Press release work for social media too

Although press releases lack the newness and novelty of social media what is basically an old idea actually works well in these new communication channels. In fact the news content is no longer just for the press as an intermediary but can be aimed straight at customers and prospects.

The old model of writing a press release and distributing to the traditional press list has changed only slightly in so far as the method of delivery is by e-mail rather than posting out printed releases and glossy photos. From this point on selection for publication remains within the decision of the editor. But the web enables press releases to be sent directly to anyone and also offers the opportunity for comment. 

The most established of new options is the blog. This can afford to be less formal than a press release allowing the news content to be addressed directly to the reader rather than aiming to grab the attention of an editor or journalist. 

RSS has also been around for a while and is really a neat solution that provides headlines and opening text of recent news items allowing readers to keep informed quickly and easily of news streams that interest them.

For those for whom even this is too much, then Twitter provides a useful medium to publish just headlines or short links to longer stories. And if followers like the story they can 're-tweet' to their followers.

Let's not ignore putting news on your own web site as well - a Virtual News Office provides a great solution and includes RSS as an option and eNews as an additional communication channel.

 

Not only does this multiple approach give readers plenty of options to choose from but it also leaves a trail of activity across the web that will assist with search engine ratings. To discover more about how these powerful web based strategies can help promote your business, contact Technical Marketing Ltd.

Press Releases are good for search

A recent article titled, How Press Releases can be great for search, provides important endorsement for the value of online press releases - not only for conveying their own intrinsic news message, but the benefit derived from driving web site traffic and search. The article draws on case studies that demonstrate increases in web site traffic following a news release. The point is made that journalists are actually searching the web for news and advise that " you're out there where the journalists are looking." Another important item of advice from the article is "to include your press releases on your own site". " Your site should have a section for press releases".

We have been operating Virtual News Offices for clients for several years now and discovered the benefits of search early on for news content. Because the VNO is integrated with the client web site but hosted on our own news server, not only does this provide searchable content, but all important in-bound and highly relevant links to the client web site. News stories often provide useful search results for alternative terms. For example a press release about a company's role in a new project may be discovered by search on the project name. Say this is a prestigious new building that interests architects, then your company could well be identified as a potential supplier for work they are commissioned to do. Or if the press release is about an upcoming event, again your listing will be found when searching for details of that event. 

When it comes to content marketing, then news is an important tool that is a regular source of new content. To learn more about Virtual News Offices, you can download a PDF Guide.

Looking back at marketing in 2009

Looking back across Technical  Marketing Diary blogs in 2009 certain themes can be seen to emerge, in a year that was one of unrelieved economic gloom and one still with no obvious signs of recovery. An early theme was a reminder that cutting marketing budgets was probably the worst thing to do. But true to form that is what many businesses did. Despite well documented evidence from previous and arguably less deep recessions, marketing budgets were cut simply because it is both easy and does not involve cutting staff. Feeling the crunch were the publishers of printed media in a long running print v online debate. The fact is that in the b-2-b world advertising has been leaking away from display media in print to pay for other marketing activities for years and despite predictions of the end of the printed word a significant number of publications still operate. Of course print has evolved too, both in the technology of CTP and mass customisation that offers interesting new cost effective mailing tools to marketers. In terms of company literature few companies are bothering to print data sheets and technical documentation, leaving it to customers to download and print them. Is this an acknowledgment that sellers have kind of lost control of the buying/selling process? Such small details as the presentation of company material, nicely printed and packaged is switching to data output on someone else's cheap ink jet printer. Because the advantage in evaluating purchase options has shifted to the buyer, it becomes essential that the information on which your product or service is being judged is accessible, easy to use and clearly presenting the benefits - i.e. what's in it for them.

 In general online news publication has remained free and supported by an advertising model rather than moving to a subscription service. However expect this to change for the big news organisations that have reporting staff to support unlike many b-2-b publishers that simply publish, at a price, news supplied to them. In the b-2-b sector any business can publish their own news, both directly through their own web site and on industry web sites. Content whether in print or online remains a crucial marketing tool. 

Probably the most interesting Internet marketing development is the rise of social media. It is a topic that has echoes throughout the year. Will, what some consumer marketers are apparently successfully achieving by joining the 'conversation' with consumers work in the b-2-b space? There are certainly some enthusiastic advocates and blogs, Twitter and Faceboook offer interesting possibilities. But as with anything else, the company needs to commit resource and effort to get a return and this may best be achieved through an external marketing agency.

As 2009 draws to a close with the coldest pre-Christmas weather for years in Britain, Europe and North  America with heavy falls of snow causing traffic chaos, spare a thought for the people marketing global warming in the face of contrary indications. Maybe 2010 will be the year when environmental and green issues become more popular in industrial marketing too. We noted that some industrial magazines are planning 'green' issues for the new year and suggesting what product features would render a product green. Perhaps the trick is to use these green credentials as part of the social media conversation.

Saying what you mean

Estate agents were at one time renowned for the ability to describe properties that others would consider a ruin, or tiny with such glowingly positive descriptions as 'has great potential' or 'charming bijou residence ideally located for shops/school/station'. Legislation was introduced to limit the flamboyant descriptions to have greater affinity with reality.  Marketing and PR however are not exempt from generous descriptions of their client's products. Outrageously high ticket items might be described as 'reassuringly expensive' to allay any concern that the published price is an error and to hint at a delicious sense of exclusivity. One company preferred to describe products as 'inspiringly priced' to pre-empt price objections and eliminate the risk of bargain hunters thinking they were going to get a budget priced product. One blog this week obviously felt the need to provide a series of translations for advertising agency speak. Examples of agency code speak include, 'the product as hero is old hat' and 'it blew their minds in research' translating to, 'we think the product is crap' and 'consumers think the product is crap too'. Other codes are budget related - 'it's highly campaignable' translates to 'we can make even more in production' and 'it'll work in the press' as code for 'they can't afford television'. Then there are engineers writing sales copy. They are not all as extreme as a public lecture given a few years ago by an eminent scientist whose opening line was reported as, 'let me start by assuming everyone is familiar with double differential integration'. But in general few buyers are actually interested in whether the product is a marvel of engineering excellence, instead they prefer to know that it works, is reliable and if necessary can be fixed easily if it goes wrong. Most of all they want to know what is in it for them? In short why would they consider buying the product? That's where marketing is essential, not only to ensure that the product was developed to meet a market need in the first place, but to explain in simple terms why it will enrich their lives. Working in partnership with a technical marketing agency that can speak engineering and marketing language is something that many successful businesses have recognised - and one of the reasons they are successful.

Marketers as publishers

Content Marketing, the subject of the previous blog, discussed how the Internet had moved in favour of marketers to the detriment of media owners. During the current recession there have been many job losses in journalism and a trend towards journalists working on a freelance basis and delivering their work via a blog rather than submission to a sub editor. But the media still has an important role to play. Although a company can now publish anything it likes on line, there is still a need to apply some basic criteria to judge the value of the content. For example, is the story actually news, something that the target audience will find of interest? Matters the company may find all consuming might appear as irrelevant internal politics to readers. Is the story written in a style that is clear, consistent and authoritative? Is there a persistent theme through all stories that uniquely positions the company in its market sector? In short there is expertise required in dealing with these and other issues best dealt with by a PR specialist. So while actually writing the piece has its own challenges reaching the target audience is still an area where the traditional media has an advantage. It is far easier to pick up a magazine or visit a web site that covers the whole industry than visit various company web sites. There is also the question of independence and objectivity. Readers of trade publications are used to the benefits of news aggregation and will place more credibility on stories that appear in their pages than those in a company specific publication. It is better to use company published news to impart expertise that is not easily found elsewhere and establishes their credentials in a market. So although there are many tools available for the self publisher, to be successful they should be deployed as part of an integrated marketing strategy. This is where the experience of a marketing agency can be a good investment, to take an independent view, mix traditional and new media into a cohesive programme that delivers results at a number of levels. Technical Marketing Ltd has years of experience in developing and implementing integrated marketing communications plans that provide the right balance by selecting from the tools available and tailoring to each company's unique situation.

Content marketing

Many companies will have gone through several iterations of their web site over the years, but how many have really revisited the content? Too often it is the same material in a new wrapper. In the Internet era so much has changed, much of it in the favour of b-2-b companies  and away from traditional media owners. Company information pre-Internet took a number of well established routes to reach customers and prospects - advertising, press releases, exhibitions, mail shots and brochures - and still does. Pretty much all of this can now be done online, although arguably not the face-to-face experience of exhibitions in quite the same way. Companies used advertising in publications to reach their target audience by selecting magazines with the relevant readership profile because this was the only way. The magazines built the readership by providing fresh content each month through a mix of reporting, features and by editing press announcements. Generally both traditional media publishers and company marketing people have been slow to recognise that everyone can be a publisher now. Think about the most common question customers ask when you see them on an exhibition stand or when making a sales call - "tell me what is new."  Showing a new product or service is what salesmen use to get an appointment, it is a door opener. Now think about the company web site. Does this highlight what is new? Many do not. Just as customers are reluctant to see a salesmen without something new to say, so web sites need to be constantly evolving to retain the interest of returning visitors. You may not always have new products, but you can have something new to say about them and visitors need to know this once they reach your site. Little details such as displaying the current date rather than saying last updated 2007 are simple clues that the site is regularly maintained and the product information is likely to be up to date as well. That is why we advocate putting news right there on the entry page. Not only does it show there is content that they have not seen before and is worth looking at, but indicates the site is being kept current. You would not pick up a magazine you had read before would you? So marketing content is essential these days.  A simple answer is to add a Virtual News Office linked to your site with RSS feeds and teleprinter style headlines on the home page.

Who owns news content?

With the means of publishing news shifting from print to the Internet there are new challenges to copyright, no doubt ultimately motivated by the value attributed to content and how access is charged or funded. But while few b-2-b businesses will  be selling news through their own newspapers, magazines or web sites, legal rulings on copyright could still have an impact on what they can do. While major organisations challenge copyright laws to publish books online, copying news published about the company itself, providing links, headlines and extracts is also coming under the scrutiny of organisations seeking to extract  a licensing fee.

 Related to this is the concept of subscribing to news resources. We have become used to free access to news online and the rise of free newspapers. Recently the London Evening Standard decided to become a free newspaper with the result that the existing free circulation evening papers folded. Meanwhile reacting to declining advertising revenues News International outlined proposals to charge for access to their news web sites. So the business models are being revisited. The issues surrounding copyright of news has also recently been highlighted by the aggressive sales methods adopted by an organisation operating on behalf of newspapers publishers and pursuing b-2-b companies to take up licenses.

From the other end of the news process consider how most businesses create news. In short the news item is written by the company itself, or by a PR agency acting on their behalf and issued as press releases or articles that are submitted to journals for consideration to publish. Few trade journals actually employ journalists to write content, but use managing editors who fill a large part of the editorial content selected from press releases. So the company or PR agency may feel they retain ownership of the copyright especially if they pay for publication, which is increasingly the case. Providing copies of published news as a service to clients might therefore seem entirely reasonable. But it is in this very area where demands for a license to do so are being made. The Newspaper Licensing Agency  advises that PR agencies providing press clippings to their client require a license to do this. Furthermore access via web links appears to fall within the scope as well. Not surprisingly this has given rise to debate within the PR and indeed wider web community, right up to the likes of search engines that pick up and publish extracts from online news in the search results and also of course provide links. Expect to hear more about this complex subject.

Green marketing industrial products

Green marketing suddenly arrived on the agenda for some clients this week. But what does green marketing mean in the b-2-b space?

Industrial Technology magazine has just invited editorial submissions for a special issue 'dedicated to "green" technologies' scheduled for January. Bidding for government or public sector work may require compliance with ISO 14001 and the ability to demonstrate compliance with various 'green' issues for one client. Another client  released news of its 'green credentials' last week. So what is 'green marketing'? 'According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.' 

The thing is 'green' issues can embrace a whole gamut of activities and there is plenty of confusion with environmental issues, sustainability, renewables, carbon footprints, energy-saving, recycling, eco issues, organic and other socially responsible activities.

 

Of course  many of these initiatives are not new but collectively they do seem to be progressing up the marketing agenda. So how should b-2-b businesses present green issues? The presumption is that green marketing is a good thing, but as with any other marketing initiative it has to be based on factual information. Just climbing on the green bandwagon and declaring products and processes green will be perceived as  spin and undermine trust and confidence in the company. It is a no good using marketing to disguise the reality if there is not a real and demonstrable process in place, any more than over stating the case for poor products.

First impressions count

When a new visitor reaches your web site what will be the first impressions they receive? There are just seconds to convince them that your web site is relevant to their search and that your company  could be a potential supplier, before they bounce out to review your competitors' sites. A professionally designed site is indicative of a professional company. Even the untrained eye can quickly distinguish between professional design and an amateur effort which subliminally conveys the impression that the company has cut corners and what does that say about your products? The other important  test is to convince the new site visitor that you can provide the product or service that he is looking for. Text that quickly gets to the point in describing your nature of business will be picked up by the search engine and will influence the decision to even go to your site at all. But having created a good first impression and established relevance and credibility, what will persuade your visitor to not only explore further, but to make an enquiry or place an order? 

We have identified five important areas of content:-

1. Explain clearly the products and services you offer and provide specifications and downloads where appropriate.
   
2. Provide reference to satisfied users through the use of third party endorsement and case studies that build confidence in your product.
   
3. Cite influencers - recognised opinion leaders in your field - who can provide expert testimony to your products and impart their credibility to your product.
4. Offer an 'impartial' guide to the market sector that establishes your expertise.
5. Provide calls to action that make it easy for visitors to contact you directly.

For many b-2-b companies products are not impulse purchases that are for immediate sale, but subject to specification processes, so it can be helpful to also provide information updates that both keep your prospects informed of new developments and keep your company name on their agenda for the time when they are ready to buy. News releases are a good way to do this and there are quite a number of options including eNews, RSS and blogs to name just three and at the heart of this strategy can be a Virtual News Office.

Does social media deliver for small businesses?

A recent survey reported by emarketer points up a gap between social media usage and effectiveness in creating sales leads for small businesses. The report also highlights an issue previously noted of the resource needed to operate blogs, tweets and facebook to mention just 3 from a rapidly expanding stable of social media sites. Previously we noted some possible b-2-b uses that some companies had found not only useful but effective - but to make it work needs a commitment and manpower resource. As a means for presenting a company's public face this is not an easy call when some 63% of respondents surveyed found social media 'not helpful at all' for lead generation and a further 13% thought it 'not very helpful'. By contrast just 3% considered it 'very helpful' and 9% 'somewhat helpful'.  On the other hand these are early days for small b-2-b companies  in the big social media pond, they will typically not be big brands individuals will rush to 'follow' either so both a reticence to invest time and disappointing response are not surprising .   Perhaps the best way into social media is smart repurposing of PR material that can be provided from an existing resource to gain experience and build followers and monitor results.

Do consumer marketing methods work for B2B?

There are probably far more similarities than differences between consumer and business-to-business marketing methods. One big difference is the size of marketing budget, so when new and inexpensive communication means are adopted in the consumer marketing space it is well worth taking note. It is often remarked that the Internet has enabled small businesses, through access to the same media as major global brands, to be on a 'level playing field'.  Whether small businesses enjoy the same visibility as their big spending competitors is another matter. So when consumer companies start claiming success with social media maybe it is time to discover what is working for them. Where web sites once caused businesses to clarify and detail more carefully exactly what they were selling, so the very nature of social networking will demand more openness - probably much more than many are prepared to concede. Businesses already unwilling or too nervous to publicise any reference to customers, projects and business initiatives will probably find this a step too far. In traditional public relations it is still customary for a press release to be minutely scrutinised for accuracy, legal concerns and customer approval for example. This can take some time. But Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter require not only a quick response, but a non-corporate one if  'followers are to be kept interested. So what is the benefit of Twitter when communication is restricted to just 140 characters? Well it seems some editors are actually asking for news to be sent this way on the grounds that if a news story cannot be made sufficiently intriguing in 140 characters, then it is probably not of interest to them. Twitter certainly offers a useful way of issuing not only news headlines, but also links to the full story which can reside on a blog or a Virtual News Office. It offers a far faster route to news publication than through traditional print media.  It can also be used for exclusive offers, coupons, discounts and promotions - the success of which can be measured. Other companies are finding Twitter useful for proposing solutions to customer problems and offering demonstrations. It seems with the advent of real time search and inclusion in Google search results, Twitter may be a useful addition to the b2b marketing portfolio. 

Client and agency ethics under strain

Suppose you owned and had title to a valuable painting, maybe a work by Piccasso, Rembrandt, Turner or Constable, does that give you ownership of the copyright as well? What if you commissioned a talented artist to make a copy of this painting you owned, would that be OK? If you tried to sell the fake then the police would probably take an interest, so when is it OK to copy somebody else's work you have bought and when is it not right? Whatever the legal interpretation there is a question of ethics. Because you have instructed an agency to design you a brochure, an advertisement or a web site is it ethically right to then re-use or plagarise the design. And do you have a right to the work in progress files that were used to deliver the final result? For example the deliverable maybe a stack of print, or if the client opts to organise printing, then a high resolution PDF. But does the client have the right to demand the Quark files and image files too? This does seem to becoming a more common issue and smaller agencies are coerced into compliance at the risk of losing the client altogether. Before the advent of computer generated artwork this never happened, because there were too many stages in the arcane process of moving from design to print for a client to either want, or be able to get involved. Many clients fail to realise that these programs are tools for trained designers that require a skilled user if the original design is not to be downgraded. Sadly some neither notice or care. Would they be so indifferent about people reverse engineering their products? But how about ideas, how are these valued? For small businesses there are neither the funds or time to protect concepts especially in the fast moving world of the Internet. So what is to stop a client picking up an idea and setting underemployed staff to create an in-house solution? Well, not much really so it is always a fine balance between pitching an idea and explaining how it benefits the client without disclosing too much.

Marketing a new concept

Many new products or services  have evolved from previous models, but what happens when something genuinely novel comes along? Inevitably customers will start off being unaware of the product's existence, so they won't be searching for it on the internet. They may not even appreciate there is a need for this product and so will not recognise any benefits at this stage. The first marketing task is to develop an awareness amongst the target audience that you now have a better answer to products with which they will already be familiar. This may not be just a better product, but a new way of achieving something. The next step in the process is to develop comprehension so that they not only know you have a new product, but what benefits it offers them. There is an educational job to be done now in either changing the current market perceptions, or developing a whole new market. Some innovations can change entire industries such as the introduction of quartz based clocks displacing clockwork movements and the impact this had on the Swiss watch industry. The music industry has recently had to face not just a change in format such as the move from vinyl to CD for the delivery of the product, but digital delivery through downloads that bypass the established route to market. As a pioneer in a new market it is important to identify and target the early adopters and opinion formers - in short those that others will follow through recommendation or imitation. This stage of the marketing task is about both reaching the right target group and in delivering the educational message in the appropriate form. These tools can be many and varied from seminars and training to strategically placed informative articles, press briefings and white papers. But education is still not the end of the story as potential customers need to convert their new found understanding into a conviction that your product is right for them and then to take some positive action in contacting you as a prospective customer. The Ralph Waldo Emerson assertion that 'build a better mousetrap and the world will beat  a path to your door' depends on your prospective customers knowing you have a better mousetrap and your location. And this is where a well planned and executed marketing plan is essential.

Are social networks appropriate for B2B marketing?

It can hardly have gone unnoticed that the Internet today has evolved way beyond e-mail and web sites. A whole new raft of applications wrapped up under the umbrella term of web 2.0 are actively expanding and opening new communication channels and the sharing of information at an accelerating rate. Plus a whole lexicon of new terms that go with it. According to Wikipedia the term "Web 2.0 describes the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web culture communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs and folksomomies." 

Perhaps the biggest question to B2B marketers is whether phenomena like Facebook are a passing fashion - not long  ago the talk was of MySpace - or a genuine new communications channel they should be using. Then what about Twitter where communication  is limited to just 140 characters, or the professional networks such as Linkedin and Plaxo? Or of course YouTube. The next question -  recognising that millions are using these systems and increasingly through mobile phones and netbooks rather than sitting at a PC workstation - is,  are our customers using them anyway? Of course in the conventional marketing world ABC circulation figures and readership data would guide advertisers in the choice of media. In fact traditionally canny advertisers would not commit to a new title until it was established and circulation certified, rather than gamble client money on an unproven idea. Most SMEs are careful with money because they need to be and I suggest there won't be many with a line item for Facebook in their marketing budget, however compelling the opportunity seems. Using any of these appealing new tools demands time - either of internal staff members, or outsourced - and time means money. It is often assumed that additional tasks can simply be managed in house. The reality is existing staff should already have a full time job - if not, then what are they doing? It does of course require company knowledge so a sensible approach might be to work collaboratively, allowing a team  including external agencies such as PR, to deal with their specific job function but additionally using an appropriate web 2.0 channel as one of their communication tools. 

Future blogs will consider how social network sites can provide a communication channel for customer relations, news delivery, prospecting ad even sales.

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.