This Week's B2B Word on the Street is: CREATIVE
The first time a person is called "creative" usually happens early in life, and it's sometimes used as an explanation for the child being a bit "different." "Coloring outside the lines" and "marching to the beat of a different drum" are not actions attributed to conformists.
And while the most creative people I know are definitely not followers, they're not always totally original, either. Creative and original would seem to be synonymous, but it also takes a lot of creativity to apply an established idea or concept in a brand new way.
Creative people are, first and foremost, very observant. They also question almost everything out of a natural and endless curiosity.
Some creative types work best alone, but in advertising and marketing, most creatives thrive on collaboration. We work in a time-sensitive, strategy-driven process that doesn't often allow for a total reinvention of the wheel on every assignment. And professionals can't wait for angelic muses, freeze in front of a blank canvas or suffer from writer's block. Open-minded collaboration with optimistic energy and a clear understanding of the challenge/opportunity at hand is like high-octane fuel for us. But the SECRET WEAPON of a good creative team is their shared bank of a lifetime of careful observations of pop culture, history, human habits and humor, as well as a healthy amount of both respect and knowledge of what other great creatives have achieved in the past, and what their contemporaries are creating now. This often results in what are not just original ideas, but reshaped and improved ideas applied in a totally new way.
Ideas already exist all around us, so we don't always have to make more. Sometimes the biggest challenge to bringing a great idea to life is all the other ideas stealing its oxygen. Clients who have built companies successful enough to hire agencies obviously have ideas that are already working for them. Listening and asking good questions of clients and their customers often reveal untapped ideas that, viewed with a fresh perspective and professional polish, can be the start something big.
At our B2B marketing firm, MLT Creative, the motto is "We make ideas work." Sure, we love seeing a completely original idea of ours drive a campaign to success, but we also know we don't have a monopoly on eureka moments. One of our best capabilities is recognizing good ideas when we see or hear them, and few ad agencies know how to creatively shape, improve and implement them as well as we do. We don't make all the ideas, but we sure help make them work.
Billy Mitchell is the president and senior creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.
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A couple of months ago, I was interrupted at work by a phone call from Ryan Gamble, co-president of the Seattle-based
Storyville Coffee Company; he may not have known it at the time, but he had no more than 60 seconds to keep my attention before I would politely - but hurriedly - hang-up.
He didn't have me at hello, but when he said that he'd just been to the MLT Creative website, he at least bought himself another few seconds.
At his second mention of Storyville, I went online to check out its website as we spoke. While Gamble told me how cool ou
r company seemed to be, I was getting the same impression of his.
Now, I have a thing for coffee and, thanks in part to having recently seen an episode of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" that explored various types of beans and the best ways to brew them, I was intrigued by the passion Storyville seemed to have for their craft.
But that's not what the call was about. The call was business-to-business and, since B2B marketing is what we do at MLT Creative, I'm always willing to discuss a mutually beneficial business deal.
But that's not what the call was about, either. Not really. The call was about Storyville Live, a coffee-and-concert series for a good cause, and because Gamble had done some homework on us, he came to me prepared with an idea he thought I'd be interested in. And he was right.
You see, there's more to Storyville Coffee than selling magic beans, just as there's more to MLT Creative than B2B marketing. Like us, Storyville is a cool company that believes in doing well by doing good. While MLT has long supported nonprofits such as Genesis Shelter, Storyville has taken up a global cause about which they're just as passionate - fighting modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Proceeds from Storyville Live concerts go to the International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that seeks justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. By hosting this event with Storyville, we're doing our part to help them solve a global problem.
But, before I tell you a little about Storyville Live, what have we learned so far about B2B marketing and person-to-person communications?
- Do your homework first
- Make your call personal and relevant
- Get your story straight and get to the point
- And yes, Always Be Closing
So where do you come into this Storyville story of mine?
Well, if you're reading this blog, it might be because you're in B2B marketing yourself, and maybe the tips I mentioned will be of some help. But I'd like to invite you to a Storyville Live event, so that you can help us help change the world with one simple formula:
Music + Coffee = Freedom
MLT Creative is hosting a Storyville Live Concert on June 29th, and you're invited. If you happen to enjoy great live music, the company of other cool people and the taste of gourmet coffee and desserts, then this is an event you don't want to miss. And if you oppose modern-day slavery and human trafficking around the world, then you have even more reason to join us.
If you'd like to support the cause but can't make it out in person, please help us spread the word and sell out our little shindig by sharing this story via any of the social media links shown above.
Thanks, and I hope to see you here!
Billy Mitchell is the president and senior creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.
Nothing compares to good old fashioned face-to-face networking, but the days and weeks leading up to, and even after, a recent trip to Memphis, Tenn., reminded me that social media marketing – regardless of whether its B-to-B
or B-to-C – is all about relationships.
Billy Mitchell and I traveled to Memphis a few weeks ago to join fellow marketers at a social media seminar led by best-selling author, blogger and marketer, Chris Brogan. Chris is president of New Marketing Labs and a leading authority on all things social media - particularly how to make social media work for large and mid-sized companies.
The opportunity to meet and listen to a bona fide expert was great and worth the trip, but it wasn’t the best part. The best part was meeting other marketing professionals from the US and Canada IRL (in real life), more than a few of whom I've followed on Twitter for quite some time. The chance to make new connections and solidify existing ones was what the trip was really all about. The seminar was really just an excuse for all of us to come together (no offense, Chris), and we all have Amy Howell to thank for it.
Taking a cue from one of Chris Brogan's recent blog articles, I wanted to follow his lead and turn my #MarketerMonday recommendations from the #BroganMemphis event into a blog post. This is a diverse group of incredibly sharp minds, and whether you’re a B2B or B2C marketer, a PR practitioner, social media beginner or expert, you’ll want to follow them, too.
Cick here to follow this list.
@HowellMarketing - The hostess with the most, Amy is the principal of a Memphis based marketing, PR and social media agency. Amy and her team planned, promoted and did an outstanding job pulling off this event.
@alysdrake - Ask anyone who attended, and they'll all agree. Alys is awesome! If Amy was powering the #broganmemphis train, then Alys - a PR pro from Howell Marketing - kept it on the tracks.
@AnneDGallaher – Principal of a leading PR and marketing firm in Pennsylvania.
@marisacorser – Marketing strategist and Anne’s right hand.
@jeremyvictor - Jeremy is a leading B2B social media and content marketing strategist, and is the editor of B2Bbloggers.com.
@DebWeinstein– Principal of B2C advertising and marketing firm in Canada.
@ProfS - Kathy Snavely is a college professor from Pennsylvania and expert on marketing, social media and entrepreneurship.
@treypennington - Trey is an integrated marketing consultant and author of the upcoming book, Spitball Marketing.
@ericfletcher - Eric is a marketer, blogger, law firm CMO and all-around great guy.
@ryansauers – Ryan is one of the principals of large printing business near our Georgia office. He has an advanced degree in Sales, and is an active blogger and speaker.
@JeffAshcroft - Jeff is a leading authority on logistics and supply-chain management. He can also be found @TheSocialCMO
@KentHuffman – Kent is CMO of a Texas-based business and one of the most helpful marketing professionals on Twitter. Kent also started #MarketerMonday.
@alexromanovich - Alex is the CMO of EuroSpaClub International, and leads the charge at @Social2B.
@markwschaefer - Mark is a college educator and consultant in business strategy, social media and economic development. Check out his blog, {grow}.
@TrendTracker - Glen Gilmore is an attorney and business consultant specializing in integrating traditional marketing with social media.
@ChrisBrogan - A bona fide social media rock star. Follow and learn.
Cick here to follow this list.
Special thanks to @SheaBlackwell at Shea Blackwell Photography for use of TheSocialCMO Crew group shot with Chris Brogan.
Patrick Maness is Director, Strategy with B-to-B marketing agency MLT Creative and heads their Rhode Island office.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.
One of our art directors at MLT Creative, Sean Borja heard on NPR this morning that today is the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's speech which included the fa
mous quote about "The Man In The Arena."
Sean knows I love this quote and have it hanging on my wall across from my desk. I can't help but look at it every day and a while back I wrote a blog post entitled Doer. In the article I explain why the quote has meaning for me beyond the truly inspiring words it delivers.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I think the man himself was an American Treasure and I believe these words are a timeless kick-in-the-behind for any entrepreneur who needs to be reminded to buck up, take defeats along with victories and never quit learning from both.
I'm also sharing a link to the original speech in it's entirety as it was delivered on April 23, 1910 at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.
Billy Mitchell is the president and senior creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.
As someone who used to be a Digital Tourist, I am now encouraging everyone at our B2B marketing agency, as well as our clients to become engaged and enlightend Digital Citizens.
Chapter 12 of the book Inbound Marketing describes a Digital Citizen as "a person that is very familiar with the web and speaks web fluently." Some people are practically born with this citizenship and it comes to them naturally. Others, like me, have to work at it. 
When testing your staff and/or prospective employees, for Digital Citizenship.There are a few questions the authors of the book recommend you ask:
- What RSS reader do you use? Can you show it to me?
- Do you rank first for your name in Google?
- Do you use Delicious? Can you show it to me?
- Do you have a blog? Can you show it to me?
- Do you use Facebook or LinkedIn? When was the last time you updated your profile?
- Do you use Twitter? Can you show it to me?
- Do you have a channel on YouTube? Can you show it to me?
If this sounds foreign to you, don't worry.
If I'd taken this test a year ago, I would have failed it miserably. You don't have to be a born braniac to develop the skills and knowledge you need to pass inspection and start lifting your marketing results.
I am a true believer in inbound marketing, especially if it's implemented strategically along with more conventional outbound marketing efforts and centered around a dynamic business website at the hub.
Ask anyone at MLT Creative and they'll tell you how adamant I am that they actively practice what we preach to our clients. I encourage them to stay active across multiple social media, contribute to our blog and to follow and engage with other experts in the field of B2B marketing.
I think we all should keep learning--and that means you too.
Whether on the client side or agency side of things, if you're in marketing and want to outthink and outperform your competition, you need to know all you can about inbound marketing. It's not easy to keep up. But it can be fun.
Lately, I've had a good time declaring a "Digital Citizen's Arrest!" on any employee who's been inactive on social media or blogging. I publicly shame them via email, a Twitter post, or maybe even call them out in a creative swirl session in front of everyone.
I'm not sure if anyone here finds this is as funny as I do, but hopefully you get the point.
This is the most exciting time ever to be in marketing, and it's no time to pull an illegal U-turn like Barney Fife.
Here's some ideas from two of the B2B braniacs and maniacs I learn from.
Recently B2B creative Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners asked and answered the question, "How often do you need to publish content to do content marketing right?"
B2B copywriter Joan Damico posted another article advocating a great idea: Create a customized B2B Marcom Tool she calls your Conversation Calendar.
What are you doing new to drive your marketing efforts this year?
Are you being a good Digital Citizen?
Billy Mitchell is the president and senior creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.
I know a great idea when I see or hear one, and The B2B Twitterer of the Year Awards is a wonderful example.
Odds are you came across this article by way of a link through Twitter, LinkedIn or some other social medium (SM). If so, you are probably very aware of the ever-growing role that SM in general, and specifically Twitter, is now playing in many business-to-business marketing plans.
If you’re not big on Twitter (yet), and are reading this because you happened to be visiting the MLT Creative website, I encourage you to bear with me as I explain why I think the B2BTOTY Awards are brilliant, and why the winner will be someone I’ll gladly follow.
First of all, the award is not about Twitter; it’s about how Twitter is being utilized by a B2B professional as a two-way channel for sharing B-to-B Marketing and Communications ideas, research, case studies, forecasts, product and service insights, strategies, questions and answers, invitations, reminders, referrals and more. And all in messages that are145 characters or less in length.
The B2BTOTY Awards Program is the brainchild of Joe Zuccaro, who says, “It’s not just about how many followers someone has, or how many times a person tweets in a given time. It’s about creating a community and the value a B2B entity brings to it.”
The marketing professionals who will be judging these awards have a big challenge ahead of them. I’m nominating several candidates I follow for different reasons, and just choosing one favorite would be tough enough. And choosing from the hundreds of other B2B marketing “braniacs & maniacs” I follow wasn’t easy, either.
Yes, I follow lots of different leaders, but I’m not sheepish about it. The great thing about Twitter is that most of them follow back, and everyone gets smarter as a result.
Twitter is an open exchange of information that flows non-stop with, or without, you and me. So I dive in several times a day just as I used to leaf through trade journals (and still do).
So what makes one B2B Twitterer best? Great question. Just to give you an idea, here are some of the B2B Twitterers I follow (there are many more).
@jeremyvictor
Jeremy is a B2B Marketing genius and creator of www.B2Bbloggers.com
@Michelelinn
Michele is one of the SavvyB2Bmarketing.com sisterhood and a Freelance Writer
@rebelbrown
A rebel. Oh, and a damn-good B2B strategist, spin-doctor and rainmaker, that’s Rebel Brown.
@B2B_MarketingPR
Kim Cornwall Malseed is a good seed. And a great B2B Tech Marketing expert
@ckburgess
Cheryl is a an Advertising & Marketing Braniac, Maniac and Strategist
@diannahuff
If you haven’t been asleep for the past year and you’re in B2B Marketing, you probably already know of Diana Huff
@basebot
John Bottom is tops as a B2B marketing and social media specialist (15,717 followers)
@ardath421
Don’t know Diana, surely you know Ardath Albee? If not, here’s your chance.
@MaryFlaherty
Massachusetts-based, Mary Flaherty provides a creative perspective on B2B Marketing
@dgtlpapercuts
Jeffrey Cohen bleeds B2B and I learn a lot from his tweets and his blog.
@MichaelGass
Michael Gass is a gas and his tweets and blog provide new-business fuel for agencies | @Dougkessler
London-based Doug Kessler is part of Velocity Partners and off-the-chart-smart
@elizabethsosnow
I really like Elizabeth’s last name. Sosnow. And I really like her B2B Marketing ideas. Always has great things to contribute.
@b2bspecialist
His name says it all. Great Tweeter and all-around B2B Braniac
@B2B_Sales_Leads
“Hello, I’m a Mac”. Mr. Mcintosh is from Rhode Island a B2B Sales & Leads leader
@GalenDY
I met Galen in person at B2B MarketingProfs conference in Boston. I follow his lead.
@markwschaefer
MarkW. Schaefer is truly a marketing braniac, maniac, humorist, futuristand friend. His tweets are often links to lively debates, discussionsand amusement.
@StephanieTilton
Oneof the first B2B Braniacs & Maniacs I ever followed and I stillcan’t keep up. Also another member of the @Savvy_B2B sisterhood
@CopywriterTO
Rachel Foster, from Toronto, is great B2B writer and thinker and her tweets help prove it.
@copywriter4u
Joan Damico is further proof that twitter is a great place for great B2B writers to express themselves.
@JasonFalls
Isaw Jason Falls present at the Inbound Marketing Summit in SanFrancisco. He didn’t fall at all and there are good reasons he has19,140 followers |
The nomination form for the actual award is very extensive, so I won’t be nominating all of these. But I do suggest you take time to follow them if you are interested in learning all you can and sharing your knowledge about B2B marketing. And if all the other nominees are as deserving as mine, you can bet the winner B2BTOTY Award will surely be worth following. If you have someone you’d like to nominate, don’t wait too late, the deadline is December 18th, 2009.
I’d like to hear your thoughts about this award idea and if you also follow any of the same thought leaders I do, share your ideas on them as well. And to all of the other 1,000 plus B2B braniacs & maniacs I follow that I didn’t mention this time, I apologize. Thanks!
Billy Mitchell is the president and senior creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.
I just read an interesting blog post by Jeremy Victor of
BtoBbloggers that asked that question. I suggest you read the
article and its subsequent comments, but I'm going to add my comment, and compliments, here.
Long live BtoB Magazine.
Although I scan as many trade pubs as I can for my clients' respective industries, I carefully read BtoB Magazine. So it's the trade pub I know best, and I'll use it for reference in the rest of my comment about "where print advertising will fall into the B2B mix."
In my opinion, the premier trade pub in any specific industry functions as a hub that delivers value beyond the printed pages. BtoB Magazine is, to me, like Automotive News is to a franchise car dealer. The articles tell me what's going on, and the ads do too, and it's all in one place. Well, actually that's no longer true. I often go to BtoB's website, I subscribe to their e-newsletter, I follow them on Twitter and I'm even LinkedIn with them.
Now that I think about it, one of the best B2B forums I've been to all year was one BtoB hosted in Atlanta. They had a panel of CMOs from several leading Atlanta companies including Steele Hays of Sage North America, Leah Roscoe of VeriFone and Stephen Zimba of CBeyond; all three very innovative B2B marketers.
Now, I may be unusual among my peers, but I don't think so. I follow many B2B marketers on Twitter (both client-side and agency-side), and nearly every time I check the stream, it's loaded with retweets of BtoB articles and posts. And it's always something worthwhile.
How will page counts hold up? And are their ad sales adequate? I don't know. But I sure hope business is good for BtoB. I predict that their content will keep them alive, and that all the new ways to share it (or sell or profit from it in some way at some point) will help them thrive.
As someone who has a role in advising clients on when and where to advertise and promote, the trade pubs for their industries are a critical component of most plans. Sure, budgets were slashed this year, but we'll all need those pubs as part of the rebound, and budgets will be back. The good news about the share going to electronic is that the trade pubs will get some of that too, because their content is such a magnet.
So for all the other entrepreneurs out there who also love the best trade pub in your industries, let's hope the future is bright for them as they shed light on the information we need.
What do you think the future of trade pubs will look like?
Billy Mitchell is the president and senior creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.
Unless you believe the world of B2B marketing has stopped evolving, the answers are "YES" and "YES."
The B2B marketing bloggers to whom I subscribe provide a powerful flow of useful information and ideas. The only problem I have is keeping up with it all.
We can all learn from other B-to-B marketers. I try to apply shared ideas, case studies, informative links, eBooks and engaging interaction to the needs of my clients as well as my marketing agency. Whatever your industry, there is so much information available that one of the things I'm most interested in now is how to best receive it, digest it, apply it and, hopefully, pass it on to others. "Contributing to the conversation" is what it's all about.
Here are two great examples of helpful eBooks I discovered from two B2B experts I follow via Twitter. The first, from Proteus B2B, includes tons of tips on B2B emailing; and the second, from Velocity Partners, is all about "Content Marketing."
I subscribe to several B2B blogs via the direct RSS feed link which, automatically notifies me of new posts via email. Most I follow through Twitter, where an interesting 140-character microblog might entice me to check out the rest of the story on their blog. Most of the time, I will then scan across their most recent articles and find other interesting ideas while I'm there.
There are so many great ones, but if you want to learn from one of the best in the business, why not start with Mark W. Schaefer? He's a marketing professor, a B2B marketing professional, and all-around braniac, and he's a master blogger. See for yourself.
Even old dogs can learn new B2B marketing tricks, and I can see now that I'll never quit learning.
I've been in this business for decades, and as much as I thought I knew it all, this year's economic slowdown gave me time to change my mind.
It all began for me when I was given a copy of Seth Godin's book Tribes. Starting reluctantly with LinkedIn, I soon moved on to Twitter and began knocking out an occasional blog. Still, the ideas I've shared haven't been nearly as eye-opening as those I've discovered.
From conferences in Boston to San Francisco, listening to presenters like Chris Brogan, Dharmesh Shah, and David Meerman Scott to name a few, it didn't take a genius to see that I was no genius.
My ego, my professional pride and a lot of curiosity are now driving me to raise my game and apply more of what I'm learning. For example, I got the "outline guide" for this very blog entry from Jason Baer.
B2B marketing "thought leaders" don't want sheepish followers. They want feedback.
In B2B marketing, as in most things, great minds think differently. That's why I'm building a great Twitter list of both like-minded and contrarian B2B marketing professionals. You're welcome to follow it, and all the B2B marketing "braniacs and maniacs" it contains. And if you like, I'll add you to it. Twitter is a great way to be more than a thought follower or a thought leader. You can be a thought shaper, and help ideas grow beyond their point of origin.
I started my blog with the idea of sharing "key words" in the form of "B2B Word on the Street" entries. This blog you're reading now is my first post that takes a different approach.
I hope I'm improving the quality of content and interested in any opinions if you care to share. Please take a minute or so to compare one of my earlier blogs. Here are links to two:
B2B Word on the Street: Repetition
B2B Word on the Street: Can't Wait to Win
Let me know if you think this one is any more helpful. I'm still learning - with your help. Thanks!
-Billy
Billy Mitchell is the president and creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.