You see? Marketing does work…

Published on August 16, 2011 in Corporate and Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Sometimes marketing works only slowly. Often results come in inverse proportion to the value of the deal. It’s just not everyday that you can point to direct marketing results such as those we achieved for Ariba a few years back. (See the Direct Marketing section on this blog for details of that).

So, it was nice to see that our marketing initiative for a barristers’ chambers called Hardwicke had finally paid dividends. This is what Legal Week had to say: “In an unusual move, Veolia, the French utility giant has also added a barristers’ chambers to its external legal line-up for the first time, with Hardwicke Chambers winning the appointment”.

Four years ago, we worked with Hardwicke on a campaign to position them as an organisation ready to take advantage of new rules under which barristers could be instructed direct. At the time, they had a lot of press coverage, and although they saw their profile build, there was little we could point to as a tangible result.

Well, now, there’s direct evidence that our initiative opened doors, and Hardwicke’s ground breaking arrangement is a direct outcome of that work, conducted with Hardwicke’s Ann Buxton and their PR firm.

Helping INCo get more from their website

Published on August 5, 2011 in Marketing and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

WildWest has been working with INCo-online since the end of 2010. We have designed and built their new website and since then, we’ve been working with INCo to help them develop their online presence and get more traffic to the site, which should in turn help them to grow new business. (www.inco-online.com)

INCo's new site includes a regularly-updated blog

The fundamental for work like this is to measure what kind of traffic levels are being encountered. Only then can you move on to work on improving visibility and enquiries. Fortunately Google Analytics helps to give a very good in-depth view of how a website is being used, what kind of information is being viewed and read, and of course, how effectively the site is being found, through search engines and other means. Once this base level data is established, then it is possible to track developments, make improvements and to see exactly what kind of effects these have (if any) on visitors and their use of the site.

It has always been our view that a website should be viewed as resembling a magazine, rather than a static piece of work like an annual report. An annual report is there for a year, a solid monument to a year of achievement in financial terms. A website – at least one designed to gain traffic – should be updated regularly, added to where appropriate and continually refreshed.

We would also argue that in any dynamic business, a website should include a blog or multiple blogs, and that links to social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and possibly also Facebook should be a part of the promotional package.

INCo work in a crowded field. They use telemarketing and emarketing tools and processes to help IT and Consulting firms to find opportunities to make sales.

INCo's business is about finding sales leads for IT and consulting firms through telemarketing

Now, their site includes all the information that a potential client could want, with frequently asked questions from their 9 years of achievement answered in advance of any enquiries. For new users (and potential new clients), the site helps to ‘position’ the INCo service.

INCo works with companies selling individual products (an ERP system for example) as well as with high-level consulting firms whose goals might be to be involved with the strategic planning of a major company. So there are differences in terms of the level of conversation which might lead to a sales lead developing and also in terms of the likely payback period.

But INCo has a great deal of expertise across the sales spectrum and it was important that this knowledge should be on view to potential new clients. The INCo blog (www.inco-online.com/blog) is the place that INCo can demonstrate expertise and experience in working to produce properly qualified sales leads and provide insights into current market developments. It is also a tool that enables the site to be recognised by search engines as dynamic, regularly added to, and to provide a focus for searches. Our goal is to update the blog with good quality information on a weekly basis.

The blog effectively replaces what a traditional ‘News’ section might have done, but it is structured to be updated and added to easily.

So far, it seems to be working. Traffic to the INCo site is building nicely, the company has a site that demonstrates their expertise in-depth, and the blog associates INCo with issues and developments that will be of interest to existing and potential clients. INCo staff are now using LinkedIn and Twitter and outbound email to provide more impetus to website traffic too.

Next developments will include downloadable white papers on best practice in developing sales and more pages on the site illustrating the companies INCo works with, and the kind of results that can be expected. The INCo service is continually developing and if your company has a sales development or sales lead issue, then please do take a look at what INCo has to offer.

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!

Brand-building or response?

Published on June 7, 2011 in Brand and identity, Direct and Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Short term needs and long term requirements – how do you fit both together in  a coherent marketing strategy?

Today, brand management is more complex than ever, and for business-to-business brands, where decision horizons tend to be more distant, there’s a continued conflict between gaining response and pursuing the longer term goal of brand engagement.

WildWest has experience at both ends of the spectrum – producing enquiries for business-to-business products and services, and in helping companies begin the process of building brand value for the long term. But balancing those two very different priorities is never easy, especially in a market where quarterly numbers are as important as establishing a reputation for quality and service, and the desirability that goes with that reputation.

So on the one hand, our most successful piece of direct marketing, ever http://www.designwildwest.com/blog/2010/06/our-most-successful-piece-of-direct-marketing-ever/ and on the other, producing brand collateral that has helped organisations like Mahindra Racing (India’s first MotoGP team) and Citroen Sport attract sponsorship – produced for our clients and friends at Sports Media International – http://www.sports-media-intl.com/

We’re currently working on a project for a credit and travel management organisation, where we have to fit both into a framework that will work in both the short and medium-term.

If that’s the kind of issue that your company is facing, then maybe you’d like to talk to us. We would love to hear from you.

High-level audiences? Treat them with respect

Published on May 20, 2011 in Corporate, Design, Direct and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

My credit card company sent me a mailer recently. It was so flimsy that I doubted the sales proposition even before I read it, and it wasn’t much of a surprise to find the offer totally valueless. Better to send me nothing than this kind of thing.

On the other hand, WildWest has proven over the years that producing high quality items (with a little imagination mixed in) really does produce good results.

Like? Like the two-part mailing we once developed for a software company. It was aimed at Times Top 250 finance directors – a market we thought was well nigh impossible to reach, let alone get response from. Our mailing had a theme – power and control. The message was that you can’t be powerful unless you are in control (our client’s software promised control over corporate expenditure).

Our pack contained a remote-control car – a bright red Porsche model. We branded and re-packaged it to reflect our message, and we sent it out with one omission. The controller for the car. You didn’t get that unless you sent back the card in the first pack.

There was no catch. No salesman would call (unless requested). No marketing material would be sent.

It wasn’t too much of a surprise to find that we had a 60% response rate within a week. What was more surprising was how many of our target market wanted to meet with our client and to find out more about that software. Our client – previously unknown in this market – suddenly had a hugely valuable sales pipeline.

The same theme is reflected in the work we have been doing with sports marketing agency, SMI.


Sports Media International market sponsorship packages in motorsport, sailing and soccer, and the really high quality marketing packs that we have developed for their clients (at Citroen Sport and Mahindra Racing) are both appropriate and respected. So too, with the brand-building photo-books which we produce for Barclays and their work with the Barclays Premier League.

The message is simple. If you have a high-quality product, you need high-quality materials to back it up. And of course, there’s no one better to meet those demands than WildWest design.

They’ve responded. And someone’s asleep..?

Published on May 12, 2011 in Direct and Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , .

A huge number of businesses don't even respond when people reply to direct marketing or advertising

According to an article in Harvard Business Review recently, some American companies, most of whom are putting more and more marketing budget into slick and captivating direct marketing campaigns, are wasting their money.

HBR tested responses from outbound email, from websites and from traditional direct marketing campaigns. Remember, they weren’t testing how or how many responses an individual campaign received, but instead looked at what happened to those responses.

Did anything happen? Was information promised actually sent? Did a salesperson call to check that the information had been received?

You’d think that firms would be slick at this kind of thing, but while some were, a massive 23% of all the HBR test responses went totally unanswered. Not just a slow reply, or a poor quality reply but no reply at all.

It all reminds me of a test that the Ford motor company did in the 1960′s. They found that in some instances, fewer people who had seen their advertising actually bought a Ford than those who had never seen some of their advertising. They might as well have spent an afternoon burning their money in the car park.

It all goes to prove that advertising and direct marketing is still struggling to become a science, and that more marketing people need to realise that marketing is an end-to-end process that doesn’t even stop with a purchase.