aMarketForce Marketing Services

Content multi-purposing takes utmost advantage of existing or new content by repurposing and disseminating it across all communication channels, with channel-appropriate formats, at appropriate levels of detail, all with modest incremental effort, while ensuring adherence to all corporate, legal and delivery standards.

In this blog we will discuss in detail some of the benefits of content multi-purposing / repurposing.

• Efficient content creation, management and delivery

Content writing, management and content review requires a lot of time. The actual challenge is to ensure that (before a product is released to the market) all the possible documentation is done well in advance.  Strategic content re-purposing helps you shorten this content-creation-and-review cycle and ensure that the product is released , fully supported with documentation, on time.

• Consistent quality of content  through a standard  input format

Quality is a major factor while developing content. Content Re-purposing ensures that the quality of the documentation remains consistent, and is not compromised across formats and delivery channels.

• Easy content updates that are quickly made available to all output formats

aMarketForce multi-purposing technology ensures that content updates  made in the source document are available to update all downstream delivery content formats.

• Automated delivery  for Sales, Support, Consulting, Marketing and other organizations

Multi-purposing makes user-appropriate content delivery to all teams, in their preferred format, faster and easier.

aMarketForce technology parses core content into data sheets that Sales can use, presentations for prospects, support Help CHM for use by tech support, or HTML on websites.

This is significantly more cost-effective as compared to creating each piece separately.

• Elimination of labor-intensive  manual review processes that are required to ensure compliance to corporate legal standards, corporate style and localization requirements.

Every document is automatically checked by the Standards Checker to comply with language, grammar, corporate style and legal guidelines automatically, eliminating most, if not all of the need for tedious manual reviews.

• Cost-effective across the organization.

Content re-purposing helps companies to same time and money.

To know more about our technical writing services, please email me at  dsharma@amarketforce.com.

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aMarketForce has recently introduced Technical writing and Documentation Services to its suite of offerings. In this and two successive blogs we will give you a brief overview of our technical writing and documentation services.

1. What is technical writing?
2. What is the purpose of technical writing?
3. What is good technical writing?
4. What is the difference between technical writing and technical documentation?
5. What sets aMarketForce apart as a provider of technical writing and documentation services.

What is technical writing?

Technical writing is used to communicate the technical aspects of a product or service to technical and non-technical audiences. Examples are the user manual of a consumer-oriented digital camera, the technical service manual for a car or instructions on how to operate a machine that makes parts for a TV. Fields as varied as engineering, chemistry, aerospace, computer hardware and software, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology all need technical documentation.

Technical writing teams are often referred to as Technical Documentation Groups, Information Development, User Assistance Teams, or Technical Publications Departments.

What is the purpose of technical writing?

The purpose of technical writing is to let readers understand technical materials and use them as needed without having to decode wordy and ambiguous writing. Technical writers put complex technical ideas into understandable words, for technical as well as non technical audiences.

What is good technical writing?

The three C’s of good technical writing are:

• Clear
• Concise
• Complete

Good technical writing clarifies technical jargon; that is, it presents useful information that is clear and easy to understand for the intended audience.

Poor technical writing may increase confusion by creating unnecessary technical jargon, or failing to explain unavoidable technical terms that readers would not be familiar with.

What makes aMarketForce different?

Differentiator # 1: aMarketForce has skilled technical writers who have written at length in several technical domains, so that we can go in and create documentation with little ramp-up time. While this may be a claim that is made universally, the one thing we DO NOT do is claim expertise in all areas. aMarketforce writers focus on software technology, Finance and banking, and marketing communications.

Differentiator # 2: Our capability to take in a diverse range of technical content in many different pre-existing formats, store it all in a manner where the ‘content’ is separated from the ‘format’, and the ability to take this ‘content’ and deliver it in a variety of formats, with the depth and complexity of the subject matter determined by the ultimate use as well as the output format. We call this content multi-purposing, or ‘Documentation Services’, and it will be the focus of the next blog.

To know more about our technical writing services, please email me at  dsharma@amarketforce.com.

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Been to our website recently?

The aMarketForce website has got a fresh new look, and it is much more focused on addressing problems that businesses face today.

Since it is our new-website-month it is seems apt that we blog this month on ‘Why a website needs a regular update’. Let us take a look at a few key areas that you need to consider before doing a website makeover.

Why makeover your website? Here are some benefits

• Tighter focus on current markets

o  Focus on customers current issues

o  Make it easier to navigate

o  Make it easier to reach us

• Better SEO – its time to do wholesale fixes

o  Fix the coding issues

o  Remove those extra tables

o  Make it Social – Add your Twitter, FB page links

o  Redo the meta tags

• Add fresh content – Relevant SEO friendly content

o  Add new pages

o  Rewrite to add new target keywords

• Increase Traffic – New traffic and new business

o  Promote the new website through PR, marketing campaigns

And some downsides:

• Cost – Do you have a budget yet?

o  You need to hire a programmer or website development company

o  You need a resource to manage the project – else it will flounder

• Additional work – Means extra hours
• Rewriting the pages – Now you need a writer too
• Redo SEO – Nightmare if Search aengines no longer credits you for your years of SEO work

o  Redo the link building if links changes

• Bottom line

o  – Is it worth it? Yes, for the new business and better focus on your current key markets.

o  Is it easy? No.

o  Would we do it again? Definitely, as the markets shift and we need to change our focus.

Additional information about aMarketForce marketing services can be found on www.amarketforce.com.

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Does your business have a huge email database? Do you know how accurate it is?

A typical database tends to go as much as 30% inaccurate annually as people move, relocate or change jobs. If you use an older list for your outreach efforts, you could unknowingly be starting out with a 30% miss rate right out of the gate.

Why cleanse your database?

Prospect databases get old really fast. With a 20-30 % industry attrition rate, 20% of your business email database gets outdated in every quarter. 5% of the database will have wrong phone numbers or email addresses. More than 5% of the typical database has missing or no information. For it to be fully effective, your database needs to be kept up regularly.

Email database hygiene is a major dread for salespeople and marketers. These two groups are database powerusers for their marketing and sales campaigns, and have little spare time to maintain databases. To have inside-sales-people spend time cleaning a database is a major disincentive for the salesperson, who is not working towards his numbers or earning sales bonuses while he cleans the database. Likewise, asking a marketer to clean a database is costing you much more. Bottom line, it is inefficient and cost-ineffective to use the time of an experienced executive who is not skilled in this area, to update a dirty database. On the other hand, using an ineffective database for marketing and sales campaigns will definitely not produce the results and ROI you expect. Catch 22? Not really.

Yes, there is there a better way to maintain your database. Now that you understand why database scrubbing is important, and that it needs to be an ongoing process, aMarketForce’s Integrated Database Validation Solution comes to the picture.

aMarketForce has a skilled team of database analysts, tele-callers and web researchers who are proficient in validating and cleaning large business databases and email lists. aMarketForce’s integrated database validation service  will scrub your existing databases, replace incorrect business contacts, update prospect contact information, validate titles, and ensure a uniform format, thus making it a current, correct and valuable sales asset. Email addresses and postal mailing addresses are also validated and fully appended, ensuring that your email and mailing campaigns are successful. To make sure your business database is always clean and current, aMarketForce recommends Integrated Database Validation Solution to our clients once every quarter.

Request a quote for aMarketForce’s integrated database scrubbing services: http://www.amarketforce.com/quote.php

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This blog is in continuation to our last blog Developing an Effective Marcom Strategy – 4 Elements you must know – Part I. This blog will discuss next 2 elements of Marcom strategy:  The Right Channel and Timing and Execution.

The Right Channel – Media Mix:

There are multitudes of channels available these days to reach your target audience. Based on your prospect profile, Marcom strategy, sales plan and budget you choose the correct mix of media channels to reach your audience.

Some marketing communication channels are listed below:

• Website
• Email
• Public relations
• Press Releases
• Print Advertising
• Web seminars
• Tradeshows
• Marketing Material – Brochures, Case Studies, Success Stories
• Event Sponsorships

Timing and Execution:

Timing is, of course, everything. So when is the best time to pitch your solution? The best time is when your prospects are thinking of starting their shopping; when the headache is but a distant glimmer in the future, but they know it will come and they are getting ready to deal with it. This is your golden hour of sales opportunity.

If you miss the opportunity, what happens?

They will continue with their shopping, find options, and start short-listing – without your name on their shopping list. You can make the list later, but remember, your competitors will be there already. At this time, your imperative is for them to be aware of your solution before their headache develops. You should be on their shopping list before they start making the list. Building your brand awareness is the key.

Message.

Do you give everyone the same message? Yes and No

Yes, to the ultimate solution. Everyone should know that your offering is the best medicine that will relieve their headache.

No, because different people are concerned with different aspects of the solution.

The finance person will want to know the overall cost. The decision maker wants to know the total effectiveness. The one dealing with the headache just wants the cure and so on.

One of the few ways to develop good messaging is by understanding the needs of all those involved in the decision-making process so that you are aware of everyone’s issues and can address them comprehensively.

Once your prospect understands that you get the full picture and are not merely intent on pushing your product, you will move the discussions to a higher level, gain credibility and trust, and opened the door for a long term relationship.

Conclusion: Proper execution of all elements of Marcom will lead you to achieving your Marcom goal and which ultimately drives sales.

aMarketForce services help in the development and execution of your Marcom goals. Additional information about aMarketForce marketing services can be found at www.amarketforce.com.

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In our last blog we had discussed the importance of Developing an Effective Marcom Strategy. This blog will focus on 4 important elements of effective Marcom strategy.

• Your Audience
• Your Message
• The Right Channel – Media Mix
• Timing and Execution

Your Audience:

Who are you trying to reach in your messaging?

There are at least three classes of people.

• The decision maker
• The influencer
• The person directly affected by the outcome of the decision, who might also be the one hurting the most.

Action item: Your targeted prospect database must be up-to-date and accurate. If you are not sure who you are messaging to, aren’t you wasting your time?

Your Message:

What should your message convey? The message should convey that you understand your audience issues and have a solution that can help.

How to say it? Say it in a manner that immediately resonates with your prospects, and has the answers they are looking for.

The right way: If you are selling a medicine that relieves headaches, say it like it is: Our product will relieve your headache.

The wrong way: If you start describing the sophistication of your European factory, the highly trained factory workers, the rigid quality control, you are not offering a solution to the prospects problem. You are leaving it to your prospect (who already has a headache) to make the connection between your gleaming factory that produces something, and the product that will relieve their headache.

Confused? Why beat around the bush? They want headache relief. Tell them your product relieves headaches.  Problem: Headache. Solution: my medicine.

Later, you will have plenty of opportunities to talk about the shiny stainless steel tanks, fully computerized production line etc. Right now, the headache needs relief. Give relief.

Bottom line: when you first get your prospects precious few seconds of attention, they should be convinced that you understand their pain and you’ve got the solution to their problem.

In our next blog we will discuss remaining 2 elements of Marcom Strategy.

aMarketForce services help in the development and execution of your marcom goals. Additional information about aMarketForce marketing services can be found at www.amarketforce.com.

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The right marcom strategy positions your business distinctively and gives your sales team the awareness umbrella they need while prospecting. On the other hand, a poorly crafted communications strategy can do serious damage: not only hurt sales but also company branding.

Marketing Communication’s core objective is to reach your target audience from within the vast audience pool out there, raise product/services awareness and promote sales. An effective marketing communications strategy will:

1.      Build awareness in the market

2.      Establish domain competency

3.      Provide an umbrella for your sales team

4.      Deliver a consistent brand experience

Your job as a marketer is to ensure that marcom messages and strategies are always aligned to your company’s longer term mission and its short term sales goals. Without a strategic marketing and sales plan, it is difficult to develop a consistent and effective marketing communication strategy.

Developing a marcom strategy is complex. It is important that you better understand your target audience and use the right traditional and internet-based channels, and the right messaging. To ensure that the right message reaches your target audience, the marketing and sales team need to work together to understand the customer’s needs and pain points, and be able to articulate your offering as the solution that the customer needs.

There are 4 important elements needed to develop an effective marcom strategy:

• Know Your Audience
• Focus Your Message
• Develop the Right Channel – Media mix

Get your Timing and Execution Right.

In the next few blogs we will discuss these four elements of an effective marketing communication strategy.

aMarketForce services help in the development and execution of your marcom goals. Additional information about aMarketForce marketing services can be found at www.amarketforce.com.

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In our last 2 blogs Successful Event Marketing and Event Recruitment and Successful Event Marketing and Event Recruitment, Part 2- Messaging and Promotion, we discussed how to develop the target audience, and create a messaging and promotion strategy. This blog will focus on event ROI measurement.

Part 3 – Measuring Event ROI

When a business spends money, it is important to quantify the benefit derived from that spend, otherwise known as the Return on Investment. For manufacturing equipment, measuring ROI is relatively simple. But for many marketing activities, it is not so easy.  The key question is:

What do I need to measure to be able to show the return on the money spent?

We know that the ultimate goal is to drive revenue. Sales and revenue generation is directly or indirectly is the primary objective of any sales event.

Event ROI therefore equals Event Sales Revenue divided by Total Event Expense.

Event ROI   =   Event Sales Revenue
Total Event Expense

If you try to measure the immediate, direct ROI, you are not going to meet expectations. Does that mean your marketing dollars got wasted? Is revenue the only objective of any event? How do you justify the revenue generated in future by events which played a crucial part in creating awareness?

The problem is, you rarely close deals at an event. A better way to measure the return is to assess the number of contacts that converted to prospects, the prospects that converted to leads, and so on. Down the line, your sales team will convert some of those contacts into deals.

• What is the best way to get a metric for ROI calculation?

OK, this is what you should consider. What you want to do when thinking about an event is to lay down event objectives and how those objectives can be measured. Let’s take a look at some metrics that can be tied to your event’s objectives.

As discussed in last blog, before you start working on event-specific messaging, be clear about your event objectives.

• Branding
• New product introduction
• Lead generation
• Customer support

Every event objective must be associated with a metric. If the event’s objective is branding and awareness then the relevant metrics might be ‘the number of event attendees (with the correct target profile)’, or ‘attendee post event awareness‘.

When the objective is ‘New Product Introduction’, associated metrics might be the number of attendees, number of service trial/product demo/product sample requests, number of leads generated and number of RFPs requests.

It is vital that you work with your Sales team when planning events, to ensure alignment between Marketing and Sales. Always get Sales buy-in. When planning your event, jointly decide the goals as well as the metrics for what constitutes goal achievement. As an example, for an event whose objective is ‘New Product Introduction’, you might establish the following metrics for success: 100 attendees for the event, 50 demo requests, 20 qualified leads and 5 RFPs requests.

Post event compare the actual numbers with the desired numbers to calculate the actual ROI with forecasted ROI. Going forward you will be in an excellent position to decide to attend the event , invest more into the event, or cut back – with good justification for your decision.

Bottom line: you should have your objectives and associated performance metrics clearly defined before you run or participate in events.

Our next blog will be about Virtual Event Marketing and Promotion.

Additional information about event recruitment services and aMarketForce marketing services can be found on www.amarketforce.com.

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Every event needs planning. Without a well scheduled and executed plan – targeted attendee recruitment, error-free registrations, flawless event execution and prompt, detailed follow-up – even the best sales events will be a waste of money and time. In our last blog Successful Event Marketing and Event Recruitment, we had discussed how to develop the target audience. This blog will focus on messaging and event promotion strategy.

Part 2 – Developing The Right Messaging

The key questions here are:

How to develop the right message?

Before you start working on messaging specific to the event, be clear about the goals you want to achieve.

• Branding
• New product introduction
• Lead generation
• Customer support

Event messaging should be clear and well communicated to the target audience. The “What’s in it for me” should be very explicit and clear – the compelling reason for your potential and existing customers to attend.

The main points to cover in event promotion messaging are:

• Basic Information:
• Who should attend? (This is your target audience. Ensure it carefully matches up with the “What’s in it…”, your value-add statement should resonate with your target audience).
• Why to attend? – What you will get out of it – a final conclusion to the “What’s in it…”.
• Speakers: brief bio and how they add value (this is where you start to answer the “what’s in it for me” question.

What event marketing materials are needed?

Whether it’s a trade show or virtual event, it is important to be prepared before the event. Here are some marketing materials that you will need while any sales events.

• A Presentation of your offering, whose value statements tie into the “What’s in it…” pitch.
• Product Samples / Case studies / Success stories
• Corporate and Product Brochures

Promotion messaging

Incentives based promotions work well in event marketing. Free lunch, free product samples, free service, discounts, coupons are some of the incentives that you can offer in the event messaging to the target audience.

Our next blog will focus on “How to measure event ROI?”

Additional information about event recruitment services and aMarketForce marketing services can be found on www.amarketforce.com.

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Events are a key part of your awareness and lead generation strategy. Events are one of the few venues where you can talk to your prospects and customers directly and make a strong personal connection.

Every event needs a well-executed plan to ensure success. Without a well planned and executed event – targeted attendee recruitment, error-free registrations, event content, event staffing, and follow-up – even the best of sales events will be a waste of money and time.

Events cost money. Make that money work for you. The two biggest elements of a successful event is the number of ‘right’ people who attend, and are exposed to the right messages. The biggest booth, a famous speaker, the most valued giveaways are all useless if your target audience did not turn up or got the wrong message.

Part 1 – Developing Your Audience

The key questions here are:

“How do I reach the right people?”

1.       Identify the right people:

a. Develop a good list. Be very clear about the profile that you want to reach, and create a list matching that profile. Nothing is worse than inviting CFOs to a technical event. (for more details, read our blog on List Development)

2. Reach the right people

a.       Use communication media effectively.

i.      Direct Mail: Informative and well designed direct mailers work well. A person may be inundated with email, but an envelope gets attention because it is one of very few mail pieces the recipient might have received that day. Also, if your list is short (focused on very senior executives, for example), a personally addressed letter send by FEDEX or UPS is well received.

ii.      Advertising: If your budget allows, advertise the event in trade magazines, on social networking sites, business networking sites and more. These can work wonders. Trade magazines often give you discounted advertising of you can help them with relevant content, so keep an eye on their editorial calendar and connect them with your customers who can help with industry-relevant material.

iii.      Website: Keep your website updated with the most current event information. Your invitees are very likely to visit your website upon being invited, and you want to showcase the event with direct links to the event registration page.  In addition, event pages should be properly SEOed.

iv.      Press Releases: Doing a press release about the event in local business publications and PR sites is another good technique for event marketing. Press releases should have the right message, media contact and details to make the event registration process easy.

v.      E-mail: E-mail is an inexpensive and popular technique. For targeted event marketing, you must have a good list. You also need to track if the emails are being opened, in addition to the usual email metrics.

vi.      Event Organizer Website. Ensure prominent positioning if your event is part of a larger industry meeting, with appropriate links.

vii.      Tele-marketing: After executing direct mail and event email campaigns, we recommend follow-up tele-marketing. You can start with the email campaign opener’s lists who have not responded to your campaign. You can also directly start the tele-marketing campaign by using targeted lists. Refer to our website for more information on event business list development and tele-calling services.

viii.Social Networking Sites: Social networking sites can be a very useful source for event promotions. LinkedIn Events, Facebook Events, Twitter are some of the good sites on which you can promote your events to your prospects and customers.

3.       Follow-up, follow up, follow up.

i.      Just sending out an invitation is never enough. Follow up to ensure they have registered. After registration is confirmed, send event information details, with passes, tickets, URL links and whatever else is needed. Your local sales rep should be the prime contact, with their senior manager pitching in. Send email a few days before the event. Call the day before.

ii.      Make sure your follow-ups are brief and polite. Nobody likes being bugged. Light touches are better (With a hint of humor if you can carry it off).

Refer to our website for more information on event email campaign services.

b.      In the next few sections (coming soon on this site), we will cover:

i.      How to develop the right message?

ii.      How to incent them to come?

iii.      How to make them feel good that they came?

iv.      How to ensure they go back and tell others?

v.      How to make them feel like coming to your next event?

Additional information about event recruitment services and aMarketForce marketing services can be found on www.amarketforce.com.

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