In this video interview with me (9 minutes and 30 seconds), Rebecca Geier, a principal and co-founder of TREW Marketing explains the basics of marketing for the scientific and engineering fields.
As I mentioned in my last post, Geier is firm believer in having a plan before starting to market your products or services. “Having that plan and having it very current to the needs of your business is absolutely key,” she says in this interview.
She also says that you need need to be as precise about your marketing as you are in the research and development of your products. Ask yourself: “What are the specifications of your marketing plan?” To arrive at those specs, start with two basic questions:
1. What is your budget?
This will define the scope of what you can accomplish and how you will do it.
2. Who is your primary audience?
This will help you form your central message, and how technical it will be.
When developing that all-important central message, says Geier, try to boil down the product or service you are marketing to the three most important features. Just as with good engineering and product design, simplicity is beautiful.
“The biggest challenge that engineers have is making time for marketing,” says Geier. “The engineers are wearing a lot of hats, they have a lot of deadlines.”
Even so, the payoff for spending the time up front for marketing makes it well worth it for the increased website traffic, sales leads, new business it will bring.
Download Geier and company’s free Smart Marketing Guide for Engineers at http://trewmarketing.com/smartmarketing/index.php.
