SSW Rules to Better Marketing

Do you have a Marketing Plan?

If you were going to build a house, you would hope that the architect and builders are working together using architectural plans and blue prints as a guide. So why would trying to build a solid customer base or market share be any different?

At SSW we realise the monumental importance of a marketing plan. Although we recognise that in many cases marketing plans get filed away in the closet, until its time to get a business loan it's most effective when it acts as a blue print for all the marketing activities a company undertakes.

Here are some of the important points to consider in a marketing plan.

• Sets out your marketing goals and objectives then aligns them with overall business goals and strategy
• Sets out a time frame for achieving its goals
• Identifies a target market and segmentation strategy
• How you will position and differentiate your product
• Competitors and industry analysis
• Identifies current and proposed marketing methods
• Includes marketing reports (historical and forecasts) 
• It sets the criteria which the plan will be assessed for success or failure

The most important thing to remember about a marketing plan is that it is a work in progress. Always needing to be reassessed and changed to adapt to the dynamic business environment.

Have you identified your target market?

It's important to identify the market which will gain you the maximum amount of benefit if captured. It should be the focal point of most of your marketing efforts. The target market needs to be clearly identified with a justification as to why they are your specified target market.

At SSW our target market comprises of IT Managers and Developers who look for Microsoft backed solutions. They're the ones we focus our marketing energies on because we've found that they're the key decision makers when it comes to adopting new technologies and often act as the gate keepers to information being relayed to upper management. If we gain their approval, it's often much easier to secure a deal. Part of our penetration strategy towards this target market is to hold Tech Breakfasts and User Group meetings.

To use an example when Disney releases a new blockbuster cartoon like the Lion King or Aladdin who do you think the target market is? Many would say it's the young children that the movies are made for. But the truth is that Disney's target market often includes the decision makers - the parents who take the children to the movies and buy the merchandise. Disney knows that it's one thing to make a great movie that kids are excited about but the efforts often fall short if parents don't approve of it.  

Do you customize your approach to your target market?

Every target market is different, and each one will respond to different stimuli that tickle their particular fancy. It is a good idea to customize your marketing approach to consider the particular interests and needs of that group, both in terms of the substance of your pitch, and its style.

For example, say you are trying to sell your car. It's a nice new Holden, with a V8 under the hood and shiny new mag's. If an elderly person comes to have a look at your car, how do you sell it to them? You need to emphasise the features that will appeal to them.

The same applies to the style in which you put your case forward. Everyone has different taste when it comes to the way that they respond to a marketing pitch. Some people like simplicity so it would be useful to use diagrams, examples, and to make it logically structured. Some people like detail so you should dot the i's and cross the t's. Some people want to make a decision immediately - be prepared to accommodate this. Finally, some people want to think about it - again, be prepared for this scenario.

Following these simple rules will greatly enhance your chance of marketing success!

Do you sell the sizzle, not the steak?

'Selling the sizzle, not the steak" - the benefits, not the features - is a basic selling principle that's been around for thousands of years. We all know that people buy a 1/4-inch drill so that they can make a 1/4-inch hole. But I'm always amazed at how many businesses, large and small, keep on plugging the features of their product or service, and omit the benefits to the user.

• Engineers list the technical specs
• Lawyers list all of the services they offer
• Software houses plug the bells and whistles of version 6.3
• Airlines describe their full destination lists
• ..and so on. Look at any six adverts in a business magazine, and I'll bet that at least three fall into this trap.

A good example of a benefit is shown in this Colgate toothpaste slogan; "Your teeth will be whiter so you can smile with confidence."

Of course, features do need to be described. That's one way of convincing prospects that you can deliver the benefits that prospective customers want. However, if you concentrate only on the features, the prospect may well yawn and say "So what?" Is your business guilty as charged? Here's 3 ways to check:

• Look closely at your sales literature - including sales letters that you write. How many times are features described without stating the benefits of that feature?
• Check your sales peoples' reports (verbal as well as written). How many times do they state what features the prospect wants rather than the real needs of the prospect, the benefits that s/he is looking for?
• When you are in a sales situation, just listen to yourself. Are you so carried away with the excellent features of your product or service that you are not taking the trouble to find out what the prospect really wants?

Do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts?

Management seem to have a huge focus on facts and figures and much like most other things in the business arena, in marketing you need to be able to put numbers to your results. You'll need to justify why you chose one option over another with a solid figure. Because there are a myriad of ways in which you can market your products/services there's a managerial expectation that you'll be able to reflect on its performance.

For example if you're coordinating some outbound calling, you need to make sure that all of the calls that are made are logged and you can query for closing rates. See our outbound rules for more detail. In addition when you're measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns you need to know what marketing figures are considered a success for your different types of marketing campaigns. For example direct mail campaigns with a conversion rate of 2%-5% is considered a success due to the volume of people we contact.

Do you have a consistent brand image?

Once you have figured out your brand image we think that the most important thing is sticking to it and applying it in every little facet of your business. As you're surfing the SSW website you'll notice a very consistent approach to branding. Our fonts, tables and headings are in exactly the same format and we have applied this to our email signatures, product banners, newsletters and company brochures. Details

Do you rotate your marketing communications?

The way that marketing communications strategy is planned and measured is through the concepts of frequency and reach. Frequency being how often the message is broadcast, and reach being how many people receive it. We cover the frequency part of the equation by rotating our product advertising on a monthly basis and increasing our reach by applying this rotation to several different points of contact.

For example:

Figure: In July 2003, we advertised Incident PRO! on our home page

Figure: That month we also featured Incident PRO! on all of our staff's email footers

Figure: Incident PRO! was also featured in our July 2003 Newsletter

At the end of the month we would check the click throughs that these links have generated which will allow us to compare one marketing point of contact against another. Then in the following month we would simply rotate the ad. Here's a scenario that depicts how we envisage our strategy to work.

Joe is surfing on the Internet for an email management utility:

1. He finds our website on the Internet (probably through Google) then sees on our homepage an ad about Incident PRO!
2. If he downloads our software and receives it via email he's sees another Incident PRO! ad
3. If he has any contact with our employees (mainly via email) he'll once again see an ad in the email footers
4. Later on in the month Joe will receive the newsletter with Incident PRO! advertised.

This means that Joe has had a chance to see the same ad at least four times by the end of the month. All this at a total cost of zero dollars!

Do you plan in advance for your marketing campaigns?

In marketing good timing is the key to a successful campaign. As a smart marketer you need to remember that some campaigns can take weeks or even months to start heating up whilst others can take just a few days.

For example SSW have found that when we plan to market our training events, the best time for an aggressive direct mail and telemarketing campaign is 4 weeks prior to the event. Any sooner than that and the prospects will often ask you to call again when it comes closer to the date. If you start your marketing for your events too late, like 5 days prior to the event, your chances of making a sale decrease significantly. Remember that people often need to gain management approval for the funding and time off work. Only rarely will you find someone willing to book in just a few days prior to the event.

Do you bring evaluation forms to every event you speak at?

The best way to find out how your clients and customers think about you is to ask them. If you're not up to putting your pride on the line by asking them yourself then the next best way is to use surveys or evaluation forms. It's discrete, impartial and gives the evaluator a chance to add comments that may be difficult to say to you in person.

At SSW we bring our eval forms to every event we run or speak at. This allows us to reflect on our performance and run some quantitative analysis on the survey results. Take a look at our Speakers and Presentation Evaluation Form.

Do your evaluation forms identify prospects?

An evaluation form can be a great method of collecting information both about your own performance and the needs and wants of your market. You should always have questions in your evaluation forms that will allow you to add elements to your database which can be queried against in the future.

In the SSW Speakers and Presentation Evaluation Form we give people the chance to provide some feedback as well as ask some questions which will allow us to identify new prospects and their interests. This information is invaluable and your company database should be set up to hold and query this information. But remember the golden rule of collecting information is to give people the chance to "opt out" of being contacted in the future. Failing to do this is in breach of  privacy laws. On our evaluation forms we have a link to our privacy policy. 

Do you use door prizes and giveaways at your events?

A golden rule of marketing is:

"People love gifts and surprises"

Taking this into consideration: a great and effective way to promote your company is to give people free stuff. A very simple yet effective method. Each month at the Sydney .NET User Group, attendees receive SSW show bags filled with free software and company brochures. User group attendees are also encouraged to hand in their eval forms with a lucky dip prize. People love anything that is free so always bring more than enough. Just remember that when you're giving things away make sure you have something genuine to offer them aside from your sales/company brochures.

When we were at TechEd in New Orleans our conference booth was right next to Dan Appleman's booth. He had a barrel which spun around like the ones you find on bingo nights, and every day we'd see hundreds of developers line up for half an hour for a chance to win the raffle. I was amazed at the lengths people would go to for a chance to win something so insignificant as a plastic toy.

So what have I learnt from this experience? Next time we're getting a bigger barrel!

Do you take advantage of every point of contact?

Every point of contact that you have with your customers is a potential to sell them something, whether that be other products or services or even to sell the company as a whole by saying how great we are.

Here are some examples of how we take advantage of every point of contact with our target market:

• At SSW we send a tech breakfast flyer with the invoices that we send via snail mail
• We give out SSW bags and flyers at our User Group
• Have advertisements at the bottom of our email footers
• All SSW staff wear SSW shirts when meeting with prospects/clients
• When we present at other events our slides are branded with the SSW logo

We think that it's the little things like this that may make the difference!

Is your website a useful reference for your target market?

We are often taken aback with the cool features and things we can do with HTML and JavaScript allowing us to create websites with snazzy menu bars and visually enticing brochure websites. Whilst those might look cool, we think that the great websites are ones that are useful with valuable content.

At SSW we're committed to adding valuable content to our website for our target audience (IT Managers and Developers). Our developers are constantly adding to our knowledge base answering questions that are emailed to us from developers across the globe. We're also very open about our rules and standards and believe that if you see eye to eye with our standards, you're probably exactly the kind of client we want.

Do you use both conventional and American spelling for your Google Adwords?

At SSW we have a Google Adwords account that allows us to reach a targeted audience based on the keywords they use to search the Internet. While testing the effectiveness of the keywords in our Adwords account, we realised that if we use Australian spelling a lot of our US customers won't find us, and vice versa.

Thus if you are using Adwords or a similar system, it's a good idea to include all variations on the spelling of a word to ensure you don't miss out on any potential customers. The beauty of the system is that if nobody searches on a word it doesn't cost you a cent, so it makes sense to include as many as possible!

Do you use American spelling for your Website?

Being an Aussie this rule is controversial but we feel that it is worth it for the following reasons. We regularly use web traffic analysis to monitor who is using our web site and most of our users are American. We want our website to cater to the majority of our users. For this reason we use American spelling on our site. Phonetically it makes more sense.

Do you regularly audit your Google Adwords Account?

After learning about the Google Adwords lawsuit pursued by Lanes Gifts & Collectibles, which resulted in a $90M settlement by Google, we put in place redirect files to keep track of the amount of clicks obtained from our Adwords. Up until April 2006, we were led to believe that the amount of clicks Google were specifying were the number of clicks we were receiving. How wrong we were! After implementing the redirect files, we quickly learnt that the number of clicks of one of our campaigns was incorrect and we were being overcharged.

By implementing redirect files, we can keep track of exactly how many clicks are being generated by our Adwords. Hence, we can see which campaigns are more effective and just as importantly, we can keep track of exactly how much we should be charged for this.

Do you have a waiting area that reinforces your marketing profile?

We believe in reinforcing your company profile at every appropriate opportunity. The appearance of your office to your company profile is like your clothes to your personal profile, and although it may appear odd to cover yourself with marketing paraphernalia as you walk down the street, it's good business sense to use your office as a marketing tool.

At SSW we direct all our visiting clients into the boardroom for a brief period, which contains useful information about us, such as framed degree's and information and testimonials from our long list of satisfied customers.

Do you utilize advertising mediums?

Whether your business is big or small Advertising is an essential way of exposing customers to your brands. With the increasing competitiveness of business these days it is essential that your advertising has the greatest impact.

As such, we feel it necessary to identify the different forms of advertising mediums.

• Television
• Radio
• Newspaper
• Outdoor (from billboards to pole posters)
• Magazines
• Internet (from banner ads to websites)
• Direct Mail

Now details of SSW previous experience with those advertising mediums we feel are more applicably to the I.T. industry:

    Magazines

•  BPR: very strong response
• Smart Access: good
• Advisor: good
• SQL Server Magazine
• Communique: absolutely hopeless - we have had 0 response from full page ads.

    Internet

• Banner ads: We have had the best responses with the following websites:

• Google
• SQL Server