Response Capture

We all have access to more information that we can even fathom. In the last few years, twitter alone produced 37 times more data than all bills that introduced to congress since the 1950′s! We perform 3 billion searches every day – 85% of which are through Google. And, above all, we are spoiled rotten by just how quickly and effectively we can filter and access relevant information. When we type something into Google *poof* we expect the results to magically appear.

We are easily frustrated if the results are not immediate, relevant and personal. If I ask the magical Google for a sparkly purple bicycle and find myself on a page with mountain bikes, my mouse suddenly becomes a homing device for the back button. Nothing erodes confidence in a website or company than arriving at a page, feeling like they are wasting my time with loads of content that is not pertinent to me. Google has taught us to expect exactly what we want the moment we want it.

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We all know that it is important to tell people why they should buy their good or service. And, yes, clearly stating your value proposition is key to successful sales and marketing. But, something works even better than the most perfectly crafted marketing spiel: courage.

Zappos has it when the CEO openly discusses how his customer service team has ordered a pizza for a caller, WordPress has it by offering free software and Southwest Airlines has it when their flight attendants get people clapping, so they can rap. (more…)

Current customers are the lifeblood of your business. Unfortunately in the pursuit of growth, companies can lose focus of how valuable current customers are to business operations. While it is always important to grow new business, this new business comes at a higher retention cost than does maintaining your current clientele. (more…)

First impressions are everything. Now that’s a lesson we’ve all learnt growing up and through our professional careers. Yet, businesses spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars, to score a higher rank on popular search engines without first investing enough in their own virtual presence. Everyone knows that if you don’t show up on the first page, perhaps even the top half of the search engine results page, you have very little chance of being noticed. But if your website looks and functions like it was created in 1998, that may be a good thing and a blessing in disguise.

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One of the main ideas behind marketing communications is to offer a “big promise,” something that sets your business apart. Whether that big promise is a guaranteed lowest price, industry leading warranty or the highest quality service the list goes on and on.

Far too often when an industry or company falls on hard times they rely on big promises as a way to gain market share. But today’s consumers have more access to information than ever before. They are constantly being berated with substitutes, have more things influencing buying behaviors and are now exhibiting more educated purchasing behaviors.

Consumers will always be influenced by tangibility. Especially when purchasing services that they may never touch or see. If quality companies backup their big promises with action they are bringing something more tangible to the table. (more…)

Before we get into revealing why you need a Landing Page, let’s first define a Landing Page.  Let’s take a minute to walk down a grocery store aisle.  Trust us, it will all come together!

A grocery store carries several thousand products, but if you want your product to “communicate” with more potential customers, you showcase it on the end-cap. The end-cap is prime real estate and companies pay big bucks for this space to give their products better visibility and not have it drown in the aisle noise.

Instead of the customer walking down the aisle and finding an endless selection of similar products, the end-cap provides you an opportunity to engage the customer, highlight the product features and perhaps offer a discount. Voila! Highly targeted and extremely effective.
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If you’re even remotely associated with online marketing, you’re bound to have executed an email marketing campaign. The success of email campaigns will depend on various factors such as the email’s subject line, the from name/address, the content in the email and the offer you present to prospects.

The following are three optimization techniques that we’ve found can dramatically increase email marketing effectiveness.

1. Target Audience + From Name/Address = Improved Deliverability

The biggest challenge most outbound emailers face is carefully targeting their audience and successfully delivering the email to the reader’s Inbox. With more than 97% of the daily email generated considered spam, your first task is just to get the message through spam filters.

Email deliverability can be improved several ways:
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Every marketer knows the importance of having strong messages that are relevant to the potential customer. We like to say that relevancy drives response. However, before you start spending all your time on your creative and your messaging, it is important to first understand who your ideal customer is.

Having the most well written messages going out to only 60% of your market means you’re leaving opportunity on the table. Before jumping into social media and worrying about what you are going to say, you must profile your channel and understand who your ideal targets are. It’s only with a strong list of targets that you can begin to optimize the next steps in your marketing and sales processes and grow revenue.
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In professional football, the team with the highest conversion rate wins more games, sells more tickets, and pays their players more than the team who does not convert.

The same holds true with marketing. Marketers who convert at a higher rate have more job security, are paid more and are more recognized for their achievements than those who do not.

So, what is the secret used by marketers to increase their conversion rate?
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