BroadVision Marketing Blog

By Ann Mullen  Last fall I shared some creative sales funnels I found. Marketers use them a lot and they like to get creative with their own version.  I found some new ones I thought you might find interesting as well. What is the purpose of sales funnels? They are for the edification of whoever the marketer is writing the article for. The basic idea is for the reader to remember that while the beginning of a sales campaign starts with a large number of possible clients, only a fraction will actually commit. But I also think these sales funnels help the marketers themselves both to keep these ideas forefront in their own minds and as a creative release.  So who are these funnels for? What do you think?--Ann

Topics: marketing, sales funnels, sales pipeline

LinkedIn: Two Different Groups of People

You will find that you have two different groupsof people in your LinkedIn network—those that have sent you many contacts and those that have not sent you very many. Here are some suggestions from us at BroadVision Marketing.com.

You need to stay connected to the strong ones by sending them emails, texts or calls every two weeks or so. That way they will continue sending you referrals. You can also send them quality referrals, people who can help your contacts the most. Visit their websites and leave comments (all website owners and bloggers love comments). You could even send them something snail mail. Yes, I did say snail mail.

Topics: marketing, San Francisco Bay Area, Networking, Strong Connections, Weak Connections, Marketing in Petaluma CA, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Leadership

Plenty of business people are not using LinkedIn to the best of their ability because they don't know how to make it work for them. LinkedIn reported that it has reached 135 million registered users as of November 3, 2011, up from 100 million the end of March 2011, consisting of people from more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Why are people flocking to LinkedIn?

Topics: marketing, San Francisco Bay Area, Petaluma, Lewis Howes, Marketing Plan, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Business, social media marketing, Branding, Marketing strategy, Leadership

We have been working on the idea of doing your social media work yourself. I have been telling you uncompromising truths about the process of successfully marketing yourself. These things are what marketing companies like BroadVision Marketing do for companies who don’t have the time, the resources or the desire to do-it-yourself.

The last blog I wrote we were talking about a simple system to tell if you are moving into a better ranking. We decided to use the Alexa number system, which for all its faults does provide a simple measurement of motion.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Uniform Resource Locator, StumbleUpon, OnlyWire, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Yelp

I am still on a kick about what it really costs to work on your social media marketing. We are assuming right here that you are going to do all the work on your social media yourself rather than have someone in your office or having an external marketing firm do this for you.

We have determined that writing your blog yourself, if you are worth $30 an hour, is going to cost you $720 a month with a time cost of around 24 hours.

Topics: marketing, Pinterest, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Business, social media marketing, Blogging, Twitter

Have you ever gone fishing and taken several poles?  Business blogging and other platforms like Facebook and Twitter are like having several poles in the water to hook a client into coming to your website and using your products or services. These platforms are not hard sell platforms. People won’t come visit you if all you do is bombard them with why they need your product or service. They want to learn something or be entertained. What you tell them is the bait on your hook.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Twitter, Marketing strategy

Business blogging is a powerful low-cost marketing tool when you look at all the other marketing tools available. Its power is in the fact that you are writing about what you know. While it takes time, your knowledge is the value added if you have taken the time to learn how to use blogging properly. There is a big caveat here. Do not expect your blog to get you instant clients, customers or even readers. Expect little and you will be surprised when things work out. Expect instant success and you will be disappointed.

Topics: marketing, Web search engine, Business Blogging, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Marketing strategy

Lead nurturing is no different from building any long–term relationship. You need to foster respect and trust, be a good listener and keep things interesting.

Nurturing your leads will increase your sales. How is that done effectively?

 

 

Topics: marketing, Marketing Syntax, Company, Advertising and Marketing, Opt in e-mail, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business

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What is the ultimate purpose of social media? You want to use it to get good solid leads that will convert into customers. Basically, social media tells you your leads are getting interested in you and your company.

You use social media as a business process, which means that you develop a process in writing that you follow and test regularly to hone it. The sales department and the marketing department, as two very different entities, need to sit down together and discuss what criteria a lead must meet before being passed from marketing to sales. Furthermore, marketing needs to follow-up after the lead is passed on in order to find out if the sale occurred. Also in order to keep the customer for life, the marketing department needs to stay in touch with the client for future sales.

Topics: marketing, Company, Squeeze page, Marketing Plan, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Business, Twitter

You don't want confuse lead nurturing with sending out brochures or marketing copy focused on your product information or your company announcements. This is not the same thing as nurturing a lead.

To nurture means:  foster, help develop or help grow;  the act of nourishing or nursing; tender care; education; training; that which nourishes; food; diet; sustenance; the environmental influences the contribute to the development of an individual.

Sending out information about you or your company is not the same thing as “feeding” your leads. When you talk about yourself, you are not focused on what the leads need or your relationship with them.

 

Topics: marketing, lead, Advertising and Marketing, Marketing Plan, Marketing Principles, Business Owner