Archive for: March 2008

March 28, 2008

Motivational Marketing

Filed under: Marketing & Advertising — Web Empress @ 2:33 am

Most marketing today can be considered motivational, since its ultimate purpose is to convince others to purchase your products or otherwise do business with you. Motivating your audience with a combination of a quality message and a clear call to action is one of the most effective ways to move them from browsers to buyers to loyal repeat customers. If you can provide your readers with a strong, benefits-oriented marketing message, they will be eager to take the next step – so don’t lose them! Make sure you motivate them to take action by using a very specific, obvious call to action.

The Call to Action
To be effective, a call to action should be very clear and direct. Specifically tell your audience what you want them to do, such as “sign up for our newsletter” or “download our white paper.” An example of a simple call to action is to put a “Buy Now” button beside your product or service on your web site that takes buyers to a secure online payment page. Customers who click on the “Buy Now” button know that they have taken action, which is both effective and reassuring for customers because they didn’t have to guess what to do next.

Although a “Buy Now” button is about as direct as you can get, sometimes it takes a bit more convincing to get readers to take a desired action. The examples below are for online marketing, but they could be applied to any type of marketing as well:

  • On your web site, engage your audience with great copy and quality content, and focus on the end benefit they will get from doing business with you. Be sure to close with a strong call to action that encourages them to act right away.
  • For e-marketing campaigns, consider offering special pricing or other incentives, and create a sense of urgency by including an end date for the offer. You may want to also include some testimonials from other customers or clients to help motivate recipients to take action sooner rather than later as well.

Loud and Clear
Often, the best motivator is a compelling call to action that states clearly and specifically what you want a customer or prospect to do. Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale, but also make sure it is easy to take the desired action (make your phone number or contact info visible, include links to your web site, provide live email links, etc.). When customers and potential customers are motivated to take action as a result of your marketing, your conversion rates will begin to show improvement – right along with your bottom line.

March 17, 2008

Watching for a Competitive Edge

Filed under: Marketing & Advertising — Web Empress @ 4:36 pm

You don’t have to be a spy to know that it’s important to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. In fact, paying attention to your competition’s online marketing techniques can often spur your own thinking to come up with better, more effective ways to promote your business. By understanding what your competitors are doing with their marketing strategies, you can develop a more targeted, effective online marketing plan that can help your business gain a competitive edge.

First Things First
The first thing you must remember is that monitoring your competitors’ marketing techniques is NOT the same thing as actually spying on your competitors, engaging in corporate espionage, or anything that could be considered unethical. Stick with the information that is easily and publicly available to anyone, and don’t be tempted to use any unscrupulous methods – ever.

In the Public Eye
The good news is that you don’t have to resort to such tactics anyway. There are many useful public resources available that can give you plenty of detail about what the competition is doing. Once you have this information, you can evaluate the methods being used by your competitors and decide where to concentrate your own marketing efforts. Some of the types of information publicly available include:

  • Company web site– visit the web sites of your top competitors. How does the design and professionalism of each site compare with your own site? Do the sites use current web technology such as a blogs, RSS, or web video? Or are they stuck in the past with outdated elements like Frames or Flash animation?
  • Meta data – does the site correctly use meta tags and data? Do the title tags and description tags include targeted keywords? Can you see the keywords used in the visible text on the home page?
  • Search engine rankings – do a Google search for a few of the keywords that you currently target in your own web marketing. Who comes up in the top five listings? Does your site display ahead of your competitors, or even show up at all? What page do you land on if you click on a competitor’s link
  • Online advertising – what types of online promotion do they use? Do they use Google click ads? Are they listed on related sites or quoted as industry authorities? Do they publish articles or send out press releases? All of these techniques are great inbound link builders as well.
  • Inbound Links – go to Google and type in “link:www.competitorwebsite.com” (no quotes) where “competitorwebsite.com” is the actual address of your competitor’s web site. This will display a list of web sites that contain inbound links to your competitor’s site. However, Google only gives you a partial listing of inbound links, but it can still be helpful to see where some of these inbound links are coming from.

Keep It Up
By evaluating the techniques that your competitors are using, you can make sure you have coverage in the same areas as they do. You may even be inspired to try some new ideas and techniques that you hadn’t thought of before. Implement the methods that make sense for your business, and make sure that you test and measure your results. With so much information publicly available, it makes sense to watch what your competition is doing so you can make sure your business always stays a step ahead.

March 3, 2008

Tough Times Call for Smart Marketing

Filed under: Email Marketing, Marketing & Advertising — Web Empress @ 1:07 pm

No matter what you call it – economic slow down, one-state recession, troubled economy – you’ve probably noticed that business is a little sluggish for many companies today. No doubt times are tough, especially here in Michigan, and that has prompted lots of small businesses to tighten up their spending and budgets to compensate for the change in revenue. It makes perfect sense, of course, but the challenge for many companies comes when deciding which expenses to cut back on, and by how much.

When business slows down, it’s tempting to cut back on marketing and advertising activities since these are often considered to be non-essential expenses. But if your sales have slowed down, that’s precisely the time when you should turn up the marketing on your business to help bring in new customers and jump start your sales again!

So before you make any drastic cuts to your marketing spending, consider implementing some marketing activities that have a low cost but have a high ROI. Specifically, I’m talking about good ‘ol email marketing!

Ready, Aim, Send
Email marketing is a reliable, proven marketing strategy that’s inexpensive to implement, especially compared with more traditional activities like print ads and direct mail. It is also a more targeted strategy than other conventional methods, enabling you to deliver a specifically focused message directly to the customers and prospects that you want to reach. For instance, if you were to segment your e-mail recipient list into categories, you could then tailor your email message to fit the needs of the recipients in each category. So unlike a print ad that is published for a broad audience, an email campaign can be aimed directly at your target audience.

Tracking Results
Email campaigns are also highly measurable, making it easy to track the effectiveness of each campaign. After sending out an e-campaign, the campaign stats can reveal all sorts of useful information, such as the number of recipients who opened the email, how many emails “bounced” or were not delivered (and why), which links the recipients clicked on, the number of opt-ins/opt-outs, how many times the email was forwarded to a friend, etc. By analyzing this data, you can tell if your message prompted a response (such as clicking on a link or visiting a web site), or if your message was even delivered in the first place!

Weathering the Storm
When times are tough, it pays to be smart about your marketing choices. Cutting back on pricey marketing activities is fine, as long as you don’t give up on your overall marketing goals. Marketing’s purpose is to help generate sales and boost your bottom line, which may be even more important if your revenue has slowed down. To help ride it out, try implementing marketing activities that will get the job done, but will do it for less money – like email marketing.