BroadVision Marketing Blog

A cook starts with a recipe. A tourist starts with a map. So why do many small business owners think they can run their business without a marketing plan?

Many small business owners think marketing equals expensive advertising. Some advertising is costly, but marketing also includes less costly ways to engage prospective customers, thanks to the internet. With some research, planning and execution, business owners can market successfully without enormous spending.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Small business, Marketing Plan, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Business, Branding, Twitter, Marketing strategy

All businesses selling products or services are familiar with the term “marketing budget.” This means a plan to organize and allocate future funding of business functions. If you only have money for a mini-compact car, you are not going to go look at limousines. Right?

Let’s say you have a marketing budget of $1,000. If we use this to bring people to a computer site, we would call the same amount we intend to spend a “traffic budget,” since we are working to get the traffic to the site or even to our brick and mortar store using computer advertising.

“Conversion” is not just a religious term. It now means getting the customer to meet the business and to interact with it. Conversion is the mechanism and process of pouring targeted consumers into, through, and out the other side of the marketing funnel. The conversion rate is only going to be a percent of all those who come to the site, the percent who actually buy.

One way to get people to the site and to convert is to encourage them to do something, to become interactive. The best way to do that simply is a “call to action (CTA).”

A call to action has four main parts:

1. The Call: This is the request that a person interact the way you want him to.


2. The Action: On the computer, the simplest action a person can make is to click a button.


3. The Outcome: What happens when the person clicks the button. This should be related to the call. For example, if you ask them to click to get a free coupon, you deliver the coupon when they click the button.


4. The Design: The design will make a difference in how people respond, but there are many different types of designs. You will have to do some experimenting to find the one that works best for you.

Your CTA needs to be on every one of your website pages. If you have a blog site, it should be at the bottom of each blog.

How are you doing with this information? Are you having trouble getting responses?

 

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

 

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Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, landing page, Conversion rate, Hubspot, Marketing Plan, Facebook, mobile marketing, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, social media marketing, Branding, Blogging, Twitter

You have spent a lot of your marketing budget setting up your website. Your homepage looks real good and reminds you of the old newspaper ads of old. So why aren’t people converting using it?

Conversion about keeping your customer focused. A homepage full of your products is the opposite of focus. Even if you only have one service for sale, your homepage is full of details, again the opposite of focus.

What you need are specific “landing page” that you can manage and optimize in controlled isolation. Technically a landing page is any page on your website that customers arrive at or land on.  It should be created as a stand-alone page, as a promotion specific site.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, landing page, Customer, website, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, Blogging

The other day I came upon a remark about Timeline. It said that there would probably be a Timeline layout coming along affecting Fan Page marketing, but no one at Facebook said anything definitive yet.

Well, Beth McCabe, vice president and Director of social marketing and technology at Digitas, made a few definite remarks in All Facebook, the Unofficial Facebook Resource (12.20.11), in an article called "How Timeline Changes Marketing On Facebook"(12.20.11).

Topics: marketing, Social Media

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Advertising from 1890s"] [/caption]

Since we have been having conversations about large businesses taking over social media as an advertising platform, I think it’s time to back up a bit and consider the basics of advertising.

What is advertising? Advertising is a way to persuade a targeted group to do something in regard to ideas, services or products.  It can take many different communications forms. The purpose is to drive the targeted group into behaving in a certain way. Advertising can be about buying products, but also about things like selecting a political side and voting.  The driving force pays for the advertising and places it in mass media settings, including but not limited to television commercials, direct mail, magazine, newspapers, bill boards and, of course, social media websites, email and text messages.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Advertising, Marketing and Advertising, United States, Television advertisement, marketing mix, Marketing Plan, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business

By Guest Blogger Ann Mullen  I still remember the first time I came upon the term swipe file. It seems like it was just yesterday. Wait, it was just yesterday.

For the sake of those of us who weren’t around the last time the term was used, which was in 2009, Wikipedia defines a swipe files as “a collection of tested and proven advertising and sales letters. Keeping a swipe file (templates) is a common practice used by advertising copywriters and creative directors as a ready reference of ideas for projects….Swipe files are a great jumping-off point for anybody who needs to come up with lots of ideas.

Swipe files are also commonly used by Internet Marketers who need to gather a lot of resources not only about products but also about marketing methods and strategies.”

A lot of times the swipe file is for various headlines.

Still confused? Here is an example of a swipe file headline: 10 Exercise Tips to Use Without Moving a Muscle. The main swipe part is the idea: (Some Number) of Tips to Do (Something). In other words it’s the old Snake Oil Routine.

Topics: marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Wikipedia, Headlines, Headline, Swipe file, Snake oil, Social Media, Business, Blogging

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Blogging workflow"] [/caption]

You have decided to add a blog as a marketing method. You’ve looked at questions that help you focus what you want to say. But throughout all the studying you have done, you are not really sure what you are using blogging to accomplish.

Many companies use social media to “connect” with their customer by talking about what their company has been doing lately, information about their products and service and awards they have received.  These companies have missed the boat.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, Customer, Company, information, Web content, blog, inbound marketing, Marketing Plan, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, Blogging

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="193" caption="Google search"] [/caption]

Now that you have decided to write a blog for your business, you go on line and ask Google to do a general search on your product. What’s this? There are millions of blogs on the internet and it looks like millions about your product. One look at the competition and you are tempted to head for the hills.

But don’t do that. You can compete if you spend the time to create informative blog posts. This is not just a business whim, but a strategic point of your marketing campaign. If you want to be successful, you have only to take the time and effort to write content about your product. Before you start you might want to spend time answering some questions that will help you develop your strategy and actually help you write.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, Google, Google Search, Customer, readers, social media strategy, product, informative posts, brand awareness, blog, clients, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, Branding, Blogging

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Customer service"] [/caption]

Lead nurturing is a concept that is easily confused with sending out brochures or marketing copy focused on product information or 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, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, lead, Company, Sales, Salesforce.com, Sales lead, nurturing leads, Marketing Plan, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Social media"] [/caption]

What is the ultimate purpose of social media? You want to get good solid leads that will convert into customers. Basically, social media tells you how your customers 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, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, Email lists, Sales, leads, Marketing Plan, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Business, Twitter