Making Marketing Work

May 20, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I recently worked on a client's e-newsletter that made a point that stuck me right in the gut. He was writing about the printing business, but his point applies to all businesses. He writes:

If sales are about relationships, I’ve never understood why I see so many [your industry]'s websites that lack any type of personal feel. They contain no mention of a person’s name, no pictures other than stock art or pictures of their [equipment], and for the contact info, they either have a form they expect you to fill out (big mistake) or generic links such as sales@abcprint.com.
 
Print buying guru Margie Dana of Boston Print Buyers discussed this in one of her newsletters. As a print buyer, Margie says, she wants to know who is in charge. People want to feel some form of personal connection to the company they do business with.

...Read More
Industries: Sales and Marketing

April 29, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

One of the points I keep hammering home in these columns is the need to make use of the data you most likely already have. Use it to better communicate with your customers. Improve customer retention. Marketing more effectively. "Green" your print marketing program.

I was just alerted to a free Webinar from 1 to 1 Media on this very topic. Titled, "Keep Your Most Profitable Customers: Leverage Your Data Assets to Determine Which Are the Right Customers to Retain and Grow," to be held Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 12:00 PM Eastern.


I attend a lot of these Webinars, and what's great about them is that the are recorded, so ...Read More
Industries: Sales and Marketing

April 27, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I recently listened to a Webinar called "Dumbest Mistakes Email Marketers Make and How to Avoid Them," from Silverpop. At the conclusion, I had an immediate date with my Web sites and my email marketing program. I'll chronicle my mistakes and my fixes in hopes that they help you, too.

Today, I fixed Dumbest Email Mistake #1: hiding or not including your email opt-in link.

Many marketers send out terrific newsletters, but there is no opt-in link for people who might receive the newsletter or email as a forward from someone else. If they want to subscribe, how do they do that? You need to make it easy for them to do that.

You want to make it easy for people visiting your website to sign up for email alerts and newsletters, as well.

I had newsletter sign-ups pro...Read More
Industries: Sales and Marketing

April 23, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Have you ever wondered why subscribers to your newsletters and email lists unsubscribe? According to research done by Silverpop, a provider of software for deploying multi-channel marketing programs, there are six primary reasons that all marketers ought to pay attention to.

1. When the offers / types of content do not interest me — 53%
2. Signing up for permission e-mail often leads to more unsolicited spam mail — 43%
3. Marketer uses the list to send email too often — 40%
4. I get too much email anyway — 36%
5. I do not trust that the unsubscribe link in the email offers works — 32%
6. I unsubscribe by clicking on the spam button — 26%

What does this list tell you? It tells you that, if you offer email sign-ups, you will minimize unsubsc...Read More
Industries: Sales and Marketing

April 17, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

It's all about customer loyalty these days, right? Why always be replacing customers if you can keep the ones you've got? One way to do that is to improve the way your business manages its interactions with customers. The more positive their interactions with your company, the more likely they are to stay customers.

In the free white paper, "The Six Laws of Customer Experience: The Fundamental Truths That Define How Organizations Treat Customers," Bruce Temkin of Forrester Research describes the way customers interact with marketing organizations. There are some neat nuggets in here that might help you tweak and improve the way you interact with your own customer base.

Here is a condensed version of his white paper in my own words. It's worth the time to download and read the white paper for yourself. ...Read More
Industries: Sales and Marketing