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Best Ways to Build Brand Loyalty in Recession

Thursday, June 25th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

As discussed last week, brand loyalty is another consequence of this recession. From grocery stores to enterprise solutions, buyers are tenuous with budgets and all too eager to swap out product and service providers to save a few dollars.

So, aside from providing awesome products and services and enviable customer service, what are you doing to boost brand loyalty and retain your customers? The first and most important step you can take is to tell your customers two very important things.

1. Say thank you. How are you thanking your customers for their loyalty? The answer can’t be that the sales representative checks in once a year to re-up the contract. That’s not saying “thanks.” That’s say, “where’s the money?” And customers see through it.

An option is to have your account managers or senior leadership pick up the phone and thank customers for their business. Of course, you always want more business and cross selling is important, but the purpose of these calls should not be to highlight a new offering or upsell a contract. The purpose is to say thank you.

If you’re in a high volume business with thousands of customers, that’s untenable. But you can at least call key customers. Emails and letters are alternatives for large customer bases. For your non-government customers, take them to lunch to show them you appreciate their business.

2. Remind them that you’re great. The purpose of thanking your customers is not to give the impression that sales are down or revenue is tight, if that’s your present reality. You’re not calling to beg them to continue on with you. Good, bad or neutral times, showing appreciation is always a good idea.

Selling and marketing don’t stop after the sale is made, unless you never want their business again. Once an organization joins your customer roster, you must periodically remind them that you’re the absolute best choice they could have made. Chances are they have other options for the products or services you provide. If you keep in front of them in a positive light, you’ll reduce the likelihood that they will want to shop around for alternatives. That’s why marketing is a recession is so critical.

Posted in Customer retention, Direct marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Public Relations, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Brand Loyalty–Another Recession Consequence

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

For most of you out there, another fallout of this strange economy is the loyalty of your customers. Buyers are increasingly looking to make the absolute best decisions with their budgets. In an attempt to shave dollars, they will even incur greater risk by swapping you out for a new product or service provider. And there’s also the risk of them cutting your portion of the budget entirely.

Forrester’s George F. Colony says in the Huffington Post:

Brand loyalty will be limited. For five years, Forrester has been tracking the precipitous decline in brand loyalty — particularly for complex products like cars. Brands will afford only limited protection for your company in the new world — because choice has been radically expanded. All brands are subject to consumer testing, discussion, disclosure, and transparency. You can no longer own your customer — your customer will own you.

Wow. Your customer will own you. Seeing any of that in your industry?

Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you know the Technology Marketing Blog isn’t about gloom and doom or hand wringing. We’re about solutions here, people. The question is–what are you going to do with this information?

We all know that new customer acquisition is a high priority. But an even higher priority is keeping the customers you’ve worked so hard to attain. If your pipeline has slowed, you certainly can’t afford to lose customers. But if customer retention isn’t part of your current marketing strategy, be prepared to face that unpleasant reality.

Later this week we’ll discuss marketing activities you really should be doing to increase customer retention.

Another interesting, if harrowing read, is from NakedCapitalism.com. If you’re not on board with the severity of this issue, this is pretty convincing.

Join us next week for solutions, and visit www.q2marketing.com for lots of other ways to solve your tech marketing challenges. Till next time….

Posted in Customer retention, Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Last things you need before you begin to blog

Monday, June 15th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

This series grew out of my heartfelt conclusion that B2B and B2G blogging isn’t for everyone. Sometimes I get the sense that non-bloggers feel guilty about not yet joining the fray. Conversely, a hearty helping of business-to-business bloggers that, it turns out, have very little to say, have jumped in. The series began by highting the four attributes a would-be blogger absolutely must have:

Strategy
Discipline
Desire
Content

But, from there it grew. Because in addition to these, skill and content targeted to audience are essential, as we explored in part two. But wait, there’s more. Here are our final two attributes you need if you’re going to blog. At least for now.

7. Patience. You aren’t going to experience a groundswell of traffic to your site overnight. You probably won’t experience much traffic for the first number of months. Patience is a prerequisite. This ties into the discipline mentioned earlier. Know that this requires a big picture, long term perspective. We all want thousands of unique visitors each day. But remember one qualified inbound lead as a direct result of your blog has greater value than one thousand passive readers.

On readership, promoting the blog is an entirely different story. A story for another time.

8. Metrics. All good marketing is about metrics and blogs are no exception. One of the single greatest assets of web marketing is measurement. Google Analytics, which is free, will give you great data on traffic to your blog, most popular pages, time on site, referring sites and more. Use this information to understand the types of topics of most value and interest to your readers. When quantifying the value of your blog, refer back to your strategic objectives and make sure your goals are in alignment with your initiatives. And the most important metric of all: are you getting qualifed leads?

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Public Relations, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing, Web site development | No Comments »

Two More of the Most Important Things You Need to Blog

Thursday, June 11th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Earlier this week we examined the four most important things you need before you blog. To recap, they are:

Strategy
Discipline
Desire
Content

Those are the absolutely essential ingredients if your blog is going to make any impact on your business. Most don’t, according to Technorati’s State of the Blogsphere. According to this September 2008 survey, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs they track had been updated during the previous three months. This means 95% of blogs have been abandoned.

So to avoid an abandoned blog, or spinning your wheels to no avail, here are two more of the most important things you need before you blog.

5. Desire. Blogs aren’t high prose, but you have to like to write. You must have at least a modicum of aptitude for conveying the written word. And you have to want to push out to the world information, trends and issues that are hot in your industry. Being naturally inquisitive and generally excited by your industry and its goings-on will go a long way. And having a finger on the pulse of trends and developments is an absolute necessity if you’re going to attract initial and repeat visitors.

Think of it like going to the gym. If you hate it, or you’re just ambivalent, you won’t keep doing it. It’s better to dedicate your time to other efforts.

6. Content targeted to audience. Part one identified content as critical, but an effective blog extends beyond that. If your blog is going to help you drive business and reach other strategic objectives, your copy must be aligned to your objectives. I talk with bloggers who are disappointed that their consistent and well-conceived efforts are not driving traffic to their blog, sales leads, or even significant traffic to their corporate web site.

Often the culprit is less the quality of the blog and more the relevance of the content to the business. There is no shortage of things I’m passionate about and could blog about, from politics and religion to martial arts, fitness and a variety of business topics. But my Examiner column and Q2 Marketing’s Technology Marketing Blog are focused on strategic marketing for one of our most significant market sectors: B2B and B2G tech firms. If you’re going to get results, ensure your blog is equally targeted.

Check back soon for two more things you need before you blog.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

The 5 Fastest Ways to Generate Leads in a Recession–part 3

Friday, June 5th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Leads. Leads. Leads. They’re worth their weight in gold in any economy. But in a recession, qualified lead volume is as essential as it gets. This is the final of our three part series on the five fastest ways to generate leads. Read part one and part two of the fastest ways to generate leads.

To recap, the first four of the quickest ways to generate lead–and sales:

Webinars
Seminars
Speaking Engagements
White Papers

One quick note on the tactics mentioned in these two recent articles: A lot of companies are still spending significantly on lead generating marketing activities. Word on the B2B and B2G tech marketing street is that these activities continue to work, but a greater volume of leads are needed to close sales.

We’ve saved our most non-traditional marketing activity for last as we explore the fastest ways to generate leads. The last program is telesales. We consider this to be non-traditional from a marketing standpoint, because it falls much more under the banner of sales than marketing. But, like in much of the sales and marketing world, this should be a shared responsibility.

The business model of firms that provide telesales is only growing in this economy. There is no shortage or companies that provide this service. Here’s how it works: they make the cold or slightly warm calls to schedule meetings for your sales people and/or technical experts. These can be very helpful in any economy, but especially now when leads volume is so desired. But just because this is a tactical sales exercise doesn’t mean marketing should sit on the bench.

One of the biggest frustrations executives have with outsourced telesales is the script. The telesales people use the elevator and subsequent messaging the company provides. If the message is off target, the value proposition unclear or the message otherwise misaligned, the calls will have limited success.

Marketing should be engaged at day one to craft the call script and ensure it’s aligned with the corporate messaging, product messaging, etc. Marketing should also be involved in the strategic selling process for each movement within the funnel.

Examples: What is the next step that should occur from a marketing standpoint? Should the lead be added to the marketing database, deleted from the database, scheduled to receive a follow up communication such as a white paper, webinar invitation, enewsletter, etc? This is all part of the sales and marketing process. The best case scenario is that the calls close in the short term. But that won’t happen all the time, so the plan for nurturing the leads through the pipeline has to be considered carefully—and early—in this process.

Additionally, marketing should be involved in testing the message. How well are the calls going? Do prospects understand the value of the product or service? What are their push backs? Marketing must evaluate this feedback and hone the script until it’s fully optimized. Again, it’s a process. The days of throwing random messages against a wall to see what sticks are over in today’s ROI-focuses marketing paradigm.

Generally speaking, the programs highlighted in this three-part piece are the five fastest ways to generate leads. If there are any that you’re not currently exploring, now’s the time to take a closer look.

Posted in Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Messaging & Positioning, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | 3 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 »

6 Principles of Brilliant Branding from Starbucks–part 2

Friday, May 1st, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

This is part two of the paradox of branding from Starbucks’ John Moore’s appearance last week. Moore is the brand’s former marketing strategist. Read part one for the first three principles of brilliant branding.

4. “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department,” said David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Company. Every employee is part of your marketing department. One great person equals three good ones. Moore cited The Container Store, as a living example of this. Their mantra is to pay their great people two to three times more than they would make in a similar position.

Astonished employees, he postulated, will astonish customers.

5. If the market grows, the business must grow. Marginal companies get squeezed out when boon conditions abate. He asked the question, “If your business went out of business tomorrow, would anyone care?” Can you say with conviction you would dearly be missed by your employees and customers? If so, you’re doing something right.

Starbucks closed 1,000 stores. Customers went online and petitioned the closing of many stores. The customers cared.

6. Be influenced by “the paradox of growth.”

The smaller you are, the bigger you must look. The bigger you are, the smaller you must get. For those big guys, he cautioned, remember what it took to get where you are.

He concluded by sharing that Starbucks never set out to be well branded. It just happened. If you build a business that’s profitable, makes employees and customers happy, then you don’t need to worry about branding. Branding will take care of itself.

Posted in Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Public Relations, Sales and Marketing | No Comments »

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 »

Avoid B2G Marketing Pitfalls

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Business-to-government (and business-to-business) marketing is most effective when it communicates value. The best B2G marketing is based on compelling content focused on problems solved and clear solutions offered. Read more about why content-rich marketing materials will reign in 2009.

Government decision makers and the corporate C-suite alike tell us all the time that they read resources that help them and their teams be more effective. Examples of such resources include content-rich newsletters, bylined/contributed articles, case studies, blogs, analyst reports, and white papers. For all of your content-driven materials, ask yourself: how does this help the decision maker do his or her job?

The credibility valuable content builds is paramount for companies selling professional services and products to the government. But remember, this initiative won’t be successful if materials are simply sent off blindly to an overflowing inbox of an unwitting recipient. Rather, these resources will serve as door busters for your business develop teams. And they will serve as incentives to use at different points in the sales cycle.

If you don’t have one already, create a library of powerful, valuable materials for your business development team.

Want to learn more about B2G marketing? Join me at The ASBC’s 5^th Anniversary Conference and Gala April 23, 2009 in Vienna, VA. I’ll be presenting on “11 Essential Steps for Marketing to Government.”

Posted in Business to Government Marketing, Case studies, Direct marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Public Relations, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing, Webinars, White paper 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 »

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