AD:TECH - B2B Marketing Ideas From Siebel And Oracle

[Garrett]

Marketing tech is a tough business. Oracle and Seibel think they have it down pretty well.

Bill Carper is the Sr. Director, Global Campaigns And Direct Marketing for the Oracle corporation. As he was on a panel with a representative from Siebel he opened his remarks with the quip, "those who came to see a blood match between Siebel and Oracle are going to be disappointed."

Well, there was no blood match, but I wasn't disappointed because both companies offered some fantastic advice.

Here's Bill from Oracle's top ten strategies for business marketers:

1) Plan and execute across the buying process.

2) Work with and through sales.

3) Plan globally, execute locally.

4) Build and leverage an analytics foundation.

5) Utilize a single data problem for real time learning.

6) Plan and execute across the channels - surround the target - manage the context of your message.

7) Couch your ego and forge alliances with trusted brands. (Don't assume that just because you have a big name like Oracle that people will trust you.)

8) Close the loop - define and measure ROI.

9) Test and learn.

10) Treat your agency as a partner.

After his main presentation Bill suggested that you rank your leads based on a lead scoring method, though there are times when you should rely on your intuition.

One example he gave for "couching Oracle's ego" was an interview on the Forbes site with one of Oracle's top executives. This, he said, brought them leads that were 70% c-level executives.

They've also done cosponsored research and given away $1,800 subscriptions to trade publications at reduced cost. The publication included an Oracle logo, and this too provided a high level of awareness among c-levels.

Michael Greckin, Group Director, Global Advertising, Siebel Systems presented next. He opened his presentation with a suggestion that those with weak hearts leave the room.

So I didn't hear the rest of the presentation. Ha ha, ok, here's what he said.

In 2004 Siebel's not using print advertising at all - they're 25% online advertising and 75% television. Their combination of print and TV is their "one two punch."

Print, he said, in defense of their decision, is expensive, hard to measure, expensive to measure, creatively limiting, and wasn't driving leads - and when it did drive leads they were inefficient leads.

Now, it seems to me that the same could be said for television. Watch the trade pubs and see if Siebel bends.

The power of the web to B2B marketers, he said, is that it's an awareness building vehicle, drives leads, it's interactive, cost efficient, targeted, and measurable. Online, he said, touches people along the entire buying cycle.

In closing he compared print advertising to horses, saying that 100 years ago everyone thought that we'd be riding around on horses forever.

Before he left the podium he emphasized the importance of tracking marketing actions all the way through to sales. He pointed out that for one time period they received 50 leads from Google. Though this was, in comparison with their other marketing vehicles, a paltry number, when they tracked their media spend all the way through they found out that the Google leads were actually cheaper than any other.