Do you know what is driving your market?

Like the product life cycle, complete markets or market sectors can also progress through different stages over time. 


At each stage there are different market drivers, so it is important to understand how these market drivers work. During the introductory phase the target audience is small and  is characterised by innovators and early adopters. Application of new technologies can often be the driver for new markets. There are plenty of examples of markets served by products that previously did not exist – mobile telephony, the Internet – where early adopters drive the market forward. 


In growth markets, the drivers are a constant flow of new users accepting and using the product, as well as an increase in usage rate amongst existing users. The next wave of customers, influenced by the early adopters, join the market and in doing so increase the current target audience as well. Mature markets develop when there is no increase in the total population of users and existing users cannot readily use or consume more of the product. More manufacturers will also have entered the market. In mature markets there will typically be many suppliers, little real product differentiation and pressures on price due to high supply and no growth. Many industrial markets are arguably in this state most of the time, leading to excessive discounting to move the product and with suppliers experiencing falling margins. 


Declining markets are usually characterised by a shrinking total population and sometimes a decline in usage as well. This may be caused by a shift to use different solutions or simply the reason for the product need is no longer valid. 


At each stage of the market cycle – introduction, growth, maturity and decline – the marketing approach will need to address the target audiences which themselves will change and not be a constant. The proposition to early adopters and opinion formers in helping grow a new market will be quite different to marketing to an audience well familiar with the market, comfortable with the same again, resistant to change but not yet ready to move their allegiance to a new and evolving sector.

Making the most of databases

Data collated to understand and predict customer demand has become an important issue in ensuring the right product is in the right place at the right time. 


Wider choice, reflecting the shift from the supply of mass-produced goods to mass-customisation, a demand driven market and the need to manage product availability to match actual customer preference, calls for better user data. In the business-to-business world the expectation has shifted significantly towards a rapid supply of product, where once several weeks wait was acceptable. As knowing more about customers and prospects becomes increasingly important, so legislation and privacy concerns as to what information is held on databases becomes a bigger issue. But many businesses do not yet really fully utilise their existing customer knowledge to provide better targeted marketing. Few extend beyond a basic address list and often operate several unrelated address lists divided across field sales, marketing, service and accounts. When this information is pooled into a single database, then patterns begin to emerge, helping to classify your customers, by product preference or usage requirements, for example and to create a profile of their main interests and motivations for buying your products and services. These profiles can be matched to the total market population. Profiling the total population including those with similar needs to your customers, can extend your prospect database. Sending information can then be selective, so that messages they receive by e-mail or direct mail have far greater relevance. 


Experience shows that recipients of highly relevant information return a far better response rate to direct marketing campaigns, leading to improved sales closure. Mining data, generating and understanding customer and prospect profiles, helps target messages with high relevance to the recipient - leading to higher response rates. 

Including social media as part of the marketing mix

For many b-2-b marketers, social media has at best been something of a trial, a test run, a toe in the water to take the temperature. But now some companies are thinking it maybe time to include a social media strategy as part of an integrated marketing communications programme. An integrated marketing communications programme should now strike a balance between traditional media, established Internet methods and social media.

Traditional print media has been under pressure for several years due to the widespread adoption of the Internet offering greater immediacy to news and information without the need to subscribe or register for journals and magazines. With advertising revenues declining, weaker editorial content, fewer pages and fewer publications, display advertising - the mainstay of many b-2-b marcomms plans - may no longer be the best investment. Although  traditional media offers researched and audited audience data, more of your audience may now be looking somewhere else.

In the Internet era, customers and prospects are no longer passive audiences but are actively researching comparative product specific and background information themselves. So search engine optimisation became a mantra to propel company web sites high on the list for relevant search terms. Analytics packages measure visitor statistics - where they came from, what they looked at and what, if any, action they took.  Web sites and email have been the killer applications of the Internet and matured into mainstream marketing communication tools, primarily accessed via desk top or lap top computers. But this situation too is changing - just when the web site has become the main conduit for enquiries - with more people preferring mobile devices to access content and the increasing popularity of social media platforms. 

  

Social media additionally offers the prospect for ‘conversations’ between sellers and buyers, explaining and showing products and receiving feedback. Measuring and evaluating interaction varies between the different platforms, but those with advertising options allow a target audience to be specified based on user registration data. Because social media’s origins are in personal social communications, b-2-b organisations generally don’t expect their customers to use this medium for business. But it’s worth asking them the question. Do your customers use Facebook, follow on Twitter, read blogs and watch YouTube? Because social media is used to share social trivia and questionable images it is not seen as serious media for business. But then again the same people once dismissed the importance of web sites and placed labels on them to declare their site did not contain pornography!

Keeping in touch with customers

With so much focus on the company web site and social media it is easy to forget to keep in touch with customers when they are not actively thinking about buying new products. Company newsletters can help keep customers and prospects informed about your products, and maintain ‘top of the mind’ awareness for your brand. 

A  company newsletter can be mailed to both ‘external’ and ‘internal’ customers. Internal customers include members of your team in non-customer facing roles, manufacture for example, as well as people in field sales and the distribution chain.

Even with the immediacy of the Internet, there is still a place for printed communication where readers can review the contents at a more convenient time. Not only should the design look professional, but the layout should make reading easy and include good quality photographs to gain attention and help break up the text. The content also needs to be relevant to the reader and add to their knowledge and experience of your business. A newsletter can also present interesting and noteworthy projects by explaining how challenges were solved, how your products were used and provide the endorsement of your customers. It can be a useful vehicle to help educate your readership about new developments, by giving background information, or to explain how to get the best use from your products. Newsletters can of course showcase new products and remind customers of the virtues of existing ones. Featuring company employees, explaining their role and contribution will help present the human face of your business and remind customers that they are dealing with a team. By including ‘useful’ articles you can also create higher retention value for the newsletter and well- produced versions have been used as reference sources. You can develop relationships with your readers by introducing response inducive elements ranging from a letters page to competitions and of course encourage readers to recommend others.

Above all you control the content. You are not subject to editorial selection as in the case of the trade press, which has limited space and needs to maintain impartiality. Frequency is another important consideration. A few issues a year sent out regularly are better than an initial flurry then big gaps between issues as the time commitment and need for genuine news content becomes a challenge you cannot sustain.

Media advertising

The term advertising is often confused with the whole marketing process itself. 


Our use of the word is confined to ‘paid for’ media space. In business-to-business communication this is mainly the trade press and portal web sites, but advertising media also embraces radio, cinema, television, bus sides and bill boards. A rather lengthy and convoluted definition of advertising is "the persuasive force that utilises mass communications to make changes in customer attitudes, behaviour and actions towards products and services in a direction favourable to the advertiser."


 Advertising is cost effective in reaching large groups of customers and potential customers with a shared defined profile, hence the proliferation of special interest and industry specific magazines that can deliver an audience relevant to the needs of the advertiser. Media selection must therefore seek to match your target audience and readership profiles. Advertising’s key aims are to progress the target audience through a series of stages:-

• creating awareness of the product
• turning previous unawareness of the product, into awareness 
• establishing a comprehension of the proposition and the benefits it offers 
• a conviction that the product is both relevant and of benefit 
• finally a ‘call to action’ to convert the prospect into a potential customer. 

As individuals we are subjected to hundreds of advertising messages each day, so to arrest attention the advertisement has to stand out from the others. This may be by use of compelling images, headlines or a combination of both, that stops the browser just long enough to take in the proposition. The fly fishing analogy has been used to explain the process of first being seen and attracting attention, then swiftly driving the point home. Once ‘hooked’ a few telling words must explain the benefits of the proposition succinctly, then offer a ‘call to action’ where the prospect can find more detail. Today typically a web site or QR code and the ‘call to action’ could be incentivised by the promise of a useful or attractive offer to enhance response rates. 


Advertising is a key marketing tool, to raise awareness, build brand recognition and communicate a simple or top-level message, but needs repetition to ensure that message is seen and acted upon. Other communication means such as PR and direct marketing will be called into play for a fully integrated campaign. 

Marketing for engineering, scientific and technical b-2-b companies

For every Apple, Google, GE and Microsoft there are thousands and thousands of small businesses trading with other small businesses in the engineering, scientific and technical sector that need to market their products to a global audience on a small budget.

It is a big ask for a small business with small budgets to do this successfully which is one reason why we set up Technical Marketing Ltd to help companies like this to succeed. 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. 

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 and compelling 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.

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

Marketing should not be confused with sales. It is far more to do with planning for the future, with strategy to keep ahead of fast moving trends, the routes to market, and the means of promotion and delivery that provide the essential environment in which selling can be successful. When marketing technical products, there are many facets to the marketing role. Technical marketing will typically embrace new product development, marketing communications and protection of intellectual property. Instead of the emotional appeal of consumer marketing we recognize that in the marketing space we address of industrial, engineering, scientific, technical and entertainment technology products, we are more typically engaged with engineers. Accordingly we have introduced an engineering approach to marketing. Engineering brings discipline to marketing, a discipline much needed in controlling the flights of fancy of the creative media types in getting the i's dotted and t's crossed, keeping feet firmly on the ground and keeping sight of the purpose of marketing a product - not in winning design awards. And if bringing engineering into marketing might seem a strange notion, unless marketing is properly controlled and brought in on budget then it will be a disaster. Engineering projects are as much about planning, adherence to schedules and budgets as they are about technology. In fact engineers are increasingly being employed in some surprising areas including many types of management consulting even in the financial sector. 

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

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

Has social media ruined marketing?

Social media continues to divide marketing opinion. Rather than treat social media as another marketing tool, the antagonists are tending to focus on the all or nothing approach. In short throw out the old ways and bring in the new.

One important rule of traditional marketing was not to rush into new media opportunities which at one time was more likely to be a new publication. The thing then was to wait until all the hype of the new title launch had quietened down, then see how the readership - your target customers - had taken to it. Quite often new publications failed to build a readership and make it to the point where they had a certified circulation. Social media is easier to experiment with to see how it works and although some are free to use, resource will still be required to create content whether text, images or video, even if that resource is time of in-house staff.

Some voices are arguing that display advertising in the media is now wasted money, unlike AdWords and the like that provide a great heap of data that can be traced. Recently QR codes have suddenly been seized upon as a means of linking to a landing page via a smart phone or iPad and reviving the flagging medium. One journal has even decided to launch a QR directory with great fanfare.

Countering the call to switch to traditional media one article provocatively pointed out that prior to social media companies conducted a monologue with their customers, but now small businesses can compete on a level playing field. Bigger companies that could spend more on space and compelling creative concepts find social media has evened that out as they have to conform to a fixed format.

The best approach is to review the overall marketing mix and try to be in the media and places where your customers go. The challenge now is discovering just where that is.

The importance of content

Why is is it that design and programming technology are often seen as  more important  than web site content?

It frequently seems to be the case that clients spend time agonising over design issues and stranger still dictating  programming matters that they seldom understand, but then tend to ignore the content. Their customers and prospects on the other hand  want to discover as quickly as possible if the site has what they want. More specifically what benefits the company's products offer in meeting the customer's needs. Web site visitors want to get to the detail quickly without following complicated navigation - they want to get to content that is relevant to them. There are three important things to communicate - [1] how your products can benefit them, then to build confidence, [2] how your customers have successfully used your products and [3]  your company's capability, status and reputation within your market sector.


Because most buyers start their buying process by using the Internet to research what is available, even in the b-2-b sector, it is wise not to presume all prospects are familiar with your particular products and product names and can therefore find the way through you categorisation of products. Start by explaining what the products are for, differentiate yours on benefits and add links to any required, or optional accessories. White Papers can be useful for giving more background detail and Data Sheets for specific details of products. Endorsement made by users of your  products  will help to convince prospects to progress towards buying or specifying. Third party end user endorsement can be presented in several ways such as case studies, news stories and social media by using quotes, articles, pictures, interviews and video. Finally it is useful to establish the authority of the company as experts in the sector by providing thought leadership content. Involvement in conferences, independent reviews by the leading journals or web sites in the sector, supportive content from industry gurus and 'how to' style content all help to confirm thought leadership and occupy the moral high ground.


So before designing the site and worrying about the CMS it is better to start with developing content, then moving on to the site plan, design and building the site. It is also a lot more efficient to hand over the complete content to the web site builder. All too often content arrives piecemeal which both extends the project and escalates the cost.

Have I got a great advertising deal for you

It might seem odd how often display advertising space salesmen just happen to have one remaining space left  to sell before the issue closes.

We have remarked previously how selling is more concerned with the present and marketing concerned with planning and the future. The advertising space sale, pitches the salesman against the marketer. The salesman is looking for an impulse purchase when he calls and will tempt the prospect with a much reduced price - because they are 'just about to close the issue', which also happens to have a feature that is very relevant to the marketer's products. Interestingly many marketers are tempted and buy, justifying the space purchase on the grounds that it is a good deal and the issue it appears in is right for the company.

The wise marketing manager will have planned a campaign, analysed the media, negotiated series rates and booked the space at an advantageous price compared to rate card, all within a pre-determined budget. So when ad hoc deals are proposed it is easier to decline, content in the knowledge that the campaign is already set to achieve the company objectives, not help a salesman hit a target. But there is another interesting aspect to this advertising space 'fire sale' and that is the relative cost compared to other marketing activities. Because the special 'buy now' price is steeply discounted compared to the rate card and also usually less than a negotiated series rate, it sounds like a good deal. The rate card for a full page display advertisement in a leading UK engineering publication for example is £3950 and in another £4250. A 12 month series drops to around £3100 a page. Now good negotiation could significantly reduce this much further but it will still be a significant sum. A sum of money that could actually buy quite a lot of other marketing services. Oddly  because many marketing people are aware of advertising prices, the discounts and deals they seem more willing to pitch up a thousand pound for space than invest a few hundred pound in something new that could actually generate better returns.

Dropping a few advertisements from a campaign or schedule is unlikely to weaken the campaign but could free up some modest marketing budget to invest in new and different ways that could prove more valuable.

Measuring marketing – are we on target?

We live in a culture where so much business activity has a numeric target attached.

Targets are everywhere today. Not just in business, they have even spread into the public sector services where targets for appointments in the NHS for example are seen as measures of how well health services are being delivered – not do patients get better. The thing is people who have to achieve these targets often invest more effort and imagination in finding ways around the target than in focussing on the work task itself. A few decades ago companies seemed to be driven by doing what they did, well. Whether it was designing better products or providing ‘old fashioned’ superior service it was more guided by a shared work ethic than a numeric goal. Then the accountants moved up from the back office to board and CEO level and brought with them the language they understood best – reducing everything to a set of numbers.  It was a compelling idea which politicians adopted to mange public sector services as well.

Think about banks. At one time banking was a profession that carefully managed funds and ensured loans were made to people able to repay them and with collateral that could be called in the event of a default. Then the terminology changed to talk about retail banking and selling financial products. They developed a sales target culture and hired sales people rather than bankers. Meanwhile the investment arms developed a casino culture. Targets were met or exceeded and motivated by generous bonuses. And look what happened. Even my milk bill left by the doorstep deliveryman starts, “ Please can you help me reach my targets by making payment this week.” Yes there are targets everywhere and marketing has not escaped either. My big question is, do they work?

“I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted … I just don’t know which half.” This quote is still occasionally rolled out. Whether half is wasted is not the point. What is worth thinking about is that successful marketing campaigns use several different communications methods, so when enquirers are asked, “where did you hear about us?” quite often they don’t actually know. But just the same systems demand that they should know, so they offer an answer anyway that contributes to statistics. Instead of looking at the net result, such as “did the company make a profit?” individual elements of campaigns are scrutinized and costs per lead determined. Another quite different example is in justifying new product development by producing return on investment analysis. Anything less than 18% was a non-starter in one large organization I worked for. And guess what - every application reached this magic figure because sales targets were revised upwards until the numbers worked. Then there was the five year plan which took year 1 as the current budget year because it couldn’t be different. But partly because it was written last year it was probably already off target, but years 2 through 5 merrily forecast as rising year on year starting from that already off target benchmark. Nobody ever forecast a downturn. Huge effort went into developing these plans including competitor market shares to 2 decimal places – an implied precision based completely on guesses and a figure the competitors themselves would not recognise. Then all this questionable data was used to produce targets. Experience suggests that the data itself, assumptions and forecasts upon which targets are set lack the credibility that a numeric target implies. What then of the data used to measure achieving targets?

Thanks to web statistics Internet activities give rise to a new mass of data. Once more the implication is that this is precise and accurate. It is data collected on our behalf and provided free. Although companies can set rules, they do not collect or evaluate how the data is collected. Another example is email delivery and open rates. Sometimes non-delivery messages are received when in fact they did arrive, some seen in a viewing pane without registering as open.  The reality is that marketing targets are being set based on dubious data and measured by data nobody in the company actually controls. Targets are useful but they shouldn’t become the objectives themselves.

The customers know best - do they?

Do companies that use focus groups develop the most successful products?

The answer is probably no. Gathering together a cross section of customers to determine the specification for a new product development is unlikely to result in a sure fire success. While customers can usefully comment on existing products or on even advanced prototypes, they are unlikely to provide the key to a winning concept. Similarly designing by committee can be a recipe for disaster, especially when it is composed of company delegates from around the world. I have seen too many such meetings where a shopping list of features is drawn up to incorporate pretty much every local quirk and oddity that some how have to be delivered in a product that actually works. Not only is a new product developed from this unpromising start likely to be burdened with a heap of features that are little understood or appreciated outside the country that asked for them, but the new products will still be much the same as what already exists. It might tick a lot of customer requested boxes, but thanks to all the bells and whistles also be more expensive.

The thing is customers are conditioned by what they are used to now, so their input tends to be for improvements - gradual evolution, not innovation. It is unlikely they will be familiar with new enabling technologies or advanced manufacturing methods that could actually revolutionise the market. Back in the 1960s Thorn Lighting, better known then for its mass market products such as Atlas and Mazda branded lamps, suddenly stormed into the theatre lighting market with Q-File - an electronic lighting control that immediately challenged Strand Electric the incumbent market leader. Developed originally together with dimmers that are often now forgotten, the landmark system was very much the brain child of Thorn's Tony Isaacs and his team. I worked with Tony on various electronic products in later years and understood they learned what was needed by spending night after night in control rooms observing, noting and learning.  In the boom years of construction during the 1950s and 1960s Thorn had grown rapidly with their Pop Pack fluorescent lighting package being responsible for much of the success. Prior to Pop Pack it was normal to buy lamps - the light sources - and fittings (luminaires) from different suppliers. Thorn simply put the two together in a single pack from a single supplier, then invested heavily in production plant that ensured they were also the lowest cost producer. Again it was a game changer.

Today Steve Jobs and Apple are classic examples of not only telling customers what they want, but creating a massive desire for their products. Nokia and others were dominant mobile phone manufacturers who probably carefully monitored what other phone makers were up to but didn't expect the challenge to come from a specialist computer manufacturer. Any more that is than the music industry expected the Apple Store and iPods to revolutionise music sales and create a whole new class of product.

So asking customers what they want is probably unlikely to result in a game changing product. Studying the markets and marrying actual needs and benefits with new technologies and production methods may prove more successful.

Show and tell

Of the social media tools, YouTube is one that offers a new, different, affordable and useful marketing channel.

Telling a story on video can add greatly to showcasing products and interviewing satisfied customers who are endorsing your products. So why are many b-2-b companies slow to utilise this great communications channel? There are many online video sites, but YouTube seems to be the leader and allows companies - well anyone really - to present and share their movie content online. Founded in February 2005 and bought by Google for $1.65 billion in November 2006 it is also not surprisingly given the ownership,  an important channel for search results. It offers a useful technology platform that neatly solves many production and delivery problems of the past.  Back in the 1970s VHS had won the format battle over Betamax as the de-facto market standard and marketing departments experimented with video in various ways. But production was then expensive. Cameras were expensive. Creative capability was expensive. Talent was expensive. So was post production, packaging, duplication and all the other stuff that had to be done, because most companies were aiming to produce broadcast standard work. And the reason they needed high quality material is because that was what people expected. It was what they were used to on their television at home as it was through the domestic television/VCR combination that customers would need to view the company video. Oh and because you had to hire cameramen, actors and some production crew the videos were quite long and of course had to compete with more compelling content served up by broadcasters. So video never really gained traction as a standard b-2-b marketing tool - it was an indulgence, a luxury.

But so much has happened since then. You no longer need the family VCR and TV to view content - more likely video content will be consumed on a PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone. Viewers are used to programme material that is user produced thanks to the popularity of reality TV. Cameras are more forgiving about lighting levels and quality and most people own one as well. To sum up - creation of content, delivery to users and options for users to view have created an opportunity to reconsider video. In fact not using video as a marketing tool is to pass up on a great communications opportunity.

Video allows products to be demonstrated to show functionality that static images would otherwise struggle to convey. It is also useful to to show how products are installed, or can be used as a service guide. Video for PR is taking off too through interviews, showing recent projects or explaining new ideas. Of the new social media sites YouTube provides a convenient means to get today's inexpensive video content online and distributed.

B-2-B blogging

Of the leading social media tools mentioned previously, the blog is possibly the easiest to include in a b-2-b marketing programme.

The blog can be regarded as an informal publishing tool for press releases - but there are important differences. A Virtual News Office (VNO) is better for publishing formal news releases as it caters for the needs of the press, such as offering downloads of high resolution images, background and contact information. But a VNO could also be used as a blog. The big step between publication of a formal press release and blogging is the delegation of authority to the blog author or authors. Although b-2-b businesses are generally used to working with PR agencies, nothing is usually approved for publication until the content has been carefully scrutinised and signed off. Because a blog invites comment and comment calls for response and moderation, this formal process is unrealistic to implement for blogs. Content may touch on some of the subjects that press releases address, but more likely the blog will evolve as a commentary about the company itself, the industry it operates  in and support for the users of the products. Probably one of the blogs most useful roles is to develop an awareness of the company's expertise, establish authority and create a level of trust that extends into a desire to purchase products.

Content is also valuable for search as the scope may be wider than that covered by the company web site and discussing issues from a different perspective may provide links from users that may not otherwise discover your company. But a blog does require time to write and manage and commitment - this is where companies are not so good.

Continuing the social media question - Facebook.

Columnist Mark Ritson writing recently in Marketing Week - The seven dumbest sins of social media - sparked off considerable debate about the effectiveness and value of social media as a marketing tool, not least in eliciting a response from the publication's editor who replied: "But all three of these social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Google+) are still in their infancy. We’re still finding new ways for them to add relevance to our lives as users. The fact that brands haven’t yet figured out how best to exploit social media channels is no reason to rule them out as valuable to marketers just yet." Ritson previously had written " If you have opted for a social media budget that is going to be allocated exclusively on Twitter and Facebook, you are not budgeting or planning your marketing properly." A telling point that emerged was the absence of real success for brands and examples of some downright and expensive failures. Clearly there are success stories as others have documented, for example David Meerman Scott in his best seller book "The New Rules of Marketing & PR".

With the major brands still trying to figure out the best use of social media, it is perhaps unsurprising many b-2-b marketers are still proceeding warily. In the last blog we pointed out how Twitter could be useful as another self published channel for headline news and links back to your main site's news office or blog. The next one to think about is Facebook. Undoubtably  it is extremely popular as a social media tool, but does that make it a marketing tool? And if it does is it relevant for b-2-b marketing? With 750 million accounts by July the numbers are compelling but how many of these are buyers of industrial components for example? Some clients enthuse about Facebook and maintain a company page while others scorn the idea of association of their company with such a site. As yet we have still to see any sales that can be attributed to a Facebook lead for our clients that use Facebook. Typically b-2-b marketing is not about gossip, so the more common use is news stories, snippets of news that don't rate a real press release and general chit chat rather than actual campaigns that involve the 'friends' and test the strength of their interest. 

How can you use Twitter for b-2-b marketing?

Twitter can be useful for publishing headline news with links to a more detailed story as an extra channel in a b-2-b PR programme.

Journalists and broadcasters have latched on to Twitter in quite a big way.  Twitter appears to be a useful source of news leads so it is not surprising that journalists monitor or 'follow' various accounts and frequently news reports cite Twitter as a source. TV programmes such as the BBC and CNN actively promote the use of Twitter so it is not surprising that a great deal of hype has been generated. As with other social media, such as YouTube and Facebook, there has been a lot of talk about the rapid growth, not to mention the fortunes heading the way of their inventors. Actual numbers of registered users seem impressive - a figure of 200 million estimated for Twitter - but can that be broken down to how many engineers have specification authority in a particular UK industry sector? The main journal for that sector usually can identify their readership in that category supported by ABC certification. But Twitter is not really that sort of channel.

Although generally lumped together with other social media, Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows you to publish a 140 character news bite or tweet. Research by Harvard suggests 90% of tweets originate from 10% of registered users, indicating a tendency to a 'one to many' broadcast medium rather than peer to peer information exchange. It kind of divides registered users into broadcasters and followers. CNN has an impressive  4.8 million followers, but a quick review of a couple of industries tells a different story. A leading global light source manufacturer shows just 2,100 followers and a leading entertainment lighting company some 1,600. A world leader in ball bearings manages a mere 20 and an equally famous name, a major British engineering group, apparently is not even on Twitter. So is it worth doing? 

The answer is yes, because amongst the followers on some of our client's Twitter sites are journalists and editors in their market sector who presumably find a convenience in receiving news this way. But at present for the typical b-2-b company it is equally not worth putting in much time or resource. Use Twitter by all means, but use the tweets to publish headlines that include links that land back on your news page or blog. And you can keep in touch with us @technicalmarket.

Are b-2-b marketers engaged in social media?

How are b-2-b marketers exploiting social media opportunities?

Many of our b-2-b clients were late adopters of web sites. Now of course the web site is probably their most important marketing tool. But at the time they saw no need for a web site, not that is until they realised that suddenly their competitors had them and what we had been telling them for years was indeed happening. It is a familiar story of the reluctance, even hostility to embrace new technology. Back in the 19th century it was the Luddites who challenged the industrial revolution as machinery took over the work of artisans. But early adopters are not always right either. Some technologies do not fulfill their promise and in hindsight were expensive mistakes. The technology opportunity that b-2-b companies are faced with for marketing communications is the second era of the Internet, web 2.0. Web 2.0 allows interaction and has made its mark most tellingly in social media - Twitter, YouTube, Blogging and Facebook, plus several hundred less familiar names. Once again b-2-b companies have been slow to become involved because social media brings new challenges to the status quo, it takes businesses and the individual out side their comfort zone.

Previously the only communication by businesses to their customers has been controlled by the company through advertising, mail shots and press releases - all checked and approved before issue. In fact a lot of smaller companies don't even do that much, rarely if ever issuing a press release. But a key feature of social media is the so called 'conversation' that provides for comment, feedback, opinions. If not properly managed, there is an opportunity for disenchanted customers to not only complain, but to do so in a public forum where other customers and prospects can be exposed to a hitherto secret process. The challenge here is what to do about it. Failing to monitor what is being said about your company, if anything, is one issue and becomes a problem once a subject gains traction.  This sort of thing has already caught some out due to their ignorance of the original problem. At the very least 'alerts' should be set up to monitor what is being said about your business on the Internet, so you are immediately aware of problems and can respond rapidly before a small irritation becomes a crisis. There needs to be an agreed process already in place to respond quickly, effectively and positively to nip the problem in the bud. Customers are realistic enough to know that things go wrong, what interests them most is how well the supplier fixes the problem.

The next matter to address is how businesses proactively use social media. Setting up a blog or Facebook page needs to be carefully thought about. In particular how to share information, what to share and who to authorise to do this. Some high profile CEOs write blogs for example, something that will probably shock many SME business owners particularly where they have traditionally played their cards close to their chest and barely communicated with their own employees let alone their customers. Actually more enlightened businesses work closely with their PR agencies and it is they who actually contribute much of the input.

Finally despite all the hype about the millions of people signed up for Facebook or followers on Twitter - are your customers and prospects at these places. In the next few blogs we will look at this in more detail and talk about specific social media channels.

Do you have a strategy for today's diversity of media?

When there was just print media there were a few ways to go, but  online media is bringing a diversity of communication opportunities that calls for a review of marketing strategy.

In our recent series of blogs discussing budgets we noted how traditional display advertising was still a big ticket item, if not the biggest, for many b-2-b marketing budgets. Similarly exhibitions continue as a major call on budget and resources, although there is a noticeable trend away from printed brochures, preferring short runs, digital print or simply offering PDFs for download. Typically everything to do with online media is lumped together with the web site budget. But this budget line is actually concealing a rapidly expanding sector and new ways to reach your target audience.

The traditional approach to b-2-b advertising is to identify the leading journals for the sector that reach the target audience most effectively and book display ads. A lot of people still do. But there are now  several different ways to go. Banner advertising is probably the nearest to display advertising and apart from providing visibility on relevant sites additionally offers a link to click through to the advertiser's web site or landing page. However it is argued that click through rates have fallen and are now 0.2% to 0.3% and banners are ignored anyway. But then again are readers responding to display ads as much as they did in trade journals?  Adwords work in a different way and are displayed when chosen keywords are triggered by a search and require time, effort and expertise to run a successful campaign. Social media sites display advertising relevant to user profiles and location. So three different approaches to paid for online advertising to consider - display banners placed on sites prospects visit such as industry portals, Adwords displayed in response to keyword search terms and advertisements displayed to social media users who match the target audience profile. In reviewing media plans it makes sense to bring the online media into the advertising planning and budget rather than tucked away as a web site expense.

Similarly PR has changed as discussed in a recent blog. With traditional print the editor chose whether or not to use your press release, although in many trade magazines you can pay to get it printed by buying the editorial space. Now however you can be the publisher. An online news office allows you to publish all your company's formal announcements without editorial rejection. Social media offers the opportunity for informal communications, the chance to engage in conversations with customers and prospects. Blogs are good for a more personal style of communications and offer the opportunity for readers to comment on your blog and provide feedback. Twitter lends itself to headline communications and short links to a blog or other content. YouTube is great for actually showing product, but the real dilemma for b-2-b is the much discussed Facebook. More traditional clients shudder at the idea of associating their brand with Facebook while others enthuse - does the 'status' of an engineering company really interest users?

There are other examples such as traditional print mail shots v html email, eNews v printed newsletters - it all adds up to a game changer. Whether we are witnessing a gradual transition from print to online, or a  greater diversity of advertising, publishing and communication opportunities it makes sense to consider the communications techniques as a whole and decide what mix and balance there should be between print and online.

How are press releases evolving?

The traditional press release has moved on as news publication platforms proliferate.

The traditional press release, usually accompanied by a 5" x 7" glossy print and mailed to the editorial desk is presumably no more. Maybe some traditional agencies continue to issue double spaced stories typed on client headed press release paper and avoiding paper clips that might scratch the glossy photo in transit and render it unsuitable to scan. The double spacing was to give space for the editor to scribble notes and changes on material selected for publication. There has been a gradual move away from postal delivery to e-mail often now to a news desk address rather than the editor. It was once quite a big deal developing a press release, researching the story which may have involved an onsite interview at a location where the client had installed product, all accompanied by a professional photographer - it all added up to a substantial fee and took some time before the client signed off on a final copy and the release was ready to go.

Today it is rare to visit a location for a story, interviews are more typically by email or telephone and everyone has a digital camera or phone to take some pictures and e-mail them across - mainly because clients don't want to pay much for it. But with the immediacy of the Internet and new publishing opportunities the demand for content is growing. Not from the printed trade press where editorial pages are shrinking and publication intervals extending due to the relatively high costs of putting together, printing and mailing a magazine, but from blogs, Twitter, Facebook and online news sites. When the trade journals were the only show in town getting stories published was vital, but now print media is just one route to reach customers and prospects. Indeed for many trade journals one that can be bought just the same as space for display and classified advertising.

Savvy companies are investing marketing pounds in not just news creation, but in publication and with that building readership and a following amongst their target audiences. But the news piece itself no longer needs to fit the old formula of say 150 to 200 words. It can be a headline piece published on Twitter which typically will include a short link to a more expansive story that might be on a blog. Or go to more detail on the company web site, or a White Paper that sets the whole scene. All this information provides valuable research material for prospective buyers who are now far better informed when they are ready to buy than ever before. It is not just text, but good use of photographs and videos are becoming more and more important influencers in that decision making process that leads to making a purchase.

The ability to editorially control the publishing platform allows the tone of voice to be more conversational and less formal than before and give a personality to brands previously mainly communicated by logos and icons.

Do headlines tell their own story?

In today's quick consumption, time deficient world, headlines are becoming the story.

Sensational headlines on news vendors' placards are traditionally written to capture attention, introduce a story and sell a newspaper, but today thanks to the 140 character limitation of Twitter, the headline is becoming the story. Twitter is particularly interesting as the established news organisations frequently attribute Twitter as a news source and invite readers to participate through the medium. Journalists are apparently fond of using Twitter and refer to announcements made by "celebrities" issued as Tweets which seems to be an increasingly popular way of communicating with the press. Of course skimming headlines in  a newspaper, magazine or web site helps readers make a choice of which stories to read in more detail, if any are read at all. Apart from Twitter, headlines come in other forms too - RSS news feeds and email subject lines for example - but increasingly in the age of texting and social media there isn't much more content. Encapsulating the main issues of an announcement into a few well crafted words therefore takes on even greater importance for marketers.

This trend to short communications extends to reports upon which major investment and purchase decisions are made. It seems not uncommon for decision makers to have a short attention span, one that may extend to reading a one page proposal, but not a 70 page document that provides background information, research, rationale, numbers and facts. However it may not be that new - just becoming more commonly encountered. It is reported that Ronald Regan, Winston Churchill and Dwight D Eisenhower all insisted on one page decision making memos. "Regan required officials and staff to boil down the issues into a one page format with the following four elements: the issue, the facts, reasoning and recommendations."


Conversely time seems to be out of proportion to the  importance or value of the decision. Writing a humorous piece  in The Economist as long ago as 1955, Cyril Northcote Parkinson observed in what became known as 'Parkinson's Law' that 'work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion' and in a subsequent essay described a management meeting agenda with three items requiring a decision. Discussion over a multi-million pound investment in a nuclear power plant merited a mere ten minutes discussion with experts not even called in to provide detailed advice. Review of quotations for repairs to the roof of the cycle shed a matter of a few hundred pounds took rather more time, while the decision to raise the price of tea in the works canteen by one penny went on for hours.

There are also plenty examples where decisions are made on the basis that the project should include some pet feature insisted upon by the MD while a detailed specification is ignored. Time spent on planning pays off in the long run but marketers need to gain attention in the first case to provide a hook and and for the prospect  to swallow the bait. So succinct, to the point headlines, reports that get to the point quickly are important, but in depth analysis in the form of White Papers and detailed product specifications are equally vital to answer all the questions the MD may ask anyway but can't be bothered to read. And of course having relevant unique content on your web site will help with Google as well.

Talking about marketing strategy

The purpose of a marketing strategy is to help a company deliver its business objectives.

It follows that first of all there should be a business plan that sets out what these objectives are accompanied by a strategy for achieving them. In many companies the business plan can often be dominated by financial projections including revenue forecasts and investment in capital expenditure.  Both revenue and capital expenditure is relevant to marketing. Sometimes the business objectives are purely financial such as to achieve percentage growth target  and hit profit goals.  Although companies put a lot of effort into forecasting and budgeting it is still easy to be too optimistic in forecasting high revenue, then spending as though that forecast revenue is actually being achieved when often it isn't. The impact of new product introductions can also be  over estimated, particularly as they have usually been developed with the expectation of rapid market uptake which if the marketing is wrong may not be achieved.

There are two important elements to the marketing plan - new product development and marketing communications. New product development is an essential part of the marketing plan that will incur investment in both R&D resource and in production equipment such as custom tooling to develop and manufacture the product. New products will typically require independent testing and authentication against standards and there may also be intellectual property costs such as patents and trademarks to consider as well. Product management of both new development and product maintenance of the total  portfolio will strategically aim to maintain a competitive market position. Competitive factors will include the specification and performance of the product, its price and availability.

Communicating product messages will work together using a range of integrated marketing communications techniques in a comprehensive and 'joined up ' plan . The 'marcoms' part of the marketing plan should describe the rationale for the methods being deployed, identify on-going issues such as developing brand values and awareness, specific campaigns such as new product launches, events such as exhibitions and include media schedules and timescales. Supporting the marketing communications plan should be a budget which will in turn be a component of the company budget.

It is this attention to strategic planning and detail  that distinguishes marketing from sales. Sales will have a focus on more immediate matters resulting in the closure of a sale and achieving targets. Indeed the personalities of people in sales and marketing can be quite different as well.