10 Judgments In Digital Marketing

Companies across the country are desperately trying to get their right and left brains working as they lay out ways to work the confusing ways of Digital Marketing. As we work through the maze of paths to follow I would present 10 incorrect assessments that I feel are present.

Judgment 1: Digital technology changes too fast to keep up.  That is a yes and no. You do need to be working they channels but it is not changing as much or as fast as you might think. What is changing is the way consumers are accessing it. PC, Laptop. I-phone text, THAT is what is all over the place.

Judgment 2. There is this “new” thing called big data. Don’t get all stressed out buy this term Big Data. Big Data is nothing new, just the new scary buzz word running around the industry to scare everyone all off. It has really been around forever. You just need to understand your market segments and what questions and answers do you need to know and have answers too? This is what most businesses need rather than “Big Data”. Unless your company can process thousands or leads there is nothing to think about here. What you really need is Little Data targeted.

Judgment  3:  Our brand has a one-to-one digital strategy to engage customers when, where and how they prefer.  Ya, ya, ya, everyone says this but nobody dies this or can. The closest chance you have is a call center marketing attack. Any communication you have in any other channel is rule-based, and not completely personal. So don’t think digital strategy think engagement strategy.

Judgment 4: Our brand needs a mobile app.  Mobile is a channel, not a strategy. Only an app that has an impact is one that serves a need. In other words apps that impact are ones that serve a specific need.  Or the app must be developed the way new products and services are.

Judgment 5: Our brand has to have a facebook page. Most do but does yours? I’m thinking that Preparation H and Condoms are not the kind of products to communicate about their brands and be engaging on Facebook, I think. At least I hate to think about the client engagement on those products.

Judgment  6: You need a microsite for your campaign. You don’t need a micro-site for anything. You can put your special content on a page on your existing web site. Maybe yes and maybe no. A purl has it place but you might take a look at Linked Local Network:  http://www.linkedlocalnetwork.com/linked-local-web/ . This is money well spent. For less than the price of a cup of coffee you will see a double digits in your alexa score getting better in the 1st week.

Judgment  7: Our digital manager doesn’t know code. After I say so what I will tell you if you’re a large enough company someone should know code but more important is that you understand the value and how long things take. Then you won’t get cheated.

Judgment  8:  We can’t ignore this new digital thing. You can’t? You really cannot be everywhere nor should you be. Better to be using 3 social media sites at close to 100% than 20 at 5% each. It is all about viability, not the numbers. Need help see our Social Media Marketing plans. We get you on the map.

Judgment  9: We can measure this digital thing or can we? The understanding of what can and what cannot be measured is limited to understanding the data. Things like followers beyond friends and family, better yet how many shares are you getting off your postings. Find what is important and measure it.

Judgment  10: We don’t understand this digital thing. Stop treating digital as some kind of special thing. It’s not, it’s only just another tool in your bag of tricks. Identify the experience you want your customers have and the experience you want to deliver to them and the value that that will deliver to your business. Then determine how best to execute that total experience in social and digital platforms.


Larson Notes & Satire:  Need insight and direction for your social media marketing? Take a look at Linked Local Network:  http://www.linkedlocalnetwork.com/linked-local-web/

Through this tool we have a system that through the power of the group, because as a landing page that is a page within a page you have other’s puling raw leads in your direction. Really it’s true. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. And we have seen those companies web sites getting a 14.7% lowering (the lower the score the better) in their Alexa rankings!

No data?
No followers?
No direction?
No plan?
Then come to us. We ask the questions to get your marketing in key and harmonious.

We offer a 5 step digital social review.
Step 1: Domain Review
Step 2: Website Review
Step 3: Google Review
Step 4: Social Review
Step 5: Content Review

If you need more online activity we have answers.

If you need a Landing Page for your web site, consider one of our Signature Pages that will bring your company's web site not just more hits but good solid sales leads. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. Call us 847-794-8710 or 847-991-1294. I'll get you set up. And it even works on those $10 and $15 a month sites.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

Areas of Marketing Growth For 2014

So what is everyone thinking of doing for 2014 in the way of marketing? In samples we have seen and collected we have found:

Marketing Spending Will Grow
45% of all companies expect to be increasing their Marketing budget
30% of all companies are increasing their spending on what is called “Big Data” technologies and
21% of all companies will be increasing spending on Big Data analytic services
 5.3% is the projected growth of global advertising spending
There will be over $135 Billion spent in 2014 on new digital marketing and
72% of those Marketers who use PayPerCick are planning to increase their budget (before you go down that path look at Linked Local Networks Signature Landing Pages http://www.linkedlocalnetwork.com/linked-local-web  for $1.00 a day you can see your page rise almost daily in organic searches 18% in 3 weeks)
$531 Billion is the expected growth in global advertising spending
$110 Billion is the expected digital media growth
 2.9% overall growth in U.S. advertising spending.
46% growth in subscription of programs, books, electronics, etc)
158% increase in click-through rates for email that start with a social media shaping button
29% growth in content marketing
19% growth in e-commerce retail sales from mobile
12% worldwide growth of smartphones
18% worldwide growth of tablets.

Larson Notes & Satire:  Need insight and direction for your social media marketing? Take a look at Linked Local Network:  http://www.linkedlocalnetwork.com/linked-local-web/

Through this tool we have a system that through the power of the group, because as a landing page that is a page within a page you have other’s puling raw leads in your direction. Really it’s true. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. And we have seen those companies web sites getting a 22.1% lowering (the lower the score the better) in their Alexa rankings!

Call us 847-794-8710 or 847-991-1294. I'll get you set up. And it even works on those $10 and $15 a month sites.


No data?
No followers?
No direction?
No plan?
Then come to us. We ask the questions to get your marketing in key and harmonious.

We offer a 5 step digital social review.
Step 1: Domain Review
Step 2: Website Review
Step 3: Google Review
Step 4: Social Review
Step 5: Content Review

If you need more online activity we have answers.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

The Soon To Be Centerpiece Of Social Media

It’s coming to a Social Media Platform near you. Native Ads. Soon, all advertising on social media will be native in-stream ads. The right side banners will disappear.

Here's why we are so certain:

At BIA/Kelsey, which is forecasting that $11 billion will be spent on social ads in 2017 and 40% will be going to native ads, Jed Williams, who is the author of the forecast, said: "if I was to re-forecast the native ad market today, would we project it growing larger at a faster rate? Certainly."

In-stream native ads look, feel, and function totally seamlessly across both mobile and PC platforms> This is exactly what company’s want, as they struggle to build cross-platform campaigns.

On mobile's smaller screens, makes getting the stream just right the experience. Mobile ad spend was up 83% last year, to $8.9 billion globally.

Twitter has started native-social with Promoted Tweets in early 2010. Twitter now offers a suite of three different in-stream native ad products.

LinkedIn is making major investments in its native strategy and Pinterest is piloting native ads on its platform.

I have to believe image and video sharing networks such as Pinterest, will soon be offering some kind of native ads, of course centered on pictures. Photos are after all the most shared kind of content on the Web; 43% of internet users have shared at least 1 photo in the past month.

Larson Notes & Satire: 

Need insight and direction for your social media marketing? Take a look at Linked Local Network:  http://www.linkedlocalnetwork.com/linked-local-web/

Through this tool we have a system that through the power of the group, because as a landing page that is a page within a page you have other’s puling raw leads in your direction. Really it’s true. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. And we have seen those companies web sites getting a 14.7% lowering (the lower the score the better) in their Alexa rankings!

No data?

No followers?

No direction?

No plan?

Then come to us. We ask the questions to get your marketing in key and harmonious.

We offer a 5 step digital social review.

Step 1: Domain Review

Step 2: Website Review

Step 3: Google Review

Step 4: Social Review

Step 5: Content Review

If you need more online activity we have answers.

If you need a Landing Page for your web site, consider one of our Signature Pages that will bring your company's web site not just more hits but good solid sales leads. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. Call us 847-794-8710 or 847-991-1294. I'll get you set up. And it even works on those $10 and $15 a month sites.

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

Harmonize Your Marketing

When you market your company no matter what kind of channels you might be using: telemarketing, direct mail, content, blog, social media, just like an orchestra they all need to be working together, be in tune. It is a fact that when musical instruments are in tune they really do sound louder than if they are even the slightest bet out of tune. Each element like a different instrument all part of a perfect harmony.

Your  marketing plan has different instruments,  like violins, oboes, French horns, cellos, but also different “chairs” in the orchestra, like 1^st chair, 2^nd chair, etc, those being not just the marketing department but also customer service, sales, product service developers, and yes ever the “suites” have a stake in the performance and need to play a note or two.

And don’t forget the audience out there. Male, female, be they 20 year olds or 48. Some have site impairment some don’t, i.e. what are they receiving your message on phone, mail box, lap top, desk top, I phone? So yes find out what channel or the way the customer (not you) prefer to communicate. Remember ever the mighty Google uses direct mail so sell Ad Words.

Use cross – channel management for your cross-channel marketing to get a single message out. Sadly those people, the one’s that understand traditional marketing are getting fewer and farther apart. The old rules still hold. It’s only the medium that has changed. You need to know the rules before you have the Knowledge to break them.

Lastly, getting back the message, one message across the entire band width and you have a start to achieve the harmony you need.

Larson Notes & Satire: 

Need insight and direction for your social media marketing? Take a look at Linked Local Network:  http://www.linkedlocalnetwork.com/linked-local-web/

Through this tool we have a system that through the power of the group, because as a landing page that is a page within a page you have other’s puling raw leads in your direction. Really it’s true. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. And we have seen those companies web sites getting a 14.7% lowering (the lower the score the better) in their Alexa rankings!

No data?

No followers?

No direction?

No plan?

Then come to us. We ask the questions to get your marketing in key and harmonious.

We offer a 5 step digital social review.

Step 1: Domain Review

Step 2: Website Review

Step 3: Google Review

Step 4: Social Review

Step 5: Content Review

If you need more online activity we have answers.

If you need a Landing Page for your web site, consider one of our Signature Pages that will bring your company's web site not just more hits but good solid sales leads. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. Call us 847-794-8710 or 847-991-1294. I'll get you set up. And it even works on those $10 and $15 a month sites.

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

The Businesses of Social Media

Social Media Marketing is a must  for businesses these days. It is one of the easiest and fastest ways to promote your business across town or across the world.  If you are looking for a good marketing strategy for  your products or services, you can use these networks as an important tool for marketing and expect an increase in sales.

To be engaged in Social Media Marketing you need to be Listening, Engaging and Collaborating all the time. This is not like traditional advertising or marketing where you are always pushing your message. It is a balancing act of working your message in a diverse engaging way. Put that together with the speed of Social and it can add a totally new dimension to your businesses marketing attack. Social media marketing allows you to reach out to a large online base of internet active people. You can now get in touch with your targeted audience and potential customers. Social gives you the opportunity to offer quick responses to the good and take care of crisis control management like never before when needed.

You can now spread information about the company’s services and products and get feedback at the same time. Create brand awareness and give broad based exposure to your business. It’s all here. Small or large business, social doesn’t care.

Social media is an outstanding marketing channel in today’s world. As the trend of online marketing is growing at a jet speed, it is important that your business is exposed to the social networking websites.

Engage your social world by providing them useful  and relevant content.
Ask questions to your 3-F’s family friends and fans.
Hold contests and surveys.
Execute on your marketing campaigns.
Measure success and goal conversions.
Provide customer service.
Listen to product ideas and feedback from customers.
Deliver a consistent branding.

Need insight and direction into social media marketing for your business? Join the club. Our club, on Linked Local Network:  http://www.linkedlocalnetwork.com/linked-local-web/

Larson Notes & Satire:  

One of the major benefits of social media is the conversion rates. It is much easier to convert the your 3F’s  to become customers. We work with our clients to understand their business, the audience they need to be targeting and create a customized strategy. If you are looking for some support in getting started, contact us and we can get you started to.

No data?
No followers?
No direction?
No plan?

We ask the questions so you can make the right choices socially:

Should your business be on social media?
What networks should you choose?
How do you create a great profile?
What type of content should you post, and when should you post it?
Everyone must answer these questions, including business owners who want to create a strategy for their own business, marketing managers who need to convince their CEO to invest in social media and consultants who create strategies for clients in a wide variety of industries.

We offer a 5 step digital social review.
Step 1: Domain Review
Step 2: Website Review
Step 3: Google Review
Step 4: Social Review
Step 5: Content Review

If you need more online activity we have answers.

If you need a Landing Page for your web site, consider one of our Signature Pages that will bring your company's web site not just more hits but good solid sales leads. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. Call us 847-794-8710 or 847-991-1294. I'll get you set up. And it even works on those $10 and $15 a month sites.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

Struggling With B2B Social Media Marketing?

Need insight and direction into social media marketing for your business? Join the club.

No data?
No followers?
No direction?
No plan?

Chances are some one has done all the hard work for you and all you need to do is look.

I’ll show you how to research the competition’s social game plan so you can build a solid social media strategy of your own.

When it comes to social media marketing, you need to answer a few fundamental questions:

Should your business be on social media?
What networks should you choose?
How do you create a great profile?
What type of content should you post, and when should you post it?
Everyone must answer these questions, including business owners who want to create a strategy for their own business, marketing managers who need to convince their CEO to invest in social media and consultants who create strategies for clients in a wide variety of industries.

Fortunately, you can find answers through the process of competitor research.

Keep reading to discover how to get insight on your competitors.

The 3 Fs Friends, Family Followers obsession?
While you shouldn’t become obsessed about how many fans or followers you have, keep in mind that the numbers, your numbers you have at the beginning of your campaign can help you answer the following important questions.

1. Should your business be on social media?

If your competitors have an audience on social media, whether it is 100 people or 100,000, you should be too. If you aren’t, your competitors are tapping into and gobbling up a customer base that your business is completely missing out on.

2. Which networks should your business focus on?

After the big 3 Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter that a strong look at some of the others. In Social Media Marketing you never really know where for your kind of company you should be. It only really takes one set of eyes to become a major account. That set could be the actual decision maker or their significant other or a possible influencer.  With a little creativity, you have a chance to reach a group of customers, any group with little or no competition.

3. Have you reached all of your target audience?

If you have been using social media for a while, but not getting results, take a look at the size of your 3 F’s. Sorry but large numbers work better. You may have a lot of Fans who could care less about your company but again I cannot say this enough, IT ONLY TAKES 1. So think about it, do you still have room to grow your network? Probably.


Larson Notes & Satire:  We offer a 5 step digital social review.

Step 1: Domain Review
Step 2: Website Review
Step 3: Google Review
Step 4: Social Review
Step 5: Content Review

If you need more online activity we have answers.


If you need a Landing Page for your web site, consider one of our Signature Pages that will bring your company's web site not just more hits but good solid sales leads. Companies that are using a Sig Page are seeing 30% to 40% more web activity on their existing web sites. Call us 847-794-8710 or 847-991-1294. I'll get you set up. And it even works on those $10 and $15 a month sites.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

Generate User Reviews

If you are doing any kind of Social Media Marketing, no matter what size your company is, you should know how important it is to leverage reviews in both online and offline marketing efforts. Some studies are showing that 72% of consumers trust online customer reviews as much as a personal recommendations. Who’d have guessed, huh? Obviously any reviews no matter how or where it comes from can help to get customers to make buying decision.

There are of course a few areas that can make you get a little worried about reviews. There is of course the fear of negative feedback. Then there is the fear of time needed to develop and implement a successful reviewing tool while obtaining trustworthy, relevant reviews.

To help you, here are a few ways to help you get user reviews without really trying too hard.

1. ASK YOUR FANS: 

It’s not against the rules to ask. Really, just ask the 3 F’s (family, friends, fans) to make their love of you and your services known to the world, via a formal review. After all if you can’t as your 3 F’s who can you ask?

2. FOLLOW UP A POST-SERVICE/PURCHASE:

There’s a key time frame to follow up with a customer who has purchase a product or service from you to allow you to ask for a review. I cannot tell you what that is because it is different for every kind of company category, but one exists. You might need to test different time lengths to find what the optimal follow-up period for your business is but then you will know and you will never have to miss an opportunity to send a follow-up email, letter or phone call asking how a customer’s experience was.

3. ESTABLISH A PRESENCE ON MAJOR REVIEW SITES:

Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo Local, Merchant Circle, Storeboard, Citysearch, etc. are all good trusted sites to get and posts reviews. Or at least they want you to think so. Now I’m not argue so go get your company listed with a profile, then keep it updated and respond to all user comments both good and bad. These review sites also impact SEO, so by establishing a profile, your company can gain greater visibility, attract more hits and, hopefully, more reviews.

4. MAKE IT MULTI CHANNEL FRIENDLY:

As those in the online space are well aware, mobile and tablet usage is gaining traction. To ensure that customers visiting your site, regardless of the kind of device they are using, can easily access and enter their reviews, you need to make it multi channel friendly. Need help with this, call us and we can make it happen.

5. CREATE USER PROFILES:

As ego-driven people, we tend to act or as the case may be, write differently if we know someone is watching. By not allowing anonymous reviews, customers are not only likely to give more accurate reviews, but also more helpful ones because their name is on it (literally). In the B2B world, user profiles can also create an opportunity for user promotion, as a reviewer they can enter their company name as the user name and get a company plug.

6. PUBLISH REVIEWS FOR THE PUBLIC:

There’s no sense asking for reviews, if other people cannot see them. Additionally, those who previously read reviews that encouraged them to make a purchase, are more likely to come back and review their own experience.

7. OFFER DIFFERENT WAYS TO REVIEW A PRODUCT/SERVICE:

Not all of us are great writers. So the problem is if a customer , who isn’t great writer, could give you are great review you might want to offer them an option of multiple choice questions in order to rate your product or service on a scale of 1-10, this way all those non-writers will be able to leave an favorable opinion.

9. OFFER TRIAL PERIODS:

If you want reviews, but don’t have any customers, to leave them, one tactic is to offer trial period for your service. Do not make the condition that they have to review your service in the end, but offer the service and hope your quality offering and your follow-ups brings them back to give you a positive review.

10. WORK WITH A REVIEW AGGREGATOR:

There are companies out there that help companies generate reviews through referral engines (like us). They help to take the guess work out of the process by sending follow-up emails on your behalf, working with your social media profiles and offering customers a follow-up options to your business.

Larson Notes & Satire:  Social media can be made to be better. It just takes a little work. Now you know a few more tricks of the trade.

And if you want your business to be more and have more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

Email: Triggers To Up Your ROI

Whether you're a small business or an international company with lots of branches "People do business with the people they know, like and trust." And your success is based on building relationships.

The larger your list of the 3 F’s (friends family and friends), the more daunting the task of sustaining one-on-one communication. Fortunately, today's online relationship marketing technologies give marketers the ability to join together the things they know about their 3F’s with the capability to automate specific types of messages that are based on a customer action.

With behavior-based marketing you can actually shorten the time and effort, while at the same time build trust, increase engagement and creating new possibilities. But, to do this, you must have some major elements in place to have success.

Common Reference points
According to the Direct Marketing Association's Email Experience Council, directed email campaigns have 96 percent higher open rates and 125 percent higher click through rates than other kinds of emails, yet sadly they only comprised 2.8 percent of the total email sent. The most common types are the "Welcome" emails you get that are sent right after your sign-up has been completed, and the "Thank you" email, sent when someone has just made a purchase. If you've at least got these kinds of customer communications automated, you’re at least on the right road!

But there are so many more functions you can automate. Things like like birthdays, anniversaries and abandoned shopping carts and the like. But what are some lesser-recognized opportunities that organizations can take advantage of?

Product Lifecycle Emails
Using a campaign that involves the lifecycle of a product or service is a very powerful way to cross-sell and build a customer relationship.

"What is a lifecycle email campaign?" simply put, it is one that is based on predictable future as to the needs or desires of the prospect or customer, as shown by a previous action. This then activates a series of emails designed to be sent out at prescheduled intervals. These kinds of campaigns can also be based on certain behaviors or changes of status as well

For your prospects that are not easily targeted, you can look at their data to better understand the way they wish to be communicated with. Ask yourself how do they want to hear from you and what do they want to hear? In looking at their unique preferences, share offers, competitions, events, product information and other details that will effectively elicit a response.

Status Change Events
Another often overlooked chance to touch your customer base revolves around changes they make. This could be one that indicates they have become even more attached to your brand, for example, if they started following you on Twitter.

A change based on these types of actions taken is a great way for a relationship to build and follower retention. It shows your customer that you are listening to them and that you care respect them and what they like and, don’t like.

In today's challenging economic climate, every customer matters. According to Adobe's 2012 report, "The ROI from Marketing to Existing Online Customers," 40 percent of revenue comes from returning or repeat purchasers, who represent only 8 percent of all visitors.

Keep consistency and frequency in mind: When done right a targeted campaign should seem perfectly natural. Make sure all of your data is integrated and up to date: When you make the choice to build a relationship with your customer this way, you need to keep your data up to date. If a customer suddenly receives something that makes no sense, it can totally take away any trust you've worked to build.

Larson Notes & Satire:  If you work at it it will happen. As in all things it’s about being consistent. This kind of an email attack can only help you in that consistency. Keep it constant, keep it focused, keep it directed and you will get results.

If you need help we could make you an email star!

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

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

More Fans For Smaller Following

As companies get more Facebook fans for their company page there tends to be a drop off point where they reach a smaller and smaller part of their overall fan base. PageLever, which is a company that does Facebook analytics, found that as you gain a larger and larger group of fans the lower the reach any individual post has, on a percentage basis.

If your company has a small group of fans of say less than 10,000 (don’t I wish I had that many people fanning my company) people you should be getting 20% or more hits on any given post you put out at almost any time of the day. But companies like Coca-Cola and Walmart, who have more than 1 million fans, are only going to get about 6% of them to see a post -- unless they pay.

When you start to run out of the 3Fs of friends, family and followers or the 3C’s of customers, contacts and competitors you start to drop. I guess I don’t have enough friends in my life.


Larson Notes & Satire:  Can Facebook work? Yes. Can it work without paying? Yes. But then I need to ask what is or does the word work mean. On a normal day I am getting not 20%. I’m not seeing 10% but a mighty 9% of my fans see a normal post that I place in my Company’s Facebook fan page. Is this good or what? Well yes because of that 9% is quality and I have to face it my company is not a name that gets floated around the kitchen table. But then I’m not done yet because I go and take my post of 9% and pick up another 26% off of twitter, the grab that same post and while I’m at it grab another 19% off LinkedIn. This is how Social Media Marketing works or could be working. Don’t bet the house on just one channel but use a broad brush to paint your pathway.


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


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
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.

Making Warm Leads Warmer

I have always felt there are 3 parts to the buying cycle, awareness, evaluation and decision.

Now I will not say that telesales or teleprospecting can’t make cool leads warm but now with the advent of Social Media Marketing a you don’t have to hand off a bunch of icy cold sales leads to the telemarketing staff. I know it’s getting colder outside but please now you can now refine them to be (at least) luke warm from the start and have a greater understanding of who they are actually calling. No longer does it fall or have to fall on the poor telemarketer to delve into finding out who is on the other end of the line, what they want, if they have even a remote interest,  they can (will) know. And with knowledge comes power. And power comes more clients and sales. Working with a more directed and powerful call to action can only help everyone in the world of finding my qualified leads. How powerful can it get? Give me a call at 847-991-1294

Larson Notes & Satire:  I have said for years that with the right list my job as a telemarketing gets very easy. How easy?  Very very easy. Normally I feel good if I get 1 action item every 40 minutes of work but I have see a good focused list giving an action item ever 15 minutes.

People come to us to work miracles, to pull rabbits out of hats, to make clients appear out of thin air. We are the magic men who warm things up to make life easier for the rest of you.

But if the magic doesn’t bring in enough revenue the rest doesn’t matter.


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


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

Go Take A NAP

Go Take A NAP

Ya you heard me, go take a nap!

Seems that marketers all over the place are trying to connect with customers and prospects. Social, web, mobile, email, direct mail, phone. Go take a nap.

NAP is nothing less than Name, Address and phone number.

If you’re into social media marketing you want the 3 F words working for you (friends, family, fans), lots of them. But to take it to the next level you want to take a NAP with them.

This kind of central information is the very foundation for business growth, off line and online. Whatever kind, this is base marketing information you need so you can have a consistent attack. You have to do this this day in and day out, over and over. After that you need to keep accurate and up-to-date.


Larson Notes & Satire:  We NAP all the time. We take naps for ourselves and we take NAP’s for our customers. Name, address and phone number. This is not marketing done from the hip but thought out planning to make your customer base strong and ever building.


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


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

Social Media: What’s Important To B2B

What’s your most important Social Media site? IN a survey it as shown that for B2B
30% LinkedIn
20% Blogging
19% Facebook
16% Twitter
  8% YouTube
  6% Customer Community
  1% Google

Social Media is starting to evolve as a major tool in a B2B marketer’s tool box. From what I am hearing 32% of marketers are “very” or “fully” engaged in marketing through social media channels. That is compared with 21% last year and to project we are expecting 53% next year.

They are coming in kicking and screaming but they are coming as reluctant players, but here they are.

So why are they on Social Media?
70% - Branding
58% Website traffic building
56% Product promotion
45% Search engine optimization
45% Competitive intelligence

Where are they?
83% LinkedIn
80% Twitter
79% Facebook
60% YouTube
50% Blogging

BUT when asked which channels they place the most importance, LinkedIn was #1 followed by Blogging.

Larson Notes & Satire:  I put a high ranking on Blogging. I put a high ranking on any kind of content building. If you do it right you can have your posts stringing in to different SM sites as needed. If you need help we have experts doing it all the time for people.
Getting back to SM. I found 1 key posting tool we have been using and getting results and that is (of all things) craigslist. Ya, lol, craigslist might be a place where you want to be marketing.
Think about it. If you even think you can pick up a quick profitable customer over there, go for it. I know we do.
On a side note spent the day at Graph Expo today, We will have some very interesting new services coming out of those meetings, so keep watching.

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

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://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
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.


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://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

Content Marketing & SEO

There have been what we might call radical shifts in Search and the relationship to Content. Some of this is in part due to Social Media and some is from the Search Engines efforts to keep content found pertinent, fresh and timely. How many times have you done a search can come up with a page full of results for 3 years ago? I know I have.

 

To keep your experience personal search engines have come to understand content. Believe it or not through integration and monitoring of different social media sites SE’s are finding ways to keep up.

 

For you to stay at the peak performance level you need to not just acknowledge but totally embrace the idea of content as the new king of the internet.

 

1. Create a process to create: Have a process in place before you start any content Search Engine Strategy. Have all or as many as possible internal infrastructure in place from all key players who will be impacted.

 

2. Get a Grasp on what you want to say: What do you want to be saying to your customers and prospects? What are their needs, wants and desires? Then with matched content using keywords in your writing to address those issues, go for it.

 

3. Where should your content reside: You need to be posting where your customers and prospects are.  This could take some study of the social media sites to know where you need to go.

 

4. Build your online relationships: facebook, google+, linkedin, pinterest, merchantcircle, storeboard, etc. work your 3F’s.

 

5. Optimize your content: You need to make sure you are using solid content packed with key words and phrases. You need to be thinking SEO tactics when you construct your content. Links, embedded coding, back links to web site. If your content is addressing needs your clients and prospects have you are right on track to have a winner.

 

Larson Notes & Satire:  If you can share some of the personal you, but remember to use the right words to push you up the search engine ladder. For social media people love stories, but search engines could care less.

 

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

 

 

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

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.

 

 

 

 

Get The Telemarketing Bump

Say all you want about Direct Mail, speed, cost, etc.  vs. email but it remains a fact that the response rate for mail is so much better.

According to a survey from the Direct Marketing Association the response rate for Direct Mail is 3.4%  and email marketing is only giving a mere 0.12%.

The report was from an online survey of 481 respondents and was based off of data from 29billion emails and 2 billion online display ads.

Those are facts from real live programs run by people who know what they are doing.


Larson Notes & Satire:  There you have it. The costs are up but the payout huge. If you want more mileage out of your list, mail wins hands down. Now, just think if you do a combo of Mail and Telemarketing.

Now nothing is for certain but when you put direct mail piece together with a telemarketing follow up I can almost guarantee you get a bump in your numbers by 5 to 8%. Now if Uncle Howard’s math in correct you could have a double digit program running. Put in some social media marketing into play and . . .


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


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://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
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.

Social Media Metrics Exposure vs Frequency

GM pulled of its ads from Facebook, this led many marketers to wonder if advertising on facebook or any social media site is a good thing. It is, and it isn’t. With 900 million (900,000,000) active users can you ignore facebook and all of social media? Is it worth paying for? Another good question.

In a study by Resolution Media and Kenshoo seperatly, they7 looked at the effectiveness of Facebook ads, these 2 companies analyzed global data of 65 billion (65,000,000,000) Facebook ad impressions and 20 million (20,000,000) Facebook ad clicks over a wide range of brands and categories. Now remember these are ad clicks and not what social media or even (in my humble opinion) how social media marketing should be used to get maximum exposure for you.
What is the long term viability of facebook and social media advertising?

“Social media has quickly become one of the preferred channels for brands, and when done right, can foster meaningful relationships between brands and consumers in ways that were never before possible,” says Alan Osetek, president of Resolution Media. “The purpose of this study was to define what ‘doing it right’ means in terms of measureable actions and outcomes, and giving marketers a model for demonstrating effectiveness.”

The study showed that Sponsored Stories and Post Ads receive about double the click-through rate (CTR) of Social and Web Ads, which means that ads with social context resonate better with audience members likely due to a personal connection. Additionally, Post Ads draw more attention because they usually feature special offers and are larger than normal ads. I guess this is true because they did a study on it but, well I usually ignore those kinds of adds myself unless I see it and it really matters to me at that specific time.

The data also shows that higher CTR leads to lower average cost-per-click (CPC) rates, with Post Ads averaging a CPC of $0.24, Sponsored Stories averaging $0.46, Web Ads averaging $0.59 and Social Ads averaging the highest CPC at $0.78. But for advertisers that choose the cost-per-thousand (CPM) model, Sponsored Stories are the most expensive ad type – averaging a CPM of $0.31 compared to Web Ads that averaged the lowest CPM of $0.18. That could become a lot of money, couldn’t it? Hope you have deep pockets  for the start up. This might be more pricy than direct mail.

The study also showed a new metric called “Exposure Rate,” which measures targeted engagement on Facebook. This metric determines the percentage of the target audience that you are reaching out to and exposing your message to. High exposure rates correlate to a high CTR and conversion rates, with the ads that reached 76-100 percent of their intended audience also receiving an average CTR of .038 percent and conversion rate of 31.92%. In comparison, ads that only reached 0-25 percent of the intended audience resulted in an average CTR of 0.028% and a conversion rate of 11.81 percent. High exposure rates don’t guarantee success, you need to balance this metric with frequency and I might add time of day, to find the number of times the average Facebook user has been exposed to your ad. The study shows that there is a conversion rate drop-off of 32 percent when ads are shown to consumers more than six times. This means that the ad is being shown too frequently, your target will start to ignore it. Additionally, the CTR averaged 39 percent lower after the sixth impression.

One way that marketers can optimize exposure rate and frequency is by maintaining a CPC above the maximum recommended bid. This is because the study’s data showed that the exposure rate was higher for ads with CPCs that were greater than the maximum recommended bid, driving the average exposure rate up by 11.5 percent. Additionally, the data showed that frequency dropped when the CPC was above the maximum recommended bid, by an average of 1.7 exposures.

Larson Notes & Satire:  We all are not made of money and for most of us PFC makes no sense.  Social Media still comes down to the 3 F’s, family friends and fans.  Nothing else really matters. Keep your F’s safe, close, protected, happy and interacted.

When “they” say “doing it right” what are they really saying? Do I hear spend money? In almost anything I read from street smart marketers and sales people it is interaction. Seems funny that my postings are getting an exposure rate of 12-18%. It does not seem to matter what time of the day it is, the % is almost always the same. Would PFC be a good thing?

Then I need to really question paying a higher rate for CPC. Come on who is fooling who here? I’m not a big advocate of paying for clicks in the first place. Now it may have its place but does have its place but not as the center part of your marketing plan. Think long term, think organically.
Then start thinking trichannel. social, telemarketing, direct mail and watch your numbers really take off.

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

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://www.linkedin.com/in/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.

Extend Your Reach and Make an Impact

The Reach
In the US there are over 149 million residences, businesses and PO Boxes throughout the country.
Did you know that 98% of people residences and businesses, bring their mail in every day it is delivered and 77% sort through it immediately?

That 15% of all consumers receive at least one catalog and 12% are receiving at least a letter of postcard or flyer from a company looks at and makes a purchase on that company’s web site?
According to one survey of 6,400 online shoppers households that receive printed catalogs shop online more often and spend more time at a company’s web site regardless of age, income, region or education.

The Impact
Direct mail is over 52% of all mail in the United States
The Direct Mail industry employs over 3.1 million people
The global direct mail advertising services is forecast to reach $25 BILLION in 2015.
On average those who receive a catalog spent 28% more and buy 28% more items than those who do not receive a catalog
Direct order B2B Direct Marketing sales are projected to increase 5.4% over the next year.

Larson Notes & Satire:  So why am I so excited about direct mail? The percentages and the numbers make if (still) a force to be reckoned with. Think about it double digit percentages? How you ignore it. Then you add in a few other channels and …..

And the growth? Looks like above GNP to me!

I really don’t care of your B2B or B2C. This has to be one of your channels you are using.  In any comprehensive lead generation plan I put together I put in direct mail, (usually a postcard) Why? (Let me bang my head against the wall for a second), a direct mail program will net you 1% to 3% return. A telemarketing stand alone program should net you 1% to 3% return. Though in a little Social Media and you are going to be getting 12%-15% return. Most people and companies don’t do it because of the cost or perceived cost.

Oh well you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.


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

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://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
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.

Myths of B2B Word of Mouth

Myth 1: WOM is not influential in B2B.Fact: WOM is the #1 influencer of B2B purchase decisions. Few B2B customers ever buy anything without first asking around about their experiences with the vendor and/or product. In a recent survey of B2B decision makers by Forrester Research, 84% of respondents said Word of Mouth recommendations influence their purchase decisions. While nearly all B2B companies have blogs, only 24% of respondents said they trust blogs. Other research firms also have found that WOM rules in B2B.
84% - WOM
60% - Salesperson
59% Web sites
58% Print publications
45% - In person events
43% - Analysts
43% - Social Media
41& - E-Mail
40% - Web events
30% - Interactive Media
24% - Blogs

Myth 2: Business people are not active users of social media.Fact: Business people are first of all people and they are buyers and furthermore even more socially active than the average consumers. They buy things not just for themselves but for their businesses as well. Forrester recently surveyed B2B buyers to learn about their usage of social media. The results were off the charts. B2B buyers are nearly 20% more active creators of social media and twice as active consumers of social content. Based on the survey results, Forrester told B2B marketers: If you’re not using WOM/social as part of your marketing mix, you’re late to the party.

Myth 3: Businesspeople don’t advocate companies and products.Fact: Businesspeople are more active Advocates of companies and products than consumers.
Another myth that has pervaded B2B marketing is that businesspeople don’t advocate companies and products. Fact is, B2B executives are more active recommenders than the average consumer, according to a study conducted by WOM research from Keller Fay. The study showed that business executives have 118 WOM conversations weekly compared to 100 for consumers. On average, executives mentioned 102 brands times per week compared to 77 for consumers. In 61% of the WOM conversations, executives recommended a brand or product to a peer or colleague. 40% of B2B Buyers are Advocates.

Myth 4: B2B companies only have a few Advocates.Fact: B2B companies have many Advocates. As B2B marketers know, within a single account there are multiple people who spread Word of Mouth. This includes end users, gate keepers, technical buyers, decision makers, and others. While some are more influential than others, all of these people are part of a Word of Mouth Community within any one account. At a single company, there may be 500 people who are part of a Word of Mouth community. Thus, a B2B company that has 100 customers may have a total Word of mouth community of 50,000 people (100 accounts x 500 people.) Assuming that 40% of these people are Advocates, the company could have 20,000 Advocates (40% of 50,000). This number is a large, highly influential, yet under-leveraged Virtual Sales force. By energizing their Advocates, a B2B companies can amplify positive Word of Mouth and drive qualified referral leads and sales in a continuous flow.

Myth 5: The impact of Word of Mouth can’t be measured.Fact: The impact of Word of Mouth can be measured as precisely as any form of online marketing.
There are dozens of tools that enable B2B marketers to measure the quantity and quality of Word of Mouth about their companies and products in the blogosphere and on social networks like Twitter.
Advanced Word of Mouth analytics enable B2B marketers to go beyond measuring buzz to measuring business and marketing results. For example, advanced analytics track Advocate impact on open rates, click through rates, and conversion rates. These advanced analytics enable marketers to harness the proven power of Word of Mouth and track its impact as precisely as a PPC or email marketing campaign.

Larson Notes & Satire:  There are many good ways to marketing a company and no one way works good all by itself.  If you can work 3 or 4 tools in tandem you will have a much better attack and you results will follow off the charts. Point is that most of us are not working our 3 f’s (family, friends and fans) hard enough. We don’t engage them, we don’t work with them, heck are we even telling them what they need to know to push us and our companies out to their spheres of influence.

Now I never ask for or give recommendations to people or companies I know nothing about. I get enough requests from people asking for referrals that I have no knowledge of and I’ll be damned if I will recommend someone I know nothing about nor have I ever used their service of product.
Make you one of my friends or fans? Yes that I will do but you need to earn the right to get more out of me.

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

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.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
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.

What Is Up With B2B Social Media Marketing

As we move into May or 2012, I thought it might be nice to take a snap shot of what other B2B Marketers are doing in Social Media at the moment. Looking at the usage below, you will find no real changes in B2B SM Marketing. LinkedIn still rules with blogging and Facebook neck and neck.
30% - LinkedIn
20% - Blogging
19% - Facebook
16% - Twitter
 8% - YouTube
 6% - the 3 Fs (Friends, Followers, Family)
 1% - Google+

B2B User Preferences
LinkedIn is heads above everyone else, Facebook and Twitter (Blogging is not a SM site) virtually tied as alternative social media channels by b2b marketers. Then as you can see above YouTube, the 3 F’s, Then there are the other “guys” like Flickr, Digg,  Stumbleupon and Tumblr as favorite social channels.

No, most marketers engaged in SM are using a combination of several channels, there are clearly defined preferences. When b2b marketers were asked to choose the one most important method that they use for their social outreach), LinkedIn was the clear leader, chosen by 30% of respondents. Following it were blogging (20%), Facebook (19%) Twitter (16%) and YouTube (8%).

The Obstacles
The biggest problem B2B marketers are facing when it comes to SM is (after the legal department) an overall lack of resources. 70% of Business Marketing Managers find this to be the major problem toward implementing a good solid social media marketing program. Other problems encountered are: 57% a poorly defined success metrics and key performance indicators.  44% a “lack of knowledge about social media” is holding them and their companies back. Management resistance, cited by 22%, may stem from the preceding three obstacles.

Larson Notes & Satire:  As you all know I am working Facebook, then LinkedIn with some twitter. But with Ping.fm I can get a unified message to Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Plaxo, Google Buzz, Tumblr, Bebo, Flickr to name a few extras with one quick “PingIt” And, the faster the better

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

Want to be a Blogger but can’t write?
Try our ghost blog writing service!

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
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson


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.

10 Reasons To Use Social Media Marketing

Ok let’s go to the basics here. Social Media Marketing can work in bringing in new business. I know I have a number of new accounts that I can attribute entirely to my social media sites.

But what are the top 10 reasons you might want to take a little bit of your time to putting your efforts into SM, or at least my top 10?

1. Cost EffectiveMost social media sites are free or have a free option to start with. Going in free is a good way to test the water and see if there is any action your company can take advantage of. If the site produces you can then belly up to the table and buy into more and a higher degree of exposure.

2. ReachSocial Media allows you to reach a wider audience. Consumers and companies are increasingly more reliant on technology and social media. SM gives you a way to reach out to people who would not know about your company if you did not post up a few profile pages.

3. Connection Social Media can allow you a more personal way to connect with your prospects and customer base. A traditional marketing campaign misses out on the back and forth communication your business can engage in with your target. Only telemarketing can give you that same hands on communication.

4. Timely Social Media allows you to instantly send out information to your followers. As in a good well-crafted email SM is the best non offensive way to be “in their face”.

 5. FlexiblySocial Media gives you the kind of flexibility a real time promotion needs as you adapt it to needs and comments of your audience. It might seem too informal to tradition marketing or PR managers but it gets you to the very heart of your prospects needs, wants and desires

6. PromotionsSM is an excellent way to run out a promotion to see what kind of fish are biting, today! You need to get the word out and get it out fast which is why your 4 F’s (followers, friends, fans and family) as so important. SM allows you to share more faster.

7. An Easier Referral WOM or Word of Mouth advertising or marketing is made more compact through Social Media. SM makes if vastly easier for your customers to share in your information with their 4F’s as you transform your WOM a more encompassing marketing attack.

8. Increased Wed TrafficThis is fact, the more you promote your web page just on sheer weight of your postings you will get more people looking at your web page. And as we all know the more hits you get you 1, might get some sales and your site will seem more important to the Google spiders and you will get a better organic ranking.

9. BrandingAs you seek to establish who and what your company is or wants to be the messages, photos, links and videos you post on your pages  build an image of your company. Think before you post and you will create a consistent tone and message about who and what your company is.

10. HiringAs you grow you will need new people joining your company. Well, maybe yes and maybe no, but this will or can put you in front of new possible associates. They will know you, understand you and want to be part of what you are doing before they even contact you about working for your company.
 
Larson Notes & Satire:  Always go back to the basics every now and then. Basics can get you back to center so you can move forward. Yes, even I get on a target that leads to No-Wheresville. That is the time to look at what got you to where you are so you can get to where you need to be.

 It takes time, it takes patience, it you don’t have either one of those SM is just a play toy. I can tell you I have gotten business off of Social Media, (yes I to track every new customer as to how I got them). So I know this works but only if you work it.

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

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Howard Larson
Larson & Associates, a Division of US Telemarketing Group LLC
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
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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.