Here is your NoSpin Marketing Debunker for
Sept 15, 2003
Getting the Word Out--A Marketing Success
Story
Do you "get the word" out regularly using
multiple advertising and promotional
vehicles?
Or Are You Dropping the
Ball?
We're talking about advertising and promotions
as a key part of your Marketing. Let's make an assumption that
you have good product(s)/service(s) (with reasonable price
points) and good (differentiating, creative, truthful) message
as well. Let's also assume that you've got a Sales group that
can close deals. Great, those are all big prerequisites;
otherwise don't waste your time and money implementing
advertising and promotional initiatives. But if you do, you
need to step up--and not drop the ball.
No Free Lunch or Magic
Formula
Getting the word out regularly--and not just a
half-hearted effort once and awhile-- takes some time,
investment, patience, and common sense. No such thing as a
free lunch--there's an investment (in money and time) to be
made. There's not one approach or formula. No one size fits
all. No magical A, B, C, D things to do or amount of money
that you must spend. Rarely any immediate results (unless you
have very short sales cycles).
Let's look at what one very successful small
company, Integra Software
Systems, does in the way of advertising and
promotions. Like you, they don't have a lot of extra money
hanging around for their advertising and promotions.
- Privately owned since 1996
- < 50 employees
- Software for the mortgage industry (banks,
brokers, and other lenders) for automating their loan
origination, loan processing and servicing
- Solid product and services packages starting
in the $50K range-strength is customization of their
"Destiny" product modules
- Good customer satisfaction among approximately
30 current customers
- Rapid growth, particularly especially since
April 2003
- Very competitive space with several dozen
competitors
- Named Music City Future 50 Company for
2003
- Sales cycle averages 3-6 months
- Tradeshows: 200 sq ft custom booth--6-8 shows
per year
- Print brochures (4-color) and product inserts
primarily given out by Sales (mail and in person demos) and
at shows
- Trade journal advertising: 4-color full page
ads 4-6 journals--4-8 times each per year focused around
large tradeshows
- Information commerce website: new site in Oct.
2002; ongoing site content updates and enhancements
- Search engine optimization: including
pay-per-click using Google Adwords, Overture, Kanoodle with
weekly monitoring
- Email marketing: monthly (new)
- Public Relations: monthly initiative (new)
- Outsourced marketing assistance: NoSpin
Marketing--ongoing
Tradeshows are a very effective vehicle in
generating new prospect leads for Integra--providing
opportunities for the Sales to show Integra's software in
person before follow-upin with phone calls, online demos, and
in person demos. The ads help overall branding and name
awareness--and generate some calls to Sales. Monthly emails
help keep the company's name in front of
prospects.
Each of the initiatives above contribute, and
each has been increasingly tied together via the company's
website as the hub of its most current messages and content.
Earlier this year Integra
began upgrading its site (after putting up a new site in 2002)
and improving its online capabilities that to capture contact
information-that is, encouraging visitors to see either a
"quick" demo or a Sales assisted demo online. The www.integra-online.com
website that last year produced only a handful
of leads a month now produces several leads per day, including
requests for online demonstrations that are scheduled with
Sales. Integra does extensive pay-per-click search engine
optimization to help generate quality traffic. Email marketing
and a more active PR function are new components of the mix,
and direct mail is also under consideration for 2004.
An Example of Marketing
Advertising & Promotional Synergy
It's very hard to prove the "synergy" of using
multiple advertising and marketing vehicles and and applying
them regularly. But believe it: all of these things work
together--and work even better if they are well coordinated on
an ongoing basis. Although the word "synergy" is often
over-hyped, I think that this year Integra
reached a marketing synergy that has tangibly
impacted its volume of prospects and sales. Since April 2003
Integra
prospect leads and Sales have boomed, and the company is all
of a sudden growing more rapidly than ever before.
Integra Sales deserves all of the credit in getting
their deals closed, but it's taken a company-wide effort to
rev up marketing over that past many months. Good things began
happening faster earlier this year when the company begin
realizing more synergies in its overall marketing efforts
mentioned above. Yes, the mortgage industry has been a good
space to be in the last couple years, but
Integra's marketing approach is not any specific formula
for any small business to "get the word out." Most
importantly, perhaps, Integra's marketing, starts with the
attitude of the top people which is: "We can't afford NOT
to market ourselves continually" versus the more typical
attitude of "we can't afford to do marketing."
Unlike most other companies of its size, Integra
has guts to make a significant investment in their marketing.
Integra
markets regularly and using multiple, integrated vehicles with
consistent messages. They track the results the best they can
right now on a decentralized basis.They are willing to keep
tinkering and try new approaches and may change their mix of
advertising and promotional vehicles for 2004. They know that
the proof is in the pudding: new sales that occur over 3-6
month periods.
Top excuses for dropping the
advertising/promotions ball:
There are already too many messages out there
now, and so what's the point?
Yes, it is crowded out there, but you can
either give up and fade away or play. Is there really
another choice?
We've tried and it doesn't work for us.
You've run a couple print ads, or sent out an
email or 2 off an on, or done one or 2 direct mail pieces,
etc, etc sporadically and in an uncoordinated fashion. You've
wasted your money and set your marketing up for
failure.
The people we care about already know about
us.
Dubious statement at best, but even if that
were true, you still have to remind them. Assume that you are
NOT top-of-mind with many folks.
We can't track it, and so I'm not going to
spend any money.
Yes, you need to have at least a basic system
in place that collects all lead information, the source(s) of
the leads (realizing that it can be multiple), status, etc but
you do not need a hugely cumbersome. ACT or even an
Excelspreadsheet.
I need results now not
tomorrow.
That's not going to happen unless you get
going on a real advertising and promotional program
today
And the top excuse: I can't afford it, stupid
!!!!!!!
Maybe not network TV ads, but every
company--even small companies--can afford a reasonable amount
of time/money to do at least a 2-3 things on a regular basis.
Costs of some vehicles are especially reasonable if you know
your targets. Get a better excuse.
Besides some of those advertising and
promotional mentioned above, you may also want to consider
others: radio, TV, movie theaters, other media; other
events/sponsorships such as free educational sessions; online
banner advertising; direct mail; outdoor advertising; blast
fax; telemarketing; etc.
Just Go Out and Do It
Like the rest of business, Marketing takes some
know-how, guts, faith, and more than a bit of patience. Integra Software
Systems is one good example of a company that
goes out and executes--getting the word out regularly--and is
getting tangible results. They don't try for "perfect;" rather
they just do it--without dropping the ball. Your company can
do the same.
615.383.7157
