Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Of top of my head, the quick and cost effective way …

Develop a manageable target list (100? 200?), who you want to do work for – by company? By company profile? And who are the best contacts – by person? By title?

Next snail mail them business letter, just a simple letter no special graphics or promotional feel. Introduce yourself, state why you want their business and why they should give it to you. Offer some relevant information they can act on (hopefully gathering email addresses)

Next, call them. You’re following up on the letter sent, did they see it, what are their needs – sales stuff but the tone should be colleague to colleague – you’re there to help, provide information, be a resource

Keep up the contact events, touch point stuff, let them “raise there hands” when there’s an opportunity for a project. Discount pricing to get in the door, a “test drive” tactic and tell them that’s what you are doing.

Stick to it, eventually everyone will have a level of dis-satisfaction with their current resources or work that overwhelms their inhouse departments.

Reminder, you asked to quick and cheap, but I recommend you do you research. Know your target better than they know themselves. Develop strategies and tactics. Do all the things the KHE’rs advice on a regular basis. Still fast results can come from engaged phone conversations.

Go get ‘em.

Quickly get leads and appointments? I am guessing that the leads really don't matter, just the appointments. You would likely be as happy (or happier) if you get 10 leads and 10 appointments, rather than 1000 leads and 10 appointments.

Cold calling is likely the way to go. Particularly because you said quickly.

As SteveB said, find who you would want as your customer. Think about what your best customer would look like (size of company, industry, geography, or whatever you can do to segement the market so that this type of cusatomer can easily be differentiated).

Now that you have what the customer looks like in mind, think about how you can get data on them. Could be as simple as looking in the yellow pages. Or maybe your local business paper publishes a "book of lists" that covers your category. Or maybe a trade show somewhere that is worth yopur while to attend and try to get the data of attendees from. or a trade publication that is worth getting the data on.

Then get on the phone and call!

If you can provide info on who the targety company would be, we may be able to give some more specifics.

Hi Telemoxie,

Suggested tactics are pretty well covered above, I just want to add a strategy for using these tactics.

As you know depending on the size of the geographic market you are in, it can be overwhelming to know where to begin to prospect.

It is helpful to focus on an industry -say the architecture, design and general contractor - "building design" industry and just start hitting each and every one.

They should position themselves as experts in this industry, aware and acute to the problems.

Most of these firms are small, they all have networks, client/server systems, they are sending and receiving huge CADD files all day, every day, and they need help because if there systems go down they bleed red by the minute.

The above is just an example, the idea is that whatever industry they are most experienced or comfortable at they should fully exploit first, use a rifle, not a shotgun, and I would be willing to bet they find enough business to keep busy.

I hope that helps.

Dave, if it were me, I'd resort to some guerilla tactics. Dress an extrovert up in extreme nerdwear. Print in huge letters on the back of his shirt "You need a geek!" Give him a stack of postcards/magnets/bizcards and put him on the street, in a building lobby (with permission) or near a busy lunch venue. Have him ask people, "Is your computer sick? Or are you just sick of your computer?"

He can hand out the brochures, and he or his equally nerdy assistant can hold out a paper lunchbag (nerdy enough?) to collect biz cards from people who want to "win a geek in your office for a day."

Bet you can generate good leads AND get some good exposure for your client this way!

- Shelley

telemoxie,

Here's an idea. Turn your existing clients into Customer Passion Evangelist and get referrals. Win one client at a time and build on that. Give superior service and request referrals right up front. Let the market tell you what it wants then go after it. Everyone's time dificient. Give them great service and restore back the time they would loose working with someone who lacks the capabilities to be as efficient as you. I hope you gleaned off of this technique for referrals as well. https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=2208#14597 Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE

Telemoxie,

Here's another idea we used in the Security Industry that can work for you. Host up with a larger firm and serve their interest. We allowed small companies that did the same thing we did to support us during our busy seasons. It was a win win for everybody because the small companies were only looking for a few extra jobs a week. The customers belonged to our company and the small security companies just used this as an opportunity to have a continued stream of work.

The other idea where these types of partnerships worked was in the area where our company allowed a smaller security company that "specialized" in an area of business we did not, to go out and bid the job for us. We submitted the bid won the job because of our reputation and name. While the smaller security company did not have the reputation in the industry they did have the superior qualifications that made our company secure about letting them do the work. We let them do the work and they also made most of the money while we gleaned a small percentage off of each job. The benefit to the larger company is that you do something they don't but they would love to make a few extra dollars rather than lose a customer and some business. They can never get rid of their need for you because you will have to service these clients for them because of your specialization. The benefits to the larger companies are many. Is there anythng else I can do for you?

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE

First of all, I think you are wise in your thinking thus far; by recognizing and identifying a gap in your process and realizing a specialist can fill that gap.

I will try to answer your questions in a very simple, straight-forward manner:

You may want to consider hiring a marketing specialist. You want to select a firm who can show you they possess the skills, experience, and contacts necessary to achieve your goals. Now this may sound absurdly obvious...because it IS. There are many marketing professionals who can handle a variety of business specialties. You just have to reach out (like you are now) and see what you can dig up.

Make sure the firm ASKS for plenty of information about YOU and YOUR CUSTOMERS. Every business is different, even if they exist within the same vertical. The right marketing consultant should be able to show you they are custom tailoring the strategies, plans, and tactics specifically for your company, rather than claiming to be "IT experts" and instantly producing suggestions without much consultation.

Now, I think it is fair to say some firms have more experience in one field than another, but usually it is a specialty in a particular form of marketing (i.e. Strategy, branding, interactive, metrics, advertising, etc).


It would be unfair of me to just leave it here without a suggestion or two. You can check out the following sites, where you pay to list your needs (usually a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in addtion to a "finders fee") and companies either bid on your services or someone from the hosting site searches for people for you. Keep in mind while these sites are popular and can be very effective, you pay for their service, THEN you have to pay the constulant. Anyway, here they are:

www.talentzoo.com

www.elance.com

Now, With regards to ROI...it depends on your needs, goals, and what it takes to get there. I know, it is yet another broad answer but there is not a rock solid figure. Especially with lead generation. One way is to acquire analytics of other companies within your vertical. Self reporting isn't as reliable as third party analysis. Not because of dishonesty, but rather the possibility of improper measuring.

Lead generation ROI should be derived from a segmentation of your conversion rates. This means not only measuring simple conversion, but applying the various other scenarios in order to find out what situations need the most attention. You would want to measure and segment the conversion from every tactic you employ...i.e. Let's say you are measuring website conversion. You don't want to just compare visitors to sales, you need to measure every point at which the visitor decided to convert - from landing straight on the order form from a search engine to visitors who browse around first, to visitors who start to fill out a form and stop and so on. The different scenarios can give you a much more accurate picture of what is happening and what needs to be done.

I will end my response with an invitation to contact me via email (just click my name) in order to inquire about our services and decide if we can suit your needs.

Thank you and Good Luck!

-- Jett Enterprises