It's All About the Message

Let's say you've just spent the last 18 months developing an awesome new cleantech technology. You have packaged this technology into a new product and are ready to start earning revenues. How do you communicate the value and benefits of your new product to the market?

The key to meeting your business goals is to formulate a compelling, high-impact marketing message that will hook and engage your target market. Your company’s messaging platform needs to demonstrate that your product or service uniquely addresses the specific "pain points" of your target market.

Let's assume you've done your homework and built the right message for your product. For instance: "Inexpensive, biodegradable bottles that you can throw away without harming the environment." The next step is to take this message and create a set of marketing materials that convey this message as its dominant theme.

Perhaps easier said than done, this is the essence of what a marketing copywriter does. (BTW – an experienced marketing writer can also formulate the message itself and create an internal positioning statement to share within the company.) All of your marketing materials – from the product tagline to website content, PRs, brochures, white papers and everything in between – should be built around this message.

The key message can be highlighted in different ways to take advantage of the respective medium. Here are a few examples:

• Website - feature a graphic banner illustrating the disposable nature of your batteries
• Press Release - the headline of your PR would highlight the message (e.g., "Acme's Biodegradable Bottles Make it Easy and Inexpensive to Protect the Environment")
• Trade shows – Signs, rollups and posters presenting the message in bullet forma
• Brochure – Emphasize the message in the title and subtitles of the product brochure

Be sure to drill your message home wherever you can. It's OK to be repetitive across different media. Most potential customers are going to skim – not read – and you want to be sure to catch their eye. Remember – repetition is good when it comes to marketing – think about TV commercials. Getting the message right and communicating it in the most effective and consistent way across multiple media is the key to consistent marketing that drives results.

Four Painless Ways to Get the Most out of Your Marcom Dollar

Tight budgets are a fact of life in the world of marcom. While it’s hard to participate in a major trade show without paying for registration fees, travel costs and booth design & construction, there are ways to stretch your marcom dollar, particularly in today's web-driven business environment.

Let's assume that as a complement to your product literature and webpage, you have written a business-oriented white paper that focuses on market trends, business drivers and the various alternative solutions to the problem your product uniquely addresses. The objective of the white paper is to drive your potential customers to the natural conclusion that your company has the perfect solution for them. Once the white paper is complete, you can post it to your website, distribute it to the sales team, and cross another task off your "To Do" list.

Or, you could take the same white paper, and actually turn it into a sales tool that brings measurable results (e.g., sales leads). Here are a few battle-tested ways to make this happen:

1. The simplest option is to place the white paper on your website with form protection, as a way to generate leads. You could add a colorful banner to your homepage, with the title of the white paper and a "Free Download" button linking to the download form.

2. Before exposing the white paper to your competitors and the rest of the universe via your website, use it as the "hook" for an email campaign. An introductory paragraph talking about the need (probably could be cut and pasted from the white paper itself) and a "Click here to download free white paper" usually does the trick.

3. Create a landing page on your website with a short overview and a bulleted list of highlights of what the reader will learn from the white paper (clicking on the online banner in the first option would lead to this page). The landing page should also include a short form (name, company, email are mandatory) to be filled in before the white paper is mailed to the reader. Not only do you generate leads, you also drive more traffic to your website.

4. Execute an inexpensive Google AdWords campaign around this white paper and landing page. Identify the keywords that your target market is likely to search for, and entice them with a “Free White Paper” ad that addresses their business challenge and leads them to the existing landing page. Even better, tweak the existing landing page to focus on the keywords that will appeal to your target audience.

How does your company get maximum mileage from its marcom materials? Share your real-world experiences.

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