Traditional Marketing

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Marketing Campaigns

October 26, 2009 in Marketing Campaigns, Marketing Plan and Budget, Sales, Traditional Marketing | No comments

Marketers can use a wide range of media to communicate with the market. In many B2B companies, a sales team is the primary method for reaching out to the market. Salespeople call prospects and customers, but they can only do so much in a day. Marketing campaigns can dramatically increase your reach.

A marketing campaign is a series of touches with your market to communicate a key message. The key word is “series” since it usually takes multiple touches for your audience to recognize your message and respond.
Marketing campaigns can include many different media:
•Email, search, banners and other online marketing
•Publicity
•Direct mail
•Publicity
•Telemarketing
•Trade shows and events
•Print, radio and other “traditional” media

1. DETERMINE BUSINESS GOALS
The first step is to look at your business goals. What do you need to accomplish? Identify all of the business goals that will need marketing support. You may need campaigns to generate and nurture prospects, sell direct or through a channel, or market to existing customers.

2. SELECT CAMPAIGN MEDIA

For each goal you checked, move to that section to learn about the different media options available and how you can use them. Evaluate ideas and options: traditional sales activities, internet marketing, telemarketing, direct mail, email, publicity and more.

2.1. OBJECTIVE: GENERATE NEW LEADS

Here are the media that are most appropriate for lead generation campaigns – use those that you believe are appropriate for you.

Cold Calling
Outbound Calling
Online Advertising
Email Campaigns
Organic Search
Paid Search
Webinars
Viral Campaigns
Tradeshows or events
Seminars
Press Releases
Speaking Engagements
Blogs
Sales Letters or Post Cards
Print Ads
Yellow Pages
Radio
Outdoor advertising

In upcoming posts we will cover the following steps in building a marketing campaign.

QUALIFYING LEADS
NURTURING EXISTING LEADS
DIRECT SALES
CROSS-SELL OR UP-SELL TO YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS
NURTURING CUSTOMERS
GENERATING REFERRALS

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Don’t Stop Marketing In A Slow Economy

October 7, 2009 in Marketing Campaigns, Marketing Plan and Budget, Sales, Traditional Marketing | No comments

When the economy slows so should your marketing, right? WRONG! If you think that cutting back on your marketing dollars and riding out the slow economy is the thing to do then think again. Now is the time that you should boost your marketing efforts in order to keep the sales coming in.

It’s just common sense, when running up a hill do you cut back on your breathing? No, your lungs need to expand further and more frequently to get more oxygen into your body. Marketing may be the only thing that keeps your business alive in a slow economy.

When fewer people are buying products and paying for services then you have to increase your market share in order to maintain your revenue stream. In fact you can gain market share buy doing the opposite of what many business owners are doing.

However, be smart about what you are doing and make sure your marketing budget is being utilized as efficiently as possible. Here are some ideas.

Hopefully you have been diligent and you have tracked the return on investment (ROI) for the marketing campaigns that you have run in the past. Do you know how much revenue your yellow page ad has generated in the last year? How about mailers, web advertising, email campaigns, print advertising, etc… If you have not been tracking these things then I suggest you start right away. Once you know how your marketing efforts have paid off in the past take the most profitable two or three and put your marketing dollars into those areas.

You can make your marketing dollars even more efficient by only marketing to a targeted audience. Do some research and determine who your buyers really are and keep your marketing dollars targeted directly at them.

In times like these rather than worry about a broad image campaign for your company that will do little for short term results I would suggest creating high quality attractive materials that will enhance the image of your company, this includes your website, emails, brochures, business cards etc… and use them to enhance your image in your targeted campaigns. 

Do you have a customer database? If so then this should be one of your main areas of concentration. Most products and services are not once in a lifetime purchases, so your existing consumers who have already purchased from you are likely to purchase again as long as your product or service met their needs. Use this database extensively in all of your marketing efforts. If you do not have a customer database then start building one now for future use.

Try to be different; what is your Value Proposition? If you are a business with lots of competition (most businesses are) then why would a consumer choose you over another business providing the same product or service? What do you bring to the table that the others don’t? (Great customer service doesn’t count in today’s market, it’s just expected) Your Value Proposition can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Think about how you can be better than everyone else and sell that to your customer.

PR is a great (and inexpensive) way to generate interest in your company. Be willing to share your knowledge and expertise with the general public or those in your industry. Make yourself known to the media and offer subject matter that may be of interest to their readers. Offer to speak at meeting and conferences, offer seminars and workshops and invite the local media to attend, share success stories and be available for interviews.

Networking is a low cost way to get in front of live bodies that you can actually talk with and share what you do. I have had countless opportunities arise simply from introducing myself and what I do. Be willing to listen to others and consider how you can help them as well, nobody likes an attention hog. There are many ways to network in your community, for example: Chamber of Commerce, associations, networking groups, social events, etc…

The bottom line is this, your businesses bottom line may depend on you to take action and evaluate what you are doing now with your marketing dollars and make the changes necessary now to secure your company’s financial future. However DON’T cut back on your marketing budget, it may be the difference between keeping the doors open or shutting them for good.

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Getting the Most from a Print Ad

September 30, 2009 in Marketing Campaigns, Traditional Marketing | No comments

If you’re planning a campaign in a trade publication, here are a few tips to increase your response rates and results.    
 
1.  Make sure the ad has a strong headline and call-to-action.  What’s the one thing you want to convey and what do you want prospects to do next?  Make sure these two elements are strong and clear. 

2.  Stir up some emotion.  The most powerful buying triggers are emotional benefits.  Success and admiration can be strong motivators for business buyers.  So is fear — fear of failure, being beaten by the competition, etc.  Your messaging should focus on emotional benefits and how your product delivers them.  To achieve this goal, you really need to know your audience.

3.  Speak to your audience.  Going beyond #2, design your entire ad to grab attention and appeal to your target audience.  Consider your headline, copy, photography, typeface and layout.  If your target audience is C-levels, your ad should be eye-catching and communicate the benefit in the headline or image – a C-level cares about results and is less likely to read the rest of the ad than, say, an IT manager or technician who will need some degree of detail before responding. 

Also, if your product or service is new to a particular audience, pay special attention not to use jargon or industry lingo.

4.  Building on #3, don’t dump all the information about your product or service into your ad.  Usually this isn’t the time to list all of your features & benefits.  Give prospects just enough information to grab attention, feel pain and identify with the problem, then contact you for your solution.

5.  Treat the other ads as competitors.  The average American is exposed to 1,000+ messages per day.  And the print publication is probably full of ads and articles that are competing for the attention of your prospects.  How large are other ads?  Full color or spot color?  Photography or heavy copy?  Size up the competition and make sure your ad stands out. 

6.  Make it easy for prospects to contact you and get the exact information they want.  If you only provide a phone number or a generic URL, you’re going to lose valuable prospects – not everyone will be ready to pick up the phone, and it can be tough to find specific answers from your home page.  Instead, provide a URL to a unique landing page that focuses on converting prospects for this particular campaign.  Use a phone number to a specific sales rep or a group that can help on the spot.  And include an email address to a spam-protected email address.

7.  Be scrupulous with your proof.  A typo or poor grammar can damage your credibility and wash your investment down the drain.  And pay special attention to your contact information – it should be large, legible and correct.  Dial the phone number directly off your ad proof – do it several times to make sure it’s correct.  Do the same with the email and URL.  A mistake here will ruin your response.

8.  Make sure your offer will generate qualified leads.  You don’t want to artificially create a lot of sales appointments that will inundate the sales force with unqualified leads.  Remember, it’s not necessarily the response rate that matters – it’s the return on your investment.  Focus on driving profitable revenue, not just a long list of names for your database.

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