The Amtower B2G Market Report

The Amtower B2G Market Report
Volume 3, #11, March 15, 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: Trade Show Booth Training
3) Government Marketing Best Practices Spring 2004 Road Show
4) SmartPay FY 2003 IT Stats
5) One Minute Marketing Clinic: Web Redesign

Amtower Off-Center Observations

It is coming! FOSE looms over Washington and the Federal IT community. For those outside of the IT arena, FOSE is the Federal IT trade show, going now for about 25 years. A year ago, there was major doings (see, http://www.federaldirect.net/offwhite21.html), but there does not seem to be any major battle brewing for this year. I will be there, doing the report from the front lines, hoping that something like the battle of the bags occurs. I am so easily amused, and more easily bored.

The long-awaited GTSI marketing campaign is ready to roll in time for FOSE. The theme is "I rely on GSTI". Is this a slogan, a rallying cry, an attempt to define and defend a position, or the beginning of a branding effort? More to come on this.

A sign things are not going as planned? Equity International may be experiencing attendance downsizing issues for the Homeland Security Summit. "Register two attendees for the price of one. This special is valid today through March 16 and available for corporate, non-profit, think tank, and academic attendees." If it is "two-fer" this week, what will it be next week? But do not forget: "Billions of dollars are now flowing to support homeland security solutions. Don't miss the best homeland security event of the year!" This could be a great event, especially if you do not care for crowds.

Regarding my comments last week on spam: It does not matter if you are Can-Spam compliant or not IF you really irritate someone. THEY decide what they consider spam, and may filter you out, forward your message to the agency web master with their recommendation, or simply hate your guts. Why should they feel any differently about spam than you do when you open your email after having been away for a day and see 300-plus emails downloading from every weenie in both hemispheres?

The Corsec session I referenced last week (covering FIPS 140-2 and Common Criteria) took place a week earlier. Corsec does have the session archived for retrieval. This was my mistake.

The feedback from VAR Wars (Off White Paper 23, http://www.federaldirect.net/offwhite23.html) has run the emotional gamut. The comments have included "love it", "hate it", "it is the funniest thing I have read in weeks" and "it is the least funny thing my lawyer has ever seen", but apparently very few are disputing the facts as presented. This year there will be some winners, some losers, and some whiners. My predictions are predicated on the actions taken or not taken by the companies themselves. If anyone feels as if I am picking scabs, they can judge the accuracy of my predictions simply by looking up at the circling buzzards, then looking down at the gaping wounds in their respective companies.

Not that I have an opinion.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: TRADE SHOW BOOTH TRAINING

As long as I am in a FOSE kind of mood, one of my pet peeves (yes, the list is a little long) is untrained booth personnel: booth personnel who will not make eye contact, who will not initiate conversations, or who otherwise ignore potential customers. Everyone has seen them, tried to get their attention or been one.

David Powell of the Federal Business Council gives his clients a tape by Barry Siskind, "Double Your Trade Show Results Guaranteed". The tape is highlights from his books and presentations on successful exhibiting. I met Siskind several years back when we were both speaking at the Canadian Embassy in Washington to a group of Canadian companies preparing to exhibit at (what a coincidence) FOSE.

Judy Bradt, then at the Embassy, now on her own (www.SummitInsight.com), had a pavilion for several years at FOSE to showcase Canadian companies. But before she let them loose on the show floor, she trained them in various aspects of selling to the government and in what to do and how to act in your booth.

Exhibiting at trade shows is expensive, so the return must be maximized. Training your booth personnel on engaging floor traffic, what questions to ask to ferret out tire kickers and trinket collectors from real prospects, on overall demeanor, is critical to getting any payoff from an event of any size.

If you exhibit anywhere, train your booth staff. If you go to FOSE, or any event where there are exhibits, notice the habits of the proactive versus the passive. Watch a couple of different booths carefully to see how some people bother to interact, while others cringe at the thought of conversations with strangers.

Then ask yourself which company will make the event pay. Then ask which you would like to be.

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!

Over 700 professionals have attended Government Marketing Best Practices since the first session in March, 2002. Register today and find out why!

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

SMARTPAY FY 2003 IT STATS

IT RELATED SALES FOR FY2003 FY03 TOTALS

Category
Computer Networking $53,812,785.57
Computer and Computer Periph $359,923,270.35
Computer Software $134,885,997.65
Computer Programming $46,829,927.04
Computer Maintenance and Repair $35,501,382.66
TOTALS $630,953,363.27

Next week: top SmartPay merchant categories of 2003.

ONE MINUTE MARKETING CLINIC: WEB RE-DESIGN

This falls into the category of "If I had a nickel for every time I heard that". How many times has your company done a "web re-design"? How many times was the re-design initiative driven by techies instead of marketing? How many times was this done because of customer feedback and with customer input?

If your company has had more than one re-design in the past 2 years, pay close attention.

Too many companies do web re-designs predicated on new capabilities that techies want to incorporate into the site. They sell the concept to senior management, bypassing the marketing department. You end up with an expensive flash-laden, junk-filled opening page that 95% of the prospects will skip anyway. Many of those who do not bypass will simply leave when prompted with "You must download the updated version of Flash".

Having technical people, as opposed to marketing people, design the web site will almost guarantee a non-intuitive web site. What web surfers want is an uncluttered site that is easy to navigate and where purchasing is simple. The more Amazon-like, the better.

Web re-design without customer input is tantamount to guaranteeing another re-design in the foreseeable future. According to the Market Connections (www.MarketConnectInc.com) annual study, the web is the first place government buyers go to research products and providers. Make sure you get some customer feedback for any re-design.

You want to see some "good, bad and ugly" web sites? Get yourself to the Government Marketing Best Practices 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.


Site maintained by Dragonfly Design