It’s the “again” that counts!
According to a June 1 report by the Institute for Supply Management™ Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, the manufacturing sector has shown expansion now for 10 consecutive months. (Yeah!) The latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® also said that the overall economy has grown for 13 consecutive months! (Woohoo!)
The report’s rate of growth reflects continued strength in new orders and production across 16 of 18 industries as measured by the PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index). The report also points to six months of continued growth in employment. (We like the sound of this more and more.)
What’s growing the fastest? At the top of the list is: paper and wood products, transportation and electrical equipment, appliances and components, fabricated metal products, computing and electronic products, and furniture. What’s contracting? Petroleum and coal. (Seasonal?)
It’s good to see expansion continue as it can only mean greater opportunities for our clients and their customers too, since so many of them are in these sectors. However, with companies still being cautious on how they spend their money, more and more of them are turning to emarketing tools during this recovery to help sustain their momentum. It’s sometimes slow going as many manufacturers find it hard to make a transition from an account management/sales model to a marketing/sales model. This is a critical step for success that some smart manufacturers are already beginning to adopt.
As indication of this, a recent report from Forrester Research predicts B2B companies will lay out $54 million on social media marketing alone in 2014, a huge increase from 2009’s $11 million spend. You can read more about the growth of social media and other interactive marketing in eMarketer.
B2B customer buying practices are changing according to John Neeson, managing director and co-founder of SiriusDecisions. Sales and marketing need to change as well. At the recent SiriusDecisions 2010 Summit Neeson pointed out that customers and prospects “no longer want to be marketed and sold to in a linear fashion.” They want to control the experience and interact on their terms. Where does this happen most? On the Internet: via search, the web, and social media.
As further illustration of this, attendees at the Summit heard from B2B marketers about tools they’re adopting to better manage and analyze customer responses to their online marketing activities.
Net: The economy may be getting better, but the question is: Has manufacturing turned the corner on learning how to engage with buyers on their own terms as a way to accellerate growth? I don’t know if we’re quite there yet! What do you think?
Posted in News, eMarketing.
By Carol Wolicki
– June 2, 2010
The measure of a company is how strong its relationship is with its business associates. Crown Castle maintains a solid reputation with the landowners where many of its towers are located. To keep these relationships strong, the company relies on periodic landowner satisfaction surveys.
Crown Castle owns, operates, and leases towers and other communication structures for wireless communications. One of the largest of the US cell tower companies, Crown Castle began its communication tower operations in Southwest Texas in 1994. Today the company operates and manages over 22,000 wireless communication sites with a concentration in 92 of the top 100 US cellular markets.
One of the reasons for the company’s success is the strong relationship it has with its landowners and rooftop owners. To monitor the strength of these relationships and to collect information useful to making them stronger, the company recently turned to Elliance, Inc.’s Ennect unit to provide turnkey development, compilation, and interpretation for its biannual landowner satisfaction survey.
“We are always looking for ways to improve the services we provide our landowners and rooftop owners,” said Keith Hartman, Crown Castle’s director of landowner relations. “The feedback from our surveys helps us to measure landowner satisfaction, monitor changing habits, and determine how we’re doing to ensure that we have a favorable relationship with our landowners.”
In the 2010 survey Crown Castle wanted to collect input from landowners that would help it shape a Landowner Self Service portal the company may add to its web site. A question was posed to assess the impact of the current economic downturn and whether landowners would be more likely to sell their land.
“We were pleasantly surprised not just by the number of responses we received, but also by how positive they were,” Hartman commented. “We work hard to meet or exceed our landowners’ expectations and the surveys show that what we’re doing is obviously working.”
With over 14,000 Ennect surveys distributed, the company received a whopping 32% response rate – a testament to Crown Castle’s landowner relations policies and practices. Showing an overall satisfaction rating of 8.9 out of 10, the survey confirmed that the service Crown Castle provides is well-received by its landowners. The survey results also identified that 2/3rds of the landowners would be willing to provide testimonials on behalf of the company.
Mary Costa, the Ennect director who managed the survey program and collected and processed the results for Crown Castle, paid the company a huge compliment, “To achieve a 32% response rate on a satisfaction survey is pretty unbelievable. The fact that there was no offer attached to this survey makes it even more incredible. Crown Castle is definitely doing something right.”
Posted in Ennect Survey, News.
Tagged with CrownCastle, EnnectSurvey, Survey.
By Carol Wolicki
– May 25, 2010
Here’s another reason why marketers — and PR professionals — should pay attention to keywords. According to Sam Whitmore, founder and editor of Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey, some journalists are being pressured to write stories that will generate page views. (No one said the influence of ad sales ever died with the transition to online media!)
Google PageRank. Elliance, Inc.
In the “Tyranny of Page Views and SEO,” Sam says that “it’s now a luxury for a reporter to write a story about an obscure but important topic. That used to be a job requirement. Now it’s a career risk.”
What does this mean for marketers? Well, if you’re with a new venture and you’re trying to pitch a novel idea, you might not get heard…and not because you don’t deserve it, but because it might not garner high enough page views.
I’d hate to think that really new and unique ideas won’t get exposed anymore. Some inherent belief in good journalism gives me hope that won’t be the case. So, I don’t think it suggests that marketers should stop presenting their ideas to the media, but I do believe it indicates that marketers ignore the “POWER OF SEARCH” at their company’s peril.
Sam’s article appeared in this week’s issue of IT Memo from IT Database. Click here for more information.
Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey is a tech media analysis service designed to help PR pros win coverage. For a free trial, visit the site.
Disclosure: Ennect has no connection to IT Database or Sam Whitmore (other than the fact that Sam’s an old friend of this writer).
Posted in News.
Tagged with Elliance, eMarketing, keyword, Search.
By Carol Wolicki
– May 24, 2010
Lee Anne Kennedy of Logistics Plus, Inc. in Erie, PA, was the winner of the Ennect eCoupon Sweepstakes. Ennect polled B2B customers on their use of digital coupons. As an incentive for participation, we gave away one free subscription to Ennect Event, a $400 value. Congratulations Lee Anne!
We look forward to helping you fully utilize our web-based registration and marketing software tool for your next event.
If you want to read our original post on the growth of digital coupons (e-coupons), click here.
Posted in Ennect Event, Ennect Survey, Ennect Sweeps, News, eMarketing.
Tagged with digital-coupon, ecoupon, eMarketing, Ennect Event, EnnectSurvey, EnnectSweeps.
By Carol Wolicki
– May 21, 2010
In case you haven’t noticed, the Ennect blog has a new URL address. We’re now ‘located’ at www.theemarketingblog.com.
It’s a small change, but it solves an important problem: removing a critical barrier that prevented readers from easily adding comments to blog posts on our site. To prevent spam and permit legitimate followers to comment, we previously added a reCAPTCHA plug-in. This should have allowed comments to appear without each one having to be individually approved.
But it didn’t! Because of the way our network infrastructure and security policies were set up, we still needed to approve each comment. The unintentional consequence was that it left a lot of followers wondering if we were screening comments. Unfortunately, the ONLY way we could enable posted comments was to vigilantly screen for them and, then, approve them one by one.
The new URL solves that problem. Go on… test it and see! We double-dare you! 
Posted in News, eMarketing.
By Carol Wolicki
– May 17, 2010
This time of year it’s tough to decide what to wear. One day it’s warm; the next, it’s almost sub-zero.
The manufacturing ‘rebound’ seems to be following the same pattern: good news heats up, then cools down. This week’s news from Caterpillar – where earnings exceeded estimates by 28% – helped shore up stock prices overall. However, sales are coming not from the US market but from countries in Asia/Pacific and Latin America.
A recent study from International Data Corporation (IDC) – Worldwide IDC Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Market Forecast, 2009-2014: Beyond the Great Recession – estimates that the EMS industry will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of eight percent from 2010 to 2014. But expect periods of weakness into 2011. Still, that’s better than 2009, when electronics manufacturing services contracted by eleven percent.
Many of the articles about the manufacturing climate talk about ‘consumer confidence’ and ‘business optimism.’ BusinessWeek reported on the US Conference Board’s survey of CEOs, which “registered a reading of 62 in the first quarter of 2010, down from 64 the previous quarter.” (A reading of >50 indicates more positive responses than negative.)
The same BusinessWeek article stated that the “National Federation of Independent Business optimism index fell to 86.8 in March” – its lowest level since July 2009. The index has registered below 90 for 18 months – unprecedented in the survey’s history.
Optimism. Contraction. Confidence. Unprecedented decline. What’s a marketer to do?
I say: pack your rain gear, bring a parka, grab your suntan lotion and your sandals. Get a ‘get-ready’ attitude and prepare for better times. Ninety percent of success is attitude. Marketers need to be ‘optimistic’ – as well as realistic – about their ability to create a turnaround for their companies. We know spring is coming; we might not know when. You do a disservice to your company, if you don’t get prepared for better weather.
Posted in eMarketing.
Tagged with manufacturing, marketing.
By Carol Wolicki
– April 27, 2010
Manufacturers who’ve been counting on advertising in trade journals have just had their promotional options cut significantly. Yesterday Reed Business Information announced it was shutting down 23 magazines. That’s in addition to eight titles it sold previously to Sandow Media and two others (Library Journal and School Library Journal) sold to Media Source Inc.
The company blamed declining revenues and the economy, but read the comments and you get a different story that involves an out-of-date web strategy!
Said one former employee: “The company destroyed a viable publishing operation with… <among other things>… an ill-timed enormous investment in an Internet platform that was already a relic from at the time it was purchased in 1999, and an Internet strategy that failed to acknowledge the depth and breadth of the new medium and instead tried to fit all of the publications into a Soviet-styled peg. “
Offers another: “…the most egregious error was the company’s amazing ability to latch onto three-year-old web strategies and act as if they were brand new. Because of this RBI was behind the curve in site design, use of multimedia, electronic newsletters…. we were told that the sites would become profitable if we simply posted more blogs and podcasts.”
Surely there were other factors at play. The publishing world has been struck across the board with declining revenues because of the rise of the Internet. But, lesson to manufacturers and the rest of us: A bad emarketing and website strategy apparently can do more harm than good. Might be time to take a hard look at your emarketing efforts.
Posted in News.
Tagged with eMarketing, manufacturing, website.
By Carol Wolicki
– April 21, 2010
You do. Let me repeat that: If you’re operating in today’s modern world providing products, services, information or advice to others, YOU need a communications plan for emergencies and crises that might befall you.
It’s even more important today when everyone’s a citizen journalist, filmmaker, or photographer with access to the global publishing platform called “the Internet.” When you think about it: It’s like the ‘common man’ (woman) has started channeling Lois Lane infused with the xray vision of Superman! Maybe crises communications planning can be your kryptonite!
What got me thinking about this was an event announcement I saw for Business Volunteers Unlimited, which is hosting a crisis communications and media relations seminar for nonprofit board members and staffs on May 7th. (If you’re a nonprofit business in the larger Cleveland area, you should definitely register for this event to brush up on your crises communications planning skills. Click here for more information.)
BVU’s registration site cast crises communication in a very modern light for me with this statement: “In today’s world of “gotcha” journalism, incendiary cable news programs, Facebook, Twitter, digital cameras capable of sending hi-def pictures to CNN within minutes and 
pervasive distrust of institutions and authority, reputational threats can have an immediate and deadly effect on the ability of nonprofits to recover, rebuild and reposition themselves after a crisis. They say it takes a lifetime to build a reputation — and only a 
few seconds to destroy one. With information flying around on internet time, knowing exactly how to handle media calls and visits are critical skills for nonprofit leaders and executive directors.”
Yes, and it’s not only nonprofits who need to pay attention. But nonprofits often have less resources, so planning ahead becomes possibly even more strategic for them.
What about you? Whether you’re regional, national, or global, a manufacturer or in the service business, nonprofit or for profit, your reputation can be gone in an instant. In an Internet instant! (Which I think is even faster…)
Time to do something about it…
Some resources on crises communications to help you get started:
– Seven Dimensions of Crises Communication Management: A Strategic Analysis and Planning Model© by James E. Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA: http://www.e911.com/monos/A001.html
– Crisis Communication Plan: A PR Blue Print by Sandra K. Clawson Freeo: http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/crisis.html
If you have a resource which you’d like to share, please feel free to drop in and comment…
Posted in Ennect Event, eMarketing.
Tagged with crises, Ennect Event, Event Planning Software.
By Carol Wolicki
– April 20, 2010
Sing, birdie, sing.
On April 4th, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article by Harold D. Miller, entitled “Ripple Effect: Manufacturing Job Drop Has Wide Ramifications.” The story detailed the number of jobs lost because of the recession in the last two years (28,600) with 35% of them occurring in the manufacturing sector. “In fact, manufacturing accounted for a bigger share of total job losses here than in all but three of the top 40 regions in the country. (Even in Detroit, only 30 percent of the lost jobs were in manufacturing.),” the article points out.
But the REAL wake-up call to me came with this line: “Because manufacturing jobs are among the highest paid in the region, the impact on regional income was even bigger: 50 percent of the wage income that Pittsburgh region families lost between 2008 and 2009 was due to manufacturing job losses.” And the loss doesn’t stop there since many service agencies as well as health and education institutions are dependent on manufacturing salaries. Holey moley! No wonder governments here and elsewhere are crouched into begging mode looking for tax remedies.
The article offers several suggested solutions for helping manufacturers to gain back their stature: more venture from private investors, increased bank lending, training for high school students (huh?), citizen support for government investment (what? MORE taxes?), and state-wide tax cuts for manufacturers (sounds like even MORE taxes out of my pocket).
WHAT ABOUT THE MANUFACTURERS? What about their responsibilities? Like figuring out what markets they really serve…and what products their buyers really need? And – hey – not waiting for the phone to ring on its own?
I’m constantly amazed by manufacturers who don’t take steps to learn how to market themselves but want special treatment to bring jobs to a region. And there are lots of cities, besides Pittsburgh – Detroit, Akron, Houston, and a lot of southern state cities — who have fallen for vendor demands only to be disappointed when the companies later abandon these cities. Why isn’t it a written PRE-REQUISITE that those manufacturers only get tax incentives IF they properly market their products and continue to grow?
OK. Maybe I’m oversimplifying this but I’m starting to think manufacturers are the canaries in the coal mine, because it’s not just manufacturers who don’t get marketing. LOTS of companies don’t.
And, obviously, there ARE manufacturers and other companies who do get it. But, hey, aren’t they the ones we know about? Why? BECAUSE THEY KNOW HOW TO MARKET THEMSELVES AND PAY ATTENTION TO CUSTOMER NEEDS.
As for the rest of the manufacturers in Pittsburgh — or elsewhere — I do believe they are canaries in the coal mine. And they’re singing of their own demise because they haven’t learned the first premise of staying alive: find a need and market to it. Bye bye birdie. And, you know what? Good riddance!
To read the entire Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, click here. To read a longer version on Pittsburgh’s Future blog, click here.
Posted in News.
Tagged with eMarketing, manufacturers, marketing, Pittsburgh.
By Carol Wolicki
– April 14, 2010
According to a June 1 report by the Institute for Supply Management™ Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, the manufacturing sector has shown expansion now for 10 consecutive months. (Yeah!) The latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® also said that the overall economy has grown for 13 consecutive months! (Woohoo!)
As indication of this, a recent report from Forrester Research predicts B2B companies will lay out $54 million on social media marketing alone in 2014, a huge increase from 2009’s $11 million spend. You can read more about the growth of social media and other interactive marketing in eMarketer.
