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INDUSTRIALMARKETINGTALK
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A monthly newsletter for industrial marketing managers, from Pro-Talk,
publishers of:
Buildingtalk - Electronicstalk - Engineeringtalk
Laboratorytalk - Marketingservicestalk
Manufacturingtalk - Printingtalk - Processingtalk
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Pro-Talk - harnessing the power of the internet for business
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Issue 36: 30 January 2009
Published from the UK
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Jackie's message
[1] 2009 media pack now online
[2] The Long View: writing effective press releases
[3] Agencies we'd like your feedback...
[4] Weak Pound benefits Euro and Dollar advertisers
[5] 2009 - a year of challenges and opportunities
[6] Email Tips
[7] Can you help an evaluation project looking for answers?
[8] Buyers prefer to receive marketing communications through email
[9] And there's more...
[10] COMPETITION: win something useful?
=============================================================
Hello!
A belated happy New Year to you all!
Last week, whilst in SurveyMonkey http://www.surveymonkey.com
I noticed a new offering, and for those of you who don't yet have a
mailing system this might be of interest. It's called MailChimp (I
know!)
They say "We make it easy for anybody to design eye-catching,
professionally-branded HTML email campaigns, automatically manage
subscriber lists, and track results. Just point, click, and send. No
coding or programming required." Sounds as easy as peeling a banana to
me...
Take a look at http://www.MailChimp.com or visit their blog at
http://www.MailChimp.com/blog - I've had a look around, and it all
seems pretty straightforward, there's lots of helpful stuff to get you
off the ground. If you are already using it please let me know, I'll
be happy to report your findings here.
Pro-Talk's great strength is enabling buyers to find new suppliers.
Pro-Talk websites make PR work hard. However, industry feedback tells
us that for many it is difficult to find the time and expertise to write
effective stories that will connect and be productive.
Our editorial team know what stories work best on the internet to
attract new business: optimised for search engines and focused on
getting response from new clients.
The team can now write news or product stories for you, as part of a
focused advertising package to deliver new prospects to you, all this
at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. This package
(called +PR) is ideal for companies who do not use specialist PR
companies, or where a hard-pressed sales and marketing team would
benefit from specialist support. If you'd like to find out more about
this service email me, and I'll arrange for someone to call you.
Finally, this issue there's tips on email marketing, together with
research on the subject, as well as the usual mix of other subject
matters, including Pro-Talk offerings. Also, don't forget to enter the
competition, you might win!
Hope you enjoy this first issue of 2009 - if you'd like to contribute
please contact me.
With kind regards,
Jackie
mailto:jackie.west@pro-talk.com
===================================================
[1] 2009 Media Pack now online
===================================================
Follow the link for your chosen Pro-Talk site:
http://www.buildingtalk.com/buildingtalk-mediapack.pdf
http://www.electronicstalk.com/electronicstalk-mediapack.pdf
http://www.engineeringtalk.com/engineeringtalk-mediapack.pdf
http://www.laboratorytalk.com/laboratorytalk-mediapack.pdf
http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/manufacturingtalk-mediapack.pdf
http://www.printingtalk.com/printingtalk-mediapack.pdf
http://www.processingtalk.com/processingtalk-mediapack.pdf
Overview of Pro-Talk's Sales Lead Service:
http://www.pro-talk.com/sales_leads.html
Need more information?
Call +44(0)20 7970 4941
===================================================
[2] The Long View: writing effective press releases
===================================================
With the Internet becoming (if it is not already) the most important
and widely viewed source of news and information worldwide, press
releases are increasingly being written for the web.
Since this is an area which general companies are not always terribly
experienced in, many are faced with the prospect of needing to write a
press release; but have no idea how to go about creating well written
content, which will gain the intended exposure...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Continue reading Andrew's article at http://tinyurl.com/amqmgo
> Andrew Long is a freelance advertising sales manager for Pro-talk
and also offers advertising services at
http://www.selling-advertising.com
===================================================
[3] Agencies we'd like your feedback...
===================================================
It's more than likely that you are using one or more Pro-Talk sites to
service your client news, and in some instances their advertising.
We are always looking at effective methods of pushing out client
advertising messages, and we hope you'll agree that our latest
introductions - video, still photography and slide shows - are the way
forward for enhancing published press releases and stimulating sales
lead referrals.
However, in order that to ensure our pricing is right for the market
we would value some feedback from you via a short survey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> This survey should only take you a minute or two to complete go to:
http://tinyurl.com/75qvx3
Thanks!
===================================================
[4] Weak Pound benefits Euro and Dollar advertisers
===================================================
James Hancock writes:
If you're based in the Euro zone, or the USA, there's good news for
you (which makes a nice change). With the exchange rates in your
favour you can take advantage and save money - as these currencies get
stronger our advertising costs get lower!
We can generate sales leads for you, as well as branding and
visibility - and all at a fixed rate! We will invoice you in Euro or
US dollars so that you benefit, each invoice is fixed and is,
therefore, not open to fluctuations.
To make significant savings, and ensure that your 2009 online
marketing costs you less, without sacrificing effectiveness, contact
us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Contact James on +44(0)20 7970 4941
mailto:james.hancock@pro-talk.com
===================================================
[5] 2009 - a year of challenges and opportunities
===================================================
Buildingtalk editor Howard Chapman writes:
We begin a new year that promises to be challenging but full of
opportunities as the economic shake-down brings change to the
construction industry. The smart businesses are looking how they can
become more efficient and innovative, how they can exploit new
markets, find new customers, create productive alliances and
distribution networks.
It is also a time to make marketing budgets much more productive.
Companies are looking very hard at their advertising spend. They are
moving away from vanity magazine advertising and investing in internet
opportunities to reach new customers. Buildingtalk has seen a 30%
increase in it's revenues last year, matching a similar growth in our
newsletter subscribers and visitors to the website. We are constantly
looking at new, effective ways of connecting suppliers with buyers -
and have a number of key developments planned for the year ahead. This
will ensure we remain the number one online product and services news
site in the industry.
In 2008, Buildingtalk added well over 7,000 news stories. Once on the
website the buyer can explore the comprehensive resource of stories,
photographs, videos and online information from over 3,000 industry
suppliers.
If you are not already contributing to Buildingtalk I suggest you
start today - we make quick and easy to get your news in front
of those thousands of buyers who visit the site each and every day.
Don't miss this opportunity to harness the power of the internet in
2009! I look forward to hearing from you...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Registration generates your contact page on Buildingtalk - your page
could look like this http://www.buildingtalk.com/news/aol/aol000.html
Once registered you can start sending in your news.
Visit http://www.buildingtalk.com/indexes/submissiondetails.html
===================================================
[6] Email Tips
===================================================
Always a good source of information is the regular Inside Lyris HQ
newsletter and this article is worth highlighting. They say, "It's an open
secret that email marketing is the highest ROI
tool at a marketer's disposal. It's more cost-effective than
direct-mail, paid search and a wide array of other tactics. So it's no
surprise that email is seeing even more action than usual now that the
economy's officially in recession and marketing budgets are flat or
decreasing. Here are a few tips on what to do - and what not to do..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Read the article at http://tinyurl.com/4f9al4
Visit LyrisHQ http://www.lyrishq.com/
===================================================
[7] Can you help an evaluation project looking for answers?
===================================================
Stone Junction are looking for respondents for a survey on the methods
used to evaluate PR and media relations. The survey will ultimately
form the basis of a guide to evaluating media relations services,
which will be free to all of the survey respondents...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Complete the survey here http://tinyurl.com/bwau4y
Stone Junction
+44 (0)20 8699 7743
mailto:richards@stonejunction.co.uk
http://www.stonejunction.co.uk
===================================================
[8] Buyers prefer to receive marketing communications through email
===================================================
In October 2008, 1 Stop Research conducted telephone research to
discover buyer attitudes to the different forms of direct marketing.
The results were astounding, a massive 82 per cent of respondents
preferred to receive email marketing while 7 per cent prefer
telemarketing and 7 per cent favour postal. Only 4 per cent of
business respondents chose face-to-face sales.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> The full article can be viewed here http://www.1stopdata.com/dmsurvey
1 Stop Data Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)208 786 9111
http://www.1stopdata.com
===================================================
[9] And there's more...
===================================================
* Free Online Workshops: each Thursday morning IRun Business Solutions
have live on-line a seminar/workshop on a one aspect of internet
marketing. Each seminar is presented by an expert in the topic. The
presentations are informal, free to attend and have a question/answer
session at the end.
http://www.irun-bedford.co.uk/Resource+Centre/Workshops
Competitive analysis and positioning:
better focused positioning, expanded branding, increased market share,
more qualified leads and reduced cost of marketing - these are some of
the benefits that competitive analysis, when used in PR, can bring to
industrial and high-tech companies.
http://tinyurl.com/ard72t
* Get the low-down on supplier ethical credentials:
a new service has been launched which is designed to enable brands to
buy sustainable marketing products in a transparent and economical
way.
http://tinyurl.com/br9kf6
* Search for b2b marketing jobs
http://tinyurl.com/6x238o
* Search for a conference in your sector
http://tinyurl.com/5873qa
* Latest big name signs up for Process Engineering Live
http://tinyurl.com/cwrf9p
===================================================
[10] COMPETITION: win something useful?
===================================================
Congratulations to Andy Sandford of Sticklebacks Communications Ltd
who won the last competition, in November, by correctly answering the
question "Name at least three of Santa's reindeer - excluding Rudolph?"
(And the answers - any three of these would have sufficed: Dasher, Dancer,
Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Donder, Blitzen) - although Andy
did add another name, saying "Olive? Yes - as in Olive the other
reindeer used to laugh and call him names..." - Well, it made me
smile...
Andy wins a copy of 'Here Comes Everybody' by Clay Shirky.
Thanks to everyone who entered.
This month you've a chance to win:
"Marketing on a Beermat" written by Beermat Entrepreneur Chris West.
"Marketing is the driving force of every small business, but many
budding entrepreneurs are unsure how best to go about it. Chris West
brilliantly demystifies this essential area of business enterprise,
telling you everything you need to know about researching and
identifying customers, creating an impressive marketing strategy,
building marketing campaigns, and increasing consumer awareness and,
therefore, sales."
And the question: "What else do the 'monkeys' have on offer?"
Answers via email, by 15 February, please.
Winner to be announced next issue.
===================================================
Competition entries to mailto:jackie.west@pro-talk.com
===================================================
Next issue of Industrialmarketingtalk: 27 February 2009
Want to contribute?
Deadlines for contributions: 15 February 2009
===================================================
Pro-Talk is part of Centaur Media plc:
http://www.centaur.co.uk
Pro-Talk Ltd. 50 Poland St, London W1F 7AX. United Kingdom
===================================================
Latest big name signs up for Process Engineering Live
The latest high profile exhibitor to sign up for the Process Engineering Live event is Endress + Hauser, a leading supplier of measurement instruments and automation solutions for the industrial process engineering industry. Event Director Neil Simpson commented: “Having the support of Endress + Hauser further endorses the need for Process Engineering Live and we are looking forward to working closely with them to maximise their return on investment.”
Process Engineering Live, which takes place at Manchester Central on 10 and 11 March 2009, is an entirely new kind of event for the process sector that combines the best aspects of a traditional trade exhibition with live demonstrations and specially commissioned conference and seminar sessions.
Endress + Hauser joins other major suppliers and leading organisation such as The National Skills Academy, Profibus, Cogent, the BVAA and the BPMA, in endorsing the importance and relevance of the event.
Process Engineering Live covers every aspect of the UK process industry, from essential physical components such as drives, controls, pumps, fluid and solid handling, valves and sensors through to automation and integration solutions, safety systems, design and CFD software. It will also highlight the latest developments in plant management technology, including the key areas of plant maintenance and energy efficiency.
Some of the exhibitors already confirmed for Process Engineering Live include ASCO Numatics, Magnetrol International, Hagglunds Drives, Furness Controls, Southern Temperature sensors, Fike UK, Hilma-Sella Ltd, KSB Ltd and Econosto UK Ltd.
Neil Simpson added: “I am delighted to welcome another leading supplier to Process Engineering Live. This further underlines how well the process industry has received this new event. At times of economic turmoil such as these it is vital the companies embrace the latest thinking and technology to stay competitive – and Process Engineering Live offers the opportunity for them to do just that.”
To find out more about Process Engineering Live and register for a free ticket please visit www.processengineeringlive.co.uk
Process Engineering Live, which takes place at Manchester Central on 10 and 11 March 2009, is an entirely new kind of event for the process sector that combines the best aspects of a traditional trade exhibition with live demonstrations and specially commissioned conference and seminar sessions.
Endress + Hauser joins other major suppliers and leading organisation such as The National Skills Academy, Profibus, Cogent, the BVAA and the BPMA, in endorsing the importance and relevance of the event.
Process Engineering Live covers every aspect of the UK process industry, from essential physical components such as drives, controls, pumps, fluid and solid handling, valves and sensors through to automation and integration solutions, safety systems, design and CFD software. It will also highlight the latest developments in plant management technology, including the key areas of plant maintenance and energy efficiency.
Some of the exhibitors already confirmed for Process Engineering Live include ASCO Numatics, Magnetrol International, Hagglunds Drives, Furness Controls, Southern Temperature sensors, Fike UK, Hilma-Sella Ltd, KSB Ltd and Econosto UK Ltd.
Neil Simpson added: “I am delighted to welcome another leading supplier to Process Engineering Live. This further underlines how well the process industry has received this new event. At times of economic turmoil such as these it is vital the companies embrace the latest thinking and technology to stay competitive – and Process Engineering Live offers the opportunity for them to do just that.”
To find out more about Process Engineering Live and register for a free ticket please visit www.processengineeringlive.co.uk
Is your social network killing your advertising revenues?
We’ve had B2B for business to business and we know B2C for business to consumer territories. Now the world of social media has introduced us to a third concept: C2C, perhaps the most important development in marketing speak for decades. Consumer to Consumer power is the new word of mouth. So how can companies optimise this trend in terms of revenue?
The importance of social media is growing at a rate that marketers can not afford to ignore. With social networking sites at the forefront (Comscore reported 25% growth worldwide in the sector during the past year), C2C sites are clearly changing the way we think about media and influence.
A recent survey of communications specialists across a wide range of industries found that 78% of marketers use blogs, 63% use online video, 56% use social networks and 49% use podcasts in their organisation’s communications initiatives. The study, “New Media, New Influencers”, also reported that only 3% percent of communications professionals declare social media has little or no value to their communications initiatives.
Social networks are especially interesting to investors at the moment. The July 2008 Social Media Deals Report by Context Next indicates that social networks were by far the most active social media from Q1 2007 – Q1 2008 with over $600 million invested in 113 companies. “Money continues to flow in and out of the category, which seems to continue to grow in depth and context,” the report summarizes.
So why all the hype?
Simply, information dissemination is by the people for the people. Not only are users posting a massive variety of content, but user-based content is valued. For example, Google seems interested in “democratizing” information (given its current algorithms). In the past few years bloggers, comments, and message boards are continually indexed and gaining rank in Google’s page rank system. Consequently, a bottom-up philosophy no longer favours corporate players. Nonetheless, site managers must mould social networks into a lucrative product before media buyers will be interested.
Beware of chat zones
There are two types of online communities. The first is a straight social network with a focus on chat. On such sites, the primary user need is interaction. As the structure of such websites changes to meet this demand, banner ads are becoming less effective. Messaging friends takes precedence over gathering information; users ignore contextual ads when their main goal is to “write on someone’s wall”.
So, social sites facilitate and engage conversation – at the expense of ad campaigns.
For example, studies estimate that the CTR on chat sites are 8-10 times less than a “regular” website hosting static content. Valley Wag approximated a 0.04% CTR for Facebook ads in March of 2007 and at 0.10% CTR. Recently, an independent advertiser reported CTR .08% on his Facebook ads in (February 2008). AOL discovered a similar trend on AIM's chat platform. Clearly, on straight social networks, people talk to each other more and are paying less attention to the ads.
But how do these sites make any money? Users simply aren’t looking to solve problems in online social communities. To compensate, straight social networks focus on volume of users and page views to balance out low CPM. Nonetheless, the social context of this type of social media decreases the value of ads. Site managers, beware! CTR can plummet in a chat zone.
How to create value in social media
On the other hand, content driven social networks engage users in their quest to find information. These may work best as media platforms because they draw users for reasons other than just messaging one another. These social sites meet the need to learn or communicate about a particular topic. It is here that users participate to fix problems and share solutions. Therefore, if the ad content is oriented toward a specific vertical, a social network can experience better conversion. By controlling the context around the ad and keeping content “on topic”, site owners enhance the value of the ad, thereby increasing CTR.
The fact is, media can no longer purchase 'attention'. The new currency is 'intention'. Sites need to specify their 'intentions' in order to attract the big buyers of social media. Further, social media that is content driven can piggyback off a pre-existing need that drives online service usage.
Seven Steps to attract big buck advertisers
Becoming an interesting social network for media buyers will result in higher CPMs and overall revenue. This is because advertisers are attracted to contextual spaces within their vertical. Content is still king, but quality content brings home the bacon. Content-driven social networks must find a niche and then make moderation a priority, which is central to distinguishing themselves from a chat community (low revenue CPMs).
Moderate interactions
1. Weed out problem users. Ban troublesome users who dwell in negativity or who are not aligned with the mission of your site.
2. Automate communication processes via software. Identify and create template emails and messages.
3. Identify and mobilise community leaders to become allies. Recruit and manage expert volunteers to support your mission and endorse/legitimize decisions by consensus. Then, allow these volunteers to feel important by managing the content. Finally, encourage volunteers to generate quality content and manage the relationships via recognition and appreciation.
4. Be open to feedback and improvements. Use the community at the source of your inspiration to identify development needs.
Moderate content
5. Create a strong terms of use and clear policies. Set high standards for what is tolerated/not tolerated in the community. Set high standards for links --- only allow links to other known authorities.
6. Be tough on spammers. Systemically delete spamming content. Completely ban and block spammers to prevent further problems.
7. Make it easy for anyone to participate in content moderation. Emphasize self-government to allow members to do the work for you.
When site owners create an environment where valuable information based on user-experience can be freely exchanged, the model feeds itself. Quality content is consumed and generated in a cycle … and the model will further attract experts within the vertical to participate, bringing even more value to the information. Ideally, a top-notch community of experts capable of generating quality content, that pleases users, should fuel the cycle.
More page views + increasing recognition = value.
By Marc Turkovic, Development Manager
http://www.ehealthforum.com
January 2009
The importance of social media is growing at a rate that marketers can not afford to ignore. With social networking sites at the forefront (Comscore reported 25% growth worldwide in the sector during the past year), C2C sites are clearly changing the way we think about media and influence.
A recent survey of communications specialists across a wide range of industries found that 78% of marketers use blogs, 63% use online video, 56% use social networks and 49% use podcasts in their organisation’s communications initiatives. The study, “New Media, New Influencers”, also reported that only 3% percent of communications professionals declare social media has little or no value to their communications initiatives.
Social networks are especially interesting to investors at the moment. The July 2008 Social Media Deals Report by Context Next indicates that social networks were by far the most active social media from Q1 2007 – Q1 2008 with over $600 million invested in 113 companies. “Money continues to flow in and out of the category, which seems to continue to grow in depth and context,” the report summarizes.
So why all the hype?
Simply, information dissemination is by the people for the people. Not only are users posting a massive variety of content, but user-based content is valued. For example, Google seems interested in “democratizing” information (given its current algorithms). In the past few years bloggers, comments, and message boards are continually indexed and gaining rank in Google’s page rank system. Consequently, a bottom-up philosophy no longer favours corporate players. Nonetheless, site managers must mould social networks into a lucrative product before media buyers will be interested.
Beware of chat zones
There are two types of online communities. The first is a straight social network with a focus on chat. On such sites, the primary user need is interaction. As the structure of such websites changes to meet this demand, banner ads are becoming less effective. Messaging friends takes precedence over gathering information; users ignore contextual ads when their main goal is to “write on someone’s wall”.
So, social sites facilitate and engage conversation – at the expense of ad campaigns.
For example, studies estimate that the CTR on chat sites are 8-10 times less than a “regular” website hosting static content. Valley Wag approximated a 0.04% CTR for Facebook ads in March of 2007 and at 0.10% CTR. Recently, an independent advertiser reported CTR .08% on his Facebook ads in (February 2008). AOL discovered a similar trend on AIM's chat platform. Clearly, on straight social networks, people talk to each other more and are paying less attention to the ads.
But how do these sites make any money? Users simply aren’t looking to solve problems in online social communities. To compensate, straight social networks focus on volume of users and page views to balance out low CPM. Nonetheless, the social context of this type of social media decreases the value of ads. Site managers, beware! CTR can plummet in a chat zone.
How to create value in social media
On the other hand, content driven social networks engage users in their quest to find information. These may work best as media platforms because they draw users for reasons other than just messaging one another. These social sites meet the need to learn or communicate about a particular topic. It is here that users participate to fix problems and share solutions. Therefore, if the ad content is oriented toward a specific vertical, a social network can experience better conversion. By controlling the context around the ad and keeping content “on topic”, site owners enhance the value of the ad, thereby increasing CTR.
The fact is, media can no longer purchase 'attention'. The new currency is 'intention'. Sites need to specify their 'intentions' in order to attract the big buyers of social media. Further, social media that is content driven can piggyback off a pre-existing need that drives online service usage.
Seven Steps to attract big buck advertisers
Becoming an interesting social network for media buyers will result in higher CPMs and overall revenue. This is because advertisers are attracted to contextual spaces within their vertical. Content is still king, but quality content brings home the bacon. Content-driven social networks must find a niche and then make moderation a priority, which is central to distinguishing themselves from a chat community (low revenue CPMs).
Moderate interactions
1. Weed out problem users. Ban troublesome users who dwell in negativity or who are not aligned with the mission of your site.
2. Automate communication processes via software. Identify and create template emails and messages.
3. Identify and mobilise community leaders to become allies. Recruit and manage expert volunteers to support your mission and endorse/legitimize decisions by consensus. Then, allow these volunteers to feel important by managing the content. Finally, encourage volunteers to generate quality content and manage the relationships via recognition and appreciation.
4. Be open to feedback and improvements. Use the community at the source of your inspiration to identify development needs.
Moderate content
5. Create a strong terms of use and clear policies. Set high standards for what is tolerated/not tolerated in the community. Set high standards for links --- only allow links to other known authorities.
6. Be tough on spammers. Systemically delete spamming content. Completely ban and block spammers to prevent further problems.
7. Make it easy for anyone to participate in content moderation. Emphasize self-government to allow members to do the work for you.
When site owners create an environment where valuable information based on user-experience can be freely exchanged, the model feeds itself. Quality content is consumed and generated in a cycle … and the model will further attract experts within the vertical to participate, bringing even more value to the information. Ideally, a top-notch community of experts capable of generating quality content, that pleases users, should fuel the cycle.
More page views + increasing recognition = value.
By Marc Turkovic, Development Manager
http://www.ehealthforum.com
January 2009
Get the low-down on supplier ethical credentials
Business services and technology marketing procurement systems ProProcure has launched ‘atmosphere’: a service designed to enable brands to buy sustainable marketing products in a transparent and economical way.
So what is ‘atmosphere’?
According to ProProcure, the system offers brand owners insight into the source of their marketing materials - the actual production processes, and the crucial environmental impact of their supply chain. The service also allows SMEs and multi-nationals, their agents, outsourcing procurement agencies, or even, say, print management companies to acquire marketing products or niche, bespoke branded products – things that might otherwise be difficult to come by via intermediaries and traditional routes.
All atmosphere suppliers undergo an accreditation process, and have their factories and manufacturing plants independently ‘audited’ – inspected, in common parlance. That means atmosphere users will be able to get the low down on things like their suppliers’ Safety, Health and Hygiene, Child Labour and Factory Quality Procedures.
Providing brands with ongoing, accurate insights into their marketing material suppliers’ ethical credentials and the supply chain itself means that a clearer conscience and a lower marketing budget can go hand in hand then: atmosphere is free to use for buyers. And because it cuts out the intermediaries, the service can provide ‘quantifiable cost savings’ for brands, too. So atmosphere means brands can breathe a little easier as they jostle for attention in today’s tight markets. But is it the proverbial blue sky thinking that branding wizard ProProcure suggests? It may be early days; but a resounding ‘yes’ seems to be very much in the air.
For more information visit
http://www.proprocure.com/atmosphere
Contact Rizwana Tarer
mailto:rizwana.tarer@proprocure.co.uk
January 2009
So what is ‘atmosphere’?
According to ProProcure, the system offers brand owners insight into the source of their marketing materials - the actual production processes, and the crucial environmental impact of their supply chain. The service also allows SMEs and multi-nationals, their agents, outsourcing procurement agencies, or even, say, print management companies to acquire marketing products or niche, bespoke branded products – things that might otherwise be difficult to come by via intermediaries and traditional routes.
All atmosphere suppliers undergo an accreditation process, and have their factories and manufacturing plants independently ‘audited’ – inspected, in common parlance. That means atmosphere users will be able to get the low down on things like their suppliers’ Safety, Health and Hygiene, Child Labour and Factory Quality Procedures.
Providing brands with ongoing, accurate insights into their marketing material suppliers’ ethical credentials and the supply chain itself means that a clearer conscience and a lower marketing budget can go hand in hand then: atmosphere is free to use for buyers. And because it cuts out the intermediaries, the service can provide ‘quantifiable cost savings’ for brands, too. So atmosphere means brands can breathe a little easier as they jostle for attention in today’s tight markets. But is it the proverbial blue sky thinking that branding wizard ProProcure suggests? It may be early days; but a resounding ‘yes’ seems to be very much in the air.
For more information visit
http://www.proprocure.com/atmosphere
Contact Rizwana Tarer
mailto:rizwana.tarer@proprocure.co.uk
January 2009
Competitive Analysis Supercharges PR Results for Industrial and High-Tech Companies
Better focused positioning, expanded branding, increased market share, more qualified leads and reduced cost of marketing – these are some of the benefits that competitive analysis, when used in PR, can bring to industrial and high-tech companies.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s advertising was king for industrial and high-tech companies. But times have changed, and now PR has moved to center stage. For industrial and high-tech companies, the most effective form of PR is feature stories. If a company is not getting consistent feature stories running in its target market publications then its marketing effort is running at sub-level, and it is letting its market share and leads go to the competition.
In today’s competitive environment, industrial and high-tech companies need a powerful feature story print PR effort to drive their marketing machine. Twenty to thirty feature stories running per year, 75 to 80 pages of dedicated feature editorial, along with one or two cover stories, is what it takes to entrench a company’s positioning in its markets and create the long-term stability needed to ensure viability. Instead of losing market share, the company will be taking market share from its competitors faster than they can replace it, no matter how many ads the competition runs in trade pubs.
Sound speculative? It is not. A growing number of large industrial and high-tech companies worldwide have discovered this and are successfully doing it right now. It is working.
Competitive Analysis: What lies behind this is the concept of competitive analysis. Competitive analysis is the system of thoroughly examining, analyzing, viewing, compartmentalizing, and to a marked degree influencing forces competitive to one's company, products and services.
Competitive analysis employs an in-depth inspection of competitive forces to improve positioning, allowing a company to better focus its positioning relative to its competition and more effectively gain market share in targeted markets. When applied to public relations, the results are tremendous.
For industrial and high-tech companies, competitive analysis streamlines and intensifies PR activities, increases the potential for market share in core and secondary markets, and makes overall marketing far more cost effective.
But, the subject of competitive analysis is seldom well implemented into the marketing fabric of industrial and high-tech companies, much to their detriment.
It is popular, yet foolish, for many companies to expound that competition is something they need not consider. Various reasons are given such as, “No one has a product line like ours to warrant being considered competition.” or, “We just concentrate on doing our job, we really don’t care what anyone else is doing.” or, “We are the market leader, the others can’t touch us.” These are statements typically originating from misinformed executives. From a competitive analysis viewpoint, these statements reflect a perception of unreality towards the markets they are attempting to approach and an underestimation of the magnitude of the competitive forces in those markets.
No company, industrial, high-tech or other, can be successful if it is not perceiving and dealing with the reality of competition. Much of the marketing difficulty faced by industrial and high-tech companies stems from a deficiency in controlling competitive advances.
Yet companies, rather than looking at the reality of a competitive problem, misdiagnose it, and attempt arbitrary, opinionated and largely useless marketing and sales “remedies” based on little or no empirical data. The ability to resolve the complex problems of competitive issues requires a set of analytic tools not found in MBA college curriculums or in marketing texts from bookstores.
Not many industrial and high-tech companies have a clear understanding of what competitive analysis might encompass. At best, industrial and high-tech companies, even the big ones, do a short-sighted look into their competitors’ offerings. And, their PR firms and ad agencies have historically offered little insight.
In competitive analysis, everything critical to the competition’s marketing potential is isolated. This includes their product and service offerings, acceptability and desirability of their products and services by their target markets, their stated positioning versus their actual market-perceived positioning including sub-market categories, and a comparative of competitor strengths and weaknesses.
Competitive Positioning: Competitive analysis is instrumental, actually critical, to the development of a truly workable competitive positioning which will subsequently be used as the fundamental driving concept in all of a company’s marketing and PR efforts. Yet, we see a widespread epidemic of bad competitive positioning found liberally amongst industrial and high-tech companies of all sizes. Most notable is the lack of adequate differentiation between competitor positions within the same markets, and the high volume of clearly weak, easily usurped positions being put forth.
Companies have a tendency to either overextend or undervalue their positioning, which can reveal critical weaknesses in both a company’s positioning and that of competitors. Competitive analysis helps locate these weaknesses and provides a detailed reality on their actual market positions. This enables a company to see positioning options which it likely would not have seen prior and to assess the viability of these options. It allows a company to modify its existing positioning for greater marketing advantage and to become more differentiated from its competitor’s positions. Competitive analysis also opens up opportunities for the diminishing of a competitor’s positioning.
There are a number of criteria which determine the strength of a competitive positioning. For example, if a company’s positioning can be easily usurped by a competitor, it is a poor positioning. A positioning too similar to a competitor’s is a weak positioning. The ability to diminish the position of a competitor by reducing the value of the competitor’s category is a valid quality in a positioning. A positioning which can re-assign the position of a competitor to a different market category is a strong feature in a competitive positioning. And, of course, it is a given that a strong positioning should embody and strengthen the core attributes of the company and brand, and should convey that they are a leader in the category in some aspect.
A competitive positioning must not only establish the strength of a company or brand, it also must create or advance its category, be difficult to usurp and must allow a significant degree of influence over the positions of competitors. Only then can it be considered a strong positioning. But, few industrial and high-tech companies ever approach this high level of positioning strength.
After the most optimum positioning is determined, it is then intertwined into the fabric of the feature stories being written. A powerful positioning woven throughout a series of excellent feature stories provides an incredibly powerful marketing tool that will effectively shift market opinion en masse in the company’s direction, while eroding its competition’s position in the market.
A company may get a feature story made available to them now and then by a publication. Within a company, engineers, sales managers and presidents sometimes prepare feature stories. If these stories do not contain the right positioning, based upon sound competitive analysis and subsequent positioning analysis, they will not be very successful, they will not diminish the influence of the competition, and they will not deliver significant market share. For industrial and high-tech companies, competitive analysis provides a surefire platform to build successful PR campaigns.
- ends -
This article was excerpted from Jim McMahon’s upcoming book
“Ultra-Positioning in Industrial & High-Tech PR”
About the Author
Jim McMahon is president and senior writer of Zebra Communications, America’s most published industrial and high-tech PR firm. His feature stories have graced the pages and covers of thousands of industrial and high-tech magazines published throughout the world. McMahon also developed Ultra-Positioning™, a system using in-depth competitive analysis to improve positioning, allowing a company to better focus its positioning relative to its competition to more effectively gain market share in its target markets. He is releasing a how-to, practical manual on the subject entitled “Ultra-Positioning in Industrial & High-Tech PR”, as well as a second book, “27 Tips for Writing and Placing the World’s Best Industrial & High-Tech PR”, both available in early 2009 through Zebra Communications.
For more information please contact Zebra Communications
P.O. Box 940968, Simi Valley, CA 93094-0968
Phone 805-955-0009
Fax 805-955-0003
mailto:zebracom@zebracom.net
http://www.zebracom.net
January 2009
In the 1980’s and 1990’s advertising was king for industrial and high-tech companies. But times have changed, and now PR has moved to center stage. For industrial and high-tech companies, the most effective form of PR is feature stories. If a company is not getting consistent feature stories running in its target market publications then its marketing effort is running at sub-level, and it is letting its market share and leads go to the competition.
In today’s competitive environment, industrial and high-tech companies need a powerful feature story print PR effort to drive their marketing machine. Twenty to thirty feature stories running per year, 75 to 80 pages of dedicated feature editorial, along with one or two cover stories, is what it takes to entrench a company’s positioning in its markets and create the long-term stability needed to ensure viability. Instead of losing market share, the company will be taking market share from its competitors faster than they can replace it, no matter how many ads the competition runs in trade pubs.
Sound speculative? It is not. A growing number of large industrial and high-tech companies worldwide have discovered this and are successfully doing it right now. It is working.
Competitive Analysis: What lies behind this is the concept of competitive analysis. Competitive analysis is the system of thoroughly examining, analyzing, viewing, compartmentalizing, and to a marked degree influencing forces competitive to one's company, products and services.
Competitive analysis employs an in-depth inspection of competitive forces to improve positioning, allowing a company to better focus its positioning relative to its competition and more effectively gain market share in targeted markets. When applied to public relations, the results are tremendous.
For industrial and high-tech companies, competitive analysis streamlines and intensifies PR activities, increases the potential for market share in core and secondary markets, and makes overall marketing far more cost effective.
But, the subject of competitive analysis is seldom well implemented into the marketing fabric of industrial and high-tech companies, much to their detriment.
It is popular, yet foolish, for many companies to expound that competition is something they need not consider. Various reasons are given such as, “No one has a product line like ours to warrant being considered competition.” or, “We just concentrate on doing our job, we really don’t care what anyone else is doing.” or, “We are the market leader, the others can’t touch us.” These are statements typically originating from misinformed executives. From a competitive analysis viewpoint, these statements reflect a perception of unreality towards the markets they are attempting to approach and an underestimation of the magnitude of the competitive forces in those markets.
No company, industrial, high-tech or other, can be successful if it is not perceiving and dealing with the reality of competition. Much of the marketing difficulty faced by industrial and high-tech companies stems from a deficiency in controlling competitive advances.
Yet companies, rather than looking at the reality of a competitive problem, misdiagnose it, and attempt arbitrary, opinionated and largely useless marketing and sales “remedies” based on little or no empirical data. The ability to resolve the complex problems of competitive issues requires a set of analytic tools not found in MBA college curriculums or in marketing texts from bookstores.
Not many industrial and high-tech companies have a clear understanding of what competitive analysis might encompass. At best, industrial and high-tech companies, even the big ones, do a short-sighted look into their competitors’ offerings. And, their PR firms and ad agencies have historically offered little insight.
In competitive analysis, everything critical to the competition’s marketing potential is isolated. This includes their product and service offerings, acceptability and desirability of their products and services by their target markets, their stated positioning versus their actual market-perceived positioning including sub-market categories, and a comparative of competitor strengths and weaknesses.
Competitive Positioning: Competitive analysis is instrumental, actually critical, to the development of a truly workable competitive positioning which will subsequently be used as the fundamental driving concept in all of a company’s marketing and PR efforts. Yet, we see a widespread epidemic of bad competitive positioning found liberally amongst industrial and high-tech companies of all sizes. Most notable is the lack of adequate differentiation between competitor positions within the same markets, and the high volume of clearly weak, easily usurped positions being put forth.
Companies have a tendency to either overextend or undervalue their positioning, which can reveal critical weaknesses in both a company’s positioning and that of competitors. Competitive analysis helps locate these weaknesses and provides a detailed reality on their actual market positions. This enables a company to see positioning options which it likely would not have seen prior and to assess the viability of these options. It allows a company to modify its existing positioning for greater marketing advantage and to become more differentiated from its competitor’s positions. Competitive analysis also opens up opportunities for the diminishing of a competitor’s positioning.
There are a number of criteria which determine the strength of a competitive positioning. For example, if a company’s positioning can be easily usurped by a competitor, it is a poor positioning. A positioning too similar to a competitor’s is a weak positioning. The ability to diminish the position of a competitor by reducing the value of the competitor’s category is a valid quality in a positioning. A positioning which can re-assign the position of a competitor to a different market category is a strong feature in a competitive positioning. And, of course, it is a given that a strong positioning should embody and strengthen the core attributes of the company and brand, and should convey that they are a leader in the category in some aspect.
A competitive positioning must not only establish the strength of a company or brand, it also must create or advance its category, be difficult to usurp and must allow a significant degree of influence over the positions of competitors. Only then can it be considered a strong positioning. But, few industrial and high-tech companies ever approach this high level of positioning strength.
After the most optimum positioning is determined, it is then intertwined into the fabric of the feature stories being written. A powerful positioning woven throughout a series of excellent feature stories provides an incredibly powerful marketing tool that will effectively shift market opinion en masse in the company’s direction, while eroding its competition’s position in the market.
A company may get a feature story made available to them now and then by a publication. Within a company, engineers, sales managers and presidents sometimes prepare feature stories. If these stories do not contain the right positioning, based upon sound competitive analysis and subsequent positioning analysis, they will not be very successful, they will not diminish the influence of the competition, and they will not deliver significant market share. For industrial and high-tech companies, competitive analysis provides a surefire platform to build successful PR campaigns.
- ends -
This article was excerpted from Jim McMahon’s upcoming book
“Ultra-Positioning in Industrial & High-Tech PR”
About the Author
Jim McMahon is president and senior writer of Zebra Communications, America’s most published industrial and high-tech PR firm. His feature stories have graced the pages and covers of thousands of industrial and high-tech magazines published throughout the world. McMahon also developed Ultra-Positioning™, a system using in-depth competitive analysis to improve positioning, allowing a company to better focus its positioning relative to its competition to more effectively gain market share in its target markets. He is releasing a how-to, practical manual on the subject entitled “Ultra-Positioning in Industrial & High-Tech PR”, as well as a second book, “27 Tips for Writing and Placing the World’s Best Industrial & High-Tech PR”, both available in early 2009 through Zebra Communications.
For more information please contact Zebra Communications
P.O. Box 940968, Simi Valley, CA 93094-0968
Phone 805-955-0009
Fax 805-955-0003
mailto:zebracom@zebracom.net
http://www.zebracom.net
January 2009
The Long View: writing effective press releases
With the Internet becoming (if it is not already) the most important and widely viewed source of news and information worldwide, press releases are increasingly being written for the web.
Since this is an area which general companies are not always terribly experienced in, many are faced with the prospect of needing to write a press release; but have no idea how to go about creating well written content, which will gain the intended exposure.
Being that these press releases are meant for a web audience, search engine optimization techniques should come into play if the release is to be read by the largest possible audience. Depending on the nature of the press release and the industry concerned, this can be either a relatively simple task or a great challenge.
Some keyword research may be needed on the part of the writer, but thankfully these target keywords are usually supplied by the company in need of the press release. The primary keyword or keyphrase should be integrated into the title of the press release, if at all possible.
Let's take as our example a press release intended to publicise that the ABC widget company has developed a revolutionary washer for use in household faucets. The primary keyword they intend to target is "washers for faucets", with secondary keywords being "faucet washers" and "faucet washer". Let's look at a sample headline and first few sentences of this press release:
ABC Widgets Introduces Game-Changing New Washers For Faucets
New York, New York - Jan 16, 2009
The ABC Widget Co. finally broke the silence on their long-rumored line of revolutionary all-silicone faucet washers. Said company spokeswoman Jane Doe "This represents nothing short of a sea change in how business will be done in the faucet washer industry".
As you can see, the title is in initial case (That Is, All Of The First Letters Of Each Word Are Capitalized, As If They Were Initials), which is customary for press releases- though it is best to ask first as this can vary depending on how and where the release will be distributed. Following this is the city, which should be the location of the company or organization on whose behalf the press release has been written and then the date.
Note that the primary keyword has also been used in the title; this is something you should aim for – try to work in this primary keyword to make it somewhere between one and two percent of the finished press release, if it is possible to do so without making the finished release come off as stilted and difficult to read. SEO is important, but not as important as producing an end product which will be read.
The same goes for secondary keywords, if any – try to make them around one percent of the content of the press release. Most press releases covering major announcements are 500 words or less, so a density of 2% may not always be possible.
In the case of the Talk sites (and for general releases), you should aim for anything over 200 words, as most content can get over the key selling points at this length. The Editors and sub-editors can then fine tune your release and help you to get the most out of your content on the sites. If you have the sales enquiry service, this will give visitors an option to request information from you. If your release is well written and covers the key areas of your business, then your enquiries should start to increase.
Your press release must say much in very few words; this sort of economy of language can take practice, but with the growing demand for search engine optimized, well written press releases it is well worth your time to practice the craft of creating press releases for the web.
Andrew Long
January 2009
Andrew Long is a freelance advertising sales manager for Pro-talk and also offers advertising services at http://www.selling-advertising.com
Since this is an area which general companies are not always terribly experienced in, many are faced with the prospect of needing to write a press release; but have no idea how to go about creating well written content, which will gain the intended exposure.
Being that these press releases are meant for a web audience, search engine optimization techniques should come into play if the release is to be read by the largest possible audience. Depending on the nature of the press release and the industry concerned, this can be either a relatively simple task or a great challenge.
Some keyword research may be needed on the part of the writer, but thankfully these target keywords are usually supplied by the company in need of the press release. The primary keyword or keyphrase should be integrated into the title of the press release, if at all possible.
Let's take as our example a press release intended to publicise that the ABC widget company has developed a revolutionary washer for use in household faucets. The primary keyword they intend to target is "washers for faucets", with secondary keywords being "faucet washers" and "faucet washer". Let's look at a sample headline and first few sentences of this press release:
ABC Widgets Introduces Game-Changing New Washers For Faucets
New York, New York - Jan 16, 2009
The ABC Widget Co. finally broke the silence on their long-rumored line of revolutionary all-silicone faucet washers. Said company spokeswoman Jane Doe "This represents nothing short of a sea change in how business will be done in the faucet washer industry".
As you can see, the title is in initial case (That Is, All Of The First Letters Of Each Word Are Capitalized, As If They Were Initials), which is customary for press releases- though it is best to ask first as this can vary depending on how and where the release will be distributed. Following this is the city, which should be the location of the company or organization on whose behalf the press release has been written and then the date.
Note that the primary keyword has also been used in the title; this is something you should aim for – try to work in this primary keyword to make it somewhere between one and two percent of the finished press release, if it is possible to do so without making the finished release come off as stilted and difficult to read. SEO is important, but not as important as producing an end product which will be read.
The same goes for secondary keywords, if any – try to make them around one percent of the content of the press release. Most press releases covering major announcements are 500 words or less, so a density of 2% may not always be possible.
In the case of the Talk sites (and for general releases), you should aim for anything over 200 words, as most content can get over the key selling points at this length. The Editors and sub-editors can then fine tune your release and help you to get the most out of your content on the sites. If you have the sales enquiry service, this will give visitors an option to request information from you. If your release is well written and covers the key areas of your business, then your enquiries should start to increase.
Your press release must say much in very few words; this sort of economy of language can take practice, but with the growing demand for search engine optimized, well written press releases it is well worth your time to practice the craft of creating press releases for the web.
Andrew Long
January 2009
Andrew Long is a freelance advertising sales manager for Pro-talk and also offers advertising services at http://www.selling-advertising.com
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