Monday, April 25, 2011

Do you have lots of unused literature?

Delivering sales messages, specifications and documentation can generate of stack of print - but is print still the most appropriate medium?

Traditionally company, product and service information has been delivered as  printed documents. But even in its hay day piles of unused print stacked up in marketing offices and in the boots of reps cars. As more and more information is being delivered and consumed online, it makes sense to review the print budget. Firstly it is important to distinguish between the different process elements involved in producing a piece of print. Three main elements are 1) researching, writing, photographing and collating content, 2) design and 3) artwork for print - or for other media. Lets just consider these three items. Accurate and timely content is vital whatever the final form of delivery and so is design. Quality design is important as it subconsciously conveys an impression of the company itself that even people untutored in such matters will notice. But not all collateral now needs to be printed and even if designed for print might actually be delivered as a PDF for customers and prospects to download and choose whether or not to print at the point of delivery.  You might opt for digital print on demand which has the benefit of not just avoiding producing   surplus print, but allows for regular updates and customization. A newsletter or company magazine will typically have a known circulation perhaps with a bonus exhibition quantity. Other material however may be best integrated with web site content.

Traditionally there has been a hierarchy of print requirements that can be quite extensive and accordingly the 'print' or 'literature' budget can be a significant part of the marketing communications budget. A 'print' hierarchy could include:-

  • Corporate brochure introducing the company and establishing credibility with new prospects.
  • Sales literature introducing the benefits of the company products and differentiating them from competitors. These too might have a hierarchy from product ranges or families to individual products.
  • White Papers and user guides placing products within a market and technology context.
  • Product data and specifications providing performance and specification information.
  • User, operation and installation manuals and documentation.
The list could be far more extensive and in reviewing budgets it is worth creating a hierarchy of information then deciding on how it will be used. For example is it important to control the quality to impress prospects in the early part of the sales process, in which case print could be the best option? Is technical data that is accurate and up to date what counts most, in which case a downloadable PDF might be the best option. Or is it an instruction leaflet packed wit the product where a simple black and white sheet perhaps with QR link to a video instruction or downloadable manual could be a preferred option?

As with other big ticket budget items such as advertising and exhibitions, it is time to review and reconstruct the print and literature budget as well.  

Monday, April 18, 2011

Is your database effective?

For too many b-2-b companies the database is an aging record of customers spread across different lists.


Databases can be an extremely useful marketing tool, but the reality is that customer and prospect data is often spread across a number of mailing lists and records from sales to accounts and 'one off' lists such as for mailings of newsletters and Christmas cards. Apart from duplicate entries in these different lists, typically vital data is out of date and it is also surprising how quickly data ages. Contact names change, so do company names, customers relocate and even if they don't, address details can change. On some updates we typically found that for 25% of records parts of the information had changed in a year. Add to this e-mail contacts on e-mail only lists and social media followers and it is soon evident that developing and maintaining current information requires allocating budget resource.


The situation is compounded by use of proprietary customer management software that few people in the company can actually use or have adequate training in. Then records get messy because there is no consistency in data entry, typically address fields are used differently by different people, some use upper case, data is spelled incorrectly and quite rapidly the database becomes a muddle. This is often exacerbated by inputting customer data while processing a sales call, so both parties are anxious to complete this part of the call quickly and tend to skip bits and make input errors. Many companies recognise that their database is in poor shape but do not allocate resource to 'clean' lists and keep it up to date. 


With a well planned and maintained database marketers can learn useful insights into customer behaviour and data mining but in many cases we come across, the 'sales' package somebody bought is totally disconnected from the software package that 'accounts' use so marketers cannot track enquiries through to sales and relate to other information such as web analytics or e-mail tracking. From a marketing perspective there are further issues. Marketing is also interested in prospects, possibly people with similar profiles to current customers along with competitors customers who make up the total population of the market sector - not just the people you know.


When reviewing the marketing budget alocate sufficient resource for database software whether custom built or off the shelf, for training to use it effectively and for cleaning data.  

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Is the trade press losing its power?


Not so long ago, the trade press was the most important communication channel for industrial and technology b-2-b companies.


Getting news published in the trade press gave an impression of independent endorsement even though the piece originated from a PR agency or was even commissioned by the journal from an expert in a company. Yes - magazines actually paid good money for product managers like me to write an authoritative article. Today it is typically the manufacturer who pays for news inclusion in what are generally much slimmed down publications. The industrial sector has been in the vanguard of selling editorial as their display advertising sales have declined, pages per issue reduced and in several cases the number of issues per year reduced too as combined monthly versions become more common.


But news consumption is still popular. It has shifted to more immediate online media and new platforms where the company can now be a publisher. The better journals have recognised that monthly publications can offer a more reflective role with researched, balanced, in-depth articles rather than as a conduit for breaking news. Although most that include paid for news have slowly added an online dimension, they are no longer the only act in town. Many companies have themselves to embrace the new reality in their marketing budgets and PR is often viewed with at best curiosity and at worse suspicion and hostility.


The online value of news resides not just in the promotional value of the content itself, but in the links and positive impact on search engine rankings as it grows into a body of relevant information about your company. And it is not just text that gets indexed, pictures and video news are increasingly important. Add to this that news is not just viewed in the work place on a static PC, but increasingly on the move via smart phones and similar mobile devices. Marketing communications budgets now need to recognise the need to utilise a whole range of communication tools that should include a Virtual News Office, eNews (news by email), RSS, mobile and social media. This will also involve working closely with a suitable agency to build and operate news delivery systems and maintain a flow of quality content.



Monday, April 04, 2011

The company web site - is it time for an overhaul?


Today the web site is at the hub of marketing communications but is it being regularly reviewed and updated?

In previous blogs we talked about the inertia that keeps traditional display advertising and exhibitions as such high ticket budget items. But because there is no need to build a new web site each year there is a tendency to consider them a 'one off' investment and merely budget for maintenance. For many b-2-b companies the web site does not offer an e-commerce facility, but it is still the shop window for the business which can form a view amongst potential customers and specifiers as whether to step inside and ultimately buy. It is a two way interaction with prospects, providing both a conduit for enquiries and dispensing information, guidance and documentation

There are three important messages about its business a company web site can usefully communicate:-
  1. Provide information that prospects need about products and services.
  2. Provide endorsement and testimonials from customers who have bought and used the product and can offer useful experience and observation.
  3. Provide expert views from respected opinion-formers - industry gurus, technology experts, editorial etc. - that endorse the products directly or indirectly.
One convenient way to provide new information, endorsement and expert opinion is through a well organised press relations programme. Adding a Virtual News Office provides the means to publish that news. This can be integrated with the company web site and not only provide great, relevant content, but also a resource for the media to access and search archives. The VNO system pioneered by Technical Marketing Ltd does all this and can automatically generate news feeds and press releases and integrate with social media.

So instead of leaving the web site to age and allocate a small budget for maintenance, budget to keep developing and publishing new content. And by trimming back the big display advertising and exhibition budgets it can be funded within existing resources.

Last week in marketing



Suddenly QR codes - Quick Response - are everywhere providing a handy way of linking print, particularly display advertising to the Internet and generally to video footage. Writing in Marketing Week Lara O'Reilly points out that 'most people are unaware of how to use them in the first place" requiring a smart phone with Internet and an app to access the information locked up in the geometric patterns. QR codes are not new having originated in the manufacturing world in the mid 90s and don't add billable value to agencies, so their recent and rapid take up in advertising is interesting.

Despite the rise and rise of the Internet outdoor advertising remains steady and last week saw the Outdoor Hall of Fame recognising the top 10 posters from the past century. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the iconic Lord Kitchener recruitment poster from the First World War.

Travelling by train gives several interesting opportunities to note what is going on. The free Metro newspaper seems more popular on the morning train ride to London than the free Evening Standard on the return trip. In a distinctly un-scientific sample, more people in the evening were peering at Blackberries and iPhones - one guy had even fallen asleep clutching his Kindle. At least few people seem to conduct loud telephone conversations these days which is to be commended. I discovered that my battery had died so searched for a public phone to request collection from the station. It must be years since I used such a facility and back then we carried phone cards. I discovered that the minimum amount of cash to make a call now is 60p. In the post war days of being instructed to push either button A of button B, it was two old pence.

The pay phone experience pushed me to upgrade to an iPhone4 which thanks to the Apple philosophy is more intuitive than any phone I have had before and has the promise of being a useful productivity tool helpfully synchronising with my iMac.

Spent a lot of time chasing voucher copies of magazines to have proof our client's advertisements had actually been published. The administration of advertising campaigns gets more time consuming while agency margins decline.

And finally why were the whole accounts department of one company wearing high visibility jackets? Health and Safety apparently - their office is near a warehouse.