Better Marketing Results

Did you know that more often it is the things that you may not be doing that will have a much greater impact on your business growth than those that you do? These are areas that I have found as a business consultant as the most prevalent in holding back the growth of small companies:

• Understanding your Customer Market
• Adequate Planning
• Managing Cash Flow
• Operating a Marketing and Sales Development Process
• Targeted Marketing Campaigns and Programs

What do you think? In your own business situation have you faced these issues or other more significant challenges? Share with us your views and expereinces.

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Email marketing is one of the most cost effective communications mediums when used properly to add value and build relationships with your recipients. Here are the five steps to follow in building an effective email marketing program:

One: Define your business objective

You need to be absolutely clear about what you want to achieve.

Two: Build your email list

Put a plan in place to start growing your list.

Three: Prepare your message

Plan ahead and spend most of your effort on the message you want to get to the recipient and what action will result from it.  Follow the AIDA guide; attract the Attention of the reader, generate their Interest, create a Desire for the reader to act and provide them with a call to Action.

Four: Test and test again

Test for open rates with different email subject lines and test click thru rates for different call to actions.  Once you have the email that best performs send it to your target list.

Five: Measure and track your results

Use your email marketing analysis tools to measure the results of your effort versus the objectives you have set for the email marketing campaign.

Share with us your views on how you have used email marketing to promote your business - what works and what does not work.

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Some of our readers will note that in landscape mode tablets and smart phones can accommodate websites designed for desktop computers as these devices are fully capable of the screen resolutions that match the desktop.  However, I don't think these are the same! Web content will appear so much smaller and will almost be unreadable without zooming with your two fingers to expand the view.

With desktop computers we use mouse clicks and keyboards while for tablets and smart phones we use “finger sweeps” and on-screen touch keyboards.

It is a completely different user experience for the web visitor that I am sure you will all agree.

What do you think? If your business has implemented optimised web templates for tablets and smart phones, what were the drivers that were considered to making this a priority for your online web business presence?

QR codes can be used to increase the response rate of your marketing campaigns exponentially.

They are quick and very easy quick to use.  Use your smart phone to simply point and scan.  

What are some of the benefits for using QR codes with your marketing?

• Extremely quick responses and conversions for traditional offline marketing
• You are able to track responses easily
• Leverage on social networks to reach out to new customers
• Use premium advertising and marketing space effectively
• QR codes are so easy to share

What is your own experience with QR Codes?  Have you been a recipient of a direct response piece using QR Codes for the 'Call to Action? Did you use it? What was your impression?

Or perhaps, you have used QR Codes with your own marketing campaign? How did it go? Were the results to your satisfaction?

What makes direct mail campaigns successful? 

• Addresses a specific group of people or targeted audience
• Uses creative to cut-thru the clatter of the mail box
• Offers a personalised message that communicates a compelling benefit
• Creates a sense of urgency and excitement with the mail piece
• Provides a your clear and visible ‘call to action’

Using this structure approach will achieve superior response rates from direct mail campaigns.

How can we  use integrated multimedia to dramatically improve the results from direct mail campaigns? Consider the following factors:

• Personalise all communications with the recipient across the different media
• Using several multimedia channels in the promotional campaign
  • Letter, postcard or mailing piece
  • Mobile phones and other smart mobile devices
  • Web landing pages with personalised URL (PURL – define)
  • Email marketing and auto-responders
• Using a QR image (QR Code define) image to support the ‘call to action’

Essentially, an integrated multimedia direct mail campaign allows a one to one personalised engagement with the recipient.  It has the ability for the recipient to immediately accept the offer or secure additional information with readily available technology such as their mobile phone or access to the Internet.

What is your own experience with integrated multimedia direct mail campaigns? Let's hear from you.

At a recent small networking business group (SBNG) breakfast meeting, we discussed the challenges in marketing and what were their successful experiences in reach out to their target markets.  Here is the list complied from the meeting:

• Face to Face meetings (Personal Networking & Selling)
• Understanding exactly who is your target market/customer (targeting potential customers)
• Using a system to generate a prospecting funnel and manage the conversion process
• Testing marketing first before bulk roll-out of the campaign
• Having the right attitude toward communications with your prospective customers - helping instead of selling
• Target your own customer database using RFM segmentation (define)
• Market & sell your benefits not features (how) or use an Objectives-Benefits-Features (define) chart
• Use marketing mediums that your customers use not what you are comfortable with.

What did you think? What is your own experiences with successful marketing?

In my experience as a marketing consulting with business owners I have found that the following traits are characteristics of successful business owners along with a profound view that they have ownership and are accountable for their own success.

• Planning
• Systemise
• Test & Measure
• Watch Competition
• Focused Marketing
• Engage with Stakeholders
• Persistence and Perseverance
• Cash is King
• Entrust your Staff
• Keep it All Together
• Look after Yourself
• Dedication and Passion

What do you think? As a business owner how many of these characteristics are in your profile?  What have you identified as an area for development and what are you going to do about it?

I recommend that business owners read the post at MarketingProfs.com titled "Five Key Assets of a Good Social Community Manager" (http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2179/five-key-assets-of-a-good-social-community-manager) as the article has the business viewpoint for management of your social media channels.

The individual does not necessarily need to be part of your own organization or staff and they can be outsourced as long as they apply the approach mentioned in the article plus an appreciation of the promotional impact they may have with their actions on the business.

Many businesses neglect this very valuable asset - your own in-house database. Why? Most think it is too time-consuming to keep updated or simple fail to realize the potential goldmine from using and maintaining their database.

You may have heard of the marketing phrase “Content is King”, however, you may not have heard that the “Database is Queen”!

Your database must be viewed as a valuable resource asset. It is a potent source for marketing intelligence and a powerful tool for building relevance while nurturing relationships.

To make the most from your database you must be able to answer these five questions:

1. What is your database objective?
2. What information is available?
3. How can the information be captured?
4. How can you use the information?
5. What is the best way to segment your database?

What do you think? Have any of you taken the time to segment your database to achieve better marketing results?

View my presentation titled "Why your database should be your best friend" at the recent Email Marketing Summit Australia EMSA 2010 held at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney.

We can easily observe that people love and are incredibly engaged with interesting web videos.

We can harness the exceptional persuasive power of videos with video that is benefit-oriented and with real entertainment value.

Web video that is entertaining and relevant to the audience is most likely to be shared with their own network of business colleagues and friends using social media like FaceBook and Twitter.

What is your view and your own experiences with using video to engage with your own audience?