Tips, thoughts and topics on marketing for small to medium-sized businesses in Michigan and throughout the world. Contributions by Chris Slocumb, Casey Frushour, as well as other members of the Clarity Quest team.
Welcome back to our blog post series on marketing tips for technology firms. Here are tips #4 through #7.
4)Make sure your brand is clear. There is nothing more frustrating for prospects than trying to figure out what a brand is all about. Be precise in what you are selling and to whom. And as a technology company, your branding should also align with your current and future product and services roadmaps.
5)Clearly articulate your technology products or services. In order for your clients and prospective clients to understand what you are truly selling, then you must be clear in your presentation. This is especially important for technical services.
We recommend answering the 6 questions in Harry Beckwith's Selling the Invisible. a. Who are you? (Your company’s official name) b. What business are you in? c. For whom…what companies/users do you serve? d. What need…what are the special needs of the company you serve? e. Against whom…with whom are you competing? f. What’s different…what makes you different than the competition? g. Unique benefits…what are the unique benefits a client derives from your services? These seven questions work equally well for products. By answering these questions, your customers and prospective customers should be able to get a better understanding of what you will provide for them.
6) Get testimonials and endorsements. In order for potential clients to validate your offerings, it is imperative to have your customers vouch for you through testimonials. It is very simple and sometimes overlooked. Testimonials are easily accessible and all it takes is a simple quote. Online video testimonials are now easy to produce and even more effective than written quotes. The testimonials should be posted on your company’s website, but can also be used in other documents and advertisements.
7) Use word-of- mouth technique. Whenever you see a movie you like or try a new restaurant that was amazing, you usually pass this information on to a friend or acquaintance – why not tailor this technique to marketing your products? Word-of-mouth marketing is a not a new technique but it is one that has been overlooked by many marketing professionals. There are many websites that can help you identify what word-of-mouth is and how to use it to the best of your advantage. For example WOMMA is the official website of the word-of-mouth Marketing Association. It that helps business owners network within their industry. WOMMA shares the 5 basic elements to word of mouth marketing: 1) Educate people about your products and/or services 2) Identify people most likely to share their opinions 3) Provide tools that make it simpler to share information 4) Study how, where, and when opinions are being shared 5) Listen and respond to supporters, detractors, and neutrals.
In this vein, URefer is an interesting online referral engine that was just launched. Now folks can refer business to you online and the site also has interesting word-of-mouth possibilities.
A List Apart is “calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites” to take part in their second survey of the industry. The results are compiled in an effort to build a more accurate view of a very nebulous profession—including salaries, employed versus freelance status, job titles, and more.
I took some time off last week to check out our famed "Ann Arbor Art Fair". Among the literally hundreds of jewelry booths, one in particular stood out. This jewelry maker from Montana actually took the time to brand each one of her pieces with some great evocative names. There were necklaces named "Vixen " and earrings called "Calla Lily". When I told her I was in marketing and really thought naming was a great idea to differentiate her product, she retorted "Of course, I name them. I named my children after all."
And there you go. Some of the best marketing ideas don't have their roots in marketing. They just plain make sense.
There are lots of reasons to post online videos and to embed them in your corporate website. Here are a few of the big ones: 1) Search engines are now ranking videos and there's a lot less competition in this area than for web page rankings. 2) According to case studies performed at StomperNet, People remain on web pages with embedded videos over 4 times longer than pages without video. 3) Prospects get a more personal view of you and your company.
Check out a video overview of Clarity Quest Marketing I recorded with Adobe Captivate and a Snowball microphone on its standard mini tripod. It took about 4 hours total for this first attempt and that included writing the script. Captivate has a bit of a learning curve, but it's easier than other Adobe products I've tried. The Snowball USB microphone is an amazing product. It's super easy to use and records a very professional audio output.
Thanks to Josh of Web1Marketing for alerting us that folks have been hijacking Adwords accounts getting in probably through the use of weak passwords. Josh has some great tips in a blog entry on how to product your accounts.
A down economy and slow summer season make it one of the best times to re-evaluate your company’s marketing strategy.I'll be presenting a list of proven tips which have worked for our tech clientele. Here are the first three:
1) Create a Marketing Rulebook. When starting your company or launching a new product line, make sure you are consistent in everything you do. From the president of the company to the receptionist, all should have the same idea of what your company is, and how you present it to the outside world. Your marketing rulebook should have both internal and external positioning. It should have defined target audience(s). Although you would think that the more groups of people you target the better, it will be might be a smarter choice to narrow your focus. Pin point the best fit for your company –this may not be the group with the highest short-term revenue potential, but the one with the best long-term prospects.
Another important aspect that fits into your marketing rulebook is to be consistent in your form and style. This might seem like the simplest of all the rules, but it is one of the most important. Your target audience should your logo, blog, and URL on just about every piece of outbound marketing including emails. Brand elements should be in press releases, articles, blog syndication websites increasing familiarity with your company.
2 Research your marketplace before spending. It’s amazing how many companies spend marketing dollars unnecessarily. This is why it is important to research your marketplace before you spend money on a service or campaign. There are many internet tools that help you determine the wants and needs of your target audience.For example, SurveyMonkey.com and Zoomerang.com are both online survey tools, which can help you get a feel for what your target audience needs. These services can range from a limit of 10 questions for a free account or an unlimited amount of questions for only twenty dollars. However, the more intricate your survey becomes the more expensive it will be. Nevertheless, this can be a worthwhile investment, because the more you spend on the survey the less you will unknowingly spend on useless campaigns.
It is also important to check out your competitors online. This can be as simple as entering what a prospective client would type to find your service in a search engine. When generating a list of competitors, you should see what they have done to become successful and see how you can learn from this.
Finally, you should determine your ideal prospect profile. You can use a more pricey service such as Hoovers, which generates a complete list of all the companies you might want to target. However, there are also other free options, such as ReferenceUSA. You can usually access this account through your local library. Jigsaw and LinkedIn are great data sources if you know the names of the companies you want to target but need an employee's name and contact information, .
3) Establish a marketing budget. Once you have researched your market, establish a 12-month marketing budget. I advise companies to create a gold, silver and bronze budget in terms of the dollar amount and then you will be ready if you have to slash or increase budgets throughout the year.For more on the ways to establish the correct amount for your marketing budget, see http://www.clarityqst.com/pdf/marketing_budget.pdf.
Stay tuned for the next post in which we'll cover branding and customer testimonials....
OK I admit it. The digital age of "get it when I want it and that means now" has made me more impatient. I won't wait for coffee if there more than 3 people in line. And I dial the next company on my search engine page if the first home repair outfit doesn't pickup. However most consumers (including myself) will wait if your product or service is truly outstanding. Take custom cakes at Cake Nouveau in Ann Arbor -their cake orders are booked through the summer. For my last birthday my husband went in looking for a "nice pretty" cake and came away with a custom kayak cake in tribute to my favorite hobby. That's over the top outstanding. Even in business-to-business marketing we tout the benefits of differentiation. But are you REALLY differentiated? What has your company done that's out there or over-the-top whether it's PR, customer service or your latest product? People will wait for the best.
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