Marketing Logic for Small Companies



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According to the Wiktionary, logic is “A method of human thought that involves thinking in a linear, step-by-step manner about how a problem can be solved.” This is the context in which I would like to present what I refer to as Venmark Marketing Logic. Put simply, you want your products and/or services in front of a prospective customer when the need for such a product or service exists. The need might be precipitated by new product development, vendor price increases or failures, or some other event. Most importantly, you want your company to be perceived as a problem-solver when the opportunity arises: a simple and logical approach.
 
Contrary to what many industrial and  technical entrepreneurs think, marketing is more than Google Searching and getting high rankings in search engines. According to the American Marketing Association, "Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.” For our purposes, we won’t discuss CRM (customer relationship management). Let’s focus on the idea of creating, communica-ting, and delivering value to customers. 
 
Many engineers, especially, assume that if somebody needs a widget, they’ll “Google” it and, therefore, all you have to do is have a strong internet presence with SEO (search engine optimization). Partially true. But, it presumes “awareness by the customer that a problem exists.” That is a costly assumption because it excludes all those potential sales situations in which customers weren’t aware that they had a problem.  Effective marketing stimulates and preconditions prospective customers to recognize that your company offers solutions to their problems. Even problems they never knew they had! In the early 1980’s, for example, people didn’t know they had a “typing problem” until word processors arrived on the scene and made it clear that typing speed, faster corrections, type selection options, and storage were all easier using a word processor. 
 
Peter Nielsen of Sail Magazine wrote about a product he chose to publicize for one of our clients, “This is one of those handy little gizmos you never knew you needed before you saw it.”  That says it all!   What caught Mr. Nielsen’s attention in Sail Magazine is that we illustrated how a mounting shaft collar, typically used in an industrial setting, can also solve a problem on a yacht. He recognized the value and chose to present it to his readers.
 
Let’s revisit the concept of “Venmark Marketing Logic.” It combines science and art to [1.] Put your products in front of prospective customers when they perceive a need for your products or services. [2.] Illustrate how your products can solve specific  problems in order to attract prospective customers who have an identified need. [3.] Precondition prospective clients to think about your company’s problem-solving expertise through the repetitive and collective illustration of same. [4.] Increase organic search engine positioning, because Google’s page rank technology is based on the idea that the best way to find relevant information is to prioritize search results not by the characteristics of a document, but by the number of websites that are linking to it. (Source: Wikinomics, Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Penguin Group, ©2008)
 
Only one marketing tool can achieve all four elements above: product publicity. The challenge with product publicity today is to be recognized through all the noise and clutter on the web and in our mailboxes; both electronic and postal. The reason why product publicity is so valuable is because editors select the information which they believe will interest their readers and present it to them as news like Mr. Nielson did in the above example. As such, there is an implied “third party endorsement.”  Publicity is “news and information” selected by editors, web hosts and bloggers and it is published to inform their readers. Consequently it has more value than a sponsored message. News always has!  Executed properly, an effective product publicity campaign generates high quality sales leads, puts you in front of prospective customers consistently, and does this cost-effectively.
 
 
Product Publicity is much more than a press release
and can accomplish a lot more too
 
Today, the job of a product publicist is more challenging and important than ever before because of cyber-clutter. He or she must be ever more creative in describing a product’s features and benefits as well as illustrating how the product can solve a problem. There’s a huge difference between writing and distributing a press release and preparing the proper publicity materials. A press release by definition is: information supplied to reporters for them to make known to the public.  So, why will reporters choose to publish one press release over another? A reporter or editor will choose to publish one press release over another based upon the presentation, relevance, and the reliability of their source. As Al Ries co-author of The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR noted, a product publicist stimulates the interest of editors.
 
Venmark International created a business model which lets us stimulate the interest of editors with information designed to help them accomplish their goals of providing newsworthy information to their readers. The logic here is simple: a reader is never going to read about a product if the editor doesn’t choose to publish it. Russ Kratowicz, P.E., Senior Editor of Plant Services Magazine commented on the quality of Venmark International’s work by saying, “In short, when I see the characteristic “editor-friendly” Venmark press release, I know it is worth-while for me to read it because I know it contains information that I cannot afford to ignore. The now familiar format means I know exactly where to look for the information I need. That makes my life easier.” Over the last 33 years, this philosophy has resulted in numerous unsolicited testimonials from editors:
 
            Stimulating the interest of editors is only half of the equation. The other half is to help clients identify “valid publicity opportunities” which will illustrate their ability to solve specific problems and attract sales inquiries from the right prospective clients. As Mike Kempkes, Vice President Sales and Marketing of Diversified Technologies, Inc. wrote, "The response to thesepublicity releases has provided a concrete measure of the relative importance of different publications, markets, and products to our future growth. This information has allowed us to precisely tailor our marketing efforts into areas with the highest payoff. The ability to measure results from an effective product publicity program was echoed by Matt Brennan, President of Esco Tool. He wrote, "The publicity we have received in Chile and Argentina has resulted in business we otherwise would not have gotten. We are also receiving Web site visits from companies there. In fact, we recently received a $35,000.00 order and know that Venmark International is the only source for it. More client feedback can be found at: www.venmarkinternational.com/marketing_industrial/publicity-client-testimonials.php 
 
Product publicity has long been the most cost-effective way to “brand” your company as a problem-solver by demonstrating how your products can solve different problems and doing this in the publications and websites that get read by your prospects and customers. Every product has different features, benefits, and applications; all of which can become the fodder for effective press releases. This section of our website has thousands of problem-solving news clips from all types of industries: 
 
Today, as David Meerman Scott wrote in his book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR,” the web provides us with the opportunity to go directly to the website or blog visitor and reach potential buyers directly. That is a terrific benefit for marketers and all the more reason to create effective product news releases. Today we can reach editors and our prospective customers directly. Scott wrote, “Don’t just send news releases when big news is happening; find good reasons to send them all the time.” That has been a distinctive aspect of Venmark International’s business success and what we have been doing for our clients since 1977.

              Anybody can pay their money and get listed on various electronic media press release distribution services and join in on the web clutter, but getting the attention of the right editors for your products is essential and critical to putting your company in a position to get solid inquiries from the right prospective customers. Venmark International knows how to get exposure for products in the right media outlets. And the same logic applies to preparing news releases that convey the right message to your prospective customers. We learned this difficult lesson for ourselves when we distributed a press release about our new brochure entitled, “Maximum Visibility.” What happened was we received numerous, time-wasting inquiries from companies who sold everything from windows to eyeglasses. It turned out that our “clever” brochure title should have been “Maximum Product Visibility.” By omitting the word “product” we really hurt our marketing efforts.

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© 2010-2012 Steven M. Stroum

Steven M. Stroum is the founder and president of Venmark International, an industrial and technical product publicity firm located in Wellesley, Massachusetts www.venmarkinternational.com

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© 2010-2012 Steven M. Stroum