Category: Online Marketing

Guest Post by: Bryan Conte

Local Business Owners

If you are a business owner, you are likely aware of the tremendous power of the internet. Today, a new power makes the internet even more instant – mobile internet. Now people can be a block from your shop, traveling, and searching the internet for places to eat, shop and other ways to spend money. The way to harness this power and connect with them is through local SEO. Local SEO is very similar to regular search engine optimization, in that you optimize your website for certain keywords. With local SEO, the keywords and results are location-specific and accomplished through a few other methods as well.

Let’s say a couple is traveling though Atlanta and needs to find a shop to fix a flat tire. They will probably get on their smartphones and search the internet. They will most likely type in something like “tire shops in Atlanta,” but even if they don’t use the word Atlanta, the search engine knows their location and gives them results for the area they are in. This is the result of search engine evolution. The search engines are so smart that they know no one wants to know about tire shops in New York if they are in Atlanta.

The Local SEO Algorithm

So there is a new game you need to play to get an edge on your competition. You can either hire an SEO company, or you can learn SEO on your own, but beware there is a steep learning curve and it is constantly evolving. Optimizing your website for local search requires a new set of rules and has a different algorithm to find its results. So what types of things will help your local search results?

There are several things you should be paying attention to in order to increase your ranking in local searches. First of all, your physical address should be visible on every page of your website. The best way to do this is to have it in your footer because the footer loads no matter which page of your site someone is visiting. Next you should list a local phone number, because it is positive proof that you are located where you say you are. Blog with location-specific keywords. Hopefully you know the power of blogging – now take it to another level by blogging about your community and places in it.

Another important part of local search is to make sure that all of your online directories have you located at the correct address. If you have ever moved or changed your telephone number, it is your responsibility as a business owner to make sure the information gets updated across the various online directories and platforms. Local search takes these “citations”, as they call them, into account on Google.

Managing Your Online Reputation with Reviews

Along with on page factors and citations, you should also be managing your online reputation. Getting feedback from locals is a sure fire way to prove to search engines that you are located where you say you are, but like so many other search engine factors, it must look natural. Allow the public to honestly assess your business because a little criticism is alright. A perfect list of reviews looks a little suspicious. On the contrary a full list of negative reviews is also likely to hurt your rankings so be sure to manage your online reputation.

If you make the most of the on-page factors and successfully manage your online reputation and listings, you should have no problem ranking well in local search listings. Search engines want to provide a list of businesses that are most relevant and trustworthy for the keywords entered. It is just your job to convince or tell them that you deserve to be there. With it, you can significantly benefit from a stream of searchers who will gain awareness that your brand exists and it will also bring in much more revenue.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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Author: Bryan Conte is a professional copywriter and the Co-Founder of Webdigia, an SEO company that works with both local and national businesses to provide internet marketing solutions for increased exposure and leads.

Guest post by Joe Cecere
Fifty years ago, the concept of design was a fleeting thought

Often reserved for elite academic and social circles, design didn’t offer a real value in common, everyday lives. But over the last two decades, we’ve seen design evolve to nothing short of a populist movement—one that’s infiltrated the hearts and minds of all consumers without distinction. Whether it’s a teapot, an e-tablet, a logo, a mantra or a train station, design has become part of our culture. It’s how we live.

Today, successful brands can’t be satisfied with design’s status quo. In boardrooms and labs, they’re reaching for that heroic “next.”

In the post-Steve Jobs era, it’s appropriate to ask: What’s brewing for the next, new design revolution? And even more importantly, what needs to happen to make a revolution even possible? While design at its fundamental core needs to stay true to its principles, the big ‘next’ will be in how brands are willing to turn design on its head, reinventing the power it has and taking more chances. People are ready, the economy is improving, and companies are starting to get their confidence back.

Here are some key ideas that will shape whatever transpires in the world of commerce, brands and in public life:

Risk is the new safe

While all companies desire breakthrough inventions and healthy bottom lines, the truly progressive ones will accommodate epic failures—to learn from and push innovation. The brands that allow riskier, bolder, more unconventional ways of thinking have the capacity to start a revolution.

Consumers are hungrier than ever

The bar continues to be raised on design. People have an unquenchable curiosity for the next hottest, smartest, kindest, softest, brightest. In other words, they won’t be satisfied with more of the same. Brands will need to activate design in such a way that it changes the paradigm of how we experience people, places, ideas and objects. A tough order, but well worth the investment.

Elections are more than political

In 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama used design like no other in political history—engaging Americans in a powerful, personal message and a modern mix of media. Now, four years later, candidates need to trump that design experience (President Obama included!). If design has the power to enlighten voters, it can transcend the divisive issues of our time and bring forth a winner.

Design from the inside out

Authentic brands must build an internal design culture to be relevant. But it needs to be a philosophy, not a department. That means a willingness for companies to eliminate ego and be open to the unexpected. A culture of strategic design explores, listens, learns and creates. Intuitive and collaborative in nature, it considers the long-term success for a brand as opposed to short-term fixes. With an empowering model like that, employees will offer their best. With design on your side, success is virtually guaranteed.

Ideas need strong roots

The biggest, best ideas are well thought out and run deep, with a capacity to branch out into many opportunities, including products, services and information platforms. Once you have an idea, build on it. Nurture it. See where it takes you. Who knows? It could be the next iPhone.

Discern appropriately

If Henry Ford had listened to his contemporaries, he would have probably bred a faster horse. But digging deeper and acknowledging other innovations before his time (think: wheel), he was able to transform an entire mode of transportation.

Life in 2013 will, in some respects, pose more questions than answers. Who will be the next Steve Jobs? What other avenues will be explored in the sustainability movement? How can we live more responsibly? And, yes, who will be the next President of the United States?

Whatever happens next, we know from experience that when design leads, greatness follows.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About Little & Company

Joe Cecere is President and Chief Creative Officer of Little & Company (www.littleco.com), which has been showing companies of all sizes how design-driven businesses can exceed customer expectations and deliver significant results. Utilizing a unique combination of strategic resources, designers and writing talent, the firm creatively solves business problems to help clients across industries — including Target, Medtronic, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, American Craft Council and many others — to launch, grow and strengthen their brands.

The result is a flourishing collaborative environment that readily benefits clients ranging from retail and healthcare to financial services, education and a handful of high-profile non-profit organizations. Little & Company is a Nationally Certified Women’s Business Enterprise.

Guest Post by Carl Glasmyre

Streamline your Social Media Schedule

The big social media sites are great for both socializing and marketing. Marketers are often driven by instinct, with the urge to reach as many people as possible. Thus, setting up as many profiles as possible is tempting. You can spend all day creating profiles for your business, but this takes up time unless you plan and streamline your marketing schedule. Choosing from some social sites over others may be necessary.

The more profiles you set up, the more time it takes to manage them. Sooner or later you’ll find that an enormous amount of time is taken up just by social media. Study the top sites to see which ones are most appropriate for your business. By scanning user profiles, you can see if similar companies are marketing similar products and services. You can also look for an SEO company that offers social marketing services.

Top Social Sites

The big players are ones you’ve most likely heard of. Facebook and Twitter have the most diversity when it comes to users and a potential audience. Marketing on all social sites may not be necessary, but these two are a good start — both are the most popular in the United States.

A professional profile on LinkedIn is becoming an increasingly useful tool. Business owners and employees can benefit by including their resume and other professional qualifications. In addition, the site is a base for networking and sharing content, some of the most powerful tools in the online marketing world.

With content being so pivotal, Pinterest is a place to post business information. Blog posts, images, and information on products and services, in addition to news and trends, can be added to show authority in your field. Google+ is another social option that supports business pages like Facebook — don’t forget SEO best practices, especially since the search engine is most influential in terms of page rankings.

The Common Thread

If you are going to get set up on multiple social websites, there are several tips that can make your networking more effective. First, the name of your business and brand should be the same on all your accounts. Many people read and post on more than one site, so being consistent aids business growth, reputation, and loyalty. Your user name and URL should be consistent as well.

Beyond consistency, the length of your handle should be considered, which is usually better when kept short. Keep it simple by leaving out numbers and additional letters; abbreviations can make things confusing too. In planning your social media marketing strategy, determining if a chosen name is available on multiple social sites can help. The website namechk.com offers a tool for checking the major sites.

Establishing your identity means being consistent, even with images and logos. A professional image is best, but you also have to consider each network’s guidelines for size and shape. Your social profiles are all part of the bigger picture; you can link to them on your homepage, share links to each one, promote them on print advertising, and reach out by offering benefits, like discounts, to customers who join or link to your page.

Let ‘Em Know Where Your Are

Social media allows you to reveal everything about your business, including its location. Reveal the home city or state in your profile name, keywords, and possibly the URL on each site. A helpful tip is to also include full address details and abbreviations on all profiles, matching the information on your company website.

You can also emphasizing your location by using Facebook’s check-in feature. Customers and patrons can easily click on the button, and each time they do so serves as an advertisement for your business. Other social media sites like Foursquare and Scvngr also allow location check-ins, so you can consider these if the function is appealing. On Google+ and Yelp, people can also leave reviews, which are powerful forces in the marketing world as they often make or break consumer decisions.

Yelp!

Yelp has long been known for being a business-specific review site. Like many others in the genre, it is subject to changes which promise to enhance marketing. In late 2012, plans to integrate iOS 6 and Apple Maps into the site will go into effect, while Google, Bing, and Yahoo plan to add Yelp listings at the top of business name searches. Yelp is also being modified for the mobile market, so encouraging customers to submit reviews can be a good marketing strategy.

Think Big and Small

An effective social media strategy is marketing on the big sites, while thinking local. Be specific about where you are, no matter which social sites you select in the end. Integral marketing tools (location-based ones in particular) should also be factored into your decision. Most of all, plan ahead so you can reach the biggest audience and choose the best social websites for your business.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About the Author: Carl Glasmyre is an aspiring writer who currently works for an SEO company. He loves everything about the Internet, and enjoys blogging about anything and everything related to marketing, social media, and technology. He’s constantly striving to strengthen his writing skills and is continuously grateful that the Internet allows him to share his thoughts with the world. His email address is carlglasmyre@gmail.com.

Guest Post by Jessica Sanders

Added Value

Infographics have very quickly proved to be a valuable aspect of any online marketing campaign. Regardless of your industry or target audience, they seem to bode well across the board, which is great for your small business.

While experts have nothing but good things to say about infographics, its success has been studied and proven. Hubspot.com found that blog posts with infographics got 72% more views and created 178% more inbound links. So, as a successful addition to your marketing efforts you want to get as much from this new fad as possible. From tracking to targeting, there are a few important things to keep in mind.

Pair With a Research Company

You work with a very competent, highly skilled marketing team – there’s no doubt about that. However, there are some resources they just may not have access to. When this is the case, it makes sense to pair with a company that specializes in tricky and interesting statistics. But, don’t worry; you’ll get more out of the deal than just a few mind-blowing facts.

• Authority by association: Marketing is all about building your brand, so why not associate it with a top-notch research company. Not only will you get the most accurate information, but you’ll look good presenting it, too.

Target Correctly

While infographics have infiltrated almost every industry, that doesn’t mean you can put them anywhere and reap the benefits. To see a positive effect you have to treat it like any other piece of marketing material by putting it in front of the right people. Whether that is on a photo sharing site or your email campaign, be sure to gear it to the right customers.

• Choose the right sharing networks: While Pinterest is all the rage, so are other platforms like Instagram and Flickr. Be sure that you are sharing your photo on the sites where you’ll get the most traction.
• Choose the right information: While most infographics are used to inform customers and the general public about a difficult subject, some companies can use them to boast quarterly or annual numbers, or to explain processes for purchasing on their website. Know who would want to know what before sharing.

Make it Easy to Track

Finally, as with anything in your marketing portfolio, you want to be sure to track your infographic. As a highly shared branding token, you want to ensure the right tracking methods are used in order to re-target the photo or place it elsewhere. There are two main aspects to your infographic tracking.

• Embedded code: Before sending it out for the masses, be sure to embed a tracking code. Place this in your standard tracking software to monitor its progress.
• Use your online tools: While your analytics tool may provide you with a load of valuable information, use websites such as RankChecker to follow its progress on all the major search engines.

Infographics are a marketing gold mine. Easy to share and understand, it’s a simple method for increasing brand impressions while impressing your customers and other industry experts.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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Guest Author Bio: Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer touching on topics that range from social media to telemarketing and web design. She is a professional blogger and web content writer for ResourceNation.com.

How He Creates His Following

If you’ve never heard of him, it’s my distinct pleasure to make the introduction.

According to Wikipedia, “Chris Brogan is an American author, journalist, marketing consultant, and frequent speaker about social media marketing.” On Google Plus, Chris himself describes his work as, “Working with professionals to do the work they want, craft a clear vision, a plan of action, and build a network of support.”

His peers proclaim that “If Chris Brogan does it, you should do it, too.” So I want to share some very interesting insights from and about Chris.

Chris’ Email Newsletter

Some say that email newsletters are outdated, overlooked in crammed inboxes, and stale. Not Chris. But then again, he doesn’t do it the outdated and stale way. His newsletter comes every Sunday morning. That’s right. While the ‘experts’ advise that you send emails on Tuesday morning, Chris flies in their face, with his going out on SUNDAY. Why? I think it’s because no one else is doing it. They’re not. His is the only one I get on Sunday. Guess what? I read it.

Here is the intro from a recent post:

Hi Lisa!

“We all admit to having trouble with aika, Lisa. Only, you’d call it “time.” Pull up your coffee or your tea, and let’s chat this up. By the way, my tea today is an organic blood orange pu’ehr from David’s Tea. (not a sponsor or an affiliate link – I just like them)

“Our ally, Pasi, in Finland, translates these newsletters and some of my blog posts to Finnish for his audience. Today, I saved him one word. : )

“I want to start with a little story. My son, age 6, is going through something that’s causing him physical pain. I tried to explain that the pain he was feeling was only going to last a very brief amount of time, and that’s when I realized that he doesn’t really have an intellectual sense of time, only a primal understanding of it. More so, learning how to explain this to him gave me understanding about you, and about me.”

Making it Personal

You may have noticed that Chris used my first name. Twice. He also made it feel like a cozy chat, with soothing tea. He told me something interesting, and something personal about himself. Chris’ strategy is to make his weekly newsletter into a personal friendship that helps me feel more (appropriately) intimate with him, so that I’ll want to read the next one. Brilliant. It works.

Chris also ends with items like this:

AND FINALLY

“I’m grateful for everyone I know. I’m glad that I’ve had the pleasure to meet and spend time with tends of thousands of great people over the years. I intend to do this for the rest of my life. I look forward to getting to know more about you, to hear more about your challenges, to help in whatever ways I can. I will create as much useful information and give you as much support and caring and help as I can conceive.

“But I might not follow you back on Instagram, and I might not see every life event as it goes by. You’re still wonderful. You’re still valuable. And I count you as an ally.

With respect,

–Chris…

“No, there are no social sharing buttons. If you like this newsletter, please press forward and share it thoughtfully with a few friends (allies!). I value the personal connection we have here. Hit reply any time you’d like.”

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When was the last time you felt special by reading a newsletter?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is now available at:

• Amazon.com: http://bit.ly/AmazonTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur
• Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/BNTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur

Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. She helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Guest Post by Daniel Offer

Getting Back Links, Checking Back Links and Keeping Back Links

Whether you manage an established website in a particular niche or are in the progress of creating one, one thing is for sure – you can spend quite a long time building good quality back links.

Getting Back Links

To help ensure that I rank highly for my keywords and phrases, I’ve engaged in link exchanges, article placements, guest writing, link directories, forum participation and a whole variety of other methods in order to encourage a wide distribution of my URL. That’s in addition to the great free content, tutorials and information that I offer. Unfortunately, in order to rank well in Google, they make us go that extra mile in a bid to outdo our competition.

Check Your Back Links

Upon receipt of a promotional email, I recently became aware of a great new tool that makes it possible to check your back links – in order to ensure that you keep them over the long term. In truth, this isn’t something that I’d been previously doing. However, over a period of time, some of my most valuable links were turned into “nofollow” links, and had their linking text changed or the pages were taken offline. I’ve stumbled upon these facts, often by chance many months or years down the line. If I’d known sooner, I could have taken action to try and retain that valuable back link.

Automate the Process

Thanks to GoMarket’s Back Link Checker it’s now possible to automatically keep an eye on my back links. It’s priced at $24.97 per month, and I feel that the value out-weighs its cost. A decline in my keywords and phrases would cost me more than fifty cents a day. Moreover, it would cost me much, much more in the value of my own time to manually check my back links every month. Knowing that a movement in my search engine ranking isn’t due to a Google algorithm change – or conversely knowing that it is, down to an algorithm change – and not (or due to) back link changes has removed a layer of mystery to my search engine ranking. As such, I can recommend this Back Link Checker.

Five Reasons to Use Back Link Checker:

• Competitive Advantage – It’s becoming increasingly hard to rank for some keywords and phrases. Sites have become entrenched in position, as such knowing where you’re gaining or losing ground immediately. This is important.
• Remove the Mystery – Remove a layer of mystery to search engine rankings. You’ll be provided with reports when your back links are changed by sites.
• Affordable – It’s much cheaper than outsourcing the process of checking your hyperlinks or doing it manually. Moreover, it’s more reliable.
• Best In Market – No other back link tool makes it so easy to understand how your links have changed over time.
• Reports – Reports are easy to read and exportable into Excel for analysis.

Four Issues with Back Link Checker:

• Subscription – Access to GoMarket’s back link tool is based on a subscription model, as such, you’ll need to pay monthly. It would have perhaps been nicer with a one-off payment.
• No API – There isn’t any connective API so you can’t connect your own apps and processes. There is however, the ability to export reports.
• Still Requires Effort – Even if you know when one of your back links have been changed, you’ll still need to look up a webmaster’s contact details and negotiate getting the link replaced.
• Setup – You’ll need to use other tools to identify where your back links are, in order to make effective use of GoMarket’s back link tool.

Do you have experience with BackLink Checker? If so, please share!

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About Guest Author Daniel Offer:

Athena IT Limited is a UK based firm run by Daniel Offer. Athena IT Limited provides the popular unofficial Facebook Messenger for Windows “Chit Chat” and has recently begun to offer SEO tools such as the Back Link Checker utility.

Market your business online – and get RESULTS

I’m proud to announce the launch of my long-awaited new book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur.

Many very good books on the market today tell you how Internet marketing works. They focus on concepts. The WebPowered Entrepreneur is different. It demystifies online marketing by telling you exactly what to do – and giving you the actual links; “Go here, do this.”

Now you have a real, practical guide and no mysteries. It’s the perfect resource for a person with an established business, or someone who wants to start a business online. You can be an Internet “newbie” or an experienced Internet user. Anyone who wants to connect with their ideal customer online will pick up amazing insider tips and be able to use them immediately.

Leverage Social Media

In The WebPowered Entrepreneur, you get clear instruction on how to leverage the explosive power of social media. Follow them, and then monitor the growth of your business. These pages pull together all the information you need.

Find out how to:

• Develop your customized online marketing and social media strategy
• Establish your brand and promote your business where it counts
• Attract your ideal target customers, both online and offline
• Convert your online traffic into revenues
• Measure, monitor, tweak, repeat

The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is now available at:

Amazon.com: http://bit.ly/AmazonTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur and

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/BNTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur

Have you read it yet? When you do, please leave a review!

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: .

Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. She helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

The Top 5 for Variety and Depth

Need to add punch to your website? Need a video clip for an email campaign? Need it free? We’ve got the answer. Just do a little searching on these free stock video sites and you’re bound to find what you’re looking for. But be sure to check their Terms and Licensing – small print is still legally binding! Have fun surfing these:

WorldClips.TV

Claiming to be “The largest online video library on earth”, WorldClips.TV free video footage can be used in all types of productions including broadcast. The company was founded 11 years ago and continues to grow. Choose from 5000 broadcast quality QuickTime clips from 50 world locations. Use as much free stock video as you like, all the time. No subscriptions or fees ever.

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in their collections, and provides specialized services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities.

Free Stock Footage

With Free Stock Footage, you can add stock footage to your video, website or your Powerpoint presentations. Low resolution versions of video on the site are free to use…however medium and hi-res footage requires payment. This stock footage is great for using in either Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Premier, Media 100, Avid or any non-linear editing system. The preview is a free, non-watermarked download (see terms). The video clips are available for immediate download in multiple resolutions: Streaming Quicktime, MPEG1, Sorenson Quicktime, or (selected) PAL Quicktime.

Movie Tools

Movie Tools number-one source for completely free animated 2D and 3D background animations, lower thirds and more: it’s a great resource for background and graphic video elements. From technical to fantasy, these backgrounds would be great for use under titles, to use in a VJ set or in video reports. Here you can find all the tools for making better online-videos. Just create a user account to download all their free video content – over 50,000 clips.

Wikimedia Videos
Similar to Archive.org, Wikimedia Commons is an online library of open source sounds, videos, photos and other media. Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. Wikimedia Videos has a large selection of video clips covering a wide range of subject matter.

(Thanks to PremiumBeat.com for the source and inspiration. And to MyFreeDigitalPhotos.com for the photo.)

Do you have experience with free stock video sites to share?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is now available at Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/MyaQmp and at Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/M5T0KO . Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. She helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Direct Marketing Association

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) released their 2012 Response Rate Report on June 14. Bottom line: the report concludes that direct mail response rates are slipping, but they’re still higher than most other media.

Also included are marketing benchmarks that all marketers will find meaningful – cost and performance benchmarks – and help them assess the efficiency of their own direct marketing campaigns.

Transactional Data Aggregated – 29 Billion emails

For the first time in its eight consecutive annual publications, it includes Transactional Data from Epsilon and Bizo. Quite significantly, the data aggregates more than 29 billion emails and more than two billion online display ads.

“With transactional data, we have sample sizes in the millions, even billions of impressions and emails,” said Yory Wurmser, DMA’s director of marketing and media insights. “Transactional data has an edge on survey data for two reasons: First, sample sizes are big enough that it’s possible to break the data down into more industries, with more significant findings. Second, transactional data tends to be more accurate, since it takes the human element out of the assessment and shows exactly what happened.”

Direct Mail Response Rates Over Time

The 2012 report compares direct mail response rates over time, another new addition. This revealed that over the past nine years, response rates have declined almost 25%.

Even with this drop, the DMA clarifies that mail campaigns produce a better overall response than digital channels. While direct mail to an existing customer results in a 3.4% response rate, the same size email campaign to existing customers results in a 0.12% response rate – close to a 30-fold increase!

Cost-Per-Lead And Cost-Per-Sale

Interestingly, the DMA report claims that because direct mail costs are higher than email costs, a campaign nets roughly the same financial cost-per-lead and cost-per-sale for direct mail, email and paid search.

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According to the report – other important findings include:

• Transactional data show that only six percent of the actions following an online display advertisement occur immediately following a click, which indicates that click-through rate greatly underestimates the impact of online display.
• Transactional data show that financial services emails had open rates above 30 percent, which ranked the highest among industries. Retail (Apparel) had open rates averaging 14.7 percent, which narrowly was lower than Publishing & Media (14.9 percent). In contrast, data showed Publishing & Media as having the highest action rates per impression (0.013 percent).
• For emails, the highest click rate to open rate is for CPG (46.5 percent).
• Cost per order or lead for acquisition campaigns were roughly equivalent for direct mail ($51.40), post card ($54.10), email ($55.24), and paid search ($52.58).
• Email had the highest ROI (28.5), compared with 7.00 for direct mail.
• Email performance went up slightly from the 2010 Edition of the Report.
• The highest response rates—nearly 13 percent to a house list—was produced by telephone marketing. Telephone marketing also had the highest costs: nearly $78 per order or lead for a house list, and $190 for a prospect list.
• Costs were generally higher for B-to-B campaigns than for B-to-C campaigns.

DMA’s 2012 Response Rate Trends Report is available for purchase through DMA’s online bookstore. The cost is $249 for DMA members and $499 for non-members. To purchase, click here.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide will be available on July 10, 2012 at Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/MyaQmp and on July 12, 2012 at Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/M5T0KO . Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. She helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Lay the Groundwork

In the last post, we discussed the importance of updating your marketing strategy and marketing plan. Today, we’ll walk through an excellent example of a typical plan.

Each and every business is unique, so this is not a one-size-fits-all. But is a terrific place to start if you’re on a shoestring and you want to do as much of the groundwork as possible before taking it to an agency for refinement.

Outline As Much As Possible

I. Executive Summary:

Write this last. Briefly include the most salient points from each section.

II. Intro:

Clarify your vision and mission statement. Condense your company history.

III. Product/Service Description:

Summarize your company’s offerings, both current and future.

IV. Problem/Solution:

Describe the Opportunity. How does what you offer solve a problem or fill a need? How do you know? Include:

• market and customer demographics
• market size/share
• growth rates
• market projections – growth and share

V. Competitive Summary:

‘Inventory’ your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses as well as their target audience(s). A visual mapping is often helpful.

VI. Competitive Advantage:

What is your company’s unique value proposition? That is, what sets you apart from your competitors, considering their target customers and their strengths and weaknesses? What makes you unique? Why is this valuable? Are you sure?

VII. The Challenge

Write a brief description of product to be marketed and associated goals, such as sales figures and strategic goals.

VIII. Situation Analysis

Briefly, cover these points, concentrating on your ideal customers’ viewpoint:

• Customer Analysis – Number, Type, Profile
• Value drivers
• Decision process
• Concentration of customer base for particular products

IX. Selected Marketing Strategy

Discuss why the strategy was selected, then the marketing mix decisions (4 P’s) of product, price, place (distribution), and promotion.

Product

The product decisions should consider the product’s advantages and how they will be leveraged. Product decisions should include:

· Brand name

· Quality

· Scope of product line

· Warranty

· Packaging

Price

Discuss pricing strategy, expected volume, and decisions for the following pricing variables:

· List price

· Discounts

· Bundling

· Payment terms and financing options

· Leasing options

Distribution (Place)

Decision variables include:

· Distribution channels, such as direct, retail, distributors & intermediates

· Motivating the channel – for example, distributor margins

· Criteria for evaluating distributors

Promotion

· Advertising, including how much and which media.

· Public relations

· Promotional programs

· Budget; determine break-even point for any additional spending

· Projected results of the promotional programs

If you can’t fill in all these blanks, then you know it’s time to start discussions with professionals. But you’ll be much more prepared and the outsourcing will ultimately cost less.

What would you add to this that’s helped your business?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide will be available in July 12, 2012 at Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/MyaQmp and Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/M5T0KO . Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. She helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com