Marketing Branding Branding is different in some crucial ways, including the need to closely align corporate brands, divisional brands and product/service brands and to apply your brand standards to material often considered “informal” such as email and other electronic correspondence. Service Due to the fact that business customers are focused on creating shareholder value for themselves, the cost-saving or revenue-producing benefits of products and services are important to factor in throughout the product development and marketing cycles. Target market Problems, solutions alternatives, decision support Quite often, the target market for a business service is smaller and has more specialized needs reflective of a specific industry or segment of the market, can be described in terms of firmographics which requires marketers to have good business intelligence in order to increase response rates. Regardless of the size of the target market, the business customer is making an organizational purchase decision and the dynamics of this, both procedurally and in terms of how they value the product offered, differ dramatically from the consumer market. There may be multiple influencers on the purchase decision, which may also have to be marketed to, though they may not be members of the decision making unit. In addition the research and decision making process a buyer undertakes will be more extensive. Pricing The business market can be convinced to pay premium prices more often than the consumer market if you know how to structure your pricing and payment terms well. This pricing premium is particularly achievable if you support it with a strong brand. Promotion Promotion planning is relatively easy when you know the decision making habits of your customer base and what they are looking for, not to mention the vocabulary unique to their segment. Specific trade shows, analysts, publications, blogs and retail/wholesale outlets tend to be fairly common to each industry/product area. What this means is that once you figure it out for your industry/product, the promotion plan almost writes itself (depending on your budget) but figuring it out can be a special skill and it takes time to build up experience in your specific field. Promotion techniques rely heavily on marketing communications strategies Sales and Distribution The importance of a knowledgeable, experienced and effective direct (inside or outside) sales force is often critical in the business market. If you sell through distribution channels also, the number and type of sales forces can vary tremendously and your success as a marketer is highly dependent on their success. Communications methodologies The purpose of business marketing communications is to support the organizations sales effort and improve company profitability. Business marketing communications tactics generally include advertising, public relations, direct mail, trade show support, sales collateral, branding, and interactive services such as website design and search engine optimization. Positioning statement An important first step in business to business marketing is the development of your positioning statement. This is a statement of what you do and how you do it differently, as well as how it will be better and more efficient than your competitors. Developing messages The next step is to develop your messages. There is usually a primary message that conveys more strongly to your customers, what you do and the benefit it offers to them. This is often supported by a number of secondary messages, each of which may have a number of supporting arguments, facts and figures. Campaign plans Doesnt matter which business marketing campaign will take, you need to build a comprehensive plan up front to target resources where you believe they will deliver the best return on investment, and make sure you have all the infrastructure in place to support each stage of the marketing process - and that doesnt just include developing the lead - make sure the entire organization is geared up to handle the inquiries appropriately. Briefing an agency A standard briefing document is usually a good idea for briefing an agency. As well as focusing the agency on whats important to you and your campaign. It serves as a checklist of all the important things to consider as part of your brief. Typical elements to an agency brief are: Your objectives, target market, target audience, product, campaign description, your product positioning, graphical considerations, corporate guidelines, and any other supporting material and distribution. Measuring results The real value in results measurement is in tying the marketing campaign back to business results. After all, you’re not in the business of developing marketing campaigns for marketings sake. So always put metrics in place to measure your campaigns, and if at all possible, measure your impact upon your desired objectives, be it Cost per Acquisition, Cost per Lead or tangible changes in customer perception.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:34:56 +0000
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