Rebranding & White Paper Helps Data Company Deliver Clearer Message

Recently we led a rebranding initiative for Integress, a management consulting and IT services firm founded in 1998. They specialize in helping mid-sized organizations overcome challenges in collecting, sanitizing, integrating, analyzing and leveraging accurate data to make smarter business decisions.

A shift in message to lead with business outcomes for the C-suite

The company, who is armed with extremely smart IT strategists and data scientists and data architects, did not have an edge on its competition because what they were doing—but just not saying—was that they are helping organizations monetize their data as strategic assets and profit centers—new revenue streams, competitive intelligence, increased profit, and sustainable customer value. This started to get the attention of prospects, first validated in a formal focus group of CxOs and CIOs. A new tagline, “The Data Monetization Company” was birthed.

A plan to use an epic piece of content to overcome preconceptions

The term “data monetization” was first associated almost exclusively with selling and trading data to attract and enrich partner relationships. Recent innovations like master data management, modern BI tools, and advanced analytics, provided organizations with new ways to monetize their enterprise data as noted above. Industry analysts have started to tout the full value of data monetization, but the market is lagging in their grasp of the concept. A white paper titled, “Enabling Data Monetization: A Playbook for Handling Common Challenges,” was produced to discuss the leading challenges and offer tips to better prepare for successful projects. This educational content is helping Integress:

  • Support the sales process without a “hard sell”
  • Accommodate today’s B2B buyer behaviors
  • Demonstrate relevance and thought-leadership
  • Establish trust and credibility with sales targets
  • Repurpose the asset for demand gen/web
  • Reinforce their brand and feed its awareness engine
  • Build targeted database, audience, and pipeline
  • Confidently speak at conferences and roundtables

From the rebranding initiative, TME deployed a new website and demand gen roadmap. Today, TME manages Integress’ marketing program.

Integress: The Data Monetization Company

B2B Tech: The Remote Marketing Cubicle Celebrates 15 Years

700x400_tme_linkedIn-15 Year Celeb

Crossing into 2000 many small tech firms and dot com startups hit the wall, racing fast for an IPO or acquisition. This left doubt and trust issues with many tech buyers. It took time to shed the residue, but the ones that survived refocused their companies to grow, NOT flip.

Many of these small companies were left underserved with marketing due to budget constraints—something me and my colleagues saw firsthand during our corporate days. We also saw how mergers and acquisitions spawned many business units that required high volume marketing at a pace that could not be maintained.

Enter TME’s Remote Marketing Cubicle in 2003, a unique marketing management engagement model that offers an affordable employee-like alternative to growing internal resources. We are pleased to celebrate 15 years partnering with early and next stage tech firms who sell software and web apps, hardware and devices, and professional services.

TME was founded to provide an alternative to these 5 recurring problems we had faced:

1. Traditional agencies act like bees on honey, drive-up windows

We saw how small businesses would operate in survival mode due to budget and resource limitations. As a result, they turned marketing off-and-on “as needed”, thus taking a scattershot approach. A traditional agency is happy to indulge this need without learning the client’s business and sales process or commit to results.

At TME we believe success can only be achieved through strategic thinking, planning, and action—integrated marketing is a must. We created an affordable fixed fee engagement model that enables early and next stage businesses get what they really need—a dedicated, proactive day-to-day marketing manager that brings an experienced voice to the table to generate demand and support sales. This resource is then supported by a diverse team of creative processions that execute programs and deliver results. All of this is provided for less than the salary of one employee and without the overhead.

2. Small tech business leaders were burdened with developing content

We often saw how small businesses rely on a jack-of-all-trades approach with every resource wearing many hats. Many times presidents and CEOs would find themselves having to temporarily shift focus to create a marketing asset or sales tool when they really needed to be steering the ship. Instead, TME converts leaderships’ vision and goals into strategic plans and positioning. While leadership stays focused, we work opportunistically to create content, feed marketing channels, and generate demand with measurable marketing tactics.

3. Sales and marketing teams operated on separate islands

Time and again we saw how marketing was used for isolated immediate sales needs—create a brochure for one, specific meeting, setup an event, send out a press release, etc. At TME we preach sales and marketing alignment—the teams must work in concert to be effective. We also insist that content has a purpose and that purpose should be demand generation. We align with sales by clarifying where are roles start, overlap, and end. With an explicit sense of our respective and shared roles in the sales process, we can be more efficient and successful.

4. Subject matter experts were untapped goldmines of valuable insights

Understandably, SMEs most often spend their days head’s down working on the task at hand, dedicated to the smallest technical detail. Whether or not they realize it, in doing so, they are generating the exact nuggets that marketing needs to access to feed marketing channels with relevant, timely content. Without the right process in place becomes time-consuming or even impossible to unearth that value. We have created and refined a collaborative approach that enables us to extract SME gold without burdening their limited time.

5. Many big thinkers, not enough know-how to execute marketing

We saw too many meetings and no results because resources are haphazardly kicking the can down the hallway rather than taking proactive accountability for next steps. At TME we can translate business vision and mission into a concrete, strategic plan. We come to the office every day knowing exactly what we are working on and where we are headed. And because we bring an external perspective, we help clients get out of their own way with focused, measurable programs delivered by TME’s experienced marketing professionals.

If any of these barriers sound familiar, Talk to Us.

GLP Certification Program Addresses Latest FDA Regulations

In August 2016, the FDA revised its Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) regulations and is currently conducting surveillance inspections of laboratories, testing sites, and contract research organizations (CROs) to ensure that facilities comply with GLP, and can maintain data integrity for their studies. If the Study Director cannot prove GLP compliance and data integrity, they can be subject to a Form 483, other Warning Letters, and more.

The Center for Professional Innovation & Education (CfPIE), a global leader of technical training across the life sciences industry, has introduced a unique GLP Facility Certification Program that provides the documentation needed to prove that U.S. facilities and quality systems are fully GLP compliant.

Until now, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or medical-device laboratories and CROs in the U.S. had no way to show that their facilities are compliant with GLP, as their European counterparts can.

The Marketing Rub: 2 Requests in 8 Hours

We collaborated with CfPIE’s Program Director to develop the offering, which includes a 5-step process toward certification. Past attendees of CfPIE’s “GLP for Pre-Clinical Testing” training class, many of whom had expressed the need, were our first focus to introduce the Program. Our initial market introduction also included a targeted and integrated email campaign, PR, social media, SME blogging, and telemarketing. Within the first eight hours of promotions, CfPIE received two requests for its GLP Facility Certification Program. More B2B marketing strategies that drive demand.