Marketing and advertising can be expensive, and their ROI is usually maddeningly illusive. As the old marketing adage goes, “Half the money we spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, we don’t know which half.”
Government contracting is not exempt from this rule.
The investments in branding, marketing, emails, presentations, Capabilities Statements, and so on can pile up fast. But it’s a cost of doing business so we all need to do it to some extent. Fortunately, in the government market, our marketing efforts don’t have to be “launch and hope” like they used to be, because this market is ideal for targeting. Targeting by using tools like USA Spending, FBO and FPDS-NG greatly increases the effectiveness of advertising and marketing efforts. We often stress the importance of targeting, and we even have dozens of articles, podcasts, webinars and even the RFP Score to help you do it well. Start with effective targeting and you’ll find your traditional marketing to be much more effective at reaching and connecting with your target government customer or teaming partner. There are two basic types of marketing to potential customers and teaming partners below. Beware though, these are most effective after you’ve targeted ruthlessly.
Direct marketing
This is the one you likely recognize. This is email marketing, Facebook ads, Google AdWords, paid sponsorships, print and online advertising, and booth sponsorships at events (and others). This is marketing designed to connect you directly with your customer. The intent of this type of marketing is that you are able to connect directly (hence the name) with your target customer. For example, you sponsor an event or reserve a booth at a trade fair because your customer will be there (or so you hope). You pay for Google AdWords because your customer is going to click on your ad and go directly to your site. Or, when you send an email to your target customer directly so they will open it (you hope) and contact you. Direct marketing is effective because you have what they need…they just need to know about it.
Or so the story goes.
Because they did not target, many a company’s marketing budget has been emptied by focusing on this type of marketing as a primary means to attract new customers. In full disclosure, I made this mistake a lot in the early days of Skyway. I marketed to everyone. I went to every event. I sponsored many a golf outing or networking event…all in the name of advertising. However, without targeting, we end up talking to a lot of people who are not interested. Start with targeting. Or you could end up showing a lot of government people a product that they don’t need (and won’t buy). If you ask any of our team of COs, they can all tell you stories of getting emails, phone calls, flyers, etc from this type of marketing. I had someone spent a lot of time to get a one on one meeting with me only to pitch me on their IT services when at the time I was in a CO role that was buying training services. It may sound hard, but I simply didn’t care about what he offered because I didn’t need it.
Indirect Marketing
This is the realm of networking, of researching, of reading, or creating and sharing content that is useful or critical to your customer. This is the stuff that doesn’t feel like marketing because you’re not touching the customer. In Direct Marketing, you present your solution to them. In Indirect marketing, they come to you looking for your solution. For example, you
- curate content that is useful and meaningful to them or your network
- send them a connection request on LinkedIn based on your shared industry
- research their website to find what they need and share your insights to help them
- create custom content where you explain things they didn’t know
Sound familiar? The Contracting Officer Podcast is our best example of Indirect Marketing. Indirect marketing is not as expensive as direct marketing in dollar terms. However, it is more expensive in time. It takes longer to develop the content, curate it, improve it, share it (and for others to share it). It takes time to build relationships with teaming partners, customers, and channel partners. It takes time to build a unique brand.
The good news is that even though it takes longer, it also has more staying power. A random email is forgotten. A piece of ideally targeted content that answers a burning question is something that resonates. It helps them remember you.
Just like direct marketing, the value of this approach depends greatly on your targeting. If we send great content or solutions to the wrong people, it is a waste of time, especially their time. Indirect Marketing to the wrong target can be particularly insidious because it is difficult to see that it’s not working. They don’t tell you it’s not what they are looking for, they just do not respond.
Targeting is, as always, key.
P.S. However, one way to not market to the government is through your proposals. Without laser focused targeting and a great value proposition, a “marketing proposal” is likely a waste of your time and theirs. For more on this, check out this blog article: Using Proposals as marketing is expensive.