With holiday air travelers expected in record numbers this year, airlines are running extra flights, stocking additional personnel, and with the help of President Bush, using  military airspace along the east coast as an “express lane” for holiday travelers.  With Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) complete ban of carry-on liquids lifted, and other restrictions relaxed, security checkpoints are running a little more smoothly than they have in recent months.  

I know that many of us travel extensively throughout the year.  We’re all too familiar with the rules and regulations that accompany air travel; walking barefoot through security, ensuring our laptops are out of their cases, and when necessary, enduring the one-on-one personal search.   Although these measures may make our lives uncomfortable for a moment, the safety and security they provide are well worth the additional hassle. 

TSA currently requires that all airline-checked luggage remain unlocked.  Many travelers cringe at the thought of keeping their luggage unlocked through the duration of their air travels.  Some keep their bags locked only to find the locks cut when their bags reach their final destination.  Recognizing this concern, TSA developed a lock that ensures necessary access to a traveler’s suitcase, but also provides the security of a locked bag.  These locks have a user-created combination code for the luggage owner.  TSA keeps a universal master key on-hand to safely unlock and re-lock the luggage when necessary.   These combination locks are available at luggage and travel stores worldwide.  I found this device to be reassuring and I am appreciative of TSA’s solution to air traveler’s concerns about the safety of their bags.

For more information, check out TSA’s website http://www.tsa.gov.  Not only will you find information about the locks, but you can also view helpful travel tips provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

All of us at Market Connections wish you a happy, healthy holiday season.  No matter how you travel, travel safely during this busy time of year.

A few days ago, I attended the Amtower Summit on Selling to the Government.  Though a variety of topics were discussed, the most significant point I took away from the event was the overall importance of relationships in B2G marketing.  Building relationships increases top-of-mind awareness, makes it more likely that your customers will come back to you, and can ultimately increase your market share and revenues.  But how does one build relationships?  Truly, there is no “silver bullet”, but with a dedicated effort, you can steadily build mindshare among your market.

First of all, you need to understand exactly who your market is.  It is difficult to build relationships with too many different people at once, so some segmentation should be done.  Choose one or two niche markets you most wish to serve (or that you are already in) and concentrate on them.  You can always expand later, once you’ve honed your relationship-building skills.

And don’t forget about your current customers!  Generally, 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients.  Get to know that 20%—their needs, their likes, their pet peeves, their quirks—go that extra mile and make them feel special, because they ARE.  You definitely don’t want to lose them!

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is not contacting prospects and clients often enough.  The truth is, in this modern cluttered world, you have to maintain almost constant contact to be even remotely memorable to your prospects and clients.  To put it numerically, it takes 12-18 contacts a year to turn a prospect to a client, and 24-36 contacts each year to keep a client.  This can be as easy as forwarding news articles of interest, calling “just to check-in”, or sending nice cards in the mail at holidays.  Other great ideas include inviting them to a webinar your company is running or sponsoring, hosting special invitation-only “mini-events” at tradeshows and seminars, and sending them white papers your company has released that they will find interesting.  Never be insistent or overbearing, and make sure every single outreach adds some value for them.

Make sure that building relationships with clients is a top priority to your company and you will be well on your way to increasing your bottom line!

I recently attended a webcast hosted by the American Marketing Association entitled Assessing the Accuracy of Online Panel Research.  

Overall, online panels may seem ideal since they typically give you access to a large list of people from your target market.  However, some panels often have a large number of “professional respondents” (those who participate in panels or surveys for the purpose of financial gain or rewards).  Since these people usually care very little (if at all) about answering questions truthfully and completely, this could strongly affect the accuracy of your survey data.

To avoid this common pitfall, the next time you’re conducting panel research, make sure to ask your research partner how people were selected for the panel you’re using, how often the panel list is cleaned, and what safeguards they have to protect their lists from professional respondents.

You may have noticed the recent addition of several agency marketing briefs to our reports page.  We have released two marketing briefs for each of several federal agencies: one on top of mind IT companies and most valued vendor attributes by federal IT decision-makers and a second report on the most popular sources of IT information. These unique and affordable agency briefs are designed to help you better allocate your marketing dollars and impact your bottom line. 

Marketing briefs are already available for the following agencies:
- Department of Transportation
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Treasury
- Department of Energy
- Department of Defense

And look out for marketing briefs in the upcoming months for:
- NASA
- USDA
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Justice Department
- Department of Commerce
- Department of Veterans Affairs

Be sure to visit www.marketconnectionsinc.com to order your copies today and keep checking our website over the next couple of months for additional agency reports!