I am one of the lucky ones. I have been in some form of marketing and advertising all my life and did not let all that get in my way of grabbing hold of Social Media Marketing and doing it as if it were a traditional marketing/advertising channel. Not so easy. Many of my comrades-in-arms cannot make the leap from formal channel advertising to informal.
But it is here, Social Media Marketing and it is here as a major player in many companies, be it B2C or B2B, be a player of a bystander. More that even in traditional Marketing SM is dog-eat-dog out here and its tough eating dog!
Social Medial Marketing is a living entity; it’s alive and changing almost daily. Clubs, groups, organizations, fans, prospects, clients, people all listening and making comments and responding to more marketing stimuli that ever before.
In as much as SM is making us change something my father once told me still rings true, “you need to know the rules to know how to break them”. Yes, you heard me right, break them. So consider this, Social Media is in essence one big “Focus Group”. Here you can test to your heart’s desire, ideas, slogans, new products. Yes, test, test, test!
Message Testing: If social media is about conversation test your companies “conversations”. The major difference between traditional marketing and social marketing are really quite clearly drawn. Traditional marketing does not talk directly with the target person and it cannot talk back in real time. So for Social Media Marketing I suggest that you make a message map that outlines the “message” and then keeps track of the direct messages to that “message”. When on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Merchant Circle, keep careful track of the flow of conversation revolving around what you have floated out. If you get an increase in hits, likes, of feedback of any kind make a careful note pro and con. What should you be measuring?
a) Likes on Facebook
b) Retweets on twitter
c) Comments on your social network and/or blogs
d) fans/friends/followers grown in actual numbers or %
e) Average times spent on your blog site
Time Testing: When do you get the best results? Early am? Mid morning? Afternoon or evening or during the middle of the night? The experts will be telling you that am’s are best but they are not you nor do they represent your company. So, what is best for you and the kind of customers you want to attract? Again, test your posts! You might find out that 75% of your sales come on a Thursday. You might want to look or think about why? Are they getter ready for the weekend, or do they need to make a decision on a purchase before the end of the week? Why, why, why? Next consider time zones. If you sell to multiple time zones like I do, from the Eastern Time zone to the pacific, keep track of that as well. You could be surprised on who is buying from you and where which will lead to why.
Social Media Ads: It could be Facebook, LinkedIn or Merchant Circle, but there are proprietary advertising products that you can take advantage of. Depending on what your over all objects are doing a focused marketing could pay off in spades. If you have assembled your fans and friends with any kind of care. This is similar to a pay-for-click situation so there might be a cost.
Promotions, Contests, Surveys: These are ways to create a call for action. The idea again is to create a buzz around you and your company. Again test and measure and decide what you are trying to really achieve with each action. Be it an increase in your friend or fan size, feedback response, whatever? Just have a plan. See above (in Message Testing) for what you should be looking for.
Sales: Ya Sales. Sales are how we keep (real) score, isn’t it? At least that is how I keep score. If you’re not getting sales from your efforts change or go to something that starts to generate sales for your company. Different kinds of social media messaging drive sales. You can be blunt and straightforward in your buy requests of you can use the more subtle message. Either way it all comes down to needing, wanting people to buy something. Leads must lead to sales!
Larson Notes & Satire: Need help we are here to help you make money for your business all you need to do is call 847-991-0488.
In many ways social media marketing is the most extreme channel you can be using. On line, in your face marketing! I love it. (Ya, I’m an in your face kind of guy, what can I say.) Innovation abounds or can at every turn in your Social Media Marketing experience. Opportunity knocks and many times only once. When it does you need to be ready to spring into action, and that might require some old school tools like a business card and company brochure, and oh yes, we do those too.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Low Ball Pricing? Don’t Go There!
It is a common strategy for small businesses is to undercut the competition by charging lower prices. Especially true for new businesses, those looking to expand quickly or those who see sales deteration and loss. Don’t do it!
Think about it. If every graphic artist charges $100 an hour, you figure you'll gobble up the business by charging $50 an hour. Don’t do it!
Charging low prices or "low-balling," as it is commonly known is a terrible business strategy for service businesses Why? There are quite a few reasons really.
First, the thinking that a lower price makes you more attractive to clients is not totally true. Sure, some clients are price buyers and your low price will draw them in but I will tell you now, they will leave you just as fast! You really want to find clients who do not buy based on price but a value in the service you offer. These (other) clients value other things such as quality, reliability, speed, customer service, expertise, track record, and reputation and are quite frankly, willing to pay for it.
Fact is, your low price might be perceived of as signal that you do NOT deliver the kind of service that they are looking for and need. They might start to think that you will do anything for any old project and that you and your services are probably garbage. For these kinds of clients the low price sends them packing!
This is a fact!
Direct marketers have shown in split tests of price and service, that a low price for a product or service often loses and is less profitable than higher prices, which generate more orders and sales. Low prices, it seems create a perception in the client's mind of low value and poor service.
Second, low price attracts a less desirable clientele, the price buyer. You really want the kind of clients who value good work and excellent timely service and don't mind paying for it. Price buyers are the least profitable clients to work for and I know this for a fact based on past experience, finding them also the most demanding and difficult to please. They don’t value you or your service and think even with your lower price, that you are charging them too much money.
Third, in a service business, time is money. Time is all you really have. The less you charge, the less money you make and the less profitable your business. Think about it. Given the choice, wouldn't you rather work for $100 an hour instead of $50 an hour put in another way or earn $200,000 a year instead of $50,000 a year?
So now if low-balling is such a bad pricing strategy, where should your pricing fall in relation to your competition? A general rule of thumb for setting service fees is that your price should fall in the middle of the top third. Yes TOP third!
So if the lower third of service firms in your trade charge $30 to $75 an hour, the middle range charges $75 to $125, and the highest-paid charge $125 to $175 you should aim for $135 to $150 an hour.
Why?
Well, first, those in the lowest third are the low-ballers. They will only be project based customers going from low price to low price on every project, and by the way, you will need to quote or bid out on every project.
The middle range isn't totally bad. Might be the kind of company that needs to watch its penny’s more than others. There are some good clients in this group. Ones that will stick with you over the long run. Yet, this middle price strategy can create a perception of mediocrity. Is that how you want to be seen and known in your marketplace? Nothing wrong with being here but judge it on who the actual client is.
So given all that, you should charge somewhere in the top third.
In the example given above, we would charge somewhere between $135 to $150 per hour.
Yet why not go all the way and charge the max in our case $175 an hour? Well, if you go here, to the maximum price, your fee becomes a major concern to your clients. It stretches their finances to the limit, and they begin to feel like you're trying to take them for every penny they have. At the same time, almost all your competitors cost less than you so you are being hammered by price concerns or price objections at every turn. By backing off just that little bit, you can still maintain a solid price structure but not have that be the biggest concern in the client's mind.
Larson Notes & Satire: If you can get it I guess go for it, I myself would love to work for $300 an hour and only work say 4 hours a day rather than 100 and work for 9 hours. You need to find the right balance for you. Don’t just go steal your competition’s pricings and think it will work for you. You are not them and they not you. You have different hidden costs then they do and vice versa. Use what you can leverage to your best advantage and, don’t ignore the other things but, well don’t mention them unless they become an issue then, be ready to have an answer to whatever that might be.
And oh ya, if you think you are going to charge good old Uncle Howie any $175 an hour, think again. I am a reseller and I need to have some markup room.
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.
Think about it. If every graphic artist charges $100 an hour, you figure you'll gobble up the business by charging $50 an hour. Don’t do it!
Charging low prices or "low-balling," as it is commonly known is a terrible business strategy for service businesses Why? There are quite a few reasons really.
First, the thinking that a lower price makes you more attractive to clients is not totally true. Sure, some clients are price buyers and your low price will draw them in but I will tell you now, they will leave you just as fast! You really want to find clients who do not buy based on price but a value in the service you offer. These (other) clients value other things such as quality, reliability, speed, customer service, expertise, track record, and reputation and are quite frankly, willing to pay for it.
Fact is, your low price might be perceived of as signal that you do NOT deliver the kind of service that they are looking for and need. They might start to think that you will do anything for any old project and that you and your services are probably garbage. For these kinds of clients the low price sends them packing!
This is a fact!
Direct marketers have shown in split tests of price and service, that a low price for a product or service often loses and is less profitable than higher prices, which generate more orders and sales. Low prices, it seems create a perception in the client's mind of low value and poor service.
Second, low price attracts a less desirable clientele, the price buyer. You really want the kind of clients who value good work and excellent timely service and don't mind paying for it. Price buyers are the least profitable clients to work for and I know this for a fact based on past experience, finding them also the most demanding and difficult to please. They don’t value you or your service and think even with your lower price, that you are charging them too much money.
Third, in a service business, time is money. Time is all you really have. The less you charge, the less money you make and the less profitable your business. Think about it. Given the choice, wouldn't you rather work for $100 an hour instead of $50 an hour put in another way or earn $200,000 a year instead of $50,000 a year?
So now if low-balling is such a bad pricing strategy, where should your pricing fall in relation to your competition? A general rule of thumb for setting service fees is that your price should fall in the middle of the top third. Yes TOP third!
So if the lower third of service firms in your trade charge $30 to $75 an hour, the middle range charges $75 to $125, and the highest-paid charge $125 to $175 you should aim for $135 to $150 an hour.
Why?
Well, first, those in the lowest third are the low-ballers. They will only be project based customers going from low price to low price on every project, and by the way, you will need to quote or bid out on every project.
The middle range isn't totally bad. Might be the kind of company that needs to watch its penny’s more than others. There are some good clients in this group. Ones that will stick with you over the long run. Yet, this middle price strategy can create a perception of mediocrity. Is that how you want to be seen and known in your marketplace? Nothing wrong with being here but judge it on who the actual client is.
So given all that, you should charge somewhere in the top third.
In the example given above, we would charge somewhere between $135 to $150 per hour.
Yet why not go all the way and charge the max in our case $175 an hour? Well, if you go here, to the maximum price, your fee becomes a major concern to your clients. It stretches their finances to the limit, and they begin to feel like you're trying to take them for every penny they have. At the same time, almost all your competitors cost less than you so you are being hammered by price concerns or price objections at every turn. By backing off just that little bit, you can still maintain a solid price structure but not have that be the biggest concern in the client's mind.
Larson Notes & Satire: If you can get it I guess go for it, I myself would love to work for $300 an hour and only work say 4 hours a day rather than 100 and work for 9 hours. You need to find the right balance for you. Don’t just go steal your competition’s pricings and think it will work for you. You are not them and they not you. You have different hidden costs then they do and vice versa. Use what you can leverage to your best advantage and, don’t ignore the other things but, well don’t mention them unless they become an issue then, be ready to have an answer to whatever that might be.
And oh ya, if you think you are going to charge good old Uncle Howie any $175 an hour, think again. I am a reseller and I need to have some markup room.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
How Do You Score Your Social Media?
So how do the “pros” score their social media efforts?
Today's top marketers are starting factor social interactions into their lead scoring. Why? Because that is where the action is! These conversations often can indicate buying signals and behavior and allow marketers to bring leads to a sale or the sales department faster, and beating out the competition that is using traditional lead scoring or dare I say no lead scoring at all.
So what is sales ready behavior? It could be a tweet about you or your product, a comment left on a blog, a question posting on LinkedIn, or any other online posting outside of your website. The key is to have a system in place that can see this data and put the appropriate score to this information.
In order to score social media interactions properly, you must implement some data capture processes:
1. Use a social media monitoring tool. There are free tools like Salesforce for Twitter, or more options like Radian6. Or you can simply manually enter your data.
2. Then get the data from your social media monitoring into the CRM system so the comments or activity can be used in lead scoring for future sales activity.
3. Then start to study and understand how these interactions in social media affect the actual buying process and sales cycle. Create scores to reflect these different activities.
Like other behaviors, all social media interactions are not equal and should not be scored equally. Some actions should receive higher scores others lower. Do they mention your company, your competition, or that they are looking to buy. Sort it out and keep track of what and how you need to score it. Others that probably need lower scores are actions such as retweets or posts without content.
Now the sales attack, but how can you email or contact these people if all you have is their Twitter IDs or a Facebook pages link? You can't, but you can send an alert over to sales so a rep can start to do their thing be it with social media or a phone call. That is what a missionary sales and lead generation is all about (Need help in this area contact us here at Larson & Associates 847-991-0488 http://www.larsonassociates.ws/ and we can help you in this area.)
All of this doesn't have to take a lot of manual work. Social media lead scoring can happen automatically on sentiment, topic or general keywords used, automating the scoring program or you can go manual. Whatever floats your boat.
So start prioritizing your leads not just by company or behavior, but by pertinent information.
Larson Notes & Satire: It really comes down to sales and what you sell but you got to start somewhere to know what is happening out there.
To that I can only say test, test, test and the start all over again.
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.
Today's top marketers are starting factor social interactions into their lead scoring. Why? Because that is where the action is! These conversations often can indicate buying signals and behavior and allow marketers to bring leads to a sale or the sales department faster, and beating out the competition that is using traditional lead scoring or dare I say no lead scoring at all.
So what is sales ready behavior? It could be a tweet about you or your product, a comment left on a blog, a question posting on LinkedIn, or any other online posting outside of your website. The key is to have a system in place that can see this data and put the appropriate score to this information.
In order to score social media interactions properly, you must implement some data capture processes:
1. Use a social media monitoring tool. There are free tools like Salesforce for Twitter, or more options like Radian6. Or you can simply manually enter your data.
2. Then get the data from your social media monitoring into the CRM system so the comments or activity can be used in lead scoring for future sales activity.
3. Then start to study and understand how these interactions in social media affect the actual buying process and sales cycle. Create scores to reflect these different activities.
Like other behaviors, all social media interactions are not equal and should not be scored equally. Some actions should receive higher scores others lower. Do they mention your company, your competition, or that they are looking to buy. Sort it out and keep track of what and how you need to score it. Others that probably need lower scores are actions such as retweets or posts without content.
Now the sales attack, but how can you email or contact these people if all you have is their Twitter IDs or a Facebook pages link? You can't, but you can send an alert over to sales so a rep can start to do their thing be it with social media or a phone call. That is what a missionary sales and lead generation is all about (Need help in this area contact us here at Larson & Associates 847-991-0488 http://www.larsonassociates.ws/ and we can help you in this area.)
All of this doesn't have to take a lot of manual work. Social media lead scoring can happen automatically on sentiment, topic or general keywords used, automating the scoring program or you can go manual. Whatever floats your boat.
So start prioritizing your leads not just by company or behavior, but by pertinent information.
Larson Notes & Satire: It really comes down to sales and what you sell but you got to start somewhere to know what is happening out there.
To that I can only say test, test, test and the start all over again.
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.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Landing Page Optimization
The term “optimization” which these days is getting close to becoming not only overused and burnt out even meaningless due to its overuse still maintains some value that marketers and Web masters still must understand and apply. It is crucial to understand the meaning of the word as we have come to define it.
For support of an optimization program you need to be doing content testing and audience targeting. The effective combination of these two core areas of direct digital marketing functions brings out success. Yet, however, many organizations have taken a divide and conquer approach to the roles and responsibilities of testing and targeting. As these organizational silos take shape, production speeds slow and landing pages are drained of their real effectiveness.
In a good approach to a landing page optimization you want to constantly be doing “data,” “testing,” and “targeting” of all areas involved. The data, at the top filters down to each function. The data is important because the data must constantly feed the content testing and the audience targeting.
Your Landing Page Optimization Starts with Data. The ideal data for landing page optimization is a universal profile management system. This kind of system is designed to do two things:
1st, it stores valuable data points like customer data & purchasing history.
2nd, it captures behavioral information like browsing patterns on a page, keyword or banner click entry points to the landing page. This combination of information on your site visitors and the behavioral information helps you to build unique segments and lay a foundation for testing and targeting strategies.
Test and Target in Tandem. Once the data is setup the optimization process can start. The most important thing to understand in a good landing page optimization is that testing and targeting must work together. When launching a landing page optimization, your strategy should begin with an initial testing of the content that may identify a real need on what to target. Your ability to be flexible and being able to easily add testing or targeting data to the landing page is important to be able to meet your conversion targets and adapt to the constantly changing prospect and customer.
Selecting Landing Page Optimization Software. Like anything else in software, optimization tools and software can run from that of a low cost solution and simplicity to high costs and complexity.
It is easy to love Google because they offer helpful tools for free. But it is important to understand that free also means a trade off somewhere. In the case of Google Optimizer, the trade off is a free testing tool for one that is incapable of targeting. Low (or no) cost tools are tempting, but the combination of testing and targeting is mandatory for true landing page optimization success. Yet something is better than nothing.
At the other end of the spectrum, many tools that provide both testing and targeting cost a ton of money and time. The right optimization software probably really falls in the middle where reasonable cost meets up with a full set of features.
Extend Landing Page Optimization by Learning From Other Channels. While the optimization principles here are primarily within the context of landing pages, they also apply to the different functions of digital marketing. Good optimization set up and practices in email, mobile, blog, social and website improves the overall online marketing campaign performance. But remember that cross channel optimization adds valuable hit points that can be leveraged to create better landing page exposure, and we really want exposure. Remember also that landing pages are just one part of your digital online marketing strategy. The data that powers them, and the data they record, must connect to a database that focuses on the site visitors and coordinates the experience across the entire direct digital marketing landscape.
Achieving Optimized Landing Pages. A successful landing page creates two outcomes for marketers. The landing page hit leads to either a lead for other marketing programs to nurture and develop or an immediate transaction, yes a sale or at least a start to the sales process. Optimization is the best and most proven approach for achieving either outcome, whether a transaction happens immediately or must be nurtured for several months.
Once a database is properly configured, develop a landing page strategy that is not set to the limitations of specialty silos. Avoid silos and prevent trading off testing in favor of targeting.
The end result of applying a defined landing page optimization strategy is a more coordinated experience that improves conversion rates and performance.
Larson Notes & Satire: What market or markets do you go after? Do you sell different product lines or service areas? If you do you what to be thinking about each one having its own landing page. Yes, each one. It takes a little time, a little effort but it does make a difference. Now me, one of the things we do is specialize on industries like printers ( http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Printing_Telesales ) and advertising agencies and graphic studios ( http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Telesales_for_Ad_Agencies ) so I have individual pages set up for those to where I can place wording that those industries would appreciate and use. Yes I use some jargon on those pages. So they get found on a specialty key word search and so the people in those industries know I know and understand them. And when you think about it, don’t you want to use a vendor that understands you and where you are coming from?
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
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.
For support of an optimization program you need to be doing content testing and audience targeting. The effective combination of these two core areas of direct digital marketing functions brings out success. Yet, however, many organizations have taken a divide and conquer approach to the roles and responsibilities of testing and targeting. As these organizational silos take shape, production speeds slow and landing pages are drained of their real effectiveness.
In a good approach to a landing page optimization you want to constantly be doing “data,” “testing,” and “targeting” of all areas involved. The data, at the top filters down to each function. The data is important because the data must constantly feed the content testing and the audience targeting.
Your Landing Page Optimization Starts with Data. The ideal data for landing page optimization is a universal profile management system. This kind of system is designed to do two things:
1st, it stores valuable data points like customer data & purchasing history.
2nd, it captures behavioral information like browsing patterns on a page, keyword or banner click entry points to the landing page. This combination of information on your site visitors and the behavioral information helps you to build unique segments and lay a foundation for testing and targeting strategies.
Test and Target in Tandem. Once the data is setup the optimization process can start. The most important thing to understand in a good landing page optimization is that testing and targeting must work together. When launching a landing page optimization, your strategy should begin with an initial testing of the content that may identify a real need on what to target. Your ability to be flexible and being able to easily add testing or targeting data to the landing page is important to be able to meet your conversion targets and adapt to the constantly changing prospect and customer.
Selecting Landing Page Optimization Software. Like anything else in software, optimization tools and software can run from that of a low cost solution and simplicity to high costs and complexity.
It is easy to love Google because they offer helpful tools for free. But it is important to understand that free also means a trade off somewhere. In the case of Google Optimizer, the trade off is a free testing tool for one that is incapable of targeting. Low (or no) cost tools are tempting, but the combination of testing and targeting is mandatory for true landing page optimization success. Yet something is better than nothing.
At the other end of the spectrum, many tools that provide both testing and targeting cost a ton of money and time. The right optimization software probably really falls in the middle where reasonable cost meets up with a full set of features.
Extend Landing Page Optimization by Learning From Other Channels. While the optimization principles here are primarily within the context of landing pages, they also apply to the different functions of digital marketing. Good optimization set up and practices in email, mobile, blog, social and website improves the overall online marketing campaign performance. But remember that cross channel optimization adds valuable hit points that can be leveraged to create better landing page exposure, and we really want exposure. Remember also that landing pages are just one part of your digital online marketing strategy. The data that powers them, and the data they record, must connect to a database that focuses on the site visitors and coordinates the experience across the entire direct digital marketing landscape.
Achieving Optimized Landing Pages. A successful landing page creates two outcomes for marketers. The landing page hit leads to either a lead for other marketing programs to nurture and develop or an immediate transaction, yes a sale or at least a start to the sales process. Optimization is the best and most proven approach for achieving either outcome, whether a transaction happens immediately or must be nurtured for several months.
Once a database is properly configured, develop a landing page strategy that is not set to the limitations of specialty silos. Avoid silos and prevent trading off testing in favor of targeting.
The end result of applying a defined landing page optimization strategy is a more coordinated experience that improves conversion rates and performance.
Larson Notes & Satire: What market or markets do you go after? Do you sell different product lines or service areas? If you do you what to be thinking about each one having its own landing page. Yes, each one. It takes a little time, a little effort but it does make a difference. Now me, one of the things we do is specialize on industries like printers ( http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Printing_Telesales ) and advertising agencies and graphic studios ( http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Telesales_for_Ad_Agencies ) so I have individual pages set up for those to where I can place wording that those industries would appreciate and use. Yes I use some jargon on those pages. So they get found on a specialty key word search and so the people in those industries know I know and understand them. And when you think about it, don’t you want to use a vendor that understands you and where you are coming from?
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
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.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Every Channel Has Its Problems
Cross-channel, multi-channel, mixed channels, some channels, part-time channels, no channels. It’s ok to scream or pull your hair out. It is one creasy marketing world out there.
When all is said and done all good marketing is starts with listening to your customers and prospects. It is not about you and your products and services. Hardly! It’s not about you at all.
How you talk (or sell) to your clients and prospects is not as important as how they want to be talked to.
Larson Notes & Satire: I hate white papers. Why? Because when I want to look at one I need to give the company all my information. Then some not well informed sales person calls me up trying to sell me something when they don’t know a single thing about my company and don’t really care. They just know I requested a certain “white paper” they sent it and now they want to sell me a product that goes along with that white paper. Makes me turn red. It seems I am a growing part of society in my dislike of white papers. As I usually bypass the papers so too are a good 66% of other people just like me.
I figure that I will give away information as I have been doing for years. If you like my ideas and practices and are not able to implement them for yourself you will hire me and my firm to do lead generation for you in all the various ways we can do it and work in. I have repeatedly told you what my company’s sales and marketing plans are. I follow the Vince Lombardi plan where he reportedly said that he could give any team the Packers were playing his play book and still beat them, because it came down not to the plays made but in the execution. Yes to achieve perfect execution. That will get you the results you want
The philosophy of giving and sharing has worked for 36 years and I think I it works just fine, now.
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.
When all is said and done all good marketing is starts with listening to your customers and prospects. It is not about you and your products and services. Hardly! It’s not about you at all.
How you talk (or sell) to your clients and prospects is not as important as how they want to be talked to.
Larson Notes & Satire: I hate white papers. Why? Because when I want to look at one I need to give the company all my information. Then some not well informed sales person calls me up trying to sell me something when they don’t know a single thing about my company and don’t really care. They just know I requested a certain “white paper” they sent it and now they want to sell me a product that goes along with that white paper. Makes me turn red. It seems I am a growing part of society in my dislike of white papers. As I usually bypass the papers so too are a good 66% of other people just like me.
I figure that I will give away information as I have been doing for years. If you like my ideas and practices and are not able to implement them for yourself you will hire me and my firm to do lead generation for you in all the various ways we can do it and work in. I have repeatedly told you what my company’s sales and marketing plans are. I follow the Vince Lombardi plan where he reportedly said that he could give any team the Packers were playing his play book and still beat them, because it came down not to the plays made but in the execution. Yes to achieve perfect execution. That will get you the results you want
The philosophy of giving and sharing has worked for 36 years and I think I it works just fine, now.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Friday, April 8, 2011
The Difference Between Metrics & Analytics
A funny thought hit me as I sat down to work today. Almost every article I read in some of the journals and scanned though in my email account talked about small business yet they talked as if small business had all the elements of a large business. It was frightening to think on how they were trying to talk to small business. By that I mean the articles assumed that (even as a small business) I had a marketing director, a sales director, and IT director, a financial director, a purchasing director, a comptroller . . . should I go on?
I assume that when I am talking to small businesses even the ones with sales up to 2 million, you the owner or sales manager wear 2, 3 or more different hats.
That being said what really is the difference between Metrics and Analytics. We hear these words bantered around all the time but what the heck at they and what do they mean to MY business.
Marketing Metrics are all the descriptive measurements such as number of leads, number of sales, and number of prospects in the sales pipeline
Marketing analytics is the data to see patterns that allow you to predict outcomes and to create a marketing strategy. It is not about the sheer numbers but how you use the numbers or could use the numbers so you can take the “proper” action.
Now just so you don’t think I’m going “Egghead” on you. I still believe that Marketing is an Art and not a science. But there is nothing wrong with knowing the numbers to you can devise the best marketing and sales attack you can. Also calm yourself into thinking everyone is doing Analytics. They aren’t and if they are I personally think most of them don’t know want to do with the data anyway. In an ITSMS member survey only half the companies are doing any kind of formal analytics and we are talking some major companies in this group. The ones with layers of management.
Now the Big Dogs seem to want you to think that to be effective here you need to have a sophisticated management team in place and statistical analysis skills. I say no! The writes of all these articles and studies work for the likes of IBM, Microsoft, Cisco and have layers or management that take them so far away from the pulse of the customer that they are immune by what is really coming down on the street. They make good products but as a small business I don't know how much hands-on marketing advice I would be taking from them.
So what can analytics do for you?
1) Help you to develop new promotions
2) Have a new way to look at target customers and patters
3) Help to predict how well your promotion should do
4) Help predict future buying patterns
5) Let you see possible new markets
Larson Notes & Satire: Been reading a few things on the art of selling to woman and the art of selling to men. Have started to put thoughts down for a couple of blogs in this direction.
I love being in the trenches with my associates. Yes I work in my ivory tower and sit in the famed ebony throne but don’t think that I am not down there working my butt of keeping a solid feeling for my customers and what my associates are facing every day.
This last week I went to a networking group, a seminar, got a short video taken and still had time to get down and dirty with some work. That is why I am so angry when I was going though reading about what all the big Muckety Mucks though I as a small business should be doing. What does a $100,000,000 dollar company really know about me? Case in point, I got a phone call from a certain Social Media company wanting to set up a phone appointment to get Uncle Howie to spend some money on them. I initially said ok. I mean I love Social Media Marketing and think it is great for promotion. They then went and forwarded me information to set the stage of the meeting. It was a whole big spiel about what they had done for American Express. My company has nothing in common with AE. And there they were telling, no trying to show me how they could do the same wonderful things they did for AE for my company? I did the only thing a nice person like me could do. I stopped that appointment and told them I did not want to waste their time. I was really thinking about my time, but I am a nice person.
What does this have to do with Metrics or Analytics? Know your numbers, but also know how to feel your numbers so you can make an educated guess on what to do next. Yes I said guess. I am still a Right Brain kind of person. I still do things by gut feeling more than by fact, but knowing what the Left Brainers are doing never hurts. Marketing is still an art more than a science. Still there is nothing wrong with practicing a little alchemy.
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.
I assume that when I am talking to small businesses even the ones with sales up to 2 million, you the owner or sales manager wear 2, 3 or more different hats.
That being said what really is the difference between Metrics and Analytics. We hear these words bantered around all the time but what the heck at they and what do they mean to MY business.
Marketing Metrics are all the descriptive measurements such as number of leads, number of sales, and number of prospects in the sales pipeline
Marketing analytics is the data to see patterns that allow you to predict outcomes and to create a marketing strategy. It is not about the sheer numbers but how you use the numbers or could use the numbers so you can take the “proper” action.
Now just so you don’t think I’m going “Egghead” on you. I still believe that Marketing is an Art and not a science. But there is nothing wrong with knowing the numbers to you can devise the best marketing and sales attack you can. Also calm yourself into thinking everyone is doing Analytics. They aren’t and if they are I personally think most of them don’t know want to do with the data anyway. In an ITSMS member survey only half the companies are doing any kind of formal analytics and we are talking some major companies in this group. The ones with layers of management.
Now the Big Dogs seem to want you to think that to be effective here you need to have a sophisticated management team in place and statistical analysis skills. I say no! The writes of all these articles and studies work for the likes of IBM, Microsoft, Cisco and have layers or management that take them so far away from the pulse of the customer that they are immune by what is really coming down on the street. They make good products but as a small business I don't know how much hands-on marketing advice I would be taking from them.
So what can analytics do for you?
1) Help you to develop new promotions
2) Have a new way to look at target customers and patters
3) Help to predict how well your promotion should do
4) Help predict future buying patterns
5) Let you see possible new markets
Larson Notes & Satire: Been reading a few things on the art of selling to woman and the art of selling to men. Have started to put thoughts down for a couple of blogs in this direction.
I love being in the trenches with my associates. Yes I work in my ivory tower and sit in the famed ebony throne but don’t think that I am not down there working my butt of keeping a solid feeling for my customers and what my associates are facing every day.
This last week I went to a networking group, a seminar, got a short video taken and still had time to get down and dirty with some work. That is why I am so angry when I was going though reading about what all the big Muckety Mucks though I as a small business should be doing. What does a $100,000,000 dollar company really know about me? Case in point, I got a phone call from a certain Social Media company wanting to set up a phone appointment to get Uncle Howie to spend some money on them. I initially said ok. I mean I love Social Media Marketing and think it is great for promotion. They then went and forwarded me information to set the stage of the meeting. It was a whole big spiel about what they had done for American Express. My company has nothing in common with AE. And there they were telling, no trying to show me how they could do the same wonderful things they did for AE for my company? I did the only thing a nice person like me could do. I stopped that appointment and told them I did not want to waste their time. I was really thinking about my time, but I am a nice person.
What does this have to do with Metrics or Analytics? Know your numbers, but also know how to feel your numbers so you can make an educated guess on what to do next. Yes I said guess. I am still a Right Brain kind of person. I still do things by gut feeling more than by fact, but knowing what the Left Brainers are doing never hurts. Marketing is still an art more than a science. Still there is nothing wrong with practicing a little alchemy.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Multichannel Is Always Better
When in doubt, whenever possible go multichannel. When you can make it both high tech/low tech, do it. When the possibility exists put in on-line/off-line.
Now first I’m going to tell you if you can’t be at a minimum 85% effective in using a certain kind of marketing tool stay away of it, you are just wasting your money and more importantly your time. But then I am going to tell you if you are hitting the same marketing base with different kinds of marketing tools and channels your need of effectiveness in their usage goes down by 2.5-5% per channel. So maybe, just maybe if you are using 4 or 5 different marketing tools you only need to be 70-75% effective in their use. Maybe.
Second, the old adage I am going to throw out at you is that you need 7-9 seen touches to a prospect to make a sale. This figure has been around since in got into advertising back in the 70’s but still holds true? Now you seem to need at least 21 to 28 touches in a two to three month period to make a sale. Don’t faint. You just need to be using the Big Fish in the little pond method. Focus your attack. Narrow your nitch. Drive your pitch. You can do it. Then multichannel them to death, nicely!
Telemarketing, Direct Mail, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Landing Pages, Blogs, classified ads. Need ideas see http://www.larsonassociates.ws/marketing_tools you can do it. You got to do it and do it all, well. How well? Penetratingly well.
I push direct mail and telemarketing not just because my company does that as a service but because it works and it is a direct and seen (or heard) approach to be heard above the clutter. Yes those mail boxes are sitting there empty, fill them. People are sitting out there waiting for your marketing piece to land in their box so give it to them. Let your message can be seen and read in your words not that of an exclusive Social Media Marketing chat. And telemarketing, if done right, is not high pressure offensive, it works in a high touch, very friendly account selling way that nothing else can give except for an individual sales person. Online marketing, search engine marketing, are still needed and important so don’t stop what you’re doing there but people want touchy, feely, hearing as well. Then need and want access to you.
If you go exclusively online, well, I think we all are feeling how the online channels are getting over saturated. I can’t tell you the number of emails I delete without reading. I can’t count that high. As companies stated pounding out more emails and they will (you have heard the “constant contact” ads on radio haven’t you?) it’s going to get more cluttered as companies look for cheaper ways to market) As for SEM (search engine marketing) it is just as dog eat dog. My own hits have been going up and down like a yoyo. You can do pay for clicks but when you pull the money plug you disappear so driving your site up in the search engines is the best (think Landing Page here) to get a long term key word natural or universal search.
Marketing is a game of chess. Will you go to check, or checkmate?
Larson Notes & Satire: It’s all about finding what works for you, your business, your customers and your prospects. You are unique. Is your marketing plan unique to you or did you read and take it out of a book you loaded from the library?
Take the time to sit back uninterrupted and do some brainstorming. Let your mind fly and get those great ideas out of your head and down on to paper. Then IMPLEMENT. You have got to implement! If you don’t apply what you have “created” you have already lost. Yet there is a way out. . .
If you can’t do it, if you aren’t able to implement your ideas, if you don’t have the time to do it, don’t be ashamed to pick up the phone and dial 847-991-0488 and talk to us. That is what companies like mine are out here for. To help your business become great!
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.
Now first I’m going to tell you if you can’t be at a minimum 85% effective in using a certain kind of marketing tool stay away of it, you are just wasting your money and more importantly your time. But then I am going to tell you if you are hitting the same marketing base with different kinds of marketing tools and channels your need of effectiveness in their usage goes down by 2.5-5% per channel. So maybe, just maybe if you are using 4 or 5 different marketing tools you only need to be 70-75% effective in their use. Maybe.
Second, the old adage I am going to throw out at you is that you need 7-9 seen touches to a prospect to make a sale. This figure has been around since in got into advertising back in the 70’s but still holds true? Now you seem to need at least 21 to 28 touches in a two to three month period to make a sale. Don’t faint. You just need to be using the Big Fish in the little pond method. Focus your attack. Narrow your nitch. Drive your pitch. You can do it. Then multichannel them to death, nicely!
Telemarketing, Direct Mail, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Landing Pages, Blogs, classified ads. Need ideas see http://www.larsonassociates.ws/marketing_tools you can do it. You got to do it and do it all, well. How well? Penetratingly well.
I push direct mail and telemarketing not just because my company does that as a service but because it works and it is a direct and seen (or heard) approach to be heard above the clutter. Yes those mail boxes are sitting there empty, fill them. People are sitting out there waiting for your marketing piece to land in their box so give it to them. Let your message can be seen and read in your words not that of an exclusive Social Media Marketing chat. And telemarketing, if done right, is not high pressure offensive, it works in a high touch, very friendly account selling way that nothing else can give except for an individual sales person. Online marketing, search engine marketing, are still needed and important so don’t stop what you’re doing there but people want touchy, feely, hearing as well. Then need and want access to you.
If you go exclusively online, well, I think we all are feeling how the online channels are getting over saturated. I can’t tell you the number of emails I delete without reading. I can’t count that high. As companies stated pounding out more emails and they will (you have heard the “constant contact” ads on radio haven’t you?) it’s going to get more cluttered as companies look for cheaper ways to market) As for SEM (search engine marketing) it is just as dog eat dog. My own hits have been going up and down like a yoyo. You can do pay for clicks but when you pull the money plug you disappear so driving your site up in the search engines is the best (think Landing Page here) to get a long term key word natural or universal search.
Marketing is a game of chess. Will you go to check, or checkmate?
Larson Notes & Satire: It’s all about finding what works for you, your business, your customers and your prospects. You are unique. Is your marketing plan unique to you or did you read and take it out of a book you loaded from the library?
Take the time to sit back uninterrupted and do some brainstorming. Let your mind fly and get those great ideas out of your head and down on to paper. Then IMPLEMENT. You have got to implement! If you don’t apply what you have “created” you have already lost. Yet there is a way out. . .
If you can’t do it, if you aren’t able to implement your ideas, if you don’t have the time to do it, don’t be ashamed to pick up the phone and dial 847-991-0488 and talk to us. That is what companies like mine are out here for. To help your business become great!
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Implementing Marketing Integration
You want to do it, Integrated Marketing. It sounds like it is the right way to go about doing a good strategic synergistic marketing plan but what do I do?
You might want to start out by not getting lost in doing a Situation analysis, establishing Marketing objectives and putting together your Marketing budget. At this point you would most likely be pulling your analysis ideas, and money out of thin air like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. But isn’t that what you are doing anyway. If you’re a small business I expect that is your plan. Open the check book, look at how much money is in there and go spend some of it.
If you are really serious keep reading.
To implement a good solid Marketing Integration plan you need to shack up your entire organization thinking on what you want to achieve and have the message, one message, a consistent thought patter permeate down through the ranks.
So grab a chain and sit down at the kitchen table, pour yourself a good hot cup of coffee and . . .
1st start by establishing your strategic goals and set financial projections in each product or service you have. Then pick which marketing channels using both direct and indirect, online and off line, you are going to use. Remember less used at a high level of involvement is better than more used a lesser amount.
2nd, make a list of all customers, prospects and other leads you have. How did you find them, How are you touching them in your on-going follow up now?
3rd, capture and assess all the data you have.
4th, Find the gaps in your system. Where do your customers and prospects get lost or fall out? Then put plans together for sales and marketing that address customer selection, acquisition, retention and growth initiatives. Draw these out (on paper) and prioritize your tactics on importance and roll out, with detailed steps to responsibilities, budgetary obligations and timing.
5th is to plan and start roll out (if you are a large company with a big budget you would do a test market at this point rather than a complete roll out) the offers of your campaign. Keep track of any results in real time and pounce on any results in a prescribed manor.
6th Push any results to your bottom line and assess performance of all marketing channels used. Identify correlation between them while identifying the gaps you find in implementation. Go back re-plan, re-budget and reload your timing gun while comparing them to your ROI projections you set out in your initial goals. Factor in any inconsistencies that you might have experienced.
7th re-launch plan towards your reworked plan pushing towards a higher level of expectation with the knowledge you have achieved and gained.
Larson Notes & Satire: Sometimes I look at this stuff and think what is really new here except a new buzz word for Marketing Directors and People to start throwing around to cloud good marketing practices in fog of jargon. Good marketing with a solid plan is the same. So what is new here? To be honest I am not sure.
All Marketing Integration is, is really taking the marketing process and the marketing message and permeating it throughout your organization. New? Hardly. Back in the ‘80s I went and had company business cards printed up for every one of my employees, even Hank the janitor. They might not have completely understood what was happening. I don’t know if I did either, but just for fun they would pass them out to their friends and acquaintances and low and behold for a period of 4 years straight we picked up 1 new account a week. This “Integration” stuff is about getting your consistent message out to all your employees to all your marketing channels to all your customers and prospects to everyone knows and understand what you and your company is all about.
What I can say is that if you sit down with a cup of coffee (ok tea if you must) and plan out your marketing and define the results you want to achieve you stand a better than average chance to succeed and isn’t that why we are in business?
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.
You might want to start out by not getting lost in doing a Situation analysis, establishing Marketing objectives and putting together your Marketing budget. At this point you would most likely be pulling your analysis ideas, and money out of thin air like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. But isn’t that what you are doing anyway. If you’re a small business I expect that is your plan. Open the check book, look at how much money is in there and go spend some of it.
If you are really serious keep reading.
To implement a good solid Marketing Integration plan you need to shack up your entire organization thinking on what you want to achieve and have the message, one message, a consistent thought patter permeate down through the ranks.
So grab a chain and sit down at the kitchen table, pour yourself a good hot cup of coffee and . . .
1st start by establishing your strategic goals and set financial projections in each product or service you have. Then pick which marketing channels using both direct and indirect, online and off line, you are going to use. Remember less used at a high level of involvement is better than more used a lesser amount.
2nd, make a list of all customers, prospects and other leads you have. How did you find them, How are you touching them in your on-going follow up now?
3rd, capture and assess all the data you have.
4th, Find the gaps in your system. Where do your customers and prospects get lost or fall out? Then put plans together for sales and marketing that address customer selection, acquisition, retention and growth initiatives. Draw these out (on paper) and prioritize your tactics on importance and roll out, with detailed steps to responsibilities, budgetary obligations and timing.
5th is to plan and start roll out (if you are a large company with a big budget you would do a test market at this point rather than a complete roll out) the offers of your campaign. Keep track of any results in real time and pounce on any results in a prescribed manor.
6th Push any results to your bottom line and assess performance of all marketing channels used. Identify correlation between them while identifying the gaps you find in implementation. Go back re-plan, re-budget and reload your timing gun while comparing them to your ROI projections you set out in your initial goals. Factor in any inconsistencies that you might have experienced.
7th re-launch plan towards your reworked plan pushing towards a higher level of expectation with the knowledge you have achieved and gained.
Larson Notes & Satire: Sometimes I look at this stuff and think what is really new here except a new buzz word for Marketing Directors and People to start throwing around to cloud good marketing practices in fog of jargon. Good marketing with a solid plan is the same. So what is new here? To be honest I am not sure.
All Marketing Integration is, is really taking the marketing process and the marketing message and permeating it throughout your organization. New? Hardly. Back in the ‘80s I went and had company business cards printed up for every one of my employees, even Hank the janitor. They might not have completely understood what was happening. I don’t know if I did either, but just for fun they would pass them out to their friends and acquaintances and low and behold for a period of 4 years straight we picked up 1 new account a week. This “Integration” stuff is about getting your consistent message out to all your employees to all your marketing channels to all your customers and prospects to everyone knows and understand what you and your company is all about.
What I can say is that if you sit down with a cup of coffee (ok tea if you must) and plan out your marketing and define the results you want to achieve you stand a better than average chance to succeed and isn’t that why we are in business?
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.
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