Marketing for start up businesses

New business start ups generally have need of effective marketing, but little resource to invest. How can a new business succeed?

One source notes that one in three new businesses fail within the first three years and lists a number of reasons. Guess what? Top of the list is 'poor marketing'. Marketing is also closely associated with other reasons cited for failure such as lack of planning and financial liquidity. Although there have been and continue to be, various government initiatives to encourage start up businesses, having a good product or service idea is not enough on its own and becoming an immediate expert in marketing, finance, selling, stock control, distribution and many other skills is simply unrealistic.

In running a small business ourselves for many years we have tended to divide our work effort into 3 main categories:-

• The process of generating enquiries, acquiring new customers or clients and getting an order or  a brief for the work required.
• Actually doing the work itself and delivering this to the client.
• Then, all the back office work such as book keeping, paying invoices and taxes, issuing invoices and progressing payments, banking, maintenance of premisses, ordering supplies and everything else it takes to keep the business functioning.

The most important thing to remember is that only selling a product or service generates an income. Getting business is an investment to help create sales and administration is an expense. Small businesses     are often very small in the start up phase - just one or two people - and resources are measured in both time and money, both are scarce.

Because marketing is such a key element, even a start up business should budget some money and time and consider this an investment that needs to earn its way in bringing in quality sales leads. Before even starting a business, market research is essential to drawing up a realistic business plan. OK  so you have a great product or service concept. Now you need to research pricing, competition, estimate the market size, the target market for your product and who are you selling to - the target audience. The business plan should have an objective which can be simply stated such as to sell X  products in year 1, gain X% market share or achieve £X sales. New businesses often over estimate sales and predict unrealistic growth. It is better to be conservative and set a marketing strategy to hit achievable targets and plan finances to suit.

Marketing communications is the key to telling your target audience that you are in business, you have a product which has benefits to them - think about user benefits not a list of product features they may neither understand or care about - and use several communications channels to get your message to the type of people who you have identified as potential customers. 

So finally a word on what marketing communication channels to use. First of all avoid the sales pitch of advertising space salesmen. The "just closing the issue at a special discount if you buy now" type of offer should be resisted. Time for paid for advertising later once you are established, understand your market better and which media is relevant. Likewise exhibitions can be expensive; build a sustainable business first. Do build a competent web site and invest in professional design too for not only the web site but all relevant communication collateral. Use word of mouth marketing, get satisfied customers to endorse and recommend your product, use online tools such as social media to promote news about your product. Maybe use your passion for the subject to build up a an audience that sees your blog as an authority in your market niche. And above all nurture your customers, get repeat business and encourage them to spread the word.

Content ideas - books

Yes, books. Real books. Books that can be touched, carried, read without a screen or pixels. A corporate book is more than a marketing piece; it conveys the experience of a company, its tradition, beliefs, philosophy and history. It adds credibility to the company and gives provides an alternative, yet supporting, perspective to the sales mission. In a highly competitive industry it can raise a company profile and support other elements of your marketing mix. It is also a gift that is valued by clients, and definitely has a retention value. And these days of print-on-demand, the investment need not be high.

So what content do these corporate books contain? The key elements are to do with building on the company's reputation, emphasizing its experience and providing a client with confidence that placing an order for a product or service is the right thing to do. The Guide booklet advice given last time can also be included in a full book content if appropriate.

The route to deciding content divides between an established business and a new one. For companies with a history, some background is a good start with archive photos, and an explanation of a client-friendly business philosophy that has continued through to the present. A timeline of development and, ‘pushing the envelope’ inventions provides a solid foundation for implicit claims that your company and services/products have a strong legacy, based on knowledge and experience. Tracing current designs, business models back to the origins all helps to provide a complete story that can be illustrated with case studies woven into an illustrated portfolio. Finish up with the here and now. Investment in people, the business, current benefits for clients and conclude with looking to the future.

A corporate book is slightly different for a new company making its way into a potentially crowded market. Here, you would look at setting out why you are entering the market, what you can offer clients that they don’t have already (yes, this means that if you don’t have a USP, then maybe a book isn’t the way to go). But if you are bringing new thought to the market, then let’s look at a similar plan to the established company route with a beginning, middle and end: where you experience has come from, what you are doing now, and where you are going in the future. And don’t forget the photos! A picture replaces a thousand words, and the best book content is based on the quality and interest value of the images. 

Content ideas - technical guides

Following on from our current theme of content marketing ideas, this week we look at an extension of the whitepapers idea: technical guides.

There are many opportunities for looking at slightly ‘left field’ forms of marketing. In the world of technical marketing, when a company offers technical advice gathered from years of development and practical experience, it is seen not as a sales pitch but an altruistic gift, yet one that is closely linked to the sponsor’s brand. Yes, of course all this information can be uploaded on a website and listed by Google, but our experience is that even a small printed booklet is still given and received as a 'gift'.

A guide booklet is a subliminal sales tool, but unlike a whitepaper (which focuses on a single subject), a guide extends to the complete topic surrounding the advertising message you want to distribute. The guide is created in a style that explains a technology in easy to understand terms, with sufficient history to provide a background, but not so much to be boring.

All new product ranges, technical solutions or services are ideal subjects for a guide booklet project. While avoiding specific references and ‘catalogue entry’ descriptions of products, the guide will provide a canvas of background information to b-2-b specifiers and buyers and gently explain about why previous technologies have developed to the logical point that describes your product’s unique benefit.

Of course, the guide uses plenty of subtle yet direct references to the products being sold, but in non-specific terms 'Fig 5: A typical example of a waterproof digital widget', or 'Graph 7: Comparison of energy efficiency of the traditional and the new technology…’ Using a combination of technical and journalistic copywriting techniques, the guide booklet can have many marketing benefits. In addition to the primary means to introduce a new product, or range of products or services, it can also help to promote your company as a caring, generous corporation, and most importantly be a sales tool with the all-important retention value. 

Content ideas - white papers

As remarked in the previous blog, more opportunities for publishing, call for more content.

A White Paper can be a useful marketing tool particularly in an area where the company has special expertise and knowledge that a potential customer might find helpful as a briefing prior to the product selection stage. Accordingly a white paper is usually about a single subject, such as a new technology and can be used to help readers understand the issues involved before starting a process of product  evaluation. The tone should aim to be neutral and authoritative examining both the benefits and the disadvantages and allowing the reader to make his own decision based on informed knowledge.

Although not overtly discussing products in the white paper, the reader will still have a view of the company as expert and therefore be favourably inclined towards that company as a result. It is part of building a recognition as ideas leader and capturing the moral high ground of that market place.

Stepping up content creation

With the emergence of self-publication as a valid option the requirement for quality content needs to be stepped up several gears.

One client has recognised the need and is working with us to deliver a wealth of new content to a daily schedule. Another has stalled and needs ideas to drive their communications programme forward. They will also need to open up and be less shrouded in outmoded secrecy. Here are some thoughts we put forward for consideration.

The traditional options for communicating with customers and prospective customers has been through third party publishers of journals, usually referred to as the trade press, who  provide magazines to address target audiences for the client's products. There have been two main routes:-

• Display advertising - purchase of advertising space in the main publications.
• Editorial - news coverage derived from press releases sent to the editor or news desk. 

Both display advertising and gaining editorial coverage are valid marketing communication options, but through the Internet there are now many additional ways to communicate with prospects that no longer rely on buying space or an editor choosing to run with a news story, by being your own publisher. Communication can be broadcast (to a wide group), direct (to named individuals) or to niche groups.

As a consequence businesses need to generate considerably more content.

Content development

Relevant content is no longer of only short term value that doesn’t outlive the currency of the journal that prints the news, but now builds a library of information on the internet that is indexed by search engines and this in turn ranks your company higher in search results. It is therefore essential to step up content development, both to directly reach and influence prospects and to improve search engine rankings. As a consequence businesses are responding by increasing the output of content. Here are some ideas for content:-

• News flashes - short items (not formal press releases), comments on industry news, events, new legislation, ideas, new staff, talks, exhibitions, interesting reference articles etc sent out using email news, RSS feeds, social media and online comment on industry blogs etc.
• Press Releases - formal communication with press, news publishers, customers, subjects include new products, interesting product applications, third party testimonials, contract wins, staff appointments, exhibition previews, new investments, technology etc. sent out to press, published on own web site (e.g. using Virtual News Office), posted to industry news sites.
• Articles - longer, more detailed news stories, perhaps describing a recent and interesting project or a testimonial from a customer. Published on own web site, in company newsletter or commissioned by an editor.
• White papers - informed article typically describing the background to a topic such as the advent of a new technology, industry relevant and brand neutral. informative and educational and due to expert provided content positions the publishing company as authoritative in that market. Published as a PDF on own web site, often in exchange for contact email.
• Guides - introduction to the market, requirements, outline ‘how to’ chose right class of product etc. Often printed, mailed out on request, distributed at trade shows, available as ebook or published as a downloadablePDF on own web site, often in exchange for contact email.
• Video - increasingly popular for demonstrating how a product works, showcasing interesting applications or interviewing customers. Typically published on YouTube and own web site.

Third party publication

Traditional media typically magazines, but also email newsletter and industry web sites - paid for advertising, advertorial or editorial coverage.

Self publication

News section of own web site ( preferably Virtual News Office rather than blog module), RSS news feed, Twitter, blog and YouTube.

Content/News distribution

• News to traditional media sent using html email press release.
• News to customer/prospect list (opt-in subscribers) by email newsletter - eNews - aggregate news stories, headlines/ opening text and image linking to Virtual News Office.
• News feeds - Twitter and RSS.

Don't throw the marketing baby out with its bathwater.

The classic marketing mix for B-2-B products has been overhauled in recent years as we all know very well. Traditional combinations of personal demonstration, word of mouth, advertising, editorial, printed literature, direct mail, press releases, exhibitions and training courses have been eclipsed by websites, PDF downloads, video presentations, bulk emailing, RSS and social media feeds.

But is this 180° turnabout really what your customers actually want? We are hearing clients complain about these so-called Internet marketing methods. "It seems more like a way of saving money and balancing budgets," seems to sum up the mood in certain quarters. Few can still support the cost of a personal representative on the road visiting clients for a few pounds of sales per visit. It simply doesn't make sense if the end result is only collecting an order for a dozen nuts and bolts. However, what is often forgotten is the hidden benefit of face to face contact. What are your customers thinking, who are the new competitors, and why are they better? Would you have found out about a potential contract for another part of your business without popping in for that chat? How is the market changing and why?

Of course, you can spend money on market research and focus groups to gather information, but they can't replace direct sales feedback. Or, it seems, printed material. We are finding that more and more clients have gone into online information or PDF downloads for technical data and are starting to come out the other side and embracing print again. It is a hot subject with supporters on both sides: those who want to find information online and download it and those who what a printed brochure to put in a file.

One thing is certain and that is the argument for and against different marketing methods will continue for the forseeable future, but what is starting to appear is a hybrid approach of taking the best from both philosophies to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

A recent project to promote a range of data management hardware components included a simple 16pp guide for specifiers, written in a form of language that neither intimidated the novice, nor patronised the expert. Considered alone it didn't mean much, but as a souvenier of a sales visit, a gift for visiting the website, or a direct mailed piece, or the result of replying to a Tweeted message, it has been an undoubted success.

Thus the technical marketing strategy is to look at all options for marketing - from the traditional and up to date lists - and merging the best tactics from both to create a coordinated and appropriate approach to boosting profitable sales.

Report claims advertising boosts the economy

According to Marketing Week,  a recent report from the Advertising Authority claims that for every £1 spent on advertising in the UK, £6 is generated for the wider economy that's making a £100 billion contribution to UK GDP.

Quoting from Marketing Week - Advertising Authority chief executive Tim Lefroy says: “That’s bigger than spending money on building new roads, railways or stations where the conversion factor would be one to four. Spending money on advertising will grow the economy, increase jobs and make things better in this country.”

It is all about generating demand for products but the report recognises a negative view of advertising is often more talked about than the positive role of wealth creation, exports and social benefits. 

When the world wide economic crisis hit a few years ago, marketing budgets and advertising  in particular were the soft targets for cuts because that is what has traditionally been the reaction. On the face of it there is no immediate disadvantage, only savings and a positive effect on cash-flow. Evidence suggests otherwise, for example 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."

But the report while emphasising the economic case for advertising also homes in on data. "Digital expansion has brought with it an unprecedented amount of data, which if used responsibly can unlock immense value, but there are concerns that if the EU’s proposed data and privacy policies come into effect, further growth will be stalled." There is clearly great concern that proposed EU regulations if enacted into UK law, then growth in digital marketing could damaged.

The rationale for a technical marketing philosophy

Why is it consumers will pay a premium price for a product far in excess of its intrinsic cost? The answer is that the product bears a logo representing a brand that is desirable to the consumer. They are not just purchasing a product – they are investing in a life style choice, ownership of that product is aspirational and makes a powerful statement to their friends and associates about their own values and status. Of course the brand owner has invested serious money to create that desire and positioning of their brand intended to convey instant recognition and comprehension.

 So do the same marketing techniques work for the less glamorous world of business-to-business marketing, where budgets are considerably less? The answer is that the general principles of marketing still apply – the challenge is how they are applied. People buying business products and services are also consumers who experience the world of consumer marketing every day, but in their professional capacity will be less influenced by emotional appeals. When buying or specifying b-2-b products the process is not characterised by a spontaneous desire for instant gratification. It is a process of evaluation and consideration which may be quite lengthy. But what might ultimately differentiate one similar product from another is the reputation of the brand of the supplier. Although price will always be important, quality, reliability, technology, availability, post sales support and many other factors may figure in the final purchase decision. Building that reputation for a brand is where marketing performs a vital role in creating an environment where purchasers will ultimately demonstrate a preference for one product over another.

 Marketing should not be confused with sales. It 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. When marketing technical products, there are many facets to the marketing role. Technical marketing will typically embrace new product development, marketing communications and protection of intellectual property. Instead of the emotional appeal of consumer marketing we recognise that in the marketing space we address of industrial, technical and entertainment technology products, we are more typically engaged with engineers. Accordingly we have introduced 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 even in the financial sector.

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.

Common to successful engineering projects and successful marketing is the importance of planning and testing first. Our technical marketing philosophy helps engineer marketing solutions that support and aid delivery of company objectives. Starting at the beginning of the planning process is the marketing plan. Very few companies actually seem to have one any more than they have a formal business plan. There is too often the impression conveyed that the only marketing plan is to repeat last year's pattern of expenditure - usually the last several years - which makes it difficult to find budget for new concepts. All at a time when marketing is rapidly evolving. The usual reason given for not having a formal marketing plan is lack of time. But what is the point in spending money without knowing why or having any benchmark to measure whether it is successful? We recommend not only reviewing the marketing plan at least annually, but also setting the budget that will help deliver the results and company objectives.

Planning needs to be followed by effective implementation. This is an important part of our client involvement – working as part of the team to actually implement the plan at an operational level. By working in partnership with our clients, changing circumstances can be easily accommodated in the plan. We bring experience in a range of marketing disciplines from traditional to evolving online techniques and can handle some or all of these to an agreed plan. The mix will differ according to each client’s own specific needs and resources. Most of our clients now regard Technical Marketing Ltd as part of their team thanks to long standing business relationships.

If you market technical products and think your business could benefit from working with us then get in touch. If you are just interested in what we do then sign up for our e-mail newsletter or just follow us on Twitter or any of the other options offered on the web site. We are here to help businesses succeed.

Time to think about how you approach marketing

Technical marketing is founded on the same planning and attention to detail demanded of engineering projects.

Successful businesses have clearly stated goals, a strategy and a supporting financial forecast. Marketing has an important role to play in achieving these business objectives and typically includes new product development, product portfolio management and a marketing communications programme. We should regard marketing as an investment that delivers valid returns just as would be demanded of any other use of scarce resources. Consequently it makes sense to plan marketing activities, apply strict budgetary control, set targets, measure outcomes and use feedback to modify and improve the plan.

It is essential to impose organisational discipline on all marketing activities starting with the marketing team itself, the relationship with both external suppliers and internal customers and in particular with the sales operation. A formal, written Marketing Plan detailing proposed actions, methods, rationale and time scales should be shared with and supported by the whole company. The Marketing Plan should be accompanied by a detailed budget which will be used throughout the plan period to measure and control expenditure. Another essential document is a Corporate Identity (CI) Guide which describes how the company logo and image is to be used consistently across a wide range of materials - not just marketing communications collateral, but from company stationery to vehicle livery and service team work apparel.

The discipline imposed by creating the Marketing Plan will require attention to be focussed on a 'joined-up' marketing communications strategy, so that the various marketing techniques such as advertising, PR, web site and email campaigns, are co-ordinated and have a synergy and integration into a complete programme that is absent in adhoc, unplanned activities. As with engineering projects, planning and attention to detail will pay off when the marketing plan is implemented.

The scope of PR expands - but is b2b marketing taking note?

Management Today

PR has emerged as currently being one of the most effective marketing tools, but many B2B enterprises still don't get what it is all about.

Press and Public Relations has not only changed thanks to the globalisation and immediacy of communication but there has been an increased emphasis on public relations in terms of directly communicating with the public and not primarily via the third party intermediary of the press. PR  is about managing reputation which increasingly has a wider remit than what people think about your product, but includes how the business itself behaves in terms of social accountability. Look at the backlash  companies such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google aroused recently when it was revealed that despite the scale of business conducted in the UK, financial arrangements appeared to be organised to side step corporation tax. Environmental responsibility and equitable employment policies are other banana skins  waiting to wreck the reputation of any business.

Management Today's January cover story - Spin Masters - How PR took over the world, claims that PR is booming and in 2011 was a $10billion business that grew by 8%.  Furthermore it says, "PR people are starting to make it to the top of businesses" and points out that "our prime minister was once head of comms for Carlton Television." The article is built around interviews with leading PR experts and draws out the following quote for emphasis - " Businesses are more aware than ever before of what people think and say about them, and if they don't respond - or respond wrongly - it can be disastrous."

So is this an issue that b2b companies should be concerned about? Interestingly some 10 years ago one client working in the construction industry and with a significant public sector client base offered a whole range of policies online regarded as essential to qualify for consideration for request to tender. These included Environmental Policy, Equal Opportunities Policy, Customer Charter, Safety Policy, Safety Statistics and Equality & Diversity Strategy amongst others.

It raises the question of how many b2b marketers are actually tuned in to what their customers expect from them, what they think and what they are saying in various online forum.

Are we being busy fools?

A new year, new resolutions and a good time to ask - are we being busy fools?

Frantic activity - frequent travel, 24 hour email contact, new marketing campaigns, constant social media engagement - all big consumers of time. Plenty to be busy with, but is it all productive? Or as the chairman of a major electrical company I once worked for was fond of asking - are we being busy fools? Are we chasing around to little purpose and are marketing  activities bringing in quality enquiries?

It is a good a time as any to review the marketing plan and ask what is working and what is not delivering? Plans are not cast in stone and if elements are not working or circumstances have changed, then the plan should be changed to reflect the new situation. And just because particular marketing communications used to work, times may have changed so it is worth checking the marketing investment is still valid.

Being busy is not necessarily being productive.

Did the new rules of marketing happen in 2012?

As 2012 draws to a conclusion it is traditionally a time when the events of the year come up for review.

Probably the most intriguing marketing event of 2012 was the IPO of Facebook in May. The initial stock offer was priced at $38 a share, valuing the company at many $ billions. Much of the revenue was to be from advertising. It was the first real test for the company - would people invest? Could the huge Facebook membership be converted into money? Well after some teething problems the shares started trading and currently stand at $27. Not the overnight cash bonanza the average investor might have hoped for.

A significant factor in all business models that rely on advertising revenue is the size of the pool of funds available to spend by companies and their agencies. The overall size of this pot fluctuates with the ebbs  and flows of the economy. New media opportunities are evaluated as alternative means rather than additional, so someone's gain is generally at the expense of the incumbent media. B2B advertising agencies are cautious about investing client funds in untested media and typically wait to see how a new title or media channel shapes up.

One thing advertising account managers and PR account managers have tended to agree on in the scope of their respective activities, is that display advertising is not in the PR camp. But pretty much anything else in marketing communications can be laid claim to by the rapidly evolving role of PR. The so called 'new rules of marketing and PR' have been to the fore as PR moves into social media. But the anticipated death of the printed media didn't happen in 2012, so the need for traditional press releases to editors remained while also writing content aimed directly at readers without editorial intervention was added to the PR portfolio. But like the size of the advertising pool of money, the pool of genuine news does not grow either. Whether most B2B companies with a Facebook presence have even researched their audiences and their appetite for frequent trivia on the news feed, if 'liking' a news item has any connection to actually buying the company's product, who knows? And what about Pinterest? Great concept, but getting great images from the average client is tougher than getting good news stories.

Meanwhile QR codes largely fizzled out in 2012 as it became clear that the intrusive chequered patches that had exploded over print advertising in 2011 were too much bother for target audiences. Although more and more, but still a minority were viewing social media, emails and web sites via smart mobile devices - not desk top computers. A lot of marketing communications were not designed with this in mind.

Content is king. Not just the written word, but images and video content and not just for information, but the all important search engine optimisation holy grail. Creating compelling content that is authoritative depends on knowledge and insight - not something easily gained or usefully fed out in 140   character tweets either.

Summing up 2012 on the assumption ancient Mayan prophecies of global apocalypse don't materialise rendering this blog irrelevant, things might be changing in marketing communications, but generally slower than advocates of the new rules predict. What is clear is that there are more and more marketing channels, traditional media is proving resilient, social media is joining the mix and Google remains almost the only act in town for getting visitors to your web site. The western economies are still struggling to pick up and it looks like a long haul. We continue to experience the new economic reality. Looking back two years to 2010 the overall marketing situation was much the same and had been in 2009 as well and hardly likely to change much in 2013 I guess.

PR - Who, What, Where, When and Why

There is a swell of opinion that the old PR approach is over now that companies can be their own online publishers.

There are even 'new rules' for publishing news such as detailed in David Meerman Scott's book The New Rules of Marketing & PR  described as 'A Businessweek Bestseller'' and yes, it is printed on paper. But wait. Despite the onward march of online publishing, there has not yet been the expected death of the printed medium. In fact within the b-2-b sectors we handle for clients the media we deal with has remained surprisingly resilient with only a few titles failing - but they would probably have done so anyway, not because of Internet competition. One or two have moved to online versions only, but most, albeit late in the day have developed an Internet business model to work with the traditional printed magazine. Pricing has evolved for email news delivery and web site news publication rather than use the free news model funded by general advertising revenue. Instead, charging for the news delivery, maybe with banner options in the package too, has a direct relationship between editorial content and payment. So for some publishers - and this is by no means all of them - there is a different approach needed for PR where editorial is part of the advertising deal. Writing for the trade press is evolving away from a single press release to attract the attention of an editor. As well as the traditional press release, there can be other versions which include what are in effect short articles commissioned on the back of an advertising package as well as news published free online in various ways.

Writing for news publishers in your b2b sector is no longer one press release suits all. Your press release may initially go to editors or news desks for editorial action - to publish or not, to edit to suit the publication's house style, edit to abbreviate, edit headline only or even where the originator is a trusted source, to publish  as received. Of course there is another audience to write for and that is your customers and prospects, because every business can be a publisher too - on your web site using a Virtual News Office or basic news page, on social media, via eNews and in company newsletters.

Traditionally press releases have been organised in a particular way. Usually editors will want to write their own headlines so the press release headline should be factual, concise and informative rather than some witty pun, for example. But where the story is to be published unedited or on your own site, then a good headline should attract the attention of your readers and draw them in. The headline is the first thing they all see. The opening paragraph is likewise  crucial and must communicate the essence of the story - the who, what, where, why and when. Because if this fails to raise interest, nobody - editors or customers are going to bother to read more. This is far from the whole story but if readers don't get this far, the other content is lost anyway.

Does your written communication have the right choice of voice?

Does the average B2B company pay the same attention to 'tone of voice' in written communication as to visual communication compliance in line with corporate identity guidelines?

To gain an insight into how tone of voice impinges on brand values take a look at this article by Ted Albrighton.  When working with clients we strongly advocate that three key documents are at the core of the marketing mission - a marketing plan, a marketing budget and a corporate identity (CI) guide. The CI guide is there to provide a reference for visual communication so that the brand is consistently presented  and advertising material produced in Hong Kong will have the same look and feel of work commissioned in Los Angeles or London.

But what about the words? The way the message is communicated demands consistency too, otherwise your target audience will receive confusing messages about what your brand represents. For example for a B2B claiming market leadership in its chosen sector the tone of voice could be authoritative, building consistently a position that the company knows what it is talking about with the inference that its products can therefore be trusted. The main reason we did not have a written document providing such guidance is that we typically created the words and effectively set the style. This was mainly in the form of press communications and company documentation such as sales brochures, web site copy, data sheets and white papers. The audiences being editors for PR and customers and specifiers for company literature. Press releases  invariably open with the who/what/where/why of the story that unfolds in the following paragraphs and the equivalent of the advertising tag line qualifying the brand is used consistently.

Style is another matter. It should be pitched at a level to suit the target audience. Generally this means stripping out jargon and complex technical terminology while not under valuing the knowledge or intelligence of the reader. The trade press offers a useful guide to the style their readers are comfortable with. Cut and pasting copy from several in-house authors to produce a document needs to be carefully reviewed to eliminate a mixture  of styles which will appear at best disjointed and at worst confusing. Where PR is generated by multiple agencies, then a style guide becomes essential to maintain quality and consistency of output.

Finally companies need to think carefully about tone of voice and style when it comes to social media and not least of course who has authority to write and say what. With target audiences less understood than for traditional B2B communication media, the opportunities to damage the brand through ill chosen tweets or Facebook news feeds is high.

Follow us anyway you like

Social media agencies have a tendency to talk in terms of building audiences through adding 'followers' and gaining 'likes'.

Traditional outbound b-2-b marketing defines the audiences to target based on analysis of the job function and role and perhaps even the persona of people who are prospective customers or specifiers of the products or services offered. Audience categories are detailed by the publications' readership profiles. Publications  cultivate readership that meets the needs of a specialised sector through editorial content the readers want and providing a platform for advertisers to present their messages to this specific group. Advertising is sometimes referred to as 'interruptive', intruding into the space where selective audiences are consuming information. Awareness through advertising of the important vendors in their market is also valid to buyers and specifiers so they may view display advertising as informative rather than interruptive. But this cosy business model of publishers, editors, PR agencies and advertisers is out dated claim other voices. It is the search engines dominated by Google and AdWords that are the way forward. This business model is not only trackable but paid for only when clicked on. It is a different media channel, but depends nonetheless on matching places where advertising is displayed in response to visitor defined search terms. The advertisements are presented because through search selection the audience has effectively defined itself as people the advertiser would like to reach.

So how does this work for social media? Are the audiences acquired through accumulating 'likes' and 'followers' the same people that traditional marketers would identify? In short are they buyers or specifiers of b-2-b goods and services? How many b-2-b companies have done the research to find out if social media channels are the preferred route to receive information from potential vendors? Do any of their customers even go there and if they do are commercial messages in a social forum welcome?

If the information offered by a company Facebook page is of great value then maybe a traditional engineer or consultant might be motivated to click 'like'. Consider now the more likely content on Facebook or Twitter. Well we know Twitter is probably going to be headline news rather than an in-depth analysis because of the 140 character limitation and Facebook is unlikely to be any more informative. It seems that the content posted on social media sites is at best what is left once the interesting stuff is published as press releases and white papers or magazine articles. Most PR people will know how difficult it can be to coax news worthy stories out of the average b-2-b client in the first place. Consider next the target of 5 posts a day advocated by one social media specialist. What is the chance of generating 5 quality items, but then the aim seems to be less to inform and educate - more to amuse and generate a warm fuzzy feeling rather than prompt a call to action and engage in the buying process.

Do QR codes really work for B2B marketing?

The pick up of QR codes as a marketing tool to link prospects directly to Internet content seems a compelling idea - but does it work?

We first commented on the widespread use of QR codes in April 2011. Developed as a device for component tracking in the Japanese automotive industry, their use in marketing appeared to offer a simple means of linking to a web site, or specific page without the need to type in a url. But is it that quick and are business customers that motivated to go through the process?

Sitting in front of my Mac writing this piece and using the QR code on this article, I made 3 tests with an iPhone. Switch phone on, unlock, find scanning app, focus, scan, site reached and open, took variously 16, 18 and 17 seconds. Not that long, but given how quickly people give up if a web site doesn't open in seconds, how many will be bothered? Also it can take longer if the QR code is not focussed straight away. But surprisingly using the Mac, Safari and Google combination took longer - open new browser window, key in company name until it appeared as a prompt, click search. Then the process slows as I scan the results page to find the actual company site, click and open. This took twice as long. And of course if not seated in front of the Mac then the mobile solution would win easily, provided there was a good signal. So may be the technology is robust but is the expectation of what the link will lead to, offer a strong enough motivation to bother with the process?

Not only does the 'call to action' need to promise access to interesting or valuable content, but in my case it also depends on what else I am doing. In a restaurant waiting for the bill my wife and I scanned the QR code on a card to enter a simple questionnaire promising the chance of a prize, because right at that time we had nothing better to do. But if I was skimming through the pages of a magazine would I bother to stop, get out the iPhone and scan a QR code in a display advertisement unless there was powerful motivation to do this?

Is display advertising still the safest option?

An article by WebProNews raises an interesting question - will brands shift focus away from Facebook?

The WebProNews piece which can be read in full here points out "There has been quite a bit of controversy, especially in recent weeks, about how many of Page's updates are making it to their fans' News Feeds, as Facebook pushes its monetization efforts (like promoted posts), which are essential to make shareholders happy." Further on and quoting from another blog "Defining engagement by clicks, likes, shares, unlikes and reporting works for Google's search engine, I don't believe it works for a social network."

And while Facebook has always been the biggest dilemma in what it really offers, look what has happened to Twitter. The function of Twitter is more immediately obvious as a means of sending news headlines optionally linked to the full story published on your blog or Virtual News Office. But the Lord McAlpine issue demonstrates the importance of keeping to the law in what is written and passed on in the public domain. 

Perhaps not surprising that many clients, even those experimenting with social media, still maintain a significant share of the marketing communications budget in display advertising in the traditional trade press. There is safety here particularly that advertising is going to appear associated with industry relevant editorial copy - content that is not going to lead to legal recrimination. Of course the voices of those selling online advertising regard print advertising as archaic and lacking the trackability of online pay per click advertising for example. Much depends on where your audience goes for information. Are they still reading printed publications? Do they influence and cultivate views and opinions on what is going on in the market and who are the important companies in that sector? At a stage when not actively researching products or yet ready to make a purchase, magazines remain a convenient way to keep in touch and seeing advertisements and press coverage remains an important part of that function. When ready to check out possible vendors for a product,  then it is time to turn to Google, but not turning to search for a generic product but as a quick means of going directly to already familiar brand names - thanks to awareness from that display advertising.

 

 

Do people with limited time want to keep up with new interests all in one place?

In an information rich, time deficient world there is some merit in being able to go to just one place to keep informed of the latest developments on topics of interest. The question for b-2-b marketers is to discover  where this might be for their customers and prospects.

It was during a conversation with the publisher of a special interest web site that the idea of busy people checking into one place regularly to keep abreast of the latest news, developments and chatter of interest and relevance to them, came up. This notion that there are people who actively monitor activity and developments as opposed to passively consuming received communications runs contrary to the traditional marketing approach. In the conventional marketing communication plan messages are sent to the target audiences - advertisements in trade journals, postal campaigns to individuals, emails to inboxes - all as outbound marketing campaigns. In-bound marketing shifts the initiative from marketer to customer or prospect, but still places a requirement on the marketer to make the information available in the format required by the consumer of information.

Ten years ago or more, RSS seemed to offer just such a solution. In the early days of RSS feeds the user downloaded reader software then selected which RSS feeds they wanted to monitor. For example  feeds from major news organisations such as the BBC or CNN could be combined with feeds from information relevant to work such as new products, new technologies, exhibitions and conferences and finally perhaps news from a favourite sports team or hobby. Quite quickly, say each morning, the headlines from all the news feeds of interest could quickly be scanned and those of more interest than others clicked on to read the story in more depth. But RSS got built into browsers so readers became redundant and the notion of a personalised headline service never really caught on. Twitter has kind of captured this solution and certainly has widespread acceptance. As with RSS feeds you can select who you choose to follow, but beware of the sheer volume and triviality of some of the messages. Some advocates of Facebook anxious to update on the current status of friends used this as the one place they were anxious to review on a frequent basis and used this as a peer to peer communications platform as well, but extending this to following the antics of your favourite company may be a stretch for the typical b-2-b company.

So if RSS is fading and social media not really cutting it as the single destination for such a diverse range of "need-to-know" information embracing both personal interests and work knowledge, perhaps the old concept of industry portal or community interest site might be a good place to ensure your information is there and regularly updated.  The thing is few companies seem to be asking their customers the question where do they visit on a frequent basis to keep informed of important developments relative to their field of work.

 

How are your online communications being viewed and received?

There is growing evidence that an increasing number of visitors viewing web sites and emails are now using mobile devices.

A quick view of Google Analytics for some clients indicates that over 10% are currently using mobile devices to view their web sites. The suggestion is that the percentage now viewing emails may be even higher. These are not statistically validated research findings, merely observations based on what we actually see happening. The problem is that the web site does not always work too well on mobile devices.

Emails may have communication  problems other than how an html email is displayed on an iPhone or iPad, but also in how the message is handled by the recipient. For a long time we have tended to use email not just as a quick message system, but as a tool to deliver a more complex document as an attachment, with a brief covering note in the body of the email. There is a suspicion that the frequent lack of response suggests that the documents are not being opened or even being received at all. So where possible the document content now becomes transmitted within the body of the email. By of necessity shortening the document this may actually improve the focus of the report. But then another problem arises in that many recipients simply forward it to someone else within or even outside the organisation. So don't send anything confidential is the thought.

May be there is a psychological issue at play here in so far as emails received on a phone are thought of as similar to text messages, some ephemeral, even trivial communication. So before sending out the next email, check how it will display and think about how it might be received. And finally, why don't people change that "sent from my iPhone" footer.

Customer retention is important too

There is so much focus on techniques for developing sales leads that sometimes nurturing existing customers gets forgotten.

Of course it is important to generate enquiries from new prospects, but the process from that initial enquiry to closing a sale utilises a lot of marketing and sales resource and typically only a minority actually turn into customers anyway. Resources invested into Search Engine Optimisation and Adwords, one way or the other are aimed at prospects searching on generic terms. People making such an open search request might be the least well informed about the product category and once at your site will more likely require helpful background information to make a better informed purchase decision further down the line. Many web sites give the impression they are more for first time visitors than a resource for existing customers.

On the other hand, b-2-b buyers are more likely to already know the most respected  manufacturers and suppliers of products in your market sector and less likely to be using Google to generate a list of potential vendors. There is evidence that many go straight to the sites of suppliers they already know and trust.  Apart from new start ups, most established businesses will already have customers and these are also the source of most new enquiries, so it makes sense to nurture them. It is easy to focus marketing on obtaining new prospects and not put the same effort into retaining exiting customers and indeed selling them more.

Does your web site cater for returning customers, or is it "selling" to new visitors? Do you keep in touch with existing customers? What information do they receive? Before deciding what to send and how frequently to communicate it can be useful to identify which are your most important customers - your "Top 10" or "Top 100" depending on the size of your customer database. These are the most valuable and contact with them should be on a more individual basis keeping them informed of new developments, changes in the industry relevant to them and perhaps inviting them to special events such as new product introductions. But don't forget the other customers too. Keep them informed of what is going on generally in your business area, remind them of your expertise and knowledge, re-enforce the wisdom of buying your product in the first place and maintain 'top of the mind,' brand awareness so you are on the list next time they are buying,


  

What is going on in advertising land?

A few days since Google shares dipped after its core advertising business slowed, in the UK, a big fall in print advertising is reported.

Print Week writes today that  according to the latest quarterly Expenditure Report published by the Advertising Authority and WARC "print adspend shrunk by 11.7% year-on-year in Q2 2012" with the biggest hit taken by the B-2-B magazine sector with a massive 21.5% fall. Although this is not surprising news to marketers in the B-2-B area, the scale of the decline certainly puts big numbers against what has otherwise been supposition. That many businesses are cutting back on display advertising is no surprise either, based on feedback from advertising managers. The static, or falling value of advertising space is also having an impact on agencies who see commission falling too and thus have little motivation to drive prices down via more aggressive negotiation. "Advertising" is typically the big ticket item in the b-2-b marcomms budget, so what is happening? Well the obvious assumption is the advertising pounds are being spent online.

But Reuters filed a report on Friday that' "Google Inc's quarterly results fell well short of Wall Street's expectations after its core advertising business slowed, stunning investors accustomed to consistently rapid growth from the Internet giant and wiping more than 9 percent off its market value." "For the fourth consecutive quarter, the company reported a decline in average cost-per-click (CPC), a critical metric that denotes the price advertisers pay Google. Average CPC declined 15 percent from a year ago and 3 per cent from the second quarter of this year." One culprit is mobile devices as "advertisers pay far less for ads on smartphones and tablets than for similar ads on desktop computers."

There is another implication for Google in that some people might be by passing search engines and heading straight for already known destination sites and using those sites' own, more specific search facility. Interestingly we have been seeing evidence of this for some time now. Some research we conducted a couple of years ago for a client suggested a majority of b-2-b customers had long since identified the most important sites for the products and services they wanted to buy and went straight to them. Only a minority, about a quarter of customers, searched on generic terms using Google. So in this case 3 out of 4 wouldn't see the Google Ads anyway.

Perhaps it is no wonder some b-2-b marketers are sitting on their budgets or buying strategically when a good deal comes up and more often buying not just display advertising space but a package that includes editorial, online publication and email delivery. The notion that advertising pounds will simply migrate to the Internet may be too simplistic. Quality publications will continue to attract advertising revenue and online media may have to work harder too.

There are no five minute jobs.

How do you plan time for creative ideas? Although planning is an important marketing discipline, creative ideas do not just pop up to suit a fixed time frame, although a good clear brief can help provide the focus.

At 6.45 am every Monday morning the entire account management team and all the creative staff of the advertising agency where I worked would be assembled for the weekly planning meeting. Open jobs and new jobs would be reviewed and time allocated and work assigned. The planning meeting had to finish by 9am, the official start time and as the hour approached and it once again became obvious it was impossible to squeeze the work required into the hours available so the infamous "5 minute jobs" got shoe horned in. The staff knew nothing of any value could be accomplished in that time, simply opening up work folders would consume most of that. Everyone knew that once again they would be working late!  In an advertising agency back in the 80's and 90's billable hours were everything, but fortunately clients had scant knowledge of hourly rates. Staff were paid for regular office hours, hours they rarely actually worked, hours that were balanced  by unpaid overtime. Of course, once the official work day began more work, often urgent, would need to be squeezed in particularly if the client was important and usually accommodated at the expense of smaller, less valuable clients. 

The so called "5 minute jobs" were those that we knew how to do, exactly what was required and had the skills available to accomplish the task. So because it was a known quantity, the time to do it was under estimated. In the four box grid that identifies tasks according to understanding of the task versus skills to do it, it was in Box 1 - in other words, a known quantity requiring no thinking or planning time. Hence it was pigeon holed as a "5 minute job".

 But unfortunately creativity requires flashes of genius and insight to have the big idea and doesn't easily fit into time slots. Sometimes the creative concept is quickly established, but other times may prove elusive for days. So planning needs to allow the creative director time to brain storm ideas not just execute them. It is this creative process that marks out a successful creative agency from a design agency that just turns out artwork to client request. The clever headline, the engaging visual that a truly creative agency delivers stand out from the ordinary fare the others produce and gets results. 

But it comes at a cost of course. One good creative advertisement that drives enquiries must be better than a load of wallpaper. Often the idea - the key concept - may come quickly. But its value will be far greater than 5 minutes at the hourly rate, like the artist can capture the essence of an image with a few strokes of a pencil it is the years of experience and learning that enables this to happen.

Does simultaneous use of devices mean less attention for content?

According to a survey by Sky TV reported in a recent edition of Metro many people are using mobile devices while simultaneously watching television.

According to the survey three people in four watch television with a second device at hand and one in three uses tablets, smart phones or tablets to talk about it while watching. Sky claim social media is relied on "to feel part of a bigger online conversation and to gain recommendations about what to watch." When asked why people watching TV turn to social media 25% of 18 to 24 year olds said because "it makes me feel part of a larger conversation," 24% of 25 to 34 year olds because "it makes my viewing experience more fun," 15% of 35 to 44 year olds say "it makes me feel more sociable" and surprisingly even 12% of over 55s said "it enriches my viewing experience." The days of a family spending evenings huddled round a small television all watching the same programme have long since gone. What is interesting is what is now termed 'sociable'. It is not uncommon to see families in restaurants sitting silently round a table not inter acting with each other, but with a wider group via their smart phones. Same in cinemas, even theatres people are tweeting and whatever to people who are not present. Many in that 25 to 34 year age group seem to be permanently bonded to their iPhones when they are supposedly socialising, driving, walking, working and even sleeping.

From a marketing point of view, providing content to mobile platforms like iPhones and iPads using social media tools might seem an obvious thing to do if so many rely on these channels for recommendations. But then there's the nagging doubt about how much attention they are paying to the content. Are this growing band addicted to always on social communication buyers for b-2-b products and services? There is an ominous lack of research into a link between company presence on these platforms and channels and sales. Does the influence of social media, apparently so important in recommending what to watch on TV and how to live generally, actually translate into enquiries and ultimately sales?

Should marketing be sliced up or joined up?

As developments in digital marketing call for new skills and specialists emerge to provide them, it prompts the question of who makes sure the total marketing programme is seamless and nothing slips through the joins.

Clients looking to tap into the expertise they may believe they need could soon have a growing number of specialist suppliers. For example, SEO, Adwords, social media, website development, emailing, video production not to mention more conventional skills in PR, advertising, graphic design, exhibition   stand design, mailing programmes and many more. The average b-2-b company with modest marketing personnel resources could soon find they are spending most of their time managing suppliers - providing briefings, agreeing fees, providing material and at the same time keeping a watchful eye on budgets. Soon time pressures lead to skipping formal briefing and becoming a hub for forwarding emails between suppliers. But who checks the quality of the assembled material, who ensures that it all works as a whole? Consider a recent example. The client asked their graphic design agency for an html email. The design agency sub contracted this to a freelancer. He emailed a package back, the agency forwarded it to the client who emailed it to us. Our role being to provide the email delivery service in this case. In between nobody appeared to have looked at the package or tested it. Typically the client is unaware of much of the technical aspects so the relevant suppliers are not briefed and often work on low bid prices that do not build in issues such as testing and quality control. The specialist suppliers are equally unaware of the total marketing plan, the brand values and strategies and company ethos. Marketing is sliced and diced and treated as a bunch of plug-ins.

The Technical Marketing philosophy promotes the joined up marketing view where the marketing communication tools are integrated into a comprehensive plan where together the combination adds value. Our role starts at the planning stage, developing strategies then working with clients to help them implement marketing programmes.

Has PR become an essential SEO tool?

As search engine algorithms are increasingly refined to weed out devious SEO tricks and focus on web site quality and relevance, so content becomes really important and this widens the scope and role of PR.

When we set up Virtual News Office over ten years ago we soon noticed that Google indexed our clients' stories and these showed up in searches in several ways. Although this wasn't an intended feature of the VNO, searches turned up not just for the client's name or brand, but the customer's name, the location and of course the generic product type. The VNO service was devised to allow marketing to regularly update news on their web site, rapidly - something their IT or web agency often struggled to achieve, or was expensive to do. The VNO service Technical Marketing Ltd offers is not just a means of publishing news online, but a searchable archive, a high resolution image resource for the press, an RSS news feed generator and a tool for delivering press releases.  Although CMS is now common on company web sites, actually updating a news module requires the discipline and time for someone in the marketing team to actually go and do. Because the news from the VNO is fed to an iFrame on the client's site there are relevant inbound links, something Google rates highly. But this system also allows us to feed news to other industry sites, news tickers or banner ads. We have found that our news server consistently ranks in the top 10 referring sites to client web sites.

An onsite news module merely supplies  page content, it neither generates in-bound links or provides editorial resource and may not be making best use of the content anyway. We reasoned way back during the development of the VNO that the news was what changed most often and required regular updates that most other pages didn't and was most effectively and efficiently managed by the PR agency. The only counter argument being that the company web site did not have the benefit of this content.  But this is easily overcome by examining news subjects and publication channels and re-purposing content that has a longer term value on the web site for search engine indexing. Important news should still go to the media and this requires to be written in a media friendly style and delivered typically by email. For customers and prospects the style can be different and the delivery channels include newsletters and social media.

Some news will be short term - an exhibition or event, financial results, staff changes etc. Other news may have longer term value such as new products, interesting customer applications or installations and these can be re-purposed as product support and testimonials to create quality, relevant web site content. News delivery can be used as appropriate such as Twitter or RSS for headline news and links to more extensive content on the web site, less formal communication on a blog and groups on LinkedIn.

The scope of this work seems to most naturally be within the remit of the PR agency, a role now expanded beyond the traditional press release, to include alternative publication and delivery platforms and now playing an important part in good search engine positioning.

The value of customer testimonials

Third party endorsements of your products published as testimonials can positively influence prospective customers and become another useful marketing tool.

Endorsements can be requested or unsolicited - such as someone spontaneously contacting the company to praise the product, or in response to examples of good service they have received. Alternatively it could be a product review on an industry (or your own company) web site, but reviews can also focus on negative experience.

Requested testimonials should be organised where users of your products can be invited to provide a statement that can be quoted in publicity material, or go further than that and invite them to agree to a full interview. Interviewing the person giving the testimonial can be made on video and at the location where your products are used. The video technique is very useful. The interviewees can introduce themselves and talk about their company to establish their authority and credentials and then be guided through response to a series of questions. The products can be shown in situ and demonstrated in use. How and why your products were chosen can be elicited and the user experience explored.

Usually the video will need editing so that it flows well and establishing footage of the venue or location added to help tell the story.  But posting the interview to the company YouTube archive is just the beginning. The interview can easily be re-purposed as an article for the company newsletter, as a press release and selecting a still and quote used for display advertising with a QR link back to the video.

The value of advocates

Within the market you address there will be an important and exclusive group whose advocacy of your products is disproportionate to the numbers of people.

They can be grouped as your “VIP List”–these are the people that you need to have on message and feeling positive and warm about your products. The first task is to identify who qualifies for your VIP list. They may not all be on your database, although they should be. Examples of people qualifying for VIP membership may include your most important customers, editors of the most influential publications in your market, consultants and advisors, academics and  the recognised industry guru – if there is one.

These people need to be kept not only informed of what your company is doing, but taken into your confidence where appropriate. The VIP group can be a good sounding board for new products in development for example. Communications should be personalised both in terms of providing the most relevant content to each person and in a form that they prefer. It may be information mailed with a personal covering letter if that is their preference, or a personal email or even a telephone call.

The VIP group can be invited to special events –not a hospitality package at a sporting event –but a new product launch or site visit to a prestige project. At one company we hosted a monthly lunch for groups of VIPs at a London restaurant and because they had the same industry interests in common discussions could be lively and informative.

By cultivating your VIPs they will become valuable advocates for your brand and products.