Download managing marketing media

M anaging Marketing Media
Strategies and Insights for the
Non-Marketer Who Has to Do It All
P r i n t | W e b | Ta b l e t
Phone: 434-847-5561 | P.O. Box 10936, Lynchburg, VA 24506 | www.beBETTERdoMORE.com
About the Author:
Victor Clarke
Victor has owned the
company since 1996. Back
then it was called Central
Litho, but it has since evolved
into Clarke Inc and gone
through many changes
along the way. We are now
so much more than inkon-paper. Victor personally
handles many of our accounts
and coordinates everyone’s
efforts. He also is an expert
at finding suppliers for every
job, no matter how unusual.
Table of Contents:
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Branding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Campaigns vs Ongoing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Insourcing or Outsourcing
Your Marketing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Scheduling, Budgeting and Measuring Results . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Managing Print. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Managing Digital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Our Favorite Media Management Tools and Systems. . . . . . . 20
Managing Marketing Media
Introduction
An organization must first establish
who its clients are, why they need
its products and how the marketing
message is going to be disseminated.
Sounds simple and obvious, but ask
yourself, have you really done this?
• Have you really researched your
demographic base?
• Can your sales people name
your target market?
• Can your sales people
immediately explain your
product’s benefits?
That is, what is the product of
your product?
If the answer to these questions is no,
this eBook is for you. While this eBook
can’t help you with your product
target market and sales training, it
can help you with your branding and
getting your message out.
First, a bit of advice. Unless you have
lots of free time on your hands, get
some professional help. You need to
spend your time on the $100/hr part
of your job which includes running and
managing your business. Let others
handle the $10/hr portion of your
business such as producing marketing
media.
• What’s your most effective
marketing strategy?
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Managing Marketing Media
Branding
You likely already have a brand
and your challenge is the proper
production of it. You must have a logo
that is universally compatible across
many mediums. It’s a good idea to
have a style guide and standards
when working with a marketing media
supplier. Here are a few things to
consider when creating your style
guide and standards:
Printing – The colors on your monitor
WILL NOT match the colors printed by
a printing press. Does your graphic
designer know how to generate a
proof comparable to a printing press?
Quality – Did your designer save your
logo and other images in a format that
can be reproduced as a quality logo?
Hint: don’t use images found on the
internet. They are too low resolution
for printing.
Color – Choose colors that are within
the color gamut. A desktop monitor
can display 16.7 million colors. A
printing press can print approx. 5000
colors. Silk screening and embroidery
even less.
Small Printing – Can you scale your
logo down and still read it?
Cost – Your budget may not always
allow you to print your logo in full color.
Make sure your logo can be reproduced
in one or two colors and still look
awesome!
Promo Items – These items are
typically printed using silk screen or
embroidery technology. Lots of colors
in your logo? Forget about using these
techniques.
For more information on designing
a great logo download the eBook
“Things to Consider When Making
a Logo Universally Compatible”
Page 5
Managing Marketing Media
Content
Many people are more familiar with
the term “message” rather than the
term “content”. Helpful content is the
way a company can demonstrate its
value. Informative content is also what
customers prefer when researching a
business.
Marketers used to speak of creating
a marketing message. It’s now
about creating useful content such
as answering frequently asked
questions, offering eBooks and slide
presentations, etc.
Your content needs to be about your
client’s needs. It’s not about you,
it’s about them.
It needs to be about “propinquity”.
The definition of propinquity is,
“nearness of place or time, proximity”.
Your marketing content must create
collisions naturally.
Keep in mind that your content must
be displayed in both passive media
like ink-on-paper and in active digital
media like websites, blogs and apps so
that your customers can share it with
others thus creating propinquity. And
don’t forget it needs to be projected
using both campaigns and ongoing
marketing strategies.
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Managing Marketing Media
Campaign vs Ongoing
What is the difference between the
two? The simple answer is campaigns
are short bursts of marketing
initiatives to push a certain product
or a sales event for a certain time
of year. Ongoing marketing, or drip
marketing, is a continuous process
that constantly reminds your clients
of your value and presence. Most
small businesses only use campaign
marketing when ongoing marketing
would be far more valuable and
lucrative. Plus, it’s easier to budget.
For example, a holiday season may
be coming up and a company will
create a campaign to sell its seasonal
items. Direct mail, email blasts,
radio and TV ads, billboards, posters
and banners, business events, trade
shows, etc. could be used to create
excitement. Sales of the seasonal
items are temporarily boosted and the
cash register rings for a short burst of
time. Campaigns absolutely should be
included in your marketing strategy to
take advantage of a holiday season,
over-stocked items, etc. But once
the campaign is over the marketing
message goes silent until the next
burst of campaign marketing energy.
More importantly, a portion of your
marketing budget should be used to
create an ongoing marketing strategy.
This can be advertising based on using
traditional marketing media so that
the business remains top-of-mind with
its customers. Today however, most
ongoing campaigns are done online.
You need to begin producing FAQs,
blogs posts, eBooks, YouTube videos,
etc. for an effective ongoing marketing
strategy.
Advertising based ongoing marketing
campaigns are most familiar to
small businesses. It’s the way it’s
been done since the invention of the
printing press, radio and television. If
a business has a big enough budget
it can continue to pound away at its
customer base. This may still work
with a certain demographic, but it also
can annoy another demographic.
There has been a tremendous shift
in the last decade regarding the way
customers can receive, or ignore,
marketing messages. The birth of
the internet, websites, TiVO, satellite
radio, etc. allows customers to choose
the messages they want to receive.
In fact, the CEB Marketing Research
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Managing Marketing Media
Campaign vs Ongoing
Council states that customers are 57%
down the buying path before they ever
engage directly with the brand.
So, if traditional marketing is
becoming less effective what’s a small
business to do? Answer: Help based
marketing. Help based marketing is
based on providing as much self-help,
self-service information as possible.
It is marketing that, according to
Jay Baer, author of Youtility, is so
valuable people would be willing to
pay for the content you developed
based on what you learned in the
“content” portion of this eBook.
Customers now only talk to a sales
person as a last resort, not a first
step. Once they recognize they can’t
accomplish what they would like on
their own they will call you because
of the virtual relationship you have
established with them. Put your
message out there in any, and all,
mediums so your clients can find
answers on their own.
Find the right balance between
campaign marketing and ongoing
marketing, and the correct balance
between advertising based and help
based marketing.
Page 8
Managing Marketing Media
Insourcing or Outsourcing
Your Marketing?
Let’s talk about the pros and cons of
each solution.
Insourcing: What’s your marketing
IQ? Do you, or people in your
business, have the skills to design
your brand, write the content and
create campaigns and ongoing
marketing strategies? If the answer
is yes, great! The obvious benefit to
insourcing is saving money. But, do
you have the time to manage your
marketing media while you manage
everything else in your business?
For a small business with a small staff
this may be a daunting task. All small
businesses have good intentions and
believe they can handle these tasks
on their own. Unfortunately, many
have been reminded of the old saying,
“The road to hell is paved with good
intentions,” as they try to in source
manage their marketing media.
These businesses find they are being
taken away from the portion of the
job that makes them money. The
con to insourcing is that ultimately
businesses become disillusioned and
abandon their marketing strategies.
Outsourcing: If you don’t have the
expertise and time to manage your
marketing media you may want to
consider hiring professional help. The
con to outsourcing is that it’s going
to cost you some hard earned money.
However, the purpose of marketing
is to gain more business and dollars.
Wouldn’t you be willing to spend a
dollar to make two dollars?
The benefits of regaining your time
and acquiring new clients on a regular
basis far exceed the negatives if you
hire the proper marketing media
services provider. How do you know
if you are hiring the right media
company?
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Managing Marketing Media
Insourcing or Outsourcing
Your Marketing?
Consider this:
• Is the media services company
interested in your success,
or are they interested in the
creative awards they will try to
win using your money?
• Does the media company
understand your budget and
goals, or is it more about an
inflated image of themselves?
• Do you get billed by the hour
every time you make a phone
call to them? Or do you get a
set scope of work estimate?
For more information check out
the eBook, “How to Choose a
Marketing Media Provider”
• Does the media company let
you speak directly to the folks
doing the work for you, or do
you have to go through an
account manager just to get a
simple question answered?
Page 10
Managing Marketing Media
Scheduling, Budgeting and
Measuring Results
Scheduling: Yes, you need to allow
appropriate time to create and
distribute your marketing media,
but you also need to allow time for
it to work for you. You cannot try
something once and then abandon it
for something different next time. You
must repeat your strategy on a regular
basis over an extended period of time.
Typically allow 6-12 months for your
marketing to begin to work. It takes
time to develop a following for your
ongoing marketing message. Building
a following via the internet takes a
little bit longer. Patience, grasshopper!
What many small businesses fail
to schedule for is…success! Your
marketing media is working! Have you
scheduled time for your sales people
to follow up on all those qualified
leads? You need to be measuring your
results the whole time while making
adjustments to improve your results.
There is nothing worse than spending
time, money and effort and then not
following up with prospects to close
the business.
However, if after repeated attempts,
with some tweaking here and there
over a period of at least 6 months
your marketing is not producing
results then it’s time to re-consider
your content, marketing media used
and maybe even your media services
provider. What’s the definition of
crazy? Doing the same thing over and
over again and expecting different
results each time.
Budgeting: Money! Everyone’s
favorite topic is how to keep it, and
make more of it. Don’t underfund your
marketing. The US Small Business
Administration recommends spending
7-8% of your gross revenue on
marketing.
You need to set a return on
investment budget to determine if you
want to continue, tweak or discontinue
your marketing plan. Your ROI budget
should factor in not only revenue and
profit, but also the cost of customer
acquisition including the cost of
marketing reach, the cost to generate
qualified leads, and the cost to close
leads. More importantly, you need to
budget for the lifetime value of your
newly acquired customers.
Don’t forget the old axiom that it
costs more to acquire a new customer
than maintain an existing customer.
Part of your budget needs to include
marketing to current customers so
that you can continue to delight them.
The more delighted your customers
are, the more likely they will refer you
to others.
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Managing Marketing Media
Scheduling, Budgeting and
Measuring Results
Measuring: Here are some formulas
to consider when measuring your
marketing success:
Marketing Reach - Refers to the
total number of different people or
households exposed, at least once,
to a medium during a given period.
Reach should not be confused with
the number of people who will actually
be exposed to and consume the
advertising. It is just the number
of people who are exposed to the
medium and therefore have an
opportunity to see or hear the ad or
commercial. Reach may be stated
either as an absolute number, or as
a fraction of a given population (for
instance ‘TV households’, ‘men’ or
‘those aged 25–35’).
Sales Goals - Are calculated using
the following:
• How many calls do I need to
make to generate one prospect?
• How many prospects does it
take to generate one sale?
• How long will each prospecting
effort take?
• How much time do I need
to devote to new business
development every day?
• How many sales do I need each
month to attain my year-end
financial goals?
Qualified Leads Generated Goals –
Are calculated by:
• Conversion Rate or the
percentage of leads that turn
into qualified leads
• Fit Rate or the percentage of
qualified leads that turn
into a proposal opportunity
• Win (Closing Rate) or the
percentage of proposals that
result in sales
Revenue Goals – Sales Goal /
Average Revenue per Deal /Lead
Conversion
Cost of Customer Acquisition – It
is recommended that your CCA be
equal to, or less than, four months of
client revenue. This number will vary
according to your industry.
Lifetime Value of a Customer – This
is defined as the amount of gross revenue
you would expect from that customer over
the course of your entire relationship. LTV
= Net Profit / Number of clients acquired
over a period of one year.
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Managing Marketing Media
Managing Print
The printing process can be
accomplished in basically three
different ways: offset, web or digital.
The printing processes are different for
each and it’s important to understand
these differences as it will affect your
scheduling, budget and how you
measure your results. Let’s take a look
at each of them.
copying, to electrophotography, to
inkjet technology. It is typically used
for smaller print quantities of 1000
or less. Over the years the quality
of digital printing has improved
to the point that it is virtually
indistinguishable from offset and web
printing. It is perfect for quick delivery
projects too.
Offset printing uses printing plates
to put down ink on large sheets of
cut paper. Offset presses are typically
used to print multiple images of the
same thing on the cut sheet paper for
large quantities of flyers, stationery,
pocket folders, booklets, etc. They can
print single colors, multiple colors and
process colors.
If you are printing promotional items
or banners and posters your vendor
will likely use an inkjet printer. These
printers can print across wide or
uneven surfaces. They are not fast,
but the technology is advancing every
day.
Web printing uses printing plates
too, but the ink is put down on a
continuous roll of paper. A newspaper
printing press is a good example of a
web press. Web presses print many of
the same things as an offset press but
in much longer runs. If your project
requires print quantities ranging from
hundreds of thousands to the millions
it likely will be produced on a web
press.
Digital Printing is the little brother
of offset and web printing but is
growing rapidly in popularity. Digital
printing can be as simple as color
Other Types of Printing: If you are
planning on printing on garments your
vendor may use a screen printing
process, heat transfer, sublimation
printing or embroidery.
To learn more go to, “What You
Need to Know About the Screen
Printing Process When Ordering
T-Shirts”.
Planning: Offset and web jobs
typically take 1-2 weeks to produce
so start working backwards from your
due date, particularly if it’s an event
that cannot be moved. Allow your
vendor a few days to get a proof back
to you. The proof can be an electronic
PDF or a hard copy proof. If your job
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Managing Marketing Media
Managing Print
is color critical always insist on a hard
copy proof. Please review our blog post,
“What Graphic Designers Need to
Know About Production and You
Should Too”.
PDFs are completely unreliable for
color correctness. The next time you
go into your local electronics retailer
look at all the color differences on the
television screens. That’s an example
of a PDF proof. You may also need to
allow a few days for you, and your
staff, to review the proof and make
corrections.
Once the proof is approved you
need to allow time for the printer to
schedule your project on the press.
This likely will take a few days as
many printers run multiple shifts. If
you are working with an out-of-town
printer don’t forget to allow a few days
for shipping.
Budgeting: Depending on quantities
and the printing process, your project
costs can run from a few dollars to
thousands of dollars. Keep in mind
there is not a dollar-for-dollar trade
off as you increase or decrease your
print quantity. This is because printers
have high fixed costs. It costs the
same to proof and prep a print run
of one copy as it does thousands of
copies. Imagine a printer as an airline.
Whether a plane has one passenger
or a full load they still use the same
amount of fuel and require the same
number of pilots and flight attendants.
Therefore, the more pieces you
can print at a single time, the less
the cost per piece will be. Budget
to run enough pieces to last you
approximately 12 months, but don’t
run more than you need either. Keep
in mind that some printers may
charge you up to 10% for over runs
if you don’t specify exact quantities.
They may also deliver the job up to
10% short. If you ordered just enough
and don’t have enough to fulfill your
project it will need to go back on press
and it will be very expensive.
Going back to the comments on
proofing, please never, ever use the
printer’s proof to make corrections if
you don’t have to. It gets expensive
to work this way as you will be
charged for each new proof generated.
Sometimes, your printer will make
an unintentional error. It is still your
responsibility to catch it; however
you should not be charged to fix it.
To learn how to prevent unnecessary
changes to your proof read our
blog post, “The Ultimate Printing
Checklist” and “How to Prepare
Files for a Printer”.
Other things that will affect your cost
include ink types (e.g. fluorescent
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Managing Marketing Media
Managing Print
and metallic inks cost more), paper
types and finishing that is done on a
different piece of equipment. If your
project requires folding, stitching,
die cutting, 3-hole drilling, etc. your
cost will go up. The same fixed costs
that apply to setting up a press apply
to setting up bindery equipment.
Unless you have professional finishing
equipment it is rarely a good idea to
do your own work. Nothing ruins a
great printed piece more than
un-professional finishing.
Measuring results: You can measure
the ROI of your print marketing by
using something as simple as unique
phone numbers or phone extensions
to measure response activity.
However, there are many new ideas
such as QR Codes and Augmented
Reality that can link the printed world
to the digital world and allow you to
measure results.
QR Codes have earned a bad
reputation recently. Unfortunately,
they have been mis-used and have
declined in popularity. When used
correctly they can be a great resource
to measure results. If you use a QR
Code make sure that it’s customized
with your company logo and colors
and it links to something useful like
a discount offer or You Tube video
that is mobile friendly. Never link a
QR Code to your website home page.
That’s boring and useless.
Users download a QR Code reader
app to their smart phone. Once
your customers start scanning your
codes you can begin to track the
data. You can learn the best day to
send your printed piece, as well as
the best geographic area to send it.
You can also get customers to opt-in
on your email list so that you can
gather names and addresses. If your
customer likes your offer they can also
share it with other smart phone users.
QR Codes are awesome if you use
them correctly.
And the best part is QR Codes are free
to generate and print!
Augmented Reality (AR) is another
way to link ink-on-paper to the digital
world, albeit it comes with a cost.
Sometimes a very high cost. AR works
the same as QR Codes by downloading
an app to your smart phone that
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Managing Marketing Media
Managing Print
users will use to scan a printed piece.
Augmented Reality takes the user
into a virtual world through their
phone within your printed piece. You
can imbed video and graphics to play
within the AR app. The best example
of AR everyone is familiar with is
the yellow first down line television
networks impose on the screen during
football games.
The mechanical process of placing
tiny dots of ink on a substrate can be
very complex. Years ago a position
on the organization chart titled “print
buyer” roamed corporations. That
position has gone the way of the
dinosaur. Now companies must rely
on non-marketers to handle their
print buys. The positive side is that
more and more companies realize
they can actually save money by
hiring marketing media providers that
know the printing process rather than
relying on non-marketers to handle
the print buys.
Page 16
Managing Marketing Media
Managing Digital
Using pixels rather than ink to market
your business is relatively new.
Johannes Gutenburg invented the
moveable type printing press in the
1400s. Al Gore invented the internet
in the early 1990s. The three most
popular types of digital media today
are websites, mobile websites and
mobile apps. As in print it’s important
to understand these differences as it
will affect your scheduling, budget and
how you measure your results. Let’s
take a look at each of them.
Websites: Rule number one – your
website should not be an electronic
brochure. It is no longer the 1990s
when everyone got a website because
your friends told you it was necessary
to succeed in business. So you used
one of those free website generators
and presto, you had a website. And
you haven’t updated it since! We
have put together a list of great site
examples in our “2 Minute Boot
Camp on Creating and Managing
Small Business Websites” for you
to review.
Rule number two – your website
should be a living, changing daily
thing. Do not “set it and forget it”.
Your website must be updated on
regular basis. It is recommended that
images, text, pages, etc. be updated
and refreshed at least once a month.
Even better, you should be writing a
blog post at least once per week. Can’t
write or hate to write? Hire a blog
writer. They are inexpensive, easy to
work with and crazy fast.
Rule number three – your website
must be full of useful content (see
rule #2). Give your customers and
prospects a reason to visit your site on
a regular basis to gather information
to make informed decisions.
Rule number four – your website
must develop credibility for your
company (see rule #3). Use your
website to prove yourself a reliable
and trustworthy vendor by publishing
great content, customer testimonials
and FAQs.
Mobile Websites: These sites should
be designed specifically to operate on
mobile devices such as phones and
tablets. Just because you have an
awesome desktop version of your site
that’s full of great content and helpful
information doesn’t mean a user can
view this version easily on a mobile
device. If the type is too small, or you
have to push text around to read it,
you are losing business. Did you know
50% of all local web searches are
done on a mobile device now?
If your website takes more than 5
seconds to load because your website
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Managing Marketing Media
Managing Digital
graphics are too large, you are losing
customers.
Make sure you have a mobile
optimized website for all those
growing mobile users. Read our blog
post, “Pros and Cons of Using a
Responsive Template for Your
Website” to learn more about what
you need to include in your mobile
website. Typically mobile users are
on and off your site quickly. They are
looking for quick information such
as your phone number, address,
discount coupons, etc. It must be
quick and easy for them to find that
information. You should be “Driving
Your Business to New Heights
with Mobile”.
Mobile Apps: Yea, there’s an app
for that. In fact there are thousands
of apps available for download on
mobile devices. So why should you
create an app that’s just another
in a crowded app world? Because
more and more mobile users are
searching using apps. Mobile websites
are still very important, but mobile
website searches are going down
while mobile app searches are
increasing.
Read “Best for Mobile Usability –
App or Website?” and “Comparison
of Mobile Website v. Mobile App –
What’s Best for You?” to learn more.
Businesses need mobile websites for
quick searches and they need mobile
apps so customers and prospects can
linger and search your site. When they
download your app it’s free advertising
on their phone every day. In addition,
you can send push notifications,
similar to text messages, advertising
sales, updates and helpful information.
Scheduling and budgeting: The
time and cost to develop a new
digital site depends on its size and
complexity. If you hire a professional
designer expect 3-4 weeks to develop
your site. Rates typically run from $50
to $100 per hour.
If you do it yourself double the
professional’s time and add two more
weeks. Plus add the cost of your time
and the cost of business lost while you
design your site.
The following will affect design time:
• Number of pages
• Number of images
• Links to other sites
• eCommerce capability
• GPS features
• Content development
• Converting a desktop site to a
mobile site
• Video and audio links
• Waiting for approval from Apple
and Google to add your app to
their respective stores
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Managing Marketing Media
Managing Digital
Measuring: The benefit of digital
media is that it is much easier to
measure your results than it is with
ink-on-paper. This is the reason the
digital media marketing budgets are
growing and traditional media budgets
are falling.
Free products like Google Analytics,
Klout, Hubspot Marketing Grader,
etc. make it easy. These products
will show you where your visitors
are coming from, what their favorite
information is and how long they
are staying on your page reading
your information. They will also
give you insights where you need
to improve and where your website
ranks compared to your peers and
competitors.
The drawback is that you may need
an expert to interpret the information.
Sometimes the nomenclature may be
odd or the way the data is displayed is
difficult to read. Sometimes it is just
so much information it’s like taking
a drink of water from a fire hose and
you will need an expert to boil it all
down for you.
In conclusion, you may be unsure
whether to use ink or pixels to
produce your marketing materials.
To help you make an informed
decision, and avoid the ever growing
“greenwashing” phenomenon, we
offer this link to a great infographic,
“To Print or Not to Print”. Enjoy!
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Managing Marketing Media
Bonus! Here’s a list of our favorite
media management tools and systems:
List Managers:
Mail Chimp
Constant Contact
AWeber
iContact
Website Analytics:
Google Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools
Hubspot Marketing Grader
SEOlytics
Web Design:
Kissmetrics
Canva
File Transfer:
Drop Box
High Tail
Group Collaboration:
Basecamp
Google Docs
Images:
iStock
Shutterstock
Getty Images
Pixabay
Morguefile
Freepixels
Openphoto
Imageafter
Freeimages
Books:
Youtility
The Invisible Sale
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook
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Managing Marketing Media
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