14 Stats of 2011

14 stats that mattered most for media and marketing in 2011.
1.) 50 million -- The big number from the Census everyone was talking about was the number of Hispanics, which crested this milestone for the first time. Later the Census and the New York Times found that even more people in the U.S. (51 million) are at or near the poverty line.

2.) 50% +1 -- Sometime this year the children being born in the U.S. tipped to majority-minority, according to Brookings Institute demographer William Frey. It'll take the population as a whole decades before the white population is not the majority, but the newborns are there now. Diversity marketing is in for a makeover.

3.) Half of kids under 8 (and 40% of 2- to 4-year-olds) have access to a smartphone, iPad or some other mobile media device.

4.) In October 2011 Facebookers in the U.S. spent 136,000 aggregate years on the site, according to Comscore. That's more time than… well, all of recorded history.

5.) The U.S. added just 11.2 million households between 2000 and 2010, the -- slowest household formation rate we've seen in a long time. This impacts industries like construction and any sort of household goods and services and is helping to keep the recovery slow.

6.) When asked all the reasons they subscribe to a local paper, 85% said local news, but nearly four in 10 said "habit," according to the Ad Age/Ipsos Observer American Consumer Survey.

7.) Nuclear families account for just one-fifth of all households but more than one-third (34%) of total consumer spending. Nationwide there are 1.3 million fewer of them in 2010 than there were in 2000.

8.) One in three consumers can't afford your product: The 2011 Discretionary Spend Report from Experian Simmons finds 34.5% of households have less than $7,000 to spend on non-essential goods. Just over half have less than $10,000 to spend on entertainment, education, personal care, clothing, furniture and more.

9.) How big is big? The big four agency holding companies have nearly twice the revenue of the next largest 46, $40.1 billion to $21.5 billion.

10.) Don't count out old media. Fifty-seven percent of millennials indicated in a study from OMD that TV was the first way they hear about products and services.

11.) Is this surprisingly low, or high? In a survey from Insight Express' Digital, 56% of mobile users admit to using their phones to text, call, etc. while on the throne.

12.) For the first time in American history there are now a million more females than males college graduates, according to the Census.

13.) In 2011: The twin birthrate is up 76% since 1980, reaching a new record of 33.2 per 1,000 in 2009

14.) The non-U.S. portion of P&G's measured-ad spending rocketed to 71% last year from 22% in 1986. Sixty-three percent of the company's revenue came from outside the U.S. in the year ended June 2011.

Larson Notes & Satire:  What does all this mean to you? Look it over again. Where does your service or product fit in to the grand scheme of things?  Who do you sell to? Do you need to add Spanish to your company’s way of doing business? Would a 6 year old want to buy and if they tied how are you going to handle that? Do you take a new look at old media I.e. TV as a marketing tool? Do I hear cable? Should you be looking at selling overseas and does China fit or India? Selling to the “minority market? If so, which one?

Again what does this all mean to you and your company?

“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
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
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http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates


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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.

Opportunity Selling

Think about it. Why did you buy the last product or service you bought?

Two things come to mind with that question. First off you bought or purchased, you were not sold, and second you must have had a reason to buy or at the start of the sales process, you must have had a reason or need to buy or at least have a need.

Every successful salesperson I work with has a few impeccable traits. They don’t get greedy, they don’t sell to people that don’t have a need and they find either the pain of not buying or the reason or the gain of why the prospect should buy.

That need or gain or the pain of not in your opportunity is what makes you becoming the sales doctor you have become. What do you know about the industry you sell into that causes people the most pain and how can you become the Good Doctor?

Knowing this there is only really one more part to the equation you need to keep doing and that is finding more people to talk to about helping them.

Larson Notes & Satire:  Most sales people I talk to, do not like to do what I like to do, that is COLD CALLing people that they have never ever talked to before. But ask yourself, how are you going to sell more of what you sell if you don’t get yourself in front of more people who have a deep need for what you got to sell?

We find that more and more sales people who what to be the good Sales Doctor want a leads company to get them in the door so they can to their “thing”. How ‘bout you?
“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, a Division of US Telemarketing Group LLC
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Sales, Telemarketing, Telesales, Cold Calling, Lead Gen, Lead Generation

Keep The Basics Upfront

Why do you think that businesses are not getting the kind of results out of Social Media Marketing that they are expecting?
Quite simply they are reacting rather that evolving. Social Media Marketing is too new to be totally understood. Every day there are new players entering the marketing in ways which we cannot imagine, and that is not to ever consider the plans of Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as the look to secure their importance and the beach head they have established in SMM.

I’m here to tell you to keep the basics of good selling and marketing at the forefront of your plans because even with new tools (and all there are, are tools) the old ways are still really the only way.
The question you need to be asking yourself is, are you a reacting company or are you evolving?
In the mad rush to “do” Social Media Marketing have you lost your way? Are you in a state of flux in the redefining of your goals from hard hitting working sales into retweets, getting more of the 3Fs, and just trying to be linked?  If you all you want to do is be linked up, go out and join your local Chamber of Commerce and they will be happy to shower you with love. Then sit back and see what happens. My bet is nothing. No knock on Chambers but yes, been there done that, and SMM is just the same thing only online.

In many ways SMM is the same thing only online. Nothing really has been invented, just redefined to happen at the speed of cyber. What once took 1 month or 1 week, now can take 1 day or 1 hour, but the rejection is still there.

As SMM evolves todays successful sales and marketing people are using techniques of earning their prospects purchases. They are using the new tools of Google, Facebook and blogs to answer their prospects needs and problems. Do I hear the word “probing”? When prospects understand their problems clearly they are more ready and willing to be excreted towards the answers you and your service/product provides.

Larson Notes & Satire:  If I did not know any better this sounds like sales 101. Yes fans nothing new here only a new way of doing it. You still need to probe, probe, probe to find the needs and wants, the pain of not buying from you, your customers and prospects need to get an answer for.

If you don’t know or understand the basics you will not understand selling and marketing in the new cyber world we are all expected to be working in.

“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, a Division of US Telemarketing Group LLC
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

4 Degrees Of Separation

According to Facebook there are now only 4 degrees of separation in the world. And you know they might be right.


For years, there's been a theory that every person is only separated by six degrees, or relationships. I found it sometimes hard to believe when one year when not thinking hard I found that I was only 3 degrees of separation from the President of the United States. Like WOW!


Then in comes Facebook, with its data of over 700 million people and their al their relationships and interconnections with friends. Facebook is saying we're all just four degrees of separation apart. Below you can see how many degrees, or "hops" apart people are around the world.

Larson Notes & Satire: THAT does not do you any good if you don’t do anything with it. You need to be there, and everywhere all at once. It might be easier said than done but it is getting easier to be everywhere and anywhere all at the same time. Yes maybe you now can be 2, 3 or more places at the same time.


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


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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


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.



Customers, Prospects, Engagements

As a lead generation – telemarketing company we are in a constant dilemma as we shift though and search for prospects, leads and customers for our clients.


We are suppose to be the miracle workers, finding golden nuggets where normal sales people cant or aren’t able to.


It’s a not nice world out there. We don’t always get want we want nor are we able to get the desired result we are looking for.


That is why I love the rule of #2. The rule of number 2 states that every account is already owned by someone. Muhammad Ali after fighting Joe Frasier once said “You got to beat the champ, you don’t just trade punches you go to beat him.”

The same holds true in sales. You got to beat the current supplier not just match his price or service. You have got to be better; you got to beat the champ.

In the land of Customers and Prospects maybe what we should expect more is engagements. Yes that might be lowering our expectations but we need a legitimate place to start the dialogue to becoming a customer. Don’t think I am trying to lower the bar on my work expectations. No, what I am saying is that we are going after the bull’s-eye but when we do find a company willing to start the engagement process that is not a lose.

It is far better to have a prospect you are engaged and conversing with than no conversation at all. Your real problem is to be able to measure the level of conversation. As long as you are communication with the prospect you have or should have some level of progress along the sales cycle. And while there is no true gauge for measurement every marketing and sales program should have distinct goals.

So what is a successful engagement? Is in increased sales? That would be nice and very trackable. Is it responses? Again very trackable and countable. As we move though the sales funnel we start to define more specifically if this is a quality lead or a “tire kicker”. An email campaign, direct mail program, all help to keep you in front of and on the mind of the prospect. I would hope you are in for the long term and not a one close, one sale wonder. Email, direct mail, social media marketing are areas of engagement or continuing engagement. It is keeping the flow of conversation going until you not just bid on a job but get your first sale.

The number of channels you can engage prospects is ever growing. Not just Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter but MerchantCircle, Storeboard and the ning sites to name a few more. It is getting more complemented in some ways which it is important you keep track of what works and what does not work.


Larson Notes & Satire: Telemarketing can only take you so far down the sales process. Sure sometimes we get quote specs off a cold call right over the phone, we get appointments, but sorry more often than not we get companies in the ball game for them to do the job of closing the deal.


We have created a program that some companies follow and some don’t. Their choice of course. Most sadly take only a part of the entire program so they don’t receive the full benefit.


As stated best is a multichannel attack because one size or one approach does not fit all. Need help call us.


“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


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.

Are You Yelping?

I have been playing a little bit, a very little bit with Yelp. It is not my main push as a marketing tool that being a B2B company but still I play just in case I have a client that needs to be there.

But how long will Yelp be around? Does it, can it make money?


Well, it doesn't! At least, not yet.

The company lost $7.6 million through the first nine months of the year on revenues of $59 million. They (industry experts) think if should become profitable, it will be due to advertising, specifically local advertising, which stands at at $40 million and is 70% of its total revenue through the first nine months of this year. Brand advertising stands at $13 million is 22% of revenue. And "other services," like Yelp Deals, remnant ads, and revenue from reservations is 9%, or $5.4 million.


Here are the most important details:


Revenue: $22 million in Q3 2011, up from $12.6 million in Q3 2010.


Yearly revenue: Yelp brought in $47.7 million in revenue last year. It brought in $58.4 million in the first nine months this year, compared to $32.5 million in the first nine months last year.

Profits: Yelp lost $3.8 million in Q3 2011, up from 2.9 million in Q3 2010.


Yearly profits: Yelp lost $9.6 million last year and lost $7.6 million in the first nine months this year.


Visitors: Yelp had 61 million monthly unique visitors as of the end of its third quarter.


Reviews: Yelp has 22.4 million reviews on the site as of the end of its third quarter.


Advertising: 71 percent of Yelp's revenue comes from local advertising, compared to 21 percent from brand advertising and 8 percent from "other services.

"Google in particular is the most significant source of traffic to our website accounting for more than half of the visits to our website from Internet searches during the nine months ended September 30, 2011," the S-1 filing reads.


CEO Jeremy Stoppelman owns 11.1 percent of Yelp. The company's investors own 61.1 percent of the company.


Yelp has $23 million in cash, down from $27 million at the end of 2010.


And here are some interesting tidbits:

42 percent of Yelp's customers are between the ages of 18 and 34, and 33 percent are between the ages of 35 and 59.

45 percent of Yelp's customers are college graduates.

Nearly half of all reviews (23 percent each) are restaurant or store reviews.

PayPal co-founder Max Levchin owns 13.8 percent of Yelp.

Yelp has spent $4.4 million on infrastructure this year so far, up from $2.9 million in 2010.


Yelp's business could be adversely affected by "earthquakes, fires, floods and other natural catastrophic events and to interruption by man-made problems such as computer viruses or terrorism."

Yelp says it does not intend to pay dividends in the future.

Yelp employees outside of Stoppelman only own 14 percent of the company. Stoppelman, his investors and Levchin own a collective 86 percent of the company.

Yelp's employee with the second-highest ownership is chief operating officer Geoff Donaker at 1.6 percent.


Larson Notes & Satire: My yelp numbers are going up? Are my prospects there? Yes, prospects can be everywhere. It is all in how to touch them in a way they want to be touched.


As Henry Ford once said, he knew half of every dollar he spent on advertising was wasted. He just didn't know which half.


So where should you be advertising and marketing everywhere and anyway you can be 90% effective. The key is to be as effective in each area you are involved in so you own that channel. A multichannel attack works because one size or one approach does not fit all. Need help call us.


“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


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.

Cold Calling Brings Relationships

With so much emphasis being focused on Social Media Marketing these days it is easy to under estimate the power of the phone for establishing deep long lasting customer relationships.

What I think you need to remember is that of all the channels you can use for Marketing, Cold Calling is still one of the FEW ways if not the only way to be proactive in your marketing attack. Everything else waits for the prospect to contact you! With cold calling you go out and contact the prospect. In addition it is one of the only marketing tools that will give you an instant two way conversation with your prospect to allow you to secure a long lasting relationship.


So here are 5 ways to set up and focus yourself on attaining desired cold calling results:


1. Define your criteria. In any sales and marketing attack you need to define your target as narrow as you can. The more specific the better. Narrow nitch yourself


2. Have a preset agenda. You need a road map to get where you want to go. If not a “script” have an outline of where you would like to guide the conversation towards. Use open ended questions (how many times have you heard that?) and pointed questions. Might as well find out if their needs are real and what their time table is on your product or service. 1 day, 1 week 1 month 1 year, ask and find out.


3) Keep it relevant. To be effective you need to be relevant to the prospect. If it’s not important to them they will not care. So before you pick up the phone ask yourself, Why am I calling and why should they want to hear about it. If you cannot answer this question, you might as well not even pick up the phone in the first place and go on making that paperclip chain.


4. Have a voicemail strategy. Ya sorry but you got to figure that at least 75% of your calls are going to voice mail. That is just the way it is. Have a 15 to 20 second voicemail advertisement ready to go. If they want it, if they need it, they will call back.


5. Integrate your marketing channels. As a standalone you can and will get activity off your telemarketing attack but… if you can put it together with a planned multichannel attack you up your odds of success. You give them ways to approach you that they might find more suited with their nature.


Larson Notes & Satire: Telemarketing works cold calling works that is why we do it. If it didn’t people would not pay us to pick up the phone on their behalf and make the calls.


As stated best is a multichannel attack because one size or one approach does not fit all. Need help call us.


“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

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.

Lead Gen: When Where How

You want new customers, I want new customers, everyone wants new customers. (Well not everyone, believe it or not but in some of my calls some owners tell me they don’t want any. Go figure.)


Lead Generation is a game, cat and mouse, back and forth, win or lose, give and take. If you’re in it you want to be taking more than your giving, I would hope. And if you want your business to survive you need to win more than you lose. Even in losing you want to win.


So how do you win in a mostly loosing game, and you will lose more that you win.


1) The Rule of #2. It’s ok to be number 2. Now you’re asking yourself if I have lost my mind. No its still there, I think. But let’s think about this. You out there going after a new account, which btw belongs to a competitor who wants to keep it. Now think further that you the owner or the account and 2 other competitors also want THAT account. Yet you would really like to have that account as a customer. Use the rule of #2, which is be the number 2 supplier (even if that does not get you any sales) so when #1 messes up (and we all mess up at one time or another) the account already knows you and your capabilities so you can take it over.


2) The Little Things: There is no magic formula in getting new accounts, no magic pill or secret potion or wand waving (sorry Harry Potter but there is no such thing as magic). It’s just doing a lot of little things right for a long long time. Then once you get a lead nurturing it till it grows up to be a real customer.


3) Don’t get tired of your message. As you’re out there in the land of self promotion you are going to get tired of saying the same thing over and over again and again. You might but guess what your prospect wont. To them, it is new and or you are being consistent which to me means you are a candidate for a reliable supplier. Just don’t lose faith in your message. You don’t change horses midstream.


4) They need to know you to buy from you. You can’t play turtle, hiding in your shell and expect people to find you to buy from you. Fact is, if you’re not out there promoting yourself, people will not buy from you. Period, end of story!


5) Look for yourself. Are you a needle in the haystack? When was the last time, or first for that matter, that you did an online search for yourself, of for that matter did a keyword search for yourself? Well get cracking, if you can’t be found they can’t buy. And oh yes, don’t forget the power of the landing page.


6) Engage yourself in Social. This for the average to above average sales or marketer is no longer an option. The creation of a powerful Social presence centered around your marketing strategy will come back to pay major dividends. Work it right you make friends and money at the same time.


7) KISS. Yes, Keep It Simple Stupid. We all or so it seems, seem to go into the world of complex or industry jargon at times. Know your place. You need to be able to talk the talk yet at the same time, make it so everyone, even my 86 year old mother can understand.


Larson Notes & Satire: Two interesting things happened yesterday. First we got 2 new accounts, always exciting. One was thought Online and Social Media marketing the second from just sort of hanging around till the project dropped, which took 9 months. Go figure. But what we do and say does work; you just need to have the consistent staying power. We are now getting 4 to 5 new prospects just from our online social marketing a week. At the same time we still use the “old way” to go out and find customers.

Second is I got a cold call from a company who had down a “inspection” of my web site and were telling me how they could fix my errors and get me listed first on Google. After I got the guy to SHUT UP, I said yes my site age makeup errors but did he do a key word search because if he had done a keyword search he would have found out that I am listed 1st page on Google, Yahoo and Bing for my key word strings and if he could get me higher than 1st page we could talk wherein he went back into his canned speech on how our page had all kinds of errors and on and on and on. He did not listen nor did he care what I said or even wanted to pretend to listen. Now while I might care that my website has errors, fact is, it is coming up on page 1. Then 1 minute later a young lady, from the same company called saying the same thing. Told her I just talked to someone form their company, I am number 1 and get me OFF their call list NOW! Dare I say it was an Indian Company using auto dialers? If that is what you want, they do work cheep.


At Larson & Associates we don’t work that way. We listen and respond to what the customer or prospect says. What is important to them is what is important to us.


“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


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.

Better Phone Results

Getting more hits or sales off a telemarketing campaign can be difficult and daunting to say the least.


It is somewhat a science in setting up a good campaign and then it becomes an art form. An art form you ask? Oh yes, only 7 percent the communication process is based on what's said. 38 percent is based on style of speech and 55 percent on body language.


Basically you have 2 different ways to get a better ROI. First is to decrease the cost per order (CPO) and the second is to increase the amount of product of service ordered.


To decrease CPO you can either lower the cost per lead or increase the conversion rates. Both of which can happen through practice.


Most phone leads come from off line sources. List managers, SIC numbers, direct mail all play a pivotal role in your leads list. You can slide into web, and social media to get a different kind of lead but it still comes down to picking up the phone and making the call.


Then there is your call team. There are 3 basic kinds of phone agents. There are assassins who burn off all the leads off the list that they don’t get. The prospect then hangs up saying nasty things about you and your mother. Next there are the order takers. These people can be great if all your company needs to do is present an idea or product they can’t live without, also good for inbound telemarketing campaigns. And last there is the Sales based call agent who can take the time to ask questions and find out what their needs and trigger points are. Put this together with a good script and solid need based questions and you have a winner.


If you are out to sell more by increasing your revenue per order, you need more of the Sales based agents who can ask hard (or good) questions to cross sell your company. Or do you need to do a transfer program where the lead is passed off to a sales expert who can answer all the hard questions and leave the telemarketer as a lead in person who does not need to know EVERYTHING about you, your company and your product or service. If you’re selling technically orientated services or products you can use the transfer to have a telemarketing agent, who is not as trained to make the initial call and them pass off the call to the sales agent with their knowledge and experience.


Then look passed the initial sale to the repeat sale. You want that customer to have a good feeling on what happened so that the keep coming back for more, and yes, more is good


Larson Notes & Satire: We thrive on the transfer method of telemarketing. If we know 30% to 50% about you, your company and your product or service we usually have enough information to set up a call back with a more knowledgeable person on your staff. This is one of the best ways I know of to get a faster higher ROI out of your experienced sales staff. Use them for the hard stuff and use us for the easy things like making cold calls, with no call reluctance. Maybe that is why we get our clients into companies like Disney, Microsoft. We don’t care. We just pick up the phone and make the call.


Next!


“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


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 Daily Deal

Is it the right thing to do? Does it work? Do people or your kind of clients respond? The daily deal has become one of the hottest marketing trends going on in marketing today. Thank you web and social media marketing. Heck we at Larson & Associates are using it. Groupon, LivingSocial, Larson, are all hammering the Daily Deal idea. If done right it can be a good thing as 74% of those using daily deals do make a profit, but that does leave 26% losing money. If they are doing their deals via Groupon or Livingsocial there are commission costs deeper than just the cost of the enticement. You can try to do it alone, but the drawback is exposure.

Yes, location, location, location! Or is it exposure, exposure, exposure!

So what makes the daily deal so exciting is the impulsiveness of the buyer. There it is, buy it or lose it. Do it now! As I see it the only real long term reason to push into the daily deal is to drive brand recognition and customer loyalty. Sure if you need some quick cash it can help as well but don’t we all want long term growth?

Larson Notes & Satire:  Do you want a spike in your sales. Try a daily deal to find out. For today Larson has 2 going:

The winning state of the day is Montana. If you have a company in Montana and sign up for a telemarketing pilot program (3 weeks minimum) of at least 15 hours a week minimum by 4:30 central time today 10/18/11 there will be no set up fee for your program. http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

Today's "Build Illinois" county is White County. If you have a company in White County Illinois and sign up for a telemarketing pilot program (3 weeks minimum) of at least 15 hours a week minimum by 4:30 central time today 10/18/11 there will be no set up fee for your program. http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

Both have bought in new accounts that I think we probably would not have gotten.


“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
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.

Facebook Time

If you did not already do it, do yourself and your business a favor and make a Facebook Fan page. If you can make a Social Media Profile page you can make a Facebook Fan page.



In looking at Time Spent On web sites even the most callus person has to admit that Facebook not only rules but Is Growing At An Astonishing Rate.

In the United States we now spend roughly 16% of our online time on Facebook. Just stop and think about that and what are your chances of being seen and where?

In Q3 2010, the number was around 10%. That is not good for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL, which are getting hammered. Of those four, only Google had any increase over the last year but not even Google could come close to matching Facebook's growth face paced growth.

Larson Notes & Satire: It all somehow works together. If done right push one and you get responses on the rest.

Why? Ask the little web spiders not me. As for spiders, start liking and embracing them. They are your friends. And as for friends try liking and becoming a fan of my companies Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans .

I thought I was a late comer to Facebook as I clung to my love for Myspace but now that I’m there (and the rest of the world) I have not just embraced it but am working it like a mad man. I have often said, “Be where you are” and for now, I’m on Facebook.

“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

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.

Power Drive Your Search

We all understand how powerful it is to own the top spots in a key work search. The higher up you are usually means you are going to get some good quality hits on your site. On the same line of thought, a keyword search is one of the few chances where you have someone just stopping by (your web site) and basically saying “This is what I am looking to buy.”

So some of my more aggressive customers have come to old Uncle Howard and asked, “How can I get more without killing my budget?” And to solve this problem I put a plan that wedded Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing a little differently. First I had a landing page created for the project, packed with all those juicy key words in content, Meta tag key works and title. Then launching that I constructed a Social Media attack around that message basically pushing it into and through their Social Media world so when we were done, they actually owned the first page of a keyword search.


Now it you push it to its logical conclusion you will use those same keywords and content in email, mobile to direct mail to yes your telemarketing attack and hammer those words home.


Now add a pay of click?


Larson Notes & Satire: Can it be done? It already has. I have always preached that you need to work within your budget and your means to hold and work your media at near 100% efficiency. Do that day in and day out and you will control your position and your destiny.


“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
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.

17 Laws Of Teamwork

1) Law of significance – One is too small a number to achieve greatness

2) Law of the big picture – The goal is more important that the roll

3) Law of the niche – All players have a place where they add the most value

4) Law of Mount Everest – As the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates

5) Law of the chain – The strength of the team is impacted by its weakest link

6) Law of the catalyst – Winning teams have players who make things happen

7) Law of the compass – Vision gives team members direction and confidence

8) Law of the bad apple – Rotten attitudes ruin a team

9) Law of accountability – Teammates must be able to count on each other when it counts

10) Law of the price tag – The team fails to reach its potential when it fails to pay the price

11) Law of the scoreboard – The team can make adjustments when it knows where it stands

12) Law of the bench – Great teams have depth

13) Law of identity – Shared values define the team

14) Law of communication – Interaction fuels action

15) Law of the edge – The difference between two equally talented teams is leadership

16) Law of high morale – When you’re winning nothing hurts

17) Law of dividends – Investing the tem compounds over time


Larson Notes & Satire: The buck might stop here but I want my team to stand at my side.


“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


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.

Starting Anew: Social Media Marketing Plan

It seems to me that most would be marketers using Social Media; yes even the big dogs have a major challenge in getting it right. Now right can be a very ambiguous term in talking about Social Media Marketing because what is right for you is not right for me or anyone else. Then you throw in the big dogs into the mix. They clog up the screen with banner ads, sponsored ads, pay for clicks etc. What the big dogs have that you might not have is money, time and people power to throw at it. But money and the amount of it you can throw at Social Media is not what it is about nor is it going to take you where you want to be. It’s not about the money but about the conversations and influence.


You need to get yourself in front of the right people looking for that edge in branching out to the channels where these people are.


When I start out a new plan for a customer I have them wipe the slate as clean as possible, most people have a Social Media presence of some kind so it is hard to start from scratch. I mean you don’t want to go losing all your current 4 F’s (family, friends, followers, fans) but what I do have is a 5 step plan.


1. As yourself why. Why do you want to do social media marketing? Why personally or as a company do you want to be suing this channel? What is your motivation for it? What do you expect to get? What are you willing to put into it, be it time or money?


2. Then ask who in your customer base is now out there using social media. A survey of engineers and industrial professionals showed that only 15% of those people had a twitter account and that those that didn’t, did not don’t plan on creating one. That being said, if your market is engineers, twitter is a useless tool for you as well might be any social media. So think, maybe this is not where you should be putting in your time and energy.


3. Next, open your ears and shut your mouth. At least for a little while. Then when you open your companies twitter account run some searches on key words and key terms. Start with your company’s name. Do a search on your name. Read blogs in your industry and your clients or prospects industry, and don’t forget to read the comments.


4. Now sit back and take it slow. Small steps are best. Comment on the blogs. Join an existing community group and offer some thoughts and advice if you can. Find and follow some key people on twitter and retweet their posts Post your own tweets with links to articles and information your clients will find useful. Start to become a trusted resource.


5. Once you have a good sense of what is out there in your area both your industry and your client’s and prospect’s industry (‘s) get more active. Launch a LinkedIn group (our LinkedIn group is "The Sales Lead Funnel”) or ning site of very your own. Create a Facebook fan page and a blog for your view points to be made and commented on. The more relevant you are to your target the more you and your company start to become the industry expert.


Larson Notes & Satire: I’ve been working Social Media as a lead souse for over 5 years now. That makes me an old timer. Am I an expert? Hardly. I don’t believe there are experts in this field. I feel there are only people that are working it better, are a little more advanced in using the technology, and pushing harder, that is until something changes.


Now you ask, am I getting sales leads off of Social media? Yes, about 1 a day. Am I making sales off of those leads? You better believe it. If I wasn’t I would stop doing what I am doing. Now good is it for me? Let’s just say my currently my largest customer came off of Social Media Marketing.


Could I put a program or run a Social Media Marketing program for you? Probably.


“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

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.

Ladybug Keyword Search

Sesame Street: Ladybugs' Picnic Lyrics


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


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


One, two, three, four five six?


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


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

Facebook dominates SM

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

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


Larson Notes & Satire:  

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

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

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

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

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

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


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


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


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


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


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



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


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


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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


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

Telemarketing / Direct Mail

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Are those numbers you would want to see?

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


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


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


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

So Many Marketing Channels

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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


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


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


https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


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

Need A Social Media Expert?

After our blog of yesterday “Bing To Index Facebook” I have to ask the leading in question, Do you need a Social Media Expert on your staff or team?


As Social Media grows as an accepted form or marketing, advertising and sales do you need a Social Media Expert? If you are a Social Media enthusiast you are probably jumping up and down saying Yes! Yes! Yes! If not, you’re sitting there thinking ya right. Social Media is a bunch of busy bodies sitting around with nothing else to do.


I doubt if you even have to guess where I stand on this issue. Yes!


No matter what side your on, pro or con I think that we can all agree that when a SM program fails it is because of 1 of 2 reasons, either the company went out and set up a Facebook pang with a twitter account in a loud voice declares “We are doing Social Media” and does not work to be established and noticed and makes no consorted effort to become a involved player or a company goes out and tries to buy their way to the top without any real strategy. Wrong platform, wrong content, and they push out there message thinking it works like traditional advertising does.


Think again, Social Media heavy on the SOCIAL.


I have found and seen that companies that are doing well in Social Media Marketing for the most part have a person or group of (excited) people who serve as the core to their program. This is a person or people who want to be using the social channels any way they can, tying to push the envelope to deliver the kind of INTERACTION MESSAGE that the F’s (friends, fans, followers) want to see, hear and interact with.


Now the key question for me, Can this function or should this function be outsourced? IN some ways yes and others you better think about it.


Using a company like mine can help you plan out your attack, organize it, putting together the strategy, policies and general education of your employees on what to do with this new tool. Some people say that what they, an outside source might not be able to do is actually speak for the company, but again I question that. In the Larson plan there is 1 person and1 person alone that works on any given account. They know you, love you, understand you. They can get so close that they are able to speak as “the company” would. Then you need to trust them to do it. Can you? If you hold the leash too tight your Social Media will stagnate and stall.


Larson Notes & Satire: As a company I have for the last 13 years devoted myself to lead generation and the kind of advertising and marketing the gets customers to my clients FAST. Today, not tomorrow. They don’t have time to wait, and I don’t have the patience. So where does Social Media fit in? When we started at it was a little more each year, then the year became a little more each month and the month became a week and the week became a day. Will the day become an hour? http://www.larsonassociates.ws/SocialMediaMarketing we are ready to serve you if you want us.


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


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


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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


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

Bing To Index Facebook

Bing has made an announcement that might prove to be a big hit, I mean a very big hit for those of us now are using Facebook as a Social Media Marketing tool and at the same time huge blow to Google’s dominance. Starting now, yes now, Bing is incorporating Facebook data into its search results. Been there and did some searches and yes it is up and running on the Bing search engine! So now if you search for something on Bing and you have activated Facebook results, you will see the pages, products and websites your friends (even their faces show up) like and recommend way up in results, no matter if that website normally ranks first second or heaven forbid, the last page on a search.

Perhaps even more interesting is that these results will appear totally independent of any traditional and what we thought of as normal SEO practices. If your friends like it, it will appear on the first page. Magic?


More than ever for companies engaged in Social Media Marketing “It's Not What you Know, but Who you Know”. Content is important but it is who you are rubbing elbows with that will be making a major difference.


The more your business is visible on Facebook, the better chance of your website being Liked and your content, products and services being pushed higher up on this new social search results.


If your business has not been active in Social Media Marketing you better get it going. (A pause for a commercial message: At Larson’s we know what we are doing and we can get you going on a Social Media Marketing campaign, quickly, easily and completely)


Yet, content is still King, long live the King. The only way a page will be Liked by the masses on Facebook is if it contains great content. So don’t think you can park your content on the side and get all your friends to like you and you will be projected up onto the heaven of web search pages, the first page. It is still going to take work, lots of work. Varied content, blog posts, videos, images and audio, not to mention content that is optimized. And not to add more challenges but this does not kill off traditional SEO. Pages will still need to be "found" in order to be Liked from this new Bing button. Total strangers to your business can still influence search results, so SEO still matters.


It's easy to see that Bing is relying, or are they hoping and praying on using Facebook for social search. You might think that, because it's focused only on Facebook, this news is not totally earth shaking, as Facebook goes past three-quarters of a billion users across the world, but, it is. At least to Bing. Consider now that Facebook users 750,000000,000 (looks more impressive when you type out all the zeros) of them now have a reason to use Bing rather than Google.


Another interesting thought is that Facebook could technically block Google from indexing any or all of its content. This would and could kill Google’s need to heavy Facebook users.


In the words of Bing:
"At Bing, our mission is to help you make faster, more informed decisions. We designed a new way to experience search, focusing on great design, task completion, instant answers, and vertical categories like shopping and travel to help you make decisions faster. While we’ve made great strides in these areas, there is a huge opportunity for improvement. Today, search remains largely driven by facts and links – we think it’s time to change that.


Research tells us that 90% of people seek advice from family and friends as part of the decision making process. This “Friend Effect” is apparent in most of our decisions and often outweighs other facts because people feel more confident, smarter and safer with the wisdom of their trusted circle. A movie critic may pan the latest summer block buster, but your friends say it’s the feel good movie of the year, so you ignore the critic and go (and wholeheartedly agree). Historically, search hasn’t incorporated this “Friend Effect” – and 80% of people will delay making a decision until they can get a friend’s stamp of approval. This decision delay, or period of time it takes to hunt down a friend for advice, can last anywhere from a few minutes to days, whether you’re waiting for a call back, text, email or tweet.


Today, Bing is bringing the collective IQ of the Web together with the opinions of the people you trust most, to bring the “Friend Effect” to search. Starting today, you can receive personalized search results based on the opinions of your friends by simply signing into Facebook. New features make it easier to see what your Facebook friends “like” across the Web, incorporate the collective know-how of the Web into your search results, and begin adding a more conversational aspect to your searches. Decisions can now be made with more than facts, now the opinions of your trusted friends and the collective wisdom of the Web.


You can quickly see what your friends like and are sharing. Find and connect with the right friends faster. Pick the brains of friends of who live where you’re traveling and share shopping lists with your own team of retail gurus. And, return the favor to your friends by liking more things on the Web. With one click you can let your network know that you like a brand, an article, a celebrity or even a place. Because we know the best decisions are not just fueled by facts, they require the opinions and recommendations of your friends."


If you are a heavy social or local Social Networking person Google search results, while complete are now less relevant as my person search needs become more social and localized. How many online socialites are there? Now you can start to understand why Google has been frantically trying to enter the social space with Google +1. Maybe, for once it's too little, too late for Google.


Larson Notes & Satire: Ill just let the above words set in and let you think on it for a while. If you are not hammering away at Social Media Marketing like we have (active since 2006) you better. I’ve been saying it over and over. Get involved in Social Media Marketing for your business, and then Google started doing “Real Time Search”. At that time the Larson web site http://www.larsonassociates.ws/ saw a 1000% weekly hit increase, yes you heard me 1000%. Now with this new Bing deal? http://www.larsonassociates.ws/SocialMediaMarketing we are ready to serve ourselves and you. Will we see another 1000% increase? That would be nice.


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


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


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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


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

Holiday Email Planning

HO! HO! HO! Its’ that time of the year. Yes it’s time to start planning your holiday emailing.


If you have been at this a while you already have a list of email addresses you can use. If not here are some holiday tips to get you in the right direction.


Start with building your subscriber list with your Social Media F’s (you know, Friends, Fans, Followers) this might be your greatest resource in securing email address fast. IN addition it will cement your Social Media and your business marketing together giving you a maximum reach with your Social Media Marketing and (hopefully) fewer kick backs and spam digs on your account. If you are providing content that is worth their, your recipient’s interest with things such as educational tips, valuable coupons or time sensitive discounts you on the right track. At the same time, through Social Media alert your F’s that you have special offers heading their way and that they should be on the lookout for them. At the same time if you are hitting multiple Social Networks you should be tailoring your offer and content specifically for them. This is not print (like we talked about yesterday, and it is not as costly or difficult to change copy. Be flexible like the channel demands and always end with a call to action! Tell them what to do to BUY!


At the same time you can be testing the format and different kinds of offers to see what entices your customers and prospects to take the action you want, do they want $10.00 off on a large purchase or does a 25% off grab their attention more? Give it a try.


As for make-up and the visual aspects of your email, test where to put a call to action (buy) button, up, down, right, left? Color, red, green, blue, yellow, pink (?). Then clean up those navigation bars Make them visible and make sure they work!!! No I’m not kidding, check the links!


Then as stated above, segment your target audience into categories, site you got them from, age, sex, geography. If you want to take this down deeper, take a look at the activity of your F’s on your list. At the active or inactive? Another step is to find out (dare I say ask) how often you’re F’s want you to contact them. Not that they can’t change their minds on how much email they want from you but at least you are engaging them and teaching them to talk to you.


As with any marketing campaign the key word is always engagement. You want to have as many people as possible talking and interacting with you. Only in this way will your message, your brand, your offer(s), penetrate the marketing noise that bombards your customers and prospects.


Larson Notes & Satire: Start now friends. If holiday marketing is important to your business now is the time to get into gear. If it is Halloween your almost too late. Thanksgiving, run fast. Christmas, you have enough time if you start out as a good pace. It can get easier. If you started working on this a year ago, yes look back I did a blog like this about a year ago, you would already be working on what you need to be doing to have it all in place. Heck you might have made the Back to School blitzes that were going on in July and early August.


Email does work. Its cheep so you’re ROI can be very good. But if done wrong, you will get a black eye to how not just your customers and prospects see you but how the search engines and internet providers see you has well. Do it wrong and you will end up with 2 black eyes.


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


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


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


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