But trust is hard to come by now, and we are pretty cynical about most of the content and claims from many technology companies. Engaging with analysts, earning their respect and winning their support can deliver the essential credibility factor into the marketing mix.

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In part one, I discussed the reasons AR programmes fail and what you should do before speaking to analysts. In this post, we examine some metrics you should consider measuring. We also look at a few questions you should ask yourself to maximise AR’s impact on your marketing. This should help create the right foundation for effective AR programmes.

AR programmes: Metrics to measure

If you don’t know your key marketing and sales metrics, how do you know what needs to improve? And if you don’t know what needs improving, then what is the point of doing AR?

Typical metrics you need to know include:

1. Number of enquiries for a product or service
2. Number of referrals made by existing customers or partners
3. Percentage of enquiries and referrals converted into RFPs
4. Typical lead response times
5. Number of RFPs that convert into actual sales
6. Number of active customers
7. Total spend per active customer
8. Customer churn rates
9. Gross revenue
10. Gross profit
11. Marketing costs
12. Marketing costs per enquiry
13. Marketing costs as a % of gross profit
14. Cost of sales (i.e. cost of converting RFPs into actual clients)

Once you pass this information to your analysts, they will be able to compare you with your competitors and identify specific activities or messages that need improvement.

Tap into their knowledge of industry go-to-market, partnership, and channel strategies.

Use their unique insight into competitor or industry-wide metrics to test how well you are doing.

You must position your company more clearly in your target markets most of the time. If the analysts don’t believe your messages resonate with your prospects’ needs, you will need to keep tweaking.

The key marketing metric takeaway is that analysts can only help you improve your marketing and sales metrics if you measure them properly in the first place.

Is what you say you do what people think you do?

To develop an accurate representation of your company’s technology or services, you must first get the correct feedback from customers, independent influencers, and your employees.

You need a well-defined process for asking the right people the right questions, storing the answers, and providing easy access to anyone developing marketing strategies.

When approaching customers for feedback, you need to get them to do so based on a full understanding of the key competitive options available. You need to understand why they bought from you but might not do so again, or what their biggest frustrations are with vendors in your sector(s). Finally, you must understand where they look for information and how they make purchase decisions. This can help you direct resources to the most appropriate channels.

Your employees’ feedback should be consistent across the various teams. There is little worse than having the sales and marketing teams disagree on the best action to take to generate leads, or because of internal feuds.

All this feedback needs to be independently analysed or verified. This is where analysts are essential. They should be used to sanity check feedback and company-led competitor research. They will compare it with opinions they get from end-users or your competitors. Based on this, they can advise you on using the feedback to change your product or service strategies.

Are you talking to the right people?

This is all about marketing to specific niches/target markets so that you maximise your marketing resources.

The people you target should want what you offer and be actively looking for a solution to specific problems that you can provide. More importantly, they should have the money to buy from you and be easily reached by your marketing efforts.

Analysts have a good knowledge of potential target markets and will advise you on how best to reach out to them. They know the drivers and trends that impact purchase decisions. Though bound by client confidentiality, their inside knowledge should be tapped to re-focus your marketing messages and tactics. Analysts also monitor regulatory and industry trends and will suggest markets to consider that you might have ignored.

Part three, we’ll look at some thorny marketing problems AR can help solve.

Postscript: These three AR posts have proved pretty popular. So we’ve put them together, ripped out the fluff, given it a bit of structure and turned them into a whitepaper, which you are welcome to download here:

In successful AR programmes, marketing and sales teams work closely together. They involve analysts and ensure analyst feedback is shared internally with specific action resulting in more competitive positioning, compelling messaging, and customer-focused products and services.

Give your AR programme a health check

• Are you only looking for the endorsement or quote?
• Are you focused on one-off engagements rather than building a relationship?
• Are you deprived of the time, expertise or resources required to run a measurable programme?
• Are the briefings timed around your news, the analyst research, or events?
• Are you lumping analysts in with the press, assuming one approach fits all?
• Are you taking the time to fully prep for a briefing?
• Are you sharing the analyst feedback internally?
• Is your AR programme synced up with lead gen and sales activities?

Symptoms of an ailing AR programme

• Difficulty forming an approach for new target markets due to a lack of independent insight.
• Outdated knowledge of key business or legislative drivers.
• Assuming what drives competitive success without independent testing.
• Limited ideas for possible partnership strategies.
• Limited channel knowledge and insights into where prospects look for information, resulting in no new routes to market.
• Poor understanding of whether company messaging is resonating due to an absence of message testing strategies.

Checklist to get your AR programme back in shape

• Be clear about what you want to get out of an AR programme. Raising awareness is all well and good, but if it does not result in more leads or better client retention, then you need to change it.
• Get stakeholder buy-in. Train spokespeople and teams about the value analysts provide.
• Develop proper metrics. Measuring briefing numbers and report mentions, running perception audits, or getting placed on various analyst rating scales are all good. However, if these metrics do not positively impact the bottom line, you need to rethink them.
• Define and target the right experts. Think about individual analysts and not just the firms they work for. Find out how they get information and influence decision-making processes. Don’t forget analysts from small or niche firms, as they may have a unique market impact that you could leverage.
• Plan regular engagements, such as at events, to gain trust instead of one-off jobs every year. Be prepared to follow up with information that helps an analyst with their research.

In the next post, we will start looking at the impact AR can have on various marketing tactics. and in  part three, we’ll look at some thorny marketing problems AR can help solve.

Post script: These three AR posts have proved pretty popular. So we’ve put them together, ripped out the fluff, given it a bit of structure and turned them into a whitepaper, which you are welcome to download here:

Who are you writing for?

Write for one person. Assess their motivation for reading your copy. Will it enlighten, inform, entertain, motivate them to act? Think what’s in it for them. Assess the time they have to read it, their knowledge level.

Get it all out

If you find yourself staring at a blank screen, just write down anything and everything related to what you are trying to say. From this, you can create structure and extract key facts.

Ask questions that can provide the structure

Ask yourself basic questions like Who, Why, When, Where, and What and answer them in bullet format. Leave the questions as subheads for now. Arrange the questions into a structure that will form the basis of your logical/persuasive argument.

Does it serve your purpose as well as theirs?

Your copy must add value to the reader, but does it also support your company messages? Make sure your copy always underlines a key value proposition. If it doesn’t, why are you writing it?

So what?

Then, read it through. Anything missing? Ask yourself, ‘Why do I care?’ ‘So what?’ and, ‘What’s so exciting about that?’ Imagine how everyone else feels if you’re bored by your own copy. (At this stage, this might be the longest your copy gets, from here on in, we are cutting it back).

Show not tell: De fluff

Use objective observation and facts to show. Not subjective adjectives and opinion to tell. You are not penning a love letter but compellingly presenting the facts. Imagine the building is on fire and you cannot leave the office until you have shouted the story from the window. This exercise will ensure you only use the words you need to say what has to be said and no more. Regarding snappy copy, a couple of carefully crafted sentences are more effective than a whole paragraph of jumbled thoughts.

Every time you review it, cut it

Aim to reduce word count every time you review the copy (3-5 times), with decent breaks in between sessions, to allow the creative brain to mull over the project and find the right phrase, the perfect word.

Don’t force it

Could you sneak your copy into the conversation? Would it sound natural, or would people think you had gone crazy, swallowed a dictionary, or been indoctrinated by brand Y. Be kind to your reader, and make your copy easy to read!

Read final draft out loud

Now, print off the copy and read it out loud. This helps spot the ‘silly’ mistakes your eyes haven’t seen, but your tongue will trip over. It will also help you with punctuation.

It’s not as ‘easy’ as it looks, I can tell ya, getting the people with the PHDs to look up not down, out not in. And if, in so doing, we tend to simplify things rather than wonder if we haven’t dumbed down your whole reason d’etre, just trust you know how to build software, and we know how to build reputations.

In the kingdom of the big and the clever, it’s the six-year-old kid you need to impress.

Some sensible tips for sensible media interviews:

so it’s adaptable scalable innovate and flexible is it? Yeah you lost me at ‘it’s’

1) The Press are more concerned with business arguments than technology methodologies. So, the WHY needs to be answered way before the HOW. This is where many tech companies need to lift their heads. The WHO is pretty interesting, too. Whatever you do, don’t tone down your colourful characters.

2) The old truism,’ no one is that interested in you,’ is – erm – true. They are interested in issues, though. If you can help solve them, then that’s the angle to go in on.

3) Journalists are busy, so PLEASE get to the point. Work out how your issue-based messages can be delivered top-down. If you’ve struck a chord, you can drill down with more insight or leave it as a one-liner if it gets no traction.

4) It sounds obvious, but actively listen to and genuinely try to answer the question. You need to answer questions as best you can, weave in your messaging where appropriate, and leave it out where it isn’t.

It’s critical to be seen as someone who understands the market and how it ticks

This is more important than getting all your messages across in every interview, euch! You may manage it the first time, but I doubt if anyone will want to talk to you a second time. However, if you can establish yourself as a credible and trusted source, then the journalist is more likely to talk to you when you have relevant news.

5) The journalist is looking to create a compelling story from a mixture of background information, intelligent argument and quotes. If you want to be quoted, you need to have a view and be incisive. Otherwise, you find most of your effort gets swallowed up in unattributed body copy or as background information. Answers can be your own thoughts based on experience or theory, statistically or anecdotally based or ideally a mixture of the lot.

6) Spokespeople should be reading a weekly digest of relevant hot stories, remember head up!

7) It should go without saying, but follow the publication and the journalists you hope to meet so you can assess what messaging will resonate best for that particular journalist.

8) Be courteous, Allow time for the journalist to finish their note taking and prepare their next question, do not dictate or just talk into the silence. Offer sustenance, and DO NOT look at your phones.

9) Remember this is a two way conversation, ask what the journalist is seeing and hearing in the market and future story ideas he is working on.

10) Every interview is different, but you should be able to answer the following fundamental questions:

Where are your customers spending their IT budget in your sector in these cash-strapped times?

What are the drivers behind this (i.e. sticks and carrots)?

So, where do you fit in?

Other companies do what you do, so why are you better?

What tech Holy Grail are your customers chasing right now?

What’s preventing organisations from achieving it?

What are the key trends in your technology sector right now?

What’s your sector going to look like in five years?

Although the brief specified a freelancer, it was for one with specialist knowledge of everything, from travel and technology to business, design, and gaming. And a fair few other categories for good measure.

I’m not exactly a one-trick pony, but this had AGENCY stamped all over it. I recommended a favourite and waved bye-bye to it. I’m as good as my last job, and I didn’t see how I could shine in that one. Besides, what’s the point of spending 100 hours bringing in results I quoted I could do in ten?

Deciding if a freelancer or an agency best: Five things to consider

1) Budget

The first factor most people consider. Freelancers should be charging about half their agency rate. “Bargain!” I hear you cry. But it’s not that simple. Say you hire a senior freelancer at account director level or above. Bear in mind that the day rate is fixed, no matter the task. So yes, fantastic value for money regarding strategy and guidance and good value for media outreach and creating content.

However, there is not so much when it comes to sourcing coverage, building media lists, feature research, reporting tools, etc. In an agency, a junior or intern would be tasked with mundane and time-consuming activities and could charge accordingly. You might be better with an agency if you have an admin-heavy/consultancy-light brief. News-heavy accounts (e.g. a release a week) also qualify for this model as they fit better into an agency ‘machine’.

2) Expertise

So if you need lots of different sectors covered off as described above, 100s of media outlets, it’s agency all the way, if you need integrated services, again an agency is often a smart choice although most freelancers have a trusted network they partner up with. But if you want access to senior level support or a fair amount of hand holding again a freelancer might be a better fit as account directors can be pretty thinly spread in a busy agency across six accounts or more. So your monthly retainer may only allows for a day – to half a day of precious ‘AD’ time.

3) Capacity

Everyone knows it’s a feast or famine for freelancers, but a feast for a freelancer might not be a banquet for you, the client. Be sure to understand your chosen freelancer’s workload and exactly how many concurrent clients they have. It may be their eyes are bigger than their hands-on abilities. This is less of a problem for agencies who have a bigger pool of staff and, of course, can hire should work levels remain consistently high.

4) Best practice

A good agency continues to hone and develop best practices. The opportunity to learn in an agency is one of the most compelling reasons to work there. A freelancer from ‘birth’ will not have had the same exposure and will have had a different learning experience. They may have developed some shabby habits, and I’m not just talking about dress code. If you are going to work with a freelancer, check their pedigree and make sure they have a good few years of agency or established in-house experience that they can bring to the table with them. Ask some journalists what they think.

5) Payment terms

And finally, if you know your company is somewhat backward at coming forward when settling its bills, again, go to an agency where the two account departments can fight it out between themselves, leaving your client relationship cosy. Working directly with a near-hysterical, half-starved freelancer who hasn’t been paid for 100 days will not necessarily get you the kind of exposure you had in mind. Think Sideshow Bob on Twitter.

Whoever you choose to partner with for your comms, go in with a glad heart and some real commitment so that 2012 is a great year for you both.