If giving your competitors a place on your Website sounds like heresy, you’re right. It is. That’s why Gord Hotchkiss likes the idea.

Cisco needed to centralize its fragmented customer advisory board structure. Yet any attempts to centralize could be perceived as attempts by corporate to stultify a series of independent communications channels. If the existing structure were to be changed, it needed to be done carefully.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is primarily used to make existing customer relationships even better. Yet it also has potential for gaining new business. The ABM approach takes away some of the subjectivity of new account selection by using tools to objectively score and rank potential targets.

The avalanche of recession advice has begun. We at ITSMA decided to try to look beyond the standard advice and came up with ideas we haven’t seen everywhere else. Like these:

Steve Mann is creating and implementing a social media strategy for B2B software giant SAP. He agreed to talk with ITSMA about how B2B marketers should approach getting started in social media.

All of Cognos BI Radio podcasts have one thing in common: high production values. There is a professional announcer, smooth mixing of sound elements like music, and quick-cut voice clips—even commercials. This high-quality strategy is a real departure from conventional thinking about podcasting—one that all marketers should consider.

Marketing measurement must become a crystal ball, able to predict the success of a particular program or portfolio before a single dollar is spent. Few companies have built this kind of analytical capability yet. Building an integrated, holistic view of measures across all of marketing is a good first step. But four other key elements are also necessary.

It may sound a bit jaded, but being strategic is a time sink. As marketing is asked increasingly to get involved in issues such as company strategy and direction, how do we ensure the benefit of these actions is taken into account when analysing marketing performance? The answer relies on the right mix of quantitative and qualitative metrics.

Larry Weber is outspoken about the impact of the web on the world in general and on marketers in particular. In this interview, he discusses how to take the first steps in building successful online communities for customers.

As a professor at Stanford University, Chip Heath has listened to his students pass on the same ridiculous urban legends that he heard as a student—that we only use 10% of our brains, or that the Great Wall of China is visible from space, for example. He became curious to discover the attributes of urban legends that make them “sticky,” or durable over time, so that he could apply those lessons to more useful ideas. The results of his research are outlined in the bestselling business book, “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die”. In this interview, Chip shares some of the ideas from the book.

When we look at the output from our recent Services Marketing Budget Allocations and Trends survey, the picture we see is a very positive one—in spite of the uncertain economic outlook in many quarters. In fact, ITSMA members are predicting 18% growth in services revenue for the year ahead! At the first European Inner Circle Meeting of the year, we delved into why we’re seeing these optimistic growth forecasts given the current economic climate. One area we discussed was the continued growth we’re seeing in both near-shoring and off-shoring activity and the potential impact this trend could have on the overall forecast.

Autotask Corporation, a provider of Web-based professional services automation (PSA) software, was limping along in a crowded category with 70 competitors. To make matters worse, it was operating on a shoestring marketing budget. The software was originally aimed at more than 6 million professional firms that provide billable services, and although the company was generating inquiries, the prospects came from a huge cross-section of business types, making each sale a slow, consultative process. Read on to discover how CMO Bob Vogel turned the situation around.

Despite the dark clouds hanging over the economy and growing fears of a recession in 2008, services and solutions marketers are optimistic about the year ahead. In fact, according to new ITSMA research, our members are predicting robust revenue growth, bigger marketing budgets, and increased headcount in 2008. In addition, more and more marketers are experimenting with new tools and approaches, leading to an exciting year ahead.

In the digital era, differentiation has increasingly come to rely upon reputation. Indeed, at ITSMA, we believe that differentiation and reputation have become two sides of the same coin. Differentiation is what you say about your company, while reputation is what others say about you. Although reputation traditionally has ranked as a lower priority for marketers than differentiation, that situation must change. This article contains a list of five steps you can take to influence your companys reputation and improve its standing in the eyes of customers, analysts, bloggers, and other important influencers. ‘

Most marketers are familiar with the term “Web 2.0,” but Larry Weber, chairman and CEO of W2 Group, a marketing services organization focused on digital constituency management, and author of “Marketing to the Social Web,” thinks were way beyond Web 2.0. Here, he talks about the rise of the “emotive Web” and what’s coming down the pike for marketers in 2008.’

Since its introduction to the world of ICT in the 1970s, the term “convergence” has come to mean something different to just about everybody you ask: “fixed and mobile,” “voice and data,” “access devices,” “media and entertainment,” “unified communications” . . . the list goes on and on. Too many people, however, consider convergence a technology issue and overlook the wider business implications—including its impact on marketing. At a recent Inner Circle Meeting in London, ITSMA examined the commercial and social implications of convergence to better understand how marketers need to adapt in the face of this trend.

Think back to the turn of the millennium. Remember all the anxiety around Y2K, the software bug that threatened to shut down computer systems at midnight on December 31, 1999? Well, by the time the dust settled, Satyam, an Indian IT services company, was officially “on the map,” boasting more than 7,000 employees and $300 million in annual revenue. The problem was that customers and prospects perceived the company as a basic, commoditized service provider. The companys tiny marketing department was challenged to change people’s perception of Satyam to that of a true trusted advisor while at the same time bridging the culture gap between India and the rest of the world—all on a bootstrap marketing budget.’

We recently sat down with Janet Blake, head of Global Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) at BT plc, to discuss what sustainability means today and the benefits of taking a sustainable approach to doing business.

In 2006, SAP Global Services Marketing and the Field Services Management Office were forced to face a few unsettling facts: multiple lines of service with complex and broad portfolios made it difficult for sales teams to prioritize and sell the right services for each customer and prospect. Couple that with the fact that, all too frequently, the company launched services marketing programs of which sales was not aware and you can see why the services teams were concerned. Turning that concern into action, the services and support teams partnered in new ways to promote the active selling of SAP Services.

ITSMA research has shown that budgets allocated to interactive/online/digital marketing are growing; in 2007 they stood at 15% of total marketing communications budgets versus 12% in 2006. With this as a backdrop, its clear to see why digital marketing is getting a lot of airtime right now, and at our Roundtable meeting on digital marketing in London on 27th November, Google presented a list of four useful tips to consider when developing your digital marketing strategy.’

“Marketing has to drastically improve how it measures, tracks, and communicates its impact on the business.” This call to arms was issued by 9, president and CEO of ITSMA, to kick off ITSMAs Annual Marketing Conference on November 15 and 16. Under the banner “Marketing and the Bottom Line: Leading the Growth Agenda,” Munn offered evidence that there is a positive correlation between marketing’s impact and measuring results. He then introduced an agenda of speakers who all presented ideas to help marketers increase the impact of their programs on business success.’

David L. King is senior vice president and CIO at Regal Entertainment Group, the nations largest chain of movie theaters. Based in Knoxville, Tennessee, Regal is at the forefront of the digital movie revolution. In this type of transformational environment, King looks for IT suppliers who are ready, willing, and able to serve as strategic partners. The challenge for King is identifying which suppliers are truly committed to long-term relationships and which suppliers are seeking short-term wins.’

The topic of demand generation is a much travelled road, and in recent years the most important elements for generating demand have changed considerably. Long gone are the broad mass marketing campaigns with a Web link or number to call; here to stay are the precise, targeted actions that ensure your message reaches the right person. Due to the cynicism and scepticism towards overt marketing and PR that exist in a mature market like Europe, the all-important “Who are you going to target?” question refers not just to the person whom you believe has a need for your offering but also to a wider range of influencers.

In late 2005, Cognos decided to get serious about search. The company knew it had its work cut out for it: In 2004, its pay-per-click (PPC) marketing focused on branding and captured just nine incidental leads. Today, the companys Google-focused PPC marketing campaign generates more than 1,000 leads a month. Read on to learn about the steps Cognos took to turn its PPC campaign around.’

12, associate vice president of research at ITSMA, recently published the findings from our 2007 Brand Tracking Study for Professional Services and Solutions. In this interview, she provides insight into the prevailing buying reality for IT professional services and solutions providers.