It’s time to launch your email marketing campaign; what should you know prior to setting your plan into motion? Well, before you do anything, you should first make certain that your sales staff and all sales departments are prepared to make the transactions generated by your email marketing campaign. Once your confident your business can handle a potential influx of sales, you should follow a few regimented steps to insure you’re making the most of your email marketing solutions. The below checklist will help you to determine what to do and when to do it.
Determine what day of the week to send your messages. The theories on this choice are numerous. Many experts suggest targeting individual customers over the weekend but business-to-business hopefuls on a Friday. However, a recent study indicates the best day to issue B2B email marketing messages is Monday or Tuesday. The truth is, there is no hard and fast rule for this factor. Do your own research to determine what day you think is best. Consider testing several days and determining which one gets the best response.
There are two times of day that are historically best for sending a marketing email, mid-morning and right after lunch. At these two times, people tend to be more receptive to what lands in their inbox.
After you’ve determined when and what time you’ll be sending your marketing email, you should prepare to monitor responses. Your monitoring efforts should cover everything from replies to unsubscribes. Monitoring your responses early can help you to eliminate and even avoid certain link and spam problems.
Now it’s time to deliver that email and the final step should be creating and email that is attractive, but not too “spam like” that customers will take time to read and find easy to navigate. An effective interface will enable you to track the results of your email campaign and move ahead as a result of that tracking.
Below you will find a summarized “tip list” derived from various email marketing experts. Take some time to review these tips and then be on your way to email marketing success.
Offer something to your customers!
In exchange for their contact info, offer your customers something in return. (i.e. a free newsletter, or seminar, or more information)
Be economical about the info you gather!
When gathering customer contact information, only ask for the information you need.
Make it easy for them to unsubscribe!
Make absolutely certain you provide a way for customers to unsubscribe from your e-mail marketing solutions campaign.
www.ukba.co.uk
Monday 29 June 2009
Saturday 27 June 2009
Wednesday 24 June 2009
Best Practices in B2B Internet Marketing
Four in 5 U.S. employees have internet connections at work. If you want to sell to these highly connected businesses, you have to have a sophisticated B2B internet marketing strategy.
There are two factors to your B2B internet marketing practice. First, you get traffic to your site. Then, you convert them to customers. Let’s start by looking at how to get people to visit your web page.
The quickest way to get visitors is to use Pay Per Click marketing. You can set up a campaign with Google’s Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or a number of smaller ad networks within an hour and start getting visitors immediately.
In the long run, a better investment may be Search Engine Optimization. While SEO requires a heavy up front fee, the results can be long lasting. Further, people are more trusting of sites they find organically than sites they come to off of an advertisement. This trust results in higher spending. Your B2B internet marketing strategy must include a SEO component.
Another way people find your web page is to see it mentioned when they visit other sites. You can write articles for other businesses and magazines to place on their web pages or you can conduct a public relations campaign so that you are quoted as an expert. The traffic you get to your site from other sites is already pre-sold on your goods and services. Make sure you get a live link back to your site when pursuing this B2B internet marketing strategy.
Finally, do not discount the ability of getting traffic from offline promotions. Every piece of material you distribute to potential customers should have your web address on it. This includes letters, invoices, brochures, and even gifts.
Once you get someone to your site, you need to convert them into a customer. Part of this is having great content on your site. If you are selling products, you should invest in a good, online catalog with quality photographs and compelling product descriptions. If you are selling your services, having relevant articles demonstrating your expertise is important.
Just as important is making it easy for the customer to make a purchase. Remember that the internet is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and that people all over the world can access your site. It should be as easy to buy at 2:00 in the morning as it is at 2:00 in the afternoon. Have a means by which customers can contact you. If you want them to send you an email, make sure you respond within 24 hours.
Finally, not everyone who visits your web site will be in the market for your products or services right away. But that doesn’t mean they are not interested. Get them on an email list and contact them regularly with valuable information including sales, new products, upcoming speaking engagements, etc. Give them a good reason to opt in to your list. This is typically a free report, but you can also expand it to include software or a free sample product. Having a robust email list is a key ingredient in the overall B2B internet marketing picture.
B2B Internet Marketing is starting to come of age. Your customers will expect you to have a strong internet presence. It is no longer seen as “cutting edge” to have a web site. It is part of the standard practice of doing business.
www.ukba.co.uk
There are two factors to your B2B internet marketing practice. First, you get traffic to your site. Then, you convert them to customers. Let’s start by looking at how to get people to visit your web page.
The quickest way to get visitors is to use Pay Per Click marketing. You can set up a campaign with Google’s Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or a number of smaller ad networks within an hour and start getting visitors immediately.
In the long run, a better investment may be Search Engine Optimization. While SEO requires a heavy up front fee, the results can be long lasting. Further, people are more trusting of sites they find organically than sites they come to off of an advertisement. This trust results in higher spending. Your B2B internet marketing strategy must include a SEO component.
Another way people find your web page is to see it mentioned when they visit other sites. You can write articles for other businesses and magazines to place on their web pages or you can conduct a public relations campaign so that you are quoted as an expert. The traffic you get to your site from other sites is already pre-sold on your goods and services. Make sure you get a live link back to your site when pursuing this B2B internet marketing strategy.
Finally, do not discount the ability of getting traffic from offline promotions. Every piece of material you distribute to potential customers should have your web address on it. This includes letters, invoices, brochures, and even gifts.
Once you get someone to your site, you need to convert them into a customer. Part of this is having great content on your site. If you are selling products, you should invest in a good, online catalog with quality photographs and compelling product descriptions. If you are selling your services, having relevant articles demonstrating your expertise is important.
Just as important is making it easy for the customer to make a purchase. Remember that the internet is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and that people all over the world can access your site. It should be as easy to buy at 2:00 in the morning as it is at 2:00 in the afternoon. Have a means by which customers can contact you. If you want them to send you an email, make sure you respond within 24 hours.
Finally, not everyone who visits your web site will be in the market for your products or services right away. But that doesn’t mean they are not interested. Get them on an email list and contact them regularly with valuable information including sales, new products, upcoming speaking engagements, etc. Give them a good reason to opt in to your list. This is typically a free report, but you can also expand it to include software or a free sample product. Having a robust email list is a key ingredient in the overall B2B internet marketing picture.
B2B Internet Marketing is starting to come of age. Your customers will expect you to have a strong internet presence. It is no longer seen as “cutting edge” to have a web site. It is part of the standard practice of doing business.
www.ukba.co.uk
Tuesday 23 June 2009
Direct Marketing Tip
Make a "last chance" offer. Last chance at this price, inventory close-outs, and last chance before a model change can all be used to successfully win more orders.
www.ukba.co.uk
www.ukba.co.uk
Sunday 21 June 2009
Email Marketing Design Create The Best Campaign Possible
Creating a successful email marketing design depends upon a few key points. The first key is to keep it simple. If your email contains a flashy attention-grabbing window of opportunity, but no real content, you’re not going to get the results most businesses desire. People steer clear of the gimmicks, so if your current campaign is ‘gimmicky’ you may want to consider revamping. If you make the decision to revamp consider the following.
Try a simple email newsletter. The reason for this is a recent report by Nielson Norman Group, the average e-mail user only reviews and Internet newsletter for an average of 50 seconds. Whereas, marketing campaigns boarded by e-mail only hold the reader's attention for around four seconds. As you can see the newsletter format will hold your average readers attention 10 times more than the normal email. Which in turn brings us to the actual design of the newsletter or the e-mail.
It’s important to create a simple email marketing design that both captures the attention but also keeps the attention. The simple truth is that most consumers and e-mail users only read a fraction of the e-mails they receive. The rest of the e-mails that they actually open are merely scaned for content. Depending upon the individual, different advertising dynamics are found appealing. For this reason, you're e-mail newsletter or advertisement should appeal to each of these demographics.
Aside from simplicity, an effective email marketing campaign will utilize ASIC principles of design. By promoting contrasting colors to draw the eye and call readers to action over the amplification of certain statements. You may also want to consider the very e-mail inboxes from standard for e-mailing sources. For example Hotmail and AOL both offer varying standards when it comes to opening e-mail. It's a good idea to use colors and fonts that will be visually appealing in any e-mail genre.
Most e-mail forums have moved on to the concept that design segment should not contain more than 200 to 300 pixels. This means that your e-mail design should not be disproportionate. Try to ensure that you're marketing design has a smooth flow and is distributed evenly for the entirety of the content.
There have been countless studies on how most Internet users read e-mail and various documents throughout the web. Your desire should be to gain reader attention and you can be sure to do this by using an e-mail marketing design. The most effective design is constructed around a five second view of any page. That means any information put on your page should be readable/scannibal within a five second time constraint.
It's a good idea to use your knowledge. When it comes to marketing and media, to ensure that your message takes up less real estate than standard e-mail advertisements. If your e-mail add takes up too much space or comes across too spammy, most ISPs will automatically filter it out as junk. The imagery you placed inside your e-mail should convey a rapid message, don't make the mistake of using photos and logos for mere beautification. To make the most of your marketing campaign ensure that your pictures says something besides "I'm pretty".
E-mail marketing is a rapid response industry. This means you must be certain to give your potential clients every opportunity to make contact with you. You can be easily contacted via contact information placeed within your messages. Be sure to include links to your site, your address information, your phone numbers, your fax number and any other information that can be used to contact you on a daily basis, in every e-mail that you send to potential clients.
Let's face it! Without the proper email marketing design your email camapaign may well be predestined to fail. Knowledge is power! Use what you have learned here and from other resources well and your email campaign will stand a much better chance of adding profit to your bottom line.
www.ukba.co.uk
Try a simple email newsletter. The reason for this is a recent report by Nielson Norman Group, the average e-mail user only reviews and Internet newsletter for an average of 50 seconds. Whereas, marketing campaigns boarded by e-mail only hold the reader's attention for around four seconds. As you can see the newsletter format will hold your average readers attention 10 times more than the normal email. Which in turn brings us to the actual design of the newsletter or the e-mail.
It’s important to create a simple email marketing design that both captures the attention but also keeps the attention. The simple truth is that most consumers and e-mail users only read a fraction of the e-mails they receive. The rest of the e-mails that they actually open are merely scaned for content. Depending upon the individual, different advertising dynamics are found appealing. For this reason, you're e-mail newsletter or advertisement should appeal to each of these demographics.
Aside from simplicity, an effective email marketing campaign will utilize ASIC principles of design. By promoting contrasting colors to draw the eye and call readers to action over the amplification of certain statements. You may also want to consider the very e-mail inboxes from standard for e-mailing sources. For example Hotmail and AOL both offer varying standards when it comes to opening e-mail. It's a good idea to use colors and fonts that will be visually appealing in any e-mail genre.
Most e-mail forums have moved on to the concept that design segment should not contain more than 200 to 300 pixels. This means that your e-mail design should not be disproportionate. Try to ensure that you're marketing design has a smooth flow and is distributed evenly for the entirety of the content.
There have been countless studies on how most Internet users read e-mail and various documents throughout the web. Your desire should be to gain reader attention and you can be sure to do this by using an e-mail marketing design. The most effective design is constructed around a five second view of any page. That means any information put on your page should be readable/scannibal within a five second time constraint.
It's a good idea to use your knowledge. When it comes to marketing and media, to ensure that your message takes up less real estate than standard e-mail advertisements. If your e-mail add takes up too much space or comes across too spammy, most ISPs will automatically filter it out as junk. The imagery you placed inside your e-mail should convey a rapid message, don't make the mistake of using photos and logos for mere beautification. To make the most of your marketing campaign ensure that your pictures says something besides "I'm pretty".
E-mail marketing is a rapid response industry. This means you must be certain to give your potential clients every opportunity to make contact with you. You can be easily contacted via contact information placeed within your messages. Be sure to include links to your site, your address information, your phone numbers, your fax number and any other information that can be used to contact you on a daily basis, in every e-mail that you send to potential clients.
Let's face it! Without the proper email marketing design your email camapaign may well be predestined to fail. Knowledge is power! Use what you have learned here and from other resources well and your email campaign will stand a much better chance of adding profit to your bottom line.
www.ukba.co.uk
Friday 19 June 2009
Direct Marketing Tip
Make a charter offer. This approach is ideal for new products, subscriptions,and service agreements. If your product isn't new, consider starting a membership club and offering charter members special benefits.
www.ukba.co.uk
www.ukba.co.uk
Thursday 18 June 2009
Creating Your Own Internet Marketing Plan
If you have a small business that you are attempting to promote and are having trouble, it may be because you have not first created an internet marketing plan.
Internet marketing is extremely complicated and is much more difficult than simply putting some keywords in the text of your site. An internet marketing plan consists of 8 basic steps: strategic planning, situation analysis, customer analysis, market and product focus, product positioning, pricing strategy, product distribution, and internet promotion.
Step Number 1: Strategic Planning…
When promoting your business online, you need to keep some things in mind. Ask yourself the question, “what am I good at?” You need to discover how your business is different from the rest by discovering the advantages that you have over your competitors.
Step Number 2: Situation Analysis…
This is basically learning about the market that you are in. This can be achieved though various studies such as SWOT analysis, conducting an industry analysis, and analyzing your competition. The more you know about the industry you are in and how you can succeed in it, the better.
Step Number 3: Customer Analysis…
Simply put, this step involves learning about your customers. How you are going to effectively market to someone that you know nothing about? You need to know their likes, dislikes, hobbies, jobs, family life, etc if you are going to market to them effectively. In fact, some businesses do invent personalities that act as the target customer and develop a plan of marketing to them.
Step Number 4: Market and Product focus…
This step involves segmenting your market and making your company different from your competitors. This is often times referred to as the “Unique Selling Point” or “USP”.
Step Number 5: Product positioning…
Simply put, when a person hears a company name, certain thoughts come to mind. When somebody says your company name, what thoughts should come to mind? This is something you need to think about. You need to know how to position your business in your customer’s mind. If you haven’t learned about them yet, acquaint yourself with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, position, promotion, and price.
Step Number 6: Pricing Strategy…
This is also one of the 4 Ps of marketing. You need to know how to effectively price your goods or services. A good way is to take a look at what the competition is charging. If you are new to the business, you will need to undercut their prices.
Step number 7: Product Distribution…
This is the second P in the 4 P’s of marketing, also known as position. This is the physical location where your product or service is offered. And yes, if you have an internet business then you position is the internet.
Step Number 8: Internet Promotion
This is how you are going to advertise your business on the internet. There are plenty of different methods at your disposal including newsletters, search engines, article marketing and pay per click advertising. Experiment with each of them and try to find what best suits your business.
Hopefully, you can make use of this information to create your own internet marketing plan.
www.ukba.co.uk
Internet marketing is extremely complicated and is much more difficult than simply putting some keywords in the text of your site. An internet marketing plan consists of 8 basic steps: strategic planning, situation analysis, customer analysis, market and product focus, product positioning, pricing strategy, product distribution, and internet promotion.
Step Number 1: Strategic Planning…
When promoting your business online, you need to keep some things in mind. Ask yourself the question, “what am I good at?” You need to discover how your business is different from the rest by discovering the advantages that you have over your competitors.
Step Number 2: Situation Analysis…
This is basically learning about the market that you are in. This can be achieved though various studies such as SWOT analysis, conducting an industry analysis, and analyzing your competition. The more you know about the industry you are in and how you can succeed in it, the better.
Step Number 3: Customer Analysis…
Simply put, this step involves learning about your customers. How you are going to effectively market to someone that you know nothing about? You need to know their likes, dislikes, hobbies, jobs, family life, etc if you are going to market to them effectively. In fact, some businesses do invent personalities that act as the target customer and develop a plan of marketing to them.
Step Number 4: Market and Product focus…
This step involves segmenting your market and making your company different from your competitors. This is often times referred to as the “Unique Selling Point” or “USP”.
Step Number 5: Product positioning…
Simply put, when a person hears a company name, certain thoughts come to mind. When somebody says your company name, what thoughts should come to mind? This is something you need to think about. You need to know how to position your business in your customer’s mind. If you haven’t learned about them yet, acquaint yourself with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, position, promotion, and price.
Step Number 6: Pricing Strategy…
This is also one of the 4 Ps of marketing. You need to know how to effectively price your goods or services. A good way is to take a look at what the competition is charging. If you are new to the business, you will need to undercut their prices.
Step number 7: Product Distribution…
This is the second P in the 4 P’s of marketing, also known as position. This is the physical location where your product or service is offered. And yes, if you have an internet business then you position is the internet.
Step Number 8: Internet Promotion
This is how you are going to advertise your business on the internet. There are plenty of different methods at your disposal including newsletters, search engines, article marketing and pay per click advertising. Experiment with each of them and try to find what best suits your business.
Hopefully, you can make use of this information to create your own internet marketing plan.
www.ukba.co.uk
Monday 15 June 2009
Direct Marketing Tip
Offer a special deal to the first 100 people who order. Or the first 25, 50, 250 and so on. But remember, the key here is to keep it to a meaningful limit as an incentive for customers to act quickly.
www.ukba.co.uk
www.ukba.co.uk
Thursday 11 June 2009
Direct Marketing Tip
Base your offer on a limited supply. A close-out of your inventory can create strong demand. A limited supply offer can be used to designate exclusivity and prestige.
www.ukba.co.uk
www.ukba.co.uk
Sunday 7 June 2009
Direct Marketing Tip
Make a time-limited offer. Offer a special deal for a limited period of time. And do just that-legally you can't continue a time-limited offer indefinitely.
www.ukba.co.uk
www.ukba.co.uk
Friday 5 June 2009
The Ugly Truth About Free Marketing Leads
A marketing lead is the identity of a person or company who might be interested in purchasing goods or services. It’s the first stage of the selling process. The lead may have a business associated with them. Free marketing leads often come from trade shows, advertising, or even rude, aggressive techniques like cold-calling numbers from your local phone book. Cold calls, incidentally, aren’t very effective.
Think about it—you don’t know who these people are, what they need or want, and they aren’t at all aware of your product or service.
Contact information doesn’t become a marketing lead unless and until the person behind the contact information has some specific reason why they’d be more interested in your product or service than the man on the street. In other words, you have to know something about them. What they like, and more importantly what they need, especially if what they need has something to do with what you do or sell.
If you drop the words “free marketing leads” in your search engine, chances are it will generate page after page of hits. Chances, are almost all of these hits will be pretty dodgy, ranging from Multi-Level-Marketing schemes (that’s the polite name for pyramid scams) to ‘companies’ whose sole purpose is to rip you off by selling you lists of free leads. Wait a minute—if they’re selling you leads, then the leads aren’t free, right? You’d think. But apparently there truly is a sucker born every minute.
Another kind of “free marketing lead”—one of those kinds that at some point in the chain, you’ll probably be expected to cough up some cash for—is lists of emails. Often the seller of the list claims that these emails are pre-filtered to be relevant to exactly what you are selling. Often enough, this same seller sells the same list to every would-be marketer, regardless of what that would-be marketer is actually trying to market.
In other words, these leads have the proverbial snowball’s chance in a well-known, hot, unpleasant place of ever generating sales. They’re basically a way of cold calling. In other words, if you’ve always dreamed of becoming a spammer, this is the way to go.
Sales leads are, obviously, leads that can lead directly to sales. Marketing leads are slightly different. These are targeted leads that are brand-specific rather than product specific. What makes your brand special? Do people know what you do? How you do it? Who you are? Think about who needs what you do. This is the first step in generating genuine marketing leads.
Perhaps the best, most honest, most dignified source of free marketing leads is your own website. People who visit your website do so for a reason. If they visit more than once, they’re genuinely interested in what you do, who you are, and how you do what you do. These are genuine free marketing leads, and about as precisely targeted as you could hope for. Are you going to follow up, or are you going to let them slip away?
www.ukba.co.uk
Think about it—you don’t know who these people are, what they need or want, and they aren’t at all aware of your product or service.
Contact information doesn’t become a marketing lead unless and until the person behind the contact information has some specific reason why they’d be more interested in your product or service than the man on the street. In other words, you have to know something about them. What they like, and more importantly what they need, especially if what they need has something to do with what you do or sell.
If you drop the words “free marketing leads” in your search engine, chances are it will generate page after page of hits. Chances, are almost all of these hits will be pretty dodgy, ranging from Multi-Level-Marketing schemes (that’s the polite name for pyramid scams) to ‘companies’ whose sole purpose is to rip you off by selling you lists of free leads. Wait a minute—if they’re selling you leads, then the leads aren’t free, right? You’d think. But apparently there truly is a sucker born every minute.
Another kind of “free marketing lead”—one of those kinds that at some point in the chain, you’ll probably be expected to cough up some cash for—is lists of emails. Often the seller of the list claims that these emails are pre-filtered to be relevant to exactly what you are selling. Often enough, this same seller sells the same list to every would-be marketer, regardless of what that would-be marketer is actually trying to market.
In other words, these leads have the proverbial snowball’s chance in a well-known, hot, unpleasant place of ever generating sales. They’re basically a way of cold calling. In other words, if you’ve always dreamed of becoming a spammer, this is the way to go.
Sales leads are, obviously, leads that can lead directly to sales. Marketing leads are slightly different. These are targeted leads that are brand-specific rather than product specific. What makes your brand special? Do people know what you do? How you do it? Who you are? Think about who needs what you do. This is the first step in generating genuine marketing leads.
Perhaps the best, most honest, most dignified source of free marketing leads is your own website. People who visit your website do so for a reason. If they visit more than once, they’re genuinely interested in what you do, who you are, and how you do what you do. These are genuine free marketing leads, and about as precisely targeted as you could hope for. Are you going to follow up, or are you going to let them slip away?
www.ukba.co.uk
The Ugly Truth About Free Marketing Leads
A marketing lead is the identity of a person or company who might be interested in purchasing goods or services. It’s the first stage of the selling process. The lead may have a business associated with them. Free marketing leads often come from trade shows, advertising, or even rude, aggressive techniques like cold-calling numbers from your local phone book. Cold calls, incidentally, aren’t very effective.
Think about it—you don’t know who these people are, what they need or want, and they aren’t at all aware of your product or service.
Contact information doesn’t become a marketing lead unless and until the person behind the contact information has some specific reason why they’d be more interested in your product or service than the man on the street. In other words, you have to know something about them. What they like, and more importantly what they need, especially if what they need has something to do with what you do or sell.
If you drop the words “free marketing leads” in your search engine, chances are it will generate page after page of hits. Chances, are almost all of these hits will be pretty dodgy, ranging from Multi-Level-Marketing schemes (that’s the polite name for pyramid scams) to ‘companies’ whose sole purpose is to rip you off by selling you lists of free leads. Wait a minute—if they’re selling you leads, then the leads aren’t free, right? You’d think. But apparently there truly is a sucker born every minute.
Another kind of “free marketing lead”—one of those kinds that at some point in the chain, you’ll probably be expected to cough up some cash for—is lists of emails. Often the seller of the list claims that these emails are pre-filtered to be relevant to exactly what you are selling. Often enough, this same seller sells the same list to every would-be marketer, regardless of what that would-be marketer is actually trying to market.
In other words, these leads have the proverbial snowball’s chance in a well-known, hot, unpleasant place of ever generating sales. They’re basically a way of cold calling. In other words, if you’ve always dreamed of becoming a spammer, this is the way to go.
Sales leads are, obviously, leads that can lead directly to sales. Marketing leads are slightly different. These are targeted leads that are brand-specific rather than product specific. What makes your brand special? Do people know what you do? How you do it? Who you are? Think about who needs what you do. This is the first step in generating genuine marketing leads.
Perhaps the best, most honest, most dignified source of free marketing leads is your own website. People who visit your website do so for a reason. If they visit more than once, they’re genuinely interested in what you do, who you are, and how you do what you do. These are genuine free marketing leads, and about as precisely targeted as you could hope for. Are you going to follow up, or are you going to let them slip away?
www.ukba.co.uk
Think about it—you don’t know who these people are, what they need or want, and they aren’t at all aware of your product or service.
Contact information doesn’t become a marketing lead unless and until the person behind the contact information has some specific reason why they’d be more interested in your product or service than the man on the street. In other words, you have to know something about them. What they like, and more importantly what they need, especially if what they need has something to do with what you do or sell.
If you drop the words “free marketing leads” in your search engine, chances are it will generate page after page of hits. Chances, are almost all of these hits will be pretty dodgy, ranging from Multi-Level-Marketing schemes (that’s the polite name for pyramid scams) to ‘companies’ whose sole purpose is to rip you off by selling you lists of free leads. Wait a minute—if they’re selling you leads, then the leads aren’t free, right? You’d think. But apparently there truly is a sucker born every minute.
Another kind of “free marketing lead”—one of those kinds that at some point in the chain, you’ll probably be expected to cough up some cash for—is lists of emails. Often the seller of the list claims that these emails are pre-filtered to be relevant to exactly what you are selling. Often enough, this same seller sells the same list to every would-be marketer, regardless of what that would-be marketer is actually trying to market.
In other words, these leads have the proverbial snowball’s chance in a well-known, hot, unpleasant place of ever generating sales. They’re basically a way of cold calling. In other words, if you’ve always dreamed of becoming a spammer, this is the way to go.
Sales leads are, obviously, leads that can lead directly to sales. Marketing leads are slightly different. These are targeted leads that are brand-specific rather than product specific. What makes your brand special? Do people know what you do? How you do it? Who you are? Think about who needs what you do. This is the first step in generating genuine marketing leads.
Perhaps the best, most honest, most dignified source of free marketing leads is your own website. People who visit your website do so for a reason. If they visit more than once, they’re genuinely interested in what you do, who you are, and how you do what you do. These are genuine free marketing leads, and about as precisely targeted as you could hope for. Are you going to follow up, or are you going to let them slip away?
www.ukba.co.uk
The Ugly Truth About Free Marketing Leads
A marketing lead is the identity of a person or company who might be interested in purchasing goods or services. It’s the first stage of the selling process. The lead may have a business associated with them. Free marketing leads often come from trade shows, advertising, or even rude, aggressive techniques like cold-calling numbers from your local phone book. Cold calls, incidentally, aren’t very effective.
Think about it—you don’t know who these people are, what they need or want, and they aren’t at all aware of your product or service.
Contact information doesn’t become a marketing lead unless and until the person behind the contact information has some specific reason why they’d be more interested in your product or service than the man on the street. In other words, you have to know something about them. What they like, and more importantly what they need, especially if what they need has something to do with what you do or sell.
If you drop the words “free marketing leads” in your search engine, chances are it will generate page after page of hits. Chances, are almost all of these hits will be pretty dodgy, ranging from Multi-Level-Marketing schemes (that’s the polite name for pyramid scams) to ‘companies’ whose sole purpose is to rip you off by selling you lists of free leads. Wait a minute—if they’re selling you leads, then the leads aren’t free, right? You’d think. But apparently there truly is a sucker born every minute.
Another kind of “free marketing lead”—one of those kinds that at some point in the chain, you’ll probably be expected to cough up some cash for—is lists of emails. Often the seller of the list claims that these emails are pre-filtered to be relevant to exactly what you are selling. Often enough, this same seller sells the same list to every would-be marketer, regardless of what that would-be marketer is actually trying to market.
In other words, these leads have the proverbial snowball’s chance in a well-known, hot, unpleasant place of ever generating sales. They’re basically a way of cold calling. In other words, if you’ve always dreamed of becoming a spammer, this is the way to go.
Sales leads are, obviously, leads that can lead directly to sales. Marketing leads are slightly different. These are targeted leads that are brand-specific rather than product specific. What makes your brand special? Do people know what you do? How you do it? Who you are? Think about who needs what you do. This is the first step in generating genuine marketing leads.
Perhaps the best, most honest, most dignified source of free marketing leads is your own website. People who visit your website do so for a reason. If they visit more than once, they’re genuinely interested in what you do, who you are, and how you do what you do. These are genuine free marketing leads, and about as precisely targeted as you could hope for. Are you going to follow up, or are you going to let them slip away?
www.ukba.co.uk
Think about it—you don’t know who these people are, what they need or want, and they aren’t at all aware of your product or service.
Contact information doesn’t become a marketing lead unless and until the person behind the contact information has some specific reason why they’d be more interested in your product or service than the man on the street. In other words, you have to know something about them. What they like, and more importantly what they need, especially if what they need has something to do with what you do or sell.
If you drop the words “free marketing leads” in your search engine, chances are it will generate page after page of hits. Chances, are almost all of these hits will be pretty dodgy, ranging from Multi-Level-Marketing schemes (that’s the polite name for pyramid scams) to ‘companies’ whose sole purpose is to rip you off by selling you lists of free leads. Wait a minute—if they’re selling you leads, then the leads aren’t free, right? You’d think. But apparently there truly is a sucker born every minute.
Another kind of “free marketing lead”—one of those kinds that at some point in the chain, you’ll probably be expected to cough up some cash for—is lists of emails. Often the seller of the list claims that these emails are pre-filtered to be relevant to exactly what you are selling. Often enough, this same seller sells the same list to every would-be marketer, regardless of what that would-be marketer is actually trying to market.
In other words, these leads have the proverbial snowball’s chance in a well-known, hot, unpleasant place of ever generating sales. They’re basically a way of cold calling. In other words, if you’ve always dreamed of becoming a spammer, this is the way to go.
Sales leads are, obviously, leads that can lead directly to sales. Marketing leads are slightly different. These are targeted leads that are brand-specific rather than product specific. What makes your brand special? Do people know what you do? How you do it? Who you are? Think about who needs what you do. This is the first step in generating genuine marketing leads.
Perhaps the best, most honest, most dignified source of free marketing leads is your own website. People who visit your website do so for a reason. If they visit more than once, they’re genuinely interested in what you do, who you are, and how you do what you do. These are genuine free marketing leads, and about as precisely targeted as you could hope for. Are you going to follow up, or are you going to let them slip away?
www.ukba.co.uk
Wednesday 3 June 2009
Direct Marketing Tip
Repeat your offer: An irresistible offer can overcome customers reluctance. State it at least twice in your email or letter, and again on your order form.
www.ukba.co.uk
www.ukba.co.uk
Tuesday 2 June 2009
Internet Marketing Principals Put Into Action
Many companies spam their clients and people, but companies that advertise through spamming methods are not following the internet marketing principals that would best market their products. One of the largest complaints that people have about the Internet is spam, and they ignore anything that looks even remotely spammy.
An important means of reaching people through the internet is often done through target marketing. This is the idea that instead of spamming one hundred people and hoping that two like your product, you focus on people and online groups who are already interested in similar goods or services.
It’s true that by doing this you will significantly decrease the amount of exposure you get, but this also means that you will reduce the amount of bad publicity you get as well. All of the people that you sent email advertisements to that weren’t interested in your merchandise are going to think that your company is merely one of those fly by night spamming operations.
Even if you’re not, it won’t change the way they think of your product and their perception of your business practices. However, if you can focus your marketing ideas on groups of people, who you know are interested in similar things, then you increase your likelihood of having good corresponding sales figures. Internet marketing principals are not that different from other means of promoting something.
One of the more important rules is to know what people will pay for your product. Too many times people don’t properly estimate the value of their product or service.
The first time many people see an advertisement or commercial, they form an opinion of what is being marketed. If they see something they think is priced too low, they might decide that it’s made with lower quality parts and decide they don’t want to buy it. If they think it’s priced too highly then they may think it out of their price range and discount it immediately.
This is why it’s never a bad idea to look around online at what your competitors may be charging for similar products. The idea behind this is to get your price slightly lower than what they are charging; so that people think they’re getting a good deal on something. Of course, make sure that it’s not so good of a deal that they start wondering about quality.
If you are still having problems pricing your items, then you could go to a message board and see if there are any discussions that might give you an idea of what people are willing to pay. Many times this is the kind of research that large public relations firms do for their clients.
Remember to keep everything you do as professional as possible and don’t be too pushy. You shouldn’t have a problem learning how to safely and easily promote your company, especially if you put these internet marketing principals into action.
www.ukba.co.uk
An important means of reaching people through the internet is often done through target marketing. This is the idea that instead of spamming one hundred people and hoping that two like your product, you focus on people and online groups who are already interested in similar goods or services.
It’s true that by doing this you will significantly decrease the amount of exposure you get, but this also means that you will reduce the amount of bad publicity you get as well. All of the people that you sent email advertisements to that weren’t interested in your merchandise are going to think that your company is merely one of those fly by night spamming operations.
Even if you’re not, it won’t change the way they think of your product and their perception of your business practices. However, if you can focus your marketing ideas on groups of people, who you know are interested in similar things, then you increase your likelihood of having good corresponding sales figures. Internet marketing principals are not that different from other means of promoting something.
One of the more important rules is to know what people will pay for your product. Too many times people don’t properly estimate the value of their product or service.
The first time many people see an advertisement or commercial, they form an opinion of what is being marketed. If they see something they think is priced too low, they might decide that it’s made with lower quality parts and decide they don’t want to buy it. If they think it’s priced too highly then they may think it out of their price range and discount it immediately.
This is why it’s never a bad idea to look around online at what your competitors may be charging for similar products. The idea behind this is to get your price slightly lower than what they are charging; so that people think they’re getting a good deal on something. Of course, make sure that it’s not so good of a deal that they start wondering about quality.
If you are still having problems pricing your items, then you could go to a message board and see if there are any discussions that might give you an idea of what people are willing to pay. Many times this is the kind of research that large public relations firms do for their clients.
Remember to keep everything you do as professional as possible and don’t be too pushy. You shouldn’t have a problem learning how to safely and easily promote your company, especially if you put these internet marketing principals into action.
www.ukba.co.uk
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