How to get the word out about your great product or service for absolutely free.
Chris Burns – http://www.freemailinglistinformation.com
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
Okay, so we have all learned about the 4P’s of marketing in undergrad: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. If not, you can open up one of your old marketing text books, blow off the dust and read about it there. The 6 C’s, however, is a not a concept that replaces the 4′Ps; rather, it just expands on the promotion element and provides a more granular approach to consumer marketing.
Okay, so we have all learned about the 4P’s of marketing in undergrad: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. If not, you can open up one of your old marketing text books, blow off the dust and read about it there.
CUSTOMER
In this day and age, a company’s marketing strategy needs to be customer focused. It’s about understanding the target consumer; their wants, needs and motivations. Not as demographics, psychographics or any other graphics, but as real people. Its understanding why customers do what they do (or don’t do),when they do it and why they do it. Such knowledge is critical in marketing since having a strong understanding of buyer behavior will help shed light on what is important to the customer.
CONSISTENCY
Companies need to maintain consistency in their message; a practice called integrated marketing communications – from packaging and advertising to sales promotion and publicity. This will maintain and reinforce a brand’s personality and image in a real life context and avoid doing something brainless like changing the distinctive color of the UPS truck to orange.
CREATIVITY
Creativity is imperative to attract attention in a world cluttered with thousands of messages. Creativity means laying aside the rules, and engages in out-of-box thinking so that marketers can reach beyond logic and structure and tap into their imaginations.
CULTURE
All marketing communications needs cross-cultural research to be able to succeed. It’s simple to see things from your own perspective, assuming that everyone else in the world thinks exactly like you and should understand what’s so great about your product or service. One of the most famous examples is Coca Cola translating the name into Chinese without back-translating it (”bite the wax tadpole”), ultimately resulting in a horrible response from an insulted society. Marketing books are full of examples like these. As David Ogilvy, known as the Father of Advertising, states, “If you are trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think”.
COMMUNICATION
This one is basic. Consumers don’t want to be “marketed to”. Rather, they want to be “communicated with”. Good marketing communication creates value with target customers, speaks in their language and tells your story. It’s about building long term, trustworthy, and profitable relationships with your customers. As Seth Godin states, it’s about reinforcing the lies that consumers tell themselves everyday (i.e. I look much better in these jeans from Abercrombie; they make me look sexy).
CHANGE
Marketing is not just a business function, but a process. There is a beginning, middle, but there is never an end. Marketers must constantly CHANGE as society changes. They should never be afraid to try something new. Marketing today is not what it was 2 – 5 – or even 20 years ago.
Conclusion (not the 7th C)
So there it is; the 6 C’s of marketing – Customer, Consistency – Creativity – Culture – Communication and Change.
Chris Burns – http://www.freemailinglistinformation.com
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
Determining and evaluating the makeup of the organization’s sales team is essential for any sales training to succeed. The team members go through the motions of the program because they have been told to do so. Unless they are motivated to improve performance, no amount of training will succeed.
Why are sales training programs so often unsuccessful? The typical company spends tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to put its entire sales force through the latest, hottest sales training program touted to increase its bottom line numbers. But, just as with all the previous sales training efforts, only a small percentage of participants embrace the new skills taught. For everyone else, the status quo reins, and the bottom line doesn’t move one bit. What went wrong, and how can it be done right? Getting to the next level in selling requires a careful evaluation of your sales executive’s true intentions. Many executives, and even the sales trainers themselves believe that sales training is a one-size-fits-all proposition. They couldn’t be more wrong! Your sales executives or representatives cannot improve unless they are absolutely honest about who they are, what their intentions and motivations are, how good they are and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Only then can behavior be modified. Not all reps have the same intentions or motivations and therefore are not equally prepared for training. That’s why standard training programs work for only a small minority, while leaving the majority of the audience unmoved. The first step to sales training success is to determine and evaluate the makeup of your organization’s sales team. The four types of sales professionals are:
Searchers do not belong in sales positions.
This eye-opening exercise gives both rep and manager a basis for future discussion in a one-on-one meeting. Even in a private session, reaching agreement can be challenging, but one thing is certain — productivity never lies. If someone is in the top tier or is showing consistent upward sales, he or she is most likely a Performer or a Professional. If not, the rep belongs in one of the other two categories. The remaining steps of the breakthrough model focus on developing customized training based on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the individual and then getting personal commitments to change from all those willing to do so.
Step 2: Identify what makes a superstar salesperson. What does the perfect sales executive or representative do? What are their characteristics? What are their strengths? What is the most important qualities that they possess? While most sales training is focused on product knowledge, get specific to your industry and items such as solid work ethic, superb presentation skills, and the ability to build relationships.
Define passion and goal setting.
Here’s a tip: Let the sales team build the perfect rep.
Step 3: Evaluate each salesperson’s skills and behaviors against the best, identified practices Have the sales reps rank themselves and each other on a scale of one to five (from weak to strong) against the “perfect rep.” Then, have their manager rank each one in the same manner. Finally, synthesize the scores and come to an agreement on each rep’s ranking in each category.
Gaining agreement may have to come in an individual meeting between manager and rep.
Step 4: Customize the path to breakthrough achievement. Once every rep’s strengths and weaknesses have been identified and rated according to the ideal, it becomes possible to customize each sales executive’s path to breakthrough. Train individuals in their weak areas weak, and leverage their strengths to help in the effort. Schedule ongoing training sessions that range from 15 minutes to one hour each, depending on topic and individual needs. Make sure ongoing and consistent weekly or monthly follow-up takes place. It is critical for successful transformation.
Step 5: Get a commitment to change. It can be difficult to get everyone on board, but if the first four steps are done correctly the percentage of committed salespeople skyrockets. Unless they are motivated to improve performance, no amount of training will succeed. Some people are simply not interested in changing, but these first four steps can break even the hard cases.
When motivation and commitment are strong, a Caretaker can become a Performer or a Professional depending on their personality.
Professionals can begin to take more risks in their selling game, thus opening up new opportunities.
Performers can learn to balance their emotions and spend more time in the selling zone.
Invest In Success Pure and simple, traditional sales training programs fail because most participants don’t embrace them.
Lacking any motivation to improve, they only go through the motions of the program because they have been told to do so. Next time before spending your money on sales training, make sure the sales force is prepared to train and that the dots are connected through the five steps of the Breakthrough Model.
Chris Burns – http://www.freemailinglistinformation.com
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
While thinking how to make your marketing perfect think what constitutes being good enough, and how to get it done sooner rather than later. No one would respond to your business-to-business marketing if it doesn’t reach them in time.
I think most business-to-business marketers should aim for “get it out” and “good enough” rather than aim for perfection when it comes to marketing to drive leads and sales.
Why? Because aiming for perfection, in addition to being nearly impossible to achieve, results in your marketing campaigns and materials spending far too much time in the concept and development stages, causes significant delays in delivering your lead generating messages to prospective customers. Or worse, your marketing messages never get delivered at all.
With all this in mind, here are some ideas and resources to consider for your marketing:
• Instead of constantly re-inventing the marketing wheel, consider re-purposing or refreshing your existing materials.
The reasons someone should engage your company are often the same as in the past, so why not update the marketing materials that were successful in the past. We are usually sick of our marketing materials long before they stop working with our prospects.
• Instead of trying to come up with oh-so-clever copy, focus on crafting clear, well-targeted headlines and messages, which offer real solutions to your prospective customers’ problems or pains. If you think you have a knack for writing, a great book on the subject is The Copywriter’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells by Robert W. Bly.
Or you can find copywriters who can do the job for you by searching on the Internet using phrases like “B2B copywriter” or “direct mail copywriter.”
• Avoid typos and grammatical errors by using a proofreading service like proofreadnow.com.
• Instead of using costly give-aways, make compelling “how-to” information offers or “buy now” calls-to-action that will get prospective customers to respond.
Mark Joyner’s book, The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less is worth reading.
• Instead of spending a lot of time creating fancy, expensive mailers, fire up your laser printer and send personalized letters to your prospects. Then use window envelopes so the address on the letter shows through to avoid having to address the envelopes too.
Or use one of the online lettershop services like mailersclub.com or usps.com/netpost to mail-merge, print and mail your business letters.
Remember, longer copy that is easy to skim (i.e. using subheads, bullets, call-outs, boldface, etc.) works with both those prospects who prefer to read all the details and those who prefer to get right to the bottom line.
You can also use postcards as a less costly alternative. Companies like amazingmail.com, modernpostcard.com or touchpointmail.com can help you get your postcards designed, printed and mailed cost-effectively.
E-mails to your opt-in list of prospects are another option to developing more costly mailers. For a comprehensive listing of email service providers, see page 26 of BtoB’s Marketers Resource Guide-2006 available at BtoBonline.com
• Instead of creating printed brochures, consider printing pages from your Web site instead.
If you’re worried about your company’s image, place them in a glossy file folder, imprinted with your logo.
• Instead of developing seminars, workshops, or executive briefings on your own, consider partnering-up with another company to or organization to co-produce an event, or simply take your prospects as your guest to Microsoft or other large organization events on the subject.
• Instead of paying for custom photography, consider low-cost stock photo websites like istockphoto.com or photos.com.
• In addition to hiring full-time people, consider part-timers to help get the marketing job done.
As my oldest daughter just started kindergarten, I’ve met a number of moms (and a few Mr. Moms) who are ready to go back to work after taking a few years off to raise their children, but now only want to work part-time.
If you need specialized expertise on a project-by-project basis, consider hiring independent contactors like copywriters, designers or event coordinators.
And if you’re willing to trade experience for enthusiasm, consider hiring one or more interns from your local college or university.
So, next time you find yourself thinking about how to make your marketing perfect, I challenge you to think instead about what constitutes being good enough, and how to get it done sooner rather than later.
After all, no one can respond to your business-to-business marketing if it doesn’t reach them in time, or even worse – never at all.
Chris Burns – http://www.freemailinglistinformation.com
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
You’ve finally created a blog and you’ve made your first post. Now how do you get people to actually read what you’re blogging about?
Here are some tips on promoting your blog.
1) Quality Content – Interesting content will keep your readership returning. Update your blog regularly.
Googlebot, which is Google’s web-crawling robot loves content. The more you update your blog, the more frequent the search engine spiders will return to it.
2) Take part in forums that are related to blogging. Ask other bloggers for their opinion on your blog and take their suggestions to heart.
Ask other bloggers for their opinion on your blog and take their suggestions to heart.
3) Publish an RSS/Atom/XML feed. If you’re using Blogger, you can turn on RSS feed by clicking on settings in your dashboard and then clicking on site feed and make sure that your settings are set to yes.
4) Carefully choose your subject titles, taking into consideration what other internet users may be searching for.
Use keywords in your title. I suggest subscribing to Word Tracker. Their report of the most popular searches is published each Tuesday and distributed to over 30,000 subscribers.
Technorati.com , is a blog search engine that also lists the top search words. The more targeted your keywords are, the greater your return in search engines will be.
5) Involve yourself in commenting on other blogs. You can gain a loyal readership just by offering feedback to your fellow bloggers. The comment feature allows you to add a link back to your blog as well.
6) Be sure to include your blog address in forum signatures and in your email signature.
7) Submit your blog to directories.
Submit your blog’s url to Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex.
Write articles. Include a resource box in your article and submit it to article directories such as http://iSnare.com
9) If you’re using blogging software such as Blogger, there is an option to notify the central blog update services (such as http://weblogs.com) whenever you’ve made a new entry to your blog. Make sure that this option is turned on! In blogger, click on publish in your dashboard and make sure that your settings are set to yes under notify weblogs. Alternatively, you can go to http://ping-o-matic.com and send out a ping each time you update your blog. This lets everyone know that you’ve just updated your blog.
10) Link to other blogs. Use services like blogrolling, which is similar to linking. Blogrolling allows you to maintain an updated list of your favorite blogs. But, don’t build a long blog roll of sites that you have no intention of returning to. There is nothing more annoying then visiting a blog that has a humongous blogroll.
Be patient, traffic doesn’t happen overnight. The best way that I’ve found to increase traffic is by getting to know people. Spend what free time that you have, reading blogs, leaving feedback and building friendships. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you visit as often as you can. While you are waiting for the traffic to come, just enjoy blogging. You’ll be improving your writing in the process.
Eventually you’ll build a network of not just readers, but friends and loyal supporters. Blogging is not just about marketing; it’s about creating lasting relationships.
Chris Burns – http://www.americanprofiles.net
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
I found a few way that actually boost my profit instantly. Many small businesses needed to create a massive cashflow in the shortest possible time.
1. Give free gifts Givers get. You can give away small gifts or some of your service for free to build your customer base, to get free publicity. I remember once I was selling some small gifts many years back when I first started my business. There is not much respond. I need to do something about it. I started to give away my gifts for free. In total, I just gave away 25 pieces of the gift. The result in three hours: 300 pieces was sold.
2. Direct mailer with names Many said that direct mailer don’t work. From my experience, I would say, it depends. First you have to put the name of that person you want to send to. If you address them as “Marketing Director”, “CEO” or “House Owner”, you are not going to get a good response. Do some work, find out their names, address to them directly. My response rate for direct mailers range from 10% – 20%. Direct mailers do work.
3. Add bonus Customers love bonuses. Add lots of bonuses for your customers, they will remember you. They will be happy when they buy from you, and realized that they can have some free bonus. Preferbably the perceived value of the bonus is greater than the item they bought. It will make this technique works even better. People made a decision to buy a new car when they there is a Free $50 petrol voucher. How amazing bonuses work.
4. Urgency If possible add in an urgency to whatever you are selling. “while stock last”, “only for 3 days” works well. It makes your customer wants to take action fast. A retail shop here used this: “50% discount only for 2 days. Start on 9am” I can see people gathering in front of the shop at 8am.
5. Customer base If you want to have a sustainable business in a easier way, build your customer base. Many business owner forgot their customer nice the customers buy from them once. You got to keep in touch with your customers. Once they buy from you once, and like your products, they will buy again from you. You got to do things to make them happy. I always keep in touch with my customers. Sending them emails, calling them to chat, giving them gifts. Even though they may not buy from you again, they may refer their friends to you. Visit our website at www.millionaire.com
Chris Burns – http://www.americanprofiles.net
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
It has been a long time since we talk about “content”. As on my previous discussions, I have emphasized often that content drives traffic to your site. Needless to say, we already knew about this. But what exactly are the ways that make content valuable?
It has been a long time since we talk about “content”. As on my previous discussions, I have emphasized often that content drives traffic to your site. Needless to say, we already knew about this. But what exactly are the ways that make content valuable?
Are you familiar with the concept of long tail? I mentioned this concept before on my post titled, More Web PR Dilemmas, wherein the concept was used in acquiring participatory readers on blogs. The same long tail concept is also popularly used in web marketing nowadays.
Generally, the term long tail was based from statistical graph, which later on was used by Chris Anderson to show its greater importance in marketing. In this article, Design and the Long Tail, it explains, “The Long Tail, as Chris describes it, is an entirely different animal than the body of retail. The Tail has emerged with the internet economy as an infinite shopping mall of niches.”
Basically, when we look at the parts of the graph, which has a massive body (representing the mass market) and a “long tail” (represents niches of smaller population), the long tail has equal and possibly more potential customers than the body.
In short, finding special and unique niches is better than diving into popular ones. This is also true when it comes to creating contents for your site. A related post on Content Done Better Blog has good explanation on this:
Long tail theory can be applied to search engine results, too. If you take a popular keyword, log the searches made containing that keyword, and graph the results you are going to get something very similar to the graph above.
There is going to be a mass of searches just for the keyword and obvious 2-3 word phrases using the keyword. Then, you are going to have a precipitous decline in the amount of searches using other strings that will result in a long, flowing tail.
So, you can fight for that traffic in the body, but it’s going to take some work. There’s a lot of competition in the body. You can also start mining the long tail for traffic.
If you’re still not getting the whole idea of the long tail concept, the fact remains simple: Produce valuable, useful, and quality contents that are both concentrated on (1) your site’s overall theme/topic; and (2) slightly related (unique) contents. A content-rich site focused on the site’s overall theme/ topic also acquires rich popular keywords all over its webpages. Likewise, a content-rich site with different, but slightly related contents will have “niche” keywords on its pages. If you’ll follow this step constantly, you’re sure to have desired traffic on your website. However, the effect of the long tail will only be seen when your website has acquired tremendous number of quality contents. Therefore, you have to update your website often to really make your “tail” long.
Original article source: http://onlinepr.gbwatch.com/online-pr/118.html
Mary Ann Carolyn “Mean” Dalangin-Tordecilla has a natural passion for writing. Since childhood, she spent most of her quiet times writing poetry and short novels. This hobby led her to pursue a writing course in college. During her university years, she has been a Dean’s Lister and has reaped several special awards. She also became an active member in various university groups, specifically the media and politics. By 2005, she graduated at the University of Santo Tomas with a degree of AB Journalism. Read her blog at Online PR and Marketing- Promoting Goods and Services on the Internet
Chris Burns – http://www.freemailinglistinformation.com
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
Differentiation is taken for granted by people who run companies, especially visionary founders. Yet, differentiation has to be clear, simple, and well-defined for everybody else. Articulate’s Glenn Harrington cites Coke and Pepsi.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have been engaged in direct competition for over100 years, which is about 99 years too long. Originally marketed as health tonics, the two products are very similar, cost about the same, cater to the same market, and have never established any meaningful product differentiation. Such protracted, intense competition would be very, very costly to most businesses in most industries. There’s a lesson in it for all of us, though.
prosper in peace
Direct competition is an unnecessarily difficult way to do business. The level of difficulty relates to the maturity of the market and the innovative capacity of the competitors. Yet, all markets mature and it’s better to prosper in peace than to fight and starve.
fill a niche
To enjoy a more comfortable place in a competitive market, it is wise to identify and satisfy an under-served niche through differentiation from competitors. This way, you strive not to dominate the game but to dominate one particular aspect of the game – your own.
cheap like Cott
Even if your product was a knock-off of Coke or Pepsi, you could claim market share by selling it at a lower price. This way, you could attract the most price-conscious segment of the market through price-based positioning and avoid the Coke-Pepsi fight. This is how Cott has prospered in the cola market.
different like Jones
An alternative way to create a niche through differentiation is to create a strong brand image that attracts people to your product – even if the product is essentially the same as everybody else’s. The Jones Soda Company does this. Its clear-glass bottles labelled with black-and white photos and overtly modest writing are a hit with the market segment that likes quirky originality.
position for profit
The principles of avoiding direct competition extend well beyond the convenient examples of niche marketing in the soft drink business. Every enterprise has its competitors, but intelligent market positioning can make an enormous difference in how fun and how profitable life can be. At Harrington Newsletter, we enjoy helping businesses achieve profitable positioning and have helped to create effective brands. Contact us with your thoughts.
- Glenn Harrington, Articulate Consultants Inc.
Glenn Harrington is the Principal Consultant with Articulate Consultants Inc.
Chris Burns – http://www.freemailinglistinformation.com
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
Great tips to help increase your online conversion rates. It’s simple and easy to execute.
Persuasive Online Copy Writing
Many websites today write their web site copy as if they are trying to address a stadium full of customers. The problem with this approach is that the message becomes diluted and confusing. Instead, pick one customer, perhaps someone you know and write the copy as if you are targeting just him or her. American Novelist, John Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 states “your audience is one single reader; and I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person – a real person you know, or an imagined person – and write to that one”. Literature is no different than writing website copy. In fact, with practice, this becomes really easy to do.
Know Your Metrics
It is highly recommended that you set measurable benchmarks and identify conversion goals based on current web site traffic. A conversion can be a sale, or a form submission; basically, whatever action you want the customer to take when they arrive at your website. This can be easily done with web analytics software (like Omniture, Website Story or Google Analytics) with features that track the following:
Improve Your Navigation
There is nothing that irritates me more than not being able to find the navigation when I get to a web page. Ease of navigation on a website is a very important part of converting visitors into customers. If visitors to your site don’t know where to click to find what they are looking for, they will abandon your site in the blink of an eye. I do it all the time.
The most common place for your navigation is on the left side and/or the top of the page. There have been several studies that show an increase in conversions when the navigation is one of these two places. Take a moment to look at online retailers like eBay, Dell, QVC, HP and Amazon and see if you can find any similarities.
In addition, navigation should be consistent on each page. Most retailers are already facing huge abandon rates and inconsistent navigation will increase the chances of visitors dropping off. Studying drop-off data indicates that would be customers visiting your site lose the relevant message of what put them there in the first place.
Further evidence was provided on March 8, 2004 – Onestat.com reported that 9.52% of visitors abandon a website after viewing one page; 54.60% of visitors abandon a website after viewing two pages and 15.56% of visitors abandon after viewing three pages or more (based on a sample size of 2 million visitors). This data illustrates the importance of having consistent navigation on every page of your website.
Call to Action
The idea here is to reinforce (or validate) the purchase decision while the visitor is going through the check-out process. You can communicate anything that is unique about your product or service, whether it is a customer testimonial, a new promotional offer; or perhaps the services that you offer that differentiate you from your competitors like 24/7 customer service, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, etc. This helps build credibility, reassures customers that they are making the right decision; and most importantly, decreases shopping cart abandonment and buyers remorse.
It’s also good practice to strategically place your phone number on every page. Believe it or not, there are still millions of people out there that are not comfortable with submitting their credit card over the phone. Additionally, some people also prefer to talk to a live sales person.
Reduce Download Speed
Lose the flash. Not everyone has a fast Internet connection. There is data our there that shows that the majority of visitors will only wait 3 – 5 seconds for a home page to load up before clicking elsewhere. Again, take a look at the top online retailers and you will notice that they don’t have flash at all. E-marketer.com reported that 84% of website visitors abandon a site if the page load time reaches 10 seconds. I, personally won’t wait longer than 1 or 2 seconds, but that’s just me.
Substance over Style
Although a nice web site design is attractive to look at, it’s not what drives sales. Take a look 1800 Flowers, Dell, QVC, HP and Amazon and you will notice that their sites aren’t the most attractive, yet they are the online retail leaders. What makes these sites unique is they provide tons of relevant content, easy navigation, and a quick/easy check out process.
Recapture Lost Sales
If possible, track users who abandon the check out process, and target them with a different offer, or at least get their feedback as to why they abandoned the site. You will never know unless you ask.
Content
Content is king; we’ve all heard that before, right?. A web page can do only one of two things: either it contains the content the visitors want or it contains the links to get them to where they want to go. If a page doesn’t follow this basic rule, the visitors stop clicking. And that’s not a good thing.
Perhaps it takes visitors two or three pages before they figure out that they are in the wrong place… but I doubt it. Over half of visitors are interested enough to click one or two steps deeper before bailing. That’s a pretty clear indication sites fail to provide enough content to the majority of their visitors. According to Jakob Nielsen, users look straight at the content and ignore the navigation areas when they scan a new page. They are extremely goal-driven and look only for the one thing they have in mind and if a page does not appear relevant to the user’s current goals, then the user will ruthlessly click the Back button.
Following these basic steps outlined in this article will surely help your online conversion rates. Please drop me a note if you have had any progress or not.
Chris Burns – http://www.americanprofiles.net
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.
How to show that the money and resources invested in the company’s business-to-business marketing activities are really paying off? It is surprisingly easy to prove that B2B marketing is contributing to your company’s bottom line. Here’s how.
Your boss wants to see evidence that the money and resources invested in the company’s business-to-business marketing activities are really paying off.
You start to sweat. Relax. It is surprisingly easy to prove that B2B marketing is contributing to your company’s bottom line. Here’s how.
Show the relationship between your marketing and your revenue Start by looking for sales and revenue that can be linked to marketing activities. Simply compare lists of new customers or invoices to companies or prospects in your marketing database and look for matches. You don’t have to find every sale that resulted from your marketing activities. Sometimes all it takes is one big sale to justify a campaign.
If sales haven’t closed yet, count the number of qualified leads and use estimated conversion rates and average sales size to quickly determine the sales potential of those leads. Or look at the forecasted sales in the company’s CRM system and compare them to the database of prospects, inquiries or qualified leads.
You can also send “Did you buy?” surveys to inquirers and qualified leads, using their answers to show that the prospects being targeted by your marketing are buying from you or the competition. Ask if they bought, and if so, from whom. Ask why and how much they spent. If your sample size is large enough, you can also use the answers you receive to estimate the number of sales and the amount of revenue that are represented by all the inquiries and leads you’ve generated.
Show how much you saved the company Just give it some thought and you’ll probably come up with a list of things you’ve done to save your company money or time. For example: - Printing and postage savings after cleaning the mailing list or delivering the company newsletter by e-mail.
- Savings accomplished by offering electronic versions of literature. - The money you saved by eliminating non-productive marketing activities - Time and money saved by automating the capture of Web forms and eliminating some manual data entry. Show other ways your marketing is more effective This can range from showing how many more prospects you reached with your marketing messages to indicating the improvements that have been made in cost per impression, cost per inquiry, cost per attendee or cost per qualified lead.
List all the marketing projects your marketing team completed Marketers often don’t think about their own productivity when justifying the money the company invests in marketing. Unfortunately, people quickly forget what happened last month or last quarter. Or they simply have no idea what’s involved in creating a mailing or designing a new Web site.
Pointing out the number of marketing projects completed, and all the work steps involved, can be a real eye-opener to others who are completely unaware.
Always be ready to make your case I recommend that you block out a couple of hours to create your business-to-business marketing accountability reports every month so you’ll always have up-to-date results at your fingertips. If you’re pressed for time, use an intern or temp to do it for you.
Your results may vary, but consider this …
A marketer I know recently reported to her management that awareness of their company and products among target prospects more than doubled, the cost per qualified lead delivered to sales by marketing dropped by nearly 40 percent, 58 percent of the opportunities in the sales pipeline were found first by marketing, and 48 percent of the sales closed and 62 percent of the revenue during the past 12 months came from marketing-generated leads. The result? She received a bigger marketing budget and senior management executives no longer doubt marketing’s contribution to the company’s success.
Chris Burns – http://www.americanprofiles.net
Direct Marketing For The Industry Since 1996.