Latest data, trends, and statistics on document management, records management, imaging, scanning, BPM and ECM from AIIM President John Mancini -- and home of the "8 things" series
I was in Brighton, UK last week and saw a couple of signs that brought to mind some oft-forgotten precepts of effective marketing.
The first sign reminded me that marketing needs at a minimum to focus on something. It may be an obvious point, but here at AIIM I see all sorts of supplier marketing campaigns that are so vanilla and trying to appeal to so many people that I wonder sometimes what they are actually trying to accomplish. Not like my restaurant here on the Brighton Pier. It's pretty clear what the niche is here, although it might send ripples of fear (or future business opportunities?) through the minds of cardiologists. Meat. Yup, just Meat. Might not be your niche, but at least it is a niche.
My second sign reminded me that, yes, all marketing is indeed local. "Mushy peas" are obviously some sort of a significant part of the value proposition of fish and chips in the UK. It would appear that mushy anything would not be a significant draw for much of anything in the US. This is something we in the US often forget as we seek to expand outside our borders. Many are the times we take the US equivalent of mushy peas and try to dish them up to non-US audiences.
Sign number three reminds me of the importance of reference selling. Of course, this has always been the case, but I think in this economy it is now more important than ever before. Unfortunately, it is often an after-thought or not thought of at all. Or if it is considered, the references are ones that are not relevant to the target audience. While I might be impressed that Astra Zeneca and SmithKline are customers of Ivor the Tarot guy -- I considered consulting with Ivor to investigate whether they had identified their content management requirements during their Tarot session, and if so, whether they needed any AIIM training -- I am not sure that the corporate reference accounts are really that important to potential customers of Ivor the Magnificent.
Not quite directly related to the above, but while I'm thinking about marketing effectiveness -- What do people think about the new Bing marketing campaign? It's the one where the people suffer from Search Overload Syndrome as a dig at Google without actually mentioning Google. It makes me think back to the "Algorithm. Meet Humanity." campaign from a number of years ago.
I do wonder a bit about whether this too much inside baseball -- I get the ads and find them pretty funny, but will it get people to change their search behavior and choices? I haven't quite decided yet.
What do YOU think? Will they work?
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I was in Brighton, UK last week and saw a couple of signs that brought to mind some oft-forgotten precepts of effective marketing.
The first sign reminded me that marketing needs at a minimum to focus on something. It may be an obvious point, but here at AIIM I see all sorts of supplier marketing campaigns that are so vanilla and trying to appeal to so many people that I wonder sometimes what they are actually trying to accomplish. Not like my restaurant here on the Brighton Pier. It's pretty clear what the niche is here, although it might send ripples of fear (or future business opportunities?) through the minds of cardiologists. Meat. Yup, just Meat. Might not be your niche, but at least it is a niche.
My second sign reminded me that, yes, all marketing is indeed local. "Mushy peas" are obviously some sort of a significant part of the value proposition of fish and chips in the UK. It would appear that mushy anything would not be a significant draw for much of anything in the US. This is something we in the US often forget as we seek to expand outside our borders. Many are the times we take the US equivalent of mushy peas and try to dish them up to non-US audiences.
Sign number three reminds me of the importance of reference selling. Of course, this has always been the case, but I think in this economy it is now more important than ever before. Unfortunately, it is often an after-thought or not thought of at all. Or if it is considered, the references are ones that are not relevant to the target audience. While I might be impressed that Astra Zeneca and SmithKline are customers of Ivor the Tarot guy -- I considered consulting with Ivor to investigate whether they had identified their content management requirements during their Tarot session, and if so, whether they needed any AIIM training -- I am not sure that the corporate reference accounts are really that important to potential customers of Ivor the Magnificent.
Not quite directly related to the above, but while I'm thinking about marketing effectiveness -- What do people think about the new Bing marketing campaign? It's the one where the people suffer from Search Overload Syndrome as a dig at Google without actually mentioning Google. It makes me think back to the "Algorithm. Meet Humanity." campaign from a number of years ago.
I do wonder a bit about whether this too much inside baseball -- I get the ads and find them pretty funny, but will it get people to change their search behavior and choices? I haven't quite decided yet.
