Running the rule over marketing campaigns

The financial director of a company I worked for was fond of quoting at board meetings an unattributed statement that 'half the money spent on advertising is wasted, but didn't know which half." Perhaps his helpful remark was intended to present marketing as unscientific compared with the precise art of accountancy - but lets not go there. The trouble is, although that comment about advertising has variously been used by people such as Henry Ford and Lord Lever and as early as the 19th century, the actual origins are unclear. As to whether it is true - well that's another matter. Another frequently quoted, or actually misquoted statistic is that we are all subjected to 1,518 advertising messages a day - a figure taken from a speech in 1957 by then VP Advertising of General Foods to emphasise and exaggerate a point, based on his own unscientific research and extrapolated to a family of four - not for an individual. A later formal survey put the figure at 76 advertisements a day of which just 12 made any impression and 3 of those negative. Another often quoted statistic is that only 2% respond to direct mail, so 98% is wasted. Others agonise over market share which in some industries is easier to measure than others and of course Google Analytics has shone a new light on web site activity. The reality is that whilst measurement is important, figures need to be viewed with some care. The fact is that marketing has to take account of human factors, preferences and prejudices and that the only real measure is the bottom line of the company. Of course an improvement in profitability can be attributed to other non-marketing factors, such as productivity gains through investment in new plant, or due to savings on waste. So with due caution in mind  the recently published "UK email marketing benchmark report" offered some interesting insight into the measured success of e-mail campaigns. What emerged was different levels of success across different industries. For the industrial/manufacturing sector the bounce rate was 13.28%, opens 20.38% and clicks, 1.86%. Unsubscription rates were 1.35%.  The question is what does this actually mean? Bounces measure e-mails that don't work. Unlike postal delivery where there is a human involvement, any error in an e-mail address will fail, a frequent source of error are the subscribers themselves. Interestingly unsubscription rates are very low suggesting either the list is on target or perhaps a degree of laziness in bothering to unsubscribe.  Although around a fifth actually opened the e-mail,  more will have received and seen the message in the preview pane so would still have an awareness of the campaign. Of those opening the message 9% clicked on the link through to the landing page or whatever the call to action was. At this point of course Google Analytics can track the arrival on the web site. These metrics are  all useful, but just because percentages can be calculated to several decimal places it does not infer there is a high level of accuracy. Marketers need to use numbers but also keep an eye on the bigger picture and develop an understanding of how effective the campaign is.

Engineering marketing solutions

In the previous blog - 17th September - reference was made to the difference between sales and marketing personalities, with marketing described as far more to do with planning for the future, with strategy to keep ahead of fast moving trends, the routes to market, and the means of promotion and delivery that provide the essential environment in which selling can be successful. Consider now another dimension, that of introducing an engineering approach to marketing. Engineering brings discipline to marketing, a discipline much needed in controlling the flights of fancy of the creative media types in getting the i's dotted and t's crossed, keeping feet firmly on the ground and keeping sight of the purpose of marketing a product - not in winning design awards. And if bringing engineering into marketing might seem a strange notion, unless marketing is properly controlled and brought in on budget then it will be a disaster. Engineering projects are as much about planning, adherence to schedules and budgets as they are about technology. In fact engineers are increasingly being employed in some surprising areas including many types of management consulting and in the financial sector. 

 IET magazine recently ran a piece entitled 'Engineers in the City' which included the following extract.

" During the past two decades an increasing number of mathematicians, physicists and engineers have switched to work at investment banks and hedge funds, lured by the boom in financial engineering and quantitative finance. Talented engineers found they could make more money on Wall Street or in the City than in academia or industrial research. ... the new breed is called 'quants'. Perhaps the jewel in the quants' crown is the Black-Scholes theory.  ... a formula for valuing options in terms of underlying security and cash. It quickly became used by all option traders and revolutionised finance".

Technical marketing brings the same engineering methodology and thinking to marketing - introducing staffing structures, building the team, setting objectives through the marketing plan, formalising budgets, introducing financial controls, defining schedules and setting specifications for creative projects. Too often companies launch into building a web site, designing a brochure, booking an exhibition stand or commissioning an advertisement without first deciding on what they need to achieve. Design led agencies naturally play to their strengths - a flare for creative designs - and wow clients with exciting images. Arguably engineering marketing, or as we call it technical marketing, lacks some of that wow factor, but what we have discovered is that clients recognise the benefits that our approach can bring to the bottom line. We supply the rationale. And with the increasing importance of the Internet in marketing, a technical competence and comprehension of what works online too.  Of course there is a need for professional creativity, but it requires purpose and direction - in short planning, organisation, discipline and control. So engineering marketing solutions works - our clients testify to that.

Are marketing and sales the same?

There is often confusion about marketing terms. For example advertising is frequently used as a blanket description for all forms of promotion. Sales and marketing are similarly confused as though the terms are interchangeable. Some companies combine sales and marketing into a single job portfolio. But in truth the roles are not only different, but call for different personalities. Selling is very much concerned with the present, with closing sales, meeting sales targets and dealing with current customer demands. Marketing on the other hand is far more to do with planning for the future, with strategy to keep ahead of fast moving trends, the routes to market, and the means of promotion and delivery that provide the essential environment in which selling can be successful. One is short term seeking to close deals, the other longer term, educating and informing prospects.  Marketing is everything that you do to reach and persuade prospects. The sales process is everything that you do to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract. So in fact it is a continuous process. Marketing uses techniques  to reach and persuade prospects that you are the company for them, with messages that prepare the prospect for the sales  people. Marketing communications includes advertising, public relations, brand marketing, viral marketing, web sites, e-mail and direct mail. The sales process consists of interpersonal interaction often with a one-on-one meeting, cold calls, and networking. The sales person engages with the prospect or customer on a personal level rather than at a distance.  What often happens is that the sales and marketing teams drift apart and this is important to avoid through 'internal marketing' ensuring both teams understand what the other is doing and why to ensure the process is continuous.

Can RSS complement e-mail marketing?

For some years RSS has been a neat solution to a problem that few people realised they had. One way of looking at RSS news feeds was to use them to keep up to date with topics of interest that individuals could customise - to in effect create their own virtual daily paper by grouping RSS feeds from various news publishers. For example you might chose to scan news headlines from the world at large using a feed from the BBC or CNN, news from your industry or profession, your favourite sports team or blog. To recap - RSS 'Really Simple Syndication' - offers headlines and opening lines of a news story with a link through to the full story on the web site of the news publisher. Originally it required special reader software to be downloaded to operate the system, but now that chore is even eliminated thanks to reader software  being a component of modern web browsers. RSS offered a quick way of remaining informed on topics important to the individual, a rapid skim of the headlines, perhaps reading one or two items in more depth and at a time convenient to the reader. Quite an attractive option compared to the assault of e-mails to the in-box.  RSS was seen as an alternative, even a replacement for e-mail but that has not happened. But according to BtoB "RSS has emerged as a strong complementary tool for e-mail marketers."  In a current article they propose 4 key tips:-

1. RSS only works if you are using it for frequently updated content.
2. Track and target your RSS feed.
3. Promote RSS using e-mail and promote e-mail using RSS
4. It's OK to double dip sometimes. i.e. repurpose content in both RSS and e-mail news.

The important issue is to get the message to your target audience. To learn how RSS and e-mail marketing can operate within a fully integrated marketing programme why not contact Technical Marketing for the full story.

Top of the search results - is it enough?

A great deal is written and discussed on the subject of search engine optimisation and the importance of ranking highly on the first page of Google results for your search term. But pause for a moment and think about that point. Are the search terms used to optimise your site the same terms someone searching will use? Enter the search term 'marketing' and approximately 493,000,000 results  are returned in 0.33 seconds. The first 3 are paid for positions and the top organic result is a Wikipedia definition followed by Marketing Magazine, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and various guidance information rather than marketing agencies that might actually help a business move forward. Take a step back, why search on 'marketing' in the first place? Indeed what need prompts someone to turn to the Internet? Perhaps a business is experiencing a falling order book and someone has suggested marketing could help. But as we have seen simply entering the term 'marketing' is not very helpful. Although the keywords people search on are collated, can be analysed and optimised, practical experience indicates that most visitors arriving at a web have actually combined the company name or brand with the product or service they are seeking. This suggests that the search is not just random but prompted by some other marketing activity. Common sense suggests people don't want millions of results, they want to quickly get to a short list of people that can provide what they need and to use the Internet to get this they have to refine the search. The message is not to assume that the web site is a stand alone marketing tool that will deliver a steady steam of well qualified prospects, but a component within an integrated marketing strategy. Other marketing techniques such as advertising and press relations can help raise and maintain the awareness of a business and its products or services. The web site is great for providing information and as a response channel working within a well planned and co-ordinated marketing communications programme.

Return to basics: advertising

Sometimes marketing and advertising are regarded as one and the same thing. They are not. Advertising is just one of the marketing communications tools but because it is so visible, in some cases this important distinction is not made. And in a recession it is relatively easy to cut. But interestingly in the Internet era some of the basic rules of advertising are worth revisiting. Recently a client was starting the relaunch of his business with a new web site. But his business proposition used a new - and in his market - generally unknown business model. It raised the obvious question as to how people looking for the type of service he could provide would know how to search for him? What search terms would they use? Would his site be discovered by his target audiences?  Advertising aims to move people through a process starting with 'unawareness'. You can't sell to someone who is unaware of you or your solution that might meet their actual needs.  So stage 2 is to make the target audience aware of your existence and product or service.  The next step is actually to explain what it is, in short to generate comprehension. Not only to understand the product but to recognise the benefits as well. The game then is to move on to create a conviction that this product is good for them, it is something that has benefits for them. Finally to prompt some response - a 'call to action'. By then the prospect and advertiser should be in some form of contact and the lead progressed to sales closure. So although a web site has become a marketing hub it needs other marketing techniques to bring prospects to the site, a logical path through awareness, comprehension, conviction to an action that leads to contact.

What people twitter about

Research reported by eMarketer today added some substance to the view that Twitter despite being frequently touted as a business tool is actually mainly used for what they describe as 'pointless babble'. At 40.55% 'pointless babble' was the most common use of tweets, followed by 'conversational' at 37.55%. Others were 'pass along value' at 8.7%, 'self promotion' 5.85%, 'spam' just 3.75% and 'news' at 3.6%.  It is news headlines that we have identified as a possible use of the microblogging site, but at present is just at testing level.

Establishing authority is a powerful marketing tool

Establishing authority for a company within their chosen market sector is not only a powerful marketing tool but is rewarded by Google thanks to relevant links into the company web site by others who acknowledge this authority. When we talk about a company establishing the 'moral high ground' it is about becoming recognised experts in their field and building trust in what they say. Rather than merely claim leadership and expertise such a business will earn this position through third party testimonials, referrals and citations by others. What other people say about your company helps build this authority. Research has shown that people have a deep seated sense of duty towards authority and people in authority such as those marked out by wearing uniform, or doctors in white coats. One company I worked for leveraged their whole research facilities as a front line marketing tool. Everyone working in the laboratories wore crisp white lab coats so they were perceived as scientists, Phd graduates were hired and their name and qualifications prominently displayed on the door to their offices, scientific displays were set up around the facility - a subtle mix of  the Science Museum and Disney. There was little doubt that a tour of the facility was impressive and established the expertise of the company. The company were also active in industry committees, presenting conference papers, publishing research, patents, standards, codes of practice and much more. People turned to that company for advice as a perceived authority. Buying products followed on, after all they were the result of all that research and standardisation work so could be trusted and if there was a problem, well there was a wealth of expertise that could be called on.  Today a web site gives less resourced company's an opportunity to similarly build authority, but through content rich web sites. This is a subject we will return to in a future blog that will discuss aspects of creating and maintaining compelling content. As the trend to rewarding updated content by search engines favours blogs and news an integrated PR campaign is just one of the important marketing tools to utilise. 

Marketing v technology

Recent years have given rise to the emergence of a plethora of experts associated with the Internet who promise an insight in mastery of the evolving online world. There are experts from search engine optimisation and usability testing to social networking - in fact practically every element in the development and enhancement of web sites has specialists. So much is written about all these specialisms that some companies are focussing on technical aspects of their web sites at the expense of developing content. It is not surprising there is some cynicism as an increasing share of marketing investment is spent in the online space. Some years ago Intel ran what for them was probably a very successful "Intel Inside' campaign raising the profile of their components but with the result that even in the b-2-b sector customers were making the inclusion of an Intel processor a vital specification issue while largely ignoring the actual functionality of the equipment. Likewise the fear of not having the company web site in the top two or three in a Google search has led to an obsession with the various black arts associated with little understood technical aspects of web sites.

On the other hand, the company web site is a useful marketing tool only because many customers and prospects currently find it convenient to use the Internet to discover information. In the b-2-b area professional buyers will often already have some knowledge of the main suppliers in their market thanks to other marketing activities and be seeking further detail and guidance. An integrated marketing communications programme will work to raise top of the mind awareness of the brand, prompting prospects to look for the web site which many will do by keying in brand and product category into a search engine. Not all searches start on the Internet - display advertising, editorials, mailings, exhibition presence will all have played a role in developing awareness and prompting an enquiry. But once the visitor arrives at the web site the expectation is to access the information needed quickly and easily. This is where content is important. not just product and service details but confidence building information establishing credentials, user experience and application guidance. News has a special role in presenting a current and human face to visitors which strongly enhances credibility by covering a diverse range of company information from new product announcements and contract success to staff appointments and financial results. News can be delivered and presented in an increasing variety of methods from an on site Virtual News Office to RSS, eNews and social networks and from headline news flashes to detailed articles. Further more news can be syndicated to other web sites - even delivered in print as a newsletter, still a popular and successful media.

Lead generation now top marketing goal

Publishing the results of market research is always good publicity and the latest survey from the engineering search engine, Globalspec is no exception. Two of the headline findings are that customer acquisition and lead generation have become the primary marketing goals and that 3 of the top marketing channels are now online channels. Those 3 incidentally were online directories/web sites, e-mail and search engine optimisation. Some 29% of businesses polled spend more than 50% of their marketing budget online and 48% advised they were intending to spend a bigger proportion of their marketing budget online. On the other hand only 11% cited brand awareness as their top marketing objective, down from 21% in 2008. Most concurred that they were seeking good quality sales leads.

There are a number of benefits that online marketing brings, in particular greater immediacy and measureability - plus customers are online. It again questions the future of the hard-to-measure display advertising business model in trade publications, which are often more about branding these days than lead generation. Typically published monthly, trade press display advertising is a slower response medium and requires expensive surveys to fully evaluate and measure. By contrast last week we put together an e-mail campaign designed to prompt sales of remaindered product which actually accounted for 25% of all traffic to the client web site that week and resulted in closure on sales that otherwise would have been stock write offs. In fact many traditional marketing channels should be revisited including trade shows and brochures, but all with a note of caution because a mix of marketing methods will still be more effective than over working a single channel. Too many e-mails and customers and prospects switch off. Better to make judicious use of multiple channels many of which can be online. Keep the web site current and here news is a great way to both achieve this and to keep customers interested and informed in a less pressured way. If you do not already have an online news service such as Virtual News Office then this could be a good way of channeling some of the online marketing investment.

Who has control of the company web site?

There is little doubt that the company web site has become the hub of a marketing communications plan. Anecdotal information suggests that investment in good quality brochures is declining, technical data is presented in PDF form rather than print and material that is printed is more often short runs of digital print. Direct face-to-face sales visits are less common than telephone sales, so increasingly it is the role of the web site to provide information and generate sales leads in a process entirely driven by the enquirer and potential prospect. The largest number of visitors arrive at the site via search and consequently the process of search optimisation has spawned its own industry. An industry that is self-perpetuating thanks to the mystery surrounding the actual search parameters rewarded by the search engines and the continually changing techniques to achieve high ranking. To some extent this has not surprisingly led to a focus on the technology of the web site rather than content. Add to this factors such as content management systems and it is easy to see that achieving good results is weighted in favour of getting the technical aspects right and forgetting about the content of the site and visitor experience. There is a danger of the initiative moving towards IT people away from marketing - a dangerous situation. Of course it is important to get the web site technically and operationally correct but the content and process must be marketing led to ensure the conversation with the enquirer takes the right path, that at all stages the visitor can find the information needed, can easily contact the company for further help and most importantly can be guided to the ordering process. And this is a role for marketing that is more important than the underlying technology.

Making PR work for your business

Many clients do not get PR. They neither understand how it operates or what it can do for their business. The ignorance even extends to some marketing people. One company chairman seeking savings told me that he would cut PR for 3 months and not expect to notice any difference. On the other hand the same people will merrily buy advertising space and exhibit at trade shows with little thought or concern about their investment.

Successful PR demands a continuous partnership between client and agency. The client's primary role is to identify possible news stories. PR agencies are not investigative reporters, they rely on clients identifying stories in the first place and to provide contact details for follow up and approval. New or improved products, important contract wins, staff appointments, financial results, special events, new technologies or processes ... there is a considerable list, but not all, in fact not many, will be newsworthy. This is where the PR agency side of the partnership identifies a 'hook' on which to build an interesting story, one that an editor will pick up. Often a good picture or a striking image will help promote an otherwise ordinary story and gain attention. Good PR is about managing the reputation of the business in good times and bad. There should be clear strategic objectives and a consistent message or theme should run through all communications. It takes time to set up the smooth running of news to the media and switching it off and on will be noticed. Of course there is much more to PR, this blog has merely touched on the client relationship. But a word on media. For most small to medium size businesses it will be the trade press and industry web sites rather than television and radio in the main. One final word and that is not to forget news on the company web site both as a publishing opportunity, client and prospect information and a resource to journalists. It is the company web site where most research starts, so current news and background information can prove of great value. This is where a Virtual News Office can prove of immense value.

On a final note, the partnership between client and agency is vital to a successful PR programme. It also demands a reasonable degree of openess, how often do clients refuse to publish important stories for fear of alerting a competitor - they probably bid on the job unsuccessfully anyway.

A word on White Papers

White Papers, if understood at all in the UK, probably suggest a government consultation document. But in industrial circles, more so I suspect, in America they are recognised as a means of providing a briefing such as introducing a new technology or manufacturing concept. Marketing Sherpa recently reported that "In 2008, 44% of business prospects said they are reading white papers more often than in the past. That’s an increase from the 39% who said in 2007 they were reading white papers more often. More than half of business decision-makers and influencers said they read two to five white papers per quarter." The article continues, "prospects typically download a white paper in the research phase of a buying decision. They’re looking for content that’s highly relevant to their industry or job description, and that addresses one of their biggest business problems or needs. By downloading your white paper, they’re starting a conversation that should help you gauge over time their product needs, interest level and stage in the buying cycle." So why do so few businesses include White Papers within their PR programme? White Papers are a concept we usually need to work hard with clients to accept, as they seem not to be highly valued or understood. And yet a White Paper can be a very influential tool at the research phase of the purchasing process. It not only provides the rationale but stakes your company out as experts, allowing you to capture the moral high ground. Convince a prospect that you understand the business and readers are more likely to value your business as a supplier. Interestingly LinkedIn is now offering the LinkedIn White Paper Campaign targeting professionals who could be interested in specific white papers and proposing these benefits:-

• "Target niche audiences
• Reach professional decision-makers looking for answers
• Engage your audience with relevant content
• Secure up-to-date, actionable lead information
• Contact qualified well-suited customers".

Downloading the White Paper identifies the person as a prospect, so offer a form to capture the contact information then ensure the lead is qualified and followed up with the offer of more specific product information.

Technical Marketing blog is now on ET Express

Starting this week, the Technical Marketing Diary Blog will be published on ET Express, the weekly e-mail newsletter for the entertainment technology market. The blog is replacing the former "One Minute Marketing" feature that for some time now has signed off the ET Express news that pops into e-mail in-boxes each Friday. "One Minute Marketing" was written as a simple briefing on marketing techniques covering a range of topics from advertising to public relations and intended for the benefit of engineers and entrepreneurs without marketing knowledge and with limited time, seeking to promote their products in a competitive marketing place. Articles from this series are still available and have been collated so that they can be downloaded as a PDF booklet from the Technical Marketing web site. Our blog takes a much wider brief allowing us to comment on marketing practice, ideas, new developments, technologies and campaigns. For example recent blog stories have covered such diverse topics as publishing trends, in-bound marketing, Twitter and marketing through the recession. Technical Marketing Diary blog headlines are also published on Twitter.

Our focus will be towards business-to- business (b-2-b) marketing where probably the biggest difference from consumer marketing is the size of marketing budget. But just because budgets are much smaller there is no reason why b-2-b marketing should not be professional. It is tempting for modest sized businesses, particularly in difficult trading times, to resort to in-house solutions. Unfortunately prospective customers can also spot an amateurishly produced brochure or web site and what message does that convey about the company's products and services?

Marketing in the long term

It is tempting when a product has a very long life cycle to cut marketing activity during difficult times. Consider a product that has a large initial capital investment cost but could be expected to last for 10, 15 or 20 years with careful use. What happens when it is time for replacement? In 20 years time the buyer or purchasing team is likely to have changed. Will the new people just look at the label and call up for a quote? Possible, but unlikely. In fact if they have not heard from you in the intervening years they may not even realise that you are still in business. It makes sense to maintain contact with your customer. For a start they can prove to be a very effective reference source for third party endorsement, to be presented as a case study and to tell others about their experience with your product. So it is important to ensure that they are enjoying a positive experience. If it is a product that requires service then your service engineers are the most important ambassadors. Are they? Have they been trained not just to maintain the kit but to reaffirm the wisdom of buying your product in the first case. How often does a service engineer make some derogatory reference to the product where a problem could be presented in a more positive light? Some years ago I had a client in the air-conditioning business who would refer sites as PR leads and without exception I would find their customer unwilling to make a positive statement because invariably the installation was not working to their satisfaction. It is tempting to close a sale and move on, but the ground for the replacement sale can be laid straight away - the old adage that it is more cost effective  to retain and sell more to an existing customer than get a new one. During the life of the product not only might there be service opportunities but the chance to sell accessories and consumables. It is also important to keep the customer informed of new developments, how legislation might affect things and in short give reasons to bring forward the replacement date. Rarely do customers run equipment until it is totally obsolete so they need information and inducements as a loyal customer to plan earlier for capital replacement. It means that there needs to be regular and informative marketing communication supported by a database. Switch off marketing and the customer could soon be lost. Communications may be general - such as an informative newsletter or they could be customised and specific to a particular situation. It is important to keep reassuring the user that not only did they make a wise purchase decision but that they will becoming back next time too.

Time to outsource marketing

We find ourselves trading in extra ordinary financial times. This global recession is no ordinary recession such as many of us have experienced a few times before. Neither is the great Wall Street crash back in 1929 an indicator except it too followed a period of prosperity in America at least. No, this time it is the banking system after years of imprudent lending that has precipitated the crisis and caused governments to inject trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into propping up the banks. Where did these vast sums of money actually come from? Could it be just  another side of the fantasy of the original bad loans. Whatever the cause and solutions the lack of credit is causing businesses to make economies and guess what - marketing is once again the soft target. 

Research by Harvard Business School has shown that it is essential to maintain marketing spending, even more so in a recession and to emphasise core values. “It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain customers need the reassurance of known brands.” ... “Economic recession can elevate the importance of the finance director's balance sheet over the marketing manager's income statement. Managing working capital can easily dominate managing customer relationships. CEOs must counter this. Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.”

Tough times call for tough decisions and that may start with a review of the whole business  before making cuts. Think about the options. A business that has grown in prosperous times may have added personnel, facilities, plant, assets etc ad hoc. Simply making cuts across the board will result in a scaled back company no longer operating at an optimal level because all departments are now under strength. Or another approach is to cut the soft targets like marketing, expenses etc and retain all the staff because labour legislation and complexities of actually dismissing people is a tough option. But what are all these people to do when the enquiries start to dry up? 

The assumption that when the recession ends things just return to the previous happy state is dangerous. Smart companies reorganise, focus on what customers need and set up the business to do this effectively. It may need radically changing the way the business works, some product lines and services may have to go for the business to emerge revitalised and even gain market share. So how will customers and prospects know about this? Marketing. Marketing can help too with the strategic planning issues, taking the new business plan forward and implementing a realistic marketing plan. Waiting for the recession to end and then going back to do some marketing is going to disappoint - for the companies that take this route it is they that will end, not the recession. Better to call in marketing expertise that can bring an independent perspective to provide fresh thinking. Outsourcing is also a lower risk option allowing greater and more predictable control over expenditure .. it is worth a try.

Keep marketing in bad times and good

Exhibitions make a big call on marketing budgets once space, design, give-aways, shipping costs, travel, accommodation and entertainment are factored in. Not to mention the time and organisational effort that prevents other marketing work being undertaken for a while. And yet it is rarely challenged by senior management. Not considered as an economy in difficult times. Interestingly it is seen as a potential economy by visitors. No, the reason is simple - fear of competitive gossip if the company does not exhibit. Interestingly recent research reported by Marketing VOX has discovered a similar sentiment with respect to advertising - or lack of it. "More than 48% of US adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business is likely struggling, according to a study from Ad-ology Research." Although it may seem a negative driver, continuing a strong marketing presence during a recession can be a very positive response. But only if the marketing investment is carefully targeted, co-ordinated and relevant to achieving the business plan. During difficult times the marketing plan may need to be reviewed, priorities changed and tactics refocussed, but even in these unprecedented times businesses are still trading and customers are still buying. It is easy to believe that everything has stopped. It hasn't.

Marketing by numbers

One marketing guru states without reservation that unless you are using at least 8 different marketing techniques then your marketing strategy needs an overhaul. He likes numbers - elsewhere it is 3 golden rules. Perhaps there are more pieces of advice reduced to a simple numeric headline. Of course this in itself is a good marketing technique - suggesting that there is a formula for success by following a prescribed series of steps. And of course it makes good attention grabbing headlines too. Of course the marketing practitioner has a range of techniques that can be deployed but it is not to say that because they all exist they should all be used.  A physician does not use every drug available but prescribes medication to address the diagnosed problem. Just because a business can advertise it doesn't mean that this is also the best use of the marketing budget. It is convenient to use metrics such as, the marketing budget should be set as a percentage of sales turnover. But consider two client examples where this was applied to divisions of large multi national businesses. In the first example the division had a significant turnover but only a few customers because in that business sector there were just a handful of players. But they had an advertising budget and wanted to run a campaign to use the budget. But this would have been unproductive - they knew all their customers and prospects already. Other marketing techniques to develop and sustain customer loyalty offered better returns. The second example was a company  where budgets were aligned to product sales. Again a problem because well established products enjoyed significant funding whereas new products that could in time evolve to replace these cash cows were underfunded. So the lesson is to devise a budget that is driven by a marketing strategy that in turn is designed to meet business objectives.  Marketing by numbers can obscure that goal, but marketing analysis can shine a light onto the real issues and indicate where budget should be invested.

Build it and they will come

Just over 9 years ago the so called 'dot com' bubble burst wiping trillions of dollars off the valuation of NASDAQ listed companies, many of them internet sites without any discernible business model or source of funding other than investment funds. Back then terms like 'cash burn' were employed to describe the rapid eating up of the investment, typically venture capital, consumed by paying programmers, designers and the rest to build and develop the sites, not to mention expensive advertising on prime time TV, newspapers, magazines, bus sides and the Underground. Then many of these companies propelled to prominence and excitedly  discussed in the press started to go bust in a spectacular fashion. Rather like the movie - Field of Dreams where a baseball field was built in  an Iowa cornfield in the belief that build it and people will come - the site would somehow attract visitors. And they did - by the millions, because it was free. Any hint of paying a subscription and the visitors were off to the next new thing. The vague business plan seemed to be to to build the site, build big audiences then leverage this package to advertisers. The truth is not many made this work. Fast forward to the Web 2.0 era and we see social network sites building big audiences and now trying to recoup the huge investment. But changing the site's look to carry advertisements or charging subscriptions and the users object or take their interest to new contenders who are still at the traffic building stage and perceived as cool and new. Co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone is supposed to be announcing how Twitter can generate a revenue stream and turn a profit out of its micro blogging service - or will it be sold? Then there is Facebook and the issues raised over changes in terms of service as a step towards targeted advertising based on user profiles cause a climb down. Typically venture capitalists are interested most in exit strategies rather than long term stake holding. In other words, get the venture going and take a profit from selling the stake. In b-2-b marketing we always start by taking prospective clients back to the business plan so together we can test its robustness, then derive marketing strategies and marketing communications campaigns. Not the other way about of building a brand and product without actual paying customers or advertisers to generate a revenue stream and profit. 

Personalised automated messages

An e-mail report arrived purporting to show how our agency profile "is doing" on an advertising industry database and went on to explain that we were currently recipients of their " Enhanced Agency Service" free of charge and not only did this afford the greatest exposure but they were proactively engaged in marketing our services using both online and offline channels. With great anticipation I scanned the report of visits to our page and click thrus to our site only to discover that despite all the great efforts apparently freely undertaken on our behalf, all figures were a big round zero. Ah! This eventuality was apparently anticipated and a zero return may be explained and rectified by updating our profile page. But guess what - there was no profile page or any mention at all of our agency on the site! This communication was presumably the output of some automated device and suggests that nobody had checked either the results which would hardly persuade us to actually pay for this service, or indeed if we were actually listed in the first case. This type of communication whilst posing as a personalised e-mail is actually less effective than a clearly widely broadcast message about a product or service. The main proposition that the owners of the database were selling was their enhanced listing so surely the first step is to provide some evidence that this has worked better than the basic free listing. This of course will take some time and human intervention, but should result in not only a genuine list of prospects but some understanding of how the 'trial' has performed. The new list will probably be shorter - if the rest are like ours a zero return it might instead prompt a review of the service itself - and better targeted. Relying on an automated system to generate sales misses the whole point of actually knowing who your customers and prospects are.

Publishing trends - a move online

If the spate of articles about new or newish marketing tools such as social networking sites is to be believed then the traditional world of print could be in terminal decline. It is a topic discussed in earlier blogs. A recent research report from isubscribe.co.uk again highlighted declining advertising revenues for magazine publishers, but then we are in the depths of a major recession so it is not that surprising. Talking to publishers in the industrial magazine market the advertising sales people required no persuasion to hold the same space prices as for several years past - big discounts on rate cards - so may be they would have settled for even less. Another interesting indicator is the start of charging for press releases published on web sites, perhaps a recognition that readers are migrating from the printed to online page. At one time, many years ago now press releases were selected by the editor, suitably edited and printed as news. Indeed, at an even earlier time articles were commissioned and paid for - a useful source of bonus income for a young product manager in the early 70s. Then came the era of so called colour separation charges a fee allegedly based on the extra cost involved in producing colour filmwork. This charge was sold as a "colour separation fee" long after the publishing technology had moved on, remaining in the space sales vocabulary, its origins long forgotten and often unknown by the young sellers. More recently the rationale for a fee has been justified on the grounds that far more press releases are received than can be published.  Somewhere along the line the division between editorial integrity publishing genuine news and selling the space disappeared and in many trade magazines the difference between display advertising and editorial content no longer exists. Of course if as they say too much news is received then more pages could  be printed, but the advertising revenue does not support that.  The following is directly quoted (including spelling) from a publisher in response to receipt of a press release and the publisher's eagerness to print the news if only we pay. "This (the charge) is because we receive many more press releases than we can possibly afford to publish and this option allows us to inlcude material from those that want the guarantee of publication." It continues to list charges per word, for publishing photos and an annual fee to place news on the web site. Perhaps little wonder then that smart marketers are busy exploiting free channels and moving into blogs, Facebook and Twitter while they remain both popular and free.

Is Inbound marketing the future?

A recent article by HubSpot suggested that marketing budgets are typically 90% outbound marketing and 10% inbound marketing and that the ratio should be flipped. OK, so what are outbound and inbound marketing?  

 Outbound marketing in short is the traditional approach - putting out messages to target audiences through advertising, e-mails, mail shots, exhibitions and all the other marketing tools. The article argues that not only is the average person subjected to 2,000  marketing interruptions a day, but has figured out means of blocking or filtering some of  them. For example Sky+ allows a TV programme to be viewed and advertisements skipped. Spam filters reject e-mail messages. You can sign up to opt out of mail shots and telephone cold calling. There are even street signs advising that you are in a "No cold calling area". So yes messages get filtered, but a lot gets through. So how about inbound marketing, how does that work and should 90% of the marketing budget be spent on it?  

I bought a new style of mousetrap at the weekend and was reminded of the Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation, " build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." OK - so how does the world know you have a better mousetrap then? Well the conventional approach would be to send outbound messages, the inbound approach seems to advocate hanging out where people are looking for mousetraps. And it is probably not in the High Street anymore, but an out of town shopping mall or superstore, or of course the Internet. And hanging out on the Internet increasingly is about compelling and relevant content and social networking to encourage the target audience to come to you - in short they beat a path to your door. Sounds great!

Do businesses Twitter?

Much has been written in marketing circles recently about not just the remarkable growth of Facebook and Twitter but how these are now essential business marketing tools. I have so far  refrained from commenting on either as immediately relevant to the B-2-B marketing space, but two communications received  today are worth noting. A business-to -business forum unhesitatingly claims, "It's time to finally engage social media for all it's worth". Topics include"Integrating social media into your marketing mix", " Developing online communities that increase customer loyalty" and " What will social media do for my business". Meanwhile Engineering & Technology's E&T magazine devoted two pages to Twitter mentioning high profile users such as Barack Obama.  Twitter with its 140 character "tweets" to tell people what you are doing lends itself to headlines and news flashes which seems to be what the New York Times offers and of course the self styled citizen reporters. It also offers a channel for the trivial as well. Described as micro blogging it is more akin to sending SMS messages, but to all your contacts or followers. And here really is the issue - Twitter's "followers" and "Facebook's" friends - who are they  and how do you get them on board? They need to be your customers and prospects in your target audience to be of value.

Both Facebook and Twitter offer potentially useful tools that are in popular use, further channels to communicate information to and receive feedback from your target audience but as with other media their inclusion within the marketing mix should follow marketing principles. Unlike printed publications who offer access to their readership, with social media building the readership of followers and friends is your job. So although the tools are free, the awareness well established it still requires a commitment in time to build the audience, create content and importantly to respond when appropriate. 

Back to basics

The flow of informative articles landing in the inbox has reached a torrent as discussions on whether or not to tweet, how to blog and speculation about the latest Google algorithm are joined by exhortations to keep on  marketing in the recession with offers of marketing webinars, free tools and white papers. During recessions the accountants assume more importance than in more prosperous times and demand cuts. Marketing is of course an easy target. Cutting budgets doesn't have the nastiness, legal repercussions and redundancy packages associated with cutting staff, not to mention the ugly scenes and bad press that inevitably follow. So stop advertising then. Next look at the underperforming products and discontinue those making the smallest contribution and while about it why not cut back on stock too. So we have a lean company, costs all trimmed back and ready to survive the recession. But what do customers and prospects see. A company that has lost visibility in the industry, offers a limited product range - probably the same as everyone else - have annoyingly stopped making the specialist products they require occasionally and to top it all they are expected to wait for delivery. So the customer loyalty is put to the test and it is time to shop around. The chairman of a company I worked for used to respond to accountants with cost cutting plans with an anecdote about the owner of a sweet shop. In those days a sweet shop kept sweets in jars behind the counter - several shelves of them - and the shop keeper weighed them out in scales, tipped them into a paper bag and tied it of with a flourish. His shop keeper decided to reduce stock, so each week he removed the jar that sold the least. Gradually the shelves lined with jars emptied and gradually his shop emptied of customers, because he had missed the point. Part of the shopping experience was the choice and even if most customers predictably bought wine gums or mints, they could spend a few happy moments debating a more exotic option before settling on the old favourite. Once the choice was gone, so were they - off to a shop where they could indulge in this harmless pleasure. So it is not so much about cutting marketing, but marketing smarter and that might even cost more.

Declining magazine revenues prompt online move

 emarketer offers some disconcerting news for magazine publishers. According to today's report some 525 American titles folded in 2008 with others closing in 2009. All attributed to a shift in print advertising to other media, in particular the Internet. Previous blog entries have discussed the wider issue of a move away from print to the Internet. A good example is Technical Data Sheets. Often these are required by architects or consulting engineers at short notice. Fifteen or maybe twenty years ago they were faxed and a printed copy followed by mail. As a result there was little point in using colour print - sales publications could do that. Today the PDF is the preferred format and colour is back. Many architects have recognised that they do not want to use valuable office space for rows of traditional ring binders either when they can simply download what they need.  From the print side Printweek.com today reports on job cuts throughout the print industry and carries an article that conditions are right for mergers. Within this article is news of investment in digital print technology in the field of intelligent colour personalisation which is another subject and a indication that print specialisation is the future.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is still a preference for print as a preferred medium for reading away from the computer screen. Some journals have reacted to this better than others by revamping not only the design of their publication but also investing in content by providing articles that are interesting to read. In the industrial publication sector IET has done this very well with their E&T journal. The Engineer continues to offer good value content and interestingly offers the same magazine online, but most industrial sector publications have long since descended into a catalogue of paid for press releases, manufacturer sponsored articles and shrinking advertising revenues. It appears they remain alive by a combination of telesales to companies equally slow to recognise the changing times. Some publications carried by the inertia of advertisers are almost unreadable, but that is another story. Ironically although many industrial companies invest in R&D to innovate new cutting edge products, they do not do the same for their marketing but continue to roll out the same budget and formula year after year - same advertising, same magazines, attend the same exhibitions with the same people and have an amateur approach to the Internet.

So has the printed magazine a future? Good content and good design are key. In a straw poll yesterday in a client's office there was an overwhelming preference for this to be in print. News headlines are OK on the Internet where print cannot compete so well, but magazines carrying more researched in depth articles could have a good future. 

Finally my own straw poll on the train out of London last night. Several people were reading books, quite a few were skimming through the free evening papers - nobody had the paid for Evening Standard - others were plugged into iPods, some were asleep and one girl was watching a particularly blood thirsty samuri movie on her lap top. Nobody had a magazine. 

Instant marketing is not a cheap fix

As the recession deepens and gloom spreads  I have noticed an increase in articles about marketing on the cheap. Typical sub heads such as, "Instant Press Releases", "Cheap business cards", "Free Marketing Plans" and"Free Sales letters" are promoted on one  web site referred to in a marketing newsletter. It all gives the impression that marketing can be applied like a fresh coat of paint to cover up the blemishes and that by using these free tools - and of course buying the book - business success will follow. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. What do cheap business cards say about a company? That the company has little substance, is amateurish and it just creates a negative early impression. And what about instant press releases? Just because you submit a piece about your company it does not mean it will get published. In fact it is very unlikely to be published in a journal that addresses your target audience. Here is the point of marketing. It is not a short term fix to be applied when sales enquiries slump. Savvy companies will already have their marketing plans in place, will have professionally designed business cards, support literature and web site; have regular editorial coverage in the appropriate trade publications because they had taken the time, given the commitment and made the investment to develop a marketing philosophy throughout the enterprise.  

Now social networking tops e-mail for popularity

 We have been experimenting with social networking and blogging with one of our clients for a while now but it is still too early to draw any conclusions as to the business value. One thing that soon became apparent was that blog content rapidly appeared on Google searches which must be a positive result if relevant in-bound links to the client's site are rewarded with higher ranking. But our adoption of social bookmarking links is even more recent  so far with no tangible results, but due to the adoption of such august organisations as the BBC and the sheer number of users (110 million according to Nielsen) it must be worth a try. I have personal anecdotal evidence from the younger (twenties) ladies in my family that Facebook in particular  is being preferred by them to e-mail as a communication tool with their friends. Recent research from Nielsen reported by Webpronews seems to confirm this through actual research and finds that over two thirds of the online population goes online to visit social networks and blogs. It also confirms that Facebook is the most popular and that more older, but not old,  users are joining. Another  finding is that mobile is "playing an increasingly important role in social networking". Of course there again the young early adopters of Facebook are prolific users of mobile communication too, so it is not perhaps surprising  now that the technology facilitates access to social networking sites from a mobile phone. Of course what is actually communicated is another matter, but unlikely to be very business oriented. Despite the undoubted prominence of Facebook it seems but a short while ago that MySpace was the place to be. An article appearing  on the BBC site posed the question - "Has MySpace lost its cool?" 

This article also points out the importance of the advertising funded business model. Will Facebook similarly lose its shine? For marketers many of these web 2.0 applications are both accessible and plausible but for those of us in B-2-B marketing still difficult to recommend with any confidence especially if they prove to be no more than a passing fad. On the other hand, it was not much more than 10 years ago when we were challenging clients to invest in a web site at all, then suddenly every business had a site. So what about e-mail then? It is  a very cost effective tool for communicating with the target audience but does require a lot of work in building and maintaining a good database and more and more organisations are blocking deliveries of messages. On the other hand, looking at the one or two web sites in the same market sectors as our clients that have a Facebook page, typically they have very few "friends" and fail to actually use or develop it. Back to the old problem then of generating content and this is where a good outsource specialist knowledgeable in the market can bring the experience and expertise to build and maintain the brand whatever channel is used to deliver the message.

Brand building with PR

A White Paper by Vocus - Maximizing the value of Your News: From Twitter to Google - underlines the changing role of PR that Web 2.0 offers. It suggests 'Rethinking your Audience' - not just media, but consumers and investors as well. To this I would add employees, dealers and agents. What the web gives us now is an opportunity to communicate beyond the traditional third party route of having news published in papers, magazines and on TV and radio and in particular what has been coined Web 2.0 enables us to not just talk to but converse with customers and prospects. This might be a very strange concept to some clients. In short PR has the tools to build brand values at all levels. The White Paper quotes research from TNS "Digital World, Digital Life", December 2008 that '81% of users worldwide used search engines to find information and 76% looked up news.' Add to that e-mail (the most popular use of the Internet) and we have communication, information and news - three primary pillars of PR and the Internet providing he tools to deliver to customers. Whether it is widely broadcast or targeted at very precisely defined groups, even to individuals it is all about favourably presenting the brand but now not just issuing press releases but joining conversations and dealing positively with negative feed back. The Virtual News Office from Technical Marketing provides the foundation for a range of publishing tools- news with image, searchable archives, e-mail news and RSS. By integrating a Virtual News Office with any company web site not only can companies easily communicate with their customers but by building highly relevant links into their site, also improving Google rankings.

Reaching B-2-B target audiences with Web 2.0 tools

Much online marketing discussion today revolves around the world of blogs and social networks. Most client discussions don’t. In the B-2-B marketing space, adoption of new ideas is notoriously slow. Despite often being technology leaders in their own field, typical industrial and commercial client companies are rarely early adopters of new marketing methods. This was certainly the case with web sites. There was a distinct process starting with ‘we don’t need it’, or ‘our competitors don’t do it’ to a sudden realisation that their competitors had been developing an implementation and now they were in catch up mode and being asked why they do not have one. B-2-B with smaller budgets has been more cautious in allocating resources to new ideas, often until the evidence is compelling, then looking to cheap solutions. In some ways the Web 2.0 opportunity is different. Many tools are free. It is instead the time commitment. Emarketer wrote that ‘corporations are using blogs to build solid relationships with customers’ and offered the information that some 47% of the online population read blogs and there has been a 300% increase in blog readership over the last 4 years. Further that blogs have more impact on purchasing decisions than social networks and 40% take action after reading a blog. Another writer quoted a question being debated, ’is Facebook is a tool to use in your leisure time or more of a tool to communicate.’ It has also been suggested that a ‘narrow topical appeal draws highly engaged users’ by cornering the market in information no doubt, on a topic relevant to the company product. On the other hand unless it is also a fast changing topic keeping the momentum going could prove a challenge when it comes to content. Consider the typical widget maker – getting regular PR content is a challenge, keeping a blog or social network site supplied with content is going to require a lot of inspiration. Unlike posting photos of a night out on Facebook, B-2-B content needs to be relevant and professional. Then again, do engineers, architects, contractors and the like actually follow blogs or connect to Facebook – it would interesting to know.

Are blogs changing PR?

An interview carried by iMedia Connection – ‘Steve Rubel on how blogs are changing the face of PR’ - brings forward a debate of the technical possibilities versus their relevance to the target market and the interest, uptake and commitment of clients to participate. The figures seem compelling. According to emarketer “Once a haven for techies, there are now blogs for everything from celebrity gossip to political commentary to the most mundane personal minutiae. By 2012, more than 145 million people - or 67% of the US Internet population - will be reading blogs at least once per month.” They reckon 12% of US internet users, some 25 million write blogs. Surprisingly more than 100 million internet users, more than 50% are also blog readers. Big numbers then. Consider now some unofficial statistics from our own research in PR activity in the UK industrial market. Whilst the most active portal web sites carry news free of charge and archive thousands of stories, a sampling revealed that the vast majority were generated by relatively few companies or their PR agencies. The larger group of companies submitted very few stories. Some just one token story before presumably losing interest or running out of news. Talking to other PR people confirmed that news output from their clients was hardly prolific. Most needed quite a good portfolio of clients to make their PR business work. In our experience many clients don’t even think they have any news and a key task of a PR professional is teasing out stories in the first place. Then few have any people in-house that can write anything about their business sufficient to interest and editor, let alone a reader. But blogs demand a far bigger commitment by company personnel as there is both an immediacy and inside knowledge that the traditional PR practitioners will find difficult to embrace. For example not just getting the story, but getting client approval introduces a delaying factor. The blog is more of a personal view and works against the secrecy culture many clients have. Only recently a PR professional was lamenting a decision by a client to stop all case studies and third party endorsement stories as they did not want their competitors to know. We all have clients like that – great stories are blocked because the credibility associated with their blue chip customer cannot be mentioned. So the challenge is getting not only the commitment to write a blog, even if ghost written by an agency but also the openness to actually reveal the sort of compelling inside news content people want to read.

Niche markets can offer opportunity during recession and build a sustainable future

For the UK manufacturing sector the current economic crisis comes not after years of boom that banking, retail and housing enjoyed, but after decades of a shrinking manufacturing base. Once the manufacturer for the world Britain as the first to enjoy an industrial revolution, that situation has long since changed culminating in recent times with the big shakeout of the 1980s seeing a major erosion of the once mighty industrial base. As other nations became major low cost suppliers volume manufacture largely moved offshore with China just the most recent of supplier nations. Meanwhile not only has British industry been addressing niche markets, but also redefining what is a niche market. Once seen as uninteresting due to low volumes today’s niche markets are not just about providing manufactured goods, but a package that includes consultancy and service support both adding value for the customer and contributing margin to the provider’s balance sheet. There is also the benefit of an on-going partnership between manufacturer and customer - a distinct advantage compared to products that would only be sold every 20 or 30 years. The combination of consultancy, manufacture and service changes the traditional demarcations and is leading to greater innovation, design flexibility and customization. The customer experience provides direct market research input and builds in loyalty and of course can lead to new opportunities. Meanwhile the beleaguered retail sector resorts to deeper and more frequent discounting. This seems an unsustainable strategy when they neither control the cost of products or design and at some stage the discount approach must run out of headroom. Likewise banks who have to some extent misused marketing methods to sell money they either did not have or was unsecured, might be forced to reappraise whether service might be more valued than selling so called financial products. Just as the manufacturing sector has reinvented itself, so may the retail and banking sector need to rethink service and support, not to mention prudence to the mix and give customers reasons to return loyalty. So niche marketing should no longer be viewed as a back water but perhaps the future. At Technical Marketing we have long espoused a similar philosophy. In short we build relationships with clients that includes advice, but also many deliverables and yes a degree of service support too.

Content marketing - a new specialism?

The Internet is probably currently responsible for creating more specialist jobs than any other business sector. Today there are niche specialities – SEO, usability testing, hosting, CMS software, social media consultants and now content marketing specialists. Ten to fifteen years ago our task then was explaining to clients that the Internet could provide a useful addition to their marketing communications programme. Many SMEs countered with the response that none of their competitors had a web site and their customers had never asked for one anyway. Back then there was an education job to do while building a web site was a collaboration between designers and programmers. In fact a typical approach was for a designer to produce the ‘look’ for the home page and how it should be applied to inside pages before the programmer coded, built and tested the site. As an Account Director it was immediately obvious that before these functional aspects could be addressed there was a need to plan the site architecture and most importantly create the content. The first was quite easy – the content however was usually a major challenge. A typical company web site is basically a distillation of what the company is about – what it does, who they are, what they sell, how to buy – but at that time the businesses I dealt with typically only had some sales leaflets and not much else. It often required meetings to identify basic facts about the company and cause them in turn to rethink what they were actually doing. It should have been amazing how little most executives understood about their business when it came to key facts, but experience showed it was commonplace. Even products were a challenge, for example one company marketed a range of floor cleaning machines that used cleaning fluids. In theory a lucrative range of consumables that could easily be sold online, but at the time relied on a storeman simply sending out stock only if asked in whatever container was to hand. There was no real process in place, no part numbers, no pricing and no packaged product so an important business opportunity was largely missed. Of course developing a web site while at the same time creating content that in turn requires creating business structures and systems can be a lengthy process. And of course adding emerging content as it became available was a poor way to deliver web sites on budget and on time. Clients simply do not understand that their lack of information is relevant. Although we tried to create and get signed off all content before starting to build a web site, the theory was always better than the reality as material persistently came through in bits and pieces. Returning to the spawning of web site specialisms the term ‘content marketing’ as noted at the beginning of this piece has now entered the lists of expert consultants. One blog talks about creating ‘remarkable content’.

Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of HubSpot says,

“

To be a successful marketer in today's society, you need to be half publisher and half traditional marketer. So your next hire, you might think, could be a writer, or a video producer, or a music producer, something like that, and you need to start creating remarkable content. You look at the people who really win on the internet, and who really win on Google, who rank very high on Google, its sites with lots and lots of pages inside of Google's index. So Google sort of looks at a website as, every page on a website is a unique little website that can rank for different keywords. So the key is, how do you get as much stuff in Google's index that's remarkable, that people are looking into it, that you can move up the rankings. So, we really encourage our customers to start creating remarkable content. And remarkable content spreads wildly on the internet. If you're creating boring content, it doesn't spread at all.

”

It echoes a theme we at Technical Marketing have long been espousing in less florid language, that interesting, relevant and helpful content is an important part of the marketing mix. Most companies simply do not have the time, or skills to produce their own content, so maybe it is the time of the Content Marketing Expert then.

Marketing through the credit crunch

Just as governments seem uncertain how to stop the descent into a global recession, so does the retail sector seem to be resorting to some strange marketing tactics. A ‘20% off ‘ sale a month before Christmas seems a desperate measure with the underlying suggestion that margins must have been more substantial than might have been previously inferred. The most curious promotion this week was a double whammy offer on Christmas Tree lights. Signage suggested that there were savings of up to 50% while the actual product was marked with far smaller cash savings. We picked up a box priced at around 10 pounds also marked with a previous price of a couple pound more. As it is still November one wonders when they were on sale at the higher price anyway. But stuck on each box was also a label for insurance. Although I thought it odd to advertise insurance on a ten pound box of lights, I was really surprised when a member of staff sidled up and pointed out what a great deal this was. For just 3 pounds we could insure the lights and get free replacement in event of later failure. My wife pointed out that she expected them to work and so did consumer laws. So the actual cost of purchase with insurance would have been more than the promised savings on previously displayed price. Marketing should be based on firmer foundations not flimsy gimmicks, but then hindsight is showing that the three great drivers of the British economy – retail, finance and housing – have all been based on overvalued propositions.

World economy in meltdown?

The news is dominated by failing banks, falling stock markets, falling real estate values, government rescues with multi-billion dollar sums that have little or no effect on stopping the downward dive to oblivion. Some marketing bloggs are starting to ask will it affect us, are we burying our heads in the sand? Those of us in marketing for several decades have witnessed business cycles of boom and bust, worked in high inflation environments, low inflation, high interest rates and low – but nothing like this. Who would have thought so much of British investment was in Icelandic banks for goodness sake? As the value of our savings disappears you can’t help but wonder what is next? We are at a stage of financial planning right now – what assumptions should we, indeed can we make? And yet, businesses are carrying on. Enquiries are still coming in product being shipped and paid for, so why are companies being so devalued on the stock market? The risk is that the total loss of confidence will start undermining otherwise healthy businesses if people hoard cash. But in the b-2-b sector nobody is yet talking of cutting budgets, broadly it is business as normal. Conventional wisdom advocates investing in more marketing, not less. Of course marketing is a soft target to trim or cut in recessionary times. Not a good plan. Businesses that market their way through difficult times generally emerge as the winners. Time will tell once the history of these strange times comes to be written.

Saving the planet

After many years working in the lighting industry and involvement with the electrical contracting world a visit to a wholesaler trade counter is always an interesting experience. Someone once remarked that all the best politicians are busy driving cabs and cutting hair. To these we could add ‘sparks’. The trade counter format has not noticeably changed over the years. Usually a poky place with electrical equipment manufacturers vying for the limited poster and display space. While waiting their turn contractors read the Sun, drink free coffee and express their views on the world in general. It is the ultimate word of mouth environment if your target audience is electrical installers and a great place for vox pop market research. These guys will have little hesitation in telling you what they think of your product. Today I was buying some special size fluorescent tubes and had taken in the failed lamp to make sure I got the right size. At one time the old tube would then be simply thrown away but due to new environmental regulations there is now a charge of ten pounds – to cover the licence and paper work gov you know. The new tube cost just over three pounds. Looking up from reading the Sun the next electrician in line took a deep breath and quipped – we’re saving the planet mate!

Photo: Our pond freezes over.

Movies and viral marketing

A business-to-business company Eppendorf has sparked considerable praise with their viral marketing campaign in the form of a pop band style video. It has achieved fulsome praise indeed and yet somehow it didn’t work for me. Worse I couldn’t make much sense of it first time around or feel inspired to pass it on to a viral network. Not being in the particular sector of the industrial market or familiar with the brand probably didn’t help either. Maybe it is a generation thing, or maybe it was the band. Humorous movies such as Hamlet cigars with the short clip ending with their famous music as a cigar is lit made me laugh, but a song about a product sung as a ballad was puzzling.