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.
Check out IT Database's latest report Business Press Technology Coverage for a fascinating look at how business publications cover the technology industry. Tech gets far less coverage than its finance counterparts even though it's a huge part of our country's economic engine.
In the study IT Database also asked tech PR pros which companies they thought were overrated or underappreciated by the business press. Look at the results and see that hip and hype really matter when it comes to PR coverage:
Flickr is fast-becoming a popular online marketing tool, especially for companies hoping to make a bigger impact using social media marketing. It allows companies to be creative and take advantage of marketing opportunities that are often overlooked in favor of costly online marketing tools. For those that are willing to take advantage of it, Flickr will create marketing opportunities where few exist.
Flickr is a web site community owned by Yahoo! But beyond just being another social networking site, Flickr offers its users free photo sharing and a host of related services. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, Flickr is the fastest-growing photo sharing site on the web, and the 7th most trafficked social media site overall, giving it some marketing clout for companies looking to expand in this shaky economy.
Given that Flickr is a photo sharing site, the companies that have found it to be most effectively have a visual element to their business, or a product and/or service to sell. Nikon has served as the benchmark for a company marketing with Flickr by using it as an extension of their Nikon School and their Nikon Digital Learning Center website. Their Nikon’s Digital Learning Center on Flickr is an “online resource (that) provides Flickr members with tutorials, practical photography tips and advice from Nikon photo professionals to assist them in taking photos.” By using Flickr Nikon has been able to generate 8,527 members, 23,440 photos, and 669 discussions, all for free using Flickr.
There are other large and small companies alike using Flickr to creatively market their business ranging from companies as dissimilar as 7-11 using Flickr to market their Simpson’s Kwik-E-Mart campaign pictures to Purina dog food catering to dog lovers. There is even a Facebook Flickr application so that companies can link their social media sites together. A number of opportunities exist for brands to engage in Flickr but they seem to break into three basic categories:
1. Spreading content Unique visual content like 7-11’s Kwik-E-Mart photos that have received over 800,000 views after being distributed around the web from using Flickr.
2. Hosting online competitions Flickr allows companies to create image-based competitions without the cost of creating their own infrastructure for the project.
3. Creating a community while providing customer support Flickr can serve as a venue for fans to give insight to products and provide feedback while connecting with other company fans. This can be effective for technology marketing such as software vendors who want to show solutions or promote new products using screenshots.
When used effectively, Flickr has definitely shown that it has marketing potential for companies. Flickr can show any company, large or small, how to visually engage their customers using free social media, while creating an online community to disseminate their company message over the web.
There is some interesting information in this Forbes article on why you should continue to advertise during a recession. I know, you are thinking these are just advertising and marketing firms that want to keep making a buck.
Well here's some anecdotal proof that increasing ad spend in a weak economy actually works:
1) We increased pay-per-click ad spend for a local IT company this month and their leads have soared. Plus their cost per click is down due to a decrease in the competition's budgets. 2) We increased online advertising for our own firm. In a Google Adwords campaign, we were able to grab the top spot for a competitive term due to competition pulling out. That ad landed us one of our largest clients this month.
So don't spend unwisely, but think about actually INCREASING your budget to outmaneuver your competition this month.
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 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....
Visit our new website to get some great free technology marketing giveaways including a sample marketing budget in Excel format and a whitepaper on determining the right marketing budget for your company.
Douglas Merrill, CIO of Google was quoted in the March 18, 2008 issue of the Wall Street Journal:
"Fifteen years ago, enterprise technology was higher-quality than consumer technology. That's not true anymore. It used to be that you used enterprise technology because you wanted uptime, security and speed. None of those things are as good in enterprise software anymore [as they are in some consumer software]."
Consumer software, especially free to very low-cost online software such as Google Docs and Basecamp have leveled the playing field for small businesses. I can't wait to see what's next.
View my appearance along with Linda Girard, co-founder of internet marketing company Pure Visibility on Michigan Cable 15 in Bloomfield Hills. We discuss all things marketing including internet marketing, marketing for small business and how marketing can help the stagnant Michigan business climate. Thanks to our host Robert Katchadorian for the invitation and lively discussion.
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