Americans who use social media feel better about companies when they can interact with them through social media. At least those are the conclusions of Boston-based Cone’s 2008 Business in Social Media Study.

Cone defines social media as “technology facilitated dialogue among individuals or groups, such as blogs/microblogs, forums, wikis, content sharing, social networking, social bookmarking and social gaming.”

They find that 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media. A full 85% believe a company should also interact with customers via this media.

Below are select findings:

–30% of Americans use social media sites and tools two or more times a week.

–13% of social media users interact with companies via these sites two or more times a week. 12% interact one a week. 13% interact once a month and 21% interact a few times a year.

–Those surveyed believe the role of companies within social networks is to:

1. Provide virtual customer service (43%)

2. Solicit feedback (41%)

3. Provide new ways to interact with the brand (37%)

–The bottom line is that 56% of respondents feel a stronger connection with companies that offer social media technology, and 57% feel better served.

The survey was fielded by Opinion Research Corporation on September 11-12, 2008 to 1,092 adults.

While we would all love to say our marketing strategy is proactive, I am sure the majority of us have been caught up in reactive marketing at one time or another. By reactive marketing, we mean programs that weren’t previously scheduled or planned but one-offs quickly created to serve a pressing need. Whether it is the CEO bringing a competitor’s ad to your office and demanding to know why “we aren’t in here?” Or sales is begging for a direct mail initiative to be sent so quarter numbers can be met.

Now we are not saying that reactive marketing should be avoided like the plague. In the real world, there is no way to avoid implementing a few reactive marketing programs. However, the problem with reactive marketing is that it moves so quickly, you don’t have enough time to evaluate measurement and return on investment. The biggest problem is that if your entire program is reactive, a review of success at year end might be painful.

The best way to limit the amount of reactive marketing is to make sure that your annual marketing plan contains a variety of programs that have generated real results in the previous year. As the schedule gets closer, review the market as the planned messaging may need to be modified to meet the current market conditions. Make sure to plan on activities to help sales drive numbers at the end of each quarter. Make sure you know where your competitors are marketing and establish strong rationale to why you are or are not there. This type of planning will help tremendously as you go through the year with strategy in place and keep reactive marketing to a minimum.  

If you’re reading this, you are probably a marketing pro. Good. You are just who this question is directed toward:

How well does your marketing department understand your organization’s sales process?

This is another one of those basic questions that can too easily be taken for granted.

It’s essential that marketing execute programs for each and every phase of the sales process. You must know which marketing program or tactic to deploy for prospects in each phase of your sales funnel. A blanket strategy based on “impressions” simply won’t yield the results of a more strategic, targeted approach. Simply put, the question must be asked:

How will this activity help us move prospects and/or existing customers through the sales funnel?

Consider carefully the question of how well marketing understands how sales are made in your organization. And visit www.q2marketing.com for more tech marketing insight.

Remember when we all had budgets for “brand building?” When building equity in our coveted brands was a top corporate priority?

Q2 Marketing will soon be releasing our latest white paper from the Q2 Marketing Educational Series. The working title of the paper is 11 Essentials for Marketing to Government: Challenging Government Marketing Myths & Reaching Buyers.

Stay tuned for more details on this white paper, which is full of tips you can begin using right away to help increase sales in the federal government space. Reserve your copy by contacting info@q2marketing.com.

A SEMPO’s survey recently illustrated by Advertising Age in their Search Marketing Fact Pack 2008, demonstrates that print isn’t the only victim of increased search engine marketing (SEM) spending. They asked, “From which marketing/IT programs are you shifting budget away and moving it to your search marketing programs?”

The top casualty was print magazine advertising, up from 20% in 2006 to 32% in this 07-08 survey.

Cuts to web site development spending followed from 22%, representing a 7% jump over 2006.

Direct mail is to be shifted by 17%. This is fairly consistent with 2006’s 16%.

Web display ads and print newspaper ads came in at 15% respectively. Next was TV advertising at 13% and conferences at 11%.

Of note is that public relations will be cut by only 5% of respondents in favor of SEM. I’m willing to bet that some of these marketers realize the value of PR in their web optimization and search strategy.

[Tech Marketing Feature] It’s taking longer to close sales than it did this time last year, or even earlier this year. Many companies are making decisions more slowly. There’s a good chance your company is among the slower movers. When possible, companies are purchasing more incrementally, putting a toe in the water to purchase only what they believe they need. Buyers are decidedly risk averse. We know the economy is to blame, but it’s time to be proactive. What do we do about it?

The good news is that opportunities still exist. But while it’s taking longer to move prospects through the funnel, marketers need to put programs in place to impact these lengthening sales cycles—today. Here’s how:

1. Continue your direct marketing programs. Now more than ever, you need to communicate consistently with your buyers and prospective buyers. Resist the knee-jerk tendency to cut this aspect of your marketing budget. Your clients need to keep hearing from you. They need to know that you’re solving problems for companies like there’s. They need to be able to trust you with their money and time. And they need to know that you’re a source of stability, not risk. Well executed ongoing direct marketing programs can help you accomplish this. If you make the mistake of going silent, your buyers will go to a competitor that’s still making noise.  

2. Maintain and boost credibility. Help prospects and existing clients feel good about purchasing from your organization with a credibility, or public relations program. Credibility can appear in various manifestations from bylined articles and blogs to coverage in trade and news press. Awards for financial excellence or leadership can also be important. Make sure you leverage this credibility and your prospects and customers are aware of it. Ask yourself what mediums your organization and key players should be featured in to impact your buying base. Then map out a strategy to do it. Tie your credibility programs in with your direct marketing program for maximum synergy.

This is no small undertaking. If you are serious—and smart—about public relations, it can yield very big returns. PR takes time, strategy and talent. Expect PR budgets to be cut. This is a good thing for those of us who continue to diligently make an impact with credibility programs.

3. Lead with cost savings. There is no better time to lead with ROI and cost savings than when spending tightens among your buyers. If this benefit applies to your offerings, are you leading with it? If not, buyers will pick competing products or services with marketing messages that clearly offer a tangible return on investment. Of course, this won’t apply to all products and services, but to the extent you can save money and time, make that message clear.

4. Let your clients talk for you. Another way to overcome your audience’s potential fears of risk is to leverage your client base and let them do the talking for you. Peers can communicate your value proposition much more effectively and meaningfully than you can. Use testimonials from your biggest fans and make sure they are featured prominently in your marketing materials and mediums. Video testimonials are even better. There are many clever ways of making these testimonials work, from having them on your home page or blog, to linking from YouTube.  

5. Don’t be a loser. Everywhere I go I talk with executives who have had to lay off employees, talented professionals who’ve gotten the axe, and sales and marketing experts who are feeling the pinch. But generally, there are two responses. There’s pity and foreboding in one corner. Then there’s optimism, will and drive in the other. As a marketer for your business, keep those stark contrasts in mind and always remember that people want to surround themselves with winners, trust winners and give their business to winners. In all of your marketing activities, create programs worthy of a winning company, and harness the attitude of a winner.

6. Get with the strategy. What do you want to communicate about your company, products, etc? Is it your ubiquitous market penetration, dominance in an industry, product innovation, new line of business? If you’re going to be true to your goal of moving prospects through the pipeline, you need to be strategic in what you’re telling your audiences and why. Make all the programs you’re putting in place hit hard on that theme, and do it consistently, creatively and in a way they will remember.

Keep this strategy in mind and lead with messages that matter, consistently, and in meaningful ways. And watch those slow movers pick up the pace and decide to give you their business. Just remember to track the programs you put in place and the status of that pipeline so you’ll be able to demonstrate that those cycles shortened because of your marketing insight.

One more note from today’s Washington Technology newsletter. The same slowing trend is occurring with mergers and acquisitions. Read more here: http://www.washingtontechnology.com/print/23_16/33816-1.html.

Hello cause, meet effect.

Advertising Age’s recent article, With No New Ads, Heineken Ads Sink is worth a read. Nearly a year without an ad campaign, the beer giant’s sales are beginning to slump. From this article: While Heineken sales were up 1.6% this year through Sept. 7, according to data from Information Resources Inc., they started falling as the prime beer-selling summer season progressed, with sales falling 3.7% in July and August, as total imports posted a slight increase.

Read the full article for other factors. Maybe some of you can use this data to help justify your ad spend.

One question we get all the time: what program will drive the best results? Especially now, companies are trying to figure out how to do more with less. They are looking for the one program that will continuously drive leads. You may have read our recent blog entry regarding MarketingSherpa’s report that companies are going to be putting more money into direct mail initiatives.  However, it is typically never one program that makes the phone ring. So we don’t advocate throwing all of your marketing spend into direct mail. The best strategy, even in down times, is to run several integrated programs that hit prospects from a variety of sources and, thus, help drive leads. Even with a limited budget, you can effectively tier programs that continuously hit prospects from a variety of methods. You can limit budget by implementing some of the following suggestions: reducing the number of prospects—instead of boiling the ocean, narrow your list and hit targeted demographics; eliminating programs that aren’t producing leads; exploiting your online presence; directly targeting your public relations program; ratcheting down sponsorships.

The beauty of running integrated programs vs. one program is pretty obvious. It allows you to hit prospects with a variety of programs versus exposure to only one. Each program in the integrated campaign is tied together allowing companies to deliver a consistent message through a variety of channels. The main push back we hear on integrated campaigns is that they are too expensive. This does not have the case. Just like you can buy a purse for $10 up to several thousands dollars, you can run integrated programs at a fraction of the cost. You just have to be smart and cut corners where/when you can. This is where working with an agency that has small to mid-size company experience is a plus. They are used to working with limited dollars and can point out where cost savings exist. Moving quickly, you can adapt to the changing market and fiscal limitations while still producing an integrated campaign that will produce successful results in 2009.