Engineering marketing plans

When major engineering projects go wrong it is usually very public and serious. Bridges that oscillate, high speed trains that fail in snow, cars recalled for brake failure; problems where rectification can often be lengthy and expensive. What happens when marketing goes wrong may be less dramatic although there have certainly been some very public campaign failures, but the more likely outcome is damage to the reputation of a brand, customers going elsewhere and sometimes the problems are difficult to fix once the damage is done. 

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. 

Research shows e-mail still popular with buyers

Although a  much older marketing tool than social networking sites, recent market research by Marketing Sherpa found that "32% of buyers said email was their favored method for receiving product/services information, compared to 20% of marketers who believed email was a buyer’s favored method."  The research was conducted by asking a group of buyers and a group of marketers the same questions and discovering a gap between buyer behaviour and what the marketers believed it was. 

e-mail is  very cost effective marketing tool (particularly when numbers are high) compared with postal mailings, although these still have their place, . To some extent e-mails can be tracked to see who opened them and response action can then be picked up if they clicked through to a landing page. However there are a lot of factors involved so it is usually best to regard the figures as indicative not absolute. Experience shows that with a compelling offer people take action on receipt of an e-mail. So what can be done to boost that response rate? 

Well, the research yielded 4 main insights:

1. Buyers rely on e-mail more than marketers think.
   
2. Provide offers that direct readers to take the next step.
   
3. Personalised sender information can increase engagement
   
4. Appeal to buyers, personal not just organisational motivations.
   

Of course e-mail is not the whole answer, but used as part of an integrated marketing communications strategy it remains an important method for not just communicating sales offers but also explaining news ideas. Third most important motivator for opening an e-mail cited by buyers was "An area I want to learn about."

Who sold you this then?

Asked about his dislikes,  a person being interviewed on the radio this morning answered without hesitation, 'any company that offers a telephone menu'. 

I am sure we all have horror stories of calling Mumbai to try to sort out an account query and being faced with a series of options read out by a disinterested recorded voice, probably after you have already listened to some stuff about calls being recorded for training purposes. At this point you don't have any idea how many menu items there might be, or if the next one might be more relevant to your enquiry. So you repeat the list and opt for the most hopeful option. Unless you are hands free, this often involves removing the phone from your ear to access the key pad. Then you might get a sub menu - and even more levels - before another recording announces that 'we are experiencing very heavy traffic today and you are in a queue'. Some might helpfully add you are number 43, with occasional updates in between bursts of tinny music. And you may even be invited to key in a 15 digit account number before they will talk to you. By the time you reach a robotic sounding agent you are already irritated, more so when they usually are not empowered to resolve your enquiry, before brightly asking, 'is there anything else I can help you with today?' implying they have already been of some assistance. Worse still, increasingly a text message arrives shortly after inviting you to provide feedback on the call.

Today's questions are - who decides to buy and install these systems and does marketing have a say? Does anyone care what the customer wants? Oh and why so much interest in recording calls for training purposes?

It is very likely the customer would prefer to be connected to a contact, someone with both  a christian name and surname, who can answer questions or find out the answer and call back if it requires some research. Someone that is more interested in what the customer wants and not totally absorbed with post codes and first line of address before deigning to talk at all. Research shows that customer retention is far more cost effective than recruiting new customers. So why instal systems that show total disregard to building and nurturing customer relations? Creating a rapport with customers builds trust, confidence and opens the opportunity to pitch products that could be of benefit to the customer. Repeat customers who have a good service experience can be useful advocates for your business - word of mouth recommendation is a powerful marketing tool. It makes sense to make it easy for customers to talk to you - not introduce barriers to communication that give a poor experience.

Are your readers switched on?

Website content discussions have been pervading the internet marketing blogs recently. The use of video clips on websites is becoming more common and research in the USA is showing a trend towards greater response rates for sites enhanced with video clips. Video has been used for years very successfully for educational purposes; teaching computer programs, how to service technical equipment, how to prepare and bake apple pie. 

But video clips on websites, albeit more visionbite than expensive TV advertising featurette, are gaining converts – partly because of small, very cheap handheld hi-res digital cameras and YouTube links. However, as targeting marketers, rather than getting swept away with the latest web techniques and gizmos, we also have to consider our audience. There are many people who positively despise any movement on screen – even simple animated gifs can make their blood pressure rise – so they meticulously switch off all browser support for anything other than basic text, and with it your message. 

The sexy flash-driven websites with super smooth image transitions are works of art on suitably advanced browsers, but if you need to grab a supplier’s telephone number from their website en route using your mobile phone, a Flash site will simply suggest you download the latest FlashPlayer (unless there’s another basic site living behind it and a savvy server). Even time-honoured HTML marketing emails can get short shrift from those with options switched off in the dungeon of their mailer’s preference files. 

So although there are many exciting marketing resources available in internet-land, it is vital that both the message and its delivery method are matched to the needs, and ability to receive, of your target audience. 

B-2-B slow to change marketing priorities

This morning I was prompted by an e-mail article on business blogs  to look back at some of the early blogs from the time when this Technical Marketing Diary started in August 2006. Our blog was launched without fanfare, more as an experiment over 3 years ago, which already seems a long time in the life of the Internet. We discussed RSS which we had already been using for more than 2 years, but Twitter and Facebook were yet to make their mark. So it is not surprising that  blogs frequently discussed change - the arrival of new marketing opportunities and equally the possible decline of other more established technologies, such as print. Accompanying the Internet developments came an increasing number of niche disciplines and experts ready to advise and consult on the intricacies of everything from search engine optimisation and usability testing to social media marketing. 

But despite an avalanche of advice from the collective experts that the Internet is the place to be and the marketing task is no longer to stand out from the crowd in busy media, but now to get visitors to your web site and retain their interest, anecdotal evidence suggests for many b-2-b companies this is not the case. Display advertising in the traditional printed media is still likely to attract the biggest portion of the marketing budget, possibly followed by exhibitions.

 As a generalisation it can be said b-2-b marketing has been slow to appreciate the business benefits of these new Internet based opportunities and continued to support the established and traditional communication tools. As long as companies warily watch their competitors and continue to advertise in the same media and exhibit at the same trade shows as each other, the media owners and exhibition promoters have an on-going revenue stream fueled by the fear of not being there, rather than a realistic marketing analysis.

The year of video?

Market research in the USA suggests greater response for web sites using video compared to sites without video. Further, that investment in online video was expected to have  grown by 45% in 2009 and to continue at a similar rate over the next 4 years.  

Arguments advanced in favour of adding video to web sites are that the medium of video has the power to engage visitors quickly and to effectively introduce a proposition and lead them into the web site to discover more, or to contact the company directly. With the popularity of sites such as YouTube many web site visitors can be expected to express a preference for video content over text and images alone. It is argued that online video offers the same benefits achieved by TV advertising with the added benefit of tracking response using web analytics. And how often do you see TV text and graphics only commercials. Now the technology allows video to be integrated remaining competitive will require companies to develop this within their marketing plans.

Clearly video has enormous scope, not just to promote interest in products and services, but also to provide instruction and demonstration of how things work. However it is unlikely many businesses will have budgeted or planned for producing video content. Although it is relatively easy to produce video footage, what may be acceptable for news stories will lack the quality to make a key statement on the home page of the company web site. Presentation and editing call for professional quality. A scene setting video should not be too long either - 45 seconds at the most. At the end of the video it is useful to include a call to action and indicate the path to follow to explore the web site.

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.