Archive for the ‘Inbound Internet Lead Generation’ Category
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
If you need help trying to decide what to put on your planned giving website, here’s our in-house content guide and checklist.
We use this as a starting point for each and every planned giving Site we build for our clients. We don’t put everything found below in every website we develop. So please don’t go crazy trying to stuff every intricate type of gift into your Site.
Some of the bullet-points might seem obvious. But we reviewed a ton of planned giving websites and found that over 90% were missing a simple contact telephone number on the main page. Here you go!:
- Your logo and tag line
- Phone number
- Click-to-email feature
- Contact us (link to staff listing)
- Font size adjustment tool to increase the size of the font instantly
- Print tool
- Email to a friend tool
- Share tools (for social media)
- Basic text and photo testimonials- “donor stories”
- How gifts have made a difference in the past- “gift stories”
- Request more information (such as free brochures or downloads)
- Your organization’s tax ID#
- Bequest language for estate planners
- How to get the most out of your gift (tax benefits)
- Planning tools calculator (I actually think these things confuse donors but our clients keep requesting that we include them. Someday I might just say “NO!”)
- Answers to common objections such as:
- You can change your mind
- Family first
- You can keep it private
- Hold on to your assets for as long as you need them
- No minimum gift required
- Ways to make a lasting impact
- Bequests
- Gifts in will or trust
- Remainder bequest (residual bequest)
- Donor advised funds
- Gifts of assets that provide you income
- Charitable gift annuity
- Deferred CGA
- Other beneficiary
- Use appreciated securities to fund CGA
- Use real estate to fund CGA
- Retained life estate
- Charitable remainder trust
- Beneficiary designations
- Bank assets and securities
- Life insurance
- Retirement accounts
- Savings bonds
- Let us know (short survey that aims to acquire notifications)
- Why invest in our organization
- Mission
- Why give
- What’s the vision for the future (strategic plans/goals)
- Historical content (photos, captions and text will show longevity and stability proving a safe haven for their investment)
- Annual report
- Successes/achievements
- Where the money goes (How funds are used and stewarded)
- A simple pie chart will do the trick
- Staff
- Contact (click-to-email) links
- LinkedIn icons that links to their profiles
- Privacy Policy
Here are some samples of websites we created in case you’re looking for real-world examples:
California Academy of Sciences
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society
American Diabetes Association
Tags: internet, lead generation, online marketing, Planned Giving Marketing, Planned giving websites, website
Posted in Fundraising, Inbound Internet Lead Generation, lead generation, marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, website | No Comments »
Monday, August 27th, 2012
I think it’s safe to say that the argument is over— seniors and all other planned giving prospects are on the Internet.
Here are some findings from the recent Pew Research Center’s study (released in June 2012):
- Half of adults age 65 and older are online.
- As of April 2012, 53% of American adults age 65 and older use the internet or email. Still less likely than all other age groups to use the internet, the latest data represent the first time that half of seniors are going online. After several years of very little growth among this group, these gains are significant.
- Once online, most seniors make internet use a regular part of their lives.
- For most online seniors, internet use is a daily fixture in their lives. Among internet users age 65 and older, 70% use the internet on a typical day. (Overall, 82% of all adult internet users go online on an average day.)
- After age 75, internet and broadband use drops off significantly.
- Internet usage is much less prevalent among members the “G.I. Generation” (adults who are currently age 76 and older)1 than among other age groups. As of April 2012, internet adoption among this group has only reached 34%, while home broadband use has inched up to 21%. SmartGiftmaker believes that many of these folks have already made their decision anyway. According to the National Committee on Planned Giving (Indianapolis, Indiana), only 15% of those who set up gifts to charities in their wills were over 75. Forty-three percent were under 55. Forty-two percent were between 55 and 75.
- Seven in ten seniors own a cell phone, up from 57% two years ago.
- Even among those currently age 76 and older, 56% report owning a cell phone of some kind, up from 47% of this generation in 2010.
- One in three online seniors uses social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.
By comparison, email use continues to be the bedrock of online communications for seniors.
- 86% of internet users age 65 and older use email, with 48% doing so on a typical day. Among all adult internet users, 91% use email, with 59% doing so on a typical day.
Tags: G.I. generation, internet, online, online marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing, seniors, Social media
Posted in Fundraising, Inbound Internet Lead Generation, marketing, Multi-channel marketing, New Technology, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, Social media, strategy | No Comments »
Friday, 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 »
Friday, 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 »
Thursday, 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 »
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
If you need people to find your business easily – and the competition in your market is fierce – you ought to invest in optimizing your website so Google and other search engines understand what you sell. By doing so, you will rank higher than your competitors.
The goal is to be in the first position on page 1 of Google’s results, right? Big books have been written about the subject of search engine optimization (SEO). But the important things to remember are that you need to do two things in order to help search engines rank your site highly.
1. On-page optimization: Add the proper code, tags, descriptions, headings, etc. If your site provides valuable information (which is a “must” these days), then you need to organize that information for search engines as you would organize a newspaper for readers. Headings, sub heads, descriptions… all help readers determine what is relevant to them. Same thing for your website. Only difference is… Google needs to understand what is relevant to searchers so they can index your site properly. Adding the proper code will help Google do that and will increase your rankings- thereby driving relevant traffic to your site.
2. Off-page optimization: Get lots of links from other credible, relevant websites to point to your website. By doing so, you’ll be signaling to search engines that your site has valuable information and is credible. Sure it’s a bit of a popularity contest. But didn’t the most popular kid in high school become the home coming king or queen?
SEO is time-consuming and tedious and it could take many months before the search engines recognize and reward your efforts with high rankings. If you don’t have time to do it yourself, hire a reputable firm to help you.
In the meantime, any optimization is better than none so start with the most basic optimization first, which is to add a well-conceived title tag to your site. This is what people (and search engines) see at the top when viewing your site in their browser.
Tags: lead generation, leads, search engine optimization, SEO
Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, lead generation, marketing, SEO - Search Engine Optimization, strategy, Uncategorized, website | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Let’s face it. Marketing has changed. The old rules don’t work today and the Internet has proven to be a powerful marketing tool. Although many organizations have
employed informative websites for their planned giving programs, the tracking is not robust. Traffic is low and visitors are anonymous. Just having planned giving web pages online is not enough to properly cultivate your list from awareness to leaving a gift .
Here are the new rules you must embrace in order to attract prospects, capture leads and cultivate relationships:
1. People like to search for information at the time of their choosing. Thus, relevant information needs to be available 24/7.
2. The Internet is the most convenient and powerful search tool available.
3. People want to be informed and educated… not sold.
4. Your prospects and leads must be continually reminded about the information you can provide (otherwise they simply won’t use your website and you’ll be “off their radar”).
5. Frequency and building relationships are more important now than ever.
6. Multiple channels must be used to reach your targets.
7. People consume information in many ways. For example, some prefer printed materials while others enjoy PDF downloads.
Once you embrace these new rules, it’s best to employ sophisticated tracking tools so you know precisely who is logging on to your site. Don’t wait for them to fill out a form. If you do, over 90% of your web visitors will be anonymous. Tracking tools are the key to determining who is most interested in your planned giving options.
Tags: internet, lead generation, leads, marketing, online, online marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing
Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, Multi-channel marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, May 7th, 2011
Your website should be your most effective marketing tool for lead generation and education. The days of “online brochures” are gone.
At the very least, make sure your phone number is on every page of your site. But if you want to get the best results, be sure to add conversion opportunities such as:
• Sign up forms (offering a newsletter, notifications of special offers, etc. in exchange for their email address)
• Opportunity to download discount coupons
• Free report downloads
• Webinar invitations
• Ways for prospects to email you with questions
• A “chat now button” for online instant messaging questions
And be sure to tie your blog to your website. People want to be educated these days- not sold. Blogging helps to position yourself as an expert (or at least very knowledgeable) in your field. Plus tying your blog to your website helps increase the likelihood your site will move up in search engine rankings for keywords you use frequently in your posts and articles.
If you don’t have a blog and think you don’t have time to create one, think again. Almost 80% of our website traffic here at MarketSmart is generated by our blog. Often I meet people (face to face) for the first time and they recount blog articles they liked. Two weeks ago I ran into someone I hadn’t seen in 15 years and he commented that he liked my blog!
So, get blogging and make sure your site is set up to make it easy to convert visitors to leads.
Tags: Blog, Blogging, internet, lead generation, leads, online marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, website
Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, lead generation, marketing, SEO - Search Engine Optimization, strategy, Uncategorized, website | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Is the person who answers your phones also your least trained employee? If so, why?
Do they answer the phones with class or “attitude”? And furthermore, does that person understand the value of an inbound lead?
The fact is… you’re putting one of the most important parts of your business (capturing leads) in the hands (or ears) of someone who needs to be trained properly. Give them pointers on politeness and empower them to do what they must to get a call to the right person. Especially if it’s a new business call!
Give them scripts that they must follow so each inbound call is treated like gold. Step outside of the box and think like your customers. How would they want and expect your phones to be answered?
Perhaps even include a benefit statement in the script such as, “JJJ Locksmith… your key to open doors… 24 hours a day, 7 days a week… how can we help you?”
Also, teach them the importance of writing down names and phone numbers without any errors. One missed call could be a missed opportunity for a million dollar client.
Tags: handling leads, leads, solve problems, strategy, telephone answering skills, telephone sales
Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, Selling, Telephone skills | No Comments »
Monday, November 29th, 2010
Well… almost dead. Let’s say they are dying. And the Yellow Pages will be right behind them.
Verizon has stopped distributing the White Pages in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Florida. And the company has asked state regulators in Maryland and Virginia for permission to stop distributing them.
According to Newsfactor.com, “Verizon cited a 2008 Gallup poll saying only 11 percent of households look up a residential phone number in the printed book.”
But that was 2008. Almost 3 years later, I bet that number has only dropped more.
So what’s next? The Yellow Pages are already on the chopping block. Now, when people want to search for a product or service, they ask a friend using social media or search online. If you are advertising in the Yellow Pages, stop! And don’t let yourself get hoodwinked into another year-long contract.
Tags: Inbound Lead Generation, internet, online marketing, Yellow Pages
Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, Pay-per-click marketing, SEO - Search Engine Optimization, Uncategorized | No Comments »
