They’ve started spending! Who? The institutions in line to receive billions of dollars in stimulus money. Even though the money is just starting to flow out of Washington, the institutions or departments on the receiving end have started to spend. Those that planned well before February 17th when the stimulus bill became law are ready to spend now.

Companies are already reporting up-ticks in orders from school districts. Since no stimulus money has reached the districts yet, they are obviously spending money they already had. Many institutions have been holding back, sitting on available money because of the squeeze on state budgets. Now that they know the money is coming, they feel comfortable loosening the purse strings. In coming weeks this trend is likely to accelerate. Click to continue

You can still benefit from MCH’s in-depth review of the economic stimulus package. John F. Hood, MCH President and Kirk Chritton, Director of Marketing presented a 60-minute session that provided an analysis of the stimulus marketing bill and the revenue opportunities it represents for B2B marketers. You can listen to this essential session online right now  here. The key takeaways from the webinar are:

• The federal government is channeling hundreds of billions of dollars to institutions.
• Large amounts of money will be released immediately.
• Funding is not just for roads and bridges – there are many sales opportunities emerging.
• Most B2B marketers already do substantial business with institutions.
• Marketers need to use a distinct strategy to get the most from institutions. Click to continue

MCH has created a Stimulus Marketing group on LinkedIn. Join in discussions with other B2B marketers regarding the opportunities presented by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As the stimulus funding begins its journey to the state and local governments, we'll be posting specific marketing recommendations on both LinkedIn and the www.stimulusmarketing.com website.

Click here to visit the new Stimulus Marketing website.
Click here to join the LinkedIn group.

The edWeb, a new professional/social network for the education community, has just announced a program to invite companies that market to schools to participate in the edWeb.

Thanks to a partnership with MCH, the edWeb is growing rapidly by inviting K-12 educators across the country to join the site. edWeb members include teachers in all subject areas and grades. More than 20% of edWeb members are school/district leaders. The edWeb makes it easy for educators to create professional learning communities and to move forward faster with any initiative. Click to continue

Are you trying to pinpoint the right time to release your full-scale sales and marketing efforts to a market receiving stimulus funds? Here's one suggestion for those who are regularly emailing their institutional customers. No doubt you are watching the responses from these campaigns. If you see a significant up-tick in response, that's the signal to put on the full court press, email, snail mail, telephone, etc. because that is likely to be the best indicator that the mood is changed and the money is available.

Two caveats, however. Watch out for state-by-state results as the states are cogs in the distribution of lots of federal money and they operate differently. Secondly, don't use a buying signal from one type of institution as an indicator for another type unless both are receiving money under the same funding allocation.

Financial Outsourcing seems to be an appropriate topic this month since tax time is just around the corner. Financial outsourcing can be as simple as sending your payroll and tax work out to an account or as complex as a major healthcare institution negotiating a third-party administrator agreement for its billings. When you look at the diversity of institutions, it becomes apparent that a number of the organizations may need financial outsourcing services.

Click here to review datacards that are suitable for marketers of financial outsourcing products and services then call your MCH sales representative to get a count on those "why didn't I think of that?" institutions you may have missed.

MCH Webinar
Getting Started with Social Media Marketing
Presenter: Lisa Schmucki, Founder & CEO, edWeb, LLC
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
10AM Central
Click here to reigster now

Click here to request a quote for any of MCH's institutional databases and services.