Showing posts with label target marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label target marketing. Show all posts

Monday, March 4, 2024

Industry Tech Outlook / Admired Leaders of 2024

 


Howard Larson

& Larson & Associates


has been nominated to receive the
Industry Tech Outlook
Admired Leaders of 2024


Working out of covid, the accomplishments gained in 2023 as an industry role model with innovations for both associates and clients have showed how Howard has continued to be a leader and focused business model. 2023 has again showed that the business model of
 Big Fish in a Little Pond that Howard Larson and Larson & Associates starting using back in in 1996 has not only worked but brought greater job satisfaction to employees and customers.

Remaining quick to shift resources to where they are needed has allowed us to give us a faster response to the needs of our clients and our people. It has not been easy especially over the last four years between covid and high inflation not to mention supply chain issues. We thank God that in our virtual business model we are as cost contained and adept to take advantages of circumstances. 
Our philosophy of the Big Fish in a Little Pond and purposefully staying small, seeking out small to mid-sized companies, the majority of our clients continue to be small businesses with revenue of $500,000 to 50 Million with 3 to 15 sales people remains in tact. 


2023 with inflation our year over year clients who are using the Larson & Associates 3 Legged Stool Method of Marketing have been seeing growth above 17.9% but more importantly grabbing increased market share with bold tactics and inflation beating market share expansion programs.

Those in the trade show area have seen lead follow-up and connections three times the national average. We continue to push our clients deeper into this market area because quite frankly, trade shows are where the customers are. In seminars we have attended this winter with speakers from Freeman and McCormick Place we found untapped marketing areas where we can expand into and see even greater growth for our clients

Thank you for your continued support of the Larson Philosophy of Marketing as in April we start our 50th year in business. It is because of you that we are still here and continue to be a success. It is your belief in us that makes us who we are. You give us the freedom to work quick, hard and fast. You are the people who let us out run, out produce and out perform the competition.

If you are not yet a
Larson & Associates client
you should be.


Year after year we out perform other marketing agencies. Why? We are street fighters. If we do not do what needs to be done, we know where to get the experience, the knowledge and the know-how. We have been around the block a few times. You can do what we are able, you can not get what we offer without working on the front lines, in the trenches. If your marketing or advertising company is sitting behind their desk they are doing you a disservice. Things change too fast to to not be involved in the day to day work of lead generation and marketing.

If you are not ready to expand I understand, enjoy. But if you are one of the few that says now is the time we have room for 7 new clients in April. Not 8 only 7. When we get our 7 we are done expanding for a while. You will just have to wait in line until we have an opening for new clients. 

We are here not only about the money but life. We are looking for not just companies to make a dollar off of. We are searching for companies that have the positive image through service to their customers and their community. These exceptional companies help make the world a great place to live, work and play. If that is you, we want to talk with you, today.

Larson & Associates


We Make Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better

Larson & Associates

3475 Steeplechase Way    Suite 101
Grayslake IL 60030
847-991-1294


Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Telemarketing: It Still Works

 

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Telemarketing? Really?

In consumer calling, robo calling, AI calling has decimated the industry but for businesses to get in the market fast picking up the phone and calling a targeted list is the best and quickest way to get it done.

That is why we are here!

Picking up the phone lets us generate leads, make sales and marketing activities to directly connect and interact with customers  and prospects in real time.

For us if we can't follow up with a phone call it is not worth doing!

Has Telemarketing Been Replaced?

Don't count on it!

With the invasion of digital marketing, traditional marketing tactics like telemarketing have been replaced by social media and content marketing. Really? Not where I am sitting.

People are no longer interested in receiving these calls and they also have the means to ignore and block them altogether. Additionally, they can shop online, which makes the whole premise of telemarketing redundant. Let me ask you can digital marketing ad ask for the order or appointment? No.

So even with all that criticism, cold calling still has its advantages. It can prove useful as a tool for nurturing leads and prospects and building high-quality databases. While it can be very annoying to receive calls from strangers compelling you to buy things, modern B2B is telemarketing has become a much more exact science.

So no wonder that over HALF, yes half, of the B2B marketers still use telemarketing for effective lead generation and use it as one of the most productive tactics to generate sales.

So Exactly What Is Telemarketing?

The very word telemarketing brings to mind all those infuriating and inconvenient calls requesting us to buy things we don’t need. AI calling. Voice over calling. Rude and obnoxious. 

However, it has been shown time and time again to be a handy tool for businesses that have limited budgets for promoting their products and services. When incorporated with other marketing tactics, (like the Larson 3 legged stool method) telemarketing can prove to be very effective at making your entire program work for your marketing campaign.

Inbound telemarketing consists of taking queries or order calls generated through advertising, direct mail or any other marketing channel.

On the other hand, outbound telemarketing directly targets the customer to sell products or services – cold calling. And yes your targeted list makes all the difference to your success.

Why Use Telemarketing When People Hate It?
Because It Works!


Telemarketing can be used either as an independent tactic or in combination with other marketing strategies to help achieve their sales target.

Here are some uses of telemarketing:

Selling
60% of marketing managers of Fortune top 500 companies testify to the effectiveness of telemarketing when it comes to reaching out to customers and closing sales. Telemarketing is used by companies to sell their products or services, tap into new markets and customer bases. Giving satisfaction to existing customers is just as crucial to a business as the reach out to prospects – telemarketers ensure that both get the attention they require and address their wants and needs.

Generating Leads
Telemarketing can play a huge role in creating leads and finding new customers. Through this tactic, you can reach out to potential customers and compile the lists of new prospects. The telemarketer then passes these updated lists to the highly trained sales people who can reach these customers to generate sales. They also identify the nature and requirements of the prospective customer and relay this information to the sales force but honestly most of the time a prospect does not have enough time for the telemarketer to drill in for qualifying questions. Following up after closing a sale is also a critical aspect for a telemarketer’s because a follow up with the generated leads can increase sales opportunities by 20%.

Compiling Information
Telemarketing can be a very efficient tool in analyzing the success of any marketing or sales campaign. Telemarketers can call and get in contact with customers to gather reviews and gauge levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction and relay it to the marketing team for analysis. Studies show that 17% of the average day for a salesman is spent in entering customer’s data. Compiling this information can then be used to target the prospective clients for the next marketing campaign or help in reconnecting with inactive clients and winning them back.
NOTE: Do not use surveys as a ploy to get information for a future sales and marketing attack. Be open and honest if that is your intent.

Enhancing Customer Experience
Connecting with inactive clients can prove to be more cost-effective than acquiring new clients. Studies have shown that it costs five times more to gain a new client than to retain the past one. Telemarketing can really help ensure a satisfactory customer experience. 

Telemarketing In A Digital Age

If you want to increase your business’s sales and increase revenues while keeping costs low, telemarketing is the solution to your problem.

It is a marketing tool that enables you to strike get personal with your consumers so that you can better understand their needs and requirements. 


Some advantages of a good telemarketing strategy are:

Deploy Marketing Automation
Telemarketing gives you the ability to track behavior trends and engagement levels of the prospects, getting an in-depth understanding of how to better cater to their needs. Let market automation do what it does best, nurturing prospects with repeated messages about their interests – this lets follow-up calls from being cold but in fact, warm, timely and more appropriate. When powered by marketing automation technology, a telemarketing campaign can bring in more inquiries and qualified leads than ever before.


Strengthen Quality Leads
The most significant advantage of telemarketing is its ability to generate leads which is the primary objective of businesses and companies. It has proven to be the fastest way of finding new customers by allowing the companies to communicate with potential customers who cannot be reached by the company. Lead generation is all about searching for the right customers whom many companies are unable to find and fail at having a good telemarketing strategy.

Saves Money
Choosing to do telemarketing over other marketing strategies is a great way to promote your business cost-effectively. It saves you from the hassle of allocating a budget for larger outside sales teams. You can also outsource the marketing process to other telemarketing companies who can do the legwork for you and give you an advantage over your competitors. This further allows you to control your budget  while leveraging its marketing activities to the max.  

Friendly And Accessible
Telemarketers are required to engage customers, and to do this they must be cordial yet professional towards them. Try doing that when we get told no again and again, hung up on, sometimes calling interesting things. Even in a business to business call we get "slammed". If you can handle the massive amount of rejection do it yourself but for the rest of you there is Larson. Though all this you need to keep friendly and approachable, not loosing your cool it actually compels the customer or prospect to listen to you. This is the true art of telemarketing.

Warm Calling
Cold calling can be very aggressive and might elicit negative reactions from your customers. The art of telemarketing is to be quick, direct and show respect. This will compel your customer and prospects to listen and might even lead to a sale, which is why we are making phone calls, right?

Work Smarter
Businesses networking sites like LinkedIn let telemarketers become the authority on lead generation. They can use professional networking resources to ensure the quality of all their leads so that they know who they are talking to and whether they are the right contact. This makes telemarketing more efficient and effective, giving marketers all the information they need to find and nurture strong leads. But online sites can not and do not replace a person reach out. 

So There You Are

Telemarketing continues to thrive in a digital age, despite the bad press that surrounds it. It has found its use in generating leads, while also selling and driving revenue for a business. The effectiveness of telemarketing in this digital world lies in the level of personalization and exclusivity that it offers to the customers. 1 on 1 calling. Telemarketing not only generates leads and sales for the company, but it is also an efficient way of keeping in touch with customers who can provide feedback for the company’s products and services. This allows the business to take constructive criticism and improve their services. Apart from this, it can also prove to be very cost-effective for businesses that have limited marketing budgets but want to generate maximum results from their campaigns. This only testifies to the fact that telemarketing is a benefit for businesses and companies even in the age of digital marketing. Nothing, nothing can replace the power of one-on-one conversations with a real live person, NOTHING!

Larson & Associates


We Make Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better

Larson & Associates

3475 Steeplechase Way    Suite 101
Grayslake IL 60030
847-991-1294


Copyright © 2023 Larson & Associates, All rights reserved.
Larson & Associates
3475 Steeplechase Way    Suite 101
Grayslake IL 60030
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates
www.larsonassociates.ws

Thursday, October 19, 2023

2023 Best Of Grayslake Awards Marketing Agency

 


Howard Larson
& Larson & Associates

have been nominated to receive the

2023 Best of Grayslake Award
Marketing Agency

Working in the recession years of 2022-23 has shown the business model of a virtual office that Howard Larson and Larson & Associates starting using back in in 2006, not just to lower our carbon footprint but to give the Larson & Associates staff greater job satisfaction and control has allowed us to give us a quicker response to the needs of our clients. Not that it has been easy the last few years. We we thank God that we have not lost 1 day or even 1 hour of work during this time.

Our philosophy of the Big Fish in a Little Pond and purposefully staying small, seeking out small to mid-sized companies, the majority of our clients continue to be small businesses with revenue of $500,000 to 10 Million with 3 to 12 sales people remains in tact. Or those companies exhibiting at major trade shows needing a marketing plan that has been shown to work.

In 2022-23 despite the recession, our year over year clients who are using the Larson & Associates 3 Legged Stool Method of Marketing have been seeing growth above 21.8% as well as grabbing increased market share with bold market share expansion programs. 

Thank you for your continued support of the Larson Philosophy of Marketing. Now in our 48th year it is because of you that we are still here and continue to be successful. It is your belief in us that makes us who we are. You give us the freedom to work quick, hard and fast. You are the people who let us out run, out produce and out perform the competition.

2023 Best of Grayslake Awards
in the category of Marketing Agency

The Grayslake Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Grayslake area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

Each year, the Grayslake Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Grayslake area a great place to live, work and play.

The Grayslake Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community's contributions to the U.S. economy.

Larson & Associates
  

We Make Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better

Copyright ©2023 Larson & Associates, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Larson & Associates
3475 Steeplechase Way     Suite 101
Grayslake IL 60030
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassocaites.ws
www.larsonassociates.ws

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

A GUIDE TO EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

 



Let's talk Email Campaigns! 

They are fast, nimble and trackable, but are they worth it? A long term marketing strategy is all about long game. If you are in it for the quick buck forget it. It takes time, trust, consistence and balance. If you are not willing to put in the effort marketing though email or any other way is not going to give you the big payday. It is like tossing your money in the waste basket. 

So he is the short, 73%, yes 73% of businesses use email as their primary source of communication? You need to be a part of that in your marketing, and long term email campaigns are where you need to be.

Long Term Email Needs 5 parts

Consistency
Balance
Commitment
Follow-up
Niche Target


Email campaigns are a series of marketing emails sent in sequence to lead your customers, past customers and prospects to the point of purchase or purchasing again. The again people are what you take to the bank! Banks tend to love long term customers. But then don't we all?

Long term campaigns that get open get their success from the value they provide to your audience, gradually providing them with good solid information, updates, products, and ideas on how you and your company can help them achieve their goals, not yours. In the process helping them have success with give you success. These emails tend be more education-based or more focused, personalized, and timely, which keeps the open rate high. If you sell office furniture talk about the productive trends into days line of chairs. If you sell insurance talk about the latest trends in workers comp. If you sell pallet loaders talk about how todays technology makes a working safer and give a higher ROI.

In marketing, you send these emails in a timely basis to your target's actions (or inactions) based on certain market triggers. These triggers can be specific to timelines, time frames, government reports or other any other event that makes you consistent in your marketing.


3 BENEFITS OF CONSISTENT EMAIL CAMPAIGNS



1. ENGAGE MORE CUSTOMERS WITH LESS THOUGHT

Having a consistent campaign can help increase your engagement and open rate, which is one reason they generate more revenue than other email campaigns. If no one opens the email you will not get any action.

The fact is, the click rate for consistent campaigns increases by over 121%, which is significant compared to other types of campaigns. People open emails from people they know with the understanding that they will get something useful from it. I keep sending you my emails and I hope you find them valuable. If you can use the information great. If you like what I say and how I think maybe you will use my company when you are in need of additional marketing efforts. You know how I think so the good thing for me is you know what to expect. No one likes surprises.

By sending relevant content proactively, you avoid much of the work needed to engage prospects because they stay engaged with you and do not opt out as much. Because your niche based leads are already interested, you can move them through the sales funnel faster. And can also help you reach out to unresponsive list members, saving you time and energy to the ones who do respond. 

Secondly, emails are sent out timely so you don’t have to monitor them constantly. You or your staff (or our staff) don’t have to spend a great deal of time creating and sending emails because we know the niche and the market problems and how we work to solve those needs.

Marketing with a niche driven email marketing campaign has the potential to dramatically increase sales simply through the ongoing nature of communication and common market connection.

2. REVENUE INCREASES WITH PRECISE SEGMENTATION

Through niche email marketing, your prospects can be pulled into a campaign, your leads can be educated, and your customers can be rewarded.

It is possible to reach the right people at the right time by identifying, segmenting, and reaching out to specific niche groups.

In addition to building trust with your audience, segmented email campaigns can also be very effective. In an ideal scenario, you could divide your list into different funnels and approach them differently, rather than blasting all your subscribers with the same campaign. Because your emails are more targeted they will be more relevant, they will come across as more personal. If I met you at the National Restaurant Show you probably don't want marketing ideas about trends in CNC Micro Machining Equipment.  

In the long run, this will decrease unsubscribes and increase conversion rates. And that is what we want!

3. CONVERSATIONS CONTINUE TO REMAIN TOP OF MIND

Niche campaigns can be used to communicate between you and pin pointed subscribers. It allows you to update your subscribers on information they find important (not you) or have previously received (from you) to stay connected and dig deeper into answers which are important to them.

At the same time you are keeping your brand at the forefront of your customers’ minds, this also helps establish a relationship of trust. Online trust can be very hand to establish. Regular contact and giving a phone number that a real person answers or even your direct line. demonstrates your commitment to them and allows you to deliver more to your target market consistently.

EMAIL CAMPAIGN IDEAS FOR YOUR LIST

When it comes to email campaigns, there is a wide variety you can choose from. These include the following:

ONBOARDING EMAILS

Onboarding emails ultimately help convert prospects into paying customers because they educate and nurture trial users over time.

WELCOME EMAILS

New subscribers are introduced to your brand immediately via a welcome letter. These campaigns allow you to leave an in-depth message, make a great first impression, and demonstrate that you’re in this relationship to offer them help. You can send an introductory email saying, “Hi, nice to meet you!” or just use your regular content.

REENGAGEMENT EMAILS

Contacting inactive prospects with these is an excellent way of bringing them back. Reengagement emails can captivate past subscribers who have been deleting your emails without opening them.

If they are no longer interested in your brand, that is fine to give them the option of unsubscribing or canceling their account.  You need to give them an opt out anyway) You can develop a bad reputation by annoying people who aren’t interested.

CONFIRMATION EMAILS

An email campaign does not end after a sale is closed. By setting up a “thank you” campaign immediately after a customer makes a purchase, you can still confirm their purchase and encourage your customers to stay engaged with you beyond the first sale.

CART ABANDONMENT EMAILS

Even though it’s common for shoppers to abandon a shopping cart, an email campaign can reengage them You can remind s website visitor of what they left in their cart, confirm the items are still available.

The average cart abandonment rate is over 69%, ouch, a huge number of potential sales. Creating a compelling abandoned cart email can improve your conversion rates, if only by reminding people of the ease of completing the sale.

READY TO GET STARTED BOOSTING YOUR SALES WITH NICHE SPECIFIC CUSTOM EMAILS!

It’s almost impossible to argue the value of creating engaging emails for your business. You can increase sales, improve margins, and accelerate customer

Can We Help You?

Sure you can do this yourself. I totally understand and for those of you with the time to write content, flow it into a program like this one and be consistent and still have time for the follow-up,  wonderful. Have fun and enjoy!
But for those who can't there's . . .  

Larson & Associates


We Make Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better

Larson & Associates

3475 Steeplechase Way    Suite 101
Grayslake IL 60030
847-991-1294

Copyright © 2022 Larson & Associates, All rights reserved.

Larson & Associates
3475 Steeplechase Way    Suite 101
Grayslake IL 60030
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates
www.larsonassociates.ws

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

What Are Your Sales Numbers

 

No More Sales Slumps
But You Need To Know Your Numbers!

If you read though that last email I sent, No More Sales Slumps, you might have noticed the key was knowing your sales and marketing numbers. So what are your numbers. 

Don't know? If you don’t know your numbers you will need a month to track them out, or at least week if you are in a rush to get started.
 
You need ___ Suspects (anyone in your lists that can or might buy from you)
To get ___ Prospects  (anyone you have made some kind of contact with)
To get ___ Leads (having direct interaction with)
To get ___ Proposals (written proposal or estimate)
To get ___ Sales (closed and paid for project)

If this was me 
I need 9501 to get 784 prospects
Wit 784 prospects I get 42 leads
With 42 leads I get 3 proposals
With 3 proposals I get 1 sale

Now I track everything from networking meetings to trade show walk-bys to social media views to phone calls and everything in between. If I can find a way to track it I do. I know I might have a lot of junk in my numbers but if they can fog a mirror they count. I learned a long time ago not to write anyone off.

The key is to start tracking. If you reading this thank-you because you are 1 suspect or prospect or something to add to my numbers. I want you to advance to a proposal and a sale but win, loose or draw the numbers never lie.

Now that you have YOUR numbers you can work the rest of this cost of sales analyst sheet.
 
The Sales Slump Planning Sheet will enable you to determine the average number of contacts per day you MUST make (or average) to achieve your goal for the next 12 months.

Your name: _____________________________________________
 

  1. Your average earnings per sale are? . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .             __________
  2. How much money do you want to earn in the next 12 months?  __________
  3. How many presentations do you make to gain a sale? . . . . .    __________
  4. Divide your earnings per sale (1) by presentations per sale (3).
    This is your earnings per presentations . . . . . . . . . . . .             ___________
  5. A) How many contacts do you make to gain a presentation?   ___________
    B) Divide your earnings per presentation (4)
    by contacts per presentation (5A) This is your earnings per contact ___________  
  6. A) Divide your earnings goal for the next 12 months (2) by the number of
         weeks you will work. This will give you your weekly earnings amount . ___________
    B) Divide the result by 5 or 6 depending on te number of days you work.
         This is your earnings goal per day.   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .     ___________
  7. Divide earnings per day (6B) by earnings per contact (5B). This is your
    required contacts per day you need to achieve your earnings goal.   ____________
Now you have a good idea what you need to do to hit your goals, you know what a sale or lead costs you. Now maybe you can actually justify a service like mine. That is unless you like lead generation and cold calling, but what ever you do:

Take Action

Time is waiting so sit down and start tracking. One by one. If you have nothing to track get cooking. Go knock on some doors. Send out some e-mails. Work your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook social network and groups. Go to a trade show. Ask customers for referrals. Talk to any and everyone about what you do.

 

At Larson & Associates we are always ready to put forth that extra effort, to work hard and persevere in everything that we do for you. We can help you avoid the dreaded sales slumps, overcome marketing anxiety and map out new places to ‘dig’. When prospecting for gold or for sales, remember that your success is directly proportionate to your effort. If you do only the minimum, your payback will be minimal. The more you do, the more you get. It really is that simple.

 

And when you need help reaching out for sales, proposals, leads, prospects or suspects we will be here waiting for your call at 847-991-1294.

Larson & Associates


Making Good Business Great and Great Businesses Even Better