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

Are You Using PR to Sell?

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:30:33 +0000

Too many organizations forget that public relations can and should have a meaningful impact on the sales process. Are you using PR effectively to sell?

One important output of a PR campaign is to use press clippings in the sales process. PR should not be passive. You should use clippings from interviews and favorable mentions in the sales kits and other leave behind.

You should also be using recent clippings like trend pieces and case studies and sending them along to leads that have cooled.

When viewed this way, PR can be used strategically to sell. How are you using it?

Should You Network?

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:59:06 +0000

To network or not to network? You may expect me to tell you, unequivocally, if you’re serious about your business, get out and network! Kind of in the same way that dentist you don’t go to anymore used to tell you how important it was for you to floss.

But honesty is a better policy. Not everyone should be out there networking. Some should be doing more. And some who are networking today may be doing it all wrong.

Where do you fall? To find out, take the quiz:

http://designerscouch.org/show_article/182/should-you-network.html

8 More Reasons Why Collateral Still Matters

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:33:58 +0000

Marketing materials are an important part of the sales process for most B2B and B2G companies. But not all companies, even the ones selling high end services and solutions, meet the challenge. Here is part two of the recent article, 8 Reasons Why Collateral Still Matters.

Make Quantification Top Priority for 2010

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:55:06 +0000

Make marketing measurement a top priority for your company in 2010. This New Year’s resolution should be near the top of many marketers’ to-do lists. Everyone agrees that this has to be done. But rub is in the quantification methodology. Just how do we do it?

Over the years, we’ve received many questions about how to implement and improve marketing measurement to demonstrate marketing results. In fact, I just had this discussion with a federal defense contractor yesterday.

It begins with a solid plan and setting benchmarks and measuring against them.

Here are some resources to help you:

6 Tips for Establishing a Formal Measurement Process (One of our most popular entries!)

4 Essential Tips for Building Quantifiable Marketing Programs, from MarketingProfs

8 Ways to Build Quantifiable Programs

Last, but far from least is our most popular downlaod,Q2 Marketing’s Nine Step Marketing Quantification Process. It will help make your resolution a reality!

Happy quantifying!

11 Tips for Challenging Government-Marketing Myths and Reaching Buyers

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:38:30 +0000

Read Q2’s Becky Sheetz-Runkle’s Challenging Government Marketing Myths and Reaching Buyers in the influential MarketingProfs @ http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2009/3092/11-tips-for-challenging-government-marketing-myths-and-reaching-buyers#

Goverment Contractors, Is Your Brand Unique?

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:16:42 +0000

We’ve been focusing on a favorite topic of mine—branding for government contractors. I’ll be the first to tell you that revenue generating initiatives are of greater value in a down economy than branding efforts. But federal contractors are different. Generally speaking, they tend to lack the strong brand identity and recognition of their commercial sector counterparts. Only, unlike their commercial counterparts, successful government contractors, with a greater immunity to the recession, can afford to make the investment in brand building now.

But why should contractors turn their attention to branding now? Because the industry—which is already awash in tech firms, professional services firms and goods and service providers—is getting more and more competitive every day. New players are entering the fray by the minute. The contractors that have been there and done that need to raise their profile and build their brand if their long term goals include growing their business.

Let’s revisit our first of four principles from Branding in the federal sector: For a brand to be effective, it has to be unique.

This means the brand must be distinctive from the others in your playing field, which, unless you’ve carved out a very distinct niche, is probably pretty crowded. Occasionally we have clients approach Q2 Marketing to say they want to create in impression on the market that “we aren’t like all the other beltway bandits.” Bravo. We love those people because they get it and because it’s job security for us. And because it’s sound marketing strategy.

If, by contrast, your branding strategy is to find out what the best-known and most successful competitors say and look like, and emulate them, expect muted results. Yes, federal buyers are notoriously risk averse and make the safe choice. But you can communicate to your audience that you’re safe, while making a distinct and lasting impression.

So ask yourself, what’s unique and superior about my company? Hint: the answer is not your disadvantaged status. Trust me, you’re not the only 8a or woman-owned small business in town.

When you determine what those differentiators are, you are on your way to a value proposition. Now ask yourself how you’re communicating that to the marketplace at every step along the way in the sales cycle.

Join us soon for more on this hot topic and feel free to share your comments if you disagree. I know there are dissenters out there. I talk to them all the time….

Federal Sector Branding Basics

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:20:12 +0000

Building or maintaining a strong brand should be an important short and long term revenue goal for your company. Especially in a recession. But for many federal contractors, the time, attention (and money) dedicated to this initiative fall short. The reasons for this are many and range for too much emphasis on set-aside status, to a desire to make marketing materials look and sound like other industry players. For example, many small government contractors want their marketing materials to sound like Lockheed Martin or CSC, but of course don’t have the marketing budgets of the big boys.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”

Often beginning with a Positioning Statement, a core objective of developing a strong brand is to clearly answer the following questions:

What is unique about my organization or brand in the context of the industry as a whole?
Which of these factors are most important to my clients and prospects?
Which of these factors are most difficult for your competitors to imitate?
Which of these factors can be most easily understood by my prospects?

There are four key rules of branding. These apply to companies serving both the commercial and federal sectors:

For the brand to be effective, it has to be unique.
For the brand to make an impact and be memorable, it has to be clear and compelling.
For the brand to generate revenue, it has to foster a sense of ownership by my clients, partners and employees.
For the brand to be credible, it must be believable.

Check back soon for more of what works and what doesn’t in branding for government contractors.

5 steps to successful and measurable white paper marketing

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:12:03 +0000

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.?

Building brand a loyalty a recession marketing must

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:01:47 +0000

Customer loyalty is another casualty of the recession. Buyers, including your customers, are aggressively hunting to spend only on what appears to be the absolute best decisions with their budgets. This is true in any economy, but at no time is it a greater reality than now. This poses a threat to pretty much everyone, and the tech sector is no exception.

We recently discussed two of the best ways to build brand loyalty:

1. Say thank you.

2. Remind your customers that you’re great

Let’s spend a little more time on number two. Reminding the buyer why they bought from you in the first place, and all of the virtues of your product or service is absolutely critical in this economy. The first and most important question is: does your company deliver exceptional products or services? If the answer is yes (and let’s hope it is!), how are you communicating that?

Down times are the absolute best times to both build brand loyalty and aggressively communicate the values of your brand. How do you do this?

It’s essential for you to communicate why your business is the superior choice to the many competitors you probably have. If your customers (or prospects) can find it cheaper, there’s a good chance they’re looking for it right now. How can your marketing messages head off that threat? Make sure you’re communicating why it’s a better investment to spend a little—or a lot more—and work with you.

Dropy by next week for a discussion on the best tools for carrying out this objective.

Becky Sheetz-Runkle Named to The ASBC Executive Committee

Becky Sheetz-Runkle — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:06:47 +0000

Becky Sheetz-Runkle has been named Vice Chair of The American Small Business Coalition (ASBC) inaugural Executive Committee. This new committee will be an important part of the federally-focused membership organization’s decision making process.

The ASBC is a membership organization exclusively focused on supporting the development of relationships, best practices and market intelligence for companies doing business in the government sector.

Find out more at http://www.theasbc.org/?page=execcomm_mem.