iMarketSmart

Is your email signature helping or hurting your marketing efforts?

January 19th, 2012

Why wouldn’t you create a great email signature?

Don’t forget about your email signature (the space at the end of the emails you send out).

You can, of course, leave it empty. But we recommend you take advantage of the free space as a marketing opportunity.

Add your logo for branding purposes. Then make it easy for people to contact you by including all of your contact information.

Here’s a list of some of the things you should consider including in your email signature:

• Name

• Title

• Company

• Phone numbers (all of them)

• LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook links

Also, you should put a link to your latest blog post. People will click it if your post titles are interesting and engaging.

Here is an example of how MarketSmart does it.

Tags: Blog, Email, Facebook, marketing, Social media, Twitter, website
Posted in Blogging, Branding, Email, marketing | No Comments »

Get more bang for your direct mail buck

January 3rd, 2012

Add relevance and a personalized URL

Yes, I’m talking about personalization. Direct mail works best when it is relevant. So we recommend you send targeted messages to each person based on their preferences.

Say you have 612 people in your database who like red boats and 410 who like blue boats. Send the 612 an offer for a red boat– “Special Sale on RED Boats Ends in 7 Days!!” And of course, the 410 should get a message for a blue boat.

We also suggest you ask your prospects to respond using a unique, personalized web page created for each individual target.

For instance: “Special Sale on RED Boats Ends in 7 Days!!! Go to www.gregwarner.redboatsale.com for Deep Discounts!”

You can use each prospect’s name as the anchor and some nifty technology to create 612 unique landing pages for each person who likes red boats and 410 unique landing pages for each person who likes blue boats.

That way, when they arrive at the page, their name will appear. But even better, the unique web pages will show them their favorite colored boat.

And best of all, you will be able to see who logged on (name, address, phone number) since the personalized urls will have been created from your original database. So you will be able to track each individual visitor.

That way you know who visited, when, where they clicked and what their interests are. For bigger ticket items, this is great information for your sales force so they can follow-up armed with information

Tags: Direct Marketing, marketing, results, strategy, website
Posted in Direct Marketing, lead generation, marketing, Mass Media, website | No Comments »

What the heck is email marketing automation?

November 7th, 2011

With the development of social media – and the problems of spam and information overload – email may be losing some of its power. Smart spam filters are making it more difficult to get your messages through to your prospects and clients. Yet, although it’s not quite as effective as it used to be, it’s still a cheap way to reach a lot of people.

So now, more than ever, it’s important to make sure that your emails are truly helpful, targeted and informative. Don’t anger your hard-earned database of prospects with useless, irrelevant spam. Treat your contacts with respect and they’ll respond.

But did you know that you can “automate” your emails by planning a series of messages that will go to a prospect based on their interests, a series of assumptions and desired reactions.

For example, if you’re selling home remodeling services, your first email could be about all your services. But based on where each respondent clicks (such as kitchen remodeling or painting or wallpapering), you could deliver automated emails that are entirely relevant to the respondents’ individual needs.

That way a prospect interested in kitchen remodeling would subsequently get emails only on that subject. Also, the follow-up emails can be set up to deliver better and better offers over time.

This tactic requires a lot of preplanning and is sometimes only effective for large lists, but certainly worth looking into. Once you have developed an effective plan, you can leave it to run for several months.

Tags: Blog, Direct Marketing, Email, leads, marketing, Social media, strategy
Posted in Blogging, Communication, Email, marketing, Multi-channel marketing, Retention marketing, strategy | No Comments »

Have you used Slideshare yet?

November 2nd, 2011

Slideshare.net is less well known than Facebook or Twitter but it’s a neat free tool for promoting your PowerPoint presentations and building your credibility.

Plus you get to link your posts back to your website. So if someone stumbles on your Slideshare presentation and likes it, they may go to your website and engage with you by calling or seeking more information on your products or services.

There’s also a widget for automatically promoting your Slideshare presentations through your LinkedIn account.

This is a great way of enhancing the content in your LinkedIn account quickly and easily.

Tags: LinkedIN, Slideshare, strategy, website
Posted in Communication, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Social media, strategy | No Comments »

Trick or Tweet…? Let’s make good use of Twitter.

October 24th, 2011

Make good use of Twitter

Someone once told me that I needed to be on Twitter.com or I’d be dead in business.

Well, several years later we’re still in business – and growing fast. Truth is we’ve not engaged with Twitter very much yet because only a small proportion of our prospects (marketing directors, business owners and CEOs) are using it actively. Remember; fish where the fishing is good.

However there are many industries where Twitter is very powerful. Effective use of Twitter can make it very worthwhile.

For example, I know of a Taco Truck that has built a following in its home city.

They “tweet” where they are as they drive around the city and their faithful customers come running out from their cubicles “ just in time to catch the truck as it arrives at the nearest stop.

That’s a pretty darn effective use of Twitter.

Here are some specific tips for making good use of Twitter.

Tweet regularly

There is no point in setting up a Twitter account and then not tweeting. Make sure you share information regularly – even sharing links to useful resources a few times a day establishes you in the routine and will encourage you to get more involved.

The whole point of having a Twitter account is to build up a group of followers. If you are not tweeting regularly then no one is going to follow you.

A tweet is simply a post of less than 140 characters and can be a short interesting message – such as a motivational quote – or a link to an online resource that you have found useful.

Over time, your aim is to establish yourself as a respected source of information.

Follow your ideal customers

Your aim of being on Twitter is to build a list of followers. In order to do that, you need to start by following others. You will often find they follow you back.

Keep in mind that this is yet another situation where quality is more important than quantity. You could have 10,000 followers but there is no point if they don’t fit in your target market.

It’s far better to have 100 of your ideal customers or prospects following you than thousands of people who will never be interested in you or your business.

So start by identifying people that would be your ideal customers and follow them – one quick way to do that is to look at who is following your competitors or respected experts in your market and follow them.

Make real connections

The real success on Twitter comes when you make contact with people directly rather than simply sending out lots of tweets. Don’t be afraid. That’s the end goal. So, when the time is right, reach out and make contact.

Tags: connections, informative, Social media, Twitter
Posted in Communication, Multi-channel marketing, Social media, Twitter | No Comments »

Using Facebook to market your business? Some basics to help you see if it’s right for you.

October 21st, 2011

Set up a business page

In addition to your personal profile, you may want to set up a Facebook page for your business.

Funny thing is… we don’t have one. And that’s because we haven’t devised a Facebook strategy that we feel is worth the time to execute. We focus most of our time on our blog and LinkedIn since most of our prospects are business executives. Plus we get a lot of business from face-to-face networking and referrals.

You don’t necessarily have to employ every single marketing channel available to you. There’s only so much time in the day. Social media marketing isn’t expensive the way TV advertising is… but time is money. And a Facebook business page should be active. Otherwise people won’t want to visit more than once.

So, if Facebook is right for you, create a business page. You can use that page as an information portal where people can find out more about your business and what you are up to.

You can publish articles, videos and virtually anything that people might want to know about your business.

You want to invite people to “Like” your page and you should find reasons to attract them back regularly – such as gifts and contests.

Add applications (apps)

Facebook has a huge range of applications that can be added to profiles and pages to increase the opportunities for people to connect. New applications are being created almost daily. They range from games and utilities to productivity widgets and tools.

Developing your own application is a great way to promote your business page and to attract people back to it.

Generate leads

While many people will choose to communicate with you directly on Facebook, you want to get as many as possible of your Facebook visitors to sign up to your email list so that you can contact them directly.

You can do this by offering incentives such as free reports, coupons, special offers and deals when they visit your page.

Tags: Email, Facebook, internet, lead generation, online marketing, Social media, strategy
Posted in Facebook, Inbound Internet Lead Generation, marketing, Mass Media, Social media, strategy | No Comments »

Still looking for ways to utilize LinkedIn for business?

October 13th, 2011

Research your prospects

You can learn a great deal about a person on LinkedIn. For example, wouldn’t it be great if you had a meeting with someone and found out that she graduated from the same university as you two years prior? Instant bonding and rapport, right?

You can ask questions to get a feel for what prospective clients want, need or think about a product or service.

Of course this is no replacement for traditional quantitative research, but you can certainly garner a general “feel” for the receptivity of your offerings and ideas from among those in your network.

Research your competition

Suppose you are competing for a big project and you get wind of the names of your competitors. Use LinkedIn to research them and their potential weaknesses.

Make offers

Our final tip on using LinkedIn is to post messages about your sales, special offers, packages, deals, seminars, webinars, free reports, white papers and more.

Tags: LinkedIN, marketing, Social media, strategy
Posted in LinkedIn, marketing, Networking, Social media, strategy | No Comments »

Even more awesome ways to use LinkedIn for business.

October 7th, 2011

Join industry and alumni associations

These groups offer a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends and find new connections.

People like to do business with those who have attended the same college or belong to the same industry association. There is comfort and trust among those who belong to the same organizations.

Join those groups and search for people you might know. Then connect.

Promote your recent work accomplishments

Update your status with interesting (make sure it truly is interesting) reports about your business accomplishments, meetings with interesting people and awards. This is PR in the new age.

Use the search facility for prospecting

Use LinkedIn’s search feature to find people who might need what you sell. Search by company, industry and city. Or, better yet… search through your primary contacts’ networks to see who they know. Then ask them for an introduction via LinkedIn.

Use the LinkedIn email system

This is email sent through the LinkedIn system. Inmail has been reported to get good open and read rates.

Tags: lead generation, LinkedIN, Networking, online marketing, Social media, strategy
Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, lead generation, LinkedIn, marketing, Networking, Social media, strategy, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Some more ways to make the most of LinkedIn.

September 15th, 2011

Generate leads- If you’ve got something really worthwhile to offer – such as a great free report – you could use it to generate leads. Just by staying active in the LinkedIn community and offering great free information, you’ll build awareness of you and your business in your core market.

Give recommendations- By giving positive, honest, informational recommendations on LinkedIn for people with whom you have done business, they will be likely to give you a positive recommendation too.

Personal branding- Nowadays, prospects will go to LinkedIn to learn about you before they buy from you. If you have a dozen (or more) positive recommendations and your competitor has none… guess who will sign the contract?

Advertising- You can create an “ad” for your business and target only the LinkedIn members you want to reach in your preferred geographic region. It takes less than 5 minutes and you pay only for the times people click on your ad. It’s not free but it is fast, easy, targeted and you can start and stop it at any time. This is new to LinkedIn and they are still working out the kinks. But it’s worth a try.

Widgets- You can use LinkedIn widgets to integrate your other marketing efforts with your LinkedIn account. For instance, I use a widget that automatically sends a signal to my Twitter account every time I post an update – so all my entries on LinkedIn also get published as tweets. Sometimes highly influential Tweeters then “re-tweet” my tweets from LinkedIn. Neat!

Tags: lead generation, LinkedIN, online marketing, Social media
Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, lead generation, LinkedIn, marketing, Networking, Social media, strategy, Twitter, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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