Stone Junction Guide To Marketing in The Slowdown

.../Table of contents

Executive summary 3‐4

How PR has had to respond to changes in publishing
Executive summary 5
Dealing with the national press 5‐7
Colour separations: The growing demand for payment 7‐10
Top tips on taking advantage of the changes 10‐12

How PR has had to respond to changes in Internet publishing
and Social Media –
Introduction 13‐17
Reputation management in chat‐rooms 18‐20
Top ten free Web 2.0 sites for marketing pros 21‐27

Case studies
Leading opinion: Toshiba Machine’s guide to return on
investment in automation 28‐29
Trusting the message: Cressall Resistors nearly doubles
in size in one year 29‐31

Closing message
It's not a recession yet! Why business should come out
fighting to beat the slowdown. 32‐33
About the author 34

1

.../Executive summary

et me begin by saying this isn’t the first booklet I’ve written about marketing in an
economic slowdown. It may not be the last. This is because slowdowns and
recessions happen on a cyclical basis. This remains true even though our current
economic slowdown is partially the result of trends in US sub‐prime lending, which
one might argue is a discrete element in the global economy, not an indicative factor of overall
health. Nevertheless, you will find that your house is much harder to sell, your energy costs have
increased and your weekly food bill is higher than this time last year. Much more importantly for
B2B marketers, every market survey indicates that your budget is decreasing and the return
expected from it is increasing.
The question is, what should you do about it? As a consumer you can sit tight in your house
before selling, switch your energy provider and make your
weekly shop more efficient. As a business you can do this too;
decreasing your capital expenditure until the bottom line
displays the necessary profit is a legitimate tactic. But as a
marketer you have a harder task. You may well have to
continue to produce the same results, in the form of leads and
sales, despite the overall decision to cut spending. In essence,
you are reading this guide because you want to buck the trend,
beat the market and profit despite the downturn. And you may
have to do it without the benefit of a big budget.

,,,/ Is the economic slowdown
2 effecting your business?

.../Executive summary

So, over the next few pages, I’m going to present some ideas to save you money on your
marketing spend and some ideas to make that spend more efficient.
“Businesses that reduce investment in marketing lose
customers to those that market aggressively. In history,

during lean times, farmers starved rather than eat the crops
they needed for the next year’s seeds. UK industry should

learn from this example when considering marketing
budgets,” Richard Stone.
I mentioned at the start of my introduction that this isn’t the first guide of this kind I’ve
produced. Well, in one I put together in 2002, I wrote, “Businesses that reduce investment in
marketing lose customers to those that market aggressively. In history, during lean times,
farmers starved rather than eat the crops they needed for the next year’s seeds. UK industry
should learn from this example when considering marketing budgets.” I stand by those words
today.
.../Richard Stone, managing director, Stone Junction, 2008
3

.../Responding to publishing— The nationals

hen one considers the effect of the economy on publishing over the
last few years, one has to address four primary areas; the trade,
online, regional/local and national media. I will be dealing with the
online press separately, in my next chapter. The changes in that
sector have been so all encompassing since 2000, the year that I regard as the dawn of online
trade publishing for the engineering sector, that it merits a discrete section. In this chapter, I will
first look at approaching the national and regional or local press, then the question of colour
separations in the trade press. I will conclude with a number of ‘top tips’ for targeting any media,
but ones that will work particularly well with the engineering or technology trade medias.
The national and regional media
I come across a lot of engineering and technology businesses that believe that the national and
regional press isn’t a significant target for them. I would argue that this is generally not the case,
although there are always exceptions; very, very small niche businesses might only find this kind
of activity useful for recruitment purposes for example. However, if you decide that you want to
include the nationals and regionals in your PR strategy, there is a big problem to overcome.
This problem was highlighted by Hartmut Pannen, the newly appointed managing director of
Trumpf's UK recently. He told industry Web site ManufacturingTalk that he had toured some 100
UK companies that have sheet‐metal working shops in early 2008. He said he was astounded by
the innovative equipment in use; also, that much of the equipment seen was (cont. overleaf)
4

.../Responding to publishing— The nationals

under five years' old. He added he was also
impressed by these companies' enthusiasm for
getting things done. What Pannen could not
understand was why none of this news was
being published in the UK's national media. As
a PRO working in manufacturing I can
wholeheartedly reaffirm Pannen’s comment.
The coverage of manufacturing and
engineering in the dailies is very poor.
This is in part to due to the declining role that ,,,/ Has technical coverage in the nationals and
regionals come to a halt?
manufacturing pays in contributing to the
national economy. Clearly, if you are a British, listed manufacturer, significant because of your
share price, it’s easy enough to get coverage. However, it’s slightly harder to get clippings that
mention both the share price and the technology, although there are plenty of companies that
do – Renishaw and the 600 Group for instance both do a great job.
Of course, because you are then addressing newspapers that aren’t exclusively about
manufacturing, the number of engineers reading them is far fewer than they would have been on
a trade magazine or, say, the old FT technology page. That said Peter Marsh, the FT’s engineering
correspondent, still does a great job of including case studies from all sorts of manufacturers as
5
.../Responding to publishing— colour separations
‘contextualising’ pieces. However, the crux of the issue is that although the percentage is smaller,
the number is probably higher and the buying power of the readers may well be high; they are
more likely to be board members and senior staff. Depending on your product or service, this can
be either beneficial or disadvantageous. Your argument can also be significant, after all, there are
plenty of products where the buying chain includes both shop floor staff and senior people.
Ultimately, there are opportunities for national coverage for everyone involved in Manufacturing
‐ listed or not. It’s just that they are far more limited now than ever before. It takes a real nose
for them, you have to dig out every column that could cover engineering and address them
persistently. The first step would be to read the top five tips at the end of this article and act on
them consistently.
nce you move from the national and regional media to the trade press,
things change. Immediately you are dealing with a group of journals written
specifically for your sector; so your company becomes more interesting to
them and you have to work less hard to generate coverage. However, the
magazines themselves suffer from the increasing costs of publishing and decreasing advertising
budgets. In times like these, journalists look for the best stories, the most incendiary copy and
the most outrageous opinion pieces to keep the readership high. Sometimes though, it doesn’t
seem that this is the case when you are bombarded with requests for payment in exchange for
running your editorial.
6


As a public relations junkie, sorry practitioner,
I’m often approached by firms who want to
generate publicity for their products or services
but have become tired of issuing press material
only to be confronted by a request for payment
before it is used.
The question of whether or not colour
separations are a good thing is a thorny one.
Readers would give a magazine more credence
and ultimately it would be able to charge higher
rates for its advertising if it didn’t publish colour
,,,/ Companies question why they put releases out at
separations. As a result, it wouldn’t then have to all if they are only to met with colour separations?
charge colour separations for editorial! However, I’m not here to argue with the business case of
individual magazines – I’m sure they have a better understanding of their business models than I
do. I know, and have worked for, plenty of businesses that use colour separations as a legitimate
part of their PR strategy, including firms like Megger, WF Electrical and Aerotech.
However, that leaves plenty of businesses out there facing the dilemma of what to do if they
can’t get publicity without paying colour separation requests. It may be that they simply can’t
afford to pay the colour separations or they might feel that the quality of coverage the seps
7
generate is low, or the response rates are insignificant. Irrespective of reasoning, there are
measures you can take to help your releases attract the attention of journalists not salesmen.
Tips for beating the colour separations trap
 Make it interesting: The main reason a journalist will not run the material you send them in
the news or features pages for free is that it isn’t interesting enough. The best thing you
can do is make sure that your press releases aren’t short adverts for your company but
rather news stories you could envisage one of your customers actually reading. If you then
address the right magazine, you have a good chance of being published.
 Target the magazine individually: It’s much better to generate one really strong piece of
well targeted coverage than several poor quality pieces of badly targeted press. To this end,
read the magazines you want to appear in and make sure the copy you send them is
appropriate to their readership.
 Tackle every opportunity in the magazine: You should be producing news for the news
pages, features for the features pages and letters for the letters pages ‐ and so on. Don’t
simply presume that a press release about your new widget will be perfect for the front
cover. Instead find a home for it in the right part of the right magazine.
 Finally, as a caveat, advertise. Most magazines that charge to run editorial do so because
they can’t generate enough revenue through advertising. By choosing the right magazines
for your advertising spend, no matter how small it is, you will find that the magazine is
much healthier when you come target it via PR. This doesn’t mean that, by advertising, you
8
.../Responding to publishing— Top five tips
gain the right to appear in the news pages ‐ merely that those news pages will still be there
when you have the right story for them!
s we have discussed, the PR landscape has changed. Once upon a time, all you
had to do to get coverage for a technology product was write a press release
and send it to your favourite trade press contacts. Then, bingo, rivers of
coverage would flow in, mountains of media would spring up and you would
have to hire another warehouse to put the sales enquiries in. But trade magazines have grown
increasingly thinner and
more and more pages are
devoted to paid for adver‐
torial or colour separa‐
tions. So how, in this
changed landscape should
one continue to generate
coverage? Well, here are
Stone Junctions top tips:
.../ Businesses are increasingly looking for
new ways to generate press coverage.
1. MAKE IT SPECIFIC: I’ve seen lots of news stories that are relevant to multiple sectors. Take
for instance the launch of a new industrial robot or actuator. It could find a home in the
design, packaging, pharmaceutical, general manufacturing, plastics, electronics, automotive
9


design, food processing or logistics media. But the vast majority of PR people just put the
story out in one version, making their product look like a jack of all trades and master of
none. Naturally, this will be less interesting to a specialist journalist than something that
specifically address his specialism. It only takes a little effort to produce different versions
of a story for different media.
2. LOOK BEYOND THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Where else could your press material be used?
Direct to customer social networking sites, Blogs, online newsletters, industry Web sites,
news sites and RSS feeds from your own Web site are amongst the possibilities.
3. TURN NEWS DELIVERY INTO CONTENT CREATION: Once you have eked every ounce of
media coverage out of your material, re‐purpose it as Web content for your own site,
newsletter content for customers, staff magazine content or e‐mail marketing material.
4. GET THE MOST FROM EVERY STORY: Most people look at a single event and see a single
story. Take a product launch for instance – you could just knock out a product press
release. However, there might be more there. Was the product developed in response to
legislative demand for instance? If so, there is almost always an opinion piece in there
some where, just waiting to be drawn out. There might be a letters campaign on the
efficacy of that particular piece of legislation or set of regulations. Maybe the product was
developed in an unusual way or by a unique individual? Could there be a story there for
10
the design press? Or a regional press release targeting the area the developer came
from? How about profile work for the business press?

5. MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE: If I had a pound for every PR tactic I’ve seen left half
done when its originator moves on to soon I would be rich. So rich in fact, I would barely
need to write this guide. However, there is a serious point. If you don’t measure the
success of an activity, you can’t tell if the results are commensurate with the power of the
original idea. Good measurement will tell you if any ideas should be re‐visited to generate
the extra column inches they deserve.
My last tip is simple – invest. A public relations campaign is an investment in the reputation of
your company. As a result, invest your time, the time of your staff if needed and sufficient budget
to make it work. If you are doing it in house but not getting results, maybe it’s time to hire an
agency. If you are using an agency that isn’t getting the results you expect, talk to them about
why it’s not happening. If it’s a budgetary issue, you might find a few more agency hours or a
little more attention from you makes the difference. And, of course, if it doesn’t, you’ve got my
phone number.
11

.../Responding to the Internet & Social media

recent survey established that 93.2% of people making B2B buying decisions
go online to research their purchases*. Furthermore, I personally haven’t
bought a newspaper for months. Actually, that’s a lie. I work in PR, so I at least
scan most of the nationals everyday. But as a believable statement it’s not
bad. How many people do you know who could easily do their jobs without getting newsprint on
their fingers? Working in technology PR, I meet software engineers who could get by with
Silicon.com and The Register alone. And Blogs of course, we would all die without Blogs now
wouldn’t we?
This creates an interesting problem for B2B media relations
specialists. We know we must continue to address the
trade, national and regional print media and take advantage
of the growing influence of the online media. After all,
decision‐making is a highly complex process and the print
media remains part of it. A range of factors can influence
how we buy on a B2B level, from the number of people
involved in the decision to how close to the point of
purchase we are.
We also have to consider what kind of buyer we are selling to .../ For too long, companies have
struggled to understand the changes in
(visionary, mass market etc), what level of education they have,
12
*From The Role of Search in Business‐to‐Business Buying Decisions by Enquiro.


knowledge of the product and any factors unique to the commercial sector. To have any
influence through media relations requires some serious thought about how these factors can be
effected by our efforts with the print and online media.
When we decide which media to address with which message, we should consider how the
customer group interacts with that media, if at all. To address the entire spectrum of the decision
we need the print and online media. But each serves a different purpose at a different stage and
requires different tactics and content. This is true not only because some of the people working
on these sites have different agendas but also because the medium on which they publish is
fundamentally different
Today a good campaign has
different pro‐active and re‐active
strategies for influencing the
online and print media and in turn
influencing their readers. As its
foundation this involves providing
the right content to attract
professional and influential
.../ The way we communicate with the online press is non‐professional‐communicators
fundamentally different
who work in the online media. By
13


non‐professional communicators I mean both Bloggers and administrators of genuine online
communities. These online communities could simply be news groups; Engineeringtalk’s UKEPR
(United Kingdom Engineering Public Relations) community for technology PR practitioners is one
such group. Alternatively, they might be groups of people referring to a single point of informa‐
tion when making buying decisions. In the food and pharmaceutical industries a good example is
RSSL’s (Reading Scientific Services Limited) e‐mail newsletter service. This appears to be impartial
and doesn’t feature extensive news from the company itself, instead focusing on news from the
industries it serves. In doing so it has established itself as a sufficiently influential point of refer‐
ence that, as a PR person, I am often referred to it by clients who perceive it to be a media outlet
like any other.

“As Blogs become more and more influential, particularly
over early adopters and visionary customers, good PROs
adapt their techniques to approach Bloggers.”

As Blogs become more and more influential, particularly over early adopters and visionary cus‐
tomers, good PROs adapt their techniques to approach Bloggers. A straightforward product press
release isn’t going to be all that effective, indeed many Bloggers will regard a traditional elevator
pitch sell‐in as ‘too‐professional‘. Many will not be available during working hours because, for
many, Blogging is a hobby.
Bloggers love their subjects and are inspired by them, so the best way to communicate is with
passion. You need to share the passion and be able to discuss honestly your client’s relationship
14


to the rest of the market. If it’s a technology Blog it helps to provide products for evaluation, just
as one would with a consumer technology magazine. It is also well worth remembering that the
coverage you obtain isn’t going to remain at the top of the Blog for long, so it will be of value to
your client to suggest ways of maximising its value while it is there.
In contrast, many other online communities are run as
marketing tools. The two organisations I mentioned above,
Engineeringtalk and RSSL aren’t charities. They are profit‐making
companies who, very intelligently, incorporate a community
creation element into their marketing plans. And because the
plan is working, for both of them, it will always be difficult to
.../ Stone Junction has ad‐
convince them to incorporate PR material into it. However,
dressed the online press as a
because it is a marketing plan, offering them something to further speciality from day one
that plan, in the shape of material that is genuinely useful to
their online communities, should be a compelling proposal.
Once we have attracted the journalist, Blogger or community administrator we must ensure our
content is optimised in such a way that it is influential to our two online audiences ‐ readers and
search engines. The key to attracting the former is interactivity, either literally, in the form of
downloads, or intellectually, in the form of useful information that will get repeated. The same
research that tells me that 93.2% of buying decisions are researched online also states that 36.8%
15


are researched and completed online. Given that many purchases can’t be completed online, this
suggests that a significant proportion of those that can be, are. This is all the more reason to
ensure our online content is as interactive as possible ‐ to help complete the buying cycle by
drawing the reader to your Web site.
One method of attracting our other audience, search engines, is including embedded links in
press material, although these are unpopular with some news sites. Another is phrasing and
constructing content in a way that can be easily found in a search. Distribution is the third
factor ‐ most PROs are used to selling in stories verbally or e‐mailing or posting them to
journalists. Some of us are even old enough or specialised enough to remember sending faxes.
However, when we have gone to the trouble of creating our embedded links, we would be wise
to consider e‐mail distribution mechanisms that don’t remove them as part of the distribution
process. When writing this article, I spoke to five leading media databases that feature e‐mail
functionality and three said that their mechanism would remove an embedded link.
However, if we do manage to get the
embedded link featured in our coverage
(evaluation metrics anyone?) and our
coverage featured in the right place and our
clients stakeholders reading it, we can put our
feet up. The job is well done and it’s time to read the paper ‐ something I haven’t done for ages.
16


.../ Reputation management in chat rooms
any of you may know I enjoy shooting my mouth off every now and
again, particularly in the virtual world of the Inter‐Super‐Highway,
where no one can really challenge you. Or can they?
I’ve recently encountered a number of instances where a reputation, either mine or my clients,
has needed some delicate online handling. One instance was a reference to me on a PR industry
Blog called TheWorldsLeading. The author had taken exception to a post on my own Blog, where
I argued that the business world needs more people to act like rock stars. There is more to the
argument, read it at www.stone‐junction.blogspot.com if you want, but it’s not essential.

“Many of you may know I enjoy shooting my mouth off

every now and again, particularly in the virtual world of the
Inter‐Super‐Highway, where no one can really challenge you.

Or can they?”

Without going into the debate that then ensued on TheWorldsLeading, there was a decision to
make. Should I post on the Blog where I had been criticised, justifying my original argument, or
just ignore it on the basis that probably very few people would come across it? I felt that the
former option was the braver, and so that’s what I did. The end result was a short debate with
the Blog’s author, during which we finally agreed that certain creative principles were
fundamental to business but that not enough people actually employ those principles any longer.
17


I felt that the right step was to stick my head above the parapet and in the end this was probably
justified.

.../ Most visitors to online chat‐rooms, forums, Blogs and other sites that accept
comments will now stop and question the motives of the OP (original poster), making
transparency essential for PR professionals

Another instance arose recently with a client, an online retailer of mobile phones called mPhone.
A poster, on the message boards of the Web site MoneySavingExpert.com, asked whether it was
a good idea to buy from the client. Now, as many of you may know, there is a serious ethical
issue with PR people posting things online about their own customers. At present, it’s frowned
upon to not disclose who you are and your relationship to the client. There are moves afoot to
introduce European legislation to stop non transparent posting happening at all. So, I duly
reported the posting to my client and left a message, disclosing who I was and pointing the user
to a series of testimonials on the mPhone Web site. It would probably have guaranteed my client
more sales if I had registered a number of different user names and left messages saying how
great the client was. But, it wouldn’t have been ethical.
18


Ultimately this kind of management is not governed only by the ethics of the person enacting it.
There are moves afoot to have anyone with a commercial interest to disclose their identity when
they appear on Blogs, chat rooms, forums or social networking sites. The move has been
prompted by a number of gaffs made by large UK PR agencies and their clients, which I wont
discuss here. The two examples I’ve used here are deliberately low level—they both illustrate
that fundamental human character traits like bravery, honesty and integrity are the cornerstones
on which online reputation management are built. So, if, like me, you ever feel like shooting your
mouth off online, feel free. Just remember those two basic points.
.../ For a chat about your PR with Stone Junction, e‐mail Richards@stonejunction.co.uk
19


Web 2.0 — is it all worth it?
ne question I’m often asked is, ‘is this Web 2.0 and social media lark actually
worth bothering with for a small engineering firm?’ I think the answer is
that it soon will be. And, for the moment, many of the applications that
have resulted from the Web 2.0 phenomenon certainly are. As you’ve
probably already guessed, I'm something of a fan of lists, so I’ve produced another one—my top
ten favourite Web 2.0 applications. My definition of Web 2.0 here is a site that wouldn’t have
been possible had it not been for the mass take up of broadband allowing enhanced services to
be delivered easily. Naturally, I’ve focused on usefulness for marketeers. Contentiously, there is
no Digg, Del.ici.ous or any other tagging site in this list!
.../ My top ten Web 2.0 sites for marketing professionals
1. Blogger & Wordpress: I would be the first to concede that number one in my list is actually
two Web sites! However, both serve similar functions. Both sites allow you to build Blogs in
seconds, with Blogger being the best option for someone new to the concept. It features free
20


hosting and domain names (although all the domains will be .blogger.com) and doesn't require
any downloads. In contrast, Wordpress, offers much more functionality but requires external
hosting. The advantage is that you can make your Blog look like a regular Web site, making it
much easier to apply corporate standards. (www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.org.)
Main marketing uses: Creating Blogs, developing online press offices and news rooms,
establishing simple and quick micro sites, creating advertising download centres and putting up
quick and simple crisis management centres.

“Sadly, like most Web 2.0 applications, a number of
the sites on this list seem to think that vowels are an

irrelevancy when developing a brand name (see Flickr,
M.gnolia, Frappr)!”

2. Stock.xchng: If you have ever found yourself trying to find stock images for your Web site,
press releases or brochure without paying a fortune, then you need Stock.xchng. Sadly, like a
number of the sites in this list, it seems to think that vowels are an irrelevancy when developing a
brand name (see Flickr, M.gnolia, Frappr). However, it’s functionality by far outweighs the
annoyance factor of not being able to write the name easily. Thousands of free, or very cheap,
stock images make choosing an illustration easy and cost effective. ( www.sxc.hu.)
Main marketing uses: Finding free stock images, finding very cheap stock images
21


3. MailBigFile: A godsend for advertisers and exhibition managers, MailBigFile allows the user
to send large files anywhere in the world easily. Even better, while the uploads can take a while,
the downloads take seconds, making it easy for whoever you are sending the image to. Unlike
the majority of these sites MailBigFile isn’t entirely free. Users can send any file up to 100mg for
nothing, but sending a larger file than that requires an
account. That said, the accounts are inexpensive and
good value. (www.mailbigfile.com.)
Main marketing uses: Trafficking advertisements,
sending material to printers and sharing design work
with distributors, integrators and other partners.
4. Google analytics: A great way of adding visitor
tracking functionality to your Web site or Blog for free,
Google Analytics provides an in depth monitoring
.../ Mailbigfile users have to go the post
facility better than most of those provided by Web design box less frequently. Which is surely a
good thing. Unless you need the exercise.
firms. Ideal for combining with Blogger or Wordpress
(above), the function also works well with Google AdWords and other pay per click campaigns.
Main marketing uses: Web and Blog traffic monitoring . Also useful for monitoring traffic
generated via e‐mail marketing campaigns.
22


5. Wikipedia: An obvious choice I know, and perhaps not technically Web 2.0, but still an
essential entry on this list. As well as its research possibilities, Wikipedia offers the opportunity to
promote the benefits of a particular technology (although not normally the supplier of that
technology) . However, if you sell stepper motors for instance and want to publicise their benefits
over alternative solutions, this is a valid use of the site. It must be stressed though that it would
be unethical and pointless to put up specifically promotional material relating to your company—
Wikipedia would simply take it down! Having said that, if you happen to be the only supplier in
the UK of a particular generic technology... (www.wikipedia.org.)
Main marketing uses: Research, promoting generic technologies.
6. Linkedin.com: It would be foolhardy to not include a social networking utility in my top
ten Web 2.0 sites. (For those who don't already know, a social networking utility allows the user
to create an online ‘profile’ and make ‘friends’ with other people who have profiles. Normally,
these people are individuals you know in the real world, or their contacts.) My feeling is that
Facebook and MySpace are both great for consumer marketing but don’t serve much purpose in
the B2B space. As a result, I’ve opted for the specifically B2B LinkedIn. At present, there isn’t a
service analogous to the Facebook advertising function. However, there are plenty of groups,
Q&A opportunities and, of course, the fundamental reason for the site: introductions.
I’ve spoken to plenty of LinkedIn users who say it’s a waste of time. However, as a general rule,
23
these people haven’t developed many links and, crucially, they never ask their contacts to in‐
troduce them to third parties. If you want to use LinkedIn for business, these two activities are
essential.
Main marketing uses: Creating groups of existing contacts, promoting your company’s skills and
products, making new contacts.
7. Youtube: The, now infamously,
Google owned video hosting site wins
its space by providing something quite
expensive, hosting space, for free. If
you are running a Web site or Blog, you
can host your videos on YouTube and
display them on your site easily. This
saves time and hosting space, which you
.../ YouTube makes video hosting easy, so you are
don’t have to pay for as a result. less likely to need to keep big rolls of film in your
office. Very common in the old days, apparently.

Furthermore, there are additional marketing benefits to YouTube, which may not be immediately
obvious. As well as creating the potential for viral marketing (which can be done for industrial
companies—just look at epMotion—http://www.eppendorf.com/int/hawkpopup.php?
contentid=13) it will also have an impact on Google’s video search function, when this is
24


introduced. As a result, all of your videos tagged ‘widget’ will come up in Google’s search
function when your potential customers type ‘widget’. (www.youtube.co.uk.)
Main marketing uses: Free video hosting, viral marketing, improved SEO

.../ For a chat about your PR , e‐mail richards@stonejunction.co.uk

8. Flickr: As well as providing a handy photo hosting function, in the same way as Web
shots.com and Photobucket, Flickr can also act as a useful PR tool. It’s the most prominent of the
photo hosting sites and, as such, the one most likely to be used by journalists and potential
customers. By ensuring that your profile and images are tagged correctly, you can generate
welcome click‐throughs to your Web site and, potentially, further custom. Furthermore, the
photos can be automatically shared with interested third parties. You can also use Flickr to create
useful online galleries that work in conjunction with your Blooger account. (www.flickr.com.)
Main marketing uses: Photo and advertisement hosting, managing your online profile, PR
25


9. Ning: Ning.com allows its users to create instant online social networks. Like Blogger and
Wordpress, there is a clear opportunity to use Ning.com to create online press offices and
marketing micro sites. However, one might argue that the real benefit could be for companies
whose products are truly cutting edge, IT focused or grounded in an environmental argument. By
creating an information site that gives visitors the opportunity to become members, the host
creates the opportunity for product evangelists to network and share information. The downside
is that Ning sites automatically feature Google AdSense , which provide income for Ning not the
site owner. These can be removed, at a cost of around ten pounds a month. (www.ning.com.)
Main marketing uses: Creating networks of product evangelists, responding to common technical
questions from users, creating online press offices and marketing sites.
10. Vertical Response: My final choice for this list is a entirely profit making venture—with
none of the .org pretences found among the Web 2.0 cognoscenti like Wikipedia and Wordpress.
However, it’s so useful it demands a mention . Vertical Response allows the user to create and
manage e‐mail campaigns online and demands little or no experience to use. That said, the best
results are definitely generated by someone with a little bit of graphical nous and some writing
skills. Vertical Response is cheap and cost effective, a rare combination in my experience, and
ideal for an e‐mail marketing novice. (www.verticalresponse.com.)
Main marketing uses: Straightforward e‐mail marketing
26

.../Case studies from Stone Junction

Leading opinion: Toshiba Machine’s guide to return on investment in automation

M Robotics has been growing consistently as a force in the industrial robot
market across Europe since its inception in 2000, when current MD Nigel Smith
set up the company to act as the European sales partner for Toshiba Machine.
The last two years have bought particularly concentrated levels of expansion,
with a large increase in the number of robots sold each year, both in the UK and across the
continent. The company has worked with Richard Stone; the MD of Stone Junction for most of its
lifespan, becoming a Stone Junction client a few months after the PR agency was established in
early 2006.
However, as TM Robotics' contribution to
the industrial robot market improves, so
must its marketing efforts and 2008 has
been a year of increased activity so far. The
company has attended both the
Automatica and CeMAT trade shows,
increased its direct marketing efforts and
launched several new products. The crux
.../ Toshiba Machine robots in use at a high profile
of the campaign has been to encourage
drop testing application
customers to request promotional CDs, which feature details of a key product. This campaign has
been trailed in advertising materials as well as PR and was the central tactic at the trade shows.
27


Stone Junction has supplied a successful PR campaign in 2008, with coverage appearing in twenty
five different trade publications and on countless industry Web sites. It has also provided graphic
and new media design work for advertising, trade shows and interactive content. This has
included graphics boards for exhibition work, interactive video CDs, a new brochure and a series
of adverts all produced in English and German.
The overall response has been outstanding, with several hundred promotional CDs despatched to
customers already. Nigel Smith, managing director of TM Robotics said, "The campaign has
dovetailed together very effectively, with both creative ideas and Toshiba Machine's corporate
style working in unison in all of the visual material, while the tactics intended to generate leads
have worked well."
Trusting the message: Cressall Resistors nearly doubles in size in one year

ressall Resistors began work with Stone Junction at the beginning of March
2006. The UK manufacturer of power resistors had an unusual challenge that it
wanted to address through PR.
In February 2006 Cressall had been acquired by Telema SpA of Italy through its British subsidiary TPR

28


Resistors. This brought together the UK’s two largest resistor technology companies. However, the
two businesses’ customers appreciated their chosen supplier for different reasons. TPR Resistors
was a small and agile outfit that could bring the best design and integration advice to its customers.
Meanwhile Cressall was a larger firm that was able to offer the advantages that go hand in hand
with a long established business.
The PR challenge was
to assure both sets of
customers that they
would continue to
receive the service they
had come to appreciate
from their chosen
supplier. In addition, as
.../ Cressall Resistors equipment in use at a high
a result of the two businesses merging, profile crane application
customers would have access to the best of both worlds. Of course, this needed to be achieved
while also encouraging new sales and compelling potential employees to apply.
The PR campaign was formulated to contain a balance of business news, case studies, face to face
journalist meetings, product news, opinion pieces, letters and features contributions. In addition,
Stone Junction prepared a crisis plan in case to mitigate for any negative publicity and suggested a
29


course of direct communication with customers to be carried out in house. A measurement metric
was put in place that focused on advertising value equivalent (AVE) as a way of comparing efficacy
month by month and key message measurement. The cornerstone message in the latter part of the
process was the concept of trust between supplier and end user.
A return on investment of 663% was produced in AVE and the cornerstone message appeared 11
times in print media coverage. This included five different full page articles. There were also 32
online clippings, not included in the AVE comparison. By the end of 2006 Cressall Resistors had
outperformed its own financial targets by 14% against budget, with an order book for 2007 that was
up by 37% and a 2006 turnover that was nearly 20% larger than pre‐merger TPR and Cressall
combined.
.../ To improve your marketing and PR, in the same way that TM Robotics
and Cressall Resistors have, contact Richard Stone on 020 8699 7743

30

.../Closing message

It's not a recession yet! Why business should come out fighting to beat the slowdown!

hen the economic odds are stacked up against you, there are really
only two options. The first is to retrench; cut costs wherever you can
and simply outlive the negative economic environment. The second
is to come out fighting, to communicate the benefits you offer and to
win as much sustainable business as possible. I’m offering you the chance to do the latter – by
requesting a complementary initial PR consultation now.
The PR services offered by Stone
Junction represent a way of
talking to your customers through
a media that they trust. Your
customers all read the trade press,
the local press and the national
media and they are all influenced
by them. In a slow economic
environment, people with
purchasing authority turn to
.../ It’s not a recession just yet, although it may well
authoritative sources like these to
become one! The time is right to, prudently, invest in
help with decision making. If you marketing. Those that do will come out of the
slowdown ahead of their competitors.
31

.../Closing message

aren’t in the media, your ability to influence those decisions is reduced.
Early this year there were signs in the press that engineering was going to be the industry least
touched by the slowdown. However, since then there has been a lot of talk about recession,
stagflation and rising costs. The fact remains that there hasn’t been a recession just yet. There
has only been one quarter of negative growth, not the two consecutive quarters required for us
to be in recession. In plain English, the economy has grown for the last twelve months but it
hasn’t grown enough to satisfy us – hence all the talk of the economic slowdown.
So, if the current rate of growth in your business isn’t enough to satisfy you, it’s time to come out
fighting. You need to make your public aware of what you have to offer, you have to reinforce in
their minds your status as a thought leader and you have to positively position yourselves against
your competition. An economic slowdown is a time for action, so contact Stone Junction now on
0208 699 7743 or e‐mail richards@stonejunction.co.uk.
As I said at the start of my introduction this isn’t the first guide of this kind I’ve produced. I
mentioned a quote from 2002; “Businesses that reduce investment in marketing lose customers
to those that market aggressively. In history, during lean times, farmers starved rather than eat
the crops they needed for the next year’s seeds. UK industry should learn from this example
when considering marketing budgets.” I still stand by those words, writing this guide has only
convinced me further.
32

.../Closing message

About the author
ichard Stone established Stone
Junction, a London based PR and
strategic communications firm, in
2006. His previous experience includes
PR campaigns for SKF, WorldCom, Roche, Arup, CIENA,
AIT Plc and Toshiba Machine. Stone Junction offers the
tactics and techniques to drive sales and lead opinion.
Specialising in engineering, telecoms and information
technology, services include trade, online and national
PR, copy writing, e‐mail marketing and Web content
.../ A photo of me, taken a while ago,
when I was a bit younger and slimmer ;‐)
optimisation.
Contact details:
Tel: 020 8699 7743
Mob: 07980 223493
E‐mail: richards@stonejunction.co.ukl
Web: www.stonejunction.co.uk
.../Richard Stone, managing director, Stone Junction, 2008
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Stone Junction Guide To Marketing in The Slowdown

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