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

Technology Marketing Category

8 More Reasons Why Collateral Still Matters

Thursday, January 21st, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

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.

Tags: collateral, marketing materials, sales process
Posted in Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Messaging & Positioning, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | 1 Comment »

IT Spending to Rise 6.6% in 2010, Says Forrester

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Forrester Research predicts IT spending will rise 6.6 percent in 2010. This is a stark contrast to 2009, where IT spending fell 8.2 percent in the U.S. and and 8.9 percent overall in international markets.

Hardware and software investments will drive the rise in spending, with software projected to rise 9.7 percent.

Read more from Nasdaq.com. Here’s to a strong tech marketing 2010!

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Recession marketing, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Make Quantification Top Priority for 2010

Friday, January 8th, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

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!

Tags: marketing measurement, marketing ROI, measurable marketing, quantifible marketing, return on marketing investment, RMOI
Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Industry Trends, Measurement, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

11 Tips for Challenging Government-Marketing Myths and Reaching Buyers

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

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#

Posted in Business to Government Marketing, Messaging & Positioning, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Goverment Contractors, Is Your Brand Unique?

Thursday, July 30th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

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….

Posted in Brand Consulting, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Messaging & Positioning, Recession marketing, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Federal Sector Branding Basics

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

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.

Posted in Brand Consulting, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Messaging & Positioning, Technology Marketing | 1 Comment »

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 »

Becky Sheetz-Runkle Named to The ASBC Executive Committee

Monday, June 29th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

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.

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

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 »

Q2 Marketing Cited in Slideshare’s Content Marketing Predictions for 2009

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

Slideshare’s Content Marketing, Social Media and Marketing Predictions for 2009 cites research commentary from Q2 Marketing. Find the presentation, full of great resources, here:

http://www.slideshare.net/ambal/clickdocuments-content-marketing-cheat-sheet

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Online Marketing, SEO, Search Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

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