Areas of Marketing Growth For 2014

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

If you need more online activity we have answers.

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

The Soon To Be Centerpiece Of Social Media

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

Here's why we are so certain:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Larson Notes & Satire: 

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

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

No data?

No followers?

No direction?

No plan?

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

We offer a 5 step digital social review.

Step 1: Domain Review

Step 2: Website Review

Step 3: Google Review

Step 4: Social Review

Step 5: Content Review

If you need more online activity we have answers.

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

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Harmonize Your Marketing

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

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

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

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

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

Larson Notes & Satire: 

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

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

No data?

No followers?

No direction?

No plan?

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

We offer a 5 step digital social review.

Step 1: Domain Review

Step 2: Website Review

Step 3: Google Review

Step 4: Social Review

Step 5: Content Review

If you need more online activity we have answers.

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

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

The Businesses of Social Media

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

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

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

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

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

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

Larson Notes & Satire:  

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

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

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

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

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

If you need more online activity we have answers.

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

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Struggling With B2B Social Media Marketing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Should your business be on social media?

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

2. Which networks should your business focus on?

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

3. Have you reached all of your target audience?

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


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

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

If you need more online activity we have answers.


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

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Is Your Elevator Pitch Any Good?

Do you have the Perfect Elevator Pitch?

Can you tell what you do in a concise compelling way? Most people can't. If you can say what you do in 25 words try again. So here is how to make your Elevator Pitch efficient and effective.

The classic elevator pitch. It's a major challenge that every sales person, marketer, and entrepreneur must do. The concept is really quite simple: all you need to do is communicate what you do in the time it takes to ride an elevator from ground level until the door opens and you have to leave. Now we are not talking Willis Tower here. We are talking about your normal building that gives you 55 seconds or less. You only have about 55 seconds to get in and get out and leave a powerful message with enough of a hook to get someone to continue the conversation after exiting, ask for your business card or have a catch praise they will not forget. At Larson & Associates I have 2, “We make good businesses great and great businesses even better!” AND “We bother people at lunch not at dinner.”

Everyone needs a simple and concise way to explain what they do. It is one of the keys to successfully prospecting, networking, events, chance meetings and parties for getting new business. Unfortunately most people explain themselves comes off self indulgent and boring resulting in wasted conversations and fruitless encounters or what they say is so dumb and cute no one is really going to take it serious.

Here is the typical wrong way:

Hi, my name is Joe Smith and I am the CEO of ABC Widgets. We help companies grow and we give great customer service. Do you have any widget needs?

The people on the receiving end may or may not think they need blue #2 widgets. Most of the time they are only thinking about what they are going to say to you.  In this pitch there is nothing to compelling in this pitch to further a conversation. The only hope you have to continue the conversation is the hope they have for you want to buy what they are offering.

A powerful elevator pitch, needs to communicate a compelling value proposition that attracts customers to buy that in a nut shell fills a need gives them a fast reason they will love to buy or a fear if they don’t buy they will have great pain in their lives.  If your working a room this will help you efficiently weed through a large group of people, stopping only for meaningful conversations with real potential customers. Here is a step-by-step process on how it's done:

Step 1--Connect with Empathy: Create a specific pain statement or a major pleasure statement for the prospect you want to have a conversation with. Remember you only want to talk to people who are willing to pay for the problems you solve not everyone in the room. Don’t waste your time:



Say you want to work with companies with revenue over $5,000,000 who need a just-in-time manufacturer of blue widgets #2, and they are only a $1,000,000 dollar company; let the thing alone the right?

If the person does not meet your target move on. I once knew a guy that would only sell typesetting to ad agencies on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. If your ad agency was on Wabash or Wacker Drive, forget it he would not call on you. He would not call on you if you were an agency that his best friend worked at. You did not meet his target. If the person you’re talking too doesn’t fit or know someone who does, they can answer no and you can move on, and the good news is you have only spent less than 20 seconds.  But if their company is suffering from the issue you targeted or what you offer is such a good feel they can’t help themselves and they fit your target, you'll be actually see their faces drop as they identify with the pain of get a big smile when they have the need too’s or the pleasure your service will bring them.  Now you immediately look smart and empathetic as they affirm that the picture you painted is terrible and frustrating or will bring them the ultimate joy of their lives. You have gained their attention.

Step 2--Offer an Objective Solution: Now you got your prospect not only listening but they just got vulnerable. They are thinking you might be pretty smart and insightful. Don't prove them wrong by trying to close. Continue showing them how smart you are by offering up an objective solution to their issues. You might try something like “Wouldn't it be great if ...”?

For example: Wouldn't it be great if there were a company that could design and produce blue widgets #2 and deliver “just-in-time” that makes brings down your warehouse costs and storage needs and lets you be more efficient and lets your salespeople close more deals?

If people don't respond positively to this statement then they weren't really connecting in Step 1 and you can move on having only wasted 45 seconds total now. Those who you have connected with should be now hanging on every word and nodding their heads, thankful that someone finally gets their frustration or understands what brings them great joy.

Step 3--Provide Differentiation: You are 90% there. The best way to close is by not closing but by by explaining why only you are the best choice to provide the very solution they need. You have to be ready with a couple of points that will truly differentiate you from your competition. Note that "Experience" or "Great Customer Service" doesn’t cut it. Everyone has great experience and fantastic customer service. Using the kinds of things everyone else says won't make you stand out since all of your competitors claim the exact same even if it's not true. To have a true differentiator you need something your competitor can't do or won't do without great effort or expense.

Here's the finish: My company uses proven project management and internal design with the tightest turn times in the industry with online or phone ordering systems designed to match your internal requirements to deliver blue #2 widget to your specifications on your dock when you need them every time!   If you would like Ill email you a link to our company web site.

If they say no, you only wasted 1 minute 17 seconds. If they say yes, you have succeeded in starting not just a conversation but a targeted prospect that has a high degree of success to be doing business with.



Now just in case you missed it, the last line is incredibly important because it gives you permission to get and use their email and continue the relationship. Even if you aren't a writer, have content like white papers, videos or blog posts ready to email and support your pitch as promised. As Hank Trisler says: “People buy on emotion and justify with facts.”

Larson Notes & Satire:  Easy and hard to get what you need to say into tight compact words. Work on it, test it, and practice it. And as you practice it, you will get better till it becomes natural.

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

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

15 Astounding Marketing Facts

Marketing facts and figures help marketers understand where we stand against the averages and norms. They also help us understand consumer trends, business trends and where the industry has been and where it is going.

Here are 15 of the most astounding social media, email and other marketing facts and figures that I have come across.

1. Companies spending more than 25% of their marketing budgets toward optimization are twice as likely to enjoy high conversion rates, according to a recent study conducted by Adobe. Does that mean optimizing your current marketing mix is a better investment than putting dollars toward new channels? Many marketers are not optimizing their current marketing channels to the fullest extent. Marketing optimization comes down to applying best practices and testing various techniques to improve response.

2. According to the 2013 Marketing Trends study conducted by J&C, 75% of marketers are planning to use social media this year. Social media was second only to email as the most used tactic in marketing. Social media users are now being inundated with messages.

3. According to HubSpot, in 2013 marketers spent almost a quarter of their overall budgets on blogging and social media.

4. According to HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report, companies that blog 20 times per month get five times more traffic than those that blog less than four times per month.

5. HubSpot also reported that 80% of marketers with a company blog reported positive inbound ROI for 2013. These organizations are likely implementing a number of inbound marketing tactics with a blog being one.

6. This year, 43% of marketers found a new customer via their company blog, according to HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report. Blogging takes a strong commitment to content development. Learn more about how to evolve your content development strategy.

7. In 2013, 90% of marketers say they will increase or maintain their use of email. Furthermore, according to Lyris, more than 145 billion emails are sent annually, equating to every user receiving approximately 9,000 emails a year. Breaking through a cluttered inbox isn’t easy. Be sure you are doing everything possible to test and optimize subject lines.

8. According to MarketingSherpa, 69% of consumers are willing to give up personal data in exchange for more customized service. Personalization is becoming an expectation and a norm by consumers and business decision makers.

9. According to Google Think Insights, 74% of mobile users rely on their mobile devices to check email. This number is likely to continue to grow, demonstrating the growing need for mobile optimized emails.

10. Mobile open rate on emails is up 138% in the last 18 months, according to Google Think Insights.

11. Almost half of mobile users feel frustrated and annoyed when they visit a site that’s not mobile-friendly, according to Google Think Insights. Ensure that your emails and landing pages are leveraging responsive design.

12. According to FierceCMO, the volume of triggered email increased 73% in 4Q12 from the year- earlier period.

13. Open rates for triggered emails hit 49.8% in 2012, almost 95% higher than general emails, according to HubSpot’s blog, December 14, 2012. To learn more about how to optimize your triggered emails, check out J&C’s Triggered and Behavioral Email ebook.

14. The direct mail business is growing by 1.4% annually, according to the DMA. Direct mail is a viable marketing tactic, and direct mail effectiveness, measured as response rate, continues to remain steady.

15. Two out of three people who receive direct mail make a purchase or also engage in a different marketing channel, demonstrating the power of integrated communications. Ensure all your marketing channels are working together to create a cohesive prospect and customer experience.

These marketing facts and figures help paint a clear picture of the state of marketing in 2013. Hopefully this information can help you shape marketing strategies and convince others of the approaches that should be pursued.

Larson Notes & Satire:  Fact is that Social and Social Media Marketing are getting more and better looks but Google and the other search engines than your web site. Add that to all the above and what are you waiting for?

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

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Do You Blog?

It’s a fact if you want to increase your Google rankings blogging is one of those magical keys.

Right now only 40% of companies out there are use blogs for marketing purposes, is your competition a blogger?

With over 80% of all people rating a Blog as a useful tool in a company’s marketing attack why of why are blogs given such a low priority in a company’s marketing mix?

What if your web site through an organic key word search got a 4 figure hit increase? Yes I’m talking over 1000% increase in organic traffic on your web site! What if you got 3000% or 4000%? How many more eyes would that be?

So why aren’t you blogging? The most common reasons people tell us they are not using this powerful tool are:
I am not a writer.
I don’t know what to blog about.
No one is going to read my blog.
I don’t have the time and resources to keep a blog updated.
I (just) don’t have a blog page

Don't have a blog? 
No problem, we can create a blog for you.
Here are some features of our Blogging Services and Marketing that we offer:
> We Create & Maintain your Blog for You
> We promote the blog to RSS Feed Directories for Greater Visibility
> Weekly – 400 minimum Word Blog Posting - Written and Promoted
> Blog Pinging to the top blog directories & search engines after each blog post
> All blog content is social bookmarked
> Put links in your Blog to point to pages on your web site
> Content written to use your Keywords
> Get greater web site exposure and a constant stream of keyword targeted traffic
> Build more back links to your site
> Boost your search engine ranking

Larson Notes & Satire:  If you don’t, can’t or just plain don’t want to write a blog we can be helping. Don’t be kidding yourself content is King and fresh content is Emperor. Weekly posting might not seem like a lot but after a year that is 52 posts. Do 2 a week and that is 104 more content pages then your competition. And if your competition is standing still doing nothing you are way far out in front of the race to top ranking.

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

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Using Facebook Hashtags

They are new so it is not or would not be a surprise if you’re not using them or if you’re using Facebook hashtags in the right or best way possible, 9 times out of 10 you’re probably using them the wrong.

Coming after another long build Facebook build-up, Facebook finally announced that it is supporting clickable hashtags. You know just like twitter does. Facebook is saying this is the first step of “a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people and topics.” If you have played with them at all on twitter you can start to understand the power.

Few things Facebook has released have except for Facebook itself really transformed how social media users interact with each other within, but hashtags, hashtags can change all of that. Hashtags are basically identifiers (the # symbol) that indicate a theme or interest. These hashtags are pretty much everywhere Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr. Hashtags are just a way for users to scan strings of thoughts.

Hashtags are created by users are clicked upon, and they link an entire conversation thread on that hashtag. Hashtags presents people the chance to follow a conversation as well as reply to the same conversation without the problem of looking back to find the thread, so interact action, and engagement with you and your social media sight grains traction.

Hashtags on Facebook are working pretty much the same way they do everywhere else – with a few differences. Let’s look the differences that Facebook hashtags are and a couple of tips on how to use them, as a social media power user, can leverage them to your advantage.

MONITOR: The first step if you’re planning to really get the full potential out of your hashtags is to first understand how they are currently being used. Start by searching for a hashtag. Just pick a keyword you’d like to see information about and type the # symbol and entering it into the Facebook search box. Searching for the hashtag will return updates from other Facebook members as well that you may not be connected to. This can be both good (you can post with hashtags and like key words on a SEO dominate the word (for free) and bad (they might find your competition) but live with it. Searching regularly for hashtags related to your company is a valuable social easdropping tool on the competition. Using Hashtag research can start to give you an understanding of what’s being talked about, shared and discussed, providing competitive insights and an advantage when it comes to creating your own updates. 

As of yet social media management tools aren’t yet providing any statistics to track #hashtag word clicks, but I think it will happen rather quickly. Major money follows trackable items.

INTERACT: Once you have a good understanding of what hashtags are going around, as well as the overall tone of those hashtags (positive, negative or neutral) you can start interacting with the people who are using “your” terms. To really do this, you need to find posts of theirs you can like and share and, if possible, make a comment on it. Interaction is a basis of success in social media, so be social! Be audacious! Put your neck on the line and get out there in front of an audience, your audience that shares similar thoughts and needs, experiences and beliefs and you will start to find yourself in a  better positioned to receive not just a positive response but more positive responses more often.

Larson Notes & Satire:  But perhaps the most important thing to know about hashtags is just that they exist at all on Facebook. It will be important in the future to monitor their use related to your company, your brand, your product and/or service, your interactions and your engagement with the Facebook community. Hashtags don’t need to define your social media presence on the network, but they can support it and in a very proactive positive way.

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

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Ways Lead Generation Works

If you can’t keep your sales pipeline full of fresh new leads you will fail. NO matter what out of any list of 100 names there are only a certain number of new customers. So every time you take 1 out of the list be it a yes or a no, you don’t lose 1 real lead, you lose that 1 and maybe 20 more that were never going to buy but are still in your data base.

1) Using The Wrong People – For every lead generation program, you need to be sure that the employees be it inside telemarketer or outside rep making the sales calls have the appropriate background and knowledge. I would say you want to be finding a mature adult who knows how to think on their feet. A college education back ground doesn’t hurt and any kind of selling experience. If you can get any familiarity with the client, product or service is you got a real winner.

2) Defining The Lead – How will sales reps or telemarketer know when they have a lead or suspect if they have no clue what a good lead looks like in the first place? What does a customer look like? If you can’t define it don’t expect anyone else to be able to do it for you. A business can qualify a lead by industry, company size, revenue, location, and be taking the prospect to a closed sale faster by confirming the more advanced information like budget, authority and timeline.

3) Poor Messaging – A message that does not resonate with prospects or that is difficult to understand, or one that is difficult for sales reps or telemarketers to say and deliver is going to slow down any kind of lead generation campaign. Your company must have a clear, pointed, directed message that speaks to the needs, the pains or the joys for your product or service from your company for the prospect to generate results.

4) Wrong target – If you have the wrong list the message does not make any difference. This happens when you do not properly build or acquiring a list of prospects based on your company’s perfect customer or if you focus too much on the influencer and not the ones making the buying decisions. Remember the perfect demographics when making or getting your list, industry, company size, revenue, and location.

5) Poor Lead Handoff – This sometimes means a lead was not properly qualified, or it took too long for a good lead to the sales people too late, well after the prospect has forgotten about the conversation or bought from another vendor. It done right and seamlessly a proper lead handoff can help businesses avoid both of these situations.

Larson Notes & Satire:  I have always said the better the Lead List the better the Lead Generation process. If you are hitting on the right people and the right companies they well need what you are selling day in and day out.

There are ways to do this. Secrets if you want to call them that to make the process better. I call it experience.

So how will your company grow in 2013? Share with us your thoughts. What has worked in your organization in lead generation and what are mistakes you have learned from in the past?

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

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

The Mindset of a Communication Services Provider

Get your head out of the sand. If you can start thinking of more than just a shift in technology or product line, becoming a Communication Services Provider is at least to start with, a shift of mindset. As a CSP, you’ll still be a Printer or a Print

Services Provider (PSP) but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The real change is in your head, it is one of your overall perspectives of your business and your company.

Here are four ways to adopt and implement yourself as a Communication Services Provider

1^st Start by talking to your customers. Really when was the last time you talked to your key accounts on what they need, not just in the way of printing but about their entire communication needs and process.

2^nd Selling a product or service is only one step of what you need to be doing. Selling printing makes you a commodity. Selling a communication service makes you a total service filling out a full need, not a part. If you do it right, this interacting with customers should of course be a constant back and forth process for the entire life cycle of the customer. As a Communication Services Provider you need to learn about the reason behind the products and services they buy. With each service and transaction you make, you need to know and ask “What is that client’s ultimate goal and reason for doing this.”

As there Communication Services Provider your mind needs to be project based, not product based. You are solving a problem not a requirement of that problem. You’re starting a communication partnership, instead of just being a print vendor. If you understand your customer’s print marketing goals and how those align with their overall marketing goals you start to become valued partner. If all you do is pick up the phone, take the order and then hang up and do the job, become noting more than a commodity.

3^rd Start Selling Solutions. Shifting from PSP to CSP means you’ll have to sell yourself in terms of total solutions instead of just products. The print part of a project is just that, only part of the solution. Now you need to communicate the benefits of print in the context of the total communication and marketing system.

The brochure you print, the flier you produced, your direct mail offering you have going out isn’t important because it’s just a piece of paper or a nicely typeset invitation to purchase your client’s product. All of those things mean nothing really. You can go out and buy them anywhere. The direct mail pieces, the flier, the brochure, are nothing without knowledge of the entire process. You need to be selling the solution not the product.

4^th the all important Follow Up. If you have listened to and understand your client’s business goals and communication and marketing objectives, you’re finally in a position to follow up with them and offer them true value. Your printing company is already part of the communication and marketing process. Now, take those isolated printed pieces and make it a communication campaign with all the other parts of the channels of marketing and communication.

As a Communication Services Provider, you can sell clients on creating complete projects both on and off line, which allow you to track campaign result and engagement. You can further automate the process to report to your clients on exactly how the mail performed–who went to the personalized webpage, how long they stayed and whether they acted truly interested. In other words, you can become a total marketing partner, actively delivering leads, reporting marketing effectiveness and using measurement tools to make future campaigns more effective for them

Just remember becoming a Communication Services Provider means changing your perspective, then match that with your product and service offerings. You aren’t just selling a new product: you’re partnering with a client to help them find total communication solutions not just print solutions that solve their problems.

Larson Notes & Satire:  So how will your company grow in 2013? Only in one way? Print if you’re a printer? Signs if you’re a sign shop? Yet you could be more, so much more. If there was a way for you to become a complete communication company for your key accounts at no cost to you, would you?

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson

Larson & Associates

Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition

Making good businesses great and great businesses even better

847-991-1294

howard@larsonassociates.ws

http://www.larsonassociates.ws

http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Growth Synergies for the Printer

I know it goes against every bone in your ink stained body but to grow in 2013 might require a new way of thinking. Are the old strategies still working for you? I’m guessing no. I’m guessing you are getting hammered from the right and from the left from online, to do it on my copy machine to paperless.

So what do you do? If you play ostrich and put your head in the sand you’re done for. The only word that comes to mind is Synergy. You need to find people in related fields that can add to your company’s service base. Surround yourself with a team of experts to engage in a successful hands off partnership.

If the railroads had see how airline companies were going to come in and dominate passenger traffic they might have gotten into the business of flying or bought them out when they were small and buyable.

If you’re a commercial printer, this is especially a wise strategy to consider. You can buy your way in. But that takes money which is in short supply.

We all know that in a flat economy, sales are hard to come by. And I call 2% growth pretty flat. That’s why you can’t just think of adding more sales people, or cutting your costs. After the last few years or cost cutting are there any more places to cut costs? Probably not. And as for qualified salespeople the good ones are not moving and the bad ones, well you don’t want them.

To do what I am suggesting you may have to reconsider the basic structure of your business. Parts of your business that are drags on your business. What would happen if you stopped or outsourced those parts?

Then there is expansion of services. Could you achieve synergies to make your “printing” company a communication company by teaming with someone else? This is a case where you could work with a competitor or parallel company to achieve a win-win situation.

There are risks, there always are risks.  But the greatest risk a printing owner can make is to be stuck in his or her definition of what the definition of their company and business is and to formulate a growth strategy.

Larson Notes & Satire:  If you want to bust out of the trap of being a printer to one of being a marketing communication company. We have ideas. They might work for your company, they might not. As for why, what we know about web, social media marketing, telemarketing will take you time to catch up to what we know and guess what? By then we will know even more. My point is to form a synergy with an organization like ours who does not want to steal the printing side of your business but work behind the scenes as a partner letting you keep in total control of the customer base might be just what you need to get your company to 2014.

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

White Hat / Black Hat Better Know The Difference

I might know every wrong way to make a website go up on the search engines. You know the ones that get your site booted out of Google and then you need to go on bended knee and beg them to take your web site back and list it.  You might think oh that’s bad. But let me tell you it’s very very good.

When it comes to social media marketing, there is a long list of best practices and worst practices that you the marketing manager or business owner needs to be aware of.

Sometimes this line of good and bad get all messy, and even though you might be innocently just trying to improve your hits and followers or metrics, BAM! The web marshal goes and puts your site in web jail. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 new followers! Yes you could be crossing the line and being accused of using “black hat tactics”.

Black hat tactics go against both the written and unwritten rules of social media. Yes we are at war, but these kinds of tactics bait the system in order to achieve better results. Now some black hat tactics are clearly underhanded and I mean sneaky bad, and easy to identify, others are not so bad and are leveraged by thousands of marketers and companies on a daily basis, sometimes on purpose and many times totally unintentionally. Below I have given you 5 black hat strategies, along with ways to clean up your act.

Black Hat 1: Buying your Audience
This is such an obvious black hat practice, and it really makes no sense to do. While there are many services that make it simple for someone to purchase fans or followers, this tactic has little-to-no value. The popularity is nice and we all wanted to be Homecoming King or Queen in High School, but you shouldn’t have to pay for it. Not only can you totally damage your company’s reputation with your real 3F’s friends, family and followers, but chances are that these mysterious new audience fans don’t care much about what your company has to say. Then again, purchased fans and followers could hide spammers and hackers, which have the potential to really cause a whole lot of problems for you.

White Hat 1: Growing your Audience
The best way to grow your audience is with engaging content. This includes great posts, insightful content, images, videos, promotions, polls and any other type of interactive ideas and update that grabs you attention. Once you start posting content on a regular basis and promote it on your SM page even more people can see, find and comment on it. This should be done on both Facebook and Twitter. As you do this you (nicely) get the word about your company’s social profiles, which helps increase real fan and follower.

Black Hat 2: Running Facebook Promotions Directly on a Page
This is an example of where the lines between black hat and white hat get blurry. Although many companies run promotions on Facebook on a regular basis, only companies who are running these promotions within Apps on Facebook.com are actually complying with the Facebook Pages Terms.

White Hat 2: Running Legit Promotions
The Facebook Pages Terms make it totally clear that promotions must be administered within Apps, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App. However, social marketing managers should also note some of the network’s other promotion rules, like acknowledging that promotions are not endorsed or sponsored by Facebook, disclosing who is collecting participants’ information, as well as not using Facebook functions (such as likes, comments or check-ins) as valid actions for entries into a contest or promotion.

Black Hat 3: Spamming for Traffic
Another obvious black hat tactic is spamming for traffic. Most of us have seen the social spammers, who tend to comment on popular posts and tweets with a random message in addition to some strange link. While most of you reading this article know better than to click on these suspect links, others don’t, which is why this shady tactic continues.

White Hat 3: Posting for Traffic
The best way to fight against spammers is to report them, but this doesn’t solve the problem of how you can obtain more web traffic via the social media. Aside from posting good engaging content, another way companies can boost their visibility (and therefore web site traffic) is by participating in conversations on topics, which is most easily done on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Black Hat 4: Corrupt Cover Photos
Facebook cover photos are meant to be a representation of your company, but some companies leverage this area to promote sales. The Facebook Page Terms, however, clearly labels these tactics as prohibited. In fact, covers images cannot be made up of more than 20 percent text, include price or purchase information, contain website, email or mailing addresses, have references to Facebook actions or other call-to-actions.

White Hat 5: Innovative Cover Photos
If you are determined to use your cover photo to promote a new service or product, try to use some imagination in order to not breach the Facebook Pages Terms. While a cover photo car get to the point or a new product or service you need it to also comply with cover photo guidelines by not including too much text, a call-to-action or pricing information.

Black Hat 5: Sneaky Automation
Using automated services for social media campaigns is another place where the lines between black and white hats get blurry. While these services can make life much easier for you, they can also be major annoyances when done the wrong way. An example of a bad use of automation is when company’s send out generic messages to new followers and fans thanking them for becoming a follower. While you might not think this is “bad”, some companies take the thank you message a step further by asking their new fans to take an immediate action in engaging with them by adding a link to their website, a product or additional social profile within the message. While this might not bother some people, it can turn others away.

White Hat 5: Automation to Help Save Time
Automation tools should be used to help you make the posting process done in less time. A service like IFTTT can make some social media management tasks easier, you should remember that interactions with fans and followers should come off as authentic, and not from a robot. Use it but be careful. It is social and sooner or later you need to interact.

Larson Notes & Satire:  So are you I hot water? Are you a Black Hat, White Hat, Gray Hat or a Hat Of Many Colors, or do you just not know?

Take it from a guy who knows all the Black Hat ways to do web promotion. The dirty little truth is these 5 Hats are just the tip of the iceberg as to what you should be working through. And, what you don’t know can hurt you.

So you might want to think about your next step. We put it all together with a powerful knowledge and experience base.

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Should You Be Mobile?

Was doing some reading this morning at the kitchen table.
>Expect 63% more people to be shopping on mobile devices during the next couple years
>Already 51% of people feel very comfortable making purchases from their mobile devices
>To people with mobile devices say the most important app features are:
>36% access coupons
>35% comparison shopping
>31% customer reviews
>28% make purchases
>26% track shipping

This leads me into asking should your company be doing mobile? B2B has been wondering about this I know but let’s take a closer look.

Mobile site and email traffic continues to skyrocket. In May alone, GigaOm reported that there are 5.5 devices per household, and they see that increasing to as many as 8 by 2016.

A recent study by Foolproof reported nearly half of consumers would not engage with a company if they had a poor mobile Web experience! And nearly 60% said they viewed a company as "being in touch" with them after having a positive mobile experience. Think about yourself. Look at your own thoughts and behavior, how likely are you to revisit a site after having a frustrating mobile experience with them, like “how dare they waste my time!”

You are facing a huge challenge. Your customers are becoming more savvy about marketing then you are. Their lives are a blur of offline and online interactions with friends, fans, family and favorite brands. Now we are going to increase the challenge with people on their smart phones and tablets and they expect to do the exact same things on those devices that they are doing on their desktop, but with very different constraints. When you don't make it easy for consumers to complete an action guess what? They won't. Marketers are leaving impressions, clicks, conversions, sales on the table, lost somewhere in cyber space when they don't create a seamless mobile experience for them.

By planning and designing the mobile experience, you can improve all your versions of your content including your desktop version. To do so, you the marketer need to understand the constraints smart phones and tablets put in place and really align your marketing strategies to their behavior.

Let’s be honest here, every, yes EVERY channel has constraints. In email, you have rules for each mail client. In direct mail, you need to work in a more traditional structure to print what you want or do you, think variable data.

Mobile, which is what we are talking about, makes viewing your web site and content to conform to a new set of limitations, rules and opportunities. By embracing these constraints, you can find explosive ways to talk to customers. In a network there are a substantial number of phones that are able to get on the 4G LTE network and amazing as it might seem, a mobile network is even faster at loading Web pages than some desktop computers. Most phones, however, are still on a 3G network, so they have slower loading times. And then (death warmed over) there are certain places (like that dead spot in the corner of house) where they just don't get service.

Larson Notes & Satire:  Ok so you have a printing company. Maybe you have a small copy shop. Think of all those Brides out there shopping for Save-the-Date and Wedding announcements.

You have a large web shop printing 100 page catalogs. That worried buyer, you know the person who graduated from college 3 years ago, is worried about getting them on time and tracks his shipment.

Should I go on? That CFO who gets lost on his way to the press check?

So you might want to think about your next step. We put it all together with a powerful knowledge and experience base.

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Improve Marketing Effectiveness

Improve Marketing Effectiveness

Did you know that you can economize on your print marketing and increase your marketing effectiveness simultaneously?

You might equate saving money with choosing less expensive paper or printing less, but it is about targeting and optimization. Here are ways you can save marketing dollars while actually improving your results.

1) Clean your database. Yes, get rid of all those dead end names, out of business companies, people who have lost or left their jobs. Throw them out. Then try to make sure all the addresses are correct both email and physical addresses. There is no sense spending the time emailing something to someone that has no chance of getting there. Even an email blast has a cost. As for mail? Mail, even if you print it yourself has a cost to print and mail it out but the name is not quite as important because it might go to the new person who took your old prospects place. When your mail gets to the place you want it to go, your response rates go up!

What percentage of a direct mailing you do actually gets delivered? Do you have any idea? According to the United States Postal Service, 30% of all bulk mail never gets to its location because the addresses are undeliverable.

So work hard to keep your mailing list up to date if you are going to use it, it is money you don’t waist. The USPS can and wants to help you. They don’t like all that junk mail they can’t deliver either. So they have a service called the United States Postal Service CASS certification to confirm that addresses in your list are deliverable. Run your list through the NCOA (National Change of Address) every six months and keep that list scrubbed.

Next best thing you can do with your list is to break it down into segments. Not all prospects are created equal or should get the same message. Break down your database to pin point accuracy by targeting your message to different demographic groups within your larger target audience. This will not just decrease your print runs and postage but because your message is more relevant you will increase your response rates.

2) Divide in to target markets. By dividing your audience in to groups, you can speak to each more specifically. You might tailor your message by sic code. You might offer different products to businesses falling in to different levels of number of employees or sales. You might send different offers and incentives to current customers versus your past customers.

If you don't have demographics that you can pull out of in your database, and they do really help, demographic direction is very cost-effective. Talk to us about adding different variables into your market segment that will help to increase the pointed direction you want your marketing to attack or be directed to. The tighter your direction and offer the better your return on investment (ROI) will be.

Then think about your overall push. Be it direct mail, email blast or a telemarketing campaign, if you are still printing and mailing bulk if your email mail is not pointed if your telemarketing secret is one size fits all just to economize, it might be time to rethink. Get off the merry-go-round of marketing nonsense. Today's channels no matter what you are working in from Social Media Marketing to Direct Mail can be tailor made to fit your target. Offset and digital technologies let you print on demand (POD) and/or in time (JIT) so why not use that mentality in the rest of your marketing. As you do, your marketing gets stronger, your return goes up, you get more leads and you make more money.

3) Print on demand. A recent article, Target Marketing suggested evaluating the cost-effectiveness of POD models in the following categories:

Generic documents with annual usage of less than 5,000 pieces
More complex documents with annual usage of less than 1,000 pieces
New pieces for which no shelf life or usage history has been established
Items that change often
Materials about to enter back-order status

These are simple steps, but they can have profound results. Even in case you are in the rare minority of those not looking to economize on print marketing, keeping your database up to date, segmenting and targeting your marketing messages, and moving to a real-time stock and print management model ought to be part of the best practices of every company's marketing program.

Larson Notes & Satire:  Clean database, dividing up your list to its proper demographics, then use it. Yes use it, run it hard and run it fast.

That, if nothing else is what we do best. We use what you got and do it day in day out consistently.

Now if there was a number 4 to that list that would be to be consistent. Outsource your marketing lead generation work to a company like ours and that is what you get. Day in day out consistency. We don’t get too busy. We don't  to run out on an appointment or any of the distractions that get in the way of self marketing or self prospecting so we don’t have time to do the work. We don’t get to busy to mail sort your direct mail piece and get it out. We get it done.

Then 5. We know how to use the tools and the systems that make them work. We don’t have to learn on your time and your dollar. That college kid who works for an hour? You think he knows how to work social media and SEO for business? We already know what they only dream of knowing.

So you might want to think about your next step. We put it all together with a powerful knowledge and experience base.

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

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

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

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

Printers, Time To Do Or Die!

In my career, of some 4 decades in the printing and communication industry, I worked long hours that would cause weaker men do drop. Had the pleasure of winning an award or 2 for my work. Yet I need to ask you, that is if you’re in any area of printing, advertising or communications what the heck are you doing?

It use to be everyone was or wanted to be an art director. We use to say if we do it; the cost will be $30.00 per hour, if you watch $40.00, if you direct $50.00, and if you help $60.00. Now as if that was not bad enough everyone now owns their own computer which has some kind of graphic program on it so that designer who knows and understand how things get printed is no longer needed. Bad layout here we come. No typography needed so here come the rivers in the copy, poor character kerning, no ligatures, too much bold type and hyphenations on every other line.

It started back in the 80’s with the birth of “the Mac” as in Apple not McDonald’s but with more widespread use of window based PC’s now everyone (thinks) they can design their own brochures, create their own websites, write great copy and a hard hitting headline. Printing and the graphic industry continues to change but in the wrong direction. The owners of a small business no longer care if the design of their printed piece is of high quality, if the stock is picked out to fit the need, if the images scanned come out all pixilated. 20# thank you! They created it so they will accept what they never would have if you did if for them. Now they are running it out of their very own office copier. High end quality work?  Disappearing. And if it does make it to a printer how many times does it need to be redesigned so that the poor quality of customer supplied “art” or should we say files are made to work. And can the printer charge for this extra work? No way. Nope the file fixing charges disappear. It happened to typesetters when they became service bureaus now its the printers that are getting wacked.

Today you are earning less and working harder. It’s the truth and you know it! If you have been in the print industry as long as I have, then you know that the support staff has dwindled down to nothing. No more layout men, no more copy writers, no more proofreaders, no more NOTHING. We, you, me, your competitor are expected to know and be able to do everything at a high level. No more strippers, no more typesetters, the production schedulers, no more proofers. There is no money in the projects to have any of these specialists.  And that $20-$50 dollar an hour salaries you were able to pay out have gone too as low as $10-$15. It is no longer about working smarter it’s all about working harder and longer. To have any hope for profitability you and what staff you have managed to keep need to be multitasking your butts off because the idea of hiring any additional employees is just not going to happen. Everyone is doing the work of 4 or 5 no just people but different kinds of people and expected to not make any dumb stupid mistakes.

Shall we ever talk about the competition which is driving both your gross earnings and profits down the abyss? So what is happening? Company "A" gives a price break to get a printing job for 20% less than your company is charging. So what do you do? You go down 25% and so the cycle continues. Then there is the graphic artist who is straight out of school working in their parent’s house with the Mac that there parents bought them not even thinking about equipment break down and the need to upgrade as they work are to try to get into the industry and is willing to work for $10.00 per hour. Kiss that work goodbye. And think of the poor sales person. If you are a commissioned sales person, you just lost 30% to 40% of your commission or more if your commission is based on job profit not overall cost. There is no profit! Then the fact that your printing company might have to lower the quality of work to get any profit at all. Quality has no bearing on a job, now it is all about getting project out as cost effectively, and as efficiently as possible.

The Print Industry is dying or at least some parts of it are but it does not have to for you. It’s unfortunate but some parts of our industry are going to disappear and disappear very quickly like the typesetting industry 20 years ago in just a matter of 2-4 years. Even now look at the CD/DVD replication part of the industry. Half of what it was just 5 years ago and dying a slow painful death. We get a lot of our information online, no more books and pamphlets. Hello Nook! When is the last time you picked up a phone book to look for a telephone number? I still do but my sons and daughter hardly know what a phone book is. And 1st class mail? Email that letter! Then there is the push for a "paperless" office.

No the print industry is not going to die out completely, many once profitable companies are going completely under or companies that I thought would never consider a merger are coming together. Read anything coming out of the industry associations and although they might not say it outwardly they are worried. State wide associations are moving to regional associations to keep enough of a membership going.

So what are you gong to do?

Larson Notes & Satire:  Is there an answer? I think so. But the answer might not lie in print but a more board based idea of a Marketing and Communication company.

As I see it, the one biggest move you can be making for your company is to become that total communication company that your key accounts want. They need it and they know it and what's more if you don’t provide it they will find it from the guy down the street.

To do that you have 1 of 2 choices, You can go and hire the talent to do it yourself and I am sure that a number of you reading this will do that just that. That is the mentality of the printer and believe me I don't mean that in a bad way. We are individualists!

But there is a second choice and that is to join with a synergistic company like ours with all the talent you need who will provide it at not exposure financially to you and wrap it up in a private label service package. And that my friend is the good news!

If you want your business to be more, call us for an appointment.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
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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.