Obsess About the How’s, Why’s and Where’s

Being obsessive over weight loss numbers can be motivating, but also quite intimidating. The same goes with looking at the cold hard facts of marketing efforts. I know a million marketers who love checking their analytics and viewing the traffic that they get to their sites. However, they almost never check the numbers that matter most – the dollars, and the percentages.

The Dollars = The Amount of Sales or Revenue

The Percentages= How many of your site leads converted into Sales or Revenue?

Without a solid system of tracking actual results, it’s nearly impossible to keep track of what’s actually working. Although I hear complaints about the extra work that it takes to track a sales pipeline, (the process a sale goes through from a lead, to an opportunity to an actually sale) this process is imperative for a any marketer to discover the true cost of their efforts and the actual Return on Investment they are realizing. Would you blindly throw dollars into a campaign if it were you own money? You’d want cold, hard facts…right? Many marketers are lax on following strict pipeline management tractics, being that they work with client money – but the trick is to spend it like it’s not only YOUR money, but as if it were your last few dollars.

A Business’s $100,000 Marketing Mistake

I once worked with a client who was trying to market their site and their offline product for over a year…all by themselves.  I meet with them at their request, as they were at their wit’s end trying to figure out how to spend less and make more money. The first thing I asked them for was their analytics data and their conversion rates – neither of which they had.  So, I asked if they had tracked their leads over the past few years..at least keeping the customer’s name, region, and referral source. Again, they hadn’t. They also didn’t have solid data as to the actual campaigns they were running, or how much they all cost during their last fiscal year. Bad news. We went back into their accounting, and found they had spent nearly $100,000, gained only $30,000 in new sales, and had absolutely NO idea which campaigns produced which sales.

This is definitely not something you want to do. All of the world’s best marketers will tell you how important utilizing a CRM is. If you think you can’t afford one, there are many cost efficient solutions out there – even a few free solutions!

What was one of the biggest realizations that you made after implementing CRM into your marketing efforts?

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Here are:

The 5 Ways Your Website Tells you How You Can Improve Your Business

1. High Bounce Rates- What it means: People are likely not understanding what your site is about, or you’re not conveying your message in an easy to understand manner. Perhaps your web design is misleading, or your copy is not placed correctly. By testing (even split a/b testing with different front page layouts) you can gauge what keeps you users on the site, what what elicits their exit.
2. The Search Terms They Use to Find You: If you look at what people type info the search engines to find your site, is it relevant to what you sell? If not, you may want to re-think your Search Engine Optimization Strategy – or develop one if you don’t have one.
3. The Quality of Leads you are Gaining: If you sell something on your website, take a look at past leads. Have they converted into sales? If so, what percentage of your leads convert into sales? Surprisingly, averages generally rest in less than 10%. However, by making changes to your design, copy, and user experience, you can experiment with what works to convert leads into sales.
4. Customer Interaction: Does your website generate a lot of questions rather than sales? Are people confused as to your services or offerings? Take a look at what people are asking you, and be sure to be flexible when updating your website to reflect the customers needs. Check the pages that people go to for answers. Are they going to the FAQ section, or the “About Us” section to find the answer to that specific question?
5. Page Surfing Depth: How many pages did the average person look at on your website before they decided to leave? What were the top pages of content on your site? This information is priceless when updating your website to be used as a sales tool. If people aren’t really look at the pages of your site, it may be telling you that your site navigation is a bit confusing or mis-placed. If you’ve got a flash based site, be sure to integrate analytics into your code. Your site could be telling you that people are only concerned with one page of your site before they sign up or buy. Take this information very seriously and you’ll find that the customers literally ask for  the content they want to see by the pages on your site that they browse though.

In what ways has your website told you how to improve?

Now that times are tougher, employers should really be looking to squeeze every bit of ROI out of every dollar they’re spending on direct and indirect marketing tactics. If you’re reading this blog, then it’s very likely that your company has implemented some kind of social media campaigning tactics within the past year or two. Perhaps you’ve learned how to integrate something like Google Analytics into the mix as well, but are you really tracking results based on the time spent on each task?

Some may say that micro-managing your marketing leads to over-thinking and too much time spent on often tedious reports and tracking. Some may also say that the CEO and CFO, and even perhaps the CMO shouldn’t be responsible for making sure correct tracking has been implemented.

All things considered, even some of the most seasoned internet marketers and CRM experts have been in the industry for less than 10 years.

By most other industry standards, you’d quite possibly still be a newbie.

This being said, I am a firm believer in every CEO having a very active role in the companies CRM and social efforts. Many CEO and VP clients of mine have argued quite a lot with me about this. They insist their VP or Marketing departments can handle it. The CFO generally has the best idea of the company’s culture, as well as hidden markets and niches that the company could be targeting with it’s efforts. They have a better idea of the sales that are closing, and the reasons for stalled sales for closing. In the end, the CEO should be consistently viewing and analyzing an 360 view of every 360 view.

I’ve compiled a few of the must-do tips for keeping accountability within your CRM and Social Media efforts:

• Track time spent on tasks. I know this seems a bit aimless, but if your employees are running social media campaigns, ask them to track their time. Using apps like Rescue Time or other time tracking resources help immensely.
• Keeping these tracked times in your CRM campaign management data is imperative for accountability. If your employees are spending 5 hours per day on Twitter, with similar ROI’s to a Facebook campaign they’re spending 2 hours on, this would alert you to perhaps have them focus on Facebook a bit more. There are many scenarios like this where you’d spot better and more efficient ways to use time.
• Build enthusiasm for accountability in your department. Let employees know that it’s not that you don’t trust they’re doing their jobs correctly, but for tracking and expansion purposes.
• Keep data clean. Clean data is happy data. Make sure all client and service data is correct. There should be no duplicates, as this can greatly affect your tracking.
• Consistently re-evaluate how and what you track within your business. CRM is like fine wine. It only gets better with age. The reasoning behind this is that with time, you should be fine-tuning and customizing your CRM solution to meet your business needs. No CRM solution should be utilized right out of the box. Make sure to take the time to learn everything that it offers. This includes the all important CEO.

I am currently in the process of getting my main website in order, which I’ve been meaning to do forever now. I’ve been lucky enough that the bulk of my clientele comes from referrals, repeat clients, or serial entrepreneurs who fancy perpetually picking my brain.

The Shape of Business to Come

So what have I seen in the business landscape over the past year? I’ve seen companies buckle down and focus on what’s really important. Old processes and policies are flying out like crazy…because they’re no longer working in this climate. A few aspects that all channel into Customer Relationship Management that I’ve been focusing on with my clients are:

• Where the Business is Coming From-  No longer can businesses be lacking in their tracking strategies. Every dollar counts now more than it ever did, and this is where it’s at. No where your business comes from. This is priceless information.
• How do I Make the Process EXCEPTIONAL? – Creating an extremely unique and awesome customer experience doesn’t require vast amounts of money, just a bit of creativity and know-how. This, along with stellar customer service creates a genuine loyalty around a brand and it’s product or service. Make it memorable and elicit conversation. It’s the cheapest and most effective marketing method around (still).
• Know it All – Make it someone’s job to know EVERYTHING about your customer. Their clicking habits, the A/B test page results, what makes them tick, what sites they frequent, where their money is being spent, what email campaign traits get the best responses, and so on. Organize this all into one central location and make a meeting out of it at least every quarter. You’d be surprised at how this type of information spawns innovation in your business. Don’t be afraid to tweak processes, ads, and marketing based on the information you find. This information is useless unless you act upon it quickly.
• Service though Social Media: If your customer is talking about you, that’s great. If they’re expressing dismay with you, social media is your opportunity to make it right, while showing the rest of the world that you CAN and are WILLING to make it right. Social media is an exceptional customer service tool, because it provides past records of challenges, errors, mistakes, and fixes that are priceless to your business. Be sure to log your customer service conquests online, with basic information on the customer, what their issue was, how long it took to solve the issue, what you did to solve the issue, how much it cost you, and so on.  If you have Salesforce, or some other CRM tool, be sure to log this information thoroughly. You’ll be so glad you did!

These are just a few things I am seeing for 2010.There is a lot more I’d like to write, but I’ll save that for another post. I wish you all a prosperous and safe 2010!

Oh this guy has a lot of “Get Rich Fast” answers for you.

I am referring to the all-knowing awesomeness that is Google. If you’re like the average or above average web searcher, you’re constantly throwing questions at Google. If you don’t, don’t worry… then you’re actually using search terms, which generally renders better results anyhow. The other 80% of the populous seems to be on the “Ask Google a Question” train. They approach Google with their most burning questions, and expect an instant answer.

The Question is: As A Marketer – How Do I Capitalize On This?

The truth is that many internet marketers aren’t doing one of their most important due diligence tasks before throwing themselves fully into the internet marketing game; and that’s studying the search habits of those same users that they’re targeting.

What is your user really searching for, and how are they searching for it?

To answer this basic question, set up a blog or small site on any topic of niche’ that you’re looking to know more about. Grow the site, post regularly, and watch your web analytics closely. You want to look specifically at the search terms people are using to find your site.  What are they? You may notice some astonishing results. Some may seem completely irrelevant.

Many of the search terms that people are typing into Google to find your website are questions.

What kinds of questions are your users asking? What do they want to know? The answers may be surprising to you.

Some interesting questions some of my own readers used to find my site:

• “How can I Build Trust in Sales?”
• “Why no one ever notices my online marketing efforts?”
• “How do I admit marketing weakness?”
• “How Can I save money on my internet marketing?”
• “How did someone find my website?”
• “Is My Website Updated?”
• “How do I redesign my website?”
• “Why Isn’t my Business Growing?”

Take a look at the questions your users are asking to get to your site. This is really priceless information that you can really use to your advantage.

What are your users asking?

Generally, when I ask clients (or even other online marketers for that matter), what their Return Conversion Rate is, the response I receive is “my returnuh huh?” It’s funny that no one seems to know what I’m talking about. This is actually one of the more important metrics in Internet Marketing, yet so few people know anything about it.  So that leads me to my obvious question of the day:

Do you know what your Return Conversion Rate is?

When properly tracked, your return conversion rate has tremendous potential to push and pull your company in greater ways than you realize. It speaks sweet nothings into your ear… sweet data. Data that is very important in understanding your company’s brand awareness factor, service, and even overall culture. Yes, it’s that important. It’s that big.

What is a Return Conversion Rate?

Simply put, it’s when a potential customer visits your site, then leaves without converting (or buying anything), but later on returns to convert (or buy something). This measurement also includes first-time visitors who return, as well as exiting customers who eventually return to convert again.

If you own, or have worked for an online retailer, you know that great lengths are made to keep track of visitors on your site, and where exactly they’re coming from. You also know that rarely does a person purchase from a website on their first visit.  The average conversion rate for most new and returning customers on e-commerce site’s is 2%.

Yes, that’s it. Just 2%.

If returning visitors are a prime demographic for selling, why aren’t most marketers focused on converting these priceless visitors? Well, it’s not the easiest, and it’s quite time consuming. Internet marketers are now (more than ever) needing to shift their focus onto Customer Retention strategies.

Give Them Incentive To Stay

Customer retention hasn’t ever been more difficult than it is now. During our tough economic times, people are eager to change their spending habits. They’re willing to do almost anything to save an extra buck, even if it means changing their monthly cosmetic purchase to another online store… or worse, going to their local drug store. Times are changing, and if you’re going to be successful in business, you’ve got to stay flexible.

Each business has a special way that it can retain it’s current customers. You may be thinking big things need to be offered, but surprisingly, you’ll come to find that the little things seem to work just as well. For instance, Zappos.com starting offering free shipping to help keep their client retention efforts in momentum mode, and they have succeeded greatly. 75% of their customers are returning shoppers. They can justify a purchase with free shipping, and it’s really working for them. They have built a whole brand around their retention efforts, and many growing businesses should really take note. I can’t think of a better company with more clarity in their retention efforts than Zappos.

Retarget, Rebrand, and ReAdvertise

It’s time to take notice of your user’s habits and behaviors. Target your advertisements on what the person has done in the past. Retargeting is the most powerful way to grow that precious Return Conversion Rate.  Retargeting is also one of the only forms of advertising that can work with any size of retailer or business. The beauty of converting warmer leads is that is costs less, which is also a plus during times when many advertisers and marketers and looking to cut costs all around.

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Have you ever evaluated how trustworthy your brand, product, or service looks to an outsider?

If you happen to be in an industry where trust is already limited, then you’ve got your work cut out for you. Lawyers, investors, and network marketers rank among the lowest trusted in today’s society. Personally, I have an extremely hard time trusting Realtors. I can’t stand about 90% of them.  As a younger person who was recently looking for a home to buy, I can’t tell you how many times I caught the listing agent lying to me about things they had assumed I was uneducated about. This happened repeatedly. While not all Realtors are liars, those 10 that I came into contact with, happened to shape my views on how I perceived realtors as far as trust went.

Think about what it takes for you to really trust a person or an entire organization. What acts, displays, or gestures are you looking for when you’re initially deciding whether someone or something is trustworthy or not. We often perform our “trust” processes unconsciously, but if you really take a moment to brainstorm what factors make you trust, you’ll be gaining valuable insight on what you need to do to gain others trust.

Kurt Mortensen, the author of Maximum Influence and Persuasion IQ, defines the five C’s of trust as:

• Character
• Competence
• Confidence
• Credibility
• Congruence

* Does your personal brand or corporate identity emcompass these traits?

* How can we prove ourselves more trustworthy, without breaking the bank?

* How do you do it?

All comments and input are welcome! This is an open discussion after all!

“The recession is driving marketers to concentrate on gaining new business, even more than on customer retention objectives,” says David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Search Marketing Trends: Back to Basics. “Search is the ultimate online acquisition tool, and therefore is positioned to do relatively well in this economy.”  – from eMarketer’s article Titled “Searching for New Customers in the Recession?”

Grabbing web searchers attention isn’t difficult if you are correctly targeting, analyzing, and covering all of your bases. Search marketing is gaining more momentum than ever, and if you aren’t investing marketing dollars into your SEM efforts, you are doing your business a great disservice. eMarketer goes on to state that paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion (PPC), and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will all see increased spending through 2013.

Harnessing the power of search  marketing also happens to be one of the safest routes to more sales that almost any business can take immediate action on. Simply appearing in search results is no longer good enough. Remember, you are one of thousands vying for your customer’s sales, while they are clinging to their dollars tighter than ever. Your content needs to be highly targeted and polished.  There is a highly effective method to executing a super-charged targeted search marketing campaign:

Put Yourself In Your Customer’s Shoes When Designing a Search Campaign

Are they really looking to click on PPC ads, or do they get right down to business and cycle through natural results first? Are your users savvy enough to know the difference? Do they search for specific products by UPC numbers or codes? Are they confused when landing on your ‘targeted’ pages? This information is imperative to your search marketing efforts.

I am telling my clients this on a daily basis:

Mediocre is no longer sufficient. Striving to be Remarkable in Every Aspect is Now NOT an Option.

What kind of efforts has your business implemented to try to be remarkable? Have you seen any instances of big businesses trying to be remarkable lately?

So should one consider ruling out email marketing altogether?

Definitely Not!

It has many more pros than cons, which I will discuss in a later post. What I will tell you now, is that Email Marketing hasn’t lost it’s edge, and is still a great way to ramp up sales in any industry…if you know what you’re doing.

Here are 8 Powerful Email Marketing Techniques that I commonly refer to as the “Email’s Great 8″:

1. Longer Isn’t Always Better: The trick is to give readers actionable content – information they can use right away to solve a problem. You need to know what your readers’ problems are, so you can tell them how you or your company, service or product is going to solve these problems. Every email needs to give the reader something valuable and new. When you send out an email, put yourself in the readers shoes. Is it interesting? Is it going to better your life in any way?

2. Add Value: Focusing in on how to add value to your email newsletter or email marketing material is imperative. If you’re sending off emails with information on products, but not specific information on how it works, and what great things will happen if they have these products, you’re definitely not utilizing your email marketing to it’s fullest. I’ve seen many company’s whose email lists dwindle down by hundreds of people opting out, because they aren’t sending out useful content. Add more than just product displays and profiles. Include how-to articles, perhaps links to videos or articles of your product/service in action, and take any opportunity to show the reader that you’re not only looking to sell to them, but also help them in their everyday life.

3. Seperation is Key: Do you subscribe to your competitor’s newsletters and email marketing materials? If not, you are missing a great opportunity to not only research what’s working for them, but also to use that knowledge to stand out from the pack. If you’re doing exactly what they’re doing, someone who is signed up for your competitor’s newsletter and yours will likely opt of out one of these email lists. Don’t let it be yours. Be original, fun, and don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.

4. Welcome Letter Bliss: I am constantly seeing companies with great email lists that miss out on one crucial concept; the Welcome letter. When someone signs up for your newsletter, orders a product, or requests more information, this is really your opportunity to “wow” them with nice gestures…without being pushy. Coupons, useful content, free offerings, special clubs,  contests and other promotions are great for inclusion in a welcome letter. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to gain more sales, as well as to give them their first great experience as a customer with your company.

5. Create Email Titles Like a Ninja!: Have you ever clicked on an a Google search result, email, or blog post, simply because it sported a witty title? If you take a look around the internet at what’s getting tons of traffic, linkage, and buzz, chances are great that it has a great title. A great title instantly tells the user or reader what you, your product, or your service is going to do for them. Creating a sense of urgency is also great, without being pushy, of course. Aim to make your title catchy, realistic, but fun… all at once.

6. Create Community: Creating a sense of community around your email marketing campaign isn’t has tough as it sounds. Including simple elements like reader feedback, Q&A, or even a customer spotlight section gives the instant feeling of community around not only your overall brand, but your mailings as well. Take note from brands that you think have done a good job at incorporating it’s user/customer image into it’s online mailings.  People who are using your product or service will generally have a similar common goal. Run with this concept, and use this commonality to unite your brand’s loyalist clients into one rabid fan base for your company. Make them feel like it’s something special they are taking part in.

7. Brand it Baby!: A well-branded email marketing campaign is one of the most important factors in creating not only a useful newsletter, but also a memorable one. When opening your newsletter, you want to give your reader the feeling that they’re opening a present, with a shiny, new, and useful tool or toy inside.  Your brand should be one that really portrays the core culture of your business.  Some of my nominations for best in branding when it comes to email marketing are Apple, Monster.com,  and Smashbox.com.

8. Watch the Pros, and Learn: Set aside at least an hour, and skim through your old email marketing newsletters from other companies in your email inbox. What are some of your favorites? Why are they your favorite? What could they improve on? What caught your eye? What made you feel the email was worth continuing to receive? What will keep you from opting out of a retailer or service provider’s email newsletter list? Jot down your notes from your findings, and study it a while. You may be surprised at what you find. Ask friends and colleagues what they look for in email newsletters.  Always study what the big companies do, and don’t be afraid to take their innovation a step further!

Many of of my colleagues have been asking me for advice on how to earn extra money to keep their marketing stable, or even to grow their overall marketing efforts, since others in their industry are seemingly decreasing their marketing spending.  We know sales and overall conversions are down, but these same sales would be stagnant without any marketing at all, which is why we shouldn’t roll-over and play dead because things are getting tough. It just takes a bit of thinking outside of the box.

While many of my suggestions may seem like they’re “below” some people, I argue that in this economy, nobody is below much of anything, short of working the streets (which I don’t recommend). I know a man who was just laid off of his $200,000 per year job and is now working as a bank teller for less than $12 an hour.  It is because of this, business owners may need to broaden their horizons when it comes to bringing in some extra working revenue into their business. I also see many of my entrepreneur friends dipping into their savings to market their businesses. This is very risky, and I always recommend having some cushion money to fall back on if you’re a business owner, and especially if you have a family.

While brainstorming with a friend, we came up with our list of:

Ways to Raise Money to Market Your Business in a Bad Economy

• Let go of Things that Don’t Matter: This is the first thing I ask clients and colleagues when they say they don’t have money… “Do you have “stuff”? Everyone loves stuff. You will likely sell it for less than you purchased it for, which is fine if it was something you didn’t use often anyways. If you’ve got a $5,000 pool table in your home that you never use, sell it! If you drive a newer luxury car that is paid for, why not trade it in for something a bit more practical? Unused office equipment? Sell it! These downgrades aren’t permanent. We all know that things will eventually get better. For now, every penny really does count.

• Make the Most of Your Client List: All of your old invoices are worth their weight in gold. Even if you aren’t the best record keeper, you should have some record of whose been purchasing from you over the years. If you have employees, put them to work calling or emailing old customers and simply asking how they are doing. Special “loyalty discounts” and other specials could do the trick.  Remember not to be pushy, and to keep the customer’s best interest in mind. You should be calling/emailing with “How can I help them?” in mind.

• Barter or Trade: Now more than ever, I’ve noticed that more and more people are willing to barter or trade services, expertise and even merchandise. Ask yourself what will help you raise money, and brainstorm it onto a list called “Things I Need To Barter or Trade For“. Post your barter request on local and regional classified sites, social networks, and of course on Twitter.  This will likely get you some good results. Do remember that your trades need to be relatively equal in value, and they should equip you with something to better your business by.

• Put Your Other Skills to Use: Outside of your business activities, what other skills do you posses that could earn you extra money? Are you a good writer? Many people make a good amount of extra cash doing freelance writing work, and with the internet, it’s very easy to find. Perhaps you are good at math? Tutoring local students could also earn you some extra cash. I know a local woman who works from her home office, and also watches a handful of kids (all over 9 years old) during the weekdays to supplement her income since business was down a bit.  She ended up making a bit more than she had thought she would, and used the excess to put towards more marketing that helped her immensely.

Besides smarter budgeting, what are some other ways you have found to raise money to keep your business going? Chances are, it required you to be resourceful, and to truly think outside of the box.