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Is Your Marketing Strategy Killing Your Profits?
With the wrong marketing strategy you could be killing your profits and limiting your business. Your marketing strategy is like the driver in a car, with marketing tactics being the engine. If you know where you want to go and how to get there,...
KNOCK! KNOCK! aka: Internet Marketing Application for 'non-Internet' Businesses
My doorknocker is getting rusty! I don't know about your neighborhood but it seems only the occasional vacuum cleaner saleskid flashes free dishsoap through my screen door anymore. On the other hand, the phone sure rings a lot more and I'm sorry to...
Marketing Your Business Website On A Budget
Owners of home based businesses that are trying to make a living working from home know the problems encountered trying to get your website noticed in order to increase traffic and ultimately revenues. After all, if people don't know about your...
Network Marketing - Its All About Customers
Copyright © 2003 Priya Shah Leadership, Visualization, Goal-setting, blah, blah... All network marketers have heard that jargon at one time or another. But you know what? It's just that - Jargon. When you share with your team, the lessons you...
Successful Dental Practice Marketing Compared to Root Canal
"Successful dental practice marketing is a lot like a good root canal," say Ninh Nguyen, Ph.D., president of ND Communications, a San Jose based dental practice marketing firm. "Unless you’re sedated, you know you’re going to experience some...
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Marketing to Today's "Distracted" Consumer
The average consumer today is exposed to a deluge of 1,700 marketing messages during a single 24-hour period according to recent advertising industry numbers. Look around you, we marketers have pasted, injected and/or overlaid marketing messages (read advertising) in any possible place imaginable! Case in point, NBC will start to digitally insert commercial "billboards" into advertising content to be broadcast during the winter Olympics - in essence a commercial within a commercial.
Core Marketing Materials
Marketing messages and processes must be condensed, hard-hitting and presented in formats that are easy to understand and digest - not MBA- speak or techno-jargon. Long mission statements with flowery prose simply don't cut it in today's "distracted economy" - customers/clients/partners want to understand what products and services your selling, at what price and how they are supported.
A one-page company Facts sheet is an essential component of any marketing campaign - it provides a snapshot of essentials about your company including markets addressed, contact points, core technology, products or services sold and business partners. A well-written Fact sheet should be one page and provide just baseline information, without any hyperbole.
Power Point presentations by their very nature force you to distill your information down into bullets and short sentences. Enabling you to make a presentation in a meeting, or have content ready for viewing on a 24/7 basis via your web site. You can create several iterations of the presentation which can be tailored for customers, partners, investors, etc. - mixing and matching your core 8-12 slides with others that "speak" to different audiences.
Web-enabled Marketing
I've written several articles on web-enabled marketing and the need for simplicity when designing a web site, with content that is tailored for the online community. Many companies are wasting resources on web sites that don't work as an information resource - most of these sites function more as a testament to the designer's ability to use cutting edge software graphics tools.
Many web sites still utilize text that is just pulled from other marcom materials, ignoring "rules of the road" for content on the web - the online community wants information
presented in short paragraphs comprised of 2-3 sentences, with lots of white space.
A good web site should act solely as an appetizer for a four-course meal - whetting the appetites of the viewers and motivating them to take some action that moves them forward in the marketing process such as contacting the company or registering via the web site for more information.
Speaking of web site registration - this too should be optimized for today's "information overloaded" customer. Only basic requirements should be requested (name, contact points, interest level) with a Privacy Statement linked via the registration page clearly stating your marketing policy; which by the way, you should adhere to without any deviation, or risk the wrath of your customers.
Opt-in E-Mail
Opt-in e-mail has now become today's marketing methodology du jour - it works and it's cost effective. Approximately 50% of opt-in e-mail content is done in HTML (graphics inserted) format and the other 50% in text format. We strongly recommend text format to most of our B2B (business to business) clients - and we utilize a standard format that has generated 8-25% response rates from numerous campaigns we've created.
We structure the e-mail message so it is in three short paragraphs, with customer referenceability built in to the message and we utilize at least 10% of the media buy to test 2-3 different messages. The subject line is one of the most critical elements - it has to get the recipient's attention and cut through the clutter of hundreds (typically) of other messages they will be receiving during a 24-hour period.
Executive Summary
So, the executive summary for this entire article can be summarized in a few words "finely hone your marketing and remember less is more " - if you repeat this mantra as you move forward through your marketing processes you should be able to reach today's "distracted customer" in a timely and cost effective manner.
About the Author
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of marketing experience - he is the co- founder of Intelective Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com, a marketing services company which provides strategic and tactical marketing services exclusively to small to medium sized companies. He can be reached at Lee@intelective.com
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KnowThis: For Marketing, Market Research, Internet Marketing ... |
KnowThis.com offers a wealth of information, forums, and resources for professionals, academics and students in traditional and internet marketing, ... |
www.knowthis.com |
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Marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Marketers depend on marketing research, both formal and informal, ... The next big thing is a concept in marketing that refers to a product or idea that ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
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Marketing - Marketing Strategy - Marketing Plan - Marketing ... |
Learn about marketing careers, the stages of developing a marketing plan, how to begin marketing research, create a marketing strategy, and how to market ... |
marketing.about.com |
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Marketing.org - Home of the Business Marketing Association |
Serves the professional, educational and career development needs of business-to-business marketers. |
www.marketing.org |
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Welcome - American Marketing Association - www.marketingpower.com |
Dedicated to serving the educational and professional needs of marketing executives. |
www.marketingpower.com |
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Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR News - Brand Republic |
Find the latest Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR news from Brand Republic, the online resource for up to the minute advertising and marketing news and ... |
www.brandrepublic.com |
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Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic. |
www.brandrepublic.com |
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Marketing (Canada) |
Offers a Canadian source of news and articles on marketing, advertising and media. |
www.marketingmag.ca |
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BidVertiser - Pay Per Click Advertising On Sites Of Your Choice. |
Pay per click advertising - online advertising directly on sites of your choice, internet marketing solution for online advertisers. |
www.bidvertiser.com |
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Online Behavioral Contextual Advertising and Marketing. |
Promote your business with today's most effective online advertising technology, contextual advertising at a cost effective metric of CPC, PPC, CPM or CPV. |
www.clicksor.com |
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Sales Jobs / Marketing Jobs / Advertising Jobs - MarketingJobs.com |
Employment site for marketing and sales professionals. |
www.marketingjobs.com |
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The Chartered Institute of Marketing |
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world's largest international marketing professional body and helps with career support and information ... |
www.cim.co.uk |
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Marketing: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with marketing on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
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Marketing Profs - Marketing Concepts and Strategies: Expert ... |
Marketing knowhow from professionals. Newsletter, articles and how-to's. |
www.marketingprofs.com |
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Guerrilla Marketing Online - The Official Site |
Guerrilla Marketing Online is anonline magazine for small business, entrepreneurs, sales people and marketers of all kinds. |
www.gmarketing.com |
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Business Marketing - Small Business Marketing |
Business marketing - Read everything your need to know about small business marketing. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
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All About Marketing |
Adapted from Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation ... Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out: ... |
www.managementhelp.org |
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Pages tagged with "marketing" on del.icio.us |
USA Network Announces a NASHVILLE STAR Marketing Partnership With ... - Yahoo! ... Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing ... |
del.icio.us |
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ClickZ Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers |
Includes columns with commentary and analysis on a wide variety of internet marketing subjects ranging from B2B marketing to search engine marketing. |
www.clickz.com |
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Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing |
Trade association for users and suppliers in the direct, database and interactive marketing fields, offering seminars and resources, and lobbying for ... |
www.the-dma.org |
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