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"he who has a product to sell and goes and whispers in a well
is not so apt to get the dollars as one who climbs up a tree and hollers"
- Author unknown

I have heard many opinions regarding advertising. One common perception is "word of mouth is the best advertising." While this may very well be true, it does not mean that it should be the only form of advertising you should use. One business owner told me "I’ll never advertise again! I had some flyers printed, mailed them, and received only one response." There are many reasons a flyer like this may fail to produce results. It may have been mailed to the wrong list of prospects, the information may not have been interesting enough for a response, or the flyer may not have required a response. In any case, this individual decided to "never advertise again" because of this one experience. In order to advertise with results, we need to understand what forms of advertising are useful for our industries, and choose the types and frequency that fit our budget.

Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. 
You know what you are doing, but nobody else does. --Steuart H. Britt

When we hear the word "advertising" most of us think of newspaper, popular magazine, radio, and television ads. These vehicles work very well for consumer products, but industrial products like ours require alternatives that target our potential customers. These alternatives include direct mail, trade publication ads, websites, trade shows, and corporate capabilities brochures and videos. Marketing communications efforts can include all of the above, and much more! Public relations efforts include press releases, technical articles written by individuals in your company, articles about your company, articles about other companies using your products, and interviews with members of your company. A previous article addressed the importance of a good marketing plan. These efforts are the tasks necessary to carry out that plan.

Coordinated efforts
It is essential that all these efforts be coordinated to achieve the goals stated in the marketing plan. Let’s take the (fictional) example of XYZ Dies Inc. XYZ just installed a new EasyBender. After analyzing the productivity increases achieved on various types of dies, management concludes that they would like to increase sales in the folding carton segment of the market. They modify the existing marketing plan to reflect these new goals, and begin the marketing communication efforts required to meet these goals. They design a flyer explaining the faster turnaround time and superior dies they can build with the new equipment, obtain a mailing list of folding carton companies, and mail the flyer. At the same time, they place a small ad in the trade publications that cater to folding carton companies, issue press releases to these publications, and contact the editors of the publications asking them to do a feature article on XYZ and the automated bending system. They update their corporate capabilities brochure and video to reflect the new equipment and to emphasize their folding carton capabilities. They begin to participate in trade shows and association meetings in the carton industry. They increase sales efforts to folding carton companies.

Direct Mail
Many people have avoided direct mail as an advertising tool because they have heard that you can expect less than a one percent response rate. This is true in untargeted direct mail to homes for consumer products, but in our industries it is possible to build a mailing list that accurately targets potential customers. In this case, it is common to achieve a response rate of 10% to 20%.
Direct mail pieces should be designed with the following principles in mind:

Trade Publication Ads
It has been said that the 3 keys to success in real estate are location, location, and location. The 3 keys to success in magazine advertising are repetition, repetition, and repetition. It might be nice to have a two page 4 color process ad, but they are very expensive. If your yearly budget allows a choice of two such ads or twelve two color ½ page ads, choose the repetition 12 times a year! The purpose of this kind of ad is name recognition. Do not expect a lot of leads from this marketing tool.

Websites
A presence on the World Wide Web (WWW) will become increasingly important as time goes by. The fact is, it is not terribly difficult or expensive to create and maintain a website, although it does take time. The website allows customers and potential customers who have access to the WWW to find out more about your company. The content of such a site is limited only by your imagination. You may decide on a simple site that includes the computer graphics equivalent of your corporate capabilities brochure, contact information, and copies of press releases and other public relations items, or you may decide to include video or audio clips, or interactive programs that allow your customers and potential customers to get involved. Email is an additional benefit that is indirectly related, allowing your customers with access to the internet to send correspondence to you without a long distance phone call. These Email messages can even include CAD and graphics data as an attachment. This article was sent to the IADD office as an attachment to an Email message.

Trade Shows
Participation in trade shows can be an effective way to reach specific segments of your market. You can seldom reach all your customers participating in a single trade show. These shows usually concentrate on a limited portion of the market. In the case of our fictional XYZ Dies Inc., since they want to increase business with folding carton manufacturers, they might decide to participate in Print97/Converflex or CMM But if XYZ also manufactures tooling for the membrane switch and flexible circuit industries, they may choose to also participate in the SPAI (screen printing) show. It is often difficult to decide which shows are most important. If time permits, it is wise to visit a show before participating. You also may want to ask other participating companies if they are happy with the response they recieved from the show. Often, the decision to participate in a show is made for the wrong reason! The only valid reason to pay the (sometimes considerable) costs associated with these shows is to reach the attendees. Yet in many cases the decision to participate is made because a direct competitor always has a booth, or because one particular show is less expensive than another.
It can also be difficult to decide what to display. Possible choices include photos showing your company’s equipment, facilities, and R&D efforts, a video, samples of your finished products, especially any proprietary products. This is also a good opportunity to give out your corporate capabilities brochure to qualified prospects.

Corporate Capabilities Brochure and Video
The corporate capabilities brochure is an effective way to communicate with your customers and potential customers. This is a resume for your company. It should include information on the following, especially anything that sets you apart from your competitors:

One of the best brochures I have seen is actually a pocket folder with individual sheets for each category. This is useful when the information changes, as when additional equipment or personnel is added.
The Corporate capabilities video contains essentially the same information as the printed brochure, but video allows you to do things that are not possible with print. Interviews with key personnel, shots of the equipment in operation, and an overview of your quality program are all possible uses of the unique advantages of video.

Press Releases
Press releases are essentially free advertising. Trade publications are always looking for information of interest to their readers, so the releases need to be interesting. Some trade magazines have guidelines for the format and content they will accept. You can call or write to the publications and ask them to send these guidelines, if any. There are also commercially available software packages designed to help you write press releases. One such package is Publicity Builder from JIAN software. If you have access to the World Wide Web on the internet, the SBA has a shareware software package; prkit.zip Do-it-yourself public relations for small and home-based businesses; It can be found at: http://www.sba.gov/shareware/markfile.html. Another good resource is at: http://www.stetson.edu/~rhansen/prguide.html.

Technical Articles
There are many reasons to write technical articles. The most important reason, in my opinion, is summed up in the slogan printed on the front of this publication; "Industry unity is the surest path to individual success." This implies that we all need to give back something to the industry that has been so good to us. If we do, the benefits far outweigh the time and effort involved in sharing our technical expertise. What are these benefits?

Promotional Articles and Interviews
When we hear the term "public relations" these articles are the ones that come to mind. They could be written by someone in your company and submitted to a trade magazine or journal, or you could call one of the editors of these publications with an idea for an article. You might suggest that the editor contact one of your loyal customers that use your products. Or you could suggest that the editor interview individuals within your company to find out about your unique and newsworthy capabilities. In the case of the fictional XYZ Dies, the approach could be to call the editor and suggest that XYZ dies has had experience with three different automated bending systems, and that their experiences with the EasyBender would be of interest to the readers. Editors are constantly looking for interesting and informative articles. As I mentioned in a previous article, it is important that these promotional articles be based on reality, and not just on hype.

The right kind of advertising

"Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."

-Mark Twain

While I agree with the above quote, I would add that many a (relatively) large thing has remained small (In perception) because of the lack of advertising. What is the right kind of advertising for you? Many companies set an advertising budget as a percentage of sales. I believe it is a better plan to decide where you want to go, and then decide how to get there. If funds are limited, there are alternatives that can be much less expensive.

Artículo de tecnología de troquelado
(en Español)

EasyBender
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Pablo Rea joins Adams Technologies

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