KEEPING IT SIMPLE

One of the reasons why working in an agency can be so interesting is that we get the chance to meet and work with people from all sorts of different industries; my day today, for example, includes meetings with a law firm, a construction company, an ice hockey player and a charity, and so it will continue through the week.  

This job is not for everyone, however, as many people find the need to flip from one thing to another at speed, and, of course, the ability to learn a lot about a company in a very short amount of time, very stressful.   Not least because so many of the company representatives that we meet find it very hard to express in simple terms, exactly what it is that they do and, therefore, what they are actually trying to market!

I have worked for companies where I have had to attend whole day ‘induction courses’ in order, they feel, for me to understand enough about the company to be able to work with them, but despite their best intentions, I have often come away from one of these courses with very little that is useful in regard to the company’s marketing and/or PR.  And this then leads me to the crunch; if senior marketing people in the company, who live and breathe it all day long, cannot tell me what exactly they sell and why someone should buy from them, then however do they manage to sell anything at all!

The thing is, when you work inside a company, especially in a senior position, you and the people working with you know so much about it, that you sometimes forget what the key things are that the outside world should know.   I have talked (a lot!) in the past about the need to know who you are targeting with your marketing, but you must also know why someone might buy your products or services – i.e. what makes you/your product so much more suitable for a particular customer than someone/something else. 

Usually, when we first meet a potential client, we will go through various standard questions about their business, and these include, of course, ‘why you’.  And we really don’t want to hear ‘because we are the best’ (let’s face it, you are unlikely to say you are rubbish).   What we hope to hear is something akin to an ‘elevator pitch’ – i.e. imagine you have got into a lift on the ground floor and in steps the person that you have identified as the perfect customer for your company – so you have just a few seconds to sell to him/her, before you reach the right floor and he/she steps out, what you do and why he should buy from you – if you have a good and appropriate elevator pitch, you are most of the way towards saying ‘why you’.   

Then, If you know exactly the market you are targeting, and you know exactly why you have a product/service that your potential target really ought to buy, then preparing your marketing to attract such a customer is really not that difficult.  Or is it….?

Jo

WHERE DOES SPONSORSHIP FIT IN WITH YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN?

Partly due to our having been involved in a lot of large scale events over the years, and partly as one of our main specialties is sport communications and marketing, we have often been involved in sponsorship; sometimes working on the side of the sponsor, and sometimes the sponsored party.  Recently, too, we are meeting with a lot of companies that have plans to organize events or other activities and need a sponsor in order to get going…..  It doesn’t matter where we are involved, however, there is no doubt that there is an awful lot of confusion out there regarding ‘sponsorship’ and what it all means.

First of all, if you are a company/individual, that has been asked to sponsor an event or similar, there are a few things to think about - although, if you want to do it because you like the event/project and/or your friend is organizing it, then go right ahead!  But if you are thinking that such a sponsorship would add to your marketing effort, then you really need to approach it in the same way as you approach everything else relating to marketing; first of all, by asking yourself who is the target audience and does it match with my target customer?  

For example, years ago I was very involved in the sponsorship of one of the beer companies here of ice hockey: who was the beer company’s main target audience?  Men between the ages of 18 and 45 (give or take a few years!).  And what do Czech men of this age like to do?  Watch ice hockey.    Go figure, as my American colleague would say.    So think about your own sponsorship in the same way. 

Assuming that the target audience of the event/project IS your target group, then you need to ask what you are going to get in return for the sponsorship (and, if you are on the other side and are looking for sponsors, you need to think about this too!).   Is it enough to just have your logo on the materials (I was told by the sponsorship boss of a large company recently that everyone in the country knows them anyway, so what possible value is there for them in having their logo on a few billboards and so on…)?  Probably not.

Of course you need to be reasonable – if you are only paying a small amount, you can’t expect too much… but then is it worth it at all?   If the likely results of the sponsorship are better than they would be if you spent the same amount on, say, advertising – then OK, that probably works.  But if you are paying a reasonable amount, then you need to be given more than just a bit of branding…   Will you be mentioned in the PR campaign (attend the press conference, have your name in the press releases, etc), will you be able to invite people of your own (free tickets), will the organisers do anything to assist with getting you in front of their key guests, media, etc?  I know this all sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how often I have been met by blank looks when I have asked companies that are looking for sponsors what we will get in return… !

Right now, there are not so many companies willing to sponsor things – the smaller companies are watching every penny and sponsorship is a long way from their minds (if they are doing marketing at all) and the bigger companies are being approached all the time and have very clear strategies on sponsorship – if their strategy is, for example, to sponsor football, then they are not going to sponsor tennis - plus some of them can take so long to agree on doing the sponsorship in the first place that the event/project is over before they have made a decision!  

Finally, if you are thinking to try and get a sponsor for an event or project, think very carefully – over the last twenty or so years, we have been involved in the organization of hundreds of events and we have yet to find the secret to actually making money on them!   If you need a sponsor in order to organize something, I would say, just now, don’t bother!   And if you don’t, but the sponsor will be the icing on the cake, then make sure that you offer them as much as you can in return – sponsors are a very rare breed and need to be nurtured!

Jo

EVENT MANAGEMENT – CAN ANYONE REALLY DO IT?!

Up until a few years ago, we considered ‘event management’ to be a key part of our business, something that we regarded as our ‘bread and butter’.  With the onset of the financial crisis, however, the majority of large scale corporate events became a thing of the past, and we have only been involved in a handful during the past four years.

I have to say, though, that I am not that disappointed, as event management is something that very few people value (normally if we received an instruction to organize something, the opening line was ‘we could, of course, organize it ourselves, but no-one has time, so we thought we should ask you…..’), plus event management is one of the most stressful things that we do.

Having been involved in the organization of a very nice ‘gala’ this last week, I have been reminded of some of the issues that we can run into when we are organizing an event on behalf of a client, so if you are thinking about doing something yourself, maybe bear in mind the following:

(a)    Nowadays, musicians, technical equipment, venues, outside caterers, etc, are relatively easy to find and pretty reliable (compared to 1991, when we organized our first event and couldn’t find one of any of these and then, when we did, it was always touch and go whether they would actually show on the night!).  I usually tell clients that we can organize an all singing, all dancing, event pretty much tomorrow, but what we can’t do is get the people there if the invitation is left to the last minute.

(b)   Getting the word out about the event, therefore, should be the first priority – no point in spending hours on choosing the music, or stressing over the presentation, if you then send the invitation just a few days in advance.  While all the planning is going on, we like to start by sending out a short ‘save the date’ email to the guest list in order to get it into people’s diaries, but it makes sense to book the venue first as that might have some bearing on the date (the good venues can get booked up a long time in advance). 

(c)    Follow the ‘save the date’ up with a proper invitation – we prefer something that is printed and posted rather than emailed, but that depends on budget.  But do not spend days debating the design of the invitation – better to get something simple out a couple of weeks in advance than wait until you have the ‘perfect’ design (there is no such thing) and end up giving everyone just a few days’ notice.

(d)   The biggest cost of an evening ‘gala’ type event is nearly always the food and drink.  My own view is that if you have such a tight budget that you can’t really stretch to decent wine and/or some reasonable food, then you might be better off doing a completely different marketing activity.  Most people remember an event for the people they met, and then the food and/or wine that was served – whether good or bad!

(e)   The little details can make all the difference – sometimes we have a bit of an argument with clients regarding decoration (flowers/lighting/etc) and/or music – they often don’t see the need, but we usually insist!   You may not notice these things when they are there, but you definitely notice if they are not.

(f)     Goody bags – the bane of the organiser’s lives…. Are they worth it?  Great if you have something good to give, but if not, I would say it is better not to bother – how many events do we go to where we return with bag loads of materials that simply go into the dustbin.  What a terrible waste.

There is a lot more, but this is just the gist, and I want to wrap it up now as there are a couple of important details that I want to mention (and here I go again!): before organizing an event, think about who you are targeting and what you want to achieve and then plan everything around that.   But make sure that everyone in your team also knows what you want to get from the event; if you want clients and staff to have a rave up, then rave.  If you want to get new leads and potential business, then remember - you and your staff are walking billboards for the company, and you all need to reflect the same message as you want the company to reflect…

Jo

SOCIAL MEDIA - HOW TO MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU!

I recently wrote a blog about my lack of enthusiasm for social media, which prompted quite a few people asking me how I, someone that works as a communications professional, could possible by against it.  My response was that it was exactly because I work as a communications professional that I had my reservations, since, as I have said before, I am very cautious about the messages that our clients send out to the public and if there is no control over what is being said, then there is always potential for trouble. 

If you have seen the English news recently, you will have heard about the damage that has been caused to a company called HMV – a very big, established UK company that has just gone under, but that is trying to be rescued.  When the receivers went in and made loads of people redundant, what did those people do?  Immediately start posting as many horrible things about HMV that they could come up with on all of their social media sites (including HMV’s own), with the result that the company may, now, collapse altogether.

Maybe it is due to HMV, maybe it is just that many of the bigger companies are starting to get worried anyway, but in the last two weeks we have had three different requests for proposals to manage clients’ social media sites, and, in particular, advise on crisis management.  So if you are not already thinking about how to deal with your own sites, here are a few tips on how to make it work for you, without causing a whole bunch of problems:

(a)    Treat your social media like you treat the rest of your marketing materials; as I have said before, you wouldn’t let just anyone draft your brochure and then send it to print without first checking it, so do the same with your Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in and other sites

(b)   Make sure that the messages that are put out on your sites are consistent with the messages that you are putting out elsewhere; have you followed anyone on Facebook recently and thought that they appear to be a completely different person to the one that you know (I know I have and if I had known, I might have thought twice about being their friend!)… would you want people thinking that about your service or product?

(c)    Be careful about the way the text is worded on Facebook or Twitter in particular – we recently reviewed a client’s Facebook site and saw that the social media manager had been posting a lot of questions – for example, ‘we have just brought out a new product – once you have tried it let us know what you think of it’ – now, to my mind that is asking for trouble…..and sure enough, in this particular case, after a few rave reviews along came one that rubbished it.    Better would have been to keep it simple and leave the invitation out! 

(d)   Limit the number of people that can access your social media sites on your behalf and make sure that you guard the passwords and so on carefully (at HMV, just about anyone and everyone was able to get onto the company site and post a lot of damaging information).  Be careful, too, about who you ‘befriend’.

(e)   Monitor your sites on a daily (or more) basis, and be sure to have a methodology in place if something starts to kick off – i.e. a crisis management plan. 

(f)     Consider adding a clause into your employment contracts that, for example, imposes a fine on the employee if they post something negative about your company (of course you can’t control what their friends say about you,  and it might be difficult to enforce, but at least it puts them on notice…..!).

Need I go on?  Social media is an amazing invention and something that everyone in marketing needs to know about and understand…. But, as with everything relating to marketing, treat with a bit of caution, and don’t let just anyone do it!

 Jo

Dear Father Christmas

I am not a huge fan of social media, as everyone that knows me will tell you, but I do quite like Linked-in, and there are a few blogs that I follow, my favourite being by one of the UK’s biggest entrepreneurs who, every month, writes a short business-focused blog that is, to my mind, full of words of wisdom.

To kick off this year, he has suggested that all of us think back to when we were kids and pretend that we can now write our own ‘note to Father Christmas’ – i.e. if we could ask Father Christmas for, say, five ‘presents for our businesses’ what would we ask for?    I have already prepared my list, most of which I wont go into here, but one of them is, I suspect, a present that most of us would include in our list for this particular year, and that is ‘an increase in the number of clients/customers that we have’, and/or ‘an increase in profits’.  

Having written such a list, the idea is that we then spend some time considering how we might make that wish list come true.   For sure, when I look at my own list, one or two of my wishes really do need Father Christmas to intervene, although I will continue to ponder them.  But the ‘increase in business’ is, to me, an easy one, as I think there is only one answer; to increase our marketing!!! 

I know I keep banging on about this, but when I hear from clients, or just people that I talk to, that they are cutting back on their marketing because they don’t have the budget – business being so bad - I wonder how, exactly, they plan to improve things if they are NOT doing some form of marketing – and don’t forget, marketing includes attending events, networking, social media, etc (by the way, if you are reading this and you can suggest some other ways of making more sales without marketing, then please let me know!). 

Now is the time to prepare your marketing plan along the lines discussed previously, and to get started.   If you can’t figure out what you are able to spend, then think about a figure that you wont be completely devastated to lose if nothing works (and of course it will work if you do it properly!!).   Split that figure into months (but please don’t think that you will get fantastic results in just a few weeks – you need to work at it consistently – the ‘drip, drip, drip’ effect)  and then start thinking about what is possible for whatever figure you end up with.  You might be surprised at just how much, for not a lot of money, you can achieve.

Happy New Year!

Jo

MARKETING FOR FREE

Over the past few weeks we have had a flurry of requests for meetings to discuss potential marketing or PR campaigns for a number of different companies.    I like to think that this is a positive sign and that things are starting to improve, although it is clear from some of our discussions that many of these companies have very little spare cash to spend on marketing, but they really do need to get out there and do something – as I am always saying, no-one is going to come and knock on your door if they don’t actually know that you are there!

Now, I am not going to give away all of our trade secrets, but you really don’t have to spend a lot of money to see some results – after all, the most expensive marketing tools may not be tools that you, yourself, would use anyway (for example, even if I had a spare million or two, I would not be carrying out a TV or outdoor media campaign for JWA as this would not be the way for my company to target its potential clients!).

So what can you do that will cost very little, or even nothing at all?

First, look at the customers or clients that you have already and think whether you can find a way to get a bit more from them; are you selling them all the products or services that they need?  Getting new business from existing clients is a lot easier than finding new clients themselves.

Concentrate on the ‘walking billboard’ exercise that I am always banging on about; everyone in your team will have friends, husbands/wives, family, contacts, and it may be that they have never thought to try and sell your products or services to any of them.  Give them some guidance and motivation; but remember that they can also put people off (!) so get the training in first!  And never forget that people can sometimes see you, even if you can’t see them….

Communicate!!   Am I the only person in this town that is getting fed up with people not responding to emails or answering phones??  We have a rule in our office that every email must be answered that day – even if it is just to say ‘sorry, busy, get back to you’!   Jobs can be lost by not meeting deadlines, not answering emails, not calling back!  Jobs can be won by being the quickest and most charming person to respond to a request.

Get out there!  Give members of your team a target of attending x events a month and bringing back y number of business cards that they then follow up the next day.  Include ‘networking’ in your marketing plan and make sure that you stick to it.  

Direct mailing is not as bad as you might think, but my preference is to prepare a well-written letter/newsletter/postcard/whatever and then post it, rather than carrying out such a campaign on email.  We all get far too many emails and if they are unsolicited they can get ignored – it is much more difficult to ignore a nice letter or newsletter, especially if it includes some well designed material, that arrives on your desk.  And even if you don’t need what it is selling now, you might just revert to it at a later date.

Advertising – don’t fall over.  Advertising is not always as expensive as you might think, and magazines, in particular, are having a difficult time right now.  So they will do deals.  As will on-line media.  And remember the ‘little and often’ that I have mentioned before – a few banners on an on-line media outlet can be very effective and fairly low cost – much MORE effective than one big advert that runs for just one week.

PR – ah.  PR.  How many times do I hear that a company ‘wants to do some PR because it doesn’t cost anything’.  Hmm.  That is for next time.

Jo

 

CUSTOMER SERVICE IS KEY

When times are hard, it is not always easy to be involved in the marketing of a company, whether in-house or as an outsourced agency; marketing costs are the first to be slashed when companies are looking to save money, and marketing people are the first to be blamed when the sales slow-down.  There is not a lot that I can say about slashing costs – generally, when someone tells me that this is their strategy, I try to tell them that this is a dangerous course as marketing is probably the only thing that will bring them the sales that they need - but I also know that if it was my money, and it was running out, I would probably be slashing the costs too!  

I do, however, object when I hear that the reason why a company is not making its sales targets is down to its marketing strategy or marketing people – of course in some cases this is true, but in some that I have seen first-hand, it is a little bit different; in no small part because the marketing will only get people to the door and it is what happens when the potential client gets through that door that decides on whether the sale is going to be made; sometimes the pricing doesn’t work, and sometimes (quite often) it is down to the client’s customer service.

I have been involved in so many projects where the client is ready to spend quite a lot of money on its marketing, but is unaware of, or does not want to face up to, what sort of customer service potential clients are receiving when they contact the company.    I have had stand up fights with shop owners in shopping malls that we have worked on who insist that we should be doing more marketing, but do not realize that when their backs are turned the shop assistants are closing the shops and going for an all day coffee break!  I have argued until I am blue in the face with clients whose products or services are priced way out of the market and, consequently, whilst potential customers like what they are seeing, they are not ready to buy.  I have even run a promotional campaign where the client’s email address to which a potential customer had to respond was never answered, and another where the telephone and emails were mostly ignored and the welcoming committee in the client’s offices was just the rudest that I had ever met.

 

I know it all sounds very obvious, but before embarking on any sort of marketing or PR campaign, you really need to think about what a potential customer is going to find when they contact you; is your website up to date (OK, I know that most of us don’t much like our websites, but at least make sure it is reasonably OK) have you briefed your staff so that they know what you are promoting and will say the right things if they are asked?   Does your office, your people, and your general customer service approach meet with a potential client’s expectations?   I dare to say that it might not……

As my old boss used to say, ‘it is very difficult to win a client and very easy to lose one’ – so don’t spend all your spare cash on marketing only to let someone in your team lose a potential client because they haven’t been trained to close the sale. 

Jo