. This is likely because of the ease of setting up profiles on social networking sites. Creating a social networking profile on Facebook or LinkedIn may only take minutes, but without a strategy and consistent execution, results will likely suffer.

This is also the case with the next most commonly used B2B social marketing tactics; microblogging on company branded or managed microblogs. It only takes minutes to create a Twitter profile, but the results will be reflective of the strategy and consistent execution of this tactic.

Another commonly used tactic is blogging on company-branded or managed blogs. Consistently creating and publishing blog posts requires significant resources, but since it is a highly effective tactic, more than half of B2B marketers participating in this year’s study indicated they were doing so.

* Source: Marketing Sherpa

JAMES BURCHILL shows individuals and companies how to profit from the innovative use of Internet technologies, strategic content and social media marketing. You can find out more at James’ website and you can subscribe to his J-List and get over 40 articles, reports and advice on Internet Marketing today.

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers provide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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Lost in the new world of advertising

By Stephen Rhodes

More and more, I hear clients talk about being lost when it comes to the latest trends in marketing, meaning, of course, social media.

It reminds me of the mid 90s when many small businesses migrated to the Internet because…well because they thought they had to be hip. Many jumped on board without much consideration for why they were among the newly converted or how it would help their business. “We gotta be there,” was the mantra in many boardrooms. Some are still trying to figure it out.

The same thing is happening today with social media. Businesses are setting up Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn, Flickr and even YouTube accounts without so much as a …how will this help our business grow?  “We gotta be there” is still the clarion call.

Advertising hasn’t changed much in 100 years. It’s still about  attracting attention, engaging minds, triggering  emotions, and changing the way people think. If you can do that you will generate sales.

What has changed is the delivery methodology.

If you want to influence behavior there is a spectrum of tools including direct mail, newspaper and magazine ads, commercial websites, radio and TV, and, of course, social media – the new darling of marketing.

The key is knowing which tool(s) works best for you. And not all tools will be effective for your business. I have a client who can track new sales every time we deliver a direct mail piece to a group of targeted clients. The key word here is targeted, often lost among the “I gotta be hip” crowd. But the point is, direct mail works for him, and he can see (measure) the return on his investment.

First and foremost is understanding your customers. Who are they and how can you reach them is the pivotal question. What do you have that they want. (the what’s in it for me question) Can I build an ongoing relationship and how can I capitalize on that to build an even bigger customer base.

These are questions you should ask every day.

Don’t get me wrong. Social Media is the future of marketing and communications. Building your own group of followers, a community of customers, all engaged and part of your business is a powerful opportunity to communicate a targeted message.

But take a measured approach. Who is your customer, what message do you want to deliver and what is the best way to get it there? Some things never change.

Reposted from The Marketing Pad

Stephen Rhodes is President of The Marketing PAD, a full-service strategic communications and marketing company. Read Blogpad or visit The Marketing Pad online.

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers provide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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Social Media in Biotech and Healthcare

By Jeremy Grushcow

Use of social media by pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and industry observers will continue to grow in scale, value and importance this year. The emergence of Twitter as a public health surveillance tool and the pending (still pending…) release of the FDA’s social media guidelines will contribute to this growth in the short term, and we’ll continue to keep an eye on novel developments.

This post is the first in a series briefly outlining the biotech industry trends we’ve been following on the blog and noting some recent developments, plus directions for 2011.

Re-posted from the Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Jeremy Grushcow is a Foreign Legal Consultant practising corporate law at Ogilvy Renault LLP. He has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology. His practice focuses on life science and technology companies.

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers pro vide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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Millennials, Privacy, and Social Networking

By James Burchill

The term “millennials” was coined to label the current generation of people who have grown up never knowing what life is like without a computer, gadgets, and Internet connections.  Many of the younger millennials have had social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter available to them for most of their teenage and adult lives.

This group is important to marketers because they are the mid and long-term future for marketing.  For the brand marketing focus, that is extremely important.  So tomorrow’s “Nike” and “Coke” will be defined today, to this segment.

What Millennials Think

In April of this year, Harris took a poll of people aged 18-55 about their use of social networking and their privacy concerns with it.  In this poll, Harris found that millennials (18-34 age group) and their slightly older peers (35-44) were very savvy when it comes to both social networking and privacy.

Of the millennials, 85% understand and take seriously the fact that their participation in social networking means giving up some privacy.  Despite this, 44% of them use social media to give negative comments about brands or specific companies and products.  Yet with this heavy usage of the social networks comes a cynical outlook towards them.

51% of them said that they can’t trust a social network website or company at least some of time and 19% said most of the time.  28% said they could never trust a social networking company with their data.  89% of young women in the survey said that they would never put anything on Facebook they don’t want their parents to see.

This is interesting, as that same group is the one most active in most social networking activities.

Many of those surveyed are actively monitoring their own online footprints, removing or distancing themselves from those things they believe will affect others’ perception of them.

What This Means for Marketing

Those who engage in social network marketing should understand that while anyone in this age group who befriends you or chooses to “like” your product is probably paying you a big compliment, it should be taken with a grain of salt.  Because these millennials are well plugged in, they are just as likely to be fickle about their choices and change that “like” to a network-wide negative message.

This fickleness means that marketing geared towards this group must be both consistent and reliable.  The product and brand must be held intact.  It also means that you should keep their privacy at the forefront and not abuse or misuse their information.

Although most marketing experts stick with the “you must have a list” mantra, they may be missing an important point regarding that list.  Not only should you have a list, but you should also care for the people who are on the list and carefully guard their trust and perception of your brand.

Making a habit of keeping those on your lists as happy as possible is much easier than attempting damage control when one of them gets angry and several thousand people find out about it through them.

JAMES BURCHILL shows individuals and companies how to profit from the innovative use of Internet technologies, strategic content and social media marketing. You can find out more at James’ website and you can subscribe to his J-List and get over 40 articles, reports and advice on Internet Marketing today.

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers provide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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Top Three Reasons why Biotech Companies should use Social Media

By Jeremy Grushcow

Tech startups use social media avidly [rabidly?], but biotech companies? Not so much.  Biotech companies should be blogging, tweeting and linking in like mad, though.  Here’s why:

1. Your customers (pharma companies) do it. More and more pharma companies are active in social media. Take a look at this article in the December issue of Life Science Leader (h/t @FiercePharma) or read the Dose of Digital blog any day of the week and you’ll be directed to interesting information about how products are being developed, tested and marketed. These are things you need to keep in mind as you move through your own product development process. Also, lots of pharma folks are on LinkedIn, so if you are as well, you’ll maximize your ability to reach out through personal connections when you’re building a constituency for your partnering deals.  Here’s my Twitter list of BioPharma news and analysis.
2. Your investors do it. Check out this Twitter List of Canadian VCs, Angel investors and other funders.  Look at what they’re talking about, and you’ll see you don’t have to tell people what you ate for lunch (or disclose your latest lab results) to convey that you’re doing something interesting that other people are interested in.  Check out the CVCA’s blog, Capital Rants or the Maple Leaf Angels blog.  In Toronto? Stop in at the MaRS blog or the R.I.C. blog to see where investors will be and what they’re thinking about.
3. Your peers (other startups) do it. If you’re not participating in online conversations, you’re missing a world of good advice and perspectives.  Click over to Rick Segal’s blog or  StartupCFO, Mark MacLeod’s Blog. It doesn’t really matter that these guys aren’t involved in biotech. Lots of startups are facing similar issues to yours — funding, staffing, etc. and getting out of the biotech bubble from time to time can be a good thing.  Plus, being at a startup is isolating, particularly in biotech with its strong incentives to run a virtual company, so go online to find peers, mentors and other resources.

If this all sounds reasonable, but you’re still skeptical, or not interested, then find someone in your organization who’s excited about it, regardless of their actual job, and set him/her loose.  [Not totally loose, of course. Common sense is critical online because it’s hard to hit “undo” on the web, and appropriate confidentiality remains key to biotech ventures.  But all your people have common sense and discretion, right?]

We’ll be keeping an eye out for biotechs and other bioscience companies that are making good use of social media as part of our Biotech Trends series this coming year.  Other suggestions for 2010 biotech trends?  Let us know.

Re-posted from the Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Jeremy Grushcow is a Foreign Legal Consultant practising corporate law at Ogilvy Renault LLP. He has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology. His practice focuses on life science and technology companies.

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers pro vide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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Is a website enough to market your business?

By Radi Hindawi

One of my clients asked me a very crucial question when looking at their company’s overall marketing strategies:

“Will a website be enough for me to launch my company and attract new customers?”

With the increased availability of online marketing tools including search engine optimization and social media, it is more likely that users starting new businesses are able to attract higher traffic levels to their web pages.

HOWEVER, it is important to keep in mind that many audience groups continue to refer to the “traditional” communications tools such as newspapers, banners and radio broadcasting. Focusing efforts on online marketing only may result in companies missing out on a major chunk of the market and potential customers.

Although a website is an important component of marketing a product/service, it cannot be done in isolation.

When developing a marketing campaign for a new business, product or service, an entrepreneur usually asks three important questions:

Who are my target customers and how can I attract them?

What unique services do I have compared to my primary competitors? What makes me different?

How do I feel about changing/adapting a particular business strategy or structure?

However, a fourth question businesses should also consider, especially when starting an online website, is:

Have my targeted clients even heard of my company?

Having a powerful online presence will lose its value if customers do not know who you are and are not incented to visit your webpages. Even with the availability of highly sophisticated IT and search engine tools, ‘word of mouth’ still plays a pivotal role in our current industry, as do traditional marketing outlets and communication channels. Emerging businesses are likely to research companies before actually looking to create some form of relationship with the seller.

Let us take Best Buy Canada (http://www.bestbuy.ca) as an example. Best Buy has a very sophisticated webpage that provides comprehensive customer service and support to its varying customers. At present, it is safe to assume Best Buy generates significant sales as a result of its powerful online presence and effective e-commerce efforts. However, this success has only been attainable because customers are aware of the Best Buy brand, and this, correspondingly, has helped  develop a loyalty to the company with users who are  readily able to visit their online pages for more information.

The idea is simple – How will the market define you? Do you have a unique trait that sets you apart from your competitors? What will your clients and customers know you as which makes you different?

Following the example above, Best Buy has continuously implemented a powerful brand name that emphasizes their non-commission staff whose primary objective is to support you in your purchasing decision.

This sets Best Buy apart from their primary competitors who all work on commission.

A website can help to get your company going and expand your market reach virtually. However, businesses must also look to other vehicles to help build a powerful brand name, raise awareness, promote their product/service and attract a larger group of potential clients in the market.

Radi Hindawi is a Digital Enterprise Specialist graduate from the University of Toronto’s Communications, Culture and Information Technology program. Radi has leveraged his academic background and professional experiences in web development, online communications and digital marketing to found a digital media company and manage a successfully growing blog. For more information, please visit www.radihindawi.com

The RIC blog is designed as a showcase for entrepreneurs and innovation. Our guest bloggers pro vide a wealth of information based on their personal experiences. Visit RIC Centre for more information on how RIC can accelerate your ideas to market.

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