Marketers' Toolbox
A Rich and Varied Stream of Keywords
Make sure anyone writing for the web tries out this free tool. Wordstream's new keyword niche tool may boost the profitability of your site by adding valuable keywords for any SEO or PPC campaign. The tool automates the lengthy process of finding profitable keywords in a particular niche. A marketer looking for ideas for content or blogposts about electric saws, for instance, is given bundles of keywords relating to the most valuable. This search provides at least 318 variations on electric chain saw, the most valuable keyword group. Click: WordStream.com.
Facebook's Value
So how much is your Facebook page worth? Is it of value to an advertiser of complementary products? The tool gives an estimate.
Click: eValuator.Vitrue.comFree Fonts, Designed for OnlineFirst, Google dominated the Web. Now it wants to pretty it up by encouraging sites to use its new collection of free, open source, high-quality web fonts. To mark the launch of the Google Font Directory and the Google Font API, it released new themes for Google Spreadsheet forms. These show how these new web-friendly fonts work on online forms. Click: Google Code blog.
Nifty Ways to Process Sales on the Road
New mobile applications eliminate the need for printers or credit card processors to take payments at trade shows, or wherever you travel for work. Instead, you can process a payment using one of the many new mobile applications that are springing up for smart phones. To see how it works, watch the video at http://ht.ly/1JKjx showing how iSwipe.com an application that costs only 99 cents, works on the iPhone. Click: Inc.com.
When you don't know how to pronounce something.
Here's a great tool for anybody dealing with customers PronounceName.com tells you how to say difficult names, like the exploding Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull. It's been dubbed "E plus 15" because it's so difficult to say. Click: PronounceName.com.
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July, 2010
Three Elements EVERY Marketing Mix Should Have...
...that is if you want your effort to be successful. You've done your strategy work. You've defined your target market, developed compelling positioning, established a competitive analysis and advantage, and packaged your products and/or services in a clear and relevant way. Now you're ready for the fun stuff-the marketing mix. You know, direct mail, email, brochure, web site refresh, public relations, and all of the various tactics you've determined make the most sense given your strategy.
But that's the hard part isn't it? Translating your strategy into an effective and efficient (and therefore more affordable) marketing plan is the key. Usually In almost every case, one or more of the following elements is in need of work:
Consistency: It is important to your marketing efforts that everything looks, feels, and sounds the same way. In order to get the benefits that repetition provides, this element is absolutely critical. If your targets hear the same message over and over again, the same way each time, they are much more able to spread the word in the way you want it to be spread. This is where the "and they tell two friends" becomes your most powerful marketing tool. Audit all marketing communication pieces, as well as other customer touch points (invoices, fax sheets, email signatures, etc.) for consistency of your brand use and message. Where it is not consistent...fix it immediately.
Frequency: It's true, frequency makes a difference. But, how often is frequent enough? It truly does depend on your market, your business goals, and your offer, however there are some guidelines. Once you've prioritized your primary, secondary, and tertiary markets, "touch" your primary market 2x monthly, your secondary market 1x monthly, and your tertiary markets 1x quarterly. Without this level of frequency your momentum is lost between marketing touches and the impact severely diminished. Unfortunately, as humans, our memory is somewhat short, so constant reminders that you exist and have something to offer is necessary to establishing the brand awareness we all aspire to achieve.
Variety: Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Consistency is good and frequency is even better, but if your marketing mix lacks variety, your efforts will suffer the consequences. Having your marketing rely on one or two vehicles (i.e. direct mail, email, and web site) lacks the power of "touching" your audience from the many angles they take to review their options. A combination of activities (i.e. a monthly newsletter, an email promotion, public relations, and networking) working together in concert allows you to develop a "relationship" with your prospect list long before you ever meet them. And, don't forget this variety should include both value-add content and promotional content and not be too heavily weighted on either.
As you can see, designing the marketing mix to support your marketing strategy is much more complicated than just picking the communication vehicles you'll use to "get the word out." You must also be sure that your implementation plan includes all three of the above elements. Audit your own marketing mix for these elements, making adjustments as needed, and you'll be on your way to a more effective and efficient marketing effort!
Source: Go-To-Market Strategies is a resource center for sales, marketing professionals, and business leaders (www.gtms-inc.com).
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Eight Overlooked Testing Strategies
1. Think of testing as a strategy, instead of a sporadic chore. Several factors have to be in place to have an effective testing strategy. The company must be committed to the idea, put a budget in place for it and be willing to fail. One reason to have a budget in place is to be able to afford renting a big enough list to really get a good understanding of how well that list performs. Suggestion: stay between 25,000 and 100,000 records for each campaign.
2. Test at various times. Many e-mail marketers hold firm to the idea that "Tuesday through Thursday, 7 a.m. is absolutely the right time" for a campaign to hit recipients' inboxes. But, anymore, B-to-B marketers, for instance, may want to consider Sunday night-when many check their work e-mail so there are fewer surprises on Monday morning. Or, catching the lunchtime inbox peek. Noon can be a good impulse buy time.
Direct mail users may want to do the same, and may also want to try not mailing a particular segment of their file during a specific time period to watch the impact.
3. Cast a wider net. Some insist on only contacting chief marketing officers. But contacting vice presidents, marketing directors and on down the line-and the results proved to be much better. Marketers should also look at lists that are working and "aggressively" test into either "older recency ranges, expanding into either lower dollar ranges ... or even removing the dollar range."
4. Develop testing data before trying to negotiate a lower list rental. "If you put together a good enough test where you can really track what your overall cost per lead is or what your overall success is, then, after the fact, you'll have a baseline to go back to the list owner," Scott says.
5. Determine the testing dimensions. Creative: There's different elements to test. Is it the package? Is it having an insert or not having an insert? Targeting: Am I using a model? Am I using a profile? Am I using a list? Am I using certain customer behaviors or triggers? So, where's my list coming from? Offer: Is it a financial offer? Is it a process benefit? Response Channel: Am I using a self-mailer? Is it an 800 call-in number? Is it a website? Is it a DVD that I want someone to watch on his computer and then click through to a website? As for the "offer" element, marketers should test a few, because consumers may be in different phases of the buying cycle. And, while a white paper may appeal to someone in the education phase, those closer to purchase may want a 30-day, free trial.
6. Consider other measurements besides response rates. Response rates may not mean sales, and sales may not translate to valuable customers. (Depending on what the offer is, first-time buyers may be one-time purchasers or even returners.)
7. Realize that list interaction reports still matter. Take a look at the merge/purge reports, see where the best-performing names are coming from and make sure that they, and other names, are not duplicated on other lists. Ensure cooperative lists, for instance, are providing enough unique, valuable names to justify the cost.
8. Implement a reuse strategy for prospecting efforts. Sometimes your top 25 percent of your list can yield a better performance on a reuse than the bottom part of your plan.
Two bonus tips for direct mail users:
Mailers once adhered to the one household, one mail piece rule. Consider addressing individuals within the household.
Marketers may want to understand their specific geographic "strong points." Going as far as figuring out which part of the plus-four in the ZIP+4 works well might improve performance, considering how far models have advanced.
Source: DM News Magazine
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Please contact me with any questions or comments.
Michael Vitch, President
Compu-Mail | 800.255.0670 | www.compu-mail.com
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