Month: May 2022

Demand Generation Services To Focus on Buyer Requirements

Demand Generation Services To Focus on Buyer Requirements

B2B demand generation services should be primarily built around three key components which can be used to develop effective marketing strategy that completely focuses on the buyer. These three ingredients – lead management, marketing automation and content marketing should be integrated and optimized to design efficient demand generation programs that do not merely generate leads but also help in leads conversions.

Lead management framework as an essential constituent of demand generation services

Comprehensive lead management is required to build an effective demand generation plan. The lead management framework defines how the lead will be taken through the different stages of sales cycle from the point of entry into an organization, through marketing nurturing, to hand-off from marketing to sales, through further sales nurturing and finally to close. Lead management is a significant part of the process that defines the important parameters for lead scoring, routing and nurturing. This is critical to finding success with marketing automation and to ensuring that the customers get the information they require to make their own evaluations at various legs of the buying cycle and so that they can move their process forward. Lead management is therefore critical to content marketing and that help devise and deliver buyer centric demand generation services.

Demand generation services focusing on marketing automation

Supported by an efficient lead management process, marketing automation becomes the vehicle for moving the sales process ahead. Marketing automation takes constant signals from lead scores – driven both by buyer demographics and by behavioral cues – as well as segmentation and routing logic, to ensure that the leads are moved forward through the lead management process. And this is an intelligent sorting that is done very rapidly – triggering actions that are beneficial in generating demand.Marketing automation is not just about diminishing manual tasks and enhancing operational efficiency.Rather there is a strategic intention behind using this engine which is to manage buyer-centric, mass one-to-one marketing on a scale basis.

Content marketing is at the heart of demand generation services

Today majority of the buyers do research on their own ahead of speaking with a sales representative. And with easy availability of information that can be accessed with the help of the preferred search engine it has become more important than ever to provide useful content that buyers can use to make their decision fast. The success of these services depends largely on identification of the content buyers need at various buying stages and choosing the right media and channels to convey this content. Basically, content marketing is all about churning out good-quality, pertinent and valuable information to prospects and customers to drive profitable buyer actions. In fact it is not just about providing information but also about using customers’ behavioral cues ( pages accessed and documents downloaded) to find out where a customer is in his/her buying cycle.

Conclusion

Intertwining these three important elements can help tender demand generation services that are focused on buyer needs. Demand …

Benefits of Marketing Automation Software

Benefits of Marketing Automation Software

When you use internet marketing, you have to expect that it will be competitive. As a result, you need to use any tools that will give you an edge over the competition. One of the tools that you can use is marketing automation software. Marketing automation software is often seen as the tool of last resort. But it should not be overlooked that this kind of tool will not only help your company become more effective, but also more profitable.

One of the greatest benefits to using software is that it can help your organization become more effective simply because you naturally become more productive. No longer will you or other employees need to spend time on tedious tasks like sending out mass emails to customers on your mailing list. Neither will you need to spend time doling out marketing and sales leads. Instead, these tasks are performed automatically by the software.

Another benefit to using automating software is that it allows your sales staff to communicate with customers and potential new clients while at the same time tracking leads and how well the sales staff are performing. Client relationship management software, which is an aspect of marketing automation software, helps automate marketing campaigns. As a result, client communication can be better tracked and its effectiveness quickly evaluated.

Marketing automation software also streamlines emails to existing and potential new clients. As a result, you can send out regular emails that inform them of new products or benefits of your products that they might not have thought about. The more information you provide to your clients and potential new clients, the more you improve the likelihood of increased sales. Marketing automation software allows you the ability to schedule email campaigns to bring in new sales.

Software for marketing automation also allows you to improve your business organization. Since the software is a tool that combines several work tasks all in one bundle, you can gain better control over your marketing efforts. Instead of manually scheduling marketing campaigns, you can do this automatically and all business communications with clients are sent out as routine tasks. The marketing campaign goals can be easily built into the marketing campaign, giving you measures to evaluate how effective the campaign is and to generate new sales for your company.

You can also use this software to generate personalized email campaigns that address where potential new clients fall in the sales process. This builds relationships and leads to increased sales. Eventually, if all other aspects of the business is maintained efficiently, success is imminent.

The software allows you to measure the effectiveness of each marketing email campaign and evaluate it for any needed changes for the next marketing campaign. Marketing automation software will help you achieve much higher rates of productivity as a , it will be easier to track and graph any visible changes in the results for reporting purposes.

If you have an internet website and conduct internet marketing campaigns, …

Internet Marketing – Don’t Get Overwhelmed, Get Focused!

Being new to the field of internet marketing, I can easily relate with those of you who are feeling totally overwhelmed! When you first begin, you hear about what might as well be a million different ways in which you can market your product or business on the internet. If you are taking on this endeavor with no previous experience as I did, it can all seem a bit foreign.
As you weed your way through the jungle of information it seems as though your chances of conquering it all are just about impossible, but have faith! If you spend time on each form of marketing, one by one, you will achieve at least two things. You will feel more confident in your abilities to market and you will figure out which forms of marketing you prefer. Now don’t get me wrong just because you prefer one type, doesn’t mean you can do that alone and have success. Internet marketing requires a combination of at least several techniques to drive enough traffic to your websites to make them profitable. Here are a few tips for beginners!
It will be easy for you to look at all of the various forms of marketing and wonder how you will ever figure them all out. My advice to you, pick one! Pick the first one that draws your attention and study it. You don’t have to become a master at it quite yet, but you need to put the time in. Study the form of marketing you have chosen until you gain a good working understanding of it.
Then, get your foot in the door, if it’s article marketing; submit an article, video marketing the same, etc., etc. It is important to remember though, that many forms of internet marketing will not work if you only practice them occasionally. Article marketing, for instance requires an absolute minimum of one article per week if you expect it to attract any traffic. Social networking requires attention more than two or three times per week. It is based on connecting with friends and potential customers through casual communication. If you are not around to communicate, it’s not going to work!
My second piece of advice is: prioritize! While you may love ‘twittering’ your day away, or writing articles to your little heart’s content, what good are they going to do if you don’t have down the basics? What I’m talking about is a squeeze page (also called splash pages) and a webpage. If you expect your internet business to be successful, you need to provide people with a place to go to learn more about you and the product or service you are providing. Splash pages, in my opinion are the lifeblood of your business. They provide a place for internet traffic to become leads for you. Splash pages should be short, sweet, simple and to the point. They are cheap to have made (under $100) and can do the job until you can afford or …

Internet Marketing Is Always Evolving

Internet Marketing Is Always Evolving

The online world is constantly changing and evolving, thanks to the advance of technology and the development of various online services, tools and software. Take, for example websites. They are now more interactive than ever, providing users with rich multimedia content that is tailored to their needs. This is in contrast to 15 years ago, where websites were usually static HTML pages that simply contained text, links and images. Web presence has also increased and many businesses in the Boston area have hired the services of a Boston Website Development company to build a site for them.

Search engines have existed in some form ever since the internet has come around. Those who have been online for a while might remember names such as Lycos, Excite and Alta Vista. These names have faded into obscurity, with the majority of search traffic coming from Google, Bing (formerly MSN search) and Yahoo. Not only have the players changed in the search engine arena, but also the way that websites are ranked. Previously, as there wasn’t that many websites around, search engine algorithms were relatively simple. However, with millions of new sites being created, they have increased in complexity, often making it difficult to rank a site well if there are plenty of other websites that are based on the same keywords. A SEO company can help you make sense of search engines and give you valuable advice and services on how to get your website more visible on them, so that it will appear closer to the top of search results for your desired keywords.

The use of the internet as a marketing tool has also gone up. The reasons are simple: with more users, comes greater exposure, which is valuable for anyone who would like to sell something. There are now plenty of online marketing experts, like a Boston Online Marketing Company that provide services to businesses and individuals who want to market something through the internet.

The internet is changing, but where is it going? The current trends seem to point towards an increase of social media sites and applications, where users connect with others to share things that are important to them. Also, the internet is rapidly becoming integrated with other devices as well. You can see this in web enabled smart phones, as well as new televisions that have the ability to connect to the internet to watch movies and videos. If you are using the internet to sell something, then it is important that you stay up to date on new developments in the online world. It doesn’t mean that you have to be a geek who researches new technologies every day, just keep yourself up to date on what is happening online. That way, you will be the first one to take advantages of new developments which could be very profitable for you.…

Are You Just a One Night Stand?

In this Article:

Content Marketing with Staying Power

Keeping your Online Marketing Efforts Connected

How to Control the Online Relationship

Ok, I get it. The thrill of the chase can be fun. It’s adventurous. It makes you feel alive, and gets those juices flowing. However, if the traffic to your blog is just a string of one night blog stands, then any amount of effort your putting in to creating great content, optimizing it with on-page and off-page SEO, and doing all that content marketing is really just a waste of time.

exhausting. Because “one and done” in the online marketing world usually means that they are done with you, your online business, and your blog after one visit if you don’t have the goods. You can’t put a notch in your lipstick case just because a person visits you. The reality is that most people don’t buy anything from you until they have had at least 6 marketing touch points.

Sorry to sound like a boring old married couple, but wouldn’t it be great if you knew that every week you could depend on many of the same prospects coming back for a visit. It’s an ongoing relationship. And even though it can have all those hum-drum, boring traps that every long-term relationship is exposed to, you can still spice things up (and you should), keep it interesting, and keep them coming back and wanting more.

Make no mistake, “boring” can actually become brand recognition and a familiarity and comfort in knowing that you, your business, and your website are a reliable place to visit for great content. That, my friends, is what a content marketing strategy is all about!

So the question becomes “how” to keep your visitors coming back for more week after week?

Simple Online Marketing Ways to Add Staying Power to Your Website

1) Create Amazing Content:

First, the obvious answer is to give them something of value. Sure, you can razzle dazzle them with a little flash to draw attention, but unless you have something of real value underneath all that flash, they will move on.

After all, you have to remember that people are distracted and their time is becoming more valuable each and every day. As an online business you must respect that time and give them the best stuff. If they can go to one spot to get the full package, then they won’t have to jump from site to site to site to find everything they need.

That’s why authority sites are such an amazing online business model.

2) Easily Link your Anchor Text to Other Pages

On page SEO can be set on steroids by using bold text, italics and links. These formatting tools help those search engine crawlers identify what your webpage is all about.

And, those formatting tools also help your readers (who are more often “skimmers”) hone in on words and phrases that are of interest to them at that moment.

Think of it this way. …

5 Top Small Business Networking Tips!

5 Top Small Business Networking Tips!

Here are 5 tips to ensure that networking becomes an important part in promoting your small business.

1. What is networking?

For any small business networking should be an essential part of your business. My 14 years as a practising solicitor provided me with a network which has been especially invaluable since forming Samson Consulting. Essentially networking is getting out of your office and mixing with people from your same sector, potential referral sources, and any other occasions where you meet new contacts. It should not be confined to thinking that networking only relates to business networking groups although these can be an excellent source.

2. Reasons You Should Network!

There are many reasons that you should network, not just to generate new business. Here are some of the reasons to network:

o Share ideas (see what is working for other people in different business sectors – can you apply this to your business?)

o Get out of your office (running a small business from home or in an office with a few other staff can be lonely. You need to get out of your office to think about your business in a different way. Your best ideas will rarely happen when you are chained to your desk.

o Practise your sales skills on non core targets (before you present to potential clients).

o To win new business (last but often seen as the most important reason).

3. Networking targets? You can only find out if something works by measuring it. What is your networking target? Do you want to meet three new business owners to share ideas or mastermind with or do you want 3 new leads per month? You have to have a goal to score (Sir Alan Sugar) so you must know what you are trying to achieve with your networking.

4. What To Say Or Not To Say?

Networking is essentially a sales and marketing tool. Two of the most important rules of sales are:

o Prospect (i.e. get out there and meet people); and

o Listen.

These are simple rules, yet if they are employed for networking events they will guarantee results.

5. Long Term Gain. We have all been to networking events where we are approached by someone who interrupts our conversation, jumps in with his or her business card, shouts about how brilliant they are and then throws themselves at the next unsuspecting group of people. This is one way to guarantee you will not succeed with your networking approach. The only way you will ever really prosper through networking is to build long term relationships and show a genuine interest in the people you talk to. In the last two years I have brokered deals putting several contacts on my network in touch with each other leading to a benefit for everyone involved. One of these contacts I first made over 8 years ago.

Far too many small business owners run around talking about how great …

Internet Marketing Tips for Small-Scale Enterprises

Small businesses are at a disadvantage when competing with huge corporations or medium-sized companies that have accumulated enough experience and clients. For one, these minor players are wanting in exposure and have small budgets for advertising and promotions compared to their competitors which are loaded with millions of marketing and advertising financial resources. The major problem that these insignificant entrepreneurs have to contend with is the enormous cost of traditional advertising techniques. With limited resources, it becomes imperative for them to discover innovative ways to promote their merchandise to prospective buyers.
Internet marketing companies offer expertise and professional assistance to start-up businesses, those struggling to keep their ventures from collapsing and small ventures that are gradually progressing amidst the tough competition and volatile market situation.
Although there are differences in concepts and principles of online marketing, the bottom line is that this strategy is relatively more affordable with practically the same results and even better prospects. In this type of marketing, the internet is utilized as the main means of advertising and selling commodities and services to potential customers. It usually starts with the creation of a business website and generate the most number of visitors with the objective of converting them into loyal clients.
An internet marketing service provider will surely suggest to small business owners a handful of tips that can otherwise prove beneficial to their internet marketing campaign. These are:
1. Lay down the ultimate goals of your website which starts with attracting more visitors and coming up with parameters to evaluate the success of these objectives.
2. Review the content of the website thoroughly and find out what the website has to say. Ask yourself the following questions: Is the content original and beneficial? Will visitors get something valuable by going to your website? Is the content something that corresponds to the business aspirations, mission and vision?
3. Make it a point to take advantage of local art directories that are given out for free. It will surely benefit your business if this will be listed in said directories to give your undertaking a big lift.
4. Always study the competition by taking time out to visit websites of your competitors. Engage in searches for keywords or keyword phrases that are relevant to your business. This will allow you to obtain fresh ideas and concepts which are pertinent to your online marketing initiatives.
5. Pay attention to keywords since these are crucial not only to the website but the enterprise as well. The keywords should be something that people would associate with your website.
6. Blogging is important since it is one way of spreading useful information about your brand and the products that you carry.
7. Post or publish videos that will help in promoting the business that you have just put up or give out pointers that relate to the items you sell. This is something that consumers would love to watch.…

Easy Twitter Marketing Tips You Can Easily Accomplish

Looking for Twitter marketing tips does not have to be hard. If you stop and think about it for just a minute, I am sure that you can think of a couple. Taking the time to respond to messages is one such example. This is common courtesy, but it can make a big difference to the follower. You want to keep the followers you have, though you always want to sign up more as well.
As you can imagine, sending out a response is pretty easy to do. It’s taking the time to do it that actually matters. Some other Twitter marketing tips suggest that you send out tweets on a schedule for your business. Not all your tweets should be set up this way, but using it for business is a great idea. It is also suggested that you send out different types as well. You do not want all of them to be the same boring link over and over. You should mix it up a little more than that, though it can all be related. For example, send out a short quote from one of your blogs. This gives people a little taste without overwhelming them and they can always click through to read more.
Easy Twitter marketing tips would remind you that engaging your followers is the easiest way to keep them. Sending out scheduled tweets like motivational quotes and little tips can make a huge difference. Yes you are going to want to put your link on them, but those little motivational quotes and tips will get sent on a lot faster than just your link would have. This gives you more exposure and more potential for traffic to your sites. These little tips and quotes usually get retweeted very often and most often faster than other tweets, even by people that don’t know you.
The last of the easy Twitter marketing tips I want to tell you about is to make sure that you have a “follow me” icon set up on all of your sites. That way anyone that liked your little quote or tip and clicked on it can sign up to follow you once you get there. Many people will also put a counter on the sites and set up the icon next to the counter. Make sure that wherever you put it that it is easy to see. You do not want to hide it.…

4 Things to Consider When Hiring a Water Damage Restoration Company

Before hiring a water damage restoration company, you should consider several things. These include the following: Immediate removal of water, Drying, Antimicrobials, and Cost. A quality company will consist of these elements in its water damage restoration services. Read on for some of these considerations. Then, make an informed decision based on your budget. If you want to save money on water damage restoration, choose an affordable price company.

Immediate water removal

As soon as a flood or other disaster happens, immediate water removal is essential. Water can cause a large amount of damage in a short period. Luckily, a water damage restoration company can get the job done quickly and efficiently. Calling a water damage restoration service early can help save you time, money, and unnecessary damages. Here’s how to do it. Read on to learn more about water removal and restoration.

Drying

The first step in water damage restoration is drying out the affected area. This process can be noisy and hot, and you should report any loss of power to the damage restoration company. A restoration crew will periodically evaluate the drying progress to keep the affected area dry. This process can take several days. Start the drying process right away if you are working on the carpet yourself. Depending on the severity of the damage, you may have to spend more time on the rug than anticipated.

Antimicrobials

The chemical must be applied according to manufacturer guidelines when using antimicrobials for water damage restoration. Incorrect application may result in injury or ineffectiveness. Water damage restoration professionals should avoid using aerosols and other forms of spray. Both methods are ineffective and dangerous. If you find sewage on a porous surface, an antimicrobial will not work. The sewage must be removed entirely before applying antimicrobials. Water damage specialists must inform you of the potential hazards and rules when using antimicrobials.

Cost

When you’ve experienced flooding or other water damage, you may be wondering: How much does water damage restoration cost? The cost depends on several factors, including the type of water damage, the amount of mold, and other conditions. A professional water damage restoration contractor can give you a good idea of what your specific situation will cost. For example, suppose you’ve experienced flooding due to an appliance. In that case, the cost will be much lower, as the restoration company will only be responsible for drying the affected areas and setting up equipment to prevent mold growth.

Restoring property to pre-loss condition

After water damage, property owners will likely require some reconstruction work to restore their property to a pre-loss condition. These repairs may range from minor repairs to rebuilding entire rooms. To make the process easier for both parties, hiring one company to complete the initial damage mitigation and the subsequent reconstruction is best. The benefits of hiring one company include cost efficiency and convenience. Here are some tips for selecting the right company for the job.

Insurance coverage

The first step in getting insurance coverage …

Creative Ways to Engage Employees and Boost Performance

Creative Ways to Engage Employees and Boost Performance

Every time you hire a new employee, you spend money on the hiring process and lose productivity during training. The most financially sound businesses are those that have low turnover and make infrequent new hires. In order to be this company, you must retain employees, which means keeping them happy and encouraged. Engage employees in a variety of ways to keep them involved in the company and boost their work performances.

Keep Work Fun

A company’s employees are part of a team, but with cubicles keeping them pinned up all day and departments segregated in different areas of the building, it may be difficult to feel that team spirit. Help employees see the bigger picture by getting them together frequently with company activities, like monthly or weekly games or scavenger hunts. Encourage participation by giving prizes to winning groups.

Ask for Advice

To make employees feel like part of the team, prove they are part of the team. The execs may know the ins and outs of the business, but employees often come up with solutions that those locked away in their offices may not see. When changes need to be made to company operations, go to employees for their thoughts. Keep an open-suggestion policy where any new idea is considered. When employees have a say in the running of their own departments, they’ll be looking for ways to improve the process every day, upping employee engagement.

Rewards

Nothing makes employees go above and beyond like rewarding them for that effort. Make the workplace one of recognition by handing out award certificates on an annual, or even monthly, basis. Rewards don’t have to be for common categories, like attendance and sales volume. Think high school yearbook, and consider awards for “best hair” or “best potluck dish.” Do it until every employee has awards peppering their workspaces.

A Word on Bonuses

When you do give out official performance-related rewards, keep them in line with your employee’s purpose. Remember, employees come to work each day to make a living, so rewards that acknowledge that have the most impact. If the company has the funds, immediate rewards like cash bonuses or trips have the most impact on employee engagement. If a company is growing, stock options may be more budget-friendly, and still offer financial incentive. No matter what business you’re in, you must engage employees to keep the workplace from becoming a place of tedium and dread. Create a workplace to which employees don’t mind coming, foster relationships within the company to create loyalty, and reward employees for their hard work to keep them on the team and working for the good of the company for years to come.…

Article Marketing Tips for List Building

Being an online marketer and advertiser, you most likely understand the value of building a huge customer base and your sales will be dependent on the number of people patronizing your website. The only way to ensure yourself of consistency in sales in your online business is to convince more people to subscribe to what you are saying, convince more people to sign up on your website and create a long consumer base and in this front, article writing can help you in more ways than one.
The very first thing that you need to do (and this is the eternal rule in online advertising) is make sure that you maintain very interesting and ever changing content in your articles to make sure that you have a continuing influx of interested readers because the moment that you are able to capture a specific group of people, they will become addicted to what you have to say especially if your first articles are interestingly presented with wit and humor combination. The first thing that they will do is talk about you and wait in awe and anticipation on the next episodes of your articles, using word of mouth to advertise your website. Know what your target audience wants and what they usually search for and hinge your articles on the keywords that they regularly use.
Aside from getting the pulse of the people you are trying to target, you have to write more and more articles, as many as you can because just like any selling game, the more attempts you make, the more appointments you keep, the more people you sell to, the bigger your sales output would be even if you do not make an actual sale on the first point of contact that you make. Selling is always a numbers game and the more your attempts are, the more sales you will be able to close.
More articles mean wider exposure so if you have extra money, hire people to write more articles for you, in that way you are increasing your article submission by more than double which means your exposure is also increased exponentially and you know what happens when more people look at your website or read your articles. That way, you would not spend all your hours just writing and submitting articles but in the process make sure that you are hiring those with good article writing track records and those who can produce more in a short period of time.
At the same time, ensure that the articles that you are submitting are of top caliber and very informative so that you can convince more people to read on and eventually buy what you have to sell.…

Goal Setting Tips For The Internet Marketer

The purpose of this article is to not only assist the veteran marketer, but also the newbie or procrastinator. Hopefully this will get you off your proverbial “butt”. Many folks out there have bought the next “get rich quick online” system more than once. The sad truth is, many of these programs help, but few take the student to fruition. Most consumers of internet marketing programs start with great aspirations and quit with the first “glitch” in their system. If you are like most, you have probably stopped at the first challenge and looked for the next program for online riches.
First off, most programs seem to rely on an “inherent marketing or computer knowledge” by the consumer of their product. It is probably not intentional, but I believe many of the gurus forgot what it is like starting out.
Regardless what program or system you follow, these are some helpful tips for getting your business off the ground:
1. Break out the calendar! Use a cheap yearly calendar that you can hang on the wall in front of your computer.
2. There are certain steps that must be taken for every online business (domain, hosting, autoresponder,etc.). Scan through the program and find or make a list of tasks that must be accomplished. Write each on the calendar for the date you would like that step completed. I have found if you use dates that you know you have some free-time, the odds of completing that task rise significantly.
3. Don’t fall behind! When you write a goal date for a certain task, get it done. Don’t underestimate the time you will need, but at the same time, don’t sell yourself short.
4. Stay engaged! Read and participate in the online community. If you are dead tired and shot at the end of the day, at least read something online before going to bed. It is amazing how a day away from your business, turns to two days, which turns to weeks, or years!
5. Choose a mentor. A mentor should be someone who ” has been there, done that”. He or she should ideally be a person with a similar technology background and is truly invested in your success. Someone who takes you by the hand and shows you how to do it. To be successful long-term, you need to understand and learn how to replicate the steps.
6. This is the most important step! Obviously if you are looking into an internet or stay at home business, you are not satisfied with you current situation. Everyday you go to bed without any positive movement towards your goals, you are cheating not only yourself, but also your family.
You deserve more, and I am here to tell you that everything is possible with goals!
I hope you enjoyed my article.
Sincerely, Greg Roberts…

Marketing Automation – Fixing Your Follow-Up Failure With Technology

Marketing Automation – Fixing Your Follow-Up Failure With Technology

People buy when they’re ready to buy – not before. 67% of the prospective buyers that tell you no today will be ready to buy in the next year. ~ Gartner Research. So how will you be ready when they are? By following up, that’s how. Sadly many businesses do a poor job of marketing follow up, and in this article you’ll learn the startling facts of just how bad it is, but more importantly you’ll discover just how easy it is to fix your follow up failure and double your sales. 

Why companies don’t follow up:

They forget

They focus ONLY on hot leads

They let unconverted leads languish

They think prospects will call back

They don’t want to be pushy

AND they don’t realize the potential impact follow-up can have on their profits!

While 67% of prospects will be ready to buy within 12 months, 80% will buy within 2 years. Will you still be there when they’re ready to buy?

5 Common follow-up mistakes:

No follow-up at all

Weak follow-up

Irrelevant follow-up

Jumping to a sales pitch

No centralized database

How many touches does it take to close a sale?

2% close on the 1st touch

3% on the 2nd

4% on the 3rd

10% on the 4th touch

81% close on (or after) the 5th touch!!!

When do most companies stop following up?

48% quit on the 1st touch

24% on the 2nd

12% on the 3rd

6% on the 4th

10% quit on the 5th touch

Imagine what would happen if you simply followed up with even 20% more of your leads. Can you see what this would mean to your profits. Remember, there is no additional costs in lead generation, this is merely “harvesting” more of the profits by using follow-up marketing.

Here’s a typical follow-up sequence for new prospects:

Send the info they requested immediately. (email)

Send a letter with more valuable info. (letter)

Call to see if you can answer any questions. (call)

Send a value-added email with tips/education. (email) 

Send a promo offer to stimulate action. (email) 

Follow-up with a limited time promo. (postcard)

Call with a final reminder for promo. (voice broadcast)

Offer subscription to future marketing offers and other value added content. (email)

Of course you can get as creative as you want with your sequences, but the above example should get you started.

Fix Your Follow-Up Failure Plan

Get organized – tag customers and prospects. Segment your data.

Integrate your shopping cart and e-commerce into a follow-up system

Add upsells to the follow-up process

automate process to save human interaction and avoid errors.

Offer free report or other high incentive optin piece

Add an automated affiliate referral program

Fixing Your Follow-Up Failure 

Converts more leads into sales

Gets repeat sales from customers

Grows your business without growing your staff

If you want to learn more about fixing your follow up, I’d encourage you to watch the full video presentation …

Using Social Media to Connect With Customers – Meet Them on Their Turf

Using Social Media to Connect With Customers – Meet Them on Their Turf

It’s not all fun and games when it comes to social media. The intention of social media, initially, was to bring people together in a social environment, allowing friends and family to associate online in a way that gives everyone the opportunity to communicate. However, this type of environment can do a lot more than just let friends chat with each other. It is also a great vehicle for businesses to connect with people on their own ground. Much like taking a business promotion to the general public, using social media to connect with customers is a great way to bring your business to a place where people feel comfortable.

Your business can have a Facebook page or a Twitter page where you can connect with customers on a friendlier and less professional basis. Using social media to connect with customers also gives you a forum to discuss the latest happenings, offer exclusive deals, and let people get to know your business on a personal level instead of always being professional about your operations. People like to know that they’re understood and appreciated, and social media is a great way for your business to show them just that.

It wasn’t long ago that people started noticing the website addresses on the bottom of every TV commercial, at the end of radio ads, and in other business advertisements and marketing campaigns. Today, it’s not uncommon to see a business promoting their Facebook page or their Twitter account, where anyone can become a fan or follow their business activities. A lot of companies even offer special incentives to people who visit their social media websites. This is a way to drive traffic and get people’s attention, and for now it is working.

If your business is looking for a better way to communicate with customers, It is a great alternative to traditional business marketing and communication. It allows you to get on their level, become a real person to them, and show them how great your business is without them feeling like they are even dealing with a business at all. All the benefits of this have made it a great tool for businesses that are looking to create a better relationship with customers. As time goes on and more people depend on this social outlets, businesses will continue to reap the rewards of using this to connect with customers.…

Why It’s Important To Stay On Top Of The Marketplace In Business

How are you going about marketing your products and services? Are you copycatting your competitors’ ads, or are you creating them yourself? Have you played customer to see what your competitors are doing to sell more of their products to you? If not, then you will want to start doing those things today.
To make more money in your business, you have to stay on top of marketplace. This way you won’t be surprised by the sweeping changes that occur in your industry. To stay on top of the marketplace, you will want to subscribe to some of your trade journals magazines, and you will also want to subscribe to a marketing magazine. A good one is the “Direct Marketing Association” (DMA).
This way you’ll be on top of the marketplace in 2 ways. The first way is by seeing what the latest issues are in your niche, and the second way is to stay on top of the marketing arena so that you can know what has changed in the world over marketing your products and services.
In today’s article, we’re going to take a look at how you can make more money in your business – despite being hit hard by another change in the marketplace. Here’s the first tip:
– Beware of any “Panda” updates
In the world of internet marketing, there was a recent event that took a BIG toll on website owners. Businesses who thought they could market in only one way found themselves out of business immediately. So what do I mean by “panda” update. Well, here’s what it is:
The Panda update was a shot at content farms. By content farms, I’m talking about article directories, blogs, and any kind of content arena that has people submitting more and more of their content to their website. But the panda update changed all of that.
Some sites took a 30% hit in traffic, and some websites were affected even more. The panda update was performed by Google, and it’s something that still has a lot of business owners shaking in their shoes.
Are there any “Panda” updates in your offline business? Are there any situations in the way that you market your business that could cause your business to take a hit also in sales and profits? Well this is something that you want to think about.
If you want to stay afloat even with major traffic hits like the Panda, then you should do whatever you can to bounce back from it. In the internet world, it’s getting harder and harder to promote yourself without risking any duplicated content tags on your articles. So submitting your content to just one site will help you to do just that.
This is why you can’t just rely on one form of marketing your business – because at any time, it might just take a hit that could affect you and your company.
Do what you can to stay on top of any changes in the …

Using SEO And Video Marketing When Marketing Your Products Online

Some people have come up with all kinds of different ways to get traffic to a website. Some people use formulas, theorems, flow charts, and just raw knowledge to get traffic to their website. Personally, I don’t think getting traffic is an art or science… instead, I think it’s just something that can be easily done if you put your mind to it.
So if you’re brand new to internet marketing and don’t know how to get more traffic to your website, then I think you will stand to benefit from today’s lesson. I would like to show you some easy ways to get traffic to your website for free, and you don’t even have to spend a lot of time doing these strategies either. Here’s the first strategy that you can use to get traffic to your website today:
1) SEO
SEO stands for “search engine optimization”, but I just like to call it search engine marketing. No matter what you call it, it can be a great way to get a lot of traffic to your website. Now some people have SEO down to a science, and know how to rank high for a particular keyword term in a matter of days. And because of it, they get instant traffic to their website because of it.
The 3 biggest search engines on the internet are Google, Yahoo, and Bing – and all of these strategies can deliver for you a ton of traffic on a daily basis. You will definitely want to try and rank high for obscure keyword terms so that you can capitalize on all of this traffic that you could be getting.
Here’s another great way to get traffic to your website:
2) YouTube
YouTube is the number 3 ranked website on the internet today in terms of traffic. They get millions of hits each and everyday to their website from people looking to hear music, and from people looking for information that they can use for a particular reason. You will want to be right there with the information that they are looking for.
You can definitely get a lot of traffic from YouTube. It’s an easy way to promote your business, and it’s very user friendly. You will want to make sure that your website URL is listed at the bottom of your videos, and also is displayed first in the description of your video – so that it can turn into a clickable link.
You can use a camcorder, webcam, or even a sell phone to create your videos. But if you want the most quality, use a camcorder. It may sound expensive, but it’s a great way to produce the high quality videos that you are looking for. If I had to guess, I would say that you can get a good camcorder for around $100… which isn’t too bad.
YouTube and search engine optimization are 2 great traffic strategies that you can use to make more money in your online …

Are You Making The Right Use Of Marketing Automation Solution?

Are You Making The Right Use Of Marketing Automation Solution?

Marketing automation solution is often looked upon as the panacea to all the sales and marketing woes. To most of the marketers it is like a ‘set it and forget it’ kind of solution that can move the leads swiftly through the sales cycle with no extra effort required. But unfortunately what they don’t realize is that using the solution alone will not suffice. In fact most of the organizations fail to realize the full value of the investment made in marketing technology. The truth is that if you are going to depend solely on an automated tool to nurture your contacts and leads, you are in for some big trouble.

Using barely marketing automation solution to grow contacts list

One major disadvantage of using only an automated solution for the purpose of adding new contacts to your database is that you will run out of people you can direct your marketing efforts to in a while. Generally, email marketing lists keep losing its relevance to some degree with every passing year, retaining on average 75% of the members after each year due to overturn at companies. With people swapping jobs and companies undergoing management changes, the current email addresses no longer remain valid after sometime. As a result you end up having a pretty deflated email marketing list that you cannot rely on to generate leads.

Merging marketing automation solution usage with sales efforts

Marketing automation in itself is not bad. But you need to concentrate on filling the top of your sales funnel by luring and adding net new contacts to your database while optimizing marketing automation efforts simultaneously. Practicing inbound marketing is the best way to achieve your target. You can create interesting and search engine friendly content that addresses your prospects’ needs and queries and use social media to promote that content and extend your reach. Convert the visitors into prospects or leads using proper call-to-action and land pages. They will make up for the 25% of members that you lose to list expiration each year.

Using marketing automation solution in all its complexity

Even if you are focused on growing your email marketing list alongside the automated solution usage, unfortunately, most organization fail to make optimum use of marketing automation solution; barely leveraging the complex features like lead intelligence, contacts’ behavioral traits, etc that can be utilized to plan and craft segmented and personalized marketing campaigns. Rather, they go with a one-size-fits-all approach that results in a series of spam mails that lack targeting. And this is mainly due to dearth of integration between their marketing channels.

Conclusion

Marketing automation solution is a crucial element for every organization to grow market share. If the marketing automation solution, marketing database and marketing analytics tools are properly integrated you can easily segment your communication in the best possible way to address your contacts’ needs and interests. So what you need to do is include technology marketing into …

Affiliate Marketing Tips – Marketing Motivation

Everyone is in business for a different reason, and my motivation is the love of my work. I absolutely love researching new products and testing out different markets, but that wasn’t true when I was starting out. I was motivated by money, which is not enough motivation for most people to truly reach success. I know what your thinking, “Yeah Right, money will keep me motivated”. Sure, money will keep you motivated for a while, but when you decide to make affiliate marketing a long term career, you better make sure you are keeping yourself properly motivated. Let’s look at a few things that keep me motivated throughout my everyday business routine.
1.) I start by creating a plan about products that spark my interest and are still profitable. There are many affiliate companies on the internet, so if you don’t like the products that the one your currently using offers try a different company.
2.) Keep a positive outlook and figure out what your market needs and wants. Many internet marketers fail, because they don’t want to take the time to understand what their market wants and needs. You cannot just throw up a sales page that was half thought out and think that you are going to make sales. There is a lot of trial and error involved in selling products on the internet, so don’t be surprised if your first attempt fails. Maybe you are falling short on your research and marketing efforts somehow.
3.) Admit to yourself when you are wrong or if your products is failing. There are many different types of people in this world, and everyone single one of them has a different product choice. More time’s than not you shouldn’t be saying that the product is terrible, but my marketing skills are failing.
Affiliate Marketing is a tough ball game, but if you keep the proper mindset and stay motivated, the sky is the limit. Keep your head up and your marketing game tight, I will be looking for you in the winners circle.…

Article Marketing Automation Review

Article Marketing Automation Review

Article Marketing Automation (AMA) is probably the best tool when it comes to getting a bunch of valuable links to your site and boosting your rankings. After years of experience on the internet and possibly testing all the different kinds of links building I came to the conclusion that nothing comes close to what this system has to offer.

So what it comes down to is the fact that Article Marketing Automation does indeed work and it is certainly the best link building tool available on the internet if you use it correctly.

So what is AMA?Well it is a blog network consisting of over 10 000 blogs where you can submit your article, choose your category and your article will then be distributed to the other blogs in the network. These 10 000 blogs are also targeted to your niche as you can choose the categories where your article should be posted.

You can also get other people to submit their content on your site. All you do is enter your blog’s details, choose your category and then you will get content on a daily basis, which you can approve or reject.

But what makes AMA unique?The anchor text is placed in the content and not in a resource box below the article. So that means that you will get a much better click through rate on your articles.

You can send your articles to all the sites in the network. In the old days you would send one article to hundreds of article directories and hope for a lot of back links to your site. But the problem with this is, because of the duplicate content, most of them will fall under Google’s supplemental index so that means only one or two links will actually count. But when you do it via article marketing automation then every link will count as a valuable link as you will get your article published on a site that is relevant to the theme of your site.

The articles are also distributed over time so it looks much more natural to the search engines.

Now for the resultsIn only four months of using the AMA system I’ve seen much more traffic coming into my sites and I already have first page rankings for almost every niche that I enter. And all this has been achieved by using AMA and some other techniques where I basically just build more value to the links that’s coming in from the AMA system. With one of the niches I entered I had 3 results on Google US for my main keyword and that’s only one of the keywords. So this proves that this system works!

So should you sign up for article marketing automation? Most definitely yes! If you don’t then you are probably missing out on the most effective link building tool on the internet.…

Free and Affordable Ways to Market Yourself Or Your Business

Free and Affordable Ways to Market Yourself Or Your Business

In these tough economic times, many people and businesses know they need to market to get visibility that leads to sales, but have little or no extra capital to do so. However, there are many ways one can market themselves or their business with little or no money. Here are some proven effective marketing strategies for people and businesses with little or no money to spend.

1. Create a website: A website will allow you do tell the world about yourself and what you do. There are many services that allow you to build your own website with easy to follow instructions. Therefore you don’t have to worry about the cost of hiring a website developer to build your site. The most important thing is you want to get as many people to know about you and what you do as possible. Having a website will allow you to share yourself and what you do with others, getting the word out.

2. Develop Strategic Relationships: In building strategic relationships, you create referrals, and referrals mean business. You can join and attend organizations, clubs and associations that share your interest. For example: if you are a realtor you can join the Financial Planners Association, where there are so many professionals that come into contact with people that need to sell or buy real estate. You can create relationships, where you agree to refer clients that need financial advice in exchange for referrals of people that need to sell or buy real estate.

3. Create a unique style or logo: You want to allow people to easily identify you as being different and unique from the competition. Every successful business has a logo, from Microsoft with its four colored window representing its famous operation system windows. You want to create a logo that represents what you do in an image.

4. Write Articles or Newsletters: Write articles or newsletters relating to what it is you do. For example, if you are a wedding planner, you can write an article: How to have a superb wedding on a limited budget. You can add your contact information, your website address and the services you offer generating potential leads.

5. Become a Speaker: Many non-profits, universities, organizations, associations and other entities are always looking for people that can offer knowledge and expertise in many different areas to their members. For example, is you provide senior care, you can contact your local senior citizens center and arrange to discuss what to look for in choosing a senior care provider.

6. Get Social with Online Social Networks: There are many free social networks that allow you to connect with others who share your interest and together you can achieve your goals. You can create a profile or business page for free. For example is you are a florist you can connect with wedding planners which could lead to potential sales, or if you are a drummer looking …

How to Become a Really Smart Marketer

How to Become a Really Smart Marketer

Have you ever heard anyone say, “We’re so lucky, we never have to do any marketing and the business keeps coming in”?

We did, and 3 months ago, they told us they had had their worst year ever. The number of businesses who rely on customers picking up the phone themselves or just relying on word of mouth is astounding. If you think like that, not only are you leaving fortunes on the table but you are putting yourself in a very vulnerable position.

The trouble is that when someone says “You need to do some marketing,” some people imagine that suddenly an enormous amount of their profit is going to disappear overnight. They start thinking:

“Who exactly am I going to market to?”

“What am I going to say?”

“Who will do it for me?”

We imagine all the horrors associated with hiring a marketing agency that is then going to eat up our budget with fancy artwork and branding ideas. If you insist on hiring an agency, then so be it, but please make sure that they talk to you in terms of ROI (return on investment). If they can’t guarantee their work, then you should be asking them why not. Too many times we see advertisements which essentially have the message “Look at me! I have a business; phone me if you like.” That may seem harsh, but you just look through any business to business magazine for examples of the worst offenders.

So what is Smart Marketing?

It’s marketing where you OFFER something to your customers rather than simply announcing your existence.

It’s also marketing where you start with your existing customers.

It’s also marketing that does not involve a huge amount of expense.

You will have already heard me say that we leave a great deal of hidden money with our customers by not following up with them enough.

Try this with your existing customers:

Send them a sales letter with an offer to buy something from you that is extra to what they would normally buy. It might be a new product or service or an exceptional offer on your usual product or service for a limited time frame.

The letter should have the following:

1 – An attention-grabbing headline which gets them to read on

2 – The offer and the reason why the offer exists in the form of a story

3 – A deadline by which they need to respond

4 – Instructions on what they need to do next

This is direct response marketing that is inexpensive, measurable, and sent to people who already like buying from you.…

The Business Marketing Know-How

The Business Marketing Know-How

As with anything that deals with business, having a successful marketing plan is a very challenging task. It requires careful planning, deliberate application, and evaluation of the entire process. Although some may prove to be lucky and succeed during the first trial, most often, effective business marketing requires experience and training.

Perhaps one of the most effective marketing techniques is increasing the exposure of the business. Most people rely on the World Wide Web as a resource in looking for what options there are in the market. In that regard, here are a few ideas to consider before making a marketing plan.

– Online listings. Like yellow pages, making your website visible over the internet is a great way of kicking off your marketing plan. Most people these days opt to check online for businesses that cater to their services. Taking your business online, whether big or small, can provide good exposure for potential customers to see. There are now free online services offering a safe way of giving your contact information. In fact, there are some which allows businesses to transact online.

– Establishment Structure. The structure of the business establishment greatly affects how customers view the company. Seeing how the owner cares for the looks and appearance of the structure will give the customers an idea on whether the owner is focused and detail-oriented. Here are some of the ideas that can enhance the impression of customers:

– The architecture and design of the establishment is based according to the market it is trying to attract. Like for example, if you are trying to entice a group of teens, seeing a sign for shop front with various bright colors can actually invite them over. However, if the target market is children and the front of the shop shows off a serious vibe, then even parents will not be happy to see their children in such a serious place.

– Furniture in the establishment plays a big role in making the customers comfortable. Keep in mind that if you intend to put up a potentially crowded shop, then you might want to add in more ventilation or air conditioning. Aside from that, chairs never fail to add more convenience and comfort for the customers. Remember that people do not want to line up for long. Adding furniture or organizing other activities that could keep them busy will make their time worthwhile as they wait.

Putting up a business is never easy. On the other hand, being a customer is just as difficult. The bumps on the road during transactions are inevitable and could often lead to misunderstanding and confusion. While business marketing is the core in attracting customers, it is important that tycoons know their limits. Getting loyal clients is one of the main goals in meeting the success of the establishment. This does not involve giving out false and misleading infomercials. Rather, it is all about the services and the products the business is …

5 Effective Internet Marketing Tips for Your Online Business

Do you want your online business to gain more attention from your target market? Use these five effective internet marketing tips listed below and your website will get the exact results you’re looking for!
Build Web 2.0 Websites
Sign up with several Web 2.0 websites and start creating your own blogs. If you’re given the chance to pick your own subdomain name, see to it that you include your keywords so you can quickly attract the audience you want. You should also write unique blog posts that are relevant to your niche and insert some links that point back to your main site. Some of the best Web 2.0 websites on the internet today are Squidoo, WordPress and HubPages.
Select the Right Keywords to Target
Choosing which keywords to focus on is very important in internet marketing. You have to be specific as much as possible-find out what words your customers actually type when they search the web, and pick the ones that bring the most results. If you’re having trouble determining this, you can use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to help you. This great tool will show you which keywords are successful and have less competition in your particular niche market.
Write & Submit Original Articles
Create original and informative articles, ideally around 350-500 words, and submit them to popular article directories like EzineArticles. Don’t forget to use specific keywords and put a link back to your website on the resource box!
Make & Submit Creative Videos
You can also make short videos to promote your website. The video can be an advertisement for your online business, or a simply an informative video that provides tips for your target audience. Again, be sure you include your web URL on the description area.
Use Social Bookmarking & Pinging Services
Lastly, make use of social bookmarking websites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit to announce to the internet community that you’ve posted new articles, videos, posts and other contents on your website or blog. You could also ping the latest web contents you’ve made. Pinging services function similarly to social bookmarking, but the process is much quicker and easier. One of the most effective pinging resources you can use is Ping-O-Matic. To achieve the full effect and attract more traffic, you should always social bookmark and ping every content you’ve just published on the internet.…

Using Podcasts And Joint Ventures To Make Money In Your Business

Marketing on the internet is something that a lot of newbies don’t know how to do. They become clueless about how to get their message spread across the internet, and they have no idea of how to get traffic. But luckily in today’s lesson, I’m going to show you some simple and easy ways that you can start getting more website traffic in a short period of time.
Getting website traffic is one of those subjects where it’s easy to get confused. One day you may hear about a traffic strategy that is the best, then another day you will hear somebody say they have the latest and greatest new traffic method, and then you will see some people promote a software tool that can get you incredible amounts of traffic and sales overnight. Personally, I don’t listen to any of this mess.
The best thing you can do for yourself when it comes to getting traffic is to make out a list of strategies to do, and implement them each and everyday. This way you’ll diversify your traffic, and will be getting people visiting your website from all corners of the earth. You should focus on traffic, and then provide a product or service to these people that will help you to monetize your website.
I want to share with you some of my favorite traffic strategies that you can put into use in your business today. In fact, here’s the first strategy that I have for you:
1) Podcasts
Podcasting is one of those strategies like video marketing. You can even start your own podcast blog with a free tool called “Feedburner”. But podcasts are nothing but MP3 audio files that delivers information on a particular topic. You will want to submit your podcasts to all of the major podcast directories online – especially iTunes.
iTunes is the largest and most familiar podcast directory. All of the celebrities submit their podcasts there. In your podcast, you will want to state your website information at the beginning of the podcast, and also at the end. In between the promotion time, you will want to deliver some excellent information that will make people want to come back for more.
But podcasts aren’t the only free traffic strategy that you can use. Here’s another one:
2) Joint ventures
A joint venture is an alliance of 2 companies who come together to help each other make money. Joint ventures are typically profitable, but if you have an affiliate program, you will want to offer a higher commission to your joint venture partner. It’s the least that you can do if they’re giving you access to their list or their product.
Joint ventures happen all the time online, and there are even special websites designed for people who are looking to strike up a JV deal. You should find these special websites and join them… you never know who will be a match for your product, service, or list.
These 2 traffic strategies …

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