Marketing for Success - Mike Vilimek

The Anti-Salesman

I recently attended an industry conference as a representative of my company. The other attendees were all excellent sales prospects; however my goal was not sales oriented, but rather to learn as much about them as I could. I wanted to know how the current economic crisis was affecting them. I wanted to find out their major concerns, what kept them up at night, what were their bosses asking of them and what trends they saw that will affect their profession in the future. Essentially, I wanted to get inside their minds.

In order to do this, I couldn't come across as though I was trying to sell them something. Individuals take a very different approach to a conversation when they feel they are trying to be sold something. They are not nearly as open and often will not give candid feedback or insight into their world. So I became the anti-salesman. I never mention our products unless they did first. I never offered to have one of our sales reps contact them unless they specifically requested it. My only goal was learn as much about them as I could, nothing more.

The best thing a product marketer can do for sales is to ensure their company is producing products that customers can see value in and that those  products are positioned and messaged effectively. Leave the selling to the salesmen.

Pragmatic Marketing

I recently attended a seminar put on by a company called Pragmatic Marketing. The seminar was titled Practical Product Management; however they offer others such as Effective Product Marketing and New Rules of Marketing.

The seminar I attended was taught by Barbra Nelson and covered a number of topics ranging from strategic product direction to more tactical marketing activities. While there was a tremendous amount of useful content and take-home templates, there were 2 main points that stuck with me, and that I believe all marketers should live by:

1.       The answers to your questions are not in the building. Get out and talk to, or better yet, listen to your market.

2.       Ensure that your product strategies are aligned with your company’s core competency.

Obviously there’s no such thing as a golden rule(s), that if followed will undoubtedly lead to success. But the above 2 rules will certainly point you in the right direction.

If you can get a seat at one of their next seminars, I would highly recommend it.

2008 Word of the Year

Every year there seems to be a new buzz word that Marketers love to use. Often they are externally focused and used to describe products or entire companies. Throughout 2008, there was an internal word that I either read or heard or used myself virtually every single day (Okay…maybe not on Sundays, but certainly every other day).  That word was “Resonate”.

Definition provided by The Free Dictionary

1. To exhibit or produce resonance or resonant effects.

2. To evoke a feeling of shared emotion or belief.

3. To correspond closely or harmoniously

Ask youself, "Does our message RESONATE with our target market?" It's one of the most fundamental questions Marketers should ask themselves, or better yet, ask your market.

 

A Message Relevant for the Times

Companies spend countless hours refining and perfecting their marketing messaging. Sometimes these messages can be massaged or altered to reflect changes in products or business models. But for the most part, core marketing messages and value propositions remain constant. What would cause a shift in your marketing message? How about a global economic crisis?

In order to stay relevant and to have your marketing message resonate within your market, sometimes a slight shift is required. In times of economic uncertainty, companies as well as individuals want to know how you can help them save money, conserve resources, reduce risk and essentially weather the economic storm.

A good example of a company subscribing to this strategy is Elance.com. In a recent email campaign, Recession-Busting Tips for Small Businesses, they positioned there online outsourcing service as a way for small businesses to connect with inexpensive freelancers to help save money and increase efficiency. 

Often the best indicators of how to create appropriate messaging that will resonate with your market lie outside the walls of your company. Take a look around. What can your product do to help people deal with issues they’re facing today?

Product Positioning

How do you know if you’ve accurately positioned your product within a market? How do you know if you are in the right market? How do you know if your market will see value in your product? These are all very basic but essential questions that all product marketers must ask themselves. Regardless of what your company produces, you should be constantly reviewing your product positioning strategy. A simple way to start is to ask yourself the following questions:

1.       WHO is my target audience?

2.       WHAT problem does my product solve?

3.       HOW does my product solve the problem?

4.       WHAT benefit does my product provide my market?

5.       HOW does my product differ from others?

Granted, the questions may seem simple, but the answers will often be much more complicated. These questions should be used as a basis for your positioning strategy, but definitely be examined in more detail. For example, you may be able to answer who your target audience is, but is that audience large enough to form a market?

If you want your product to be a market success, it is essential to position it correctly. If you cannot answer these 5 questions, your positioning strategy may need some attention.

Savvy Marketing by Obama

There is little doubt that the Obama campaign will be considered as one of the best examples of presidential marketing in US history. The campaign was dominant in online marketing with Obama having around 3 million supporters on Facebook, 4 times as many friends as his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, on MySpace.com, and an email contact list of almost 10 million addresses.

What’s even more impressive is that within 24 hours of last week’s historic vote, Obama’s team launched a new web site, Change.gov to reach out and connect with the public. In addition to a countdown to the January 20 inauguration, the site has a newsroom and even a blog. The site is also very interactive allow visitors to share their vision of Obama’s presidency and even apply for jobs.  

 

Obama is the first president in a long time to have such a tremendous following among the youth of America, and he continues to do the right things in order to maintain that following. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found almost half of Americans ages 18 to 29 turned to the Internet as their major source of election news in 2008.While I have no proof, I would image the majority of them voted for Obama.

The Future of Print Advertising

It’s no secret that the print advertising business has been struggling for quite some time now. More and more advertising bucks are being shifted to digital mediums and the current economic crisis sure isn’t helping. Countless print publishing companies continue to announce layoffs such as Gannett, the US’s largest newspaper company recently announcing plans to lay off 10%, or 3000 of its newspaper staffers. Is this entire industry doomed?

I would say no, I think it will survive, but it will look much different than it has in previous years. High end magazines that cater to niche groups will survive as they have loyal followers who most likely will welcome ads that relate their niche interests.  On the other end of the value spectrum, free/give-away papers will also survive. These are the types of low cost production daily papers that you find at subway or transit stations and read during your daily commute. They are convenient, free and continue to have steady readerships. Ads in these dailys need to appeal to a broad market in order to be effective.

Do your products fit into either of these print mediums? Does your product have a niche group of followers with print publications that reach them? Does your product appeal to the mass market? If not, it probably makes sense to continue to divert ad dollars away from print if you have not already abandoned it completely.

How to Get the Media to Write About You

The first thing you need to realize is, all high profile journalists, editors and bloggers (yes, don’t forget about bloggers, they can have as much and often more influence over your publicity than main stream media) receive dozens or even hundreds of news releases, announcements and story pitches every day. So how do you get noticed?

A common tactic by some is to send out generic story pitches to as many influential people as you can. This “PR spam” is as annoying as the spam in your personal email inbox, and just as ineffective.  Not only is it ineffective, it can brand your company in a negative manner.

The best place to start is by doing some basic research. Find the most influential people writing about you, your competitors, your industry or a complimentary industry. Read their pieces and get an understanding of what interests them and who they’re audience is. Then, create a unique pitch that explains why you feel their readers would be interested in your story. Include references to some of their previous work and show how your story relates.  

Remember, all journalists/bloggers are looking for great story leads. Help them find yours by contacting them with a personalized, smart pitch that they will actually want to write.

 

Twitter Search

There is a new way for you and your company to monitor your online reputation. Twitter is a service that has recently caught fire as the latest great social networking tool. In their words, “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

Twitter has recently launched Twitter Search which allows you to search for what’s being said about any particular topic. Enter your company’s name or products or even your CEO’s name and get a gauge on what people are saying about you. You can even setup an RSS feed to get real time updates on your search terms.

Time Sensitive Offers

In a recent blog post tilted, The plight (and the pox) of the undecided , Seth Godin mentioned how for many us marketers, the competition we are facing is our customer’s natural inertia to push off making a decision.  

Godin writes,” We think that people are undecided because they don't know enough about our features or our competitors, or because they don't have enough money or they are waiting to hear from their friends. In fact, most of the time, they're undecided because they are afraid of deciding. No is scary and yes is scary.”

So how do you fight this inertia? With a ticking clock. Time sensitive deals are a great way to force customers into making a decision. “Buy now and save, or buy tomorrow and pay more.” Time sensitive offers have been around for decades and will continue to be used because they work. They force a Yes or No decision.  Remember, a No today is better than a No a week from today.

Art.com is a company that uses time sensitive deals very well. They often send out promotional discount codes for free shipping, 15% off, 20% off, or 25% off once you have setup a shopping cart. Each code has an expiry date (3-5 days usually), after which they are no longer good, encouraging you to make a purchase decision. If you are scared of making a Yes or No decision, 25% off today makes the choice a little easier.