Thursday, June 24, 2010

Introductions Are In Order


By Chuck Bates, Director of Public Relations

I’d like to introduce myself. I’m the newest member of the team at dgs Marketing Engineers. I come from the “other side of the fence,” so to speak – a business-to-business trade publication that covered the manufacturing/metalworking market sectors.

As an editor at the publication, I worked with industrial marketing agencies on a daily basis. They were excellent sources for editorial content, kept me abreast of new industrial products and developments happening at their client companies, and pretty much catered to my every need. I considered these agencies a valuable tool.

And while most editors are happy to keep to their side of the editor–agency fence, I jumped at the opportunity to expand my professional portfolio to include business-to-business public relations and technical product marketing.

What I will bring to dgs Marketing Engineers, besides my extensive experience with the workings of the industrial market sector, is a devoted effort to serve its clients with the same integrity I served my readers while working at the trade publication.

It may take a little time to adjust to this side of the fence because I now have a few more entities than just magazine readers to constantly keep on my radar. But I’m up to the challenge. It’s all just part of business-to-business public relations and technical product marketing world.

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Monday, June 14, 2010

IMTS 2010 - Are you ready?

91 days.

That's all we have until IMTS 2010 is officially upon us.

And lots to do before then.

If you're exhibiting at IMTS 2010 and you're not yet thinking about marketing your booth and presence at the show, you should be.

If your name appears on any metalcutting-related list anywhere, you've likely already received a barrage of marketing opportunities offered by IMTS show management, many of which are quite effective.

That said, now is the time to really get creative. To plan. To make the most of the IMTS captive audience. And, most importantly, to get closer to your customers and prospects.

If you ask management of most companies planning to attend the show, I'd bet they'd say a lot is riding on this one. So, let's make the most of it.

Things to think about this week:

-Public Relations - Pre-show deadlines have arrived. Make sure you have delivered your new products and technology messages to the press. Don't be left out of these important show-planning issues.

-Direct Mail - Now is the time to start crafting your booth invitation messages and thinking about how to deliver them to your customers and prospects.

-Web - What will your online presence look like? You must have an online presence for the show, and the sooner the better.

-Booth Signage - Don't put this off until August. No good can come of it. Start thinking graphics now.

And hey, if you're feeling overwhelmed, give us a call. We can help.

More to come next week...

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Thinking Outside The Box In Technical Marketing Can Be A Bad Thing

by Marc Diebold, President & CEO

Is thinking outside the box a good thing, or a result of poor strategic planning?

I’m not trying to discourage creative thinking here, but my point is that if your people are constantly having to ‘think outside the box’ to come up with a good idea, you might need to take a closer look at your planning process.

How many times have you had someone come to you with an idea that they were excited about (and prepared to reverse engineer the marketing program to accommodate) that in an isolated way may have sounded good, but when held up against the company’s brand image or marketing direction wasn’t a fit at all? The person in question believes they are doing something extremely creative by thinking outside the box, when in fact they may be undermining the very foundation of your marketing communications program.

In the world of industrial marketing (my world), if marketing strategy precedes creative strategy, which I believe it should, then it stands to reason that marketing strategy should clearly define the parameters of possibility to guide the creative thought process. This position may sound a bit simplistic, but if put into practice as we strive to do here at dgs, can yield some of the most compelling creative work you can imagine.