CMA Adopts a Family

CMA once again partnered with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s Community Health Promotion Program to aid a local family in need for the holidays.

From December 1 to December 18, CMA adopted a six-person family for the holiday season. Employees donated a variety of gifts for children ages 14, 8, 5 and 2 years old, as well as gifts for their parents, providing a total of 16 gifts to the family.

The Community Health Promotion Program, a nationally recognized program of outreach into the Greater New Brunswick, New Jersey area, provides educational programs, health screenings and social services to the community. For more information, please visit http://www.rwjuhfdn.org/funds/special.html.

Designing a Website Built to Last

If a website refresh is what your company needs to start anew in 2010, it’s imperative that you work with your designer to create something that is built to last. Using outdated techniques can force a prospective customer to click the “x” in the corner and cross you off the list of potential business partners as quick as the click of a mouse.

We’ve seen so many website trends come and go. Consider these points while you’re in the planning stage.

Put yourself in the website visitors’ shoes. Your website is now almost the equivalent of the first greeting, handshake and business card exchange in the early stages of a real, live meeting. Within the first few seconds, the visitor needs to feel engaged but also in control. While the organization of your website is important to share information, the design elements must make them feel comfortable enough to want to stay.

A website should accurately represent your brand. Since your website might be the first place a customer is introduced to your brand, make sure visitors are able to immediately understand who the business is and what you do. A cluttered homepage with disorganized photos and clickables can be confusing, so keep it simple.

Utilize white space for a more professional feel. Dated websites are easy to spot—they have bright colors, perhaps a patterned background and lots of text to scroll through. According to Business Week, 62% of those online are researching products and services. Maintaining a good ratio of white space to images and text allows the visitor to concentrate better on the information they are seeking.

Websites are an essential piece of a company’s full brand. Before you decide to launch a website project, spend some time shopping around to other websites to browse for ideas and accurately gauge the trends in your own industry. Let CMA apply our expertise to deliver a website that truly represents you.

Diane Webster,
Associate Creative Director
Dwebster@cmasolutions.com

A Web Presence is a Terrible Thing to Waste

It’s important for a company not to lose sight of how important their website is, especially since these days, it can serve as the main introduction to their brand presence and value proposition.

A company’s website should evolve and be refreshed as a business grows, refines or alters strategic direction, branding and positioning, makes an acquisition, enters a new market or introduces new products and services.

A website that is little more than a digital version of the company brochure just doesn’t cut it anymore. A makeover or even an entirely new site may be advisable, if not essential. If you decide on a website refresh or a bulldoze to rebuild from the ground up, do your site visitors a favor and bring in a web designer to do it right―particularly if your current site was built by a friend or someone who’s simply “interested in computers.”

These lamentable scenarios often result in some of the most arcanely programmed, navigationally convoluted, frustratingly slow and ineffective websites out there. I know, because our company has had to modify and improve some of them over the years.

To help you on your journey, I recommend a few do’s and don’ts for keeping your website current:

Tone down “bells and whistles.” Animation and Flash are like seasoning—used with relevance and purpose, they enhance the user experience, but when applied excessively for their own sake, they frustrate a user trying to gather information.

Rethink “Skip Intro.” They may set off a “Skip Website” alarm in the visitors’ minds.

Use colors intelligently. Bright colors used to prevail. Now white space, brevity and readability are paramount.

Break up the copy for greater readability. Dynamic headlines and sub-heads should be developed around key messages to communicate them prominently and pique click-throughs.

These are just some elements to consider. Is a website refresh what your company needs to start anew in 2010? We’ll be exploring website trends all month, so check back for more tips and trend insights.

Erin Higgins
Manager, Client Services
ehiggins@cmasolutions.com

CMA Partners with HomeFront to Support Local Families in Need

CMA recently practiced what we preached in the previous blog post "Doing good is good for business" and helped make Thanksgiving a little more special for families in need while we were at it.

The CMA staff donated 10 baskets of non-perishable food to HomeFront as part of our Thanksgiving food drive. HomeFront, a non-profit organization located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, provides emergency shelter and support services to help local homeless families get back on their feet. Each year, the organization strives to meet its goal of providing Thanksgiving meals to over 1,800 homeless families in the area.

For over a month, CMA employees collected and donated canned goods and other non-perishable items for the drive. This is CMA’s fourth year participating in HomeFront’s Thanksgiving food drive having provided 37 baskets to the organization to date.

Pictured above are CMA PR Manager, Kaitlin Friedmann (left) and Client Services Manager, Erin Higgins (right) at the HomeFront drop-off site on Friday afternoon.

Doing good is good for business

The non-profit sector is arguably the single most important force for bettering the regional community many of our businesses serve as well as the social and cultural fabric we, as a society, all share.

Many companies, including CMA, make corporate responsibility a focus year round. If your business is contributing a good deed in the spirit of the upcoming season of giving, even if it’s as simple as a food drive, why not leverage print and electronic public relations to let the community know?

Your press release and an accompanying photo won’t likely end up on the front page or the top of the landing page, but most media provide recognition for high-profile corporate citizenship or high-impact charitable donations. Corporate commitment to making a difference helps differentiate your business from competitors and casts your company in a favorable light in the minds of consumers and employees.

In fact, a recent report from the Council on Foundations noted that 83% of Americans have a more positive image of companies who support causes they care about or perceive to be beneficial to the common good. The report also states that 87% of employees at companies with corporate giving programs feel a stronger sense of loyalty to their employers.

No wonder that, even in a time of economic turbulence, an IBM study released this year found over 1, 000 CEOs plan to increase their corporate giving by 25% or more.

A regular and organized corporate social responsibility program not only burnishes your brand, but builds a reservoir of public good will that can prove resilient in times of crisis.

Ultimately it pays to embrace the spirit of giving, not just at this altruistic time of year, but on a planned and budgeted basis annually. Corporate philanthropy is good—both for business and the nonprofits whose missions are advanced. Doing well by doing good should be business as usual.

Jeff Barnhart
President & CEO
jbarnhart@cmasolutions.com

IMARK Group Selects CMA

CMA announced today that the IMARK Group has selected the firm to produce the organization’s quarterly publication, IMARK Now, beginning with the February 2010 issue.

IMARK Group, the largest member-owned, independent electrical distributor marketing group in the electrotechnology industry, expanded earlier this year with the acquisition of another marketing group, Equity/EDN. The group’s network of electrical distributor members work closely through IMARK programs with over 100 of the electrical industry’s leading manufacturers and service providers to maximize profitability, increase market share and strengthen business relationships. CMA was selected by the IMARK Group because of the firm’s deep understanding of the electrical industry and has provided innovative marketing programs for several of IMARK Group’s member companies in the past.

A team of 12 from CMA will manage the relaunch of the quarterly magazine as IMARK Now (previously Marketfocus) to reflect the organization’s recent expansion. This includes management of editorial content, design, layout, advertising sales and other logistics. IMARK Now will reach approximately 8,000 readers.

Social Networking: Becoming one of “them”

Like many PR professionals, I have made a conscious effort in recent years to get on board with social networking. How else can I effectively manage a client’s social media campaign without being one of “them,” the increasing community that communicates largely via 140-character sentences?

I started out on MySpace a couple years ago, but gravitated more toward Facebook and LinkedIn after realizing their more professional, grown-up format. Twitter has the potential to reach a wide audience, as we saw with recent news events as the Presidential Inauguration and the struggle of young Iranian protestors, but requires a lot of up-keep and the right message to gain followers.

Along with these core sites, I participate in other social media by blogging and frequenting several news and political blogs, PR professional blogs and message boards, along with the all-important entertainment scoop sites, providing an occasional comment when I feel I just can’t keep my opinion to myself.

What I have found is that, for the most part, regarding Facebook and Twitter, I pay real attention to a core 20% of my “friends.” For example, a few of my friends are in event planning and public relations. They have, by far, the most interesting “status updates” and “Tweets” because they constantly recommend and mention the best restaurants, hotels and other useful services they come in contact with. I have learned about great New York hot spots, which resorts have the most comfortable beds and websites where I can check out videos of tourist attractions before I visit.

Our clients, current and potential, can gain from this perspective. Many companies want to jump on the social media marketing bandwagon, and I don’t blame them. It’s all anyone is talking about if they are not talking about the downturned economy. But so far, there are specific niches that can use social media as an effective way to raise awareness and drive sales.

It seems obvious, but most of the time, market research may be in order before social media marketing is implemented—the question “is your audience online?” must have a definite answer.

A well-known social media expert said at a seminar I attended recently that the press release will be dead within three years. While that remains to be seen, it’s certainly clear that one-way marketing needs to make room for emerging two-way, user-generated content that has a strong voice and purpose.

Kaitlin Friedmann
Public Relations Manager
kfriedmann@cmasolutions.com

A Time and A Place for Wild and Crazy PR

A Time and A Place for Wild and Crazy PR

Everyone knows PR is all about awareness. Publicity stunts and in-your-face strategies are effective for the right time, place and client and creating news is often essential to spreading an important message. So if all of that is indeed true, you might ask, who exactly are they right for?

If a client comes to CMA and asks us to stage a publicity stunt, our strategists analyze the situation first to see if this sometimes costly awareness tool is worth risking the company or organization’s credibility. After all, the best publicity stunts are those that have a clever, clear message and a detailed plan to avoid backfire.

In fact, one of my favorite recent publicity stunts was the event to cap off Snickers’ “Bar Hunger” campaign, mostly because of its simplicity in expressing its message. Movie star David Arquette lived two days in a Plexiglas box atop the Madison Square Garden marquee to raise awareness for hunger in America. By literally putting himself on display, Arquette and the publicity team provided the media with a unique story that included a good message—without embarrassing the organization or the celebrity.

But the truth is, effective PR is not really about wild and crazy ideas. It’s about giving the media something to work with that might be valuable to their community. In the case of the Snickers campaign, the extremity of the stunt matched the urgency of the message. Everyone walking by could be a potential donor so widespread voyeurism and shock-value proved effective.

However, more specific audiences need more than a stunt to sell them on your products and services, especially if you sell business-to-business. Perhaps holding an event at a well-attended trade show is the key to launching a new product to your target audience. Hire a respected speaker that is appropriate for your industry and provide educational value for your audience. Often this type of awareness helps a company maintain and build credibility without being viewed as a rampant risk-taker and the media takes notice just the same.

Kaitlin Friedmann
Public Relations Manager
kfriedmann@cmasolutions.com

Tricks of the Tradeshow

Tricks of the Tradeshow

While trade shows can be important venues for lead generation, product launches, and one-on-one interaction with prospects, the ROI is not always obvious unless you thoroughly prepare to make the most of your investment.

I recently led a CMA Power Series seminar, Tricks of the Tradeshow, exploring effective tradeshow planning, execution and follow up to maximize show results while minimizing unnecessary costs.

Choosing the right tradeshow. Do not always assume the biggest or best attended show is the one to participate in. Rather, choose the tradeshow best aligned with your product or service and which will draw the greatest number of targeted prospects.

Why are you attending? Have a clear show attendance goal and develop tactics supporting your objectives. There are many possible reasons why a company may choose to participate in a tradeshow including:

• Generating sales and leads from attendees
• Launching a new product or announcing an industry innovation
• Seeking strategic alliances with other vendors
• Performing competitive intelligence

Tradeshow budget tips. Tradeshows can require a significant investment, but savvy businesses leverage a number of strategies to minimize costs:

• Take advantage of discounted dates for ordering booth materials. For some shows this is almost one-half the cost compared to ordering on the “regular” deadline.

• Rent items for your booth, such as furniture, instead of purchasing them. Furniture can be heavy, increasing the overall cost of shipping.

• Ship to the show warehouse instead of direct to the show site, which adds special and absolutely unnecessary material and handling costs from the show services company.

Train your exhibit staff. Your staff needs to be briefed on all new programs and initiatives as well as being knowledgeable about the company and its products/services. Booth staff are expected to be experts and prepping employees in advance ensures they will meet that expectation.

Turn leads into sales. Offer to send marketing materials to an interested prospect’s office to lighten his/her load of materials carried around at the show or the airport. As a practical matter, confirming their receipt once the prospect is back in the office gives you a legitimate reason to follow up, and follow up and follow up. Otherwise, all the work at the show is a wash. One call doesn’t cut it. Be persistent!

Stay tuned for information about CMA’s next Power Series topic!

Erin Higgins
Manager, Client Services
ehiggins@cmasolutions.com

JSPRAA Honors CMA with Nine Awards

The Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association (JSPRAA), the area’s largest communications association, recently held their 35th annual JASPER Awards ceremony on October 9, 2009.

The awards program has a long-standing reputation of awarding the most impressive communications campaigns in New Jersey. This year, nine JASPER wins brought CMA’s overall total award wins to 187! CMA received gold and silver awards in the following categories:

Gold:
• Newsletter
• Public relations campaign
• Crisis communications

Silver:
• Product launch
• Tradeshow graphics display
• Magazine ad campaign
• Branding campaign
• Sales kit
• Holiday card

Over 400 entries were submitted in 105 categories. CMA is very proud to be recognized by this prestigious organization.

Are You Afraid to Follow-up?

No matter what line of business you are in, sticking to a well thought-out marketing strategy can give you a competitive advantage, especially as we close out one of the toughest years on record. The fact is no direct mail, ad or press release can stand on its own—building relationships by following up consistently is the key to successfully drumming up business, no matter what the economic climate is like.

It can seem much easier to simply send one follow-up e-mail or call once rather than several times to really get a prospective client’s attention. There are a whole handful of reasons why we don’t follow up as rigorously as we should, even though technology has made it tremendously easier to communicate more frequently than ever before.

It’s important now more than ever to set aside that fear of rejection and stop taking it so personally. When a prospect turns down your product or service, they are doing exactly that—turning down your product/service, not you.

Following up more than once also makes you stand out to the prospect simply because most people do not. Most people don’t like cold calling and don’t do it. But consider this. A call following two direct mail pieces is not a cold call at all; it’s a warm offer to continue the conversation.

I’ve written about this concept before but it’s worth repeating—opportunity favors those who are knocking at the door consistently. Circumstances change almost every second of every day. That prospect that had no need for your product or services last week may now be looking for exactly what you have to offer.

Unsure where to start? Let CMA know if we can help you develop the key messages and strategies needed before you even pick up the phone.

Jeffrey Barnhart
CMA President & CEO
jbarnhart@cmasolutions.com

A World Without Marketing

It’s October and 2010 projections for some businesses may continue to be even scarier than even the goriest Halloween horror flick. But what really scares me as a veteran of the marketing industry is how some business owners may be taking their eye off the ball and losing focus of what really generates sales—creative marketing programs.

Imagine for a minute a world without the added spice marketing brings the marketplace. Without the creativity of advertising or PR stunts, the world would be a boring place. Your trip to the supermarket would be vastly different, for one—no variety, no competition and probably no special sales or incentives.

Just think, had you never been introduced to the wide variety of advertising characters on TV—whether it may be Juan Valdes, Tony the Tiger or the Geico Cavemen—you might have never developed brand loyalty or been exposed to quality products and services. Whether you’re aware or not, the creative minds in the marketing profession inspire your decisions with their chuckle-worthy anecdotes that people often can’t wait to tell others about. “Hey have you seen the commercial with the…” would no doubt be eliminated from the usual cocktail party conversation, and Super Bowls would simply be focused just on the football game instead of the great sponsorship spectacle it is become in recent years.

The business-to-business market would be even scarier, as it’s often the creativity of a marketing program that draws new business partners and reminds the most loyal supporters why they got involved with your company in the first place.

Times are still tough, but those who continue to market to their customers in clever ways, challenging them to consider something new or restore their faith in their own personal brand loyalty, are the companies that will remain ahead of the game once the recession fully lifts.

Jeffrey Barnhart
CMA President & CEO
jbarnhart@cmasolutions.com

Following Up After the Show: A Crucial Part of the Sales Process

The tradeshow was a success. You’ve made connections, had great conversations and even exchanged contact information with a variety of potential leads. Now you’re back in the office with the goal of turning those prospects into clients. Following up with leads you’ve obtained after a tradeshow is a crucial part of the sales process that is often missed and even overlooked. The conversations you’ve had should not stop once the show is over, as following up is another important step in helping to secure new clients. Consider these tips for following up after a tradeshow:

Timing
Timing is everything. Once you return from a tradeshow, it is important to follow up with any leads you have obtained. The sooner you follow up with prospects, the better chance you and your company have of being fresh in their mind as well as any information you have provided regarding your company’s products or services. If you follow up a few days or even a week later, you run the risk of them forgetting about you and your message, further delaying your progress and the relationships you’ve worked so hard to create.

Use the Appropriate Form of Communication
Whether you follow up via phone, email or mail, make sure you understand the best way the prospect would like to be contacted. Nothing annoys people more than being contacted in a way that does not suit the manner in which they prefer to receive information. This can also result in a loss or deletion of information about your company and its products or services if not filtered through the appropriate channel.

Offer Something New
Everyone enjoys receiving new information, especially if it relates directly to them. When following up, make sure to offer something new, whether it is a new success story, additional product features, etc. This will help give you another topic to discuss with the prospect as well as further engage them in your conversation and your message. Also, make sure the information is of interest to them, this shows you’ve done your homework and are truly thinking about their individual needs.

The above tips will help you continue the conversation with potential tradeshow leads, in an effort to turn them from prospect to client. Conversation never stops, so why should you?

Erin Higgins
Manager, Client Services
ehiggins@cmasolutions.com

Trade Shows: the Original Social Networking Sites

A 2008 study of business-to-business marketers by MarketingProfs.com and Forrester Research found trade shows rank among the top three most frequent marketing tactics for cost-effective lead generation, customer loyalty and prospect awareness. A year later, the 2009 iteration of the survey found 58% of the same marketers are considering a reduction in their trade show budgets.

Trimming budgets may be an economic necessity in trying timers but trade shows remain one the most valuable and effective opportunities for face-to-face interaction with customers and prospects. Trade events additionally provide essential continuing education and networking opportunities for employees to help them excel.

By all means, review the trade shows you attend to be certain each event is targeted to and well-attended by your audiences. Make sure you’re getting the most ROI out of your trade show investment. Conduct pre-show outreach to attendees and give them a reason to visit your booth. Leverage the significant public relations opportunities by contacting trade media attending a show to schedule interviews with your spokesperson at the event. Make sure exhibit booth staff are well-trained in key presentation, sales and marketing messages as well as the goals of event attendance.

I agree with John Baldoni, author of Leadership at Work, who points out that “meetings are far more than a collection of speeches or talking points. They are an opportunity for people of similar interests to come together and share their stories about how they are coping as well as what they are doing to increase business.” The opportunity for idea sharing Baldoni refers to is the heart of many American businesses, and may very well hold the key for pulling struggling companies out of economic turmoil.

Trade shows mean business, and business means revenue. The bottom line—scaling back on costs might be necessary, but cutting off employees and your company from sales, networking and educational opportunities is not.

Erin Higgins
Manager, Client Services
ehiggins@cmasolutions.com

Multiple Events Prove to Be No Problem for CMA Event Planners

Multiple Events Prove to Be No Problem for CMA Event Planners

This week, several members of the CMA staff worked diligently out of the office to provide the expert on-site event management our association clients have come to expect. The fall conference and tradeshow season is officially underway!

PAICR’s 11th Annual Conference

CMA started off the week with a two-day conference in New York City for PAICR (the Professional Association for Investment Communications Resources). The CMA team created an atmosphere perfect for the essential networking and education this niche of the financial industry depends on, even amidst the slight commotion in the Wall Street area due to a visit by the President on Monday. CMA’s PR team coordinated media attention from key industry publications who reported on the lively discussions on the future of financial marketing.

IFPUG’s 4th Annual ISMA Conference & Workshops

Three other members of the event management team spent the week in Chicago with some of the most technically-advanced minds in the nation at the International Software Measurement and Analysis (ISMA) Conference, hosted by the International Function Points Users Group (IFPUG). At Chicago’s historic Palmer House Hilton, CMA’s IFPUG account team coordinated a series of workshops and presentations for the best of the best in software development. Attendance was boosted by CMA’s effective marketing campaign prior to the conference that played on the skyscrapers of the city.

ICMA’s Green Summit II and Fall Academy Workshops

The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) held back-to-back events this week, also in the Chicago area, starting with the association’s Green Summit II: The Greening of the Factory. Attendees felt they benefitted tremendously from the perspectives of major lighting manufacturers, waste management experts and environmental packaging professionals. All speakers were arranged and promoted by the CMA event management staff, keeping in mind the association’s newly-created Green Task Force’s quest to determine an ecolabelling system for the industry. Later in the week, ICMA conducted its annual Fall Academy Workshops, which examined multiple trends in the card manufacturing industry. Next week, the seasoned CMA event team will travel to Dubai for the association’s first-ever Middle East Workshop and then on to Rome, Italy for the European Workshop in mid-October.

CMA Launches Second Seminar in Power Series

Check out CMA’s upcoming Power Series! - A free interactive seminar taking place for business owners and marketing executives in the Central New Jersey area. In the "Tricks of the Tradeshow” series, CMA Manager Client Services, Erin Higgins will discuss how to get the most out of the overall tradeshow experience.

What: Tricks of the Tradeshow

When: Tuesday, October 20 or Thursday, October 22
8:30-9:30am

Where: CMA’s Headquarters
191 Clarksville Road
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550

Why: The series will discuss how to optimize the way you plan and implement your next tradeshow exhibit by learning to avoid the money-wasters that may be keeping you from freeing up budgeted dollars. Attendees will also learn: what to do before, during and after the tradeshow, how to create a welcoming booth, understand rental, labor and shipping costs and how to maximize them and the importance of consistent branding. Join CMA's marketing team for this event and find out how CMA can help you maximize your tradeshow experience.

Email info@cmasolutions.com or call 609.297.2235 to sign-up. Since space is limited, pre-registration for the event is required. Do not miss out on this valuable marketing opportunity!


Erin Higgins
Manager, Client Services
www.GoToCMA.com

The Big Chill

Like every President of their own business, it’s hard not to feel puzzled by the uncertainty in today’s business world. The truth is today’s business environment is different than it was a few years ago because of the consolidation of roles and possibly, the creation of new positions. Many executives and managers new to this level of power feel paralyzed, FROZEN even, by uncertainty, leading to long periods of indecision.

Aldonna Ambler, The Growth StrategistTM who has helped literally hundreds of companies live up to their potential over the course of her career, recently became CMA’s strategic partner as we advise our clients on the right path to take. She says: How can you be an effective leader if you don’t want to take a chance, risk failure or disappoint anyone? And she’s right.

Businesses are fluid and always changing due to outside forces you may be unable to control. CMA’s MarketectureTM process, analyzes the best ways to position a company through marketing and advises company executives how to deal with outside forces such as technological advances, political/policy changes and socio-cultural implications. This strategy is needed now more than ever as the recession causes us all to rethink the way we approach marketing and redefine our value propositions.

Ask yourself this—will you ever know when the right time is to take a risk? Is being proactive really a risk anyway? Maybe forgetting about the “all or nothing” approach to marketing your business is the key to thawing out your business’ big freeze.

Jeffrey Barnhart
CMA President and CEO
www.GoToCMA.com

JSPRAA Recognizes CMA!

This just in! CMA racked up nine Jasper Award nominations! The Jasper Awards are a prestigious program from the Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association (JSPRAA) recognizing the best communications talent in the state. Check back for details in October on which CMA projects took home the top Gold Award, which ones took home the Silver Award and how we stacked up against the competition.

Kaitlin Friedmann
Manager, Public Relations
www.GoToCMA.com

CMA Launches Power Series

Check out CMA’s upcoming Power Series! - An interactive marketing seminar taking place for business owners and marketing executives in the Central New Jersey area. In the "Public Relations -- Quality vs. Quantity” series, CMA Public Relations Manager, Kaitlin Friedmann, will discuss how public relations is a cost-effective option for brand awareness.

What: Public Relations: Quality vs. Quantity

When: Tuesday, August 4 or Tuesday, August 11
8:30-9:30am

Where: CMA’s Office
191 Clarksville Road
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550

Why: The series will include steps for a successful public relations campaign and the importance of press releases for your company. We will also look at whether or not social media is beneficial as a new business tactic to target customers, and what reporters and editors want out of an interview. This seminar will introduce ways to remain competitive in the marketplace and build upon strategies to heighten brand recognition for your company. Join CMA’s marketing team for this event and find out how CMA works to deliver results for marketing challenges.

Feel free to email info@cmasolutions.com or call 609.297.2235 to sign-up. Since space is limited, pre-registration for the event is required. Do not miss out on this valuable marketing opportunity!


Jeffrey Barnhart
CMA President and CEO
www.GoToCMA.com

Marketing in a Recession

Beating the economy with a knock-out marketing plan…
As we all know, crisis holds opportunity. We also know opportunity favors those who are knocking at the door consistently, through marketing and other strategic commitments made by business people whose goal is not to ride it out, but to ramp it up.

Turning my advocacy into action at my own firm has paid off because this recession marketing strategy is proven successful. Studies of past recessions, notably one by McGraw-Hill have revealed companies maintaining or increasing their marketing investments in tough economic times fare better than those who pull in their horns. In a less crowded marketing playing field, they get ahead in the downturn and have more traction when the economy revives.

Be smart and follow this link...
http://blogs.cisco.com/ciscotalk

Almost 50% of US adults believe a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business is likely struggling, according to a study by Ad-ology Research. The results also showed a large majority of consumers think businesses continuing to advertise are competitive and committed to doing business.

Jeffrey Barnhart
CMA President and CEO
www.GoToCMA.com

Utilizing Social Media

Social marketing…
Since I’ve been urging marketers for the past 18 months in a variety of media to weather the economic storm by staying the marketing course, it makes sense to take my advocacy to the larger marketing community into the blogosphere.

This may be my first blog, but it is not the first time I’ve encouraged my peers to market their way through the recession. I’ve been practicing what I preach with a consistent outbound marketing effort at Creative Marketing Alliance driven by direct and digital marketing, newsletters and advertising both electronic and print now…social media!

We want to blog…
With over 20 years of experience, we know how important it is to research and utilize the innovative marketing trends and now, social networking is at the forefront.

I want your comments and questions so don’t be shy. My goal is to help you with your marketing challenges by turning them into your marketing successes. Use this blog to your advantage and learn all CMA has to offer about the most relevant and money-making marketing information in every aspect CMA can provide.

Jeffrey Barnhart
CMA President and CEO
www.GoToCMA.com

About CMA

About Creative Marketing Alliance, Inc.
Based in Princeton Junction, NJ, Creative Marketing Alliance (CMA) is a synergy of marketing and management businesses providing proven strategic, creative and management resources to achieve client goals through its allied businesses: CMA Marketing and Communications, CMA Association Management and CMA Healthcare Marketing. CMA has received 175 industry awards in its 21 years of business. Please visit www.cmasolutions.com for more information.