Posts tagged with "marketing"

Now Tweet This. Find out why government contractors should care about social media.

Calling all West Sound Government Contractors to the January 7th West Sound NCMA Chapter Meeting!

Wondering what the friend, follow, tweet this social media business is all about? Join Mixtur and the West Sound NCMA Chapter for this introduction to some of the social media tools that are being used by your federal government customers and the govcon community at large.

During this meeting you will:

  • See examples of how Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are being used in the government contracting arena to communicate, exchange information, and build coalitions and relationships.
  • Walk away with a checklist of things you and your company should consider when planning the social media component of your marketing plan.

Register Now!

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What is a Persona and why would you need one?

Great marketing depends on having a clear picture of your target audience−understanding their motivations, needs, preferences, how they communicate and where they get their information. Creating a persona, or personas, that represent your target audience is a great way to guide your messaging and marketing tactics.


Let's take an example. A technology company is marketing a new navigation and tracking application for mobile phones. The process of creating a persona for their target audience involves some analysis of their customer base, customer and prospect interviews, and feedback from their marketing, sales and customer service teams. In dry demographic speak the target is predominantly male, in their mid-forties, an early adopter, management level, found in all verticals and most often found in medium-sized businesses. They care most about making their teams more productive and cutting expenses.

The persona created paints a much richer and more vivid picture:

Gary "Gizmo" Green is the VP of sales for an electrical engineering firm, employing 45 people. Gary has one kid in college and one in high school. He follows his son's high school football avidly. He is an active user of LinkedIn to expand his professional and social network, and is experimenting with Twitter for business purposes.

Gary is on the road a lot, mostly driving but sometimes traveling by air, to visit customers and prospects. He mainly subscribes to RSS feeds to keep track of news he cares about and is a subscriber to an e-newsletter from his trade association. He loves gadgets, was the first among his friends to own an iPhone, and is excited to try new applications for it. Gary is concerned about the productivity of his sales team and is always on the look out for tools that can help in that area. Once sold on a product, Gary is a great evangelist.

This persona not only puts a human face on an audience segment, but can also be used to identify the marketing tactics that are likely to work best. Gary would probably download a podcast describing how a mobile phone application could benefit his sales team, but would probably not read a white paper on GPS technology or attend a half-day seminar. Once a customer Gary might be willing to comment on your blog, write a review or pass on a free trial to his social network. Keep Gary loyal by allowing him to get product news and tips by subscribing to your RSS feed, as he is probably not going to read a whole email newsletter.

For more details and discussion on personas, visit http://www.buyerpersona.com, a great blog from Pragmatic Marketing's Adele Revella.

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Why do you need a messaging document?

We often get client requests to create a certain piece of collateral for them−a product datasheet, company overview, sales guide, or Web copy. We always ask if they have a messaging document that we can work from. The answer is almost always "no".

So what in a messaging document or platform would be useful when creating a new piece of communications? The answer is everything!

A good messaging document is the go to place to understand the essence of what should be communicated about a product, service, brand or company that is written with a specific audience in mind. A messaging platform can include:

  • Audience definitions
  • Company or product positioning statement
  • Short and long company or product descriptions
  • Unique sales propositions
  • Elevator pitch
  • Tagline
  • Key takeaways
  • Key features and benefits
  • Competitive situation

With a messaging document in hand it is much easier and more efficient to create any communications vehicle, from product brochures to interactive demos. You will also benefit from having consistent messaging across all of your communications−regardless of how many different writers produce the pieces.

Bottom line, invest the time upfront to create (and update) a solid messaging platform. It will pay dividends time and time again.

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Don't forget the 'M' in SEM!

There is a lot to think about when launching and managing a B2B Search Engine Marketing campaign−keyword selection, bid management, CPC, conversaion rates, match type, ad creative, tracking. It's easy to get caught up in the mechanics and forget that 'M' stands for Marketing. The same marketing basics apply to SEM as to any other type of campaign−you need to understand your target audience and present them with content and offers that are relevant to them.

The 'M' can be particularly absent if your SEM account is managed by a third party. They may be great at using all sorts of cool optimization technologies and keyword expansion techniques, but are often not trained in marketing and certainly don't know your product and audience like you do.

Here are some pointers to keep you on the right track:

  • Start with careful keyword selection and expand carefully so you're not wasting time and money garnering clicks on long shots.
  • Organize your keywords into meaningful groups. This makes it easier to manage the synching up of ad creative and landing pages.
  • Spend some time creating ads that match up closely with your keywords and try adding a call to action.
  • Take people to relevant campaign landing pages−pages specifically designed to maximize conversions from incoming search campaign traffic and tailored to a set of keywords.
  • Ensure that you can track the metrics you really care about. Knowing cost per click is important, but knowing cost per lead is critical for lead generation campaigns. Tracking lead to sales conversion from your SEM campaign will give you an even better ROI picture.

While all the points above seem pretty basic, one or all are forgotten with amazing regularity even by large and well-established brands. Bid management and optimization technologies can do great things for your SEM efforts, but don't forget about the 'M' in SEM.

For some tips on writing great PPC ad copy, read Effective PPC Ad Copy 101 by Ron Jones of Clickz"s Search Engine Watch.

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