Marketing Activities that Bear Fruit

With the economy gradually heating up, I’ve been receiving periodic phone calls from prospects acutely aware of the need to do something to attract new business. After 12-18 months of economic white-out, these prospects are gun shy, hesitant to invest in marketing activities that may not bear fruit. They have serious doubts about the old marketing activities that used to win them business. They’re looking for new, innovative and value-oriented ways to attract customers. In short, they're hungry for ideas.

Here’s how a typical conversation with these recession-hardened prospects has gone.

Prospect: We’re seeing an uptick in the economy but we’re not sure how to get our name out there, be seen and generate leads. What we used to do to doesn’t seem to work anymore, or maybe it never really worked well in the first place and we grew despite ourselves. Either way, the aftermath of the recession has customers clutching their pocketbooks in a defensive posture. It’s a tough sales environment and customers must be convinced before buying. It looks like the times of liberal spending are over, at least for now.

Me: What are you doing right now to create interest in your products or services?

Prospect: I’m doing some SEO to drive leads and seeing some limited success but no real business as yet. I send out a monthly newsletter when I have the time and try to add some value for customers and prospects. We have trouble getting high click-through rates on the newsletter and other information we send out. Cold calling doesn’t seem to work either, although we still do it.

Me: Do you have multiple customer segments with distinct needs and identities?

Prospect: We do, several, in fact. Each segment has different goals  and needs. The conversation we have with each one is quite different.

Me: Which customer segment is the one you’re more interested in pursuing? Have you prioritized them based on ideal customers and profitability?

Prospect: Er, well, not exactly. You see, I don’t have much time on my hands to do that, nor does anybody on my staff. I am, however, pretty sure which one I want to pursue.

Me: Fair enough. What can I help you with?

Prospect: I want to get my company’s name out there more. I want to generate interest in my company and its products and services. Most of all, I want more business opportunities. I saw what you’ve done with press releases for different companies. I’m looking for new ways to reach out and generate leads and interest.

Me:  It’s true that press releases are powerful tools that can get many a hardened business owner or manager to open up an email and read about your “news.” In fact, I’ve seen some get as much as 76% click-through rates on certain press releases. But it helps to have compelling news to share. Press releases are effective indirect-selling pieces but are worthless if what’s sent out is just thinly veiled advertising.

Prospect: That’s pretty high click-rate compared to the 10-15% I’m seeing on my emails.

Me: It’s all about how you “package” your marketing message. If you take even the most basic information about your company and package it as breaking news, you can generate renewed interest in your products or services.

Prospect: But how do I “package” my message as you say? I don’t have any big, breaking news stories.

Me: What are you trying accomplish? What customers are you trying to win?

Prospect: Well, I’d really like to win Boingo Technologies away from the competition, Nettlesome Inc.

Me: What makes you better than or different from Nettlesome?

Prospect: For starters, we offer a lot more value. We provide additional training, support and guaranteed performance for one whole year. The competition doesn’t offer that.

Me: That’s a pretty huge value. Here’s what I suggest you do. Announce a new “bundled service” offering that’s guaranteed to give more than what the customer typically expects. Say you’re “rewriting the rules of the game” or some such thing. Send it out to customers, prospects and media. Follow up with prospects to make sure they received the press release and possibly engage them in a conversation.

Prospect: Nice idea about packaging up our services into a new offering and making that a news announcement. It’s amazing what you can make into an eye-catching news item when you really think about it. So if I understand you right, we need to create a new bundled service to introduce value into the marketplace, then send our news to prospects like Boingo?

Me: That’s right. You’ll want to send it to customers and prospects alike, then follow up as best you can. I also recommend creating a landing page for this new “bundled service launch” so interested parties can get the details and request additional information. You may want to consider putting up a whitepaper or webinar announcement as a call-to-action and give visitors a reason to leave their information. Be sure to put Google Analytics on the page so you know exactly how much traffic you’re generating with various aspects of your campaign.

Prospect: I hadn’t thought about the landing page, but you’re absolutely right. A unique landing page would be perfect for driving traffic to the website and measuring the results with Google Analytics.

Me: Finally, I’d be sure to spread the news about your new bundled service on social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You can use a URL shortener to track the responses to your social network postings. It’s just another way, in addition to Analytics, to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. Post your news a few times to make sure people see the message; it may take a several postings to catch the attention of most of your followers. Finally, if you have an e-newsletter, I’d be sure to announce the new bundled service in an article. That way, you’re coming at your customers and prospects with a consistent message across all communication platforms.

And so the conversations have been going. I’m happy to give the advice knowing it will help prospects sort out a strategy that works. In the end, I’m trying to help people succeed at finding new leads, converting them to customers and creating a deeper relationship with those new customers.

Mind you, press releases are not a perfect antidote to what’s ailing a business. But they do effortlessly combine a persuasive, targeted marketing message with news that impacts the thinking of more prospects and customers than any other form of marketing communication I’m aware of. That’s why I’ll almost always recommend a press release campaign over any other marketing campaign.