Best Practices for Effective Email Marketing

It is hard to believe that 10 years ago I entered into the accounting industry as a marketing professional.  Prior to this adventure, I spent many years in marketing, mostly on the retail side, and including working for one of the first Internet companies, Prodigy Services Corporation.  That was fun….try explaining the Internet back in the late 80’s.  Though the basics or fundamentals of marketing apply to the CPA industry, entering into the professional services marketing arena was definitely been a big change.  With the help of many peers across the country and by getting involved with the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM), here I am 10 years later entrenched in the industry.

My goal for this blog is to “give back” by providing value added marketing and business development tips that apply across industries.  By sharing email marketing best practices with marketing professionals at any level, I would like to help them be more successful with their marketing initiatives.  So let me know how I might help you.

Recently BizActions and Sales Generation Services (SGS), a B2B lead generation firm specializing in accounting and other professional service firms nationwide embarked upon a telemarketing project with Stambaugh Ness, a top regional accounting firm located in Pennsylvania. Whether you are looking to outsource the role of sales, telemarketing or hire an internal sales professional, I thought it would be beneficial to share the steps and process they used to target the AEC (Architects, Engineers and Construction) Industry Group.

Lead Generation - Steps for Success

1. Identify the List of Targeted Companies by Niche - In this case we needed approximately 200 contacts of the most wanted prospects for a 30 hour project. The single most critical factor in a successful lead generation campaign is having an accurate contact list. What is the firm's "most wanted" list?

2. Industry Leader - Meet with the industry niche or team leader to validate the strategy. Develop a document of Steps for Success (SFS). The SFS document should include: list development and management, content messaging (industry fact sheet, white paper), delivery method (e-newsletter, email radar, direct mail), appointment follow up strategy, research on company, etc.

3. Lead Generation Process - Provide the lead or telemarketing team with a script, quality contact list, setup a firm email, and phone number for the designated caller.

4. Drip Campaigns - Nurture the leads with tools like the firm's e-newsletter, email blasts, social media, industry events, direct mail, webinars, etc. Use a "Drip Campaign" to nurture the list with a series of thought leadership information - a word of caution; this should not be a sales piece.

5. Content - Develop thought leadership content pieces: fact sheet/sales sheet, brochures, letters of introduction, industry niche white paper, e-books, and articles or recent industry news that is timely and relevant. The most important brand attributes for a firm are often credibility and trust - the best way to build credibility and trust is by providing useful and relevant information that will help build your reputation in the marketplace.

6. Email Radar/Click Activity Reports - Pull read activity for the targeted group - i.e. click activity for email radar - focus on those contacts first, since there has been some level of introduction to the firm.

7. Appointments - Lead team sets up appointments with "C" level contacts. Based on conversations, updated information is provided to the firm each week: additional "C" level contacts and email addresses.

8. Pre-Meetings - Prior to the appointments, meet with the partner (use only the "A" team for these meetings) to discuss the opportunity. Research the company: LinkedIn (potential spheres of influence) website, social media and pull a consolidated report on the read activity. Use as a potential point of reference or talking points.

9. Research/Preparation - Look up the meeting contact/company on LinkedIn. Who might you have in common? If you are not connected, invite them to connect on LinkedIn. Use the connectivity in your network to break the ice and build on the relationship. Reach out to the other partners in the firm to see if there are any connections - six degrees of separation.

10. Lead Generation Campaign Report - This report produced and provided by SGS on a monthly basis will summarize contacts made, status of the contact and appointments set.

11. Pipeline Report - Should you decide to embark on a lead generation program, be sure to track the ROMI. Where the leads came from, track the progress in a pipeline report and what engagements were closed. If you have a CRM system set up the protocols to code the campaign in a CRM system. With these types of programs, leads risk getting lost in the process, ignored, or end up going with a competitor….80% of all leads generated are never followed up on?

12. Lead Nurturing - Continue to nurture the list with industry specific information: invite them to industry niche sponsored events, make sure all contacts are added to your e-newsletter. Continue a strategy or process to systematically target and nurture prospects until they are ready to make a buying decision. 'Stay in Touch' campaigns are useful for all prospects that are not immediately ready to engage your services.

13. Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) - Track, track, track.

14. Remember - Marketing is a process and takes time... be patient. Building a relationship with a prospect is the same as with any long-term relationship - you can't force someone to commit - but you also cannot afford to lose individuals because their willingness to buy doesn't match your readiness to provide services.

15. Stay Tuned for Results - For this project, Sales Generation Services booked 10 appointments for Stambaugh Ness. And, when I recently spoke with Steve Hake, President and Chief Operating Officer for Stambaugh Ness, he commented that this lead generation project has given him a new outlook on telemarketing and its potential effectiveness.

Solutions

BizActions maintains the pulse of e-marketing. Within our complete communications platform and integrated into our powerful CPA email newsletters, we provide business development, lead generation and branding solutions for CPA firms. Communication is the key to relationships. Relationships are the key to business success. As the leader in business-to-business messaging, we have the experience to help you accomplish your goals. We know what clients respond to and pride ourselves on being at the leading edge of technology and client communications. BizActions is the ONLY e-marketing system that includes original, professionally-written, industry-specific content in such areas as accounting (U.S., Canada, Australia), law, financial services, human resources, estate planning, banking, employee benefits and much more. Discover how our dynamic, effective and flexible suite of synergistic solutions like our Online Resource Library can help you. Our Online Resource Library is a custom-branded stand-alone website that houses hundreds of resources for your clients - all while increasing your firm’s SEO. Our e-marketing solutions can help generate opportunities for your firm so that you may remain top of mind and build your business one impression at a time. Learn more by visiting our website, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

In order to compete in today’s environment, your accounting firm must focus on developing and building areas of specialization. The days of being a generalist are becoming obsolete. Going from firm-centric to buyer-centric is the new challenge.

In recent times, one of the most effective approaches to growth within the CPA industry has been to build a niche practice. This approach to developing new business offers many benefits especially in this new economy: higher profitability, services that offer higher value, less geographical barriers and more focused target marketing to prospects (especially with all of the currently available social media options). Additionally, niche building is an economical approach considering that most firms inherently stand positioned with a wealth of insight into the inter-workings of any number of industries, sects or specialized client needs.

Today’s CPA firms know that survival and growth in this climate requires multi-pronged strategies in a number of areas. It is predicted that inbound marketing is going to revolutionize the way firms carry out niche marketing and at the same time will marginalize the marketing programs of your competitors. The best way to stand apart in your business development is to have separate social media outposts that are buyer-niche focused.  

• For example, Stambaugh Ness won an AAM-MMA award for their program entitled, "Social Media to Social Meetings – A LinkedIn Group Grows Up." They used the firm’s LinkedIn South Central AEC (SCAEC - Architectural, Engineering and Construction) industry group as a springboard for networking events… Consequently, they grew their event 80% from 45 attendees to 228 in less than a year.
  
  
• Another example: Mike Blake, the Director of Valuations from (HAW) Habif, Arogetti and Wynne in Atlanta used Twitter and his blog, both branded “Unblakeable”, to actually obtain leads and closed business from his Tweets. As the co-founder and president of StartupLounge.com, an online podcast and forum resource for entrepreneurs and private company investors, the interaction with this group has grown through the podcasting program and has contributed to his success with social media.

Lead Generation or Nurture Marketing vs. Corporate Branding – Marketing budget allocations will change from corporate branding activities that produce little ROI, and are hard to track, to funding lead generating activities at the niche market level. While some branding still may occur, most of the focus will be on specific and highly targeted lead generation campaigns for niche industries. And today, there are many tools to help firms position them as a leader in a particular niche industry especially with the evolution of digital marketing and social media platforms. Integration of these tools: e-mail newsletters, social media, CRM, reporting metrics, SEO, websites, etc., will give firms a substantial competitive advantage.

Thought Leadership - Niche team leaders will make a commitment to using thought leadership as a means for promoting and differentiating their niche practice and building the personal brands of the subject matter experts in that practice.

Content Strategy - Niche marketing programs will be built upon a content strategy where professionals in the niche are going to be made accountable for publishing their thought leadership in the forms of blogs, articles, videos, whitepapers, podcasts, webinars and more.

Reporting Metrics – With more sophisticated tools, firms will have hard data and metrics on the effectiveness of the niche marketing program and expenditures – right down to the lead generation campaign level.

As with any new endeavor… a written plan is crucial to the success of any marketing program.

"We use BizActions as a cornerstone of our marketing plan  for building our franchise niche. That niche has doubled over the past few years. It has enabled us to reach into that market and we now have clients from Hawaii, to Maine to Florida! Through our BizActions tools, we can send very targeted content, measure response and follow-up with more specific content. We can track our web traffic increases directly to our newsletter launches. Admittedly, early on I was a bit of a skeptic. But seeing is believing, and we see results."

-Betsy Storey-Bono, Director, Marketing & Business Development, Concannon, Miller & Co.

The Solution
BizActions removes the largest hurdle to the deployment of a business newsletter - the time associated with developing useful and interesting content, issue after issue. BizActions’ B2B newsletters give you access to over 5,000 professionally written, original-content articles in over 50 categories of standard content for both Business-to-Business (B2B) and  Business-to-Consumer (B2C) professional service providers, along with over 50 categories of premium Niche Content and hundreds of free banners for distribution to your prospects and clients. Each business newsletter can contain up to six articles from our inventory or your own creation. Use our recommended pre-built business newsletter content categories designed specifically for key vertical industry segment, or choose up to any eight Standard Categories from our huge library of business articles that you feel are most appropriate for distribution in your email newsletter.  You can even add premium categories of niche content for select members in your database to further refine your business newsletter content.  The key is providing readers with content that will appeal to them and BizActions makes it easy. Contact us today at 866.240.8477, visit our website, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Along with Social Media, Lead Nurturing is a relatively new concept that is ever-changing.  What is Lead Nurturing? It is a strategy or process of using email marketing to systematically target and nurture prospects until they are ready to make a buying decision. While it’s exciting to see the plethora of lead nurturing best practices available today, it can also be somewhat overwhelming to process and difficult to identify which strategies are right for your firm.

Many firms do a fair job at finding new prospects — attracting them to a website or tradeshow booth, networking event, buying lists, or working their network and getting referrals. The problem is that most new leads are not yet ready to engage your services, so if a firm or partner does try to contact a lead before they are ready, it reinforces the general impression that marketing-generated leads are no good and they give up. As a result, leads risk getting lost in the process, ignored, or end up going with a competitor. Did you know that 80% of all leads generated are never followed up on?

To prevent this from happening, marketers should consider lead nurturing — the process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy, with the goal of earning their business when they become dissatisfied with their current provider, or are looking for another service provider for a particular project. It is the process of staying on their radar screen so when they are ready to buy, your firm is positioned to be a potential solution.  Building a relationship with a prospect is the same as with any long-term relationship — you can’t force someone to commit — but you also cannot afford to lose individuals because their willingness to buy doesn’t match your readiness to provide services.

Most companies will eventually be ready or have a need — and it is up to you to both provide them with value added relevant information and to be there when they are ready to make a change.

The Importance of Lead Nurturing and Thought Leadership in Branding

With a carefully planned strategy, lead nurturing plays a critical role in positioning your firm as a thought leader and building your brand. The most important brand attributes for a firm are often credibility and trust – the best way to build credibility and trust is by providing useful and relevant information that will help build your reputation in the marketplace. If you structure your messages as a firm that understands their problems and can help solve them, this can make a big difference in your firm being seen as a trusted advisor and thought leader.   Hammering them with sales messages or stalking them with telemarketing will just turn them away. But even worse – is not reaching out to them at all.

Stay in Touch Campaigns

"Stay in Touch" campaigns are useful for all prospects that are not immediately ready to engage your services. They form the backbone of your lead nurturing program by “dripping” out relevant content to prospects over time, helping to educate them and build trust and credibility for your company. By touching prospects regularly with your firm's e-newsletter, e-mail, they help keep your brand top of mind so that the prospect will contact you when they are ready to move to the next step.

When developing “Stay in Touch” Campaigns focus on the prospects potential needs, position in the company, relevant content and timing of your messages. As you’re developing your email marketing, keep in mind that they must work for the specific purpose of lead nurturing. Think about the characteristics of your audience that would help provide you with greater insight into how to best build a relationship with them. For instance, how do they prefer to receive communications from you: email, e-newsletters, email radar, Twitter, Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn Groups etc.?

And remember when providing that relevant contact, according to research firm MarketingSherpa:

• 82% of prospects say content targeted to their specific industry is more 
  valuable
• 67% say content targeted to their job function is more valuable 
• 49% say the same for content targeted to their company size
• 29% prefer content targeted to their geography

Should you decide to embark on a lead nurturing program, be sure to track the ROMI. Where the leads came from, what relevant content interested them and most importantly, what were the dollars generated.

With BizActions fully integrated suite of e-marketing solutions, you can create a lead nurturing strategy to drive revenue to your firm.

“From a tactical standpoint, BizActions helps us deliver informative, useful articles to our client in a branded and measurable manner. Our newsletters provide regular and sustained touch points with our clients, prospects and friends of the firm. The ease of use is tremendous, and I value the reporting metrics that help me identify which content is striking the most responsive chords with our audience. I truly believe BizActions is as committed to our success as I am. The service they provide is truly extraordinary, and I consider it to be a highlight of our relationship.”
-Sean P. Smith, Director of Marketing, Schneider Downs, International Group of Accounting Firms (IGAF) Member

Look at content creation from the perspective of lead nurturing, and you will find more value and less stress with every communication you send. Successful CPA newsletters provide a compelling way to connect with your clients, prospects and referral sources. When you reach out through email newsletters and other e-marketing tools, you empower your accounting firm to leverage e-marketing innovations, resulting in lead generation and increased opportunities for growth. BizActions has all the tools you need to increase valuable touch points with the contacts that matter to you most. For more information, please call us at 866.240.8477, visit our website, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We can help you grow your business.

Short online videos are quickly becoming the preferred medium for news and information. A recent survey showed that 80% of marketers plan to use video in emails in 2010, which is up from 15.7% in 2009. In addition, for marketers that have already used video emails, more than 60% expect a continuation of significant increases in conversion with video emails.

In fact, Forrester Research found that videos were 53 times more likely than traditional web pages to receive an organic first-page ranking. Did you know a recent study found that nearly 70 percent of Internet users have watched online video? A recent Forrester survey found that placement of a video on a home page can increase your SEO score by a factor of 50.

Marketing in 2011 is about reaching beyond simply pushing messages at people, as content needs to be innovative, relevant and compelling. And, as the Internet gets increasingly crowded, businesses are searching for new methods to differentiate themselves and awareness of, and engagement with, their offerings.  Where social media, communities, and SEO are among the ways being used to attract and keep the attention of your audience,  the most important and fastest growing of these mediums is online video.

Here are a few tips to creating short action-oriented videos:

Content - Make your videos relevant, useful, short, and spot on.

Think in terms of one message at a time. The best strategy is to focus on one topic rather than covering many topics. Having a large number or series of related videos will help build trust with viewers, help drive them to your web site and may keep them coming back for more.

Think strategically about ways in which you can brand carefully when using videos and how you can re-purpose them, for example create: video customer testimonials/customer endorsements, video success stories or case studies, client spotlights, employee spotlights, community events, webinars/presentations, trade shows, how to guides, ask the expert, popular opinions and don’t forget to include some humorous stories. These are growing types of formats that are currently being developed to help engage audiences.

It's common practice to keep web video length under three minutes. This comes from the idea that people watching web videos are just browsing, get distracted easily and won't sit through anything that goes over 180 seconds. Keeping web video length short also lets you keep the file size small, which uses less bandwidth and loads faster.

Where to use videos - Email campaigns that offer video as a way to get an overview of what is being offered.

• E-mail newsletters are a great place to showcase your videos and provide
     interesting and valuable content. 
• Landing pages where video can drive more sign-ups, downloads, and interest
     in learning more about your products and services. 
• Blogs where video can convert curious readers into visitors on your main     
     website.
• Your Home Page where you can convert more visitors to relationships that  
     can be nurtured.
• Share your videos on all of your social media platforms. Once it is produced
     the possibilities to re-purpose are endless.

You can expect to see significant growth in this layer very quickly as online video grows in importance, and as brands continue to adopt the methods of media businesses in order to deepen relationships with clients and keep them coming back for more.

Repurposed with permission from Deborah Knupp, partner in Akina Corporation

Many people think that successful selling is all about “asking for” the business. Consider that the real truth about closing business happens long before you actually sell anything or win any work. Closing business is the natural outcome of developing an authentic relationship and helping people solve problems or pursue opportunities. Business development starts with targeting the right relationships in the right situations that might have the right problems for which you have the right solution. When an authentic relationship exists and all conditions are present, business will most likely sell itself. Here are some tips for rainmaking success:

1)      Be clear on the top 20 – 40 target contacts – the top 20 targets or prospects and the top 20 connectors, people who can refer you to a prospect.

2)      Have an authentic reason to connect through the three “ins”. Before reaching out to someone, develop authentic reason to contact them:

a.      Invitation – invite them to attend an event or to do something of interest.

b.      Introduction – use your connections to get or give an introduction.

c.       Information – relevance is key here. Send targeted or customized information like an article or something of interest or relevant to them.

3)      Deliver memorable messaging for your value proposition. Quick Pitch and What’s New!

a.      Quick pitch – is the same as an elevator pitch. The bases for a quick pitch should be something concrete that you do – What problem I solve for whom?

b.      What’s New – stay away from nothing much or same old stuff or even worse, I’m really busy. You increase the odds of developing a relationship by answering with something that is relevant. Turn the conversation around by asking them questions.

4)      Exercise the platinum rule with discovery questions - people should treat others as those others would like to be treated. Ask thoughtful questions that are pertinent to them. It reveals your character – What keeps you up at night? What are you looking forward to in 2011? Discovery questions show what you care about.

5)      Always set a definitive next step (DNS). Time-boxed follow-up is the opportunity to set definitive next steps. When you have a meeting and talk about reconnecting in the future, follow through on the next step.

6)      Show competency in preparation – Be purposeful in your preparation. It shows that you care. Establish your objectives, have your messaging ready and your questions prepared and make sure to anticipate the definitive next step.

7)      Working a room – Use the 2 second rule when working a room. Have your business cards ready to use in 2 seconds.  Do not fumble around for them or worse forget them totally. When at a function or event use the law of 1’s & 3’s – approach someone standing alone or join a group of 3 but never 2 people standing around talking. Another little tip when standing in a long line, this is a great "in the door" opportunity. Make sure that when you are in a conversation that you are engaged – do not look around.

8)      Campaign Thinking – Take a single act of marketing and leverage that act 3 for 1; repurpose a speech into an article, blog posting, video, webinar, etc, turn an event into a 3-part communication plan – pre-event, during and post-event follow up.

9)      Line up the 6 silver bullets for pursuit and closing – There is no magic phrase or silver bullet to close business, however, there are 6 qualifiers that can be like a silver bullet to close business: 1) Problem - Identify a problem, 2) Solution - Clearly show that you have a solution (and if you don’t, refer them to someone who might be able to help), 3) Urgency - Create a sense of urgency and timeframe, 4) Access – have access to decision makers and understand the decision-making process, 5) Expectations – must be in alignment to work with each other, 6) Budget & Delivery – there must be a clear understanding of the budget and delivery process.

10)   Create a super fan through client experience:

a.       Ask for feedback

b.      Communicate accurate information and expectations from management

c.       Get to know your clients and their business

d.      Appreciate your clients

e.      Be advised by participating in client meetings

These steps came from a recent presentation at the New England Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Conference given by Deborah Knupp, Partner in Akina Corporation, dknupp@akina.biz. Deborah was happy to share her 10 Best Practices to Rainmaking.  She helps lawyers and executives develop sustainable skills in business development.

There has been some controversy over the balance between images in landing pages vs. copy.  As consumers, we know that people buy from people. Of course, this creates a little more challenge when using images and words to establish credibility. According to research conducted by MarketingExperiments when you are creating an email radar or landing page you should optimize the thought sequences.

Images have the greater potential to communicate value with focus whereas copy has the greater potential to communicate value with precision. Images can be powerful if used properly. An image can shortcut the message and can have a high impact on conversion.  When using images, be careful not to create too much noise on the page. Every page needs a place where the visitor’s eyes are initially drawn, and that focuses their attention. Remember that you only have seven seconds for the visitor to answer the questions – where am I and what can I do here?

Copy assists you in using quantitative details. It sets the tone for the visitor and the tone gives your message personality. Be purposeful with your copy and don’t be pushy or phony. Tone and message are key! You should match your words with the motivation of your prospects. It’s not about the words, it’s about the message.

In summary, your copy and layout should have connection. Help your audience connect the dots between the copy and the images. Think about it – How do you marry images and text?  To learn more check out MarketingExperiments blog posting, The Balance between Images vs. Copy – Just Tested: Do images or copy generate more user response?

How much thought goes into your subject line? If fifty characters is all that you have to catch their attention, you better put some thought into it.  

Here are a few tips or rules that will have an impact on your e-mail success or opened e-mails.

• Be Clear - Unless the message in the title or subject line is clear as to what the page or e-mail is about, users will never open it. To maintain that outstanding ROMI momentum, we clearly must write subject lines that get people to open those e-mail messages and unlock the great marketing messages or relevant content inside.
• Headline - Writing a subject line is like writing a headline, or page title. Taking the audience into consideration, a headline usually highlights a story’s most important points. Because the copy is not directly seen with the headline, graphics, etc, and the reader cannot see everything at a glance, the headline needs to stand on its own.
• Convenience - Don’t make the reader search for the article, message or offer. Nothing is more frustrating. You only have a few seconds (some say 3 – 5 seconds) to gain their attention.  So be brief, and convey a clear benefit or feature, ease of access and immediate value to the reader.
• What’s the Objective – Start with the end in mind when writing a subject line. Most of the time, a line is written quickly, without enough thought as to its potential impact on open rates and conversion rates. Stay focused on your objective.
• The “From” Line – You actually have two lines to leverage the impact of what the “From” line tells the recipient of the e-mail and let the subject line sell the recipient on opening it.  Research shows that people are more likely to open e-mails that have a personal name, but only if it’s a name they recognize. One way to solve this problem is to put your name first – followed by the company name. Busy people glance through from and subject lines to decide what they are going to open.
• Brand Name - According to Jupiter Research, adding a company name to the subject line can increase open rates by up 32 percent to 60 percent over a subject line without branding. So try using your company name. But don’t use the company name in the from line and subject line.
• Personalize – To Personalize or not to personalize is the question. Personalized subject lines are a simple way to secure the interest and action of your recipients. Personalize the subject line to make customers realize you provide relevant information for them.
• Message - Don’t use all caps or exclamation marks. Don’t use imperatives such as: Must, Now, Always, Never, Immediately, or Or Else. Don’t copy words from a document and paste them into the subject line. This can cause the characters to be mistranslated during the sending process. Always type directly in the subject line.
• Deliverability – Contrary to what you might think, you can control many of the elements that affect whether your e-mail will be delivered or not. Your e-mail reputation score with ISPs is one element that drives your e-mail delivery. There are a few things you can do with subject lines to impact deliverability: using words that are “spammy”, all capital letters, using exclamation points, etc.

The most basic mistakes:

• Using words that cause the e-mail to be filtered at the gateway or ISP level.
• Too much hype – being too promotional.
• The message is not interesting enough.

The goal for writing a winning subject line is to stay focused on the objective at hand and provide your audience with relevant content.  Put yourself in your recipients' shoes.  People are flooded with spam and increasingly pressed for time.  When it comes to subject lines, don't sell what's inside. Tell what's inside.

And with only 50 characters and a few seconds to get their attention – it pays to get it right.

Recently, I participated in a webinar hosted by Marketing Experiments, Optimizing Landing Pages. MarketingExperiments is a research laboratory with a simple (but not easy) seven-word mission statement: To discover what really works in optimization. They focus all of their experimentation on optimizing marketing communications.

As marketers, many times we are caught up in a design that is pretty and pleasing to the eye instead of keeping in line with our marketing objectives. The reality is that the effectiveness of the design can be greatly improved by the key principles discussed in the webinar on Optimizing Landing Pages – reduce the perceived costs while increasing the perceived value. And cost is not necessarily about the dollars, but the totality of the effect of every negative factor. These factors can include: how difficult it is to read and understand the message, asking for too much personal information up front, unnecessary length, etc.

Basically, when someone navigates to a page, you have approximately seven seconds for each transition to get their attention. It is important to reduce the friction or level of difficulty in the process. Crucial questions when someone navigates to a page:

1) Where am I?

2) What can I do here?

Confusion is one of the most common contributors to friction. When clicking on a page, there is a need for orientation. You need to achieve clarity immediately. In order to increase perceived value, you need to highlight your competitive differentiation. For example, “If you had just one sentence to explain why your visitor should purchase from you rather than your competitor”… use specific, quantitative and instantly credible language in your copy. Marketing Experiments suggest that you should, “read your own language with cynicism.”

On the subject of images – they need to stand alone. Images need to have a purpose on the page and should draw readers into the text. And, the text should enter into a conversation. What I learned – be more critical of designs from the users perspective, reduce confusion, ask questions, and remember you only have seven seconds for each transition. And, test whenever possible!

For more information on optimizing your e-marketing communications, visit http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/general/testing-aesthetic-design.html or www.MarketingExperiments.com 

MarketingExperiments is a research laboratory dedicated to discovering what really works in online marketing. MarketingExperiments gains this knowledge by utilizing the scientific method to create real-world experiments and then extracting successful principles based on the data generated by this experimentation.

Recently I attended a webinar on Social Media Mapping sponsored by Marketo and Marketing Sherpa. Sergio Balegno, Research Director of MarketingSherpa was the guest speaker – www.MarketingSherpa.com

Here are some takeaways that I found interesting. In mapping out your social media strategy you need to ask your 3 questions:

1.    Where are you now? Benchmark your Social Media Maturity.

2.    Where do you want to be? Establish your objectives.  

3.    How will you get there? You need a strategy that outlives technology.

Sergio suggests that you start with research to identify, segment and profile your audience. Who are you trying to reach and what platforms are they using or how are they using them? What is of interest to them? Have a purpose as to how you will meet your objectives.

Establish a Social Media Team – If you don't have the budget to hire some, how do you find and recruit a team. You might be able to find team members within your current organization. Look across all departments to identify candidates to establish a team.

Finding Content - He believes in finding and repurposing existing content. Developing content puts pressure on the organization to create original content and can be time consuming. “Original content is not necessary”. Repurpose content: rewrite press releases, add a voiceover to a PowerPoint presentation, create a video and post it to YouTube, rewrite or extract content from articles, etc. Conduct an audit of your existing content so that you can repurpose and share to more audiences.

Objectives should be targeted and measurable - How are you aligning target audiences with your objectives, and then how do you align the objectives with Social Marketing Metrics. And always measure ROI when possible.

Managing many tactics and resources – Plan your editorial content over time. Use a simple quarterly layout or spreadsheet to identify the tactics and resources and to organize all of the platforms and the tactics that you are using.

Social Media Policy – You Social Media Policy should align with your company’s values and business guidelines. Make it clear to those using it so that they understand what they can say about your organization.

Prioritize the Technology Platform – A year ago the focus for BtoB marketing might have been on LinkedIn, but Facebook has become very savvy about marketing to businesses that market to businesses. Where LinkedIn has 50 Million members today, Facebook now has about 500 Million. Facebook has developed a commercial platform that is friendly to businesses. We will see more and more businesses focus on Facebook. Be sure to construct a social marketing architecture with the hub and spoke framework. Have a clear plan and a purpose for each of the components and link them together. In most cases the website has become the hub of the marketing strategy. The blog has become the hub of the Social Media strategy.

Using Videos - Videos are the most engaging media out there today. People would rather watch a 30 second video than read a 30 second piece of copy. It is important to include video.

You need a compass for mapping out a Social Media Strategy. The presentation was full of many more takeaways…too many to mention.  For more information on Social Media Mapping, check out www.MarketingSherpa.com. They are in the business of content and they encourage people to use their content.

There are many benefits to adding online marketing to traditional methods for a well-rounded and far-reaching overall marketing strategy.

 


Here are 7 "T"ips to consider:
 

1.    TRUST - Build and nurture relationships with consistent communication and expert advice. Keep yourselfvisible as a reliable source of valuable and relevant information. When the time is right, clients,prospects and referrals will call you first.

2.    TARGET - Send specific information to targeted groups using demographics based on any criteria- location, niche, industry, age group, etc. The ability to focus on a special audience and send the right content to engage that group will streamline your marketing efforts. Business email newsletters can help to facilitate targeting.

3.    TRACK - Reporting and analytics have become so advanced that you have the tools to find out who, what, why and when someone has acted on a call for action- be it clicking on an ad to learn more, or filling out a form. Take advantage of these results and respond accordingly. BizActions Dashboard can help with reporting and analytics by creating business email communications.

4.    TWEAK - The beauty of using the online medium is the ease of changing and editing when something isn't working. It is much easier to modify a business email campaign based on results of data gathered than traditional print media. Less costly, too!

5.    TYPES - A variety of options are available on the internet to enhance your online presence. These include social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), blogs, audio & video (YouTube), electronic newsletters and communications. Each can increase your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which will get you noticed more on the Web.

6.    THOUGHT - The most important factor in carrying out a successful online marketing strategy or email newsletter campaign is planning. Careful consideration and a well thought-out campaign will lead to better results. Make sure you find the right fit for your needs that includes secure and dependable delivery; professional content; superior training and support; tracking and survey tools; advanced, yet easy-to-use technology. With the right implementation, online marketing can result in a trustworthy and enduring reputation, as well as more revenue for your business.

7.    TIME- It won't happen overnight, so be patient. Building a reputation, gaining trust and a lasting "brand" takes a little time. Some branches of your marketing tree may take longer to bloom than others, but continue to feed, water and care for it. The fruit will develop and ripen. Make sure you are there for the harvest!