Marketing technical products is not necessarily “rocket science.”

By Steve Fodor

“You only have one chance to make a first impression.” I don’t know who originally said that, but it’s one of my favorite quotes because it’s true in life…and in marketing. Especially when marketing highly technical products.

As a marketing communications and public relations firm specializing in business-to-business message and content development, we work with clients who make and market highly technical products. Sometimes we have to “push back” a little when our clients get too wrapped up in their own products’ technological features. Will technological features alone really capture the attention of an engineer or buyer of technological products?

It is true that engineers will use three-or four-word long tail phrases when searching online for a product solution. Engineers (as a breed, if you will) are information junkies. They usually have a precise set of criteria in mind when they conduct a search. But, just because engineers are information junkies doesn’t mean they’re not people, too, with emotions like humor, empathy and intrigue. The temptation when creating content for marketing technical products is to create content that reads like a technical “white paper.” That may make you, the marketer, “feel good,” but not necessarily the buyer. Your first impression on a potential buyer is what they will remember and be captivated by, be it content presented in a blog, an online ad, online video or via social media. If you don’t captivate your audience with a memorable and interesting message presentation, all that technical data you’ve worked to create in the “technical library section” of your Web site may not even get seen by the engineering audience you’re trying to reach and motivate.

Even though the mediums for marketing communications have dramatically evolved and changed, the classic selling model for business-to-business marketing still holds true: interest from a buyer leads to a quest for more information, ultimately resulting in a feeling of trust which leads to a sale. Unfortunately, far too many marketers overlook that first and most critical step: create interest. If you don’t make an interesting and memorable first impression on your Web site or in any of your other content development and marketing communications strategies, you may never get to that second step with a buyer: the quest for more information. You do only have one chance to make a first impression when marketing technical products to engineers. Make it an interesting and memorable one.

Flickr PhotoCredit:cliff1066

It’s the Message, Not the Media. (Don’t Let Social Media Take Undue Credit)

by Brad Smith

Recent headline: “Egyptian Revolution takes just 18 days thanks to social media.”

True, but not entirely. If you take this at face value, you’re missing the big picture. Communication, not the conduit, is what’s to thank. The message delivered, not the media channel, is what made it all possible.

By way of example, think about the message that galvanized the American Revolution. It took years to come to fruition at a time when messages were passed on by word of mouth or printed on pamphlets (on scarce printing presses) and delivered by riders on horseback up and down the east coast…over and over again, for years on end. Imagine what Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Thomas Paine could have accomplished in short order if they’d been able to take their message to the majority of the colonists almost instantaneously. Imagine if their words, thoughts and ideas had been pushed out to friends and passed along on Facebook and Twitter. We’d have booted King George in weeks, not years. Because of the message, not the media.

Point is, it’s not social media that’s solely changing the world as we know it. Behind this new stardom is the real power – the power of communication. The power of capturing with clarity a compelling idea(s) and delivering it to a mass audience with the intent of spurring them on to action. Social media may get the message out a whole lot faster, but if the message isn’t poignant, it’s as moving as what Lady Gaga had for breakfast this morning.

But wait just a minute. Isn’t that message thing the essence of branding? Isn’t that what I’ve been doing my entire career? Isn’t that what I’ve been calling “marketing communications” all of these years?

So the essence of marketing really hasn’t changed. When you’re thinking about your own marcomm efforts, think message first, and media second. Or to paraphrase using today’s parlance, it’s the content that counts.

I used to think of “mass communications” as TV, radio and newspaper. Now it’s time to add one more. The new shining star in mass communications is called “social media.”

Feel free to use it – it’s practically free. But don’t forget the message – it’s more important than the media, no matter what the price.

Flickr Photo Credit: colindunn

Snow & Steady

By Steve Badertscher

While driving, um… make that “sliding” into work today, I was thinking “arrive alive” on more than one occasion. Today’s icy road conditions had me convinced I was actually auditioning for a role in an upcoming episode of Ice Road Truckers instead of making the commute to the office. While scanning through radio channels in an effort to catch a weather report, I heard an interesting statement. I’ll get back to that statement shortly.

But first, let me say driving in snow is something we Ohioans learn to do at an early age. We also learn to shovel sidewalks, scrape ice off of windshields, shovel driveways, etc. Don’t get me wrong, snow also provides us with the opportunity to learn how to do fun things such as building snow men, sled riding, snow skiing, etc. Depending on your outlook, and skill level, driving falls somewhere in the middle between pain and pleasure.

Learning to drive in snow takes patience and practice. There is plenty of practical advice available that is helpful, too. But it takes time to learn and memorize a set of detailed instructions that need to become second nature in quick order if you plan to spend winters driving in the Buckeye state.

For example, I found the following detailed information in an article titled “Driving in Snow and Ice” from The Weather Channel site, www.weather.com

Driving safely on icy roads

1. Decrease your speed and leave yourself plenty of room to stop. You should allow at least three times more space than usual between you and the car in front of you.
2. Brake gently to avoid skidding. If your wheels start to lock up, ease off the brake.
3. Turn on your lights to increase your visibility to other motorists.
4. Keep your lights and windshield clean.
5. Use low gears to keep traction, especially on hills.
6. Don't use cruise control or overdrive on icy roads.
7. Be especially careful on bridges, overpasses and infrequently traveled roads, which will freeze first. Even at temperatures above freezing, if the conditions are wet, you might encounter ice in shady areas or on exposed roadways like bridges.
8. Don't pass snow plows and sanding trucks. The drivers have limited visibility, and you're likely to find the road in front of them worse than the road behind.
9. Don't assume your vehicle can handle all conditions. Even four-wheel and front-wheel drive vehicles can encounter trouble on winter roads.

If your rear wheels skid...

1. Take your foot off the accelerator.
2. Steer in the direction you want the front wheels to go. If your rear wheels are sliding left, steer left. If they're sliding right, steer right.
3. If your rear wheels start sliding the other way as you recover, ease the steering wheel toward that side. You might have to steer left and right a few times to get your vehicle completely under control.
4. If you have standard brakes, pump them gently.
5. If you have anti-lock brakes (ABS), do not pump the brakes. Apply steady pressure to the brakes. You will feel the brakes pulse — this is normal.

If your front wheels skid...

1. Take your foot off the gas and shift to neutral, but don't try to steer immediately.
2. As the wheels skid sideways, they will slow the vehicle and traction will return. As it does, steer in the direction you want to go. Then put the transmission in "drive" or release the clutch, and accelerate gently.

Some very good detailed advice indeed! Every point made is a good one. However, if I’m an inexperienced driver attempting to navigate through snow for the very first time, this check list might seem a bit overwhelming.

This brings me back to the statement I heard on the radio. It summed up the 16 detailed points made above in one memorable concept. It communicated all of that information in one sentence. And here it is:

“Drive like you have a cup of coffee sitting on your dashboard.”

Simple? Yes! More importantly, memorable? Absolutely!

It’s also a great example of the way you should look at your advertising messages. We still see way too many B2B marketers trying to list every detailed bullet point in their advertising at the expense of having their key message or selling proposition being missed or overlooked.

So sit back with a nice steaming hot cup ‘o joe today and think about how you might boil your complex advertising messages down into one simple, memorable concept. And if you need a hand in that, I’ll gladly put down the snow shovel to assist you!

Flickr Photo Credit: Melissa Gray

Why a blog strategy for vertical, business-to-business marketing?

by Steve Fodor

“Our markets are vertical. We know most of the prospect companies by name. Why should we bother with a blog strategy?”

As a marketing communications firm that specializes in business-to-business marketing, search engine optimization and public relations, we sometimes hear comments like these. Why, if you’re marketing to a well-defined, vertical segment, would you undertake a blog strategy? Three reasons come to mind.

First, for search engine optimization. Just because your market segment(s) may be relatively small does not mean you should discount the importance of search engine page rankings. Blogs help perform the critical function of improving organic page rankings. Blogs in tandem with other mediums and targeted user groups (like those found through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) add even more to search engine optimization.

Second, blogs provide a thought leadership position for your brand. Industrial marketers need to think like publishers and generate content (in written as well as video format) that customers and prospects are seeking. If requests from customers and prospects usually start with “give us a price bid,” you’re probably missing opportunities to explain through a blog strategy the true value you offer: intelligence about your product or category that makes your customers look like heroes.

And third, to become a curator of information for your market segment(s). The Internet continues to be populated with more and more content. So much content, in fact, that finding exactly what’s needed through a simple Google search can sometimes produce an overwhelming amount of information. Wouldn’t it be better for customers and prospects to think of your brand as the only place they need to go to get the answers they’re seeking?

Yet another reason for a implementing a blog strategy crosses over to direct sales. Do your sales efforts consist of continually following up with prospects while nurturing them from prospects to customers? If so, salespeople can e-mail prospects the links to relevant blogs as a way to continue the nurturing process and reinforce a thought leadership position.

If you’re marketing to vertical, business-to-business market segments, a blogging strategy presents a targeted, cost-efficient way to improve search engine optimization, nurture selling efforts and elevate the perceived value of your brand above just a “product offering at a price.” Of course, developing relevant content for a blogging strategy takes time and resources, some research, and an understanding of the unmet information needs of your target audience. And that’s exactly how we are helping business-to-business marketers today.

Flickr Photo Credit:digitalrob70

Web Sites and Reese's Cups

by Steve Fodor

Remember the old jingle for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? “Two great things that go great together.”

We’ve embarked on a new client relationship here at Badertscher Communications that has made that jingle run through my head (aside from making me crave the taste of peanut butter and chocolate together).

We have an assignment to develop a new Web site for a new client. So what, you may say. Well, the reason this assignment is particularly sweet is because we’re working in seamless collaboration with the client’s network administrator. It’s almost like he’s a part of our staff on this new assignment. We’re able to do what we do best – create and promote a new Web site design and brand presence for a client. And the client’s network administrator can do what he does best – build a Web site platform with the latest content management tools. The result will be a new Web site that allows our client to be a curator of information and content…with the benefits of cost and time savings.

The reason we’re so jazzed about this relationship is because we see it as a prime example of the way client-agency relationships are evolving for the better. Agencies are content developers. Or, said another way, agencies are expert at bringing a brand story to life with words, pictures, sounds and designs. Though most full-services agencies (ourselves included) have Web developers on staff, an agency’s culture is usually driven by creativity and content development. Many clients, on the other hand, have invested in information technology and in people that can manage all the technological “back end” stuff of Web sites and content management. When an agency can marry its talents and expertise with the talents and expertise of the client’s people, a working arrangement develops where brand stories can be developed and told with more creative excitement.

Economically, times are still tough. Many companies have put off updating their online presence or have deferred new content development strategies because of costs. But, when an agency and client can work closely together and focus on doing what each does best, something pretty sweet can develop. Actually, that’s exactly the way we like to work here.

Flickr Photo Credit: kimberlykv

Politics as Unusual

by Steve Badertscher


I can’t wait for next Tuesday to come and go. And it has nothing to do with who wins or loses, but everything to do with ending the madness of political advertising for awhile. The sheer volume of political ads has been annoying, at best. But what I’ve noticed with each passing year is how negative, bitter and untruthful the messages have become. While watching a ball game the other evening I was subjected to dozens of consecutive commercials, none of which ever mentioned one redeeming quality about the candidate sponsoring the spot…only negative accusations and spins about their opponent’s shortcomings.

I started thinking, how different things would be if companies took that approach to their advertising? Instead of touting your safety advancements and track record as an auto maker, for example, Volvo might dredge up a compromising and unflattering photo of a top level executive at Toyota, and add a few strategic sound bites (taken out of context, of course) that when edited together proclaim “safety is an expensive proposition and cuts into our profit margins” and attribute it to him. That video might dissolve into a gruesome photo from a crash scene of their competitor’s car all mangled up with large graphics touting the number of drivers/passengers killed while driving the competitor’s car that year, etc. Taking the tone of current political ads, there probably would be some reference made to Pearl Harbor.

Sickening? Yes. Absurd? You betcha. But I guess that is the same way I feel about the vast majority of the current political “advertisements” (A better description would be propaganda).

What’s your take on this?

Flickr Photo Credit: Theresa Thompson

What’s Your Reputation Worth?

by Steve Fodor

When you get right down to it, all you have in life are your word and your reputation. Hopefully, both are seen in a positive light by people you associate with.

With all the Wall Street distrust and fallout, Tiger Woods and Toyota publicity in recent months, company reputation has become a popular topic in corporate boardrooms. I read recently that The Reputation Institute, a private consulting firm, conducted nearly 25,000 online interviews asking people their perceptions regarding the reputations of the nation’s largest (by revenue) 150 companies. The survey measured factors such as products and services, innovation, corporate citizenship and leadership. Respondents were asked to provide rankings on a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being the highest or best score.

To be honest, the results were not too surprising to me. Brands like Johnson & Johnson, Walt Disney, UPS and Kraft Foods were at the top of the list. I’m not surprised because these are brands that invest heavily in promoting their brand image. I’ve also always had great experiences with these top brands. Also of little surprise, financial institutions and large banks were scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of perceived reputation.

What I did find interesting, though, was a statistic put forth by The Reputation Institute regarding their study. “When reputations improve by five points, consumer recommendations hike by 6.5 percent,” according to The Reputation Institute. “Get more people talking about your products and company, and you can bet you’ll improve your bottom line.”

I’ve always believed in the value of brand investment, public relations, and developing strategies to improve how your brand is perceived versus only focusing on selling products and services at a price. And when combined with a social media marketing program, consumer recommendations that promote your company’s reputation can add even more to your bottom line. I’m just glad that The Reputation Institute did this study and put some quantitative support to what good marketers have always known to be true.

Flickr Photo Credit: Rob Young