Lemarco V-scene on Youtube # 2

From now on I will call my Youtube postings on technology marketing Lemarco V-scene. today’s posting is about SEO. I’m reading a book now about Search Engine Optimization; usually, when a book is interesting, it takes me weeks to read it, as I don’t skip one word of it. And mostly, after every page I stop and put the book aside as new ideas come up in my head. It’s a real torture.

Anyway, watch the video on Youtube.

About being unique… and not

Marketing is probably one of the broadest disciplins that exist – from strategic marketing that basically sits alongside strategic business management, to day-to-day execution and follow-up of marketing campaigns. We all learned it at university. Marketing is about trying to be unique. But what do you have to be unique in? The strategy or the execution?

In the three years that Lemarco has been working with technology companies to help them define and execute their marketing strategy, we found out that most companies are making exactly the wrong choices about which things they have to be unique in and which thing not.

First, let’s look at the strategic part: defining the value proposition of your company.  Evidence shows that most tech companies have a natural tendency to define a value proposition that is as much as possible similar to that of hundreds of other companies in the same sector. Basically, most value propositions your read are basically  something like:  “As a technology company, XYZ aims for maximum customer satisfaction, relying on the experience of its consultants…”. And that’s really regrettable, because the value proposition is exactly something that each company SHOULD be unique in.

And when you look at the execution of marketing campaign,s, it’s the other way around: we’re trying to re-invent the wheel every time we send out a direct mailing or organize en event. Looking for a new exclusive location. Re-thing the global format and agenda of our next seminar. Redesigning the graphic layout if the invitation every time again.  While in the EXECUTION of marketing campaigns, you just don’t have to be unique. You have to repeat the FORMAT you successfully used last time.

Forrester predicts increased adoption for open source ERP

The open source business software maketshare is still marginal. A Forrester survey  says 13% of companies are using open source ERP, 10% open source CRM and 7% open source BI. I think in Europe, especially among SME’s, it’s even much lower than that (if you’re an SME manager: do you know anyone who ever got someone from Forrester or Gartner on the phone ot survey you?).

But the most interesting point in the survey is about the future: more than 45% of the interviewed companies says they are going to adopt open-source ERP, CRM and BI applications within the next 24 months. Of course I know this is not true. The first thing you should do with market surveys is not believe the results, but try to interpret them.

So I do think we should keep a close eye on open source. Because if decision makers start knowing the solutions, they will maybe  include them in their long lists in the future. Im’ sure not 45% will buy it; not even 20%; but even 10% would be a significant market shift.

KeyBoard IV

The past 8 weeks have been particularly hectic but there is light at the end of the tunnel: in 2 weeks my colleague Veerle will be back from maternity leave… although… ssst … she has been helping me already a little.

And…. KeyBoard IV is approaching finalization. 10 great partners for -again- the best KeyBoard ever: Ad Ultima, Christiaens Computer Service, ESC (NEW!), GMI, iFacto, IT Solutions, Offimac, Van Roey, Young & Partners and…  Glovia. Probably it’s not good to love your customers but I do like them a lot.  Next week everything is going to the Artoos for printing and by 24 april we’ll have almost 10000 new magazines spread on the market.

Beware the eggs, there’s something happening to one of them