When I took over the marketing efforts of NAPLIA, I committed our approach to what I call, "Informational Marketing".  This approach has allowed us to grow from a small company to the Entrepeneur Hot 500 and now the Inc 5000.  This approach not only has proven success in sales, but allows your company resources to focus on what they do best creating a better internal environment.

What is informational marketing?  It's simply the distribution of information.  As specialist in professional liability insurance, we distribute as much knowledge, resources, and information to the public as we can on this subject.  Our goal is not to sell our clients anything, but to simply provide them the information so they can make an educated decision.  By taking this approach we become recognized as a leading resource in our industry.  This reputation generates incoming calls from clients and business opportunities.

Why informational marketing?  We live in the information age.  The internet provides your clients the ability to find information quicker than you can usually provide it to them.  An informational marketing approach attempts to control the distribution of that information from one source, rather than have your clients access scattered information from different areas.

How do you conduct an informational marketing approach?  Simple, you distribute information.  Many companies attempt to protect their knowledge from their competitors with the result being it never reaches the end-user.  Informational marketing is about distributing information in an open format with no requirement of payment, passwords, etc.  With this approach editorial is always favored over advertising.  Provided with the right information editors will appreciate the information and you can further develop these relationships into columns and speaking engagements.

As a former media professional, I must confess that I do not believe in advertising.  It is an antiquated approach that has been surpassed by savy consumers.  The Internet is not an advertising channel, it is an information channel.  It allows you to distribute information and communicate with your clients and prospects.  And, if you truly think about what information your clients are looking for (think about the anology of selling a hole versus selling a drill) and distribute this information freely, you may find a dramatic increase in your sales.