Don't Be Out-Marketed: Selling in the New Reality

Don’t Be Out-Marketed: Selling in the New Reality

SPI’S BUSINESS OF PLASTICS CONFERENCE

Sponsored by: Trefoil Group

Presented by: Mary Scheibel & Christy Domanoski

April, 2012


• Agenda– Introduction – Marketing in Manufacturing Today: Key trends – Review of 2011 Marketing Effectiveness Research – Your Brand: A Company’s Most Important Asset– Execution of a Strategic Marketing Program

• Today’s new fundamentals– Website/online– Lead nurturing and content marketing– Employee engagement

Sponsored by: Trefoil Group Presented by: Mary Scheibel & Christy Domanoski


• About Trefoil Group– Full service strategic marketing communications firm

• Business/strategic counselors • Solid understanding of both traditional and new mediums• Experience in attracting both customers and talent

– B2B with 20 years of experience in manufacturing• Niche focus in plastics – Clients have included material

suppliers, toolmakers, equipment manufacturers, processors and related associations

Sponsored by: Trefoil Group Presented by: Mary Scheibel Presented by: Mary Scheibel & Christy Domanoski


• Our Three Critical Success Factorso Partner with business leaders to align communications with

vision, objectives and strategies driving the businesso Create meaningful differentiation through brand-based

communications, grounded in research o Integrate communications to reach target audiences

wherever they are – with information they care about


Marketing in Manufacturing Today: Key Trends


• Marketing in Manufacturing Today– New opportunities. New technologies. New tools.– Expanded focus

• From lead generation to lead nurturing• Attracting talent as well as customers

– Today’s new B2B customer is armed with information and sometimes knows more than you do!

– Marketing savvy, yet inferior competitors can beat you more easily than ever before



• Key Findings: 2011 Marketing Effectiveness (Research conducted in partnership with Plastics News)


52.90%

24.20%– A significant shift: companies

are investing more in marketing than in sales

– Feet on the street no longer enough:

• 50% report sales are reaching less than 50% of their targets


• Key Findings: 2011 Marketing Effectiveness – 72% claim unique niche expertise (in what they do or

how they do it), but don’t communicate this well


Sales c

onversa

tions

Internal c

ommunications

Websit

e/onlin

e prese

nce

Marke

ting materia

ls

44.10% 35.90%23.50% 28.80%

22.90%20.30%

10.10% 5.60%

Above Average Excellent


• Key Findings: 2011 Marketing Effectiveness – 75% say recruitment is critical to success, but don’t

know how to reach younger audiences


71.60%59.80%

48.10%39.60%

40.50%31.70%

20.60%18.70%

Felt the following are impor-tant/very important to future success

Ranked themselves as very good or excellent at the fol-lowing


• What This Means to Us As Marketers– The risk: Companies are increasing investments, but

not necessarily ROI• Creates ongoing dissatisfaction with marketing• If you’re not connecting what you’re doing to the goals of the

business, you are part of the problem and not the solution

– The opportunity: To connect marketing to the goals and objectives of the business, creating measurable ROI.



• The More Specific Opportunity: – Be strategic in aligning marketing with sales strategies– Move the needle from lead generation to lead nurturing – Create meaningful differentiation that speaks to both customers

and recruits– Own the leadership position where you can– Integrate programs to include face-to-face, digital, PR and social

media– Equip your employees to be brand ambassadors in your

marketplace and your communities



• Bottom-line Opportunity – Create metrics to measure the true success of your

program• Business goals, not open rates or click-throughs

– Demand a return on your program• New opportunities to show ROI through targeted sales

augmentation • If marketing is an investment, not an expense, than we as

marketers need to prove it.


Your Brand: A Company’s Most Important Asset


• The brand is a company’s most important, yet most overlooked asset– As important in B2B as it is in B2C– Crucial in both customer and talent acquisition

• Your brand is what you want people to think about you

Your Company = X



• Common Branding Pitfalls– Basing your brand on the category you’re in

• Leading Plastics Injection Molders• Thermoforming Experts

– Staking your claim to entry level attributes• Solutions Provider• Meeting or exceeding customer expectations

– Relying on internal perceptions of your value– Mimicking what your competitors do and say



• Good Brands:– Establish relevance, personality and connect

emotionally – Specify the company's value proposition– Change the conversation– Reposition the competition as followers– Drive perceptions externally and the culture internally– Differentiate the company for a competitive advantage



• Strong Brands Produce ROI By:– Sustaining differentiation in a crowded marketplace– Supporting premium pricing/guarding against price-

based competition– Accelerating entry into new markets– Recruiting and retaining top talent– Increasing enterprise value



• Discover Your Brand – Answer key questions:

• What do you do better than anyone else? • How does this align with what your target audiences care

about today and in the future?

– Conduct research – Information today is easy & fast• Internal interviews with leadership, sales and others• Company-wide on-line surveys• External research with customers, suppliers, industry experts

– Face-to-face, telephone, focus groups, on-line



• Discover Your Brand– Look at your competitors

• Your value is a relative assessment against the value I can get somewhere else

– Be different. Not the same.• Understand what your competitors are saying and determine

the opportunity to say something better• Remember, if everything else is equal, all that’s left is price



• Bring Your Brand to Life – Maintain consistency throughout all communications

• Core narrative, communication keys to launch and cap conversations

• Align messaging with audience needs and concerns

– Be creative• Reach the consumer that’s in all of us• Make it compelling. Make it memorable. Make it relevant.



• Bring Your Brand to Life:


Designing & Implementing a Strategic Program


• Key elements of a strategic marketing communications plan:– Goals, strategies, key action items and metrics– Timeline, budget and responsibility – Integration across all platforms and technologies– Audience-specific messaging in the context of your

overall brand promise– Integrate new thinking into your plan without

abandoning what’s already working



The New Fundamentals:• Your Website: The #1 B2B Marketing Tool

• Create your website as a marketing portal– Hub for both outbound and inbound marketing– Make it engaging and easy to navigate– Optimize your site for easy search engine discovery– Use on-line newsrooms to build awareness and leadership

reputation– Use microsites and landing pages to reach specific target

audiences with audience-specific messaging and to increase quality content for search engines to index



The New Fundamentals:• Create a robust online presence:

– Customers are now their own gatekeepers• Active users of websites, social networks, search engines,

product/company reviews, news venues, industry bloggers

– Create profiles and become active in the social networks that make sense for you

– Ensure you have a clear, consistent and compelling brand across all channels



The New Fundamentals:• Make marketing communications your

supplemental sales force– Deepen relationships, keep prospects warm, free your

sales team to focus on more productive prospect engagement.

– Use tools to help navigate this new buying cycle• Lead nurturing software• Content development and marketing process



• Embrace Lead Nurturing & Content Marketing – Integrate a CRM system and/or marketing automation

software to manage this lead nurturing process– Reach prospects with customized messaging or offers– Learn about and embrace online, social behaviors



• Content Marketing– Nurtures prospects until they are qualified, educated

and ready-to-buy, then pass to saleso Maximizes marketing investment while controlling cost of

sale– Content marketing samples:

o Company blog - provides current insights and informationo E-communications vehicles, e-newsletterso White papers and primary researcho Video content



• Content Marketing



• Equip Your Employees to Be Ambassadors– Provide consistent messaging that they can take to

the marketplace• Hold the promise of your brand • Viral channels, social media, word-of-mouth • Produce social media policies

– Distribute internal communications • E-newsletter• Internal social network (i.e. Chatter)

– Reward and recognize top performers



• Questions?


Don't Be Out-Marketed: Selling in the New Reality

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Transcript of Don't Be Out-Marketed: Selling in the New Reality