Staying Disciplined in Marketing Campaigns

One of the things that often comes up when we discuss WinGreen Marketing Systems' business with potential clients is the observation "You're doing the things we know we should be doing, but we just can't seem to stay disciplined enough to stick to our plans and schedules". We talk to company presidents, CEO's, VP's of marketing, VP's of sales, and other execs, and time and time again we hear this common reaction. People love to tell us that they already know how to do what we do (and they're correct) but they have a devil of a time doing it.

I've been in marketing for over 20 years now. I've worked for computer companies, software companies, technology companies, and service companies -- always in the business-to-business realm -- and I've seen marketing evolve from the print-focused, mass marketing tactics of the 1980's to the "online literature" of early WWW marketing efforts in the 1990's to the "Google-ization" of the Web and of marketing in the 21st century. One thing that hasn't changed is the phenomenon of marketing organizations that simply don't stick to the discipline of a rigid calendar of campaigns, activities, and efforts. I'm sure it's true of all types of organizations. "The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry," wrote Robert Burns in 1785. We lay out our marketing calendars, we plan a campaign every month, perhaps a monthly email newsletter, maybe a mass email offer of a special industry report that goes out every third Thursday, but day-to-day business gets in our way. The report isn't completed on time, so it gets offered on the fourth Wednesday. The webcast we were supposed to do every other Tuesday slips because no one remembered to email out the promotions and invitations three weeks ahead of time. The monthly newsletter turns into every six weeks, then every other month, and eventually falls by the wayside. We've all experienced the way that perfect plans do not always lead to perfect execution.

This turns out to be one of the reasons we get hired by clean tech companies. They know what they're supposed to be doing in their marketing functions, but day-to-day distractions and demands keep them from executing. They hire us because consistent, repetitive, well-planned lead generation campaigns are all we do. They know we won't waver from the plan because (1) we're outside their organization so we're not pulled in multiple directions by the often competing demands from executives, sales, operations, finance, etc., and (2) we've built our WinGreen Marketing System into a true system, i.e. a perfectly meshed system of people, process, and technology performing the same consistent set of methods for many, many companies. We've scaled our system and our methods so that our account managers are executing the WinGreen System over and over again like clockwork, and it's like second nature to us.

Yes, our primary value propositions are:

1. Significantly more quality business leads at significantly lower cost per lead than you can do on your own
2. Manage headcount costs by outsourcing the lead generation function to WinGreen as your marketing agency
3. Improved sales methods and workflow as the result of the WinGreen Marketing Systems Sales Enablement online tools.

but we're learning that our clients are also relying on us for a fourth important benefit: They can count on us to provide the discipline, the schedule, and the consistent, reliable execution necessary to keep lead generation on track, and this helps their internal organizations stay disciplined and work to predictable schedules.

We're here to help. Call us, email us, or visit www.WinGreenMarketing.com to find out how we're helping companies dramatically increase the flow of new business prospects while reducing their lead generation costs.

www.wingreenmarketing.com

www.wingreenmarketing.net

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WinGreen Marketing Systems - Your Champions for Clean Technologies

WinGreen Marketing Systems is an online marketing agency that provides lead generation and sales automation to companies in the renewable energy and smart grid industries. The company utilizes its proprietary WinGreen System to deliver a steady stream of high quality leads to its clients, along with an online subscription platform providing all the tools and technologies needed to manage leads from initial contact to closed sale. WinGreen Marketing Systems uses only the most modern digital marketing techniques like PPC, email marketing, opt-in marketing, drip marketing, Web marketing, Web visitor tracking, Web-to-lead automation, search engine marketing, and social media to dramatically increase the number of incoming quality leads while cutting cost-per-lead by 50%, 60%, 70% or more. WinGreen Marketing Systems’ clients enjoy the benefits of doubling, tripling, even quadrupling the incoming quality leads every month with no IT investment.

Learn more at www.wingreenmarketing.com or call us at 610.810.1707

Pickens Plan Energy Independence Day Rallies and Video Contest

As a follow-on to my blog from the other day ("Independence Day"), see the Pickens Plan blog on what they're doing with rallies, etc. for "Energy Independence Day".

PickensPlan » Blog Archive » Energy Independence Day Rallies and Video Contest: "Energy Independence Day Rallies and Video Contest"

Independence Day

The upcoming U.S. holiday is usually called "The 4th of July", but its actual name is "Independence Day". Americans celebrate this holiday in remembrance of the country's declaration of independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. I think it's time we started to work toward a new "independence day" for the United States -- independence from reliance on foreign oil coming from areas of the world that are not as friendly, accomodating, or hospitable as Great Britain has become. Who knows? Maybe 200 years after independence from the OPEC nations, the U.S. and those OPEC countries in the middle east may become strong allies and friends once our oil company employees and military personnel have left those nations' sacred soils. The United States declared independence from Great Britain, fought two wars against them, and yet became the world's closest allies. Perhaps the religion-based violence, mistrust, and acrimony directed at the U.S. by the oil producing Middle East will disappear once our filthy infidel feet are off their soil thanks to American ingenuity rallying around energy independence.

I don't need to rehash why wars are fought over oil, or how the American economy is held hostage by the OPEC leaders (a group of people that include some who have not only extorted the American people with the greatest transfer of wealth in human history, but who also wish us harm because of their religious beliefs), or how the average American citizen's life would be changed by a world where American energy is generated by American companies with no reliance on any other government or organization for its lifeblood. Anyone reading this already knows how important it is for Americans to immediately and definitively accelerate an enormous move from oil based energy to American based energy sources, including solar, wind, hydro, and yes, even nuclear.

I'm advocating a ramp-up of the move from oil to American based energy sources. Our government is spending $787 billion of our money for some sort of "recovery". Folks, that's about $200,000 for every unemployed person in the U.S.!!!* (Why didn't they just send checks for $100,000 to every unemployed person. You want to see stimulus? Wait 'til you see the spending that an unemployed person who was making $42,000 a year will do after receiving a check from Uncle Sam for one hundred grand!) Part of this money is set aside for stimulating the build-out of an infrastructure to deliver non-oil energy to Americans. I would NEVER advocate handouts of any sort, but now that the new quasi-socialist government is in place against my wishes, I would like to at least have that spending pointed more at things that will have long-term, lasting economic effect (e.g. American-based energy sources) than for things that will not (e.g. $200M for designing and furnishing the Homeland Security headquarters -- see http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2009/02/19/finding-the-pork-in-the-obama-stimulus-bill.html?PageNr=1).

Stimulus or not, a new generation of companies creating electricity and motive energy from sources other than oil needs to emerge now. It only took about 20 years for big oil to get big, once Henry Ford created the demand. The oil companies of the 1910-1930 period managed to build an ecosystem (ironic term) with exploration, wells, shipping, refineries, distribution, and millions of gasoline pumps located where people could get to them in just 20 years. We keep hearing how today's society moves so much faster. Is it unreasonable to think that the profit motive, the patriotic motive, the very real national defense motive, and all of our modern technology together can create a mass move to American energy independence in 20 years?

For our part, here at WinGreen Marketing Systems, we're devoting all of our efforts to helping clean tech, renewable energy, and smart grid developers, manufacturers, and service providers grow their businesses. We're not engineers. We can't figure out how to turn kelp into electricity. We don't know the first thing about photovoltaics, windmill blade pitch, or geo-thermal generation. What we do know is how to market and sell. Our commitment to the new American Independence Day is to use our years of experience in marketing, databases, online presence, and sales enablement to help the companies who are developing new technologies find new customers and find them fast.

Do you know someone in an early-stage alternative energy company that could use some assistance getting their products sold? We know how to deliver a steady stream of new business prospects, track follow-up progress, and make the marketing and sales process work efficiently. Call Don at 619.818.3533 from the West, or Tom at 610.505.6887 from the East to learn more, or visit us at www.wingreenmarketing.net.



*Economists consider 4% unemployment to be a practical "zero unemployment", as there is always transition in good times and bad, and there are also perpetually unemployable people. The current 8% unemployment is therefore 4% above "zero". With 100 million workers in the U.S., that's 4 million employees and want to work and are able to work, but can't find work. 787 billion divided by 4 million is $196,750 for every worker that is displaced by this recession.