Transcript Questions for the Audience

April 24, 2008
Marketing IT Services
What’s Working, What’s Not
Presented by:
Leslie Vickrey
President & Founder
ClearEdge Marketing
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NACCB Trivia
When and where was the first annual
NACCB conference?
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NACCB Trivia
When and where was the first annual
NACCB conference?
1988 – St. Petersburg, Florida
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Content
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Who is ClearEdge Marketing?
From Your Prospect’s Perspective
Marketing Trends: What’s Hot
Hot or Not Debate
Inside the Biz: Audience Shares Marketing Approaches
Today’s Critical Marketing Questions
 Social Networking & the Staffing Industry
 What is Your Value Proposition?
 Marketing Across the Entire Sales Cycle
 Solution Marketing Tactics
 How to Stay Top of Mind at the Top
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Who Is ClearEdge Marketing?
 Outsourced marketing services provider offering extensive
specialization in IT services and solutions
 Clients include…
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From Your Prospect’s Perspective
Source: ITSMA, How Customers Choose
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From Your Prospect’s Perspective
Source: ITSMA, How Customers Choose
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From Your Prospect’s Perspective
Source: ITSMA, How Customers Choose
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From Your Prospect’s Perspective
Source: ITSMA, How Customers Choose
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Marketing Trends: What’s Hot?
Blogging Is Sizzling Hot
Marketing Opportunity
o Gets your business experts out into the public
discussion in an informal, hip medium
o Allows you to rapidly share expertise
o Enables linking strategies with other expert
organizations to demonstrate knowledge, derive
association with leading entities
o Blends well with a range of Internet marketing
• Linking
• Digital direct mail
• Search engine optimization
Who’s blogging?
o Everyone from CEOs down the corporate hierarchy
(not to mention movie stars, politicians, grandmothers,
teenagers, etc.)
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More on Blogging
 Blogging Stats
 120,000 new blogs being created worldwide each day. About
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1.4 blogs created every second of every day (Technorati)
Technorati tracks about 1.5 million posts per day
The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months
(Technorati)
Approximately 2% to 7% of adult American Internet users
write blogs (Pew)
61% of the blog readers are over 30 and 75% make more than
$45,000 annually (eMarketer)
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Why Blog?
 Customer Relationships
Blogs are a fast way to join the customers' discussions, provide tips and
insights or receive feedback
 Media Relations
Create a channel where media regularly check what you have to say
 Recruitment
If you establish your company as a thought leader, professionals in your
industry will pay attention. Chances are good they will see you as an
attractive employer
 Test ideas or products
A blog is informal. It's part of a conversation where people (often) can
comment, and the blog can provide you with a measure of value.
Publish an idea and see if it generates interest. Does anyone link to
you? What do they say?
 Rank higher in search engines
Technorati, Google and other Web engines reward sites that are
updated often
Source: http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/why/
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Insight into Blogging
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“Readers won't ever trust the typical corporate blog. The defining
quality of blogs is that they are personal. As an employee of the company,
you would never want to take a controversial stand on something in the
corporate blog without first figuring out whether it accurately represents
the opinion of your company and your bosses. There will be press releases
for broader consumption. The point is not to get a message across
anymore; it is to engage people who are, or may someday be,
customers, peers, or partners in a dialogue—not with the amorphous
corporation, but with smart individuals who want to help.”
(http://www.itsma.com/News/ezine/current_issue.asp)
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“The bottom line: we're seeing explosive growth in the tags index.
People are clicking on tags, people are using tags, Google features tagged
media in its results pages. Tags adoption has become a phenomenon
across the Live Web, and we are seeing a correlative explosive growth at
Technorati.” http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html
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Who’s Blogging?
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Who’s Blogging?
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Who’s Blogging?
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Your Turn: Blogging
Questions for Audience
 Are you blogging? If so, who’s your
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primary audience and tell us about
your experience/return.
Is blogging a flash in the marketing
pan?
Should businesses really be out in
the blogosphere?
Can blogging have a measurable
marketing impact?
What should and should not be
blog material?
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Marketing Trends: What’s Hot?
Social Networking...
Marketing Opportunity
o Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites have quickly become
a top tool for hiring IT staff.
o According to 58% of IT recruitment firms, such sites are more useful in
finding staff than traditional print ads. And 49% said they were now more
effective than Internet banner advertising.
o But 7 in 10 recruiters said job boards provide better quality of candidates.
o "Social networking sites make it very easy for recruiters to become trusted
advisers to candidates. Candidates often reveal far more about themselves
on these sites than they would do on the phone or in interview."
Who’s networking?
o 57% of Internet users are now part of a social network.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/139037/tech_recruiters_turn_to_facebook.html
http://www.theequitykicker.com/2008/04/23/state-of-the-nation-in-social-media/
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Staffing Firms & Social Networking
 Adecco
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Staffing Firms & Social Networking
 Vedior
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Marketing Trends: What’s Hot?
In slide show
view, click on
image to read
full article.
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Your Turn: Social Networking
Questions for Audience
 How many of you leverage Social
Networking tools for clients?
Candidates?
 Do you believe Social Networking
should be accessible during work
hours and made part of the
Corporate culture?
 What are the risks (downside) of
Social Networking?
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Marketing Trends: What’s Hot?
Look around the room. How is your company
different than the person sitting next to you?
What are YOU known for?
Marketing Opportunity
o What is your business value proposition?
o What message is sent out to your clients?
o What value are your clients/customers expecting
from your organization?
RESOURCE: Crucial Question for Business Owners:
Will You Know How to Answer?
http://www.clearedgemarketing.com/blog/crucial-question-forbusiness-owners-will-you-know-how-to-answer/
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Marketing Trends: What’s Hot?
 The importance of a business value proposition
 Value proposition is easily confused with a business’
services, capabilities, offerings or features.
 Instead, it’s the ultimate value an organization delivers
to customers.
 If the owner of the business can’t sell someone on
what makes their own company and services unique,
then how can the sales team, or anyone on staff for
that matter, be expected to do so?
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Writing your value proposition
 Clarity
 Eliminate overstatements and use adjectives sparingly to
ensure a simple and uncluttered message.
 Brevity
 No more than two sentences are needed to convince an
audience that the company has worthwhile value to
deliver.
 Persuasion
 There is nothing more convincing than numerical
confirmation of the value delivered.
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Your Turn: Value Proposition
Questions for Audience
 How many of you can clearly state
your value proposition?
 If you polled your clients, do you
think they could state your value
proposition just as well?
 How about internal employees?
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Marketing Trends: What’s Hot?
Target Account Programs
Marketing Opportunity
o Puts your sales team in front of the prospect on a
weekly basis
o Offers a fun, creative way to communicate with
prospects
o Your message stays behind long after the program
ends (through giveaways and message cards)
What Does It Take?
o Sales team willing to make numerous in person calls
for a series of weeks
o Creativity & Concordance – message and giveaways
should relate to company and service
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Target Account Program Example
Poor choices theme…
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Sample TAP Schedule
Touch
Item
Follow up
Week One
Mail note card and/or HTML
Follow up call
Week Two
Drop off #1
Follow up call/e-mail
Week Three
Drop off #2
Follow up call/e-mail
Week Four
Drop off #3
Follow up call/e-mail
Week Five
Drop off #4
Follow up call/e-mail
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Why TAP?
 Customer Relationships
Get in front of decision makers regularly.
 Push Your Sales Force
Get your sales team out to pound the pavement regularly, give
them focus.
 Measurement
This is a simple way to measure sales and marketing message
effectiveness as the target group is small and the program
carefully managed.
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Your Turn: TAPs
Questions for Audience
 Can TAPs grow old/lose their impact?
 Should sales teams be so strictly armed
and messaged in their sales approach?
(Do TAPs limit sales creativity,
spontaneity?)
 Are you TAPing?
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Marketing Trends: What’s Hot?
Thought Leadership
Marketing Opportunity
o Showcases the knowledge and expertise within
your organization, become a Knowledge Broker
o Press hits
o Can be delivered through numerous vehicles such
as print, Web, events, surveys and more
What Does It Take?
o Inside talent willing to take time to help develop
thought leadership content (papers, podcasts,
presentations)
o Outside expertise – help getting thought
leadership content distributed to the press,
through associations at events, etc.
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Harvey Nash CIO Survey
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Harvey Nash CIO Survey
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Galmont Articles
Build credibility…stay top of mind
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Why Thought Lead?
 PR
The press loves good stats, a good interview and/or an expert to
quote. It’s an excellent way to build strong media ties
 Archive & Showcase Your Knowledge
Your business is rich in expertise but marketing lingo cannot
communicate that. Thought leadership offers you many ways to
give the industry and your prospects a direct look at the
expertise you offer
 Endurance
Some marketing tools expire, but thought leadership tools
(articles, surveys) can be used again and again across the sales
cycle from introducing your company to maintaining contact
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Your Turn: Thought Leadership
Questions for Audience
 What is the most effective way to
distribute thought leadership today?
 How important is thought leadership to
your clients?
 Are you capitalizing on your own
thought leaders?
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Hot or Not?
 Search Engine Optimization
 Makes it easier for prospects and candidates to find you
 Improves ranking on major search engines
 Drives traffic to Web site
 Generates sales leads
 Questions for the Audience: Does search engine
optimization work for services firms? How are you taking
advantage of it?
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Hot or Not?
 Case Studies
 Demonstrates ability to
successfully deliver
service/solution
 Serves as testimonial from
satisfied client
 Questions for the
Audience: What makes a case
study a truly valuable
marketing and sales tool? Is the
client’s name enough or does it
need more to successfully
market and sell?
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Hot or Not?
 Mass E-mailing/E-Newsletters
 Anything that looks like SPAM or a form letter
(impersonal, grouped) is quickly dismissed
 Mass marketing is obsolete. Even today’s largest
marketers (McDonalds, Coke,) consider themselves
target marketers
 Questions for the Audience: Should businesses use
mass e-mail and if so, how? What are the benefits of
producing monthly e-newsletters?
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Sample e-newsletters
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Audience
What innovative marketing approaches is
your business taking today and why?
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Audience
Five Critical Marketing Questions to
Consider NOW!
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Question 1
What Social Media (Live Web) tools are
you leveraging to strengthen
relationships with clients and
candidates TODAY?
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Question 2
What Are You Known For?
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Question 3
What Phases of the Sales Cycle Is Your
Marketing Program Omitting?
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The Sales Cycle
Prospecting
Researching the
marketplace and existing
accounts for new client
opportunities.
Account
Maintenance
Ensuring the client’s ongoing
satisfaction/retention.
Sales Win/New
Client Orientation
Client
Identification/
Qualification
Identifying and qualifying
strong new prospects &
client opportunities.
A company’s arsenal of
marketing tools
should support every
phase of the sales cycle.
Generating Interest
Courting prospect/client by
providing information about
company and its services.
Post-pitch
Follow-up
Maintaining contact after the
pitch and responding to
questions/ information needs.
Pitching Services
& Solutions
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Question 4
What Solutions Sales Tactics Can You Put
to Work for Your Business?
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Question 5
How Can You Market at the C-level and
Stay Top-of-Mind with C-level contacts?
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In Summary
 What We Know About IT Services Marketing Today?
 More and more prospects are researching and finding IT services
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vendors online vs. vendors contacting them first
Case studies, public speaking opportunities and thought leadership
articles rank in the top five ways to get a prospect’s attention
Companies looking to improve communication and knowledge sharing
with clients, candidates and the media should seriously consider
blogging and social networks
Search engine optimization should be part of an integrated
marketing program
The more you stay top of mind with prospects whether through TAP
campaigns, articles or events, the more likely you are to win
business and gain trust…
Arming your sales team with collateral across the sales cycle will
enable them to sell more effectively and build credibility with
prospects
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NACCB Trivia
Who was the keynote speaker at last year’s
conference who became famous for
wearing a nametag?
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NACCB Trivia
Who was the keynote speaker at last year’s
conference who became famous for
wearing a nametag?
Scott Ginsberg, author of
Hello, My Name is Scott
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Contact Information
Leslie Vickrey
President & Founder
312.731.3149
[email protected]
www.clearedgemarketing.com
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