Book Review: Government Marketing Best Practices 2.0

Government Marketing Best Practices 2.0 is written by Mark Amtower and the Government Marketing University. The book is a compilation of 17 essays addressing topics including:

  • “Strategic Planning” by Stephanie Geiger
  • “Corporate Branding” by Eileen Rivera
  • “Thought Leadership” by Mark Amtower
  • “Public Relations” by Joyce Bosc
  • “Positioning Your Digital Footprint for Growth” by Janet Waring
  • “Importance of Content Creation” by Chris Parente

The essays provide specific details describing how to market your business capabilities to U.S. Government customers. For example, in Mark Amtower’s essay, “LinkedIn and Social Selling,” he identified 552 company pages of federal departments, agencies, divisions, and offices communicating via LinkedIn. These pages allow companies to establish meaningful connections with government staff and interest them in their profile and company pages, where government staff can learn more about each company’s capabilities and start conversations.

About the authors

Mark Amtower has been an active GovCon market and strategy consultant, author, and speaker for over 30 years. He is a contributor to Washington Technology and Bloomberg Industry Group. In addition, he is a faculty member of Government Marketing University and the host of the Amtower Off Center podcast. He is also a board member of the Growth Officers Association (GOA). Other book contributors include Katie Helwig, Sheri Ascencio, Carl Dickson, Larry Letow, Chelsea Meggitt, and Stacey Piper, who are all well-known subject matter experts in marketing disciplines.

Five takeaways from the book

Selecting only five takeaways was difficult because it’s an excellent book.

  1. Conduct annual strategic planning. Set marketing goals, conduct a marketing audit, perform a SWOT assessment, determine your budget, and build your marketing campaign calendar.
  2. Define your thought leadership or intellectual property real estate in the market and claim your niche. Then, incorporate niche ownership into your marketing material.
  3. Incorporate event marketing to grow your visibility and credibility. Event marketing helps generate quality leads, increase brand awareness, and connect with prospects. The book also lists associations that host these events.
  4. The book has a comprehensive strategy for planning, managing, practicing, and conducting live webinars.
  5. Review the tips for marketing to the Intel community, which we can’t mention here; you must read the book.

By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow

Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals.
As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter.