Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher, Editor-in-Chief

The 12 Commandments Of Cutting-Edge Marketing 2005

For CRM, Customer Interaction And Contact Centers

Prerequisites
In order to better appreciate this Publisher's Outlook, I strongly urge you to read the following three previous Publisher's Outlooks:

1. "Every company wants to be a peacock in the land of the penguins, but few of them know how to do it." (tmcnet.com/192.1)

2. "The unbeatable formula: Innovative Marketing and CIM" (tmcnet.com/193.1)

3. "Online Marketing Comes of Age" In my October 2005 Publisher's Outlook (tmcnet.com/194.1), I stated:

  a. I love marketing because it changes all the time and keeps you on your toes.
  b. Putting all of the above together, it becomes clear that marketing is often like shooting at a moving target, that's why it is the most    challenging and most complex part of any corporation.
  c. Companies exist for two and only two reasons; namely, marketing and innovation. Without these, no company would get    anywhere.

It is abundantly clear that to survive, you must remain current with cutting-edge marketing.

While conducting my day-to-day CEO-to-CEO interviews for TMC's Boardroom Report (see my September 2005 Publisher's Outlook at tmcnet.com/192.1), I always ask the CEOs, 'What is your greatest challenge?' Over 90 percent of the CEOs say things like: 'We are not well known; most people don't know us; most people don't know our company or our products, etc.'

In plain English, most CEOs are admitting that they need to do a much better job of marketing!!

What hurts me the most is that nearly all of the companies I speak with offer truly unique products and services for our industry and literally only a few, if any, people know that they exist! I think that is a shame!! I ask, if you don't plan to market it effectively, why do you build it?

1. Out-of-the-Box Integrated Marketing ' As stated in the last several Publisher's Outlooks, given that prospects are bombarded with thousands of proposals, marketing messages and advertisements, developing an out-of-the-box integrated marketing program is vital for success. The bottom line is that you need to differentiate yourself and the only way to do that is to stand above the crowd.

2. Marketing Through Education ' As long as I have been involved in marketing, over the last 25 years, I have learned that the only way to effectively market high-technology products and services is via marketing through education. There is no short cut for this.

3. Targeted Online Marketing ' As indicated in the October 2005 Publisher's Outlook, online marketing has gained tremendous momentum in the marketing discipline, to a point where no company can exist without conducting a major program online. Targeted messages, i.e., selecting key words that clearly define your core-competency, are vital to the success of online marketing. An example of targeted online marketing are the channels that appear on TMC's Web site (www.tmcnet.com, under the word 'Channels'). I urge you to visit the site and look up the channel of your choice. This truly pioneering development by TMC's staff has resulted in considerable success, as will be indicated later in this editorial.

4. SEO ' Search engine optimization is truly vital to the success of modern marketing, as I will elaborate in the following paragraphs. We used to say, 'If you don't market, you don't exist.' Today, we are saying, 'If you are not on the first page of the world's leading search engines under your selected key words, then you don't exist.' Proper SEO can be achieved only through effective integrated marketing, which is the only way to have your company appear on the first page of the world's leading search engines.

5. SEM ' Search Engine Marketing ' Search engine marketing is a new concept, and not many people are doing a good job. But I am sure that in due course it will evolve to being one of the most, if not the most, effective components of modern marketing.

6. Print Advertising ' As indicated in my October's Publisher's Outlook, the biggest mistake made by some marketers is to jump into online marketing and forget about all other components of integrated marketing. As you read last month, online alone will not offer you the necessary results. It is a known fact in marketing that no one buys anything from someone they have never heard of. Continuous print advertising solves this problem by creating awareness of your products and services. Print also creates a perception of your company's stability and commitment to the CRM, customer interaction and contact center industry. After all, customers want to know that your company will be around when they need service. Continuous, effective and targeted print advertising creates precisely the kind of perception you need as a viable supplier. And'we all know that perception is reality! There is no way a short cut will give you the necessary results. In other words, if you do print only or online only, you will not get the optimum results.

7. Participation in Conferences and Exhibitions ' The next commandment of cutting-edge marketing is participation in conferences: both speaking and exhibiting at related trade shows are a MUST. In this manner, you will communicate to your prospects that your company is a major player and you can demonstrate your products and services in the exhibit hall.

8. Special Editorial Series ' Thinking along the lines of out-of-the-box marketing, special editorial series are indeed a powerful vehicle by which you can not only conduct marketing through education, but also in an editorial environment, you can communicate the benefits of your products as they pertain to the editorial matter at hand. Examples of these special editorial sections are 'advertorials,' white papers and case studies.

9. Webinars ' Webinars are becoming another major component of online marketing. Not only are they cost-effective, but if proper preparation, positioning and differentiation are made by the webinar sponsors, the audience will give the sponsor its undivided attention regarding the benefits of the technologies and services being presented at the webinars. Indeed, the webinars should also be a vital part of your integrated marketing and one of the most important 'commandments.'

10. ROS, Curl Down Page, Splash Page and Other Forms of Online Marketing ' Run of sight (ROS) by key words is an extremely powerful way to create awareness about your products and services. This powerful tool, which appears on highly popular industry Web sites (i.e., TMCnet.com) draws the attention of hundreds of thousands of unique visitors and as such, you will have the most effective way to not only introduce your company, but also your products and services, to a tremendously large audience. Other forms of online marketing include curl down pages and splash pages, which draw the exclusive attention of visitors to the Web site, and its uniqueness is so powerful that visitors can hardly miss it.

11. The Principles Of Effective Advertising ' You need to follow the principles of effective advertising, i.e., articulating benefits, positioning and differentiation, to name a few.

12. Last, But Not Least ' You must use effective business-to-business telemarketing/teleservices and direct mail as a vital part of your integrated marketing campaign.

Discussion And Analysis
Hopefully, by now, you will agree that the nature of marketing has undergone a revolution. Today, one can easily state that if you are not on the first page of the most powerful search engines, you don't exist, simply because 95 percent of visitors to search engines will not go beyond the first page.

In other words, if you are not practicing the above commandments, chances are that you are not on the first page of the popular search engines under your chosen relevant term. And if you are not on the first page of these search engines (preferably number one on the first page), then YOU DON'T EXIST! Simply because anyone who is interested in getting information about certain products to buy will usually refer to the industry's leading publications and/or the leading search engines first, and then continue to get information prior to purchasing a product.

Just following the above 12 commandments will give you satisfaction in knowing that you are doing a decent job of integrated marketing, but if you aspire to be number one on the leading search engines in your category (i.e., CRM, IP contact center, customer interaction, etc.), then you are just doing a decent job. That is not good enough.

Market Dominance Must Be Your Goal
To me, there is no glory to be one among many. What you must aspire to do is dominate the above new paradigm of marketing in order to not only protect your market share, but also continue to expand it.

The First Law Of Positioning
The old definition of the first law of positioning: 'It's better to be first than to be better.'

The new definition is: 'It's better to be number one on the first page of the world's leading search engines than to be better.' In other words, if you want to dominate your market, you must achieve this goal, otherwise, no matter how good your product is, you will have a difficult time in maintaining your market share. In other words, you must strive to become a peacock in the land of penguins, and the only way to achieve that is by becoming number one on the first page of the leading search engines.

At TMC We Practice What We Preach
Having recognized the tremendous importance of online integrated marketing, we have invested heavily in SEO and the development of what has reinforced our leadership in the previous nearly 25 years in the fields of call/contact and customer interaction centers, CRM, IP contact centers, VoIP, etc.

Just recently, one of our employees brought to my attention that on Google.com, TMCnet.com ranks as the #1 and #2 results for 'IP contact center' and 'unified contact center solutions,' respectively, out of two billion hits! We are very humbled and proud of this achievement, which speaks volumes about TMC's market domination of CRM, contact/call and customer interaction as well as IP contact centers.

As always, I welcome your comments. Please e-mail them to me at [email protected]. CIS

Sincerely yours,

Nadji Tehrani
Founder, Chairman & CEO, Editor-in-Chief

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