Battle of the Consultants

A fews years ago Big Sky Economic Development Association in Billings, Montana was trying to determine the best solution for generating qualified prospects. They researched and reviewed proposals from several economic development consulting firms and narrowed their choice down to two:

The Big Sky EDA could not decide which one to use, so they did the best thing they could think of - they chose both. They decided to use both consulting firms and methods in order to determine which would work best. They split their marketing budget for the year between EDM and the other consulting firm. They figured the proof would be in who generated the highest quantity of the highest quality prospects during the year.

The results were as follows:

What method did EDM use to accomplish these results?

Target Market Identification

After a critical analysis by EDM, it was concluded that specific types of manufacturers in California should be the prime target for recruiting. The message was determined to be: A Quality of Life at an Affordable Price.

The conclusions were based on the following facts:

A. California is over-regulated and overpriced.

B. Quality of life is important to companies who need to attract highly qualified people.

C. New technology and telecommunications have created unprecedented economic opportunities…People can live, work, get information and buy things from anywhere they wish.

D. Billings Montana has a quality of life at an affordable price, a highly educated workforce, and the amenities necessary to attract highly qualified people.

Multi-Channel Marketing

EDM decided to develop and implement a carefully crafted multi-channel marketing campaign consisting of Direct Mail, Email, Web and Telemarketing.

The question is how best to get your message to your target audience. In today's world, business owners and key decision-makers are flooded with marketing materials.

A creative marketing campaign is needed in order to get the attention of the right people. Your message has to convey a dramatic difference between your community and the others your target industries will consider. It's the message that's important and it's the message that motivates people.

Studies have proven:

A: The most successful marketing campaigns are the ones that reach your target audience in a sequenced and consistent manner. Sequencing communications and "hitting" your prospective client with a consistent message through multiple channels greatly increases the effectiveness of a marketing campaign.

B: Using visual images with text is a much more effective method of presenting your community as a place where people would want to live, work, shop, and play.

C: Response rates increase dramatically with an increase in the number of personalized elements.

D: A research study by AMR Research, which provides independent analysis and actionable advice to more than 5,000 supply chain and technology executives worldwide, demonstrated that companies which followed e-mails with other direct communications realized an increase of 5-10% in their response rates. This same study verified some organizations had increases of 15% or more. This increase in response rates is due significantly to the "multiplier effect", which is the use of multiple media channels implemented in a coordinated effort.

E: Global companies like Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Fed-Ex and others have proven to be very successful in building customer relations, by integrating communications across multiple channels into their marketing campaigns.

One part of EDM's multi-channel marketing strategy was to use permission-based e-mail to convey their message. Knowing that studies have proven using visual images with text is the most effective method of presenting a community, we developed an electronic brochure. This e-brochure also enhances the telemarketing campaign, since people often ask, "Can you send me something?". We then ask for their e-mail address, send the electronic brochure immediately and, in most cases, they receive it while we are speaking with them.

Conclusion:

Is this to say the other consulting firm never produces results? No, if that were the case they would not be in business. Does this mean that EDM by iGroups produces these results for EVERY client. No, but iGroups has produced these kinds of results for MANY clients.

You may see sales literature or hear about how one marketing approach is better than the other. It is just very interesting to see the results of a battle between two consultants with competing philosophies and approaches going head to head on the same project. We were very proud of the results we produced for our client during this competition.

Testimonial:

"After 3 years of attempting to do business recruitment through traditional channels - consulting firms that would send lists of companies they determined were thinking of expansion or relocation within the next 18 months and us weeding through and attempting to call them ourselves - we began talking with iGroups in California. iGroups is different in that they truly "qualify" companies they refer to us. Rather than send us a list of names and telephone numbers, we receive a select list of companies that have expressed a specific interest in our area and in moving or expanding their businesses to our area. We also like the idea that we can determine whether or not a company is qualified based on our conversations with them rather than iGroups "telling" us it's a qualified company. We are extremely happy with iGroups and have not only renewed our contract with them but have expanded it to include additional recruitment areas and industries."


Linda L. Beck
Director of Business Outreach & Recruitment
Big Sky EDA
www.bigskyedc.org

Donald Flor
Economic Development Marketing (EDM)
(800) 595-7052 (619) 585-7052

flor@econdevmarketing.com
www.Econdevmarketing.com