MARKETING BLOG

MARKETING • TECHNOLOGY • RESULTS

Practically everyone is feeling the pinch of the current economic downturn. Marketing departments in particular are finding it more challenging than usual to justify expenditures in the face of shrinking sales.

If you happen to be in a market that is immune from the downturn; congratulations! For everyone else; you are probably trying to figure out how you are going to do more with less available resources. The American Marketing Association published the results of a study on the topic this past June, along with a series of recommendations.

Lately we’ve been fielding a number of questions concerning the prioritization of resources for the coming year. One of our primary recommendations is to continue brand-building efforts, a point that is supported in the AMA study. However, we are being a bit more specific in telling our clients to focus much of their efforts around the web. Regardless of market or target industry, the web continues to be the leading sales channel for most companies. Even in the large enterprise sales space, the web is the primary source for prospects to gather information and perform an initial vetting of potential solutions. With less leads to go around, you should use this opportunity to take a good hard look at their corporate web site as well as their overall Internet marketing strategy.

If you’ve not already done so, make sure your web presence conveys an accurate representation of your brand and does an effective job of communication your value proposition to your respective audiences. If you already have a strong web foundation in place, make sure it is optimized for search. With less cash to go around, it is more critical than ever that you boost your organic search performance rather than relying on pay-per-click initiatives. My recommendation is to find someone to assist you in your initial SEO efforts. In the process, learn as much as you can about the discipline of SEO, then spend a little time each day or so on the care and feeding process. Our approach to SEO, is a combination of “give a man a fish” and “teach a man to fish”, hence we tend to do a knowledge transfer as the process goes on.

I’m also a huge believer that thought leadership is a critical ingredient in the sales process. Slowing markets mean that your thought leaders may actually have a bit more time on their hands. Now is a great time to tap into that and develop white papers, case studies and other thought leadership materials. These materials are relatively inexpensive to produce and provide great fodder for cost-efficient email campaigns as well as blogs. On this last topic; blogs - either your own or others in which you participate, are a great medium for expressing thought leadership and an effective tool in building organic search rankings.

So, while nobody likes an economic downturn, look at it as an opportunity to get caught up on all of those things you’ve thought about, but never found the time.

I’m often asked the question, what’s the difference between an advertising agency and a marketing agency. Clearly we have opted to position Vovéo Marketing Group as the latter so what better way to kick off our corporate blog than with a discussion of the topic.

A simple place to begin is Webster’s definition of the terms advertising and marketing. Advertising is defined as the action of calling something to the attention of the public, especially by paid announcements. Marketing is defined as the act or process of promoting, selling and distributing a product or service. From this simple description, one can quickly surmise that advertising , presuming the ultimate goal of gaining one’s attention is to sell something, is a single component of a broader range of strategies and tactics that comprise the marketing process.

From the above description, one might conclude that advertising agencies are very narrowly focused, whereas a marketing agency like Vovéo might offer a much broader range of services. While the latter is true in our case, it is not necessarily an assumption that you should make - and I’m sure it is one that most advertising agencies would take exception to. In fact, frequently agencies will use the term “full service” in describing their offerings. In Vovéo’s case, full-service means everything from branding and web design & development , to collateral and lead generation. With the exception of the lead generation, which very few ad agencies offer, marketing agencies and advertising agencies tend to offer a lot of the same range of services.

Ok, so I know what you are thinking. The premise of this article is to answer the question, “what’s the difference between an advertising agency and a marketing agency” and I’ve led you to conclude… nothing. Well, not exactly. My 25 years of marketing experience have taught me that the differences are less tactical and largely philosophical.

During my years in the corporate world, working in director roles at SAP, Sun, and HP, I had the opportunity to work very closely with sales executives and their staffs. I also had the opportunity and sometimes misfortune of working with a number of outside firms including some of the most prestigious multi-national ad agencies. It was then that the differences became crystal clear to me. While my advertising agencies were focused largely on developing award-winning creative, my sales execs needed something that would immediately translate into results for the next quarter. I often found myself frustrated that my advertising agencies cared very little about the sales process, offered little or no help around strategic messaging, and would refer me to third party telemarketers any time the topic of lead generation popped up.

When I finally left corporate America in 1995 to start my own agency, I was bound and determined to offer my clients an improved agency experience. I began with a simple philosophy; that as an agency, we would work toward a single common goal – results. Having now walked in my clients’ shoes, I recognize that a sensitivity to the needs of sales people is critical to delivering value. Oh yeah, and as for my agency… I chose the name “Vovéo” – meaning a commitment, vow, or to promise to God, and of course, “Marketing Group”. Need I say more?