Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Talk to them about my "The 8 Spokes of the Advertising Wheel"

If you don't know what that is, email me and I'll send it to you.

Dman

I'm sure BARQ is on the right track.

Over here there's a company called Star Track Express which has used the "customer testimonial" idea very well in its TV advertising. Unfortunately there's next to no follow-through on their website, go figure.

The TV ads feature clients such as TDK Australia and Ken Done Design who use Star Track Express for their warehousing, logistics or delivery services.

The ads are far more about the client than about Star Track. They feature the client talking about how Star Track express helps them to get a competitive edge in their business. I suspect the appeal to the client's ego because they feature the individual so strongly.

As a potential logistics services customer, I have to say I find the ads very convincing. I suspect STE is at the high end of pricing. The company is owned jointly by Qantas and Australia Post.

The STE example is probably very expensive to replicate. Trade magazine editorial would be much less costly to implement.

Instead of having the clients interviewed for a specific magazine, why not hire a professional writer to interview the client on behalf of your company, and create a series of generic articles incorporating "quotable quotes"? Get the client's photograph too (panders to their ego, plus it adds authenticity to the article). Readers like to read about people rather than companies. Then you can roll out customised versions of the articles slanted whichever way you need them at the time.

Hope that helps.

ChrisB

Clients do need to know "whats in it for them". The case study in the trade journal is in something that benefits you, not in a trade journal that benefits their business. That is why its not a good negotiation point. They could care if you do a case study on them.

The salesperson handling the account is the one with the best rapport. Reality is, you are getting the PR, not them. You may have to pay them for the study, which could be in services vs dollars. Companies are sometimes afraid legally, they're endorsing a product. Your sales person might be able to answer most of those questions, then create a draft and just get permission to use. You already know the value your company created.

I worked for a company that did a great job for Disney and wanted to use them in a case study. Disney agreed-- and wanted one million dollars for permission to print. The case study didn't happen.

In my rep agency my principal companies do case studies without company names at times. When we get the permission, great-- but if not, its a great story anyway. Your salesperson can provide the names without permission and legal finagling.

Carol
Sell Well and Prosper tm

I got today a case study-- without a company name. It might be an option for you.

https://www.tpmetrics.com/download_files/TPMappingCaseStudy.pdf

Carol
Sell Well and Prosper tm

The anonymous case study is probably as interesting to the users of your product as the one with the names in it. The name enhances credibility but it makes the article a target of study for their competitors.

We have clients who will not allow our CRM success stories to be published because they don’t want their competitors to identify a key area of competitive advantage they hold over them.

Where that is not the case, the exposure that they get trough an article which is plugging the benefits of your product, not theirs, is harder to sell from the standpoint of their brand or the generation of leads for them.

If the article is sensitively written, extolling the strengths of the client as well as your own and the benefit that their existing and potential customers might get were they to deal with them (Basking in reflected glory?) then the idea is easier to sell. If it is a PR piece with a “Bingo” number or contact details, ensure that the publication includes a means of contact for the client as well as yourselves.

It took me 4 years to get one of our best clients to agree to a case study and even then, they demanded total editorial control. It was worth it in the end, but the value to the client is utterly dependent on how we deploy the story in the trade journals which their own customers might read – not the ones which our customers might read.

It is a tricky balancing act, where we have to agree to promote our story in trade press which we otherwise might not have looked at. There are however benefits to this. We were the only CRM company to feature in “The Meat Trades Journal” last year – a big customer for our client and until now, not an SIC code from which we had received a single enquiry. Funny how the Meat Trade have sales managers who, guess what, need CRM systems!

Good Luck


Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions