By Katrina Olson, Best of the Best Judge
As you’re busily pulling together your tED magazine Best of the Best Marketing Competition entries, you may have questions about the Statement of Purpose. Does it really matter what I write? Do the judges really read it? Is it really that important? The answer to all three questions is a resounding, “Yes!”
Every judge reads the Statement of Purpose before evaluating the entry itself. In fact, it’s an integral component of your submission. Judges also refer to it often during the judging process. And when we’re struggling to choose a winner, we go back to the Statement of Purpose to review your strategy (why you did what you did), how you executed your strategy (what you did), and the outcomes (if you achieved your goals).
What makes a good Statement of Purpose?
A good Statement of Purpose outlines the thinking behind your marketing strategy. It explains the context, why you chose to do this activity, generally how it was implemented, and what happened as a result of the marketing activity. The following template will help ensure that the judges have everything needed to fairly and effectively evaluate your Best of the Best entry.
Background: What inspired this marketing effort? What market change or competitive situation prompted this? What opportunity or problem was identified? Who requested it? Include any pertinent details that will help us understand the relevance of this effort to your business.
Target Audience(s): Who are you trying to reach with this marketing effort? Be specific as it relates to your marketing effort. Define them by geographic area, sales volume, size, importance as a customer, length of time as a customer, frequency of purchase, account holders—whatever makes sense for your company.
Strategy: Give an overview of your marketing effort—a general description of what you did and how you did it. “We emailed all customers inviting them to schedule a consultation with our energy consultant. This was supported with social media, statement messages, and a website banner.”
Goal/Objective: State specifically, ideally numerically, what you hoped to achieve in terms of open rates, response rates, shares, likes, impressions, clicks, conversions, sales, year-over-year or month-over-month sales increase, attendees, leads, media placements, etc.
Details of Execution: Outline specifically yet concisely how you implemented your marketing effort. What was your primary message and what tools did you use to communicate it? It’s acceptable and even preferred that you use a bullet point list.
Outcome: Compare the results of your marketing effort to your goal(s). Did you achieve them? If not, were there extenuating circumstances? Were there other unexpected or unforeseen beneficial outcomes?
Feedback: Do you have feedback from customers, leadership, manufacturers, vendors, or any other stakeholders that speak to the success of the event? Did you take a survey or offer a way for your target audience to provide feedback?
Tips for Writing Your Statement of Purpose
To make sure your Statement of Purpose is the best it can be, follow these suggestions.
- Don’t wait until the last minute! Your statement will feel rushed and you’re more likely to forget something or make mistakes.
- Keep your statement to 500 words or fewer.
- Don’t delegate writing the Statement of Purpose to someone who was not involved in the effort and doesn’t understand the strategy.
- If you’re submitting the same marketing effort to different categories, revise the Statement of Purpose to fit the requirements for the category.
- Be straightforward and concise. That doesn’t necessarily mean brief; rather, don’t include unnecessary information.
- Be clear and avoid using jargon, acronyms, and company buzzwords.
- Write in an active voice and relatively short sentences.
- Focus on the marketing effort. Don’t waste words writing about the product, its benefits, and its applications. The pieces themselves should speak to this. (Make sure your images are high enough resolution to be readable.)
- Don’t brag, boast, or hype your entry. Avoid superlatives.
- Provide facts and results or let customers speak for you.
- Don’t make unsubstantiated claims; support them with facts, results, metrics, research, etc.
- Put results in context. Compare email open rates with industry averages or previous results. Provide a percentage increase from previous efforts or years. Show an increase in leads, conversions, or sales compared to previous efforts or years.
- Format for ease of reading. Use subheads, short paragraphs, and bullets.
- Proofread carefully. Errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, usage, and word choice can damage credibility and clarity.
- Check for clarity. Have someone unfamiliar with the entry read your statement to be sure it’s clear and understandable.
- Include all relevant elements, especially if you mention them in your Statement of Purpose.
As always, if you have questions about the Statement of Purpose, categories, judging, or anything regarding the competition, contact tED magazine Editor Misty Byers at mbyers@naed.org or Best of the Best Judge Katrina Olson katrina@katrinaolson.com.
We shouldn’t have to say it but…here it is…
Entries are evaluated solely on their merit by an independent panel of judges who are not employees of tED magazine. Judging is based on a list of specific criteria that do not include advertising in tED magazine, using an agency, or relationship to the judges or anyone at tED magazine.
EXAMPLE #1: Good Statement of Purpose
Target Audience: Our target audience was heavy users of electricity—such as industrial, government, and healthcare clients who maintained facilities of 50,000 square feet or larger. These clients could benefit greatly from even the smallest change in products such as motion sensors or LED lights.
Background/Situation: In 2019, we launched our new “Energy Services” department, which specializes in energy-saving products and services. Since this was a new area for us, we needed to inform our existing customers about the new service, establish our position as experts in the area of energy-saving solutions, and gain credibility for our consultants.
Strategy: We direct-mailed industry-specific brochures to existing and potential customers with a personal invitation from an energy consultant to schedule a consultation. Recipients were directed to a mini-URL (website) for more information.
Objective: Our goal was to schedule 100 consultations, garner 2,000 mini-URL (website) hits, and generate $5,000 in sales as a result of this effort.
Details of Execution: We developed 3 brochures—one for each market segment—to introduce our five-person team. The copy emphasized their intensive training and experience in electrical lighting industries and outlined case studies of existing clients with specific cost savings we garnered for them. To stimulate response, we offered a free, one-hour energy consultation and provided an 800 number for scheduling.
The URL included buttons for Twitter, Digg, and Reddit so users could easily share the tool with others; this also enhanced our search engine optimization. We divided our mailing list and had an energy consultant attach a handwritten note offering a free one-hour consultation to every client or potential client who received the brochure. Two weeks after the brochures were mailed, the energy consultants called recipients to schedule their free consultation.
For those not ready to schedule a consultation, we created a mini-URL with an online calculator to help them estimate their potential savings based on square footage, current energy usage, and minor product installations
Outcomes/Results: This effort helped establish us as a company committed to energy-saving technology and created awareness for our brand in energy solutions. The mini-URL received 1,500 hits in the first two weeks and 2,500 in the next two weeks for a total of 4,000 hits within one month of the mailing. As a result of this marketing effort, we scheduled 120 free consultations; 50% of those led to sales of $7,500 or more in energy-saving products.
Customer Comments: “I was surprised by how much I could save by making just a minor change in my lighting; I would have never believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself by using the online energy-savings calculator.”
EXAMPLE #2: Good Statement of Purpose
Target Audience: Electrical distributors and end-users of fuse blocks
Background/Situation: This product is an enhancement of a traditional product, but offers new and improved benefits to users—including reduced troubleshooting time, universal mounting holes for easy replacement, and time-saving mounting options.
Strategy: The launch was designed to create awareness with both distributors and end-users to generate distributor push and end-user pull for the new product.
Objectives:
- Increase fuse block sales by 10%
- Garner 500 web hits on the dedicated website page
- Register 250 attendees to online webinars for sales reps & distributors
Details of Execution:
- 16-page brochure
- Dedicated webpage
- Live webinars for sales reps/distributors
- Sales brochures for distributors
- Data sheets/technical information
- Direct mail piece
- Target market flyers
- Online calculators
- Promotional videos
- New catalog copy
Outcome/Results:
- 15% increase in fuse block sales
- 649 dedicated website hits
- 275 webinar attendees
Customer Comments:
“Thank you for offering a product that saves me time, and my customers money! Plus the downloadable specs and videos made it easy to spec the product for project quotes.”
EXAMPLE #3: Ineffective Statement of Purpose
Our company is committed to being on the forefront of green technology with energy-efficient products that address today’s environmental challenges. We are demonstrating our leadership in this arena by being the first to introduce energy-efficient LED lighting to the commercial market.
These hard-hitting ads ran in trade publications across a broad array of industries offering customers revolutionary electrical solutions to address their most pressing electrical energy conservation challenges. Our marketing effort underscores our leadership while highlighting our position as the experts in energy-conserving lighting technology. The featured products are designed to significantly reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while limiting the amount of hazardous substances being released into the environment.
The online lighting guide, retrofit calculator, and energy-saving calculator round out this highly effective campaign, providing a hands-on tool for customers and potential customers to virtually illustrate their potential cost and energy savings.
This campaign generated amazing results for our company and established our dominance as a leader in commercial lighting. This effort was backed by our top-of-the-line, high-quality products and supported by outstanding customer service from our first-rate sales and customer service personnel.
What’s wrong with this one?
- Uses marketing or promotional copy
- No goal or strategy
- No clear target audience
- Not enough detail about the marketing effort
- It’s overly self-promotional, dramatic, and back-slapping
- Contains fluff, bombast, or superlatives (and perhaps inaccurate information)
- Doesn’t include measurable or quantifiable results
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Katrina Olson is a marketing consultant, coach, trainer, and writer with more than 35 years of experience including 20 years in electrical distribution. She has been a Best of the Best judge since 2006 and lends her expertise as a regular contributor to tED magazine and tedmag.com.
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