Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Marketing for 2009


One of my favorite websites for information on new web marketing tactics is Duct Tape Marketing even though it is supposed to be for small businesses-I find a lot of practical advice and free webinars on hot topics such as Social Media. It looks like that will be the keyword for Marketing 2009. Here are some general tips to help you change your mindset:

focus on your ideal customer
find a unique value proposition
educate instead of sell
be found as opposed to hunt
harness the Internet

One of my favorite authors on the New Marketing is David Meerman Scott--his quote for tips for 2009: David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR said . . . stop spending $$ on marketing. Instead create interesting information people WANT to consume. -

Please feel free to download this free ebook published by MS on Social Media--is basic but does have some good tips:
A free ebook on social media for small business-but there is still some good advice for medium sized businesses.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Should Analyst Relations Focus on Sales?

This is the title of an article by Kevin Lucas, Forrester. The subtitle is: "It's Not Just the Wrong Question-It's Downright Misleading." so you can guess what Kevin's answer is. From Forrester's perspective the real question should be: What corporate business value can AR Deliver and that may or may not be Sales. Forrester's research shows that AR managers felt more confident about reaching goals for marketing and product management.

Kevin lists other values that AR can bring including:
  • Share Value
  • Product and Service Creation
  • Market Awareness and perception
  • Order to Cash
  • Service and Support

His recommendations are:

  1. Clarify which corporate business goals you'll support
  2. Align all elements of your AR program with the chosen business goals
  3. Be realistic about what you can really acheive

My take on this is that all of the above is true-- in a different economic environment; however, many companies are in survival mode now, or worse, and are cutting marketing and AR functions and focusing only on sales and the short term. Although this is not a recommended strategy--that is the reality of the situation right now and AR has to pay attention to the shift.

In light of this, I believe that AR must focus on Sales for at least one of their goals--no matter how difficult it is to execute--it can be done. In addition, the other goals mentioned are very difficult to quantify and if you can assist in shortenting the sales process-that will be noticed and is quantifiable. What do you think? I will discuss how AR can affect sales in the next post. Comments welcome.