Planned Cost Savings & Cost Reductions

83% of marketing professionals are looking at cost savings and reductions in their marketing efforts to stretch those precious dollars further.

Are you? If so see how your cuts compare with the “pros”.

75% - Challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses or costs
73% - Restriction department travel and expenses
53% - Reducing ad campaign production budgets
47% - Elimination or delaying new projects

Marketing Department Budget Reductions

41% - Planning a 1%-5% reduction
29% - Planning a 6%-10% reduction
23% - Planning a 11%-20% reduction
3% - Planning a 21%-30% reduction
4% - Planning over a 30% reduction

Source: Association of National Advertiser’s
Sample: 143 client-side marketers, January 2010

Larson Notes & Satire: Live on the wild side. All my working life has been in advertising and marketing. The first thing that gets cut in a recession even though everyone says that it shouldn’t.

Ok that is my life and I love it and live it. Make yourself so valuable that they cannot do without you and your services whatever they are. If your object is to break even on what you charge for your goods or services, take a hike. If you give a higher value back to your customer, then you will never loose.

Sitting here wondering if the ads for the Olympics were cut rate? What do you think?

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

Boost Your Organic Search Efforts

You want your web page to be up at the top of a page search and you want it, yesterday? Aside from pay for click how can you achieve this?

No it’s not SEO nor is it writing blogs, the best fastest way might be an online press release. Yes a press release or better yet a serious of press releases has proven to be very effective at boosting search engine marketing returns. The major online press release vendors actually have alliances with the thousands of online news Web sites.

Google, Bing and many other search engines are known to crawl through these news sites more frequently than even an active blog and give you a better chance of having your news crawled though and ranked.

If you don’t follow the AP style of Press Release and opt towards a more informational layout that emphasizes on keywords, back links, and hard hitting headlines your press release will stand out to readers in search returns more often than not. Sorry AP this is about marketing not being editorially correct.


Larson Notes & Satire: No I will not abandon my blog. . . but I might need to start bragging about myself more.


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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. Yes we write blogs and press releases for companies. Does your company need a hard hitting blog or PR attack?

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

Motive Not Money

It seems to me that the most successful people in business have achieved their individual greatness because of the motive that they have not the want of money. There was an urge to do what they felt needed to be done rather than the overall desire for profit. Our success comes not from the action its self but rather the motive to solve problems and take action!

Don’t get me wrong and think that I am going off on an altruistic streak here, far from it. And don’t think that I am advocating that earning a lot of money is a bad thing. What I am saying is that more often than not the key to a person’s success is found in their motivation to bring to others something better than what they felt someone else could bring. If you want to open a restaurant and do it with the motive to serve the best food in town and work hard at that motive the result will probably be a very full restaurant night after night after night.

This same example can carry over to any business. My business and yes, your business.

Larson Notes & Satire: Money is only a way of keeping score. So what is your motive? Why are you doing what you are doing every day? If you don't love what you're doing 8 or more hours a day, make a change!

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

The Week Ahead February 22-26 2010

Monday:
Tuesday: February Consumer Confidence, December Case-Shiller home price index
Wednesday: January New Home Sales
Thursday: January Durable Goods, Weekly initial jobless claims
Friday: Revised 4th qt GNP, January Existing Home sales

Last week we saw the inflation keeping virtually even with a 0.2% rise in consumer prices. While over at the Fed on Thursday we were surprised by a raise its discount rate, which is what banks pay to borrow directly from the Fed, to 0.75%.Meanwhile Obama created his bipartisan commission on slashing the federal budget by 2015, ya right. As if we don’t have enough commissions. What does this mean really nothing except hiring some more secretaries and office equipment and leasing some new office space, somewhere. And to top that even if the commissioners give their time free, there will still be the cost of travel and they will need a few exotic trips to meet somewhere. Do I hear Berwyn Illinois?

This week to me the only thing that really means anything is the Consumer Confidence and January Durable Goods numbers. All else is just fun to look at, and maybe contemplate what the future might bring.

Larson Notes & Satire: I just don’t understand the world. We lose jobs and the unemployment rate goes down? China tightens credit on its industrial machine and our stock market goes down. Come on people this is weird. A less productive China, a higher cost of money in China should make it better for the rest of the word to compete, yes? If China’s industrial costs go up and ours stays the same we should not only compete better but sell more? Right? If China were to realign its yen with the rest of the world’s currency making the Yen cost more and thus Chinese goods more expensive that should be good, yes? I guess there is too much blonde in the grey hair of mine.

The focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, a Graphic Design Studio, and Printers both small and mid-sized.

We are still looking for sales persons in all areas except
the Great Plains States.
If interested give us a call at 847-991-0488.


Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday:
Tuesday: Running Training 6:00am,
Wednesday:
Thursday: Running Training 6:00am
Friday:
Saturday: Marathon Training 5:30am
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> March 14-16 2010 Internal Home and Housewares Show, McCormick Place, Chicago
> April 26-29 NA2010: The North American Material Handling & Logistics Show: I-X Center, Cleveland OH
> May 12-13, 2010 OrthoTec Conference Orthopaedic Capital Center at Grace College Winona Lake (Warsaw), IN (Registered but not committed to going yet)
> June 8-10, 2010 EastPack 2010 Jacob K Javits Convention Center New York NY FL (Registered but not committed to going yet)
> June 23, Destination Showcase Conference & Expo; Donald E. Stevens Convention Center, Rosemont IL


Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

Integrating Social Media and Search

What is the best way for you to approach social media and your search and integrate them together in a seamless flow of hits for your web site?

Sound good? Integration with your social and your search is all about bringing the right connection with the right people at the right time.

If you are a Social Media Marketer you need to understand and be able to connect to the right people when it makes sense to them, now when it is convenient you. Yu need to be delivering pointed, targeted, relevant, compelling and persuade content at the right time.

To accomplish this you Social Media Marketers must integrate the way they are doing their marketing with a creative strategy that lets search marketing and SM happen when the search is going to happen. By connecting the way we push our business we can drive new hits that we are now missing and give far more meaningful and relevant content to our target market.

Larson Notes & Satire: I said right, not easy. If you want easy bet a 9 to 5 job that pays you weather you achieve anything or not. You want to have some fun, get on the rollercoaster of business life and business ownership with all its ups and downs, find ways to do it right.

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

6 Keys To Successful Customer Retention Marketing

It has been said that it costs 7 times as much to find and convert a prospect into a customer that it costs to keep one (customer) you already have. That figure will vary depending on the industry you are in but by and large it holds pretty true.

Now if your objective is to grow your business, the loss of existing customers only makes it that much harder. Since most of my readers are small businesses (at least I think most of you are in the small category) if you had 1000 customers and loose 10% a year that means you will have 100 drop off you’re your customer base. After I say ouch, what is the best way to put your thumb in the customer lost dyke?

1) Deliver what you promise. What more should I be saying, do what you say you are going to do the 1st time, every time? Don’t over promise so you end up the fool.

2) Understand your attrition. Every customer you lose leaves for a reason. It is there reason but if you don’t know what it is you have no way of stopping others like them not to do the same. This holds especially true if you sell to one or two major industrial groups. What could some of these be> He died, He bought from a competitor. His spouse’s employer is a competitor. Your company did something that made them angry. They were referred to another company by a trusted friend or business acquaintance. He does not like the new contract or design changes you made. Ok so some of these are totally out of your control. But some aren’t. How can you get the answers? Try asking. Then use their answers as a profile on a model with similar accounts.

3) Understand Retention. Generally there are 3 reasons a customer will stay with you in a business relationship. First, they are very happy with the product of service you are giving, Second, they feel ok about the product or service as it is more that adequate for their needs but they don’t think about it one way or another. Third, they are very unhappy but are too lazy to go and change.

If you know which of your customers fit each of these categories you can ask them and use the information to model yourself it other prospects. Modeling can also define what kinds of customers you should be trying to acquire. If attrition and retention can be predicted, shy go after prospects who are unlikely to stay with you? If you can find the right model for your best target customer. Then sail away at full steam ahead!

4) Create a Personalized Communication Stream. This can be one of the biggest benefits that an interrelated marketing attack gives. You can send your message out that is relevant to them using their individual channels of choice. To do an effective job each message must be part of an overall master plan to educate, inform and motivate the customer rather than stand alone communication (see blog Direct Mail Multichannel Integration
Posting on 2/17) Start thinking of this as an ongoing dialogue rather than a one shot wonder. This steady stream of communication should be reactive as well as proactive. You want the customer to be taking and making planned actions, like buying again. So build up to that action with a carefully constructed plan of attack.

5) Get your hands on your data. Once you have this wonderful information don’t stuff it in a desk drawer. Get it out in front of you and USE IT! You have an opportunity you to have the inside track into your customers head. Use if before it changes.

6) Test if you can. If you can and your list is customer list is large enough, try a few different things to parts of it and record down what works best.

Larson Notes & Satire: Any company can make a retention program if they want to. They key word is want.

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

Direct Mail Multichannel Integration

Nothing can stand on its own. Direct mail is really no different in this respect. If you want better results you need to be integrating it with the rest of your marketing channels. The old advertising rule of thumb was that it takes 9 messages a person to get a new account and people miss 1 out of 3 so it takes 27 messages to get in front of a person.

Repetition is the key so a multichannel attack allows you to get your brand name in front of them enough that your message has a resounding ring to them when they need what you sell.

If you employ a variety of channels to communicate you can be at the edge of obnoxious and not seem that way because you are using multiple senses to attach them with.

Larson Notes & Satire: Did I say multiple sense attack. Mmmmm, smell? Yes and sound, sight, hearing and dare I say feel? Think how you can use the 5 senses to let people become better acquainted to you and your product. If you sell bread, could you use a scratch and sniff mailer? If you are a dj could you use a mailer with a song or jingle?

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

How To Assist Your Customer Relations With Social Media

People talk, oh yes they talk and, well they might just talk about your company if you give them a reason, and that can be good, or not.

Enter Social Media. In a way social media just made conversations that were already happening out there info a public forum and one that you can now participate in.

Facebook while the biggest is more of a closed network. Twitter is in freefall where anything and anybody is on display. Then there is the hybrid of the two extremes as found in LinkedIn.

If you are real and talk to people as people, you will start to find that as you work at it your SM presence will begin to grow, even though you are not putting more time or energy into it. Yet don’t go getting all caught up in the hype that surrounds SM. There is no right or wrong answers (except spamming your followers). Think about it in terms of the tactics and all the different channels you can connect with.

SM has a different way to behave and different ways to answer to. You want everything to be working in harmony. Online, web, blog, SEO, pay-for-click, direct mail, telemarketing and SM. The message you convey must be consistent. Every time, and in every way.

Keep your head on and keep looking forward.

Larson Notes & Satire: One message, many channels.

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

The Week Ahead February 15-19 2010

Monday: Only Real People are working (President’s Day)
Tuesday:
Wednesday: January Housing Starts
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims, January Producers Price Index, January Leading Economic Indicators
Friday: January Consumer Price Index

If our government and its workers cared about us, they would be working today just like I am. Making America a great country as it works to achieve its true destiny of freedom for all people.

Looking at some nice statics this week as people put their heads in the sand. Don’t play ostrich. Get your head out of the sand. Keep your head up and your eyes open. As they unroll the pricing indexes and economic indicators keep an eye on your targeted industries.

Larson Notes & Satire: I just don’t understand the world. We lose jobs and the unemployment rate goes down? China tightens credit on its industrial machine and our stock market goes down. Come on people this is weird. A less productive China, a higher cost of money in China should make it better for the rest of the word to compete, yes? If China’s industrial costs go up and ours stays the same we should not only compete better but sell more? Right? If China were to realign its yen with the rest of the world’s currency making the Yen cost more and thus Chinese goods more expensive that should be good, yes? I guess there is too much blonde in the grey hair of mine.

The focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, a Graphic Design Studio, and Printers both small and mid-sized.

We are still looking for sales persons in all areas except




the Great Plains States.
If interested give us a call at 847-991-0488.




Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday:
Tuesday: Running Training 6:15am,
Wednesday:
Thursday: Running Training 6:15am
Friday:
Saturday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> March 14-16 2010 Internal Home and Housewares Show, McCormick Place, Chicago
> April 26-29 NA2010: The North American Material Handling & Logistics Show: I-X Center, Cleveland OH
> May 12-13, 2010 OrthoTec Conference Orthopaedic Capital Center at Grace College Winona Lake (Warsaw), IN (Registered but not committed to going yet)
> June 8-10, 2010 EastPack 2010 Jacob K Javits Convention Center New York NY FL (Registered but not committed to going yet)
> June 23, Destination Showcase Conference & Expo; Donald E. Stevens Convention Center, Rosemont IL


Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

2010 Investment Into Social Media Marketing

Is this the year of the Social Media Marketer, the year when it becomes respectable to be involved in SM?

66% of marketers say they will invest in Social Media Marketing in 2010.

Yet 4 out of 10 say that it is somewhat of very difficult to coordinate between digital and direct marketing agencies:

36% - neutral
30% - Somewhat difficult
13% - Somewhat easy
9% - Very easy
8% - Very difficult
4% - Single agency

21% Will increase the portion of their Direct Marketing budget spent on digital, interactive, or social medial marketing by more than 30% this year.

16% - No increase
23% - 5-10% more
21% - 10-20% more
19% - 20-30% more
21% - 30% or more


Larson Notes & Satire: So who you going to call? Ghost Busters? Social Media is somewhat of a walk in the dark. Post and find what your reach is. Some sites work for a business others down. It all depends on the general membership of the site and your friends and follows. There are no die hard rules to follow. Jump in and get you feet wet or stay on shore and all dry or get someone to do your splash in the water for you. Your choice


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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.

Prediction For Social Media For 2010?

In browsing though a bunch of articles on SM, I am looking at a few directions SM can be going for 2010.

1) Corporations Attack! Yes it will happen. Big companies will be invading our turf. They have been nipping the edges trying to get a handle on what SM is and might be able to do. They have dabbled in SM marketing and all, but the time has come for the big boys to put in some real muscle, money and time. Corporate efforts will become much more programmatic and strategic for 2010.

2) Social Business Gets Serious! Social networking companies are going to be moving into more entertainment and revenue generating venues. Yes we all need to make money, somehow

3) Companies will create Social Media Policies! and they might actually enforce them. You can expect your company to more formalize its views on SM and the rules of engagement of all its employees.

4) Social Media becomes people’s lifeline! Forget the cigarette break or the water cooler time. IN 2010 people will be taking social media breaks instead. If you can keep your company in the forefront you can and will be able to engage these 15 minute people.

5) E-mail Looses Favor! Sharing is not longer an e-mail thing. While we use to share things though email more and more people will be sharing through networks such as twitter and Facebook.

6) Social Media looks less social. People will start to pull back on the SM practices and become more exclusive as to how their network is.

Larson Notes & Satire: Is this the year (or half year) that SM comes of age to marketing? Your call but I’m in it, I’m working it. And I’m cashing in on the time I have invested in learning it.

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. Yes we write blogs for selected companies. Should we be writing yours? Call or email us today.

Biggest Sales Secret You Could Be Using

You need more sales prospects? You need more customers? We all do don’t we? So how do you find those prize prospects? Where to you go to get your sales team the best matches to make presentations to?

RESEARCH!

There are 4 kinds of research you need to be doing to propel your sales to the next level.

1) Research your victories. In order to get what you got (the good things) you need to be able to do it again. What kind of company is it? How big? What problems did you answer and solve? What moved it forward and what caused road blocks?

2) Research your losses. Unless you want to make the same mistakes again look over your loosed deals. Why were you not able to close it? What could you have done better?

3) Research your no decisions. When you’re looking everything over, don’t forget to look at when people made a no decision to buy. This way you can avoid the unnecessary expense to chasing after no-deals.

4) Research your non-starters. Examine the areas where companies did a deal with your competition and not you. Find out why your company was not even in the running for the project. Why where you left out of the bidding process.

Larson Notes & Satire: You can only learn a certain amount of information from the f2f opportunities. Each time you can take something out of your victories and defeats. By studding the information you can you will only make yourself better. Want we want to achieve is going from peak to peak, not valley to valley.

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. Yes we write blogs for selected companies. Should we be writing yours? Call or email us today.

Pay For Clicks? I’m Just Not Sure.

To be seen, To be found. Yes as in Horton Hears a Who” “I am here, I am here’ I am here!”

I got a letter from last week. Pinned it up on my bulletin board to take a good hard look at it. $100 to try AdWords! Should I? Could I? Free! No risk! No obligation! All those great words to use in a targeted direct mailer. Redeem now and use by January 31 or it goes down to $75.00. Opps its February 3rd. Wow expiration date! Now I have till March 31st, (My 2nd cousin 3 times removed birthday {When your Scandinavian you are expected to know all your family down to your 8th cousin 10 times removed and be able to recite their names frontwards and backwards}

So here I am down to only $75 free Google dollars for AdWord advertising. When a study came across my desk reporting that the rate of click fraud, the practice a program or computer script imitating a person to click on a web advertisement among normal clicks, rose to 15.3% during the 4th quarter. Ouch. If I was to pay in real money that would be 15 dollars and 30 cents of old Uncle Howie’s money being “stolen”. Click fraud was 14.1% in the 3rd quarter but if there is any good news in this, click fraud was down from a year ago when it was running at 17.1% in the last quarter of 2008. The click rater fraud was at 12.7% in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and 13.8% in the 1st quarter.

Larson Notes & Satire: Yes I might just use this google coupon? That’s right MIGHT. If the search engines like google, bing, and yahoo don’t figure this out, as to how to combat looses this large why do it? Or are we the buyer/advertiser just suppose to accept this as a justifiable loss? If the ROI can accept the loss is this an acceptable place to market yourself.

IN all advertising there is loss, Direct mail the pieces go right in the bucket. Email auto delete, in telemarketing hang-ups. But fraud? In a search to get more information on ROI pay for click going back to the 6th page there is little on this topic except companies saying give us your money and we can go do a good job.

Note to self: Figure out an acceptable loss in an ROI on a pay for click campaign

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. Yes we write blogs for selected companies. Should we be writing yours? Call or email us today.

Making & Keeping Your Online Brand

For many businesses the creating of your brand and maintaining it is a skill that is lacking and can be difficult to learn let alone implement. To many a brand is simply a name a symbol or something easily distinguishable to help people identify with the product r service. Now while that is true, a brand can be and is much much more. It can be what defines the company. It can be the identity that customers recognize whey they see it, subliminally. It can be the comfort factor to your customers.

Now, no one can tell you what your brand should be, what is should include, what if should be defined as, but there is a framework to understanding a b rand’s importance to your bottom line and how you can help your business achieve the kind of business and market share to your most important customers and prospects as you start to put a more formal brand identity in place.

As seen in some marketing studies, during a recession some companies have learned that cutting brand oriented advertising only resulted in lower sales and lower profits. Even worse, performance continued to lag with the recovery came about. The reason that a brand is supported by a well designed advertising campaign is that users are more likely to be convinced to pay for products that bring comfort. Branding is that, it is comfort in what you know. On the other side of the coin, branding is about expectations. People expect to get what they have always gotten from a certain product or service. These qualities are what make it special. Unique. Sought after. Not only does branding tell what the buyer is getting in name alone, but brings a sense of confidence.

As you create your brands profile you need to be sensitive to what makes it unique, important and different to the end customer. It does make any difference what you think.

So how do you do Brand Creation?

1: Identify the human side and the unique personality of your product or service. Who are tin influences and advocates of your product and how does that impact your products image. (Do I hear a need for a focus group?)

2: Find the values in your brand and what they stand for. Its history, the stories, the people. Might even be worth a few interviews.

3: Find the emotional benefits to your brand. Yes this is going away from pain and going towards pleasure part to sales and marketing, Very strong emotional pull. (Does this call for a survey?)

4: Find the core beliefs in your product. As you start to collect your information and data create the kind of Mission statement that really defines your product as to what it is and what you what it to stand for.

5: Take your mission statement and refine it down into a core 1 line statement. This becomes the slogan of your brand. Its core benefits and beliefs

6: Now take all this good stuff and use it to influence the identity of your brand where ever you can, Online, print, mail, brochures, salespeople, etc.

Part 2: Maintaining your Brand

Now that you have it, how do you keep it?

1: Are you unique, in color, logo etc. You need to stand out (once your there) so you are NOT confused with anyone else, competition or anyone else.

2: Is your material being used consistently all across and in your current sales and marketing attack? Review and get in line with yourself.

3: Is your “material” be it print or electronic, memorial? Does it stand out from the crowd? Are there other things that could be used to tie your name and message together in a deep way for your target audience?

4: Is your material all understandable? Watch your words. Too much jargon can make or break you.

5: Is your material honest and truthful of do you stretch the facts a bit? Keep it on target and don’t over step your bounds on claims. Let your “fans” do that for you.

6: Is the material professional? You might need to hire a pro here, not the kid down the street.


Larson Notes & Satire: You are already out there marketing and selling stuff. Now it’s time to get serious. Get real with your company and yourself. If you’re playing games you get games. If you are for real, look and act like a professional, here, there everywhere both in your advertising and marking and yes, your personal stature and presence. You too are part of your company’s brand.



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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. Yes we write blogs for selected companies. Should we be writing yours? Call or email us today.

The Week Ahead February 2-5, 2010

Monday: December personal spending,
Tuesday: January vehicle sales
Wednesday: January ISM services index
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims
Friday: January employment report, December consumer credit

Wasn’t last week’s numbers nice? The fastest in more than 6 years at a 5.7% increase in gross domestic product as factories finally started getting orders to fill up depleted inventories. Keep in mind that the economy is still healing. We are not out of the woods nor will we be anytime soon. Unlike past rebounds where business was the lead in the recovery, i.e. in 1981 1st quarter inventory building accounted for over 74% of growth but then the economy contracted and there was a drop in inventory and the economy fall into a 2nd more server recessing in 1981 into 1982 with unemployment hitting 10.8% . So are we looking at a double dip recession this time? Economist say the possibility is low. US consumer’s confidence shows an improvement even with the employment rate going up. And companies expanded this moth a the fastest pace in more than 4 years as orders increased and consumer spending rose at a 2% pace. Your guess is as good as mine.


Larson Notes & Satire: If I were you I would be working really hard on market share. Orders will not be a robust as past orders from the same customers. To keep even you will need more customers. Keep an eye out to Washington as they debate adding more funds to stimulate grown. If I were the government I would not be helping banks with funding to give out LOANS to small businesses but rather give out GRANTS to small businesses to create new jobs.

Side note if you are made at all the big banks and their huge bonuses move your accounts to your community bank, which is secure. Point is that the big banks that got bailed out and everyone seems to be mad at did in fact GROW at over 9% last year. If you’re angry at their huge bonuses the only place to really make a statement is to move YOUR account.

The focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, a Graphic Design Studio, and Printers both small and mid-sized.

We are still looking for sales persons in all areas except

the Great Plains States.
If interested give us a call at 847-991-0488.


Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday: Tuesday: Running Training 6:15am,
Wednesday: Thursday: Running Training 6:15am
Friday: Saturday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> February 9-11, 2010 Medical Design & Manufacturing West, Anaheim Convention center Anaheim CA (Registered but not committed to going yet)

> March 14-16 2010 Internal Home and Housewares Show, McCormick Place, Chicago
> May 12-13, 2010 OrthoTec Conference Orthopaedic Capital Center at Grace College Winona Lake (Warsaw), IN (Registered but not committed to going yet)
> June 8-10, 2010 EastPack 2010 Jacob K Javits Convention Center New York NY FL (Registered but not committed to going yet)


Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

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://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.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.

P.P.S. An American Company, marketing American Companies! Call or email to get an appointment to pick my brain (a $125.00 value) for 30 minutes.