IntraLinks Marketing Rings in the New Year!
It’s been quite the year, hasn’t it? As we started 2009 it was hard to know what to expect. We were in the depths of our fears about the global financial crisis we had just entered. Every day seemingly brought more bad news and no one knew what would happen next.
Somehow we made it through the year and things are looking up—on some days—and not as up on others. But looking back we’ve learned many things as we’ve weathered the storm. What have we learned you may ask? Here are a few things from my marketing perspective:
1. If you’re creative, you can make your marketing dollars go farther than you think.
Not all marketing activities have to cost a bundle (thank goodness). Some of the more creative ideas don’t cost a lot at all. The power of the web, guerilla marketing, social networking including blogging and the viral effect can all create great amounts of momentum towards building your brand awareness and surpassing your demand generation objectives. Thinking outside the box introduces new avenues to potential clients that will continue to be effective even after marketing budgets return to their former funding levels.
2. Don’t throw away your content until you have taken every last bit of value from them.
Content is really nothing more than raw material. And raw material with some thought and creativity can be turned into multiple forms which can appeal to various audiences at various times. So a live speech at an event can be taped and turned into a video and/or a podcast, transcribed and turned into written content and then edited, turned into a blog post and so on. Down the road it can be updated with new insights and re-used again and again.
3. Prospects are still interested in engaging with you, learning and maybe even buying—even during a financial crisis.
Maybe the sales cycle is longer, maybe there is pricing pressure, maybe sales volume is lower but prospects, clients and sales are all still out there. In fact, in tough economic times people are more receptive than ever to a strong ROI story and a strong value proposition. The opportunity to do business better, not just more efficiently, never goes out of style. So our ongoing challenge is to communicate those messages clearly and compellingly. And if we do so, business will continue to grow even during a recession.
So that was 2009. We wish the year a fond farewell as we look forward with anticipation to the year just ahead of us—2010. Happy holidays to all. See you in 2010!