The Amtower B2G Market Report

The Amtower B2G Market Report
Volume 3, #10, March 8, 2004

(Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.FederalDirect.net and if you like this, please pass this along to your colleagues. To unsubscribe, email me at amtower@erols.com). Past issues available at http://www.federaldirect.net/newsletterarchives.html)

1) Amtower Off-Center Observations
2) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Spam is Good for Toast
3) Government Marketing Best Practices Spring 2004 Road Show
4) One Minute Marketing Clinic: Kaizen and Epiphanies

Amtower Off-Center Observations

As you may have noticed, since the MyDoom experience, we have tried a couple different email services. I would like to continue sending a simple text message, one that does not require you to go to my web site (although I would welcome each and every one of you, all your friends, family, and passing acquaintances). I do not care for e-newsletters that make you do that. I want to provide a quick read (3 pages), with the usual Amtower slant - Off Center. I think this new email service will do what we want, so please let my e-news through your spam filter!

Two upcoming events:

Two members of the Amtower Board of Advisors, Bob Bly (one of the best copywriters working today) and Debbie Weil of WordBiz.com are doing a teleseminar on "e-zines" Thursday, March 11, 1 PM EST. Go to: http://www.wordbizstore.com/bob_bly.html. I will tune in to this one myself, as it is an important topic. The session is $79, but for an hour with Bob Bly and Debbie Weil, that is a deal!

Corsec will be hosting a webinar on government validations, Thursday, March 4 at 2 PM EST. It will give a general overview covering FIPS 140-2 and Common Criteria. Anyone is welcome to attend, and for anyone involved in Federal IT security, this is a must. Registration is free, just send an email with your name, company and phone number to info@corsec.com.

Rumor mill: when Steve Vito left Government Executive magazine for CACI, I received several inquiries asking what happened. I have recently spoken to Steve and I am pleased to say there is no problem - it was simply time for Steve to try something else. That something else is VP of Strategic Alliances for CACI, a position for which Steve is well suited.

FOSE watch: with MicroWarehouse gone (absorbed by CDW) what will be the big thing at FOSE this year? Will there be a big thing at FOSE this year? Will there be a "battle of the bags"? And if so, who will the new contender be? It is time for GTSI to roll out its new campaign, but traditionally they have not big a "big splash" company. Will this year be different? Tune in next week.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: SPAM IS GOOD FOR TOAST

As we approach busy season (the end of the federal FY) I will get more frequent requests for email lists, so let me go over this one more time. Spam is good for toast, which is what you will become if you use it. This topic is covered in some depth in Government Marketing Best Practices. Amtower & Company does not sell email lists. We rent and license snail mail and telemarketing lists.

Email is fast and cheap, no argument. But fast and cheap does not increase your sales. It can immediately decrease your ability to reach the audiences you need to reach. Spam irritates most people, and some of them enough to work actively against you.

I have spoken with several friends lately, including editors, publishers, event producers, manufacturers and resellers, and some share a common problem. By using unsolicited email promotions, compliant with CAN-Spam, they are now blocked from some agencies.

It only takes a few disgruntled recipients of unwanted email to cause a problem. They will forward your message to the agency web master, who will make a determination of how to proceed. Sometimes this will result in blocking your ISP. This means any future email coming from that ISP will be blocked.

You will not know you are blocked unless, like one of those I recently spoke with, a customer calls and say they have not heard from you for a while. This person, who produces high level events, uses email sparingly. The event producer occasionally sends email to prospects, not customers, but not by the thousands, even hundreds. Apparently one of the emails went to the wrong person, and now he is blocked from an entire agency.

As tempting as it is, spam will not help your marketing effort. This time of year, when your messages really have to get through to build up end-of-FY sales, spam will hurt your efforts, not support them.

You want to use email in a positive manner? Sponsor existing opt-in email programs. The trade magazines have them (American City and County, Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News, Government Executive, Governing, Military and Aerospace Electronics, etc), the event producers (Federal Business Council), and web portals/e-publishers (www.GovFacility.com, www.PublicSectorInstitute.com, www.PublicWorks.com). Find the opt-in program that best suits your product or service, and use that until you build your own opt-in program.

Spam at your own peril. The results will be swift, but not necessarily what you anticipate.

Not that I have an opinion.

GOVERNMENT MARKETING BEST PRACTICES SPRING 2004 ROAD SHOW

If you like this newsletter, you will love this seminar.

The government marketing man in black is going on the road again, five cities in April, and more this fall. More use-able information in three hours than you get from most multi-day events. No platitudes, but the Amtower attitude, with real information in what works in government marketing - and what does not work. Registrations are coming in and seating is limited at each venue - register today!

Government Marketing Best Practices (version 4.1) will be visiting
Vienna, Virginia, April 14
San Jose April 20
San Antonio April 21
Denver April 28
Chicago April 29

This 3-hour seminar covers proven tactics that work in the government marketplace.

best web site characteristics for attracting Feds
eight tips for successful Federal direct mail and email
tried & true methods for event identification, selection and marketing
identifying, creating and exploiting press opportunities
the role of special interest groups and how to find the best one for your niche
and more - with lots of new examples, and audience interaction.

Once again, this will include new material (version 4.1). Our 2004 sponsors are DM News, the Federal Business Council, Federal Computer Week, Government Security News, Carroll Publishing and the Public Sector Institute. If you have suggestions for city selection for the fall, 2004 Road Show, email me!

Information is available at http://www.federaldirect.net/bestpractices2004.html

ONE MINUTE MARKETING CLINIC: KAISEN AND EPHIPHANIES

The government market is constantly changing, and keeping up with how government buyers are gathering purchasing information is critical for corporate growth. Knowing the trends takes time and effort, but unless you bother to stay current, marketshare will pass you by. Some government vendors have stagnated, and in some cases, lost marketshare by not understanding how government buyers are collecting information on products, services, contracts and vendors. Others are growing as a result of being where the buyers gather information: events, trade publications (ads and being in the stories), direct mail, association and special interest group meetings, person-to-person sales call to key executives, web sites, and more.

But it all varies according to what you sell, how niche specific your product or service is, or how pervasive your product or service is. Information grazing habits continue to evolve, radically over the past four years. My consulting allows me to see the internal workings of many, varied marketing programs. It constantly amazes me how few of these programs evolve. They are embedded in processes that have shrinking ROI.

Delivering the information in specific venues where you find the higher concentrations of your target audience is your top priority. Knowing where these venues are is not simple. It is, like growth in the market, an incremental and continuous process. Through Edward Deming and others Japanese business leaders evolved the strategy of continuous improvement &Mac246; Kaizen. Kaizen was applied to the Japanese manufacturing process and allowed the Japanese to build a strong industrial base in the 1950s and 1960s.

Government Marketing Best Practices is the continuing result of my studies. It is based partly on my work in the trenches, the research conducted by Market Connections, and reading and watching the world at large.

It is also based on epiphanies, my own and those who share theirs epiphanies with me. In the last 18 months, this newsletter has led to hundreds of emails where people share nuances, ideas, best practices, pet peeves and more with me. I believe epiphanies occur to the proactive, to those who are paying attention, who bother to learn and grow. And epiphanies occur as a result of that growth.

Each time Government Marketing Best Practices occurs, it is different. It changes because every audience brings and often shares relevant experiences. So the sessions change, from day to day, from city to city.

Come join me for this next round. See what occurs to you in this three-hour seminar.

**

As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Mark Amtower

The Amtower B2G Market Report is published and copyrighted by Amtower & Company. It combines our former newsletters into a single, bi-weekly newsletter for companies targeting the government marketplace. Contact us at Amtower & Company, PO Box 339, Ashton, MD 20861-0339 (301-924-0058). This material is copyrighted and may not be duplicated, reprinted or otherwise replicated without written permission of the publisher. EMAIL subscriptions are free by request: sign up at www.FederalDirect.net.


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