Top Tips

The Importance of Internet Marketing

• Let your customers know you exist online
• Engage with your online visitors – capture email addresses
• Give something in return – tips, offers, information
• Keep your customers informed – email marketing and e-newsletters
• Increase qualified leads through Pay per click advertising

Let your customers know you exist online

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to operate a business effectively without a presence on the Internet.  Also, the primary source of information for most people is now the Internet - if someone wants to find out about a particular product, service or company they are most likely to look there first than in any directory or library. so it is vitally important for your business to have information about itself on the web.  Most companies have now grasped this fact and have at least a brochure type web site with basic information on their product or service offerings together with basic contact details. The next stage is to develop a web site which helps you to interact with your visitors and we will look at strategies to achieve this later. As you are no doubt aware, your web address needs to be published on all your marketing materials – headed notepaper, business cards, adverts – in fact all communications with the outside world.

Engage with your online visitors - Give them a free gift

Having made the effort to develop a web site and publish it online for people to visit, it would be a pity if you did not then take advantage of these visits and encourage a relationship to develop with the prospect of achieving sales. There are a number of ways in which you can interact with your visitors but one of the best is to give them a free gift in exchange for their details. This can take the form of a newsletter, data sheet, series of tips or product/service offer which they can download from your web site. One way of developing relationships with your visitors is to encourage them to leave their email address so you can keep communicating with them in future. Your web site designer (this may be you!) can develop a box at the top of your home page in which the addresses can be placed. Alongside this box you can state the free gift you are offering, allowing them to download the information or join your newsletter contact list. A database, attached to the web site, can be developed to hold newly acquired contact details thus adding to your burgeoning contact list. This is a very simple but effective way of building up a prospective customer list which will cost little or nothing to implement.

Keep your customers informed

Once you have enticed your visitors to interact with you, you can keep in touch with them to ensure they don't forget about you and also to tell them about all the new and wonderful activities you are undertaking!  One way of doing this is by email newsletter on a regular e.g. monthly basis. This does not need to be too complicated and can consist of a simple email with 2 or 3 points composed of tips, news items or perhaps changes relevant to your customers' businesses. Developing an email template with your company name and logo to contain the e-newsletters will help to enforce your name and brand.

Increase qualified leads through Pay per Click advertising

Pay per click advertising is the greatest recent phenomenon in online marketing which if done well can significantly increase the number of visitors to your web site who are qualified leads interested in buying the product or service you provide. Pay per click advertising means you are paying the search engine provider such as Google or Yahoo to be near the top of their listings. However you don't actually pay anything until someone clicks on your details and visits your web site – hence the term pay per click. How much you pay for each click depends on how much competition there is for the search terms that you want to use, and how high up on the search engine you want to be. Either way, you choose how much to pay – and you can also specify a maximum daily budget. The following section goes into more detail about how you can make this work for you.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Several companies offer pay per click advertising including Google, Yahoo and Overture. The biggest company is Google and if you are new to this area, it will be worth spending some time looking at their site:

https://adwords.google.com/select/main

To start using pay per click advertising you firstly need to write your advert. It needs a catchy headline and a few words of compelling copy to encourage people to click on it. You then select the keywords that you are going to bid on. For example, if you are selling car contract hire services, you might choose to bid on the terms: ‘contract hire', ‘car contract hire' and ‘car contract management.' This means that every time somebody searches using any of these terms your advert will show up on the pages showing the results of their search.

Next, you need to decide how much you are willing to pay every time somebody clicks on the advert and visits your website. The more you are willing to pay, the higher your advert will be placed. How much you need to pay to be near the top will depend partly on how competitive your search term is. For example, bidding on the term, ‘stock car racing in Glasgow ' will be a lot cheaper than bidding on the term ‘Internet marketing', because Internet marketing is a very competitive area.

It is very important that your advert is compelling and relevant as the position of your advert on the search engine listing is determined not only by the amount you pay per click but by the number of people who click on your advert. This is known as your click through rate or CTR. Quite simply, adverts that get clicked on more often get a better position and because they are getting clicked on even more often, you end up in a cycle of success.

Another advantage is that Google lets you test and measure the success of your advertising by allowing you to run two different ads at the same time for any of your keywords. This enables you to test two different ads at the same time and see which performs best. You can then run the best performing ad and write another one to see which is most successful. Keep doing this over time and your click through rates are likely to increase. This will give you an advantage over the competition, safe in the knowledge that not only are you getting more clicks, but you are paying far less than them for each click to your website.

I wish you every success with your Internet Marketing strategy!

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The Power of Direct Mail

There is a myth that direct mail does not work because so much of it is thrown away.  This need not be the case if you analyse your existing customer base and potential customers effectively.  However direct mail is ultimately a numbers game and the more often you carry out mail or email campaigns to as many of your target customers as possible the more opportunity there is of developing business opportunities and making sales.

If you do not currently carry out much direct mail you should start with your existing customers – you may well be sitting on an untapped goldmine! Develop an offer for these customers based on the product or service you provide. Send them a letter and measure the response. If it works, mail them again next month and measure the results. If it keeps on working, keep on doing it!

You can also use direct mail campaigns directed at potential new customers. This is more complex (as there are areas like segmentation and targeting of productive customer groups to analyse) and you may require some outside help. However there are some fundamentals which are worth following:

1. It is important to test any Direct Mail campaigns for new customers on a small scale first before rolling them out - this could potentially save you a lot of time and money on mailings that do not work!
2. Consider testing purchased mailing lists relevant to your largest group of target customers. There are some acceptably accurate mailing lists available which can be a great way of reaching new people.
3. Always include a covering letter with any brochure you send – this will increase the response rate.
4. Make sure that the contents of your mailing focus on the benefits of your product or service. You want it to be about your potential customer and what you can do for them rather than just being about you.
5. Don't limit direct mail to pure selling. You can use it to say ‘thank you' to customers. You can use it to ask for referrals or to introduce your customers to a company you've partnered with. The opportunities are only limited by your imagination.
6. Test mailing postcards – they are cheaper than a normal mailing and in some cases will produce a higher response rate.
7. If you follow up a mailing with a phone call you can increase the response rate by up to 1000%.
8. If possible include a response card or form for the customer to complete or return. Alternatively, refer them to your web site or provide a telephone number for them to take up your offer.

Direct mail is a huge subject but these principles should help you make a start on your next campaign and avoid costly mistakes in the future.

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How many ways do you use to market your business?

How many methods of marketing do you currently use to sell your company's products or services? You probably rely on one or two activities such as word of mouth referrals or advertising. It is worth considering all the many other methods of reaching your potential customers that exist - ones that you are currently not making use of - and how these can be used in conjunction with each other to spread your message more effectively and make your business more profitable.

Many organisations are trapped into thinking in a limited way or like other similar businesses in their professions. For example, when was the last time you received an email from your hairdresser or dentist asking if you would like to make an appointment or to take up a special offer they are running? Using such an approach is likely to double the number of appointments and also subsequent sales.

Below is a list of the 10 top marketing methods available. If you pick at least two methods to add to your current marketing mix you are likely to increase your chances of growing your business more rapidly and effectively in the near future.  

• Direct Mail
• Internet Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Advertising
• Telephone Marketing
• Direct Sales
• Strategic Alliances
• Up-selling existing customers/clients
• Referral Systems
• PR

Take some time to ‘think outside the box' and try some new and innovative marketing practices. Test the methods and measure the results as you progress and use these to adapt and develop future campaigns. Good marketing!