Take Advantage of These Great Marketing Tips
From launching a new product or service to integrating sales and marketing, we know what works and what doesn’t. Although every project and client are different, there are certain strategies, tactics and processes that can greatly increase the success of your projects.
Take a look at some of the things we’ve learned working with clients in every industry, and find some tips you can begin using today.
Discover the Power of PR
PR is the marketing vehicle EVERY small business should be using. Watch the webinar featuring Robyn Sachs, President of RMR & Associates, to learn:
- Why PR is such a powerful marketing vehicle
- How to craft the perfect Press Release
- The 3 most important secrets to marketing success
Windows of opportunity are fleeting. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are even more elusive. When InSoft challenged AT&T for a bite of the desktop video conferencing market, effective marketing had not only positioned InSoft products as industry leaders, it had positioned the company as a leader.
Thanks to product and corporate positioning campaigns conducted by RMR & Associates, InSoft garnered press coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and other premier media outlets, gaining the attention of Web browser giant Netscape.
Quick, finish this sentence: “Snap, Crackle, ________, ________ __________!”
If you answered, “Pop, Rice Krispies” you are a perfect example of the effectiveness of advertising creative. This ad was created years ago and is revived again and again so that even today’s kids know the jingle. It scores well because the message is concise, memorable, benefit-oriented, frequent, and distinctly unique.
Of the five attributes, being distinctly unique is the most important. We are, after all, fighting for attention in a noisy world.
Practicing public relations is much like handling explosives. Detonate in just the right way and your blast does it’s job, capturing lots of attention. But handle your detonation recklessly and it can explode in your face – also capturing lots of attention.
Savvy marketers realize that before they ignite any public relation programs they better have a systematic game plan for how they’ll proceed. When you go out too early in your development schedule and talk about how great your product is going to be, you might get some press coverage but if your development schedule then slips, reporters are going to remember and your credibility will suffer.
Like any journey, choosing the right vehicle determines when – and if – you’ll reach your destination. The public relations journey is no different. Depending on your destination, the types of PR journeys include marketing public relations, investor relations, crisis management, issues management, community relations and international public relations. For each type of journey there is an array of vehicles ready to whisk you there. Like planning any trip however, before you choose your mode of transportation, you must first establish the goals and objectives of your trip.
Most new products earn half their sales and profits far earlier in the product life cycle than company leaders realize. After an early window of opportunity, new products are often smothered by copycat competitors rushing to market, waning media and analyst attention, sales channel apathy, price pressures and purchasers unable to distinguish the product through all the competitive clutter.
With the correct launch, new and innovative products have great advantages early in their life cycles–competition is light, media and analyst interest is heavy, sales channel enthusiasm is passionate and buyers are energized by the novelty of the product’s promised solutions.
While it’s true that direct mail success depends first on the list, next on the offer and only last on the creative… being last doesn’t make creative immaterial. Think of it as the last leg of a relay team. After your strong runners build your lead, someone still has to cross the finish line.
So here are some ways to assure your creative keeps you in the race.
- Speak to the reader’s self-interest. His favorite song is “I, Me, Mine.” So play along. Headlines and lead paragraphs in your letter or brochure should immediately convey information of use, value, benefit, and – above all – interest to the reader.
Now that businesspersons and consumers alike are comfortable going to the Web for their news and information, what’s become of true direct mail? Should companies still send it? Do people still read it? Are companies who use it as part of their marketing campaigns viewed as savvy marketers or out-of-step dinosaurs?
Alternatively, are direct email campaigns an acceptable form of marketing or are they quickly deleted as spam?
Whether you’re a vet or a newbie to trade shows, it’s worth taking a moment to ask yourself the Who-What-When-Where-Why and How questions so you’ll be sure you have the right show, the right message, and the right methods to achieve your goals.
Whether you’re excited about your booth at upcoming trade shows or the many sales calls your staff has lined up, it isn’t enough to show up and talk. No matter how good your sales people are, prospects expect and need tangible representations of your products that they can look at, read about, and keep to read again later. In other words, collateral – the brochures, flyers, and product or fact sheets that help sell your products or services.
Once upon a time, an enterprising company hired a marketing firm to create a dynamic, multi-faceted campaign that included advertising, PR, and targeted email. A few days after the campaign broke, the company received an envelope containing a check and a note saying, “I’ve been waiting forever for a product like this! Send me 1000 of them right away!” The CEO ran to the bank with that check immediately, ran back, and waited for the next day’s mail. And the next, and the next and the next….and guess what happened? Nothing! That’s because the chances of receiving a large order without a nudge or phone call from your sales staff is roughly the same as winning the lottery.