This is always an exciting time of year here at Marketing Matters. Our team is amping up for CEDIA Expo 2010, the industry’s largest custom electronics trade show. Catalogs, booth design, email blasts, promo goods, ads, shipping and receiving, press releases, etc.—you name it, we’re doing it. (Special props to Kyle Glass, our Public Relations/Marketing Manager a.k.a our Marketing Leatherman, for keeping A LOT of these projects on track).

One thing I’m pretty fired up about for this year’s show is new product launches from quite a few of our clients. If you are all familiar with the custom electronics industry, you know there are a ton of “me too” products out there, so I’m always jazzed whenever we get to help a client introduce something that’s never been seen or done—which is certainly the case for our clients this year.

But as I mentioned, there are a lot of folks making the same widget out and with all things equal, what makes some more successful than others. I would argue that it’s the way they launched their product. We see so many companies spend the time and resources to develop their new, revolutionary, innovative, state-of-the-art, ground-breaking, unique (did I get them all?) widget, and then just expect their customers to just run and snatch them up. After pouring their heart and soul into a project, these companies often feel their product is the best the industry has to offer—and it may be—but if not properly marketed, their customers will never see the benefit.

To help you successfully launch that widget, I’ve put together a few ideas as part of a coordinated marketing/communications strategy.

Website/Microsite

OK, so this isn’t really “marketing insight” here, but we all know the importance the web plays in influencing a customer’s buying decision—and if you don’t, then you probably shouldn’t be handling your companies marketing strategies. Make sure your new product has its own unique landing page on your company’s website (e.g. www.marketingmatters.net/awesomeproduct). Do your SEO research and figure out how your customers search for a product such as yours and incorporate that HEAVILY into your product’s page.

Advertise

A great strategy for building pre-launch buzz about your new widget is a well-coordinated teaser campaign. Develop a simple, yet intriguing, ad campaign to spark your customer’s curiosity. Be sure to communicate a launch date so folks know when its coming.

Remember that advertising isn’t a one-and-done tactic. After your initial launch, continue to push your ads (now, obviously, featuring your new widget).

Be sure to include the unique landing page for your new product on all of your ads. By driving everything back to that page, you’ll get a great understanding of 1) how your customer’s find you and 2) what drives them to purchase your product.

Public Relations

Arguably one of the most valuable and most cost-effective ways of getting the word out about your product is through public relations.

While many may argue that the press release is dead, there is still value in a well-written press release that describes your product and what it provides your customers. First of all, when posted to your website, it gives you yet another source of SEO, and we all love SEO.

For additional SEO bang, you can also post your press release to many of the free press release hosting sites or even utilize one of the wire services which will distribute your release to thousands of press outlets.

To get the best results from your public relations efforts, you need to do your research. Find out what media outlets your customers turn to for information and then find out which person at that outlet covers news about products such as yours. Then develop a custom “pitch” for your product, being sure to communicate why its important to readers/viewers/listeners of that specific outlet to know that your widget is now available. DO NOT, and I can’t stress that enough, send your pitch to everyone on the staff of said media outlet and DO NOT send a pitch that isn’t relevant to that outlet (i.e. if you designed a new loudspeaker, the folks at weonlycovertvs.com don’t care…at all). Want to get your company blacklisted from a media outlet? Ignore that last sentence.

Product Reviews

Following up the members of the press who have expressed interest in your widget, ask them if they would like to demo or review the product. Nothing will give your product better credibility better than a third-party endorsement from a trusted source. You may also want to consider offering a few of your customers products to review. I would recommend keeping your list of solicited reviews to a minimum. If you’ve got a great product, chances are you’ll get a great review. However, with more reviews comes more chances for someone to find something terribly wrong with your product.

Launching a new product is both an exciting and nerve-racking experience. You invested so much into the research and design your widget so you owe it to you and your company to follow through when it comes to marketing it properly.

If you need some tips or advice on a new product launch, please feel free to shoot me an email at scott@marketingmatters.net or find me on Twitter at @cscottmoody.

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If you’re like most businesses, you want to reach people, and you don’t have an unlimited marketing budget. Good news: Email marketing is still a great way to get your name in front of potential buyers. A relatively small investment can net solid returns – provided you do things right. Here are some of Marketing Matters’ best practices we’d like to pass on to you.

Email address rental or purchase?

Many people ask us whether it’s more cost-efficient to rent an email list or to purchase one outright. Our answer? You’re asking the wrong question. The first question is this: What are you doing to capture your own email list? A list of people who are already familiar with you and your services. Everybody we speak to talks a good game, but few have an organized system in place to capture and process new contact information — including email addresses – and get them placed into a systematic sales process. That is the first step to a successful email marketing campaign.

That said, it may still make great sense to supplement your own home-grown address list with one from an outside vendor. For longer campaigns, we usually recommend purchasing a list outright.

For shorter campaigns, however – say, for a limited-time promotion or event – you need to market on a compressed time cycle. For these kinds of campaigns, a list rental – one where you only retain the rights to email the list for a limited amount of time or messages to the list are sent from the renter – may work just fine, and save you a bit of cash.

Warning: Broker-sold lists aren’t as effective as they used to be. List brokers have to get their lists from somewhere, and email lists are frequently captured using surveys, drawings and other tricks, and people frequently use ‘dummy’ email accounts that are set up specifically for this purpose. Nevertheless, even broker-sold lists can still generate extremely compelling returns on your marketing dollar – commercial email campaigns returned $43.69 for every dollar spent on them in 2009, according to the Direct Market Association.

Opt-in vs. Opt-out

Opt-in is critical. By this we only recommend using email addresses from individuals who have specifically consented to receive email from you. This is better than ‘opt-out’ campaigns – campaigns where the recipient has not consented to receive email lists from you, but instead has the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of further email solicitations by sending an ‘opt-out’ email or clicking on an opt-out link.

Why is this important?

It’s the law: the CAN SPAM Act of 2003 sets up stiff penalties for businesses who routinely send unwanted bulk commercial email containing any false or misleading images.

It could violate your terms of service with your ISP. The last thing you need is your Website to go down because you got caught sending the wrong kind of commercial email solicitation and caused your ISP a headache.

Opt-out campaigns just don’t work as well. True, the names are cheaper. But you pay for it in higher dud emails, higher opt-out rates, (which you pay for too) and the time and energy it takes to manage all your opt-outs.

Our recommendation: Use double opt-in: That’s where the customer agrees to receive commercial email, and then confirms their sign-up with an email link. That means the customer has validated the email as correctly spelled AND that he or she checks it! You pay more for this system, but it’s worth it.

It’s not about you.

Many companies make the mistake of forgetting their customer in their marketing campaign. For best results, don’t even mention you or your company in the first half to three-quarters of the email. Instead, write about your customer. Directly address his or her problems, questions and concerns. Don’t spend precious pixels bragging about yourself, but instead, focus on the customer’s needs.

Use for education, announcements and to support events

Every email should have a purpose – and a reason it must be opened now! Special events, such as training events, seminars, invitations and the like make them ideal for email marketing: prospects can RSVP on the spot, move the appointment to Outlook on their calendars, and move rapidly through the sales cycle.

Make your message mobile-device friendly

Remember – some older generations of the iPhone and Blackberry don’t handle Flash illustration well. And some html doesn’t display well on cell phones. Always test your email by looking at it on several versions of operating systems and cell phones..

Repurpose your content

Make sure your message is consistent between your emails, your main Website, and your presence on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and FourSquare. Use each email campaign as an excuse to update your social media sites and Twitter feeds. Every time you get your company name in front of a friendly prospect, you’re putting points on the board. Be patient, but keep working your system and following up on your leads. The sales will come.

Coleen Sterns Leith is the president of Marketing Matters (www.marketingmatters.net) and a CEDIA Professional Services member.

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If your company is exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2010, I’m sure by now your team has had discussions that begin with the question, “what are we going to do to get people to our booth?” By now, I’m pretty sure you’ve come up with some awesome ideas ranging from product or cash giveaways (SWAG), special promos on your products or services, booth “babes”, beer (always a crowd pleaser!) and food, etc.

All of these are great ideas and I’m sure we’ll see some even more creative ideas at this year’s show, but maximizing your efforts goes beyond simply ordering promo goods. What are you doing to make sure attendees to the show know about them in advance and make sure they make time to visit your booth?

Here are a couple of ideas for promoting your CEDIA Expo 2010 activities:

Public Relations – Reach out to the industry trade media outlets and give them a brief overview of what your company has in store for the show. This can be done with a nice press release, but in lots of cases, a simple well-written paragraph or two will also work. (Tip: Act now on this one as most of the print publications are wrapping up their pre-show coverage now.)

List Rentals – Most of the leading industry trade publications offer email and/or mail lists that you can rent to send out your message to a larger audience. These lists can be pretty extensive and include a large number of CEDIA Expo attendees so you can ensure you’re hitting the right markets.

Social Media – If your company is engaged in social media (personal note: by now the question should be “if” your company is engaged, but rather “how is” your company engaged), make sure you’re spreading the word about your booth, specials, giveaways via networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.

SEO your Website – Make sure your company website has a single dedicated page that will serve as the “info center” for attendees who may be interested in visiting your booth. Incorporate elements of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)—such as keyword integration with phrases like “CEDIA Expo 2010”—to ensure that your company ranks high when potential visitors to your booth are searching Google for the best booths to visit at the show.

CEDIA Follow Me App – This year, attendees to CEDIA Expo can download an app for their smartphones that will provide them with instant access to interactive maps, the show directory, press releases and other exhibitor information. Contact CEDIA to get your login information and make sure you have your company profile up-to-date.

By using some of these tactics, you can help drive traffic to your booth and maximize your investment in exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2010.

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