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IN THIS ISSUE:
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Advanced Marketing Collateral
terri@chooseamc.com
Twitter: BIMarcom
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the B2B Marcom Mind
January 2009
Hi Marketeers,
Sometimes we get so caught up in the details, it's easy to lose sight of the basics. I stumbled upon a Guy Kawasaki post that while written for the small business, is really applicable to all businesses. IDG reports a 15% projected marketing budget cut in 2009 for technology firms, likely similar for other B2B companies. Given that, it's more important than ever to ensure focus is on the basics. I've shared his post in its entirety below.
When I was considering what else to share with you, the notion of titles and headlines crossed my mind. It's something I will always struggle with. I'm forever in search of that compelling and clever title for my marcom pieces. And, if you look at marcom pieces on content aggregator sites like Knowledgestorm, you'll see I'm not alone. Scan the titles there and see how many would even interest you to download the content. The pressure is on to create a title that compels a reader to make the choice to actually read the piece.
Have you thought about your goals for this year? As marketeers, we're usually good at defining the outcome, but do we actually go back and measure when it's done? I looked at my two business goals last year which were to remain an independent freelancer and pick up four new clients. I'm happy to report I accomplished both. This year is a bit more aggressive. I'm looking to grow revenues by 30% and pick up six new clients. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Stay warm,
Terri Rylander
LinkedIn B2B Marcom Group Manager
Freelance B2B Marcom Writer
In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope.
~Charles Revson
Duct tape (the tape) is simple, effective, and affordable—it’s not always the prettiest solution, but it does always work. The central theme of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide by John Jantsch is that effective small business marketing is a system—not an event—composed of simple, effective, and affordable techniques.
When you combine that with the cult-like obsession many people have for all things duct tape you also get a pretty good example of how something simple like the right name can do a great deal for a company, product, service, or book. I asked John to distill his marketing ideas to a top-ten list, and here is what he provided:
- Narrow the market focus. Create a picture of the ideal client: what they look like, how they think, what they value, and where you can find them. Start saying no to non-ideal clients.
- Differentiate. Strip everything you know about your product or service down to the simplest core idea. Make sure that the core idea allows you stand out.
- Think about strategy first. Take everything you’ve done in steps one and two and create a strategy to own a word or two in the mind of your ideal client and prospect.
- Create information that educates. You are in the information business, so think of your marketing materials, web sites, white papers, marketing kits as information products, not "sales" propaganda.
- Package the experience. Put visual elements around every aspect of the marketing strategy that you adopt. Use design to evoke the appropriate emotional response from your ideal prospect.
- Generate leads from many points. People learn in different ways. Your lead generation efforts must allow your prospects to experience your firm from many different angles and views.
- Nurture leads along the logical buying path. There’s a natural way for your prospects to come to the conclusion that you have what they need. Build the lead conversion system for before, during, and after the sale.
- Measure everything that matters. Certain things always matter. The secret sauce is in finding and measuring the intangibles – those things down on the shop floor that eventually add up to profit.
- Automate for leverage. Embrace the Internet or else. Create access, stimulate community, capture innovation, and build knowledge to automate the basic delivery elements of your information business.
- Commit. Resist the temptation of the marketing idea of the week. Create daily, weekly, monthly, and annual marketing calendars, make marketing your new habit, and find the money to stick with the plan.
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Writing Headlines Make you Sweat? |
Headlines and titles--probably the most difficult part of your writing. I know I can easily spend as much time coming up with a good title as it took to write the piece. Let me offer you some help.
One way is to incorporate the customer benefits into the title. Start by taking 15-30 minutes to list all of the features of your product or service. Start by completing the sentence, "Our product has a ..." or "Our product can..." Try to come up with at least 10 features.
Now, after every feature, write the benefit. Complete the sentece by adding, "which helps our customers...." Could be save time, improve quality, reduce costs, reach more customers, etc.
Some examples might be:
- Our product is built on open-source technology...which saves our customers time and money by allowing them to customize their application
- Our product has a web-based interface...which lets our customers access data when and where they need it.
- Our product integrates seamlessly with product B...which makes it easy for our customers to ensure quality across the business process.
- Our product comes with pre-built reports....which lets our customers deliver information without additional training.
From your list, look for either statements that support your piece or common benefits. You can always priority-rank your list as well. Now go through and combine a major benefit with a major action. For example, "An Effortless Way to Get Information in the Hands of Decision Makers Quickly". You still need to draw on your creative side, but the more you can start with, the easier that will be. Having a list of statements to work with takes a lot of the sweat out of creating headlines and titles.
Book Review
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OK, don't laugh at this one!
I picked up "Words That Sell" when I first got into marcom/copywriting. Being self-taught, I read everything I could get my hands on. Funny thing is, I continue to pull this book off the shelf on a regular basis. It's a great reference book, meant for conusmer direct mail marketing but the words can be appropriate for any product and service marketing message.
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Words That Sell is organized by the components of a direct mail, from the opening statement to the clinchers, but it's the words in each section I find helpful. Who couldn't use a book full of sales adjectives and phrases? Sometimes I find specific words and other times it stimulates my creative thinking to come up with my own. If you have a good reference book, please send me the title and what you like about it. I'll publish it in an upcoming issue. |
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