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Beating the Bankers

Monday, August 30th, 2010

No offense to all my colleagues in the PR industry, but the world is pretty topsy-turvy when the public has a more positive view of us than of bankers.

I’ll let that sink in for a minute.

Ah, the exquisite joy of nah, nah, na nah nah.

For my entire career, advertising and PR people have scraped the bottom of the barrel full of miscreants not to be trusted, right down there with used car salesmen.

According to Ragan’s PR Daily News Feed, (okay, consider the source) the public has a whopping 36 percent approval rating of the ad/PR industry. That might not seem like much if you’re an art director or a copywriter, but let me tell you, it beats the airline, pharmaceutical and banking industries, to name a few.

I’m not sure our image has risen among the public, but perhaps others have just sunk while we stayed the same. Or maybe with those glamorous Mad Men running around cable TV, our image has improved. Or not—all those three martini lunches were nothing to brag about.

Of course, since “image” is our stock in trade, you’d think we’d do better for ourselves. What is that homily? The cobbler’s children go barefoot? While, what? While we PR people are busily boosting the image of the airline, pharmaceutical and banking industries? Ooops. I guess not.

Tags: PR, reputation, reputation management, trust
Posted in marketing | No Comments »

How to Tell if a Trade Show Is a Black Hole?

Monday, August 16th, 2010

I’ve already admitted to having a nerdy love of trade shows. The right trade shows, that is. You know, the ones where potential customers show up with business cards proclaiming they have a big budget and a deep desire to spend it on your service within the week. The ones where the trade press elbow each other to get over your carpet line and into your booth to do a feature on your latest widget.

Well, it’s possible. I’ve even seen it. But how do you know what kind of results you’ll get before you commit to the show? Electronics Midwest looks like a good show to me (Rosemont, IL, September 28-30). The web site tells you everything you need to know about the actual show—schedules, conferences, exhibiting, workshops, events, floor plans, how to get there, where to stay. This is all good.

But what if you’re thinking about being a first-time exhibitor?

The web site lists the types of equipment, systems, supplies and services attendees are looking for at the show. But there are no demographics. And nothing remotely like a BPA audit report or circulation statement that magazines have.

In defense of Electronics Midwest, I’ve never seen it for other trade shows either. It costs a lot of money to gather that kind of info.

But it costs a lot of money to exhibit, too. So I scouted around on the web site and saw a list of other companies that exhibit, which gives me an idea of who else thought this show was a worthwhile investment. And the titles of the sessions help me out. Who’s delivering papers is another clue.

None of it’s a substitute for really good info on attendees, though.

And, if it’s not being too demanding, I’d like to know who’s coming from the trade press, too.

Tags: EMS, Marketing Communications, marketing ROI, ROI, sales leads, trade shows
Posted in marketing | 2 Comments »

Of Trade Shows and Sailboats

Monday, August 9th, 2010

How are trade shows like sailboats? They are both black holes into which you throw money. Only a trade show is supposed to give you a return on that money.

In a recent IPC post, Trade Shows and Black Holes, Terry Costlow cites a study that says nearly 70% of sales leads, many of them from trade shows, are not pursued by the sales force at all. I assume that does not mean that 70% of leads are not quality leads. Rather, I’m guessing no one has done the research to find out if the leads are quality or not.

It’s also possible the leads are junk. Perhaps the “leads” are a collection of cards or names gathered at a trade show that were never quality to begin with. Trade show attendees exchange their business cards for whatever trinket the exhibitor is handing out, without any thought to actually trying to connect with a viable prospect.

Regardless, companies that invest in trade shows need to invest a tiny bit more to have a lead generation and follow-up strategy. Some considerations might include:

getting the attention of your target market, rather than every Tom, Dick and Harry that passes by your booth;
training your salespeople to bring prospects over the carpet line and qualify them on the spot;
capturing the qualified leads with enough detailed info that tells you whether prospects should be sent a letter and targeted collateral material or whether they should get a phone call pronto from the right regional salesperson;
nurturing the leads that are not yet sales; and
documenting the results so you can calculate the return for each trade show.

And speaking of follow-up, in my last blog I promised to post some blogs I follow on my blogroll, but ugh. Ran into technical difficulties. However, I also promised to share some viable EMS blogs with you. One is the IPC blog mentioned above, and another good one is Technology Contractors Daily News’ blog. Which ones do you like?

Now that we’ve talked about getting a return on trade shows, how to get a return on a sailboat? I have a little Butterfly sailboat that must be 25 years old, requires almost no up-keep and every time I take it out I’m delighted with my investment.

Tags: accountability, marketing ROI, ROI, sales leads, trade shows
Posted in marketing | 1 Comment »

Virtually as Good as a Trade Show

Monday, July 12th, 2010

As a B2B marketing person I’ve always loved trade shows. Where else do all the trade press and your competitors and customers converge in one place—all with common interests? People who are looking to buy are all in the same room with people who are looking to sell. Trackable sales leads are flowing like a river from an identifiable source. Gotta love it.

But according to a Forbes article, trade show revenue in the U.S.—about $12 billion annually—was expected to contract nearly 7 percent last year. Trade shows require significant investment—booth space, exhibit design, videos, collateral materials, and most expensive of all—travel and expenses for the sales team. No wonder people don’t think they can afford trade shows.

There is, of course, a cost for not participating—lost opportunity. You can’t get sales leads from trade shows if you’re not there. But now, with virtual trade shows, you don’t have to be physically there. You can “man” your booth from your office computer, or, well, any computer anywhere. That saves a bundle in T&E. Other things are cheaper, too, in the virtual world. Entry fees, exhibit design and build. All you need is one representative from your company to be on deck to instant message visitors to your virtual booth.

I do still like the visual, physical, meet-and-greet trade show. There’s no substitute for seeing faces, talking to actual people in person. But if it’s a luxury your company can’t afford, check out the virtual shows.

Tags: accountability, B2B advertising, B2B branding, marketing, marketing ROI, sales leads, trade shows
Posted in marketing | 2 Comments »

Chicken or Egg Metrics

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Which came first, easily measured marketing or a mandate for metrics? It seems there IS more measurement just because there is more online marketing, where every transaction or event is trackable.

What has always worried me is that people are not necessarily engaging in the best integrated mix of marketing tactics, but rather, are skewing their mix toward online marketing because it’s easily measurable. At least it was easily measurable before social media.

But in fact, I think people are skewing toward online marketing because it’s comparatively cheap. And that’s not all bad. Every indication is that traditional print and broadcast advertising—and also collateral material—is declining significantly as a percentage of marketing budgets. These are historically high-ticket items that are also difficult to measure.

But even though online marketing is trackable, it’s still not that easy to collect pertinent data, analyze that data and apply that analysis to helping you achieving your objectives. In other words, using data to help you move the needle. Because data, we got. Lots of it.

But do we have it for social media as well as web sites and e-mail campaigns? Can we identify useful data and discard the rest? Do we know how to use data to integrate our picture across all online channels? And if we can get that picture, just how do we make it work for us?

If we can get those answers, it probably doesn’t matter which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Tags: accountability, marketing, metrics
Posted in marketing | 1 Comment »

Content Marketing v. Trade Pubs

Monday, March 15th, 2010

I have long been bellyaching about the decline of the printed periodical. Mostly I’ve been bemoaning shrinking newspapers, and especially the lack of reporters paid to cover issues in-depth. Seems like all anyone can afford is taking whatever’s on the Internet and posting it. Trade publications are also declining and who knows how they get their content these days.

There was a time when you knew you were dealing with a quality publication when you had to woo the editor over a liquid lunch with a substantive story idea. Time was when the advertising and the editorial people existed on different planets. The editorial guys actually did not know if you were a regular advertiser. Those were the days when advertising in a book did not mean you had an automatic right to an article about your new plant/widget/equipment.

But now, well, even formerly reputable pubs are having hard times, and it’s not clear how often advertorial lines are crossed and re-crossed.

David Jung comments in his BtoBlog about the problem, mentioning a post at Content Marketing Today. Basically, the advertising/publishing trade-pub is dying a slow death while grassroots content marketing by B2B manufacturers is burgeoning.

Is this a chicken and egg question? Are the trade-pubs declining because of the growth of online content developed by B2B marketers? Or is it the other way around?

Back in the ‘90s, I published a magazine for a client called The Railcar Business Quarterly. I was able to get my foot in all kinds of fascinating doors in the industry and in Washington D.C. Based on primary research, we published original material that readers really appreciated, and by extension, they appreciated my client. I liked to think of my client as an ally to readers in an age of information.

It was a successful publication in every way. But one of the existing trade publications in the industry began to think of us as the competition, with one editor petulantly wondering if we were trying to put them out of business. No, we weren’t. We were just trying to give our constituents useful, timely, interesting information.

The trouble is, it seems very few publications can afford to get that kind of in-depth, primary reporting anymore. And I’m not sure what kind of standards B2B manufacturers have for their content on the Internet. But the fact is this: manufacturers are becoming the suppliers of content as well as widgets. Is it a change for the better? Maybe not.

Tags: content marketing, contract manufacturing, marketing
Posted in marketing | 1 Comment »

2010 Top Marketing Trends, Starting with Cautious Optimism

Monday, March 1st, 2010

According to BtoB magazine, my fellow BtoB marketers are “cautiously optimistic” about the business environment in 2010. This is the first of the top 10 trends for the year. If I may say, this doesn’t seem new to me. It’s in our DNA as marketers to be optimistic. Have you ever met anyone who professes to be a marketer who did not think things would change for the better? If you did, he or she was not in the right profession.

The “cautious” part, though, might be new. At least it’s certainly warranted in this still-shaky climate. Budgets remain tight, and the need to prove results is ever more present. We should always be cautious about spending. In fact, we should be investing, not spending, with a solid rationale for doing so. That means measuring our performance, basing our future decisions on past measurement.

Which leads me to another top ten trend: Increased focus on accountability. See? There are good things that come out of the recession, and one of them is a greater emphasis on data analytics and accountability.

Other top ten trends:

Positioning for a recovery. Which is another way of saying, “taking advantage of the recession.” Recessions can provide you with an opportunity to increase your market share. You can especially gain by differentiating yourself from competitors who have remained silent throughout, while you build awareness. Recessions can be game changing, and if you’re still standing, be sure to get your story out.

Integrating social media. This is more than a marketing tool. It’s a way to really interact with and thoroughly understand your customers. Apparently social media can galvanize your whole company to focus on customers. I dunno. I’d love to see it, but so far, I think we have enough trouble just trying to integrate marketing communications.

Lower-cost content marketing. Yup. Thank-you, social media, for making it possible. We really needed this as a way to get our message out there during hard times.

So those are the top five of ten big BtoB marketing trends: cautious optimism, more accountability, positioning for a recovery, integrating social media and lower-cost content marketing. Are these your top trends too?

Tags: accountability, content marketing, marketing trends, positioning, social media
Posted in marketing | No Comments »

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