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April 02, 2013 by

B2B Top Agencies 2013TREW Marketing has been selected as a finalist in BtoB Magazine’s Annual list of Top Agencies in the small agency category for the second year in a row. We were included in the Top Agency Special Report for achievements in the following marketing programs:

  • Strategic media outreach leading to publicity in top national outlets, including seven features in top-tier outlets and six contributed feature articles
  • Co-marketing campaign driving 320% lead growth for an embedded wireless product manufacturer
  • Lead-nurturing email campaign resulting in 45.9% open rate and 17.3% click-through rate
  • Full-Service integrated marketing program, results including:
    • 32% YoY growth for total web visits
    • 46% YoY growth for organic search web visits
    • 41% YoY growth for search advertising click-throughs with a flat YoY budget
    • More than 2X the industry average open rate for email marketing, at 33%
    • More than 2X the industry average click through rate for email marketing, at 23%
    • 43% increase of monthly average web leads after the website redesign, totaling a 14% YoY lead growth
    • 2,018 news release postings on media sites

In addition to the successful marketing programs for our clients, TREW Marketing’s business growth is highlighted in the following 2012 achievements:

  • 50% YOY revenue growth from 2011 to 2012
  • 44% YoY increase in project accounts
  • 30% increase in specialized technical marketing team
  • 56% increase in site web traffic to trewmarketing.com
  • 82% increase in social media reach
  • Two published webcasts, one white paper, and 40 blog posts published on trewmarketing.com
  • Inaugural launch of TREW News, our quarterly E-newsletter, which increased leads by 169% within the first week
  • Certification in the HubSpot all-in-one inbound marketing software platform

To compile the list of Top Agencies, BtoB Magazine surveyed agencies in its database through an online form in four categories (small, midsize, large, and interactive). The finalists in each category were selected based on percentage of total business that is B2B, revenue growth, client wins, and innovative work.

TREW is honored to be included in the BtoB Top Agency report, and is already off to an impressive start to 2013. In addition to the BtoB feature, TREW was recently covered by The Austin Business Journal for our marketing partnership with Silex Technology America.

You can read about the rest of TREW’s award-winning marketing programs on our awards page, or read our most recent news releases on why clients choose to work with us.

Silex Technology Selects TREW Marketing for Branding and Marketing Strategy

Crank Software Selects TREW Marketing for Embedded Industry Outreach

March 26, 2013 by

New Portal of B2B Marketing Resources Provides Other Case Studies, Free Guides to Assist Science, Engineering, and Technology Companies in Integrated Marketing

Silex TechnologyAUSTIN, Texas – March 26, 2013 – Silex Technology America, Inc., a leading embedded technology company specializing in network and wireless technology, today announced it selected TREW Marketing as its marketing partner for brand positioning, messaging and marketing communications activity planning. Silex Technology provides hardware, software, embedded modules, and turnkey connectivity products to device manufacturers and partners with leading suppliers including Green Hills Software, Freescale, QNX, and Qualcomm Atheros. The company chose TREW Marketing because of the agency’s distinct experience in marketing to engineers and proven success leading a co-marketing campaign that drove a 320 percent increase in new leads for Silex Technology.

Building on Proven Results

TREW Marketing led the efforts for Silex Technology’s 2012 co-marketing campaign with Freescale, promoting Silex Technology as the exclusive provider of Wi-Fi connectivity technology for Freescale’s i.MX 6 platform. Through this launch, Silex Technology sought to:

  • Build awareness of its Wi-Fi solutions among i.MX 6 customers
  • Drive traffic to the website
  • Generate leads and create new opportunities for its embedded Wi-Fi sales team

To achieve these goals, TREW Marketing developed a product launch and co-marketing plan centered on web and content marketing. A new campaign on the Silex Technology website educated design engineers about the company’s wireless connectivity solutions for Freescale’s i.MX 6 platform. TREW Marketing led the creation of product collateral, a news release, videos, and an online co-marketing event that all drove traffic to this dedicated web portal. A white paper download and multi-touch e-mail campaign also engaged visitors to learn more. And, Freescale featured the Wi-Fi solutions in its Design News customer e-newsletter and Product News sales e-newsletter to build awareness with design engineers and the Freescale sales force.

In the first two months of the launch, web traffic grew by 30 percent, and monthly leads grew by 320 percent with a nearly 25 percent lead-conversion rate. This in turn created new opportunities for the Silex Technology embedded Wi-Fi dedicated sales team.

“TREW Marketing’s integrated approach and diligent execution of the co-marketing campaign with Freescale delivered record results for Silex Technology,” said Keith Sugawara, vice president of business development at Silex Technology America. “The agency’s further insight on our company positioning and marketing activity planning will set us up for even more success as a leading network technology company.”

TREW Marketing Resources: Free B2B Marketing Guides for Scientists and Engineers

TREW Marketing also released TREW Marketing Resources, a portal of B2B marketing resources that can help science, engineering, and technology companies begin to see success like Silex Technology realized with an integrated marketing approach.

The new portal houses a compilation of free case studies, videos, and marketing guides that contain best practices, industry data, and practical how-to’s on a variety of topics specifically for marketing to technical audiences. TREW Marketing Resources includes guides like Smart Marketing for Engineers, an e-book that helps technical business leaders build and execute an efficient and effective marketing program.

About Silex Technology America

Silex Technology America, Inc. is a subsidiary of Silex Technology Inc., a 35-year developer and leading network technology company specializing in network and wireless technology, providing hardware, software, embedded modules and turnkey connectivity products. Silex Technology has regional offices for sales, marketing and development in Japan, United States and Germany. Silex Technology is integrated vertically to support customers from design to production, maintaining the highest quality standards. For more information, please visit www.silexamerica.com.

About TREW Marketing

TREW Marketing, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a full-service marketing firm uniquely serving leading companies and organizations in the engineering and science markets. TREW Marketing uses decades of specialized technical marketing experience to create strategies and plans, and execute services such as research, positioning and messaging, product launch planning, media outreach, website strategy and design, and search marketing for clients. To learn more about TREW Marketing, readers can visit http://www.trewmarketing.com.

Related blog posts

Crank Software Selects TREW Marketing for Embedded Industry Outreach

ERP Integrator Selects TREW Marketing for Brand and Marketing Communications

TREW News: National Defense Solutions Provider Selects TREW Marketing

 

December 04, 2012 by

Agency Chosen for Collaborative Approach in Marketing to Technical Audiences

crank software logoAUSTIN, Texas – December 4, 2012 – Crank Software Inc. of Ottawa, Canada announced today it has selected Austin-based TREW Marketing to lead its company awareness and lead generation campaigns. Crank Software chose TREW Marketing for their experience in developing integrated marketing programs that target embedded design engineers. The partnership entails brand and product-level messaging and positioning, PR, content development, partner co-marketing management, search engine optimization and advertising, social media and email marketing.

Crank Software specializes in embedded user interface (UI) solutions that enable R&D teams to more quickly develop rich UIs for resource-constrained embedded devices like in in-car graphical displays and animated GPS systems. Their product, Crank Storyboard™ Suite, manages the entire UI lifecycle, bridging the gap between UI design and embedded systems by streamlining the development process from months to minutes, helping their customers get products to market faster, with higher return on investment (ROI), and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

 “Crank Software has proven how collaboration during product development results in higher quality at a lower cost, and they sought to find similar advantages in their marketing efforts,” said Wendy Covey, Principal and Co-Founder of TREW Marketing. “The marketing programs TREW developed for Crank fully leverage both companies’ unique expertise, and will grow demand for Crank’s graphical user interface solutions.”

The new partnership includes the following marketing programs:

 “TREW’s marketing expertise and knowledge of the embedded space make them a trusted advisor to help us drive awareness and demand, as we continue to grow our business and market share,” said Jason Clarke, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Crank Software. “They have a proven track record developing and executing strategic marketing plans that focus on results and we’re excited to have them as an extension of our team.”

Click to Tweet: New from @TrewMarketing: @Cranksoftware Selects TREW Marketing for Embedded Industry Outreach http://ow.ly/feA6c

About Crank Software

Crank Software is an innovator in embedded user interface (UI) solutions that bridges the gap between UI design and embedded systems to deliver a competitive advantage by streamlining the development lifecycle so their customers can get their products to market faster, with higher ROI, and lower total cost of ownership. Today, time is wasted in the development lifecycle because the design goes back and forth between UI designers, user experience designers, and embedded systems engineers. The Crank Storyboard Suite enables stakeholders to work in parallel. Storyboard manages the entire UI lifecycle—from UI design to simulation to being optimized for the device.

About TREW Marketing

TREW Marketing, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a full-service B2B marketing firm uniquely serving leading engineering and scientific companies that target technical markets. TREW uses decades of specialized experience to create custom marketing programs that help customers efficiently and effectively achieve their business and sales goals. With goals and objectives defined, TREW then takes an integrated approach using a wide array of marketing services, including brand identity, positioning and messaging; website strategy and design; content development and publishing; search marketing; public relations and social media strategy and execution.

Related blog posts

ERP Integrator Selects TREW Marketing for Brand and Marketing Communications

TREW News: National Defense Solutions Provider Selects TREW Marketing

 

November 13, 2012 by

MarCom Gold AwardAssociation of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) awarded TREW Marketing its second MarCom Award. The international competition honors excellence and recognizes creative achievements by marketing and communication professionals.  With more than 6,000 entries from around the world, the 2012 MarCom Awards were given to organizations including Bloomberg, Fidelity Investments, Lockheed Martin, NASA, SunAmerica, Weber Shandwick, and TREW Marketing.

TREW Marketing won its Gold MarCom Award for organizing a press tour for ADLINK Technology, an Asia-based global provider of trusted testing and measurement products, to launch a new family of products with industry-leading devices for high-bandwidth applications.

Based on feedback from the competition judges, TREW Marketing stood out for our resourceful and creative approach to media outreach. This was a result of our in-depth journalist research and targeted outreach to deliver news hooks and story ideas most relevant to outlets’ audiences. The TREW project team – consisting of PR and content specialists as well as an engineering product marketing manager – also played a strategic role in guiding the messaging and delivery of news materials and product demonstrations.

With extensive outreach across the industry, the results of our award-winning strategic press tour met set objectives for interviews with top-tier editors and coverage, including feature articles with highly respected technical outlets. Additionally, numerous follow-on coverage opportunities were secured as leading industry reporters became aware of the leadership and technical expertise of the client through this effort.

We congratulate ADLINK for their superior engineering efforts that led to this exciting outreach opportunity. Both ADLINK and the TREW teams worked very hard over many weeks on this effort, and we are thrilled to share in this recognition for a job well done.

Contact us today to learn more about TREW Marketing services.

Related blog posts:

Four Steps to Building Meaningful Relationships with Journalists

Lasting SEO Results, Part 2: 3 PR Steps for Success

5 Core Steps in the PR Marathon

June 11, 2012 by

Trek Global Chooses Agency for Technical Focus and Breadth of Marketing, PR, Web Expertise

AUSTIN, Texas – June 11, 2012 – Trek Global today announced its selection of Austin-based TREW Marketing, a specialized science, engineering, and technology marketing firm, as its brand and marketing communications agency. The partnership includes a business re-naming project, corporate positioning and messaging, and a website redesign, as well as ongoing technical content development, search engine marketing, and public relations.

Trek Global delivers ERP solutions for mid-size distribution companies that need to order, shelve, assemble, and ship their products efficiently. The company’s open source approach to ERP offers customers a cost-effective, low risk solution that harnesses the benefits of top-tier ERP systems, like Oracle and SAP, without the typical restrictions and expenses. Trek Global’s growth in North America drove a desire for integrated marketing communications to match its level of expertise and high standards for quality.

“Trek Global was founded by leading developers of open-source ERP and they have a clear and differentiated position in the marketplace,” said Wendy Covey, Principal and Co-Founder of TREW Marketing. “From our early branding and messaging work to an integrated strategy that drives traffic, engagement, and conversion, we are excited to increase marketing ROI for Trek Global.”

The partnership entails marketing projects including:

“The TREW team is passionate about marketing to technical audiences. Their diverse marketing experiences and the synergy between their team and ours creates a high-performing and high-character partnership. We consider TREW to be an integral part of our success and team,” said Chuck Boecking, Director of Education and Marketing at Trek Global.

Click to tweet: New from @Trewmarketing: ERP Integrator Selects TREW Marketing for Brand and Marketing Communications http://ow.ly/bfwQo

About Trek Global

Trek Global delivers powerful ERP solutions for mid-size distribution companies that need to order, shelve, assemble, and ship their products efficiently. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and with staff in five countries, the Trek Global team of system integrators and developers has more than a century of combined experience in enterprise software architecture and implementation. Trek Global’s software, based on the open source ADempiere platform, offers the benefits of top-tier ERP systems like Oracle or SAP without the restrictions or cost. With a focus on product and system training through Guided Implementation, customer education is Trek Global’s passion.

About TREW Marketing

TREW Marketing, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a full-service B2B marketing firm uniquely serving leading engineering and scientific companies that target technical markets. TREW uses decades of specialized experience to create custom marketing programs that help customers efficiently and effectively achieve their business and sales. TREW takes an integrated approach using a wide array of marketing services, including market research, brand identity, positioning and messaging, product launch planning, website strategy and design, search marketing and public relations.

Read additional coverage in Austin Business Journal here.

January 15, 2012 by

Summary:

See how an IT company with an emerging product in an undefined space used a number of different PR tactics to improve a key performance indicator – feature article coverage – by more than 125%, and achieve record web traffic and target media engagements.

Challenge:

The company wanted to create awareness of a new product in a quickly evolving, noisy, and undefined IT/networking space with aggressive competitors.

Goal:

The goal of the product launch was to create product awareness, garner media coverage, and begin to build relationships with key editors and analysts in the industry.

This was the most successful product launch in the client’s company history. As a result of this launch and ongoing outreach, the company now has a strategic and measured PR program, it’s visibility and coverage have increased,  and it is gaining on its competitors.

Campaign:

TREW Marketing sought to create a PR program for this IT company that would quickly address their known challenges – their product was emerging in an undefined market, the market is fragmented and crowded with many tools providers, and their primary competitor was aggressive in its messaging. To achieve success and address these challenges, TREW created a tiered media list of publications and editors, drafted targeted high-quality content, reached out to prioritized media, executed a major product launch, and now continues to build on the newly-established relationships and company awareness.

Step 1: Develop a Targeted and Tiered Outreach List

TREW sought to develop a strategic media list for the IT company. Developing the list involved extensive research including tracking competitor coverage, searching for new publications, categorizing journalist beats, and identifying the data and articles that had been the most influential for the IT industry. This research resulted in a list of more than 25 media contacts who write for an audience relevant to the IT company’s existing product offerings and soon-to-be-launched ground-breaking new product.

To prioritize efforts with journalists, TREW ranked journalists as high, medium and low priority, and established interaction goals with each group of journalists. TREW, with the help of the IT company, then executed both proactive and reactive outreach  based on occurring events such as new articles, blog posts, and company and industry news, and introduced the IT company to the journalist when the company and its expertise could be helpful.

Step 2: Plan and Create Quality Content

For the major product launch, TREW created several pieces of targeted content, starting with the news release. Based on TREW research and several launch messaging meetings, the release focused on the product’s unique benefits for the market and application-leading specifications that factually ensured the product would stand out prominently over aggressive competitors who had a larger voice in the market, yet a technically inferior product. In addition, TREW created a one-page flyer that highlighted specific pain points of potential customers and used diagrams and explanations to show how the new product saved time, cost, and set customers up for future success.

Alongside the news release and one-page overview, TREW helped develop the slide content, flow, and messaging that positioned the company and introduced the product. In addition TREW created article abstracts that company experts could write for publications. The IT company presented the slides in run-throughs of the presentation, each time making changes and adjustments so that their messages were clearly and accurately conveyed.

Step 3: Reach out to the Media

A few weeks before the launch of the product, TREW began to contact journalists it had begun developing relationships with since Step 1. TREW introduced the product and invited journalists to meet with the company leadership and technology experts to learn more about the product and how it would meet the needs of the journalists’ audiences.

Since the PR launch process began with researching the best contacts and building relationships, as outlined in Step 1, TREW already had a start on raising the company’s visibility with key journalists which helped ensure they would more easily accept the invitation to hear about the new product at the time of announcement.

Step 4: Launch the Product

The week of the launch, the news release was distributed via wire and the IT company met with journalists across the country. They presented slides, answered questions, pitched article abstracts or offered assistance with other articles where applicable, and TREW continued to watch the targeted publications for places the new product could be included.

Step 5: Sustain the Media Relations Program

With a successful launch underway, TREW continues to build relationships with key media for the IT company. By consistently staying in touch with top media and making valuable offers of expert spokespeople, new content, and company news, overall engagements (i.e., journalist responses) are growing. As TREW and the IT company look to build on this success into 2012, a key focus is on additional compelling content and ideas to strengthen relationships with editors and grow the IT company’s image as a leader in the markets they serve.

Results:


With the PR program development and strategic product launch, the IT company secured 125% more coverage than prior launches. Throughout the launch, the company received:

  • Six times more feature article coverage than their top competitor in the launch month
  • Strong feature article headlines and product messaging
  • Industry analyst quotes in multiple top-tier publications
  • Feature coverage in four of the targeted publications
  • Article headlines that included key messages promoted through the presentations, news release, and additional information materials

May 05, 2011 by

In April, Wineman Technology celebrated its 20th anniversary. Anniversaries are a great time to showcase what your company has been through and what you’ve accomplished over time. Often, employees have their hands in the day-to-day work of a company, but marketers have the time to interview and dig deep into the history of the company. After conversations with the engineers at Wineman, we uncovered extremely newsworthy details about the company’s history. For example:

  • Over the course of 20 years, Wineman boasts a 31% average yearly increase in revenue
  • Wineman is home to 11 engineers with LabVIEW development certifications
  • The company furthers hands-on learning by donating to institutions like Michigan Technological University, where students are building a mobile laboratory

To promote Wineman through their 20th anniversary, we created and wired a news release, sent customized news pitches to targeted journalists, and published specific web content that drove traffic to Wineman’s web site.

Creating a News Release

News releases get a company’s information to its audiences clearly and provide credibility. Well-written news releases are often covered by multiple outlets and online news sites, ultimately increasing a company’s web presence. As a result of our Wineman’s news release, their 20th anniversary was covered across the globe in outlets like CNBC, Yahoo! News, and Reuters.

Sending Customized Pitches to Targeted Journalists

TREW uses email news pitches to reach targeted journalists. We spend the time and effort to create customized press lists for each of our clients to ensure that we’re starting conversations with the most relevant journalists for their products and services.

For Wineman, we sought local coverage to celebrate the company’s accomplishments. We reached out to journalists in the mid-Michigan area, as well as large, industry-wide publications, and received coverage in a wide range of outlets (including the Facebook page of a local, influential business alliance, below). Because the local publications are more interested in a human interest story and how the company has impacted the local economy, and the industry publications are interested in how the company’s technology has developed and what solutions they have created over time, we created two different news releases – one for each audience. It is important to customize news for your audience and send journalists something that is valuable and interesting to their unique audience.

Creating a CTA with Specific Web Content

A developed news release that is sent to targeted journalists also needs to have a next step for readers, a call-to-action (CTA). In Wineman’s case, we created an interactive timeline on Wineman’s site, where readers could go to see images and details about Wineman’s history. The URL for the timeline was included in the wired news release and in the outreach to journalists. Each date and on the timeline provided images and details about Wineman’s history, along with links to more information on other parts of their site.

Happy 20th Anniversary, Wineman!

April 13, 2011 by

At TREW Marketing, each of our Crew members bring professional experience, areas of expertise, and plenty of character. Here we spotlight two Crewers – Irene Bearly, Technical Marketing Manager; and Morgan Norris, Senior Communications Specialist – in an interview about their background, passions, and professional knowledge. They were both also featured in local Austin business publications – ABJ and the Statesman.

Irene Bearly, Technical Marketing Manager

Where are you from originally?

I’m from Houston, TX. My grandparents are from China, and parents are from Taiwan

What university did you go to?

Georgia Institute of Technology – I learned to not procrastinate, never give up, and enjoy sweet tea. GO Yellow Jackets!

What are your passions?

Jesus Christ, my family, reading, trying out new hobbies, which so far include video games, knitting, crocheting, photography, blogging, drawing, kayaking, and training my cat to perform dog tricks

What is your proudest achievement you’ve accomplished thus far?

Supporting my husband through thick and thin

What strengths do you bring to TREW Marketing?

I bring strong project management and multi-tasking skills, and the ability to research and pick up almost any technical topic and create marketable content out of it

In your opinion, what was the most successful marketing campaign you have worked on and why?

I suppose with would have to be the EtherCAT product launch I did with National Instruments because of several reasons:

  1. The sheer scale of the launch. It was a global launch – where web content and press releases had to be created way in advance and translated into multiple languages simultaneously – and it involved many press meetings and customer meetings. Plus, it was featured in the keynote of NIWeek in a flashy demo that played the Superman theme with chimes and an accompanying LED light show.
  2. Brand new technology: all the content and landing pages were brand new. I had to start from the ground up and actually explain what the technology was and how it worked. And I had to ensure we positioned NI as a leading technical expert in EtherCAT technology.
  3. Delicate messaging: the NI EtherCAT product could potentially be seen as a red ocean product with a direct, entrenched competitor. So it was essential to get across its major differentiators and clearly communicate the NI value proposition compared with other EtherCAT products (like comparing apples and oranges)

What advice do you have for future marketers?

My best advice is to always know your client and your client’s audience.

Describe yourself in three words…

Adaptable, Organized, Joyful

Morgan Norris, Senior Communications Specialist

Where are you from originally?

I grew up in Houston, TX and London, England. Consequently, if you and I were to watch a film full of the usually-enigmatic British humor, I could explain the jokes to you. I consider this one of my strengths.

What university did you go to?

I attended the University of Texas with a BS in Public Relations, a BA in Spanish Language, and a Business minor

What are your passions?

I enjoy running and baking/eating baked goods – in which the former allows for the latter in my own life – and I love being able to cook and provide meals for families who need them

What is your proudest achievement you’ve accomplished thus far?

Professionally, in 2009, I managed the logistics and planning for a public relations press room at a large trade show. My team had upwards of 50 journalists flying in for the event and I had the privilege of informing, serving, and assisting those journalists along with our corporate executives for four days. In the end, the event resulted in record coverage and rave reviews from the press.

Personally, in 2010 I became the mother of a beautiful baby girl. She keeps my husband and me on our toes and I am honored to strive to raise her well. Each day is sort of an ongoing achievement.

What strengths do you bring to TREW Marketing?

Besides decoding British humor? I have an eye for copy editing and actually a love for consistency and creating corporate style guides that provide companies the opportunity for cohesive content. I have worked for many years with journalists in the science and engineering industries, and I’ve also continued to climb the steep and seemingly eternal learning curve of social media.

In your opinion, what was the most successful marketing campaign you have worked on and why?

The most successful campaign I have worked on was for Cyth Systems. The campaign was around their Circaflex product, and we were able to humanize the story by pitching to journalists the idea of how real lives and jobs had been changed by Cyth’s product. Taking a step back from technical specs and starting with the big-picture story of human life-change, we were able to secure press meetings at a large 2010 trade show.

What advice do you have for future marketers?

Seek to understand your audience. If you know who you’re talking to, it’s much easier to craft messages that can make an impact.

Also, the rules have changed – only one space should go after each period in your copy. Use two spaces and you’ll immediately date yourself!

Describe yourself in three words…

Learner, Catalyzer, Achiever

You can learn more about the TREW Crew, by visiting the About Us Section

April 01, 2011 by

“Our partnership with TREW Marketing resulted in clear, consistent company, product-level positioning and messaging with a well-organized strategic marketing plan. Their smart, collaborative approach, flexibility with our evolving team and strategy, and a commitment to truly understand our business model enabled them to define and deliver our unique value proposition in a highly competitive market.” – Jon Pafk, Sr. Director of Marketing

Founded in 2006, Starmount delivers software solutions that transform the retail environment to a more connected and engaging store experience. Their mobile selling, interactive kiosk, and digital signage software brings the richness of the web and the power of mobile into the store, where retailers can create more personalized, relevant, and dynamic interactions while shoppers can learn, discover, and buy anywhere in the store. Starmount’s customers include leading retailers such as Pep Boys, Urban Outfitters, and Home Depot.

Starmount selected TREW Marketing to develop the company and product-level positioning and messaging “brain”, followed by a 12-month integrated campaign-based marketing plan to establish awareness and preference of Starmount and its products and services.

Deliverables:

  • Developed core elements of the “brain”, including:
    • A clearly defined mission and vision statement
    • Company positioning and quick pitch
    • Distinctive and intriguing tagline concepts
    • Product- and services-level positioning and messaging
  • Custom, integrated, campaign-based 12-month marketing strategy and activity plan, including:
    • Prioritized trade shows, recommendations to extend “event shelf life” with pre/post-show promotion
    • Content development plan to generate qualified leads through compelling, targeted content
    • Direct marketing centered on launch of a quarterly e-newsletter
    • A multi-tiered PR approach to maximize resources and target top-tier relationships
    • Search engine marketing analysis and recommendations across multiple campaigns, including natural search and pay-per-click reporting metrics
    • Recommendations for co-marketing with Oracle Retail to increase leads and become an aligned partner on events and news opportunities

Results:

  • Communications Brain used as messaging guide for primary company and product communication
  • Consistency and efficiency gains by using Brain vs. reinventing messaging with each new activity
  • Scalable and integrated mix of low- and high-cost media investments to generate demand
  • Creation of the company mission and vision statements:
    • Mission: ”Starmount solutions bring the richness of the web and the power of mobile to create relevant, engaging store experiences.”
    • Vision: “To transform the in-store shopping experience to make stores relevant and more connected than ever before.”
    • Taglines: “We make shopping sense.” “Don’t just serve your customers. Engage them.”; “Create relevant shopping experiences. Anytime. Anywhere.”; “Software that makes shopping local, mobile, and shared.”

Here are examples of the Starmount “brain” brought to life:

January 18, 2011 by

For many small-to-medium sized B2B organizations we work with, we recommend a very targeted PR effort that maximizes limited resources through consistent product and company news, ideally on a bi-monthly to quarterly basis to start.

When we lead PR efforts for our clients, we remind them of two myths and follow ten rules to make sure outreach is done effectively and is a win-win-win…for our client, for the editor, and for TREW’s long-term relationship with both!

Houston Chronicle coverage of TREW client TAMEST K-12 STEM Education report.

2 Myths

  1. PR is “free” – on the contrary, PR is probably one of the most expensive types of marketing there is. Why? It takes time, patience and a consistent drumbeat over months and years to achieve lasting, impactful coverage. While advertising has hard costs – you place an ad, pay your bill, and poof, your company is in print or on a website – for PR, you can pitch many times before you finally achieve coverage. There are no guarantees, but either way, you have spent your time and resources.
  1. PR drives sales – have you ever thought to yourself “My product was covered in the press, but my sales not rising, so PR does not work.”  Well, let me ask you, when was the last time you read an small blurb, or better yet a page-long article, about a product you hadn’t heard of before and then got your credit card out and bought it? Likely, the answer is not very often, if never. Getting coverage should be the first “touch” in a series of touches that are needed to drive someone to give their name as a lead, much less place an order. PR is just the first step, and it requires consistent coverage over time combined with other types of marketing to see the collective payoff in leads and sales.

Quote from MoviMED product launch coverage, led by TREW.

10 Tips

  1. EDITORS and reporters have very little time, and very little patience. They also receive, on average, over 200 releases a day from companies all over the world. CONCLUSION: They will probably not read your release.
  2. EDITORS are very specialized, and they change their specialty quite often. CONCLUSION: Make sure that each editor receives the information that relates to his/her specialty.
  3. EDITORS, REPORTERS AND THE PRESS IN GENERAL know their jobs. They do not need to submit their stories to you, they do not need your help in writing them and they will not give you a preview of the story. CONCLUSION: Either take over the publication, or don’t ask to help.
  4. EDITORS are human AND always on deadline. They have a need to get their job done quickly and efficiently. CONCLUSION: The quicker you meet their needs, the quicker you get into print. Ensure that you know those needs before you meet (e.g., what’s the best/worst day to contact them), and make sure that you can meet them.
  5. EDITORS are not interested in advertising. CONCLUSION: Do not mention advertising to editors.
  6. STORIES are whatever the editor chooses to make out of your information. CONCLUSION: Once the story is written, there is no call back, no complaining and no post editorializing. The only exception is if there is a factual inaccuracy, which may warrant a followup and correction. Otherwise, it’s done.
  7. STORIES can be placed into very simple categories, but the editor does the placing. CONCLUSION: Determine what type of story you are presenting, and accept that the editor will do the categorizing.
  8. STORIES are, by order of interest- fast-breaking disasters, slow-breaking disasters, people of importance doing important things, new break-through products in new categories, older products doing new things, new versions of old products. [Then there are] the trash news stories that will only be placed by being a nuisance. These include: strategic alliances between two unimportant companies, me-too stories, design wins, personnel changes (unless the president shoots a VP), following major trend, obscure technical factoids, etc. CONCLUSION: Be realistic when pitching coverage, and place your story in its true category.  If you don’t, the editor will.
  9. STORIES become obsolete the moment they appear anywhere. CONCLUSION: For maximum effect, do not leak your story to a favorite editor, keep it for a complete roll out.
  10. OFF THE RECORD never is. CONCLUSION: Don’t ask, and never, ever assume.

To read more about our work in PR, read the TAMEST or MoviMED case studies. To read more about PR and securing coverage for your product or company, visit our blog post  TREW Top 9 List to Increase Your Product Launch Coverage.