A recent post in US publication Forbes said “Before you write any content, craft an offer or even think about your marketing funnel, you first need to decide exactly who you’re marketing to.
In Australia there are 584 local, 1,600 state and territory and 331 federal government agencies. Within each agency there are literally hundreds of potential prospects. By taking an ad hoc approach to list building there is no real system in place to properly build a base from which to launch your government sales and marketing programs.
Government business units vary in size from massive Federal Government Department such as the Department of Defence to small advisory bodies and local councils with 4 or 5 employees.
The mistake most companies make is they think it’s ok to build a list organically by going to trade shows and adding a few contacts here and there. What you end up with is an ad-hoc list of questionable contacts in agencies which may have merged or closed in six months.
Multiple decision makers
As most decisions in government are made by a committee a worthwhile goal is to target multiple people. Get them talking about your company, your product or service. This is the conversation they have before asking you to quote or come in for a meeting. If you’re relying on trawling through government web sites to identify contacts think again. It will take ages and the data will “age” very quickly.
A-ZGoVBIZ has a system of capturing and maintaining government information to an extremely high level of accuracy all year around. The data is customised to your specific requirements and accessible via a secure web site called Discovery. Prior to a campaign being sent out export the data from Discovery and upload it to your CRM or email server.
The A-ZGovBIZ government list has 22,910 contacts split into 37 industries and 40 job functions across 2,515 local, state and federal agencies.
Target related agencies
Most government agencies in Australia are either a parent, sibling or child. They are connected, so when you do business with one – doors can be opened to another. If you know which agencies are related and have the names of key contacts you will find doors open more quickly.
You may get an idea of which agencies are related from the government web sites but once again it will be ad hoc and how do you create a system which will show you a roadmap on where to go and who to talk to? The Family Tree tool in Discovery makes it easy and saves time.
The family tree pictured above illustrates the complex web of relationships between agencies within the Queensland Department of Justice & the Attorney General. There are 21 sub agencies including Public Guardian, Public Prosecution, Gambling, Coroners Court, Crown Law and more.
More blog posts
Forbes post – 5 Key Components to a Successful Content Marketing Campaign
Business to Government blog: /
Michael Bleakley
Michael Bleakley is a journalist, communicator and marketing professional of 25 years. His career began in his early 20’s publishing tech magazines for education. Michael’s career then moved into online and book publishing for a global business publisher, then finally into database publishing and marketing at A-ZGovBIZ.
