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?

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.

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.

Advertising on Mobile Devices

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs estimates they will sell 10 million iPhones this year. While the iPhone craze is undeniable, it’s also important to note that the iPhone is not the only player in the smart phone market. Remember a little company called Research in Motion (RIM) and their Blackberry? And don’t forget Google’s new foray into the mobile operating system market with their Android platform. While these big titans duke it out, one thing is for sure, the mobile ad market, which is expected to grow to $12 billion by 2013 represents an exciting opportunity for marketers.  

 

With most new smart phones including built-in GPS, it allows advertisers the ability to serve up geographically relevant ads, such as a great new restaurant just around the corner (turn-by-turn directions included of course). Anne Bezancon, President of the mobile ad network 1020 says location-sensitive ads can yield 2 to 5 times the click-through rates of regular ads. Now imagine time/location-sensitive specials such as “Free appetizer for the next hour” at the new restaurant just around the corner. Seems like a great way to fill those empty tables.

The latest trend is ad-supported apps. More than 100 million apps have been downloaded to iPhones from Apple’s App store. While some consumers may argue they don’t want ads on the programs they download, the “free factor” has a way of making people accept them. Of the 3000 applications on the App store, only 20% are free, but those 20% make up 90% of the downloads. Look for developers of these smart phone applications to begin generating revenue through ads, thus creating a great opportunity for savvy marketers.

Online Marketing in an Economic Crisis

Recently, we have all been bombarded with news about how global economies are struggling and how we may be headed for a recession. What does this mean for your online marketing budget and how should you be adjusting?

Analysts expect that current economic conditions will result in a slowdown in spending for online display ads in 2009. This may be because display ads tend to be regarded as a less direct means to reaching customer as compared to search ads. Accordingly, analysts also predict that marketers will be spending more money on search than display next year. Good news for Google, bad for Yahoo's new Apt platform.

Whenever marketing budgets start shrinking, areas that have traceable and historically positive ROI generally withstand scrutiny while the newer more experimental practices get the axe.  Social media and mobile device marketing may see significant pullbacks.

The problem with shifting more money towards search is when many others do the same, the search terms you are bidding on will increase in price, and bring down your ROI. Search ads are a great way to reach buyers who are already looking for you, but in the months ahead, keep an eye on the bidding price for your keywords and how that affects your ROI.