This is generic, if it were for a true prospect I would have asked about their needs and customized the presentation to focus on gathering more information, offering avenues to explore and making useful suggestions so they immediately see me as someone who provides value in every conversation. Before we go on, you need to know that I typically go through the next four slides in rapid fire succession and try to complete the entire presentation in 30 minutes or less. The goal is to get the message across while at the same time demonstrate my communication skills and ability to “sharpen the message.”My “product” is built into my marketing, if you will. So here we go.
The economic climate is extremely challenging but not permanent.
Virtually every company I talk to has reduced staff and everyone is working harder than they ever.
As you might expect, people are stretched and today’s urgent tasks are overwhelming the important work that must be done to build a better tomorrow.
Aligned Marketing helps companies put that message together, to redefine or sharpen the brand message and then deliver that message effectively Through people and technology. Specifically:
Our network of solution providers is over 100 people strong. We work on strategy development, web-based solutions, strategic pricing, sales training and even advertising and PR. But we have no direct employees. That means we can deliver the best talent available, people I’ve come to trust in my 25 year business career, while maintaining the lowest possible fixed cost. Basically we’re a virtual team, an extra set of experts. That’s the company. Let me talk for a moment about my specialties since I’ll be your primary point of contact.
My focus, my role in the company is to work on strategy, communication and technology. As you may know I’ve written a book on communication, Communication Wins. I’ll send you a copy but if you’d like a preview it’s listed on Amazon & Barnes & Noble. And I manage technology solutions for our clients. My belief is marketing strategy now begins on the web and spans outward. I’ll show you the facts to back up that conclusion in a moment but first let’s talk about communication, the message, one more time.
When we meet people in a business environment the first question they often ask is, “What do you do?” If we respond, I sell real estate or We sell industrial products you’ve answered their question but you haven’t told them why they should call you. We help companies develop that crisp message and then leverage that message across their organization, we call it a one message, many voices strategy. We do something else as well.
We leverage the heck out of technology. Here are some startling facts: approximately 70% of product and service searches now begin online. 73% of those begin on Google. Every company should have a Google strategy. Having a website that can’t be found by the search engines, that doesn’t generate sales leads, that is just a marketing expense, is a tactic. Having a site that generates new customers and produces a measurable ROI is the beginning of a modern marketing strategy. Here’s the data.
The numbers are staggering. From under 4M website to over 100M and almost 3B web pages in less than a decade. Online purchases grew from $31B in 2001 to over $147B in 2008, a CAGR of 26.2%. Name me something else that has grown anywhere near that rate during the same period. And it’s not slowing down. Video viewing is up 38% over last year, we’ll talk more about that in a second. Almost 6B searches in January 2009 alone, up 16% from last year. This is all just going to get bigger and bigger. If you want to know why you’re leaving more voicemails, it easy, everybody is online. Smart companies understand that and are making strategic investments today to (1) get in front of new customers and (2) reduce new customer acquisition costs. Customer don’t have time to see sales people very often. They expect you to be online, easy to find and well represented.
I mentioned video. The fact is most people would rather watch the movie than read the book. Or as the slide says, people really don’t want to read anymore. They’d prefer to get their information through video, through a story. No matter what you’re message, you need to engage your audience and video is a great way to do that. Like every other technology, video is much more affordable today than it was just a few years ago. It’s also one of the best ways to be found by the search engines. Google bought YouTube for $1.6B last year. YouTube has never made money and has no monetization strategy. Why do you think the smart folks at Google would do that? It’s simple really. First, they get this slide. Second, they want to get paid twice from advertisers. They plan on getting paid on the first click, on Google, and then on the next click, YouTube, when we retrieve the results. Here’s a recent example.
How do you suppose my little company in lake Wylie SC was able to be listed first on page one of Google for free? We didn’t pay for that placement. It’s because we used video. Next slide.
Sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are all valued at over $1 billion. They have hundreds of millions of people on them and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Some progressive companies have even moved a major portion of their customer service activities online and, as the networks grow and become more reliable, that activity will increase. We’re just getting started.
Aligned Marketing does primary and secondary research to insure product introductions, new market entry and marketing campaigns are on target and successful. We can monitor the competition too.
Strategy development.
We named our company Aligned Marketing because that’s what we do. We help you align your strategy, tactics and operations, and we do it on a variable cost basis. We’re simply an extension of your marketing team that yu rent when you need to. Our tagline is, “We do what you don’t have time to do, don’t want to do, or aren’t able to do.” That’s my presentation.