Monthly Archive for July, 2011

A world of smartphones, iPhones, pads…

Published on July 28, 2011 in Marketing and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Sadly, a website is unlikely to be forever, no matter how much time and trouble it took to build.

Aspen iPhone visual

How will your site look on a smartphone?

That’s true even if you only have a “brochureware” site, but it becomes more obvious when you use some of the other facilities that the web makes possible. Many of our finance and investment clients, for example, like the fact that they can add password-protected areas for groups of investors, even individual areas for single clients. Those need to be continually maintained and brought up to date, especially if they link to outbound email notifications and the like.

The advent of smartphones, iPhones and pads adds a new dimension of complexity. You simply can’t cut yourself off from an audience that wants mobile, 24 x 7 access to information, and if they can’t find it from you, they’ll find it from one of your competitors.

Once upon a time too, websites featured ‘news’ pages, and many still do, but how can they be relevant when Twitter and LinkedIn enable micro – and instant – blogging?

“But what have we got to say?” we have been asked in the past. To which our answer is a huge amount.

Every company needs the oxygen of exposure, and blogging on a  regular basis gets companies noticed and onto short lists for potential business. For one of our clients (www.inco-online.com), blogging is now a key part of their business development strategy, and they should know – selling is their business.

So, if you haven’t revised your website recently, maybe just take another look and see what you’re missing, and how much business might come along with those missing visitors.

When you need to impress, write the book

Published on July 14, 2011 in Corporate, Design, International and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Not too long ago, our friends at the sports marketing agency, SMI, came to us for help in producing a promotional brochure for their client Citroën Sport. SMI were marketing a sponsorship proposition for Citroën, one of the leading teams in the World Rally Championship.

Since the sponsorship deal would only be done for a not inconsiderable sum of money, our work had to be prestigious and noticeable – noticeable enough for Europe’s leading brands to start showing an interest. Our solution was dramatic piece of print, an A3 portrait brochure highlighted in Citroën red, and featuring some of the really dramatic photography that was available.

Fast forward a year or so and we find ourselves producing ‘Captured’, a photo-book highlighting award-winning photography of the teams and players in the Barclays Premier League – a coffee-table ‘book of the season’ that you’ll see in many of Barclays’ corporate reception areas.

It was ‘Captured’ that enabled us to find a format for another SMI project, this time promoting Mahindra Racing, who this year are the first team from India to compete in the Moto GP championship. Mahindra wanted to demonstrate to potential sponsors both the substance of Moto GP and the solid credentials of the team that they were bringing to the grid for the first time.

The Mahindra Racing credentials book comes with its own slip case and is part of the door-opening programme being implemented by SMI, in which Mahindra plan to introduce themselves to potential sponsors and partners, in India and across the world. We equipped their team too with a complementary Powerpoint presentation – styled to match the contents of the book – to help explain the nature and extent of the full sponsorship proposition.

The lessons from all of this seem to be that if you want to impress high-level audiences, then you can’t afford to take half measures, and a book may just offer the presence that your proposition deserves.

 

 

 

Creating dialogue. Difficulties and solutions

Published on July 13, 2011 in Direct and Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Ask any B2B company what they are trying to do, and the phrase ‘creating dialogue’ comes up.

That’s why companies take the time and trouble to;

- update their website regularly
- do the same with their blog or blogs
- use Twitter and Linkedin to promote both
- advertise or direct market, with the web as a destination
- try to add value to the user experience

That’s why this blog is here.

It’s not a complicated formula, but it does take some time and concentration to get that ‘dialogue’ going. Especially so, if you go beyond your immediate, ‘most available’ markets.

Most available are the ones who know you. They are aware of you either by reputation (what you’ve done) or by the company you keep (who you work for), your specialisms (examples of your work) or specific market sectors (in our case, finance and business services).

Go beyond that group, though, and things become more difficult. Your brand is unknown, your reputation yet to be established.

This was precisely the problem a new client of ours faced. Our proposed solution was to market hard to prospects in this space, taking a two part approach.

The first effort segmented their prospects by potential. Potentially large clients were given a special offer to respond, with the promise of more if they kept up the dialogue. This segment was low-volume, but high payback.

The second part of the programme took a traditional volume-based approach. Using clever technology and light touch creative work to encourage volume response and help to qualify the market more thoroughly in the future.

Sadly, our client backed off. Better, they thought, to keep on addressing the market they were used to working with, rather than to take a leap into the unknown. They made a decision not to leave their comfort zone.

We were disappointed, but we appreciate the problem. Going into markets where you are unknown is a worrying proposition for any company, and yet it could mean the difference between maintaining market share, and growing it substantially.

Help, if you can

Published on July 7, 2011 in Advertising. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

World Emergency Relief – helping alleviate poverty

We recently put together this ad for World Emergency Relief, largely because a friend of a friend asked us to.

It is a very worthy cause though, and we’re showing it here just in case any of our visitors to the WildWest blog can help. We – and World Emergency Relief – would be very grateful if you can.

If you can help, please go here to find out more: www.wer-uk.org

Company coming to Europe? Two suggestions…

Published on July 5, 2011 in Design, International and Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Two important services for companies coming to the UK and Europe

We have two clients who might well be of interest to any company thinking of making its first steps into European markets.

USA2Europe help companies de-risk the move into Europe for the first time. The company puts in place all the accounting, legal and other business services that a company will need for the first year or two years of its establishment. Effectively outsourcing those services means that companies can get on their feet, without highly-paid headquarters staff. And as the company grows, then USA2Europe gradually withdraws, allowing a smooth path to a solid presence in Europe. USA2Europe actually works in the Middle East and the Far East too!

More at www.usa2europe.com

Of course, wherever they are, companies grow through increasing sales, and our clients at INCo are experts in finding and qualifying sales leads – particularly for IT and Consulting firms. INCo implement continuous contact with many different sectors of the market, finding through conversations about companies and their priorities in terms of investment. INCo has worked at all levels of potential purchasing organisations, including with Times Top 250 and Times Top 100. Their service has been proven with purchasing individuals up to and including ‘C’ level executives.

More at www.inco-online.com

And of course, if it is brand-building and marketing that you’re after, then please do contact us at WildWest!