“Non-Transactional Marketing” – Marketing That Generates Credibility and Results

I have met many marketing and PR professionals who are what I would call “transactional.” This means that they feel there has to be some kind of obvious transaction that occurs in order for them to feel they have accomplished something. Examples of a transactional approach would be:

·        Write a press release and contact an editor with that release

·        Create and ad and have that ad run in some type of media

The result of these types of approaches is usually waiting for a phone to ring with results that won’t come. Today’s marketing environment requires a consistent non-transactional approach that then makes the tactical / transactional programs more effective.

Here is how one scenario mentioned in the bullet points above might play out in a non-transactional approach.

Press Release:

·        Research the competitive and the editorial landscape and identify the trends that relate to the next press release.

·        Prior to the release, establish a relationship with several editors and analyst that the release would target. Initiate some dialogue with these contacts, asking them questions about their perception of the market (what they see as significant, not significant etc). Do not pitch anything, just talk, if your company or product comes up in conversation, ask their opinion of it.

·        Write the press release with the trend included as the theme throughout the release.

·        Identify an industry influencer that can be quoted in the release to validate the product and the trend

·        Put the press release out using social media tags (using PRWeb)

·        Create a customized media outreach strategy, initially targeting the 5 or so editors you initiated conversations with. Send then the release with comments from those conversations included in the accompanying email pitch, and maybe include how they influenced the tone of the release. The secondary part of the customized media outreach is identifying the top 10 – 20 editors and customizing the pitch to each based on what they have recently written about.

Now this is a lot more effort, but believe it or not your efficiency just exponentially increased. What do you think the chances are that one if not several of those 5 editors you initially engaged with will write something? The top 20 editors will be more engaged to write something now too… you made their job easier by pointing out the relevancy to their current set of articles. So if they don’t write now they will in the future. Also, you now have an influencer on board who is impressed with the release content, tone and strategy.

I won’t go into the same detail for the ad, but you get the point. The ad needs to take the same research driven approach. Also the ad should be tied into a full marketing and communications campaign and should never stand alone, but be part of a holistic cross platform marketing program.

If you are thinking “I just need to get this release/ad done and out,” then you are in transactional thinking. Step back and get into the strategy and have those transactions fall out of that well though out strategy.