Marketing for Where You Want to Be – Proven Ways to Grow in 2011 and Beyond
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The document outlines ten proven strategies for marketing growth, emphasizing the importance of building strong client relationships, engaging in industry awards, utilizing speaking opportunities, and leveraging social media. It also discusses best practices for various marketing activities, including the creation of case studies, surveys, public relations, and website optimization. Overall, it serves as a comprehensive guide for technology service firms to enhance their marketing efforts and achieve success.
Marketing for Where You Want to Be – Proven Ways to Grow in 2011 and Beyond
- 1. Marketing for Where You Want to Be 10 Proven Ways to Strategically Grow © 2011 ClearEdge Marketing January 26, 2011 Leslie Vickrey, President & Founder ClearEdge Marketing
- 2. 2 Our Agenda About ClearEdge Marketing Challenges and Opportunities What Marketing Can (and Can’t) Do Marketing for Growth Top 10 Your Questions, Our Answers
- 3. 3 About ClearEdge Marketing About ClearEdge Marketing Founded in 2006, ClearEdge is an award-winning marketing firm headquartered in Chicago, IL 95% of our clients are technology services firms Operate on a unique and flexible outsourced marketing model o Become virtual department on a monthly retainer or project basis o Special forces for internal marketing when bandwidth needs arise o Offer small- to medium-sized companies an opportunity to invest in marketing without carrying the overhead of an entire department Team of strategic and tactical marketing professionals with experience managing global marketing operations o Strategists, Project Managers, Writers, Designers, Developers
- 4. 4 About ClearEdge Marketing, cont. Outsourced Marketing: Our Unique, Flexible Model Branding & Messaging Competitor and industry analysis, brand development, go-to-market strategy and messaging Digital/Interactive Website, search engine optimization, blogging, social media, video Campaigns Lead generation and Target Account Programs (TAP), Keep-in-Touch (KIT) programs, customer care programs, recruiting and retention programs Sales Collateral Custom tools that fit strategically into the sales cycle, including: brochures, presentations, proposals, surveys, business perspective articles, case studies, testimonials, introduction and follow up HTMLs and letters, etc. Public Relations Press releases, rapid response programs, editorial calendar, speaking opportunities, media training, articles, awards Event Support Seminars, conferences, roundtables, webinars
- 5. 5 Challenges and Opportunities Grueling competition to win an audience.
- 6. 6 Challenges & Opportunities Competition for Your Prospects’ Attention Is Everywhere In their pockets — Mobile devices On their desktops — Web, direct mail, social media Around the house — Web, TV, telemarketing, direct mail When they’re with friends — Social media, events
- 7. 7 Challenges and Opportunities Finding the money for marketing programs today is not easy.
- 8. 8 What Marketing Can (and Can’t) Do Marketing Cannot… Make the sale – great sales processes and teams still required Work magically—like any strategic process, it’s about plans, hard work, smart insights and creativity Despite those Challenges Marketing Can… Build your brand Get and hold the attention of key audiences Influence sales Be affordable Help you better address the changing marketplace
- 9. 9 Marketing for Growth Top 10
- 10. 10 #1 Turn Clients Into Raving Fans
- 11. 11 The Goal: Raving Fans A Secret Sales Weapon Your clients are powerful resources with broad networks of… Colleagues Peers Friends and family They are the smartest, most direct pathway to new sales success A Client Fan Will… Give your business great referrals Spread positive word of mouth Provide marketing legitimacy (back up your claims)
- 12. 12 Got Clients or Fans? Do clients refer their contacts to your company? Do they participate in testimonials and case studies that demonstrate your company’s value and capabilities? Do they speak positively of your brand and become an indirect yet highly effective component of your sales and marketing strategy? QUESTIONS?
- 13. 13 Tips for Client/Fan Conversion Tip 1: Engage Clients at Several Levels Executive sponsor Project manager and team leader Peers (developer-to- developer, tester-to- tester)
- 14. 14 Tip 2: Conduct Client Satisfaction Surveys You Want to Learn… If clients are satisfied and how to make them happier How their needs are changing If any accounts are in peril Benefits Easy to implement More cost effective than ever Provides data for benchmarking your performance over time Tools Online surveys (e.g. Survey Monkey, Zoomerang) and feedback tools (e.g. NetPromoter, Inavero) Keys to Success Surveys need to occur regularly Share results Tips for Client/Fan Conversion
- 15. 15 Tip 3: Create Case Studies and Gather Testimonials Case Studies Work Because They… Demonstrate capabilities Underscore qualifications and experience Show a solution in action/help sales tell a story Reveal results Testimonials Work Because They Are… Authentic Personal Distinctive Evidence Tips for Client/Fan Conversion
- 16. 16 The Result? An Organized Network of Fans Who Refer Your Business
- 17. 17 #2 Compete for Industry Awards
- 18. 18 How many of you have applied for an award either for your company, one of your staff members or one of your clients? QUESTION?
- 19. 19 Why Enter Industry Awards? Worth their Weight in Gold The “cool” factor: “It’s a chance for everyone to rally around the company—which is great for morale—and the application process raises questions that opens the door for people to talk.” — Jeff Miller, Founder and Managing Director of EdgeLink Clients are flattered Visibility in the marketplace Third-party validation Staff pride increases
- 20. 20 Awards in Action Talon Professional Services 2010 Bronze Tower Award, Corporate Identity Business Marketing Association
- 21. 21 Awards in Action EdgeLink Award: 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon From: Oregon Business Magazine Broadcasting Channels: o News o Boilerplate o Marketing About EdgeLink EdgeLink is a Portland-based, technology staffing firm that recruits the area’s best mid-to-executive- level technology professionals on a contract, contract-to-hire and direct-hire basis. EdgeLink’s client companies include Digimarc, Sharp Laboratories, RuleSpace, Ensequence, Biamp Systems, RNA Networks. Since its inception in 2003, EdgeLink earned the 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon by Oregon Business Magazine three years in a row: 2009, 2008 and 2007.
- 23. 23 Speak at Industry Events Speaking Opportunities Local business groups Local, regional and national business and industry associations Conferences Webinars Benefits Reach a diverse audience Gain industry validation Increase brand credibility
- 24. 24 The Value of Events Many legs Provides multiple avenues for building brand recognition, gives you a reason to contact a client, you can be creative! Demonstrates thought leadership Gives you clout as an expert in a particular area Direct contact Allows you to get in front of prospects Insight Lets you learn more about a prospects pain points or business needs
- 25. 25 Webinar Best Practices Target your audience Choose a great topic for your audience Partner with an expert Promote it everywhere Offer incentives Communicate often Make it dynamic Follow up
- 26. 26 Webinars in Action Harvey Nash Webinar Series Average of 60 attendees per webinar 6-8 webinars per year 44 appointments to date 5 deals in the pipeline
- 27. 27 Market Validation Harvey Nash 2010 Gold Tower Award, Best Webinar Series 2010 Business Marketing Association
- 29. 29 Multiple Touch Points Do You Have Marketing Tools and Resources for All Phases of the Sales Life Cycle?
- 30. 30 Do you currently have marketing tools that can be used in all stages of the sales life cycle (reaching, acquiring, developing, retaining)? If so, what are they? QUESTION?
- 31. 31 Member in Action: SCS The Marketing Tactic Thought leadership on Business Intelligence (BI) o Pulse Survey o Survey Report o Event – Panel discussion on survey results The Goal To connect with the senior-most IT leaders and/or the most senior BI representative at client and prospect companies Networks Leveraged Clients: A narrow swath of 250 existing, former and prospective clients for survey participation Staff: BI practice and thought leader Clients: A small panel of clients to participate in survey event
- 32. 32 How It Worked Clients asked to participate in select survey and would receive thought leadership insights and opportunities (event invites) Survey report is developed and delivered in person and by mail to survey participants and prospects Panel event created to share and discuss survey findings with SCS thought leaders, SCS clients and a network of clients/prospects
- 33. 33 Results to Date Survey achieved a 14% response rate, which is well above the widely accepted 10% mark of “a very good response” Panel event had a 63% turnout rate, which is on par with similar type events Three current clients participated as panelists; shared real world BI experiences; answered several audience questions
- 34. 34 Key Takeaway Thought leaders are as important as cultivating thought leadership. 34 What You Can Do: • Identify internal team members who can fill your channels with great content—thought leadership, industry insights, etc. • Find ways to connect thought leaders with your greater networks: blogs, events, social networking, etc.
- 35. 35 Pulse Survey Best Practices Narrow your audience Choose a great topic for the media and your audience Keep it short, 10-15 questions Get a substantial respondent pool Incorporate SMEs in analysis Provide a report with good, actionable insights Generate local (and national!) PR Keep it going—write blogs based on each key finding, link to survey
- 36. 36 STAR BASE Consulting’s Annual Pulse Survey 85 responses 5 appointments to date 8 requests for report without prior appointment 1 new client Pulse Survey in Action “The STAR BASE Consulting Pulse Survey became a part of every sales call we made. The data we had was relevant to our prospects and helped give us much greater credibility in our meetings.” — Jeff Welsh, President, STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
- 38. 38 Public Relations Provide business updates and introduce experts ― Buzz Build relationships with media Identify target publications Be on the lookout for newsworthy information Community involvement New hires/promotions/acquisitions/ mergers Pulse surveys Blogs (can turn into bylined articles) New business New services Events Awards
- 39. 39 Required for Success In-house experts Use your own expertise or that of your staff to become a reliable resource for the media Awards Good PR topics that can be added to brochures, company profiles and website to bring distinction and credibility Places to look: o Industry associations o Clients and vendors o Local media outlets
- 40. 40 Public Relations in Action
- 41. 41 #6 List Development & Cold Calling
- 42. 42 How long has it been since you updated your prospect list? 1 – 2 months 6+ months 1 year More than one year Never QUESTION?
- 43. 43 List Development & Cold Calling Focus: A well-defined list of prospects grounds your efforts Clarity: There is little guessing about who you are going after Results: An accurate list quadruples the effectiveness of a cold calling campaign Appointments: You won’t have an opportunity to get a meeting if you don’t call and ask for one
- 44. 44 List Development Best Practices Conduct an Internal Audit Have a sales team list “spring cleaning” Send out “update your profile” e-mails If needed, hire help Find New Prospects Conferences and events Online registration on your website Referrals and co-registration Carefully consider renting and buying lists Maintain, Maintain, Maintain! Have a regularly scheduled clean up Conduct regular evaluations of list building tactics
- 45. 45 Cold Calling Best Practices 70% of the population need at least 5 contacts before they'll trust you enough to grant an appointment Increase cold calling activity to increase sales Take time to measure activity and find out what is working and what is not Have a precise value proposition Offer something (a demo, a prize) Use scripts Take good notes Follow up, many, many times! DO YOU HAVE ANY COLD CALLING BEST PRACTICES WORTH SHARING?
- 46. 46 #7 TAP Your Targets: Target Account Programs
- 47. 47 Target Account Program (TAP) What Is It? A scheduled, targeted weekly mail-based or drop-in program for target accounts 4-8 weeks, depending on target and service/solution (on average 10 prospects p/sales rep p/campaign for drop-off; increases for mail-based) Branded Components: A weekly postcard and giveaway tied into a campaign theme Touch Item Follow up Week One Mail note card and/or HTML Follow up call Week Two Drop off #1 Follow up call/e- mail/LinkedIn Week Three Drop off #2 Follow up call/e-mail Week Four Drop off #3 Follow up call/e-mail Week Five Drop off #4 Follow up call/e-mail
- 48. 48 Why TAP? Increase Customer Relationships Regularly get in front of decision makers Push Your Sales Team Get your sales team out to “pound the pavement” ROI is Easy to Measurement A simple way to measure sales and marketing message effectiveness Engage in Direct Contact I one of today’s most successful marketing approaches
- 49. 49 TAP in Action IBS Results to Date 28 meetings 20 requirements 5 new billable clients 6 placements
- 50. 50 TAP in Action Consultis Results to Date 253 acknowledgements 155 meetings 61 requirements 9 placements “The sales campaign broke down client barriers, it set us apart from all of the other competitors trying to get in the door and significantly increased our activity even during a downturn.” ― Jamie Delsing, Managing Partner, Consultis
- 52. 52 Keep-in-Touch Program (KIT) What Is It? A scheduled program of tools and resources that keep businesses connected with existing clientele, great coming off a TAP What Can It Include? Feature articles, blogs Team profiles Digital marketing Webinars, social media activity Events Client case studies and testimonials
- 53. 53 Why KIT? Maintain Strong Customer Relationships Keep Your Brand and Services in Front of Your Clients Build Credibility Warm Them Up for Future Sales and Recruiting Calls
- 54. 54 KIT Best Practices Share thoughtful, useful content What does your audience want to know? Create short, benefit-oriented subject lines (make it catchy) Time campaigns well Send campaigns when your audience will open o Tuesday/Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. tend to have highest open rates (some say Friday and weekends work well too!) Include sales teams in the process Forward with personal note—easy, thoughtful touch point Promote across everything you do, including social media Set goals, measure results What open rates/click through rates to do you want to achieve? Start at 18% with goal of 25%+ Set goal, measure, enhance and increase!
- 55. 55 #9 Get Social
- 56. 56 The Power of Social Media The way people communicate is changing, evolving…sales and marketing programs should span as many mediums as possible! Power to easily edit and create content Tools to share and broadly distribute content, opinions, insights, experiences and media Forums for easy, regular and low-cost communication and congregation Clients can rely more heavily on personal networks to make buying decisions: 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements (Source: www.socialnomics.net)
- 57. 57 Social Media. What Should You Be Doing?
- 58. 58 Put a Plan in Place SET A GOAL Where are we? Where do we want to be? How do we get there? Agree upon metrics…
- 59. 59 Define Metrics that Matter Be Open to New Metrics INVOLVEMENT: Web analytics measure if a person is present through site visits, page views, time spent, etc. INTERACTION: Addresses more robust actions people take, such as signing up for an e-mail, posting a comment, etc. INTIMACY: The affinity that a person exhibits in the things they say or the actions they take INFLUENCE: Addresses likelihood that a person will recommend your service to someone else. (Source: Forrester’s Four Components of Engagement)
- 60. 60 Identify Communities Discover places where key clients, candidates and partners are meeting, interacting and networking.
- 61. 61 Assign Some Voices Identify internal team members that can help contribute content—thought leadership, industry insights, community knowledge, etc.
- 62. 62 Social Media in Action Consultis 779 fans to date Targets candidates Highlights a “featured job” on the wall nearly every day Candidates can apply for jobs, take polls, watch videos, see pictures and more… “Social media is helping us connect with candidates ... more and more we are placing candidates we find through Facebook with our clients.” - Jamie Delsing, Managing Partner, Consultis “Cool man! Very innovative!” - Director of Corporate Information Technology
- 64. 64 Website Reminders Your website is still #1 marketing tool
- 65. 65 Website Best Practices A Website must be: Functional o Is it well organized? Attractive? o Does it convince people to take action? Well designed o Is the layout interesting and clean? o Does it grab users? Content smart o Is it clear what you do? o Are messages easy to understand? o Is it written to the right audience? o Does it promote action? Contain SEO! o At a minimum title tags, keywords and meta descriptions … make it easy to find! Make sure your site is always ready to win business
- 66. 66 Do you have strong SEO best practices in place? QUESTION?
- 67. 67 Why SEO is a MUST Without good SEO... You can’t be found You give competitors a free advantage SEO Tips Get your content SEO friendly (title tags, key words and link rich) Link everywhere (internally and externally) - register your site! Use bullets Put most important content up front Add and create content regularly o Blogs o News o Multimedia (video) 57% of Websites are using Google Analytics
- 68. 68 Marketing for Growth Top 10 1. Create Raving Fans 2. Win Awards 3. Speak To and For the Industry 4. Survey and Report Your Findings 5. Increase PR Activity 6. Improve Prospect Lists and Cold Calling 7. Leverage TAPs (Target Account Programs) 8. Incorporate KITs (Keep-in-Touch Programs) 9. Engage in Social Media 10.Optimize Your Website
- 69. 69
- 70. 70 Register for Next Webinar Your Brand Matters! What Does it Say About You? Tuesday, May 10 12:30-1:30 p.m. ET Register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/842058547
- 71. 71 Let’s Talk Your Questions, Experiences & Thoughts. Let’s Share & Learn.
- 72. 72 Thank You! For More Insights, Contact Me Anytime Leslie Vickrey, President of ClearEdge Marketing Tel: 312.731.3149 E-mail: [email protected] www.clearedgemarketing.com www.facebook.com/clearedgemarketing www.twitter.com/clearedgemktg