THE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MIX

Print advertising in trade magazines and journals is the largest and most visible part of the marketing communications mix for most industrial companies.
It has the widest reach, easily carrying your message to an entire industry at once.

Direct mail allows you to put your sales message in front of a prospect who has been pre-selected as a potential customer for your product. Unlike advertising, direct mail is specifically targeted to a well-defined audience such as owners of specific machines which are a target market for your product. Direct mail can be as simple as a letter explaining the advantages of your product with an enclosed brochure, or it can be an elaborate printed piece designed to attract attention and guarantee readership. It can also be a fax or e-mail message announcing a special offer or product upgrade.

Sales collateral materials, product sales literature, spec sheets, corporate brochures and other printed information can help carry your product and corporate message in much greater detail. Product literature gives you the chance to explain the benefits of your product and how it works, while letting your prospects see photos and drawings to reinforce your sales message.

Product literature and catalogs are used as a response to inquiries generated by your advertising, as sales aids to help deliver the personal sales message, as leave-behind reminders of a sales call, and as resources to help your existing customers re-order your products.

Visual aids, such as photographs, drawings, and PowerPoint presentations are designed to show off your product in pictures while the prospect is listening to your sales representative.

Video presentations are designed to show off your product under actual operating conditions. With video, you can take the prospect into a production situation, demonstrate in detail how your product works, and show off its advantages. Combining video with a direct mail piece is an especially effective method of getting the prospect to look at your sales message.

Sales promotional activities should include trade show and convention participation, as well as product demonstrations designed to make your company and its products more visible to the industry. The latest technology in sales promotion makes use of the world-wide-web to show off your company, your capabilities, and your products to the growing segment of customers who regularly seek information on the web.

A corporate internet web site can be an informational site about your company and its products, inviting customer inquiries and literature requests. It can also serve as your entry into the world of E-Commerce, actually selling your products on-line. The site can also be used to disseminate news releases, technical information and product update information to your customers.

A corporate intranet web site can be used as a means of intra-company communication with personnel based both at the home office and in remote locations. It can be used by your sales and service representatives in the field to access technical data, pricing and proposals, or to submit sales & service call reports and expense reports to the home office.

A comprehensive industry public relations program should include trade association speeches, the writing and presentation of technical papers, magazine articles about customers who use and recommend your products, contributions to publishers’ round-up articles, and news releases to tell the industry what’s new about your company and its products.

In a well thought-out marketing communications program, all of the above are utilized to some degree, depending on the nature of the product being sold and the target markets.

The difference is in the planning. When everybody is clear on the goals and objectives, the entire program can be tailored to your company, its products, and its markets.