Koroberi Blog

Over the past decade or so, we have witnessed more and more of our clients bemoaning the commoditization of their business - their complex goods and professional services reduced from highly nuanced, value-added client relationships  to little more than upfront cost and concessions presented to purchasing professionals who were buying toilet paper yesterday and will be buying office chairs tomorrow. Between, of course, “purchasing” accounting software and building controls. We offered wise words and a shoulder to cry on, but little else other than observing as this trend expanded from major global entities to solid proliferation at even medium sized national companies. Well, newsflash. It has not stopped there. In a recent article, it has been observed that purchasing of even mainstream professions, such as IT, advertising, legal services, accounting and PR, are now going under the purchasing professionals bailiwick.

“But we really can’t be categorized so easily,” you say. “We are all about industry knowledge and experience. We provide a complex service, purchasing would never understand what we do. No one has our industry contacts. We’re specialists. We just don’t fit an RFP mold….”

Well, think again. In fact, entire procurement professional meetings, retreats, seminars and even trade shows are being devoted to the purchase of professional services. Spend any time at all with procurement professionals, and you will soon realize that professional services are seen as a gold mine - full of opportunity to control cost and quality while at the same time full of risk of the unknown and the unfamiliar. Fellow professionals, welcome to the supply chain….

So what’s the best tactic for those of us being “requested to propose” provision of our services to a large corporation via their purchasing group? It’s actually quite simple.

Start with a rate card, and keep it current. Ensure that your list of services is comprehensive and up-to-date. If you are a private company, make sure you have current financial statements, or other acceptable evidence of financial stability. Don’t worry about the nuance, because it doesn’t matter. Sure, you’ll need to foster a relationship with the ultimate user of your services, but the important thing during procurement is to meet all the purchasing criteria. Stop presenting as an attorney and present as a roll of toilet paper, the most functional, cost-effective toilet paper the purchasing department has ever seen. The fact that corporate counsel has gone apoplectic waiting for purchasing to approve your appointment will make the eventual assignment all the sweeter. Because the funny thing is, they don’t like it any more than you do.

Why is it that all bottles have a neck anyway? The Non Object design group decided to break the rule and design a vodka bottle with out a neck. The result is the Vertikal Vodka in a neckless bottle - with an afterlife as an elegant vase.

Now all they need to do is open a Teleflora-like Vertikal Flower Service and we’re good to go.

How many times has a client balked at a project price or the deliverables associated with a project and wanted to negotiate? You presented good solid pricing that represented the scope of the job well, and they just didn’t accept it. Do you stand firm or lower the price to get the work? It is always a challenge when dealing with clients who always haggle. Sometimes you just shake your head and wonder if they act that way in real life situations.

It’s that important. Go. Read. Share.

Having recently passed the Google Adwords Professional exam to become a Qualified Individual in the Google Advertising Professionals program, I thought it would be constructive to sit down and create a short list of items I found helpful while preparing for and taking the exam. Obviously, being a multiple choice test, the usual test-taking tips apply (use process of elimination, go with your first impression, etc.), but here are a few ideas that you may or may not want to use in your Google Adwords exam preparation.

1) Use the Adwords Learning Center lessons and quizzes

Though it seems obvious, I cannot stress enough how helpful the Adwords Learning Center lessons and quizzes can be. I prefer the text lessons, though others may be partial to the video lessons. Also, I noticed that the exam frequently borrowed and reworded questions from the sample quizzes, making the practice quizzes a valuable asset as well. Either way, taking advantage of the learning center when studying for the exam can be tremendously helpful and should not be ignored.

2) Take a practice exam

There are plenty of practice exams floating around the web - do yourself a favor and track one down. The best thing you can do before taking the exam (other than studying, of course) is to get a feel for the wording and pressure of the 100+ question test. Taking a (free) practice exam gives you an idea of what to expect before actually sitting down to take the real exam.

3) Make smart use of your browser tabs

Google allows users to keep other windows and tabs open while taking the exam - use this to your advantage. Is there a specific section that you’re worried about? Open up a tab and visit the Adwords Learning Center lesson on that topic just in case you need to refer back to it during the test. Keeping the learning center and Google Adwords help page open during the test provides some optional support during the exam (though don’t spend too much time looking up answers - there is a 90-minute time limit).

4) Create a “cheat sheet”

While much of the exam is based on Adwords practices and techniques, there are a few questions on the exam that are strictly memorization. If you’re worried that you might forget the answers to these types of questions, make a “cheat sheet” comprised of a few particularly obscure subjects. Not everyone is blessed with the world’s best memory, so keeping a short list handy can help relieve the stress of having to remember that mobile ads contain 2 lines of ad text with a maximum of 12-18 characters on each line.

5) Know the Adwords interface

Finally, my primary piece of advice is to make yourself as familiar as possible with the Adwords interface. Several questions on the exam use this form: “If you wanted to perform/view X, you would visit the Y page in your Google Adwords account.” These questions can be tricky, so familiarizing yourself with the Adwords layout and sections is a big part of making a passing grade.

These are just a few techniques I picked up while studying for the exam, so if you have any other helpful suggestions be sure to let me know. Though the exam is difficult and sometimes confusing, it’s far from impossible. Several hours of studying combined with a firm grasp of the Adwords program should be more than enough to help you get through the exam with a passing 75%. And remember, if at first you don’t succeed, you can always take the exam a second (or third) time.

The news that the 200-foot wide asteroid dubbed DD45 2009 narrowly avoided a collision with the earth earlier this week got me thinking.

Sure, the economy sucks, the advertising and marketing job force is contracting at an alarming rate, my 401k is shrinking faster than a pair of silk undies laundered on hot, and my follicle-challenged pate now has way more salt than pepper in it. But, on the other hand, I didn’t have my molecules rearranged on Monday by a concussive force equivalent to a thousand atomic bombs. You can whine all you want about the current state of world affairs (and I’ll continue to contribute to the cacophony myself, to be sure) but you have to admit, we still have a lot to be thankful for. Sometimes it just takes a bolt out of the blue to remind us.

Advertising and PR firms are often the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to economic indicators. Because we work on the cutting edge of production and consumption, we often see, and are affected by, economic downturns and upturns earlier than more general service industries. So for all the folks who thought we were crazy talking about a downturn back in late 2007, oh well….

But now that we are all here, let’s talk about survival.

Surviving in a downturn means taking the same medicine as our clients - controlling costs, being fiscally responsible, and providing value for money.

The first responsibility is to stay solvent. If this means cutting agency travel, perks and even staff, then you just have to bite the bullet. Observing the impact of some recent agency bankruptcies provides well-managed companies a chance to capitalize on Koroberi’s history of fiscal responsibility, good credit and strong cash position - credentials and references that are of equal importance to good work. Nobody wants their trusted business partner to go under, and even less so to go under owing money already paid by the client in good faith.

But in addition to sound financial management, you’ve got to proactively provide clients with more for less. Don’t wait for the budget cuts, they are going to come. Instead, look at ways you can help your client succeed in spite of the budget pressures they face.

If you are able, offer to assist with client cash flow management through delayed or accrued billing.

Keep negotiating with publishers and other vendors for better deals and discounts, and pass these on to the client. Of course, you need to have great credit and a good paying history to get these discounts, which reinforces the need for sound fiscal management mentioned earlier.

Develop program and package bundles that allow you to pass on savings in return for longer term client commitments. We are all in the same boat, so be open about what you are doing and why. Publishers, media companies and printers intent on survival would all rather have some business at some price than no business at too high a price.

And finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. There is nothing like sharing the bad times to build relationships.

With a little help from our friends, we can all survive to thrive another day.

We have established a Koroberi Twitter account to promote our brand on the web’s fast-growing social network. Follow us at @koroberi for our updates on B2B marketing, advertising, public relations, agency process and other things going in our world.

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We recently interviewed George Wright, VP of Marketing, and Kels Goodman, Video Producer, of Blendtec. They are the creators of the popular YouTube videos series, Will It Blend?, which has generated over 200 million views. They spoke to us about the inspiration for the series, the goals behind the campaign, the keys to social media, and how it relates to B2B marketing and corporate culture. They even gave a shout out to Koroberi. It is our video after all.

Watch the video here and share with your friends and colleagues. We have also posted this on YouTube so you can embed the video in your own blog if you want.

Lots of companies in the B2B space offer webinars about marketing, public relations and social media, among other topics. The purpose of these is two-fold. The first is to present useful information to participants who have signed up to learn about the topic. The second is to promote the company running the webinar. If the material is well presented and offers real insight into the topic, participants leave with a good feeling about the company. That’s a positive brand experience. But if you feel like you just wasted an hour out of your busy day, that does not reflect well on the presenting, or sponsoring, company.

I recently sat in on two webinars from two companies and had two very different experiences, mainly due to their incorporation of web conversational tools into the presentations. Based on these two examples, here is a list of five things to look for at the beginning of a webinar to determine if it is worth your time. If you are planning a webinar, keep these things in mind to provide a better experience to your customers and potential customers.

1. Provide Twitter address for questions and comments
If the webinar leaders do not announce a way to interact with the presenters during the seminar, this is a broadcast not a conversation. Twitter is the most common way to take questions during a live presentation. If you can’t ask questions, this will limit your involvement in the presentation. Sometimes presenters’ points need to be clarified, and if there’s no way to do that during the webinar, you are left shaking your head.

2. Hashtag to follow conversation on Twitter
A hashtag is a keyword or abbreviation placed anywhere in a tweet, or twitter message, that tags the message as part of a larger conversation. There may be an official hashtag for a webinar or event, or sometimes participants agree on hashtags as they go. This is one of the strongest benefits of an online presentation. Participants can connect and communicate about the topics being presented. It is also a great way to share information and knowledge that expands the presented information. By following the Twitter backchannel of a webinar, you can engage with new contacts who are also interested in the subject of the webinar. From the presenters’ side, it generates Twitter buzz as lots of people tweet the company’s name (if that’s the hashtag).

3. Contact information for presenters
Whether the webinar offers a means to ask live questions during the presentation or not, you need to be able to contact the presenters after the webinar. Questions might come up after the presentation and you will want to follow up. Again, there might have been a good point in the webinar, but if you can’t clarify the details, the point is not made.

4. Way to get presentations later
Just like you might want to contact the presenters after the webinar, you might also want to get a copy of their presentation. Slide Share is a common option for posting presentations. These presentations allow you to easily share ideas and concepts with colleagues and clients who were unable to participate in the webinar.

5. Video
And finally, more companies are using video to present their ideas. It is a much more engaging medium than audio. Sometimes it is just easier to follow a talk if you can see the speaker and watch their facial expressions. This is not a dealbreaker for a successful webinar, but as people get more comfortable with video, this will become a requirement.