The list of social media is virtually endless, with big names like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn dominating the landscape, and the infinite amounts of blogs on every topic imaginable.  All of these different social media sites have one thing in common; they never deject conversation, comments and feedback as many consumers feel email and other websites do. In fact, they encourage interaction.

B2B marketers should view social media as a new way to interact directly with customers, in addition to employing traditional marketing techniques to generate even more brand awareness.

Follower-Driven
Social media can take traditional electronic communications, such as email, to the next level. On Facebook and Twitter you can encourage customers and prospects to follow you and be on the look out for your news and product announcements to help generate buzz early on by providing useful content and pertinent updates.

Community-Based
A B2B blog can be another useful type of social media by surpassing the one-sided limitations of a mass distributed press release to provide different elements not available with traditional press release distributions.

A B2B blog can provide:

• A user-friendly environment
• Two-way conversation capability
• Increased SEO (search engine optimization)
• Daily exposure to unique users

And, B2B blog users do not need to be confirmed as “friends”, like on Facebook or a fellow “tweeter” on Twitter, or even on the PR or marketing firm’s exclusive e-mail lists, so many times this format is viewed as a less intrusive means of communicating on industry happenings and technology developments.  It can also encourage a good problem/solution community, where customers and the company alike can share information to make products and services better and align future development with specific industry needs.

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Articles, Online Marketing Branding, Facebook, Marketing, SEO, Social Media

Advertising may seem expensive, but when done correctly, it’s a great way to broaden your company’s brand awareness and increase sales, especially in down economic times when your competition may be cutting back on their frequency or ad sizes!

As part of an integrated marcom program, advertising is a highly effective way to get your message seen by customers and potential customers. Because you specifically control the message and where it appears, it tends to be more expensive than other marcom tactics, like PR.

And it’s interesting to note that most publications carry separate circulations for their online readers and print readers. There is still a subset of people that rely on print to learn about emerging technologies and products, while others rely more heavily on websites and e-newsletters.

Determining where to advertise can be a bit tricky. Here are three helpful hints to make your advertising program more effective.

First, determine your target audience; who do you want to reach? Narrowing your target audience helps you identify what trade magazines and web sites fit your company best. Look past the raw number of people that receive the publication as well as the click-throughs and impression statistics typically found in a media kit and understand who is reading the magazine or visiting a web site. Pick a publication where the circulation is representative of your target audience – job title, industry or market segment, what products they specify or other relevant criteria. Independent third party audits, such as BPA or ABC statements, are a great source of data if they are available, but there are other ways to obtain this info, too!

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Advertising, Articles Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Media Analysis

By Marty Simon – CEO

The marketing communications business has seen a lot of business cycles come and go in the last 40 years…even a few recessions. Through it all, we’ve seen that clients who remained aggressive in their marcom efforts during downturns come back stronger and faster than those who cut back on marcom expenses.

We used to think this was only anecdotal based on our clients’ experiences. But it’s really much more than that. Research over the years has proven precisely what we’ve observed.

A few weeks ago a summary of research in just this area landed in our email. It tracked four recessions since 1970 and the impact that marcom expenditures had during those downturns. It showed the same trends for the country as we saw in our clients: those who maintained or increased marcom budgets during the recessions fared far better than those who trimmed their marcom costs.

If you think about it, it just makes sense…you get a bigger bang for your marcom buck because your competition is cutting back and you’re not. That’s a simplified view for sure, but it seems to be the essence of the strategy! The research is everywhere…search your favorite marketing resource or view the studies we read at www.gtms-inc.com and www.americanbusinessmedia.com.

Thanks to Go-to-Market Strategies and American Business Media for this valuable research!

Articles, Integrated Marketing Advertising, Branding, Marketing

Despite current economic conditions, the military and aerospace market is doing quite well. The Department of Defense’s 2010 budget request sought increases in funding for different types of missile defense systems. Although funding was cut for medium and long-range missile defense programs and the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, systems that have proven themselves useful in defending the nation at its current state, such as short-range and naval-based systems, received increased funding in the request, maintaining the strength of American missile defenses. Additionally, the embedded military electronics market is doing well thanks to the military’s need to remain strong and as technically advanced as possible.

Other events have also been stirring up the military and aerospace world. Striving to stay technically advanced, many military applications have begun utilizing MicroTCA-based embedded systems. MicroTCA’s small size, light weight, low power and low cost make it desirable for use in military applications such as battlefield communications, mission computers, monitoring and surveillance, emergency response and Navy open architecture. It also possesses a simple network comparable to a PC running software on its desktop. And the military’s recent shift toward network-centricity in open systems platforms has placed increased attention on MicroTCA. Rugged and extended temperature versions are currently in development to make MicroTCA even more useful in military applications.

Other interesting developments are on the horizon for military and defense applications as well as in other markets. Check back often to read about other industries.

Industry Insight Industry Insight

Over the past few months, the Groupies have been busy keeping in touch with our many friends (clients, reps, editors, vendors): from joining them at honorary events in New York City to celebrating The Simon Group’s 23^rd anniversary with breakfast down the road from our farmhouse.

Visit us on Facebook to see a brief selection of some of our recent activities, including our annual summer dinner party, staff appreciation day picnic and the beautiful spring flowers of the Bucks County countryside.

Go to Facebook.com and search for “The Simon Group.” Just click “Become A Fan” under our logo on the left. Check back often for more pictures and updates on the Groupies!

TSG Updates Facebook

One thing we pride ourselves on is our “business as unusual” philosophy.  Each client’s business is unique and should be treated as such…far too often this is forgotten in the agency world.

Through our internship program, started in January 2008, we are educating the next crop of marketing and PR professionals on this way of thinking so they can better implement marketing strategies and grow business more effectively.

The added benefit? To date, we have gained the insight and support of seven promising interns from many local universities and as far away as Rochester Institute of Technology.  They have helped to streamline processes and improve efficiency here at The Simon Group. In return, they are learning valuable industry tips and gaining experience in the B-to-B marcom world to help prepare them for their careers in this fascinating business.

Public Relations, TSG Updates Marketing, PR

If you look into the body of articles about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you’ll find a fascinating nerdy world of one-upmanship, brinkmanship…and maybe some guys playing electronic Battleship. You’ll read about algorithms, about burning URLs, social media and even automated keyword generators.

However, much of the world of search is geared toward consumers and IT B2B. If you are a typical B2B marketer, you’re probably facing less of a challenge than a manufacturer of an XBOX game trying to target 14-year-old boys. Chances are you have a good idea of who your customer is and efficient channels exist through which you can find your customers. But you still need to come up high in search rankings (ranking indicates how far down the list you are in the editorial or “organic” search).

Read the post SEM/SEO Glossary of Terms for more info.

What Is Your Customer Looking For?
When a potential customer types words into a search engine, what words is he or she typing? This is the most fundamental piece of the puzzle. You have to be on target with very specific keywords to win the search engine battle. Do you make ‘abrasives’ or do you make depressed center aluminum oxide abrasive grinding wheels for welding? Do you make ‘magnets’ or do you make NdFeB injection molded magnets? Do you make ‘sockets’ or do you make high-frequency center probe test sockets? You get the idea.

Here’s another example. If you google guitar (a favorite subject around The Simon Group), Google finds about 190,000,000 entries with Wikipedia, Gibson and Fender in positions one, two and three. That’s some pretty hefty search engineering…and Gibson and Fender should be commended. However, their effort is probably Herculean and very expensive.

But if I type in ‘archtop guitar’, we whittle the field down to 148,000 entries, with Wikipedia again leading the pack. Numbers two and three are archtopguitar.net and archtop.com. (Note Wikipedia comes in first twice so far…more on the use of Wikipedia in your marketing efforts to follow in an upcoming blog post.) But I’m a cagey customer. I don’t want just any archtop guitar; I want a ‘handcrafted archtop guitar’. For that, Google now gives me about 5,000 web sites from which to choose

Now we’re starting to get to the level where a midsized B2B company might have the resources to achieve significant ranking on Google and other search engines.

The more specific we can be in our keywords/phrases, the more focused we can be on optimizing for them. A typical Simon Group embedded computing client would have a web page optimized for “ruggedized conduction cooled VMEbus single board computer (SBC)” rather than just single board computer (or worse yet: computer).

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Articles, Online Marketing Marketing, SEO

By: Nissen Isakov, President, LCR Electronics, Norristown, PA

Building a company requires knowledge of several business sectors, from design and development to production and customer service. One important aspect is all too often left at the end of the to-do list: marketing efforts. Creating products, incorporating the latest technologies into them and offering supporting services always comes first, but the next step is letting your customers, and potential customers, be aware that these items are available from your company

Once you have in place the right products, services and infrastructure to support them, you have to get the word out. Establishing a marketing plan is a comprehensive way to ensure the right people know about your business.

For years we performed in-house marketing: print ads, online ads, website management. We thought we were handling ourselves fairly well, never thinking that as a small business we could afford the services of an outside agency. Although the company has had a history of steady growth, with the downturn in the economy, we realized that we needed the help of a professional marketing company. It was a natural part of moving our business forward.

After reviewing and interviewing multiple agencies, The Simon Group sold us on one main point: they knew our products, our markets, our industry. We knew the only way to move into the future effectively and efficiently with a new marketing agency was by working with a group of people already well established in our target markets. And of course, their great personalities helped, too.

Immediately, The Simon Group proved how well an integrated marcom plan can work. We graduated from an internal plan narrowly focused on advertising and website management to one that also included an extensive public relations (PR) program, greater emphasis on our website, tactical print and online advertising with The Simon Group’s Strategic Marketing and Planning (SMAP™) Program, direct mail and continued support and research in all areas of marketing.

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Articles, Integrated Marketing Advertising, Branding, Marketing, PR

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the latest buzz phrase of the marketing world (we’re guilty of using it, too!), but did you know it is sneaking into the PR world as well? Not only should you optimize your website or your blog, you should also be optimizing your press releases for search engines.

A traditional news release with plain text will reach the editorial community on the date you release it, but what happens when a potential customer is searching Google for that great new product six months later? Unless your press release has the staying power to continually rank high in search engines, the chance of an older press release being found is slim.

This is where SEO comes in. Here are some important tips for optimizing a press release:

1. Use the important keywords in the title (words customers would search).
Headlines are the first thing a search engine and a reader will see. Putting keywords in the headline increases your chances of being found and people seeing the relevance of your news release to their search.

2. Keep the title to approximately 80 characters.
PR distribution sites will often use the headline for the title tag. Keeping the title short (while including keywords) ensures the keywords of your release will not be cut off and will be visible to search engines (and readers) at the first glance.

3. Effectively use keywords throughout the press release.
Using a keyword density check tool will help you determine if your press release includes too little, too many, or just the right amount of keywords in the text. Using too many words may seem counterintuitive, but it could actually hurt your SEO. Too few keywords hurt, too.

4. Use links in the body of the release.
Adding links in the body of the text will increase the chances of the search engines finding your release. And always start with http:// for the URL. Those seven little characters will ensure the links are active in the release whereas URLs starting with www. could be missed.

5. Include anchor text.
Try to link at least three keywords in the text specifically to an internal page of your site rather than just the homepage. These tagged phrases provide more SEO value to a release than just listing URL links in the text, since they appear as searchable terms.

6. Make sure your news gets out.
In addition to the traditional press list, news releases should be distributed more widely using outlets targeted for online media as well as submitted to a variety of online news sites that post content, both of which are geared at the end user, versus the editorial community.

SEO has changed the landscape of not only traditional marketing, but traditional public relations as well. Writing and distributing timely news releases with the editors, end user, and search engines in mind will dramatically increase the reach of each release.

Articles, Online Marketing, Public Relations PR, press release, SEO

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are important online marketing techniques in today’s increasingly web-based world. They also come with fancy new terms that make the concepts even harder to understand when you don’t know the definitions. Hopefully we can help.

Here is a list of important SEM and SEO terms to get you started. More can be found on SearchEngineWatch.com, SEOglossary.com, and other similar sites.

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Articles, Online Marketing glossary, SEM, SEO, terms