Q2 Marketing Blog – Technology Marketing, Public Relations, Brand Consulting

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Traditional Ad Revenue to Decline, Online Spending to Double

Monday, February 22nd, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

BIA/Kelsey has released the results of its U.S. Local Media Annual Forecast (2009-2014). Though local advertising is anticipated to increase modestly over the next four years, online ad spending is predicted to double. Read more about the survey:

http://www.bia.com/pr220210.asp

Posted in Advertising, Marketing Research | No Comments »

Domino’s Marketing Tactic–Our Pizza Sucked

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

It’s not that often that I get excited about B2C marketing. I spend too much time living B2B and B2G. But I”m always a big believer in direct approaches. What Domino’s Pizza is going is pretty incredible. You may have caught their new TV commercials in between fast forwards on your DVR.

Watch their video where Domino’s really beats their pizza up.

Read the Bnet interview with Russell J. Weiner, Domino’s chief marketing officer.

Posted in Advertising, Brand Consulting, Case studies, Direct marketing, Messaging & Positioning, Online Marketing, Public Relations, Sales and Marketing | No Comments »

5 steps to successful and measurable white paper marketing

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

In technology marketing, the virtues of white papers are well known. But the deployment strategy too often goes off course. When this falls short, measurable results are sure to follow.

A successful white paper distribution strategy really only requires five steps:

1. A marketable topic that provides important content to potential buyers.

Just because your engineers are excited about a technology doesn’t mean this topic will generate enthusiastic readers. Research your topic and make sure you’re really filling a market niche and supplying needed content. If this step is not dead on, how can the program be successful?

2. Structure and content that delivers on the promise of valuable information.

This step can do one of two things. It can build on the credibility of the company that develops the white paper. Or it can damage your company’s credibility if the reader goes to the trouble to download your data, only to find the information is poorly organized, badly written, and/or hopefully week on good content. There’s a middle ground in there too, but that falls short of motivating the prospect to do business with you.

3. Visual appeal that contributes to the positive perception the reader has of the company.

White papers are marketing pieces and should fit with the overall corporate brand. Charts, graphs, screen captures and other visual depictions should be handled by an experienced graphic designer, as should all parts of the white paper. Not everyone who can design a white paper should design a white paper. After all, you want this document to be read by your audience. Visuals are important.

4. A distribution strategy of reaching potential buyers, customers, etc.

Writing the white paper is the easy part. Really. As difficult as it can be to extract important information out of your subject matter experts and convince your C-suite and peers that you’re not giving away trade secrets at every turn, the most difficult part of any white paper strategy is distribution. Take the time and allocate the budget to do this step properly. Before you embark on developing the white papers, research white paper search and syndication services like bnet, techtarget, knowledgestorm and more, as well as more niche-focused services. Also consider the white paper as a pull to an advertising or direct mail campaign.

Also, determine how you will continue to nurture those leads once they are in your pipeline.

5. Benchmarking and measurement methods to determine and define success.

Before you begin, determine what success looks like. Realistically. Is it the number of qualified downloads, qualified additions to your marketing database, inbound leads, search engine optimization, synergy with a PR program, etc.?

Posted in Advertising, Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Public Relations, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing, White paper marketing | No Comments »

The Quickest Ways to Generate Leads-3 & 4

Thursday, May 21st, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Keeping the pipeline full and opportunities moving through it has gotten increasily difficult for almost everybody. I talk wtih sales people and leaders all the time in industries as diverse as technology, marketing, professional services, advertising, financial, healthcare and more. They’re all pretty much saying the same thing. Chances are, these are the same things being said within your organization.

We may not be able to unilaterally market our hemisphere out of a lingering recession, but we can put some programs in place to begin developing and nurturing leads–today. Let’s explore two more of the five fastest wasy to generate leads. Read about the first two of the fastest ways to generate leads here.

3. Speaking Gigs. Secure speaking engagements for your executives, technical people and other relevant and qualified experts. Large conferences and tradeshows will begin accepting abstracts for presenters at least nine months in advance. Not exactly a quick way to generate leads. But the sooner you start looking for these opportunities, the sooner you will have executives lined up. And stay plugged into good events so your executives can be reached out to for regional events that don’t take as long to plan. Remember, some people come to tradeshows to evaluate and buy.

In addition to major conferences, contact chambers of commerce, relevant associations and other business organizations to see about being added to their calendar for a more imminent event. There are a multitude of such organizations in most metropolitan areas in the United States. If the audience is a fit and includes some well qualified potentials, this can be a powerful initiative. If the topic and content are good, this builds and fosters credibility that will move your organization to the short list of service providers or vendors.

4. White Papers. Do you have valuable, current white papers that fit with the strategic direction of your organization? Even if you don’t have finely polished papers, you probably do have components of good white papers circulating in your proposals, internal documents, client deliverables, etc. We know that nailing down your subject matter experts to develop white papers can be a challenge. But it’s worth it. White papers can be important for promoting to your marketing database, as well as to the rest of the prospect world. And if you use a white paper distribution service, you’ll build valuable credibility and leverage Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your key services and products.

Posted in Advertising, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Public Relations, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing, Trade Shows, White paper marketing | No Comments »

10 tips for finding the perfecting marketing agency–part 2

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

How do you choose the perfect marketing or PR agency for your company? Read on for some advice. And be sure to check out the four essential ingredients you’ll need before selecting a marketing agency.

The first three tips from part one were:

1. Delivery commitment

2. Seeing the big picture.

3. What’s the ROI?

Now on to 4 and 5….

4. Order up. No good agency will be content to simply follow orders. If the agency is tuned to your business objectives, they’ll want to do their part to help steer you to your goal. (And if they’re good, of course they’ll be tuned to your business objectives.)

Among the most sought-after strengths of a marketing firm are their creative prowess and innovative ideas. If you want their best, you’ll need to give them some freedom. Even the best agencies and creative pros will become apathetic and slip into order-taker mode if they believe their ideas aren’t being heard. This isn’t good for them—or for you.

5. Birds of a feather. You’ll want your agency to have a track record serving businesses like yours. If you’re selling to government, they must know that market. If you need to reach female consumers, your agency must have demonstrable expertise there. Find out where they’re strong and the difference they have made for those brands. If you’re looking for full service, find an agency that can and has delivered.

Check back soon for the rest of the five tips!

Posted in Advertising, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Technology Marketing | 1 Comment »

Six Principles of Brilliant Branding from Starbucks’ John Moore

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Build a business that’s profitable, makes employees and customers happy and you don’t need to worry about branding. Branding will take care of itself.

These aren’t sentiments you’d expect from a marketer, must less John Moore, who designed and implemented marketing programs for Starbucks Coffee for eight years. But he’s pretty much an authority.

I attended his presentation before Accelerent last week. Special thanks to Brad Powell of JX2 Professional Software Services for the invitation. In his talk, Moore espoused six principles worth consideration—if not embracing—by marketers everywhere. Because he’s a heck of a wordsmith, some of his phrases are repeated here verbatim, or at least close to it. Here are the first three of his six principles:

1. The more obvious you are, the more original you appear…and vice versa. And here’s something particularly compelling for some in the tech marketing world. There’s no such thing as a dull product category. There are only dull brands.

He stressed the importance of earning opinions from your customers. A way to do that: unconventional names for your cup sizes. By taking something common and making it uncommon, you make your customers feel special, citing loyal customers who speak Starbuckian.

2. Be careful when defying your “circle of expectations.” The more obvious you are, the smaller the circle gets. Starbucks’ mark in the sand, as defined by Moore:

· bold coffee (this isn’t Folgers!)

· high quality beans

· not cheap

· non-traditional marketing consisting of locations as billboards and patrons carrying the distinctive cup

· comfortable stores

· engaged employees–another part of the Starbucks experience

The point is that the smaller the circle, the more effective the brand. Starbucks tried milder coffee, cheap coffee, salads, ice cream and other brainstorms that Moore said were unsuccessful because they were outside the circle.

3. If you want to earn customer loyalty, first earn employee loyalty. Your competitors can replicate your products and programs, but they can’t replicate your corporate culture.

Check back later this week for more on Moore’s six principles….

Posted in Advertising, Brand Consulting, Case studies, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Public Relations, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing | 2 Comments »

Ten tips for choosing the perfect ad agency

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Looking to land a marketing or PR agency? Or maybe you’re considering the options and looking for alternatives to the agency or agencies you already have? Here are some fundamentals for making the best choice.

But first, if you haven’t already, read the four essential ingredients you’ll need before selecting a marketing agency.

And now, for the first 3 tips for securing the perfect marketing agency for you:

1. Commitment to delivery. Agencies sometimes lack structure. Everyone you talk with is going to tell you they hit their clients’ deadlines. To get to the real issue, ask their references about their track record in hitting deadlines.

2. Seeing the big picture. Your account manager should have a firm grasp of your business objectives. The agency methodology should be more about helping you reach your goals than creating award-winning pieces. They must understand how and why you want to impact your audience.

3. What’s the ROI? The agency needs to be able to demonstrate return on projects like yours. If you’re looking at web marketing, what’s the agency done and how has it impacted their clients? If they’re trying to sell you on direct marketing, what’s their track record? How have they measured past success and how will they do it for you? A formal measurement methodology in plain English is a huge plus.

Check back soon for the rest of the ten tips for selecting the perfect marketing agency.

Posted in Advertising, Award opportunities, Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct Mail, Direct marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Messaging & Positioning, Online Marketing, Promotional Marketing, Public Relations, Referral marketing, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing, Trade Shows, Webinars, White paper marketing | 1 Comment »

Maximize webinar marketing effectiveness. Hint: Branding counts big.

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

When costs are cut, executives look for ways to streamline marketing costs. If you’re reading this blog, we probably don’t need to state the case to you that webinars, or web seminars, are less expensive than events. The latter includes hotel rental, food and beverage, AV, etc. etc. And certainly, webinars are far less costly than a multi-city road show.

These cost cutting benefits are all good. But webinars are not the panacea. We’ve noticed some interesting trends as of late in the world of webinar marketing and execution. For one thing, there are a lot more of them for the reasons highlighted above. Like the deluge of sales and marketing related emails we all get, most of us in the tech marketing world are inundated with invitations, ads and other overtures to log onto webinars.

We’re going to take some time to explore this ever-growing marketing tactic in upcoming columns. But the first and most critical problem of webinar marketing is the issue of branding.

I’ll spare you my personal brand definition. Agencies often carefully wordsmith their own unique definition so as to brand themselves distinctly as branding experts. According to Wikipedia: “A brand is a collection of symbols, experiences and associations connected with a product, a service, a person or any other artifact or entity. Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as “cultural accessories and personal philosophies.”

If you have a webinar strategy, ask yourself, how well are your webinars branding your company? I can’t tell you how many webinars I schedule myself to attend, but have no connection to the hosting organization. Too often, moments after I log off, I won’t even remember the name of the benevolent organization that held the seminar. They haven’t made an impression with who they are, what they do and why the attendee would care. The onus to address those questions is upon them, not the attendee.

Webinar marketing must be treated with the same fundamentals of brand building that you would for an ad campaign, direct marketing initiative, etc. If the corporate or product brand is not tightly integrated with the content of the webinar, then it is a miss.

More on the dos and don’ts of webinar marketing in upcoming blog entries. Check back. You’ll be glad you did.

Posted in Advertising, Business to Business Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing | 1 Comment »

2 Minute Year in Review: Tech Marketing Lessons Learned

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

We’re all getting ready to close the book on 2008 and many of us are looking optimistically to 2009. At least I hope you’re putting your game face on getting ready to take on the world.

Q2 is looking back affectionately on a terrific 2008. If you had any part to play in helping us achieve this milestone year, our most sincere thank you! We provided web strategy and development, public relations, advertising, tradeshow strategy and support, collateral development, strategic messaging, branding and more to many new and returning clients. We’ve proudly gained a record number of new clients and, even more proudly, continue to serve the needs of many returning software and services businesses.

Below are some observations and trends from 2008 that we hope will help you get a jumpstart on a successful new year. These range from analyst findings to our feet-on-the street observations.

Federal sector stays strong

Many of Q2’s clients, friends and business associates provide services to the federal government. If these individuals are fearful of a slumping economy or a change in administration, they aren’t letting on. These tend to be a tough and resilient group of people anyway, determined to be successful no matter what.

Still gold in the IT hills

The tech industry will still grow, with the exception of hardware, according to the latest from Forrester.

Good business principles still in style

Companies with business models that were not entirely viable before the economic slowdown are struggling with traction, funding, etc. Many companies with great ideas, service, delivery, savvy and sound principles are well positioned to win. An oversimplification perhaps, but sometimes life is simple.

Many business owners and marketing executives are wisely looking for a flat 2009 versus focusing on growing the business. However, we talk with companies, many selling to the public sector that are hiring and growing. There are healthy organizations out there.

D.C. Tech sector strong

The Washington, D.C. area is still a burgeoning region in the tech sector, just ask the Inc. 500.

SEM and direct marketing are the spending trend winners

Direct marketing spending predictions are hot.

Search marketing is already a proven winner. Chances are it’s usurped some of your marketing budget.

So what can I do?

Here is some of Q2 Marketing’s uncommon sense wisdom for a down economy. It’s timeless.

Come back frequently for our tech marketing New Year’s resolutions and more practical insight.

Posted in Advertising, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct Mail, Economy, Industry Trends, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

ANA Finds Many Marketing Budgets Still Healthy

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

As reported in btobonline, a number of companies are increasing marketing budgets during these challenging times.

Btobonline sites the recent Association of National Advertisers (ANA) findings. ANA polled more than 1,200 advertisers and agency executives at their recent annual conference. A full 27 percent said they were increasing their budgets in response to the downturn.

Additionally, nearly 40 percent said they plan to increase marketing budgets in 2009, with 26 percent planning increases greater than 10 percent, and 13 percent planning increases between 1 percent and 10 percent.

These findings aren’t necessarily consistent with those being reported elsewhere, but marketing dollars are still flowing for some organizations. I hope yours is one of them.

Posted in Advertising, Economy, Research and studies | No Comments »

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