News and Observer
Published Sun, Dec 20, 2009 02:00 AM
Modified Fri, Dec 18, 2009 06:46 PM
Modified Fri, Dec 18, 2009 06:46 PM
Grace W. Ueng is CEO of Savvy Marketing Group in Cary, which works with various local companies. A consultant, speaker and writer, Ueng has served on the adjunct faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School and in the international MBA program at Fudan in Shanghai, a joint venture with MIT Sloan School, teaching "Entrepreneurial Marketing and Innovation." For several weeks in Work & Money, Ueng is offering her 12-step guide to marketing new and existing businesses. Last week, she discussed how to promote products (to catch up, go to www.newsobserver.com/business).
Step 10: Get leads that generate sales
Continually test appropriate lead generation vehicles that make sense for your category such as e-mail marketing, search engine optimization, paid search, direct mail, targeted trade shows and conferences, or a motivating referral program. Track the return on investment of each marketing program to know what to refine, continue or drop.
Sales teams will always desire high quality leads. They don't want to be calling into unqualified opportunities. Clay Ritchey, vice president of marketing and strategy for Hill-Rom IT Solutions, made the promise to his sales organization that marketing would not hand over leads unless they met certain criteria.
Ritchey explained that leads handed over to sales must have a budget and accountable decision maker, a demonstrated need that Hill-Rom can fulfill and a timeline to purchase within 12-18 months. The sales team then agrees to make contact within a week.
Dan Clem, director of marketing at AlertNow, said that large events have proved the most effective in reaching his company's target audience, K-12 educators.
Events require great attention to detail before, during and after the show. Companies should step back and think through the goals and corresponding key components to their trade show and conference sponsorship strategy to warrant the investment required. Goals could include: driving awareness with media and analysts who can influence the market, generating prospects for sales, and connecting with potential partners.
Often the leads generated from trade shows are not as targeted as with other marketing programs.
How to evaluate
Before signing on for a trade show, evaluate:
Analyze the return on investment of the past year's shows - what the total costs were, how many leads were generated and what business (deals, public relations, partnerships) yielded as a result.
Immediately upon accepting the worldwide marketing leadership role for TogetherSoft in Raleigh, I inherited the responsibility for launching a new product at the largest trade show in the category we competed.
I thought about how we could let our broader target market that would all be in attendance (many of which used our competition) learn about the key attributes that our smaller, but loyal users had come to rely on. We came up with "The TogetherSoft Challenge" a la the Pepsi Challenge.
From my research, we knew where we excelled, and we crafted a simple survey for software developers (our target audience) to rate us against our competition after viewing the latest version of our software tool. Those that viewed the demo and then took the survey were entered into a drawing for a BMW StreetCarver skateboard.
We had hundreds participate after viewing our demo and more than 90 percent thought TogetherSoft performed better and was the preferred product.
We sent the survey results to trade publications and industry analysts resulting in extensive coverage. Several months later, one of the two competitors of TogetherSoft purchased the venture-backed company.
Step 10: Get leads that generate sales
Continually test appropriate lead generation vehicles that make sense for your category such as e-mail marketing, search engine optimization, paid search, direct mail, targeted trade shows and conferences, or a motivating referral program. Track the return on investment of each marketing program to know what to refine, continue or drop.
Sales teams will always desire high quality leads. They don't want to be calling into unqualified opportunities. Clay Ritchey, vice president of marketing and strategy for Hill-Rom IT Solutions, made the promise to his sales organization that marketing would not hand over leads unless they met certain criteria.
Ritchey explained that leads handed over to sales must have a budget and accountable decision maker, a demonstrated need that Hill-Rom can fulfill and a timeline to purchase within 12-18 months. The sales team then agrees to make contact within a week.
Dan Clem, director of marketing at AlertNow, said that large events have proved the most effective in reaching his company's target audience, K-12 educators.
Events require great attention to detail before, during and after the show. Companies should step back and think through the goals and corresponding key components to their trade show and conference sponsorship strategy to warrant the investment required. Goals could include: driving awareness with media and analysts who can influence the market, generating prospects for sales, and connecting with potential partners.
Often the leads generated from trade shows are not as targeted as with other marketing programs.
How to evaluate
Before signing on for a trade show, evaluate:
- Is this a must-attend show (especially, to continue to be on good terms with a key partner)?
- Will there be opportunities to speak that can contribute to your company's stature as a "thought leader"? You may need to plan months in advance of the show to make their deadlines. Develop a couple of topics.
- Is the timing appropriate to launch a new product? If so, be sure the product is ready by show time.
- How many attendees does the show organizer expect, and what titles and companies will be present? How closely does this fit with your target audience?
- What is the total cost of the show,, and what is predicted average cost per lead?
- How many people will it take to staff, and can you afford to take sales reps out of the field - is this the best use of time? If not, do you have non-sales staff available? Or a hybrid approach?
- What press will be attending? Can you get the media list and make appointments ahead of time?
- Can you obtain an attendee list to market directly to each before and after the event?
- What are booth size choices, and what will be your messaging, promotional idea, and signage/communications? How will you stand out?
- Can you get prime positioning by registering earlier? What size booth are your competitors taking?
Analyze the return on investment of the past year's shows - what the total costs were, how many leads were generated and what business (deals, public relations, partnerships) yielded as a result.
Immediately upon accepting the worldwide marketing leadership role for TogetherSoft in Raleigh, I inherited the responsibility for launching a new product at the largest trade show in the category we competed.
I thought about how we could let our broader target market that would all be in attendance (many of which used our competition) learn about the key attributes that our smaller, but loyal users had come to rely on. We came up with "The TogetherSoft Challenge" a la the Pepsi Challenge.
From my research, we knew where we excelled, and we crafted a simple survey for software developers (our target audience) to rate us against our competition after viewing the latest version of our software tool. Those that viewed the demo and then took the survey were entered into a drawing for a BMW StreetCarver skateboard.
We had hundreds participate after viewing our demo and more than 90 percent thought TogetherSoft performed better and was the preferred product.
We sent the survey results to trade publications and industry analysts resulting in extensive coverage. Several months later, one of the two competitors of TogetherSoft purchased the venture-backed company.
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