SMA Clean Tech Blog http://www.smaworld.com/cleantechblog Intelligent marketing of technology Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:48:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 Online Marketing: What’s on Your Menu? http://www.smaworld.com/cleantechblog/?p=259 http://www.smaworld.com/cleantechblog/?p=259#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:49:47 +0000 jessicac http://smaworld.com/cleantechblog/?p=259

 

 

 

This Marketing and Sales Executive Think Tank was held on March 24, 2011 and hosted at AMEC by Dawn Rosser, Manager, Central Marketing.

1. Creating the right mix of online & face-to-face marketing
2. Optimizing time and resource investments in marketing.

What we learned

  • Need to maintain involvement and focus on e-budget
  • Conduct metrics analysis behind e-media
  • Call-to-action needs to be greater than increasing leadership
  • Need to overcome challenges of reaching out to small-medium enterprise with increased face-to-face time
  • “Work backwards” on where and how sales are obtained
  • Learn more about niche marketing and how to target each group
  • Incorporate usage of video and animation communication

What are your most effective tactics to raise awareness of e-marketing?

  • Twitter feeds
  • Niche marketing and traditional trade shows combined with e-newsletter
  • Niche customer stories with promotions and word of mouth
  • B2B traditional direct sales for corporate enterprises
  • For medium sized enterprises, data mining is useful along with trade shows, awards, targeting list of environmental organizations
  • Use the Web as an information source to drive traditioanl face-to-face meetings for larger accounts
  • Use Twitter for awareness – not leads; Hash Tweets are effective for brand awareness
  • Review click-through metrics on every campaign
  • Invest in website redesign on better flow investor traffic versus real prospect traffic
  • Explore/research key words being used with Google analytics to get at top of search list
  • use short video animation to explain your technology’s complicated process
  • LinkedIn is useful for networking and to see who’s who

What traditional marketing methods are trade-offs for e-marketing?

  • Reading material available online; no longer mailing out annual reports
  • While some organizations are decreasing direct mail, others are using it for big impact
  • Expensive news releases are decreasing with higher email usage
  • Mass print is decreasing unless it is extremely targeted
  • Participation in trade shows with a booth is decreasing. Instead, partner with a client and leverage customer backing
  • Not much of a trade-off but rather an efficiency/budget shift from print/trade shows to e-communications
  • Direct sales representatives are becoming an extinct role
  • Lead generation is becoming stronger with more easily accessible information; follow-ups can be more selective

What methods are you using to identify your organization worldwide?  How are you getting the message out?

  • It’s not who you are but rather how quickly you respond; executive face-to-face meetings give a better return
  • Use e-marketing as a support tool to generate and increase awareness
  • When exchanging business cards, automatically save the information electronically and forward your v-card
  • Use video technology to support reading material; this assists in giving face-to-face credibility.  Keep videos short and light

With e-marketing and e-communication on the rise, how are you tracking ROI?

  • “Work backwards” on your budget; dissect how you obtain your leads/sales
  • Define a good lead then measure cost of obtaining it; with sales cycles being 18 – 24 months on average, measuring a complete sale can be cumbersome. Keep it simple
  • Use website analytics; define “word of mouth”
  • Review past history of how awareness was achieved
  • Leaders need to determine right sectors to focus on and where to target spending

Attendees:

  • Bullfrog Power
  • Hydrogenics Corporation
  • BacTech Environmental
  • Good Harbour Laboratories 
]]> http://www.smaworld.com/cleantechblog/?feed=rss2&p=259 1 Stand Out in the Crowd: How to raise profile and build relationships for success http://www.smaworld.com/cleantechblog/?p=5 http://www.smaworld.com/cleantechblog/?p=5#comments Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:54:00 +0000 admin http://smaworld.com/blog/?p=5

This Marketing and Sales Executive Think Tank was held on December 9, 2010 and hosted at Bullfrog Power by Keyvan Cohanim, Vice President, Strategic Alliances.

1. How to connect with & educate the market about your company, products & services.
2. Public relations tactics to support relationship building with prospects.

What we learned

  • No “silver bullet” but “silver buckshot”
  • Balanced diet; ensure all touchpoints are tracked
  • Consider creating a “buzz”
  • Create demand before product is launched
  • Don’t overestimate or overpromise
  • Focus on influencers and partners
  • Investigate industry and design awards
  • Get out there; get on stage; get on TV; get student interns
  • Find industry experts at community colleges
  • Social media
  • Keep testing

Challenges of raising awareness: how is it defined and how is it translated into a hard return?

  •  Get to market through education; where there is interest show “there is a choice”
  • “Push” market is very costly; “pull” market is better use of investment
  • “Build awareness and make it your own” – Al Gore; personalize your message and reinforce with numbers for empowerment
  • Share success stories
  • Identify problem and create awareness of solution
  • Distribute message/product in diverse areas, don’t underestimate unusual areas
  • Differentiate from competitors and answer the question “why” you
  • Make the connection in the field to assist the sales process
  • Partner with strong brands to elevate your own

How are you able to define your target market and know who to talk to? How do you capture your target market’s narrow focus?

  • Be smart, develop plan; review your original business plan
  • Expand into association and network; participate in “their” events
  • Partner with environmental association to support target market
  • Use partner relationships to target and create awareness
  • Tie thought leadership to your product; focus on needs
  • Don’t underestimate smaller target organizations
  • Use social media
  • Become an expert in your niche and they will come; become a leader in the green space; look at local award initiatives
  • “Blue Ocean Strategy” – differentiate, be disruptive, propose a non-traditional approach
  • Where is target market paying attention?
  • Consider turning a competitor into a client
  • Reposition your unique offering
  • Pre-qualify and “super” target; spend investment dollars on super targeted companies; your partnership with these ‘super’ targeted companies will generate awareness

How to link awareness with ROI? How to measure effectiveness?

  • Create credibility with patents and enter competitions
  • PR can be cost-effective; publish noteworthy articles
  • Monitor website inflow to touchpoints and take it to the next level
  • Ensure tracking methods are functioning
  • Ensure every element of company is well represented
  • Attend thought leadership conferences to generate/increase awareness
  • Draw a line: activity – event – customer touch – prospect – sales – customer testimonial
  • Networking, peer reviews and anecdotal comments
  • Google analytics and customized URLs for event tracking/promotional codes
  • Speak at conferences, become a subject matter expert
  • Investigate “grill-marketing”
  • Investigate how “we’ve heard about you”

What are the most effective ways to educate your customers?

  • Press releases, social media/word of mouth
  • Obtain references from larger clients to establish credibility
  • Participate in thought leadership
  • Create envy; create something people want; give a visualization, measure, compare, compete, change
  • Obtain testimonials
  • Obtain the backing of industry experts to establish credibility
  • Collaborate with association partner
  • Ensure you are perceived as market leader and subject matter expert
  • “Stay healthy with balanced diet”
  • Distribute business card; best value to initiate conversation
  • Focus on influencers as a channel
  • Tie in social network; social media
  • TV; not paid advertising but rather documentary; BNN, CNN, 16:9 The Bigger Picture
  • Advertise in major publications
  • Marketing merchandise

Attendees:

  • Global Emissions Systems Inc.
  • IndEco Strategic Consulting Inc.
  • Regen Energy
  • Remco Solid State Lighting Inc
  • RESCo Energy Inc
  • Sempa Power Systems Ltd.
  • Toronto Greenhouse
  • Whale Power
  • Yield Energy Inc.
  • Zerofootprint
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