Monday, September 26, 2011

Ladybug Keyword Search

Sesame Street: Ladybugs' Picnic Lyrics


One two three
Four five six
Seven eight nine
Ten eleven twelve
Ladybugs
Came to the ladybugs' picnic
One two three
Four five six
Seven eight nine
Ten eleven twelve
And they all played games
At the ladybugs' picnic
They had twelve sacks so they ran sack races
They fell on their backs and they fell on their faces
The ladybugs 12
At the ladybugs' picnic
They played jump rope but the rope it broke
So they just sat around telling knock-knock jokes
The ladybugs 12
At the ladybugs' picnic
One two three
Four five six
Seven eight nine
Ten eleven twelve
And they chatted away
At the ladybugs' picnic
They talked about the high price of furniture and rugs
And fire insurance for ladybugs
The ladybugs 12
At the ladybugs' picnic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8vUTm64h0


How many words does it take to get you to the top of a keyword search? The Ladybug keyword search picnic knew. What keywords does it take to get you where you want to be? How many ladybugs came to the picnic? Are you inviting people (though keyword strings) to your ladybug picnic?


One, two, three, four five six?


When people are doing an organic search for something the number of keywords they use is
23% - 1 word
24% - 2 words
20% - 3 words
14% - 4 words
8% - 5 words
5% - 6 words
2% - 7 words
4% - 8 words
* Experian Hitwize January 2011 from a sample of 10 million US internet users.


I can push myself up to the #1 spot in my target areas of the marketing with word strings; I now have it down to 3 words in a keyword search to get the #1 on Google, Yahoo and Bing. With met tag works, landing pages and the like, I can make magic happen on the web.


Just because all the focus these days is on Social Media Marketing these days does not mean you can sit back and not pay any attention to Search Engine Optimization) (SEO).


If you’re like me, and I’ll bet you are, the hardest thing you face in your business is differentiating yourself from the competition. It is hard to say the least, to stand out from the crowd. You can adjust your blog posts, develop web landing pages to go after specific markets, create your set of keywords, do a search engine submission, etc, etc, etc.


If you want to get anywhere in organic natural search (still the best kind of online marketing in my mind), it takes time. Don’t expect any miracles in the first month. After posting your first set of keywords, playing with content and links, the doing an optimization you need to wait, sometimes as much as 30 days.


In talking to Google (ok here it is tech time) they say they are using more that 200 signals with up to 50 variations to determine a websites ranking and that this algorithm is updated weekly! The good folks at Bing say that its algorithm looks at more than 1,000 signals and the emphasis is on newer signals such as social (see previous blog on Bing and Facebook working together). Of course Google is working with twitter to spider out those postings so what do we have?


Looking at this from a Search Engine Marketers perspective with the introduction of social media content into the search engine rankings sort of steals the marketer’s ability to control their specific message and the companies or clients brand message. Or does it?


Still you can’t cheat your way to the top. Sorry Social Media Friends, Followers and Fans it just doesn’t and isn’t happening (yet). You still have to go through the natural selection process to get ranked high. Keywords and solid content still rules.


It might really pay to hire a writer well versed in web site content writing to help you. This is a specialty field of which the payback is usually more than worth the price, provided you have the funds to wait for a ROI of a few months.


Now let’s get things even more confusing. To put in another clog in the system, there is Mobil Search. Another high interest area of the “new media” people. Don’t get me wrong, this is an important marketing tool and with more and more smartphones coming online this becomes a more important area. Google reported recently that there was a 400% increase in their “Click to call” feature and 1 out of 5 of those were Local Related clicks. How important is this? Just follow the money, Walgreens increased their mobile search budget by 300%.


So where are we? Things are ever changing and there is and always will be new online marketing tools to use and play with but for now one thing remains the same, to come to the Ladybug picnic of Keyword search it takes 1, 2, 3 – 4, 5, 6 – 7, 8, 9 – 10, 11, 12 words at the ladybug search picnic.


Larson Notes & Satire:
I was halfway into writing this blog when I took a moment to stop, save and go to my web site and play with my keywords. Yes, they needed a major overhaul. Now I sit and wait for the little spiders to come through and take a peak. Will they like what I just did? I’ll find out in a week or 2. Until then I’ll keep working the social media side trying to passively find some new customers while working the telemarketing side to actively hunt down some new accounts.


Like everything else you need to put a multichannel attack into place if you can. Time, energy and money all come into play and as I have said in the past, it is better to work in only 1, 2 or 3 channels that you can work completely and hard, than 6 that you only work half heartily or every once in a while.


Does it work? That’s why we help to “Make good businesses great and great businesses even better.”


Want your very own blog but can’t or don’t have time to write it?
Larson & Associates has the people who can write specifically for your business, call today!


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates


https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Facebook dominates SM


To show how thoroughly Facebook dominates the social networking landscape, comScore passed along this chart of time spent on various social networks.



90% of all time on social networks is spent on Facebook, with other social networks comprised of Myspace, Tumblr, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others, according to comScore.


Larson Notes & Satire:  

So where are you focused on when developing your Social Media marketing plan. If it does not include Facebook go rethink your plan. 90% is a lot of people. Now you may tell me that I don’t sell to consumers I sell to the B2B marketing place only. Guess what? So do I. And Guess what? The owners and executives and workers in those companies that you sell to are, unless I have going totally off the deep end, are people

Does it work? Try it; you’ll (probably) like it.

“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”

Remember our 3 new programs for 2011 
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011


Moving on to using telemarketing in combination with Social Media can be very powerful.


Telemarketing is an old school marketing tactic. Social Telemarketing is new, very new approach. When used together and done right it can combine the power of telemarketing for lead generation with information taken from your 3F connections on your social media sites.


If you have ever picked up the phone and called a connection from Facebook, LinkedIn MerchantCircle or a Ning site or even just responded to a tweet you might be already starting or have an understanding of how powerful this marketing activity is or could be.


Social & Telemarketing puts a structure around that concept, combines with professional telemarketing skills and practices, and broadens the range to monitor pretty much most conversations online!


When telemarketing is done correctly it delivers results with a very superior return on investment (ROI). This will of course vary by industry, product or service, timing, and target audience but it is one of the best “attack” modes in marketing while most others are asking for the prospect to pick up the phone on their own volition. The trick is to figure out where telemarketing will deliver the biggest bang for your buck. The same is true for the combination of Social Media Marketing and Telemarketing.


Keep in mind, a straight Telemarketing program goes out where you have a prospect data list of companies in a certain area, or industry matching a list in the best way possible.



Social Media Marketing and Telemarketing combines the power of telemarketing for lead generation with information and connections on your social media platforms.


If you already pick up the phone to call a connection on LinkedIn or respond to a tweet you will already understand the powerful this activity can be.


Social Media Marketing and Telemarketing puts the structure you need in a telemarketing program, and believe me you need to work in an orderly fashion to be any good at telemarketing into the free flowing concept of Social and the off-the-wall prospect controlled climate it sends you into. It combines telemarketing skills and practices, and takes them to a broader level to work and monitor conversations online!


When you think about it, it’s no wonder that businesses are accepting the concept of Social Media Marketing and Telemarketing or at least are thinking that way on an individual level. The point is, it’s a winning combination you can afford not to engage in. It is more of a question of who, when and how someone is going to be doing this for your business and how you are going to integrate into your sales and marketing structure.


The most typical challenges with Social Media Marketing and Telemarketing tend to be:
•It’s not very practical to sit in front of a computer all day to monitor conversations.
•Subscribing to social media monitoring tools is still a pricey for an individual license or for small volume of conversations.
•Working through search results gotten without the use of social media monitoring takes up a lot of time that maybe should be spent in other places.
•Even if there was an ideal alert for a telemarketing call, who wants to be the one to actually make the cold call!
•Going though and actually calling the prospects on your 3F list checks still need to be done and they are still cold calls.


Larson Notes & Satire: Using Larson’s as your Telemarketing / Social Media Marketing provides you with a cost effective way of becoming a major player:

• We are effective in social media monitoring
• We can give you a lower cost than if done in house
•We just happen to love cold calling!
•We are professionals use to calling C-Suite executives in a professional way with an awareness of social media and high profile calling.
• We can offer you support to let you integrate this information into sales and marketing processes and a CRM system
•We can work with you to internal social media activities that are not suitable for calling.


The benefits to you in using a Telemarketing / Social Media Marketing attack are:
• You have access to immediate leads from highly targeted cold calling turning them into more qualified prospects
•You can get a higher ROI (probably better than most other sales and marketing activities)
• You can provide a quicker more timely response to prospects
• You give out an increased brand awareness
• You build upon the impression you have already made as one of their 3F’s.
• You are working in a world of an ongoing sales pipeline of high quality leads


The benefits of using the Telemarketing / Social Media Marketing combo over straight Telemarketing.
•There are fewer barriers to getting through to the actual decision maker
•You should get a more immediate rapport with better knowledge of their needs.
• Your name is a known entity before the call is made.
• You have fewer wrong numbers, out of date info, and less unqualified prospects.
• The people are usually more receptive, friendly and positive!


Seems that most Social Media Marketing encourages engagement, connections, relevant conversations, compelling offers, and there is an emphasis is on pulling people to you. In using the Telemarketing - Social Media Marketing combo you actually pick up the phone and talk to them! It’s about going out in a positive way using a professional and appropriate medium to get to know them better. It’s also about being organized so you can take and integrate your Social information into a CRM system and start the real sales and marketing processes.


Telemarketing Social Media Marketing is not about:
• Using low skilled telemarketers who annoy people
• Becoming a replacement for engaging people online
• Becoming a quick win so you that you don’t have anything else with social media.


Does it work? Plan your work and work your plan.


“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.





Friday, September 2, 2011

Telemarketing / Direct Mail

I view these two as the big 1-2 punch in a direct marketing campaign

You might view Telemarketing as a separate method of getting sales leads, something that alone should solve the problem of prospecting, and many of my customers use it this way, some with good results and others not so good.


Still for the best results telemarketing when combined with direct mailing is so hard hitting if you have the chance go for it. Each channel offers the prospect a different form of sensation, direct mailing appealing visually and telemarketing audibly. The combination of this strategy is a kind of delayed action audiovisual experience for the prospect and if used correctly, more powerful than an earthquake.


As stated above many of the companies we at Larson work with rely only on the single form of telemarketing or some other channel in their marketing and/or advertising in acquiring prospective clients and sales leads, I think I can say that most B2B companies who use a mix of marketing channels for creating interest for their services and products, as our top 2 ROI accounts show blend different Telemarketing/Direct Mail strategies.


When Direct mailing and Telemarketing are put together with one supporting the other we have worked past one of the main problems in a telemarketing only program, that being a problem in the lack of TRUST.


It's not easy to get trust in someone who you've just got on phone for the first time. Regardless of the skill of the telemarketer in putting people at ease, first time calls on the phone have major limitations.


You can't see the other guy and you might not have ever heard of his company. So trust goes way down and why, because people receive more than half of their information VISUALLY.


On the phone while receiving a telemarketing call, they have the problem of not seeing the telemarketer, so we can't see if he looks honest and thus we can't truly trust this person.


The main goal then of the telemarketer is to get the other person talking which will gradually build up trust in their mind toward the telemarketer themselves and the company doing the telemarketing.


So creating trust with telemarketing with a direct mailing piece can have a greater effect.


Then there is the use of telemarketing as an ongoing marketing attack channel which should not be a one-time event. If you want leads you need to be consistent in your attack. If your telemarketing campaign is done correctly, telemarketing has a repetitive effect creating interest and trust.


Pushed out further this gradually increased attack can be cemented by working prospects between direct mailing and telemarketing, weaving the two channels together into a multi stream of contact.


If done right the mailer should give the prospect one positive thought with a visual element and if the telemarketer works it right they should have a good solid connection.


They should know you, and understand what you can do to help their company! You are no longer a stranger on the other end of the phone line no matter if is your 1st call or your 4th.


The prospect has heard of your company, he has already formed a positive opinion about your company. You are proven to be real, the direct mailing is tangible evidence and things will start off at higher level of communication from the get go.


And so your telemarketing direct mail attack progresses, month by month, in a planned out organized way.


It might take a week, a month, or more... but who cares? If you plan your telemarketing & direct mailing attack right, it can only end one way, and with hundreds of ongoing communication cycles, it will soon start raining new clients!


And that's the power when you combine direct mailing with telemarketing.


There are a few ways to be doing this mix. Mail first, call second. Call first mail second and call mail call. They all have a way of hitting people at different levels.


If you mail first it opens the way for your call. When the call comes in your can reference the letter or postcard giving your quick 20 second opening and . . . Send them out bulk rate. Zip coded for even less in postage but as stated a few blogs ago, your through rate is going to go down unless you have a very clean list, but unlike email if you have the wrong name odds are it will go to whoever too that persons place or job.


If you call first and mail second, I use a paced out approach sending out mail as addresses are confirmed the mailing package is send. The mailing cost goes up but the through rate goes up as well so less in postage loss and direct mail content.


If you go with the Wave mailing approach you send out 3 to 4 letters, then a call. The first letter is usually thrown in the bucket, but they at least will see your company name, the second they might think, I’ve heard of this place haven’t I? The third they might actually read it. Then the call. They know you, and they have heard good things about you. Why, because you told them ONLY good things.


You can use a letter, a postcard the key is only that you mix them in a constant flow to pull them into you.


Larson Notes & Satire: Does this work? You bet ya it works. Of the companies that we do telemarketing work for, the 40% have a direct mail program. They get on the average a 66% better ROI that the straight telemarketing customers. Their numbers go from 4.54% up to 9.833%.


Are those numbers you would want to see?

“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

So Many Marketing Channels

It’s a mix and match world of Marketing with not only more and different choices than we had 10 years ago but new and different ways to use and mix them together. It is a mix and match world. So let me ask you, do you have a marketing attack plan, have you thought about what tools you want to be using and mixing and what their effect on each other is? http://www.larsonassociates.ws/marketing_tools For our part in this battle over the customer’s mind over the next few days I will be mixing and matching telemarketing, direct mail, social media marketing, e mail, TV, radio, blogs and a few others and try to find how they each can work with the other so we can all make better, more educated decisions on what to use.


Your needs and choices are not going to be the same as the ones I need to make for my company and its growth.


Direct marketing has always been tough and now more than ever everything is on the table, every dollar spent, every second used is questioned and is held accountable.


We have the big 6 channels, telemarketing, direct mail, social media marketing, web marketing / SEM, TV and radio with a cast of smaller but possibly equally important channels for you to be incorporating and weaving in.


You drive to work or home, do you have the radio on? You get home or to work, you check email, you listen to any voice messages the mail comes you scan though it to see what there is. The phone rings you pick it up. You sit back and turn on the news or a TV show. Banner ads come up on your browser as you do a web search. There are just so many ways to be touched with today’s marketing. And while we might not be able to pick the channels that are the cheapest or easiest for your customers, yours, not mine, you can determine how you want to blend them together to get the maximum ROI as you go along.


Larson Notes & Satire: I have said over and over my big 3 tools are telemarketing, direct mail and social media marketing. My social work might also include blogs if not add that. You need to figure it out for yourself of have someone like me do the figuring and implementation for you. But whatever you choose you need to pick your channels and use them to the utmost. I mean 95%-100% use. If not, back off that channel and use what you can use at a high level.


Over the next few days and maybe weeks depending on the time I have Ill look at mixing and matching different channels and how they work or maybe don’t work together. I hope you enjoy it.

“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd is our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates


https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.