The Evolution of Marketing

Marketing certainly has its roots in large and expensive campaigns intended to reach as many people as possible. This type of ‘mass marketing’ helped develop corporate branding but was completely ‘product focused’ and treated all customers as if they had the same needs and buying preferences. Compare this to what the direct marketing folks are now doing with target marketing, relationship marketing, permission marketing, event-based marketing and even location-based marketing.

It’s interesting to see how these different strategies actually evolved.

• Mass Marketing – The goal here is to reach the largest number of people and ‘hope’ they have interest in your product/service. Mass marketing uses mass media such as TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc.  This type of marketing is (was) characterized by big budgets, national campaigns, and very little actual data to measure marketing efficiency.
• Direct Marketing – Mass marketing was flipped around when direct marketing started directly contacting consumers (using direct mail, telemarketers, etc). This new evolution (around 1960) also was the start of test-marketing to gauge the effectiveness of different advertising campaigns.
• Target Marketing – Soon after computers became widely used, marketers began gathering data on who was buying their products and why. This led to targeting their promotional strategies directly towards consumers who are most likely to purchase their product. This market segmentation divided up customers and prospects according to their demographics, age, income, etc.  
• Relationship Marketing – Many businesses realized that it was just as profitable to ’sell more to each customer’ as it was to ’sell to more customers’. This led to (around 1990) marketing that communicated with customers ‘as individuals’ with tailored information geared towards their unique buying experiences and preferences.  Obviously this requires lots of data on customer behavior patterns, profiles, etc. which helped launch the development of new business CRM applications and marketing automation tools.  
• Permission Marketing – As consumers began to get bombarded with email spam, many businesses realized the benefits of spending more time marketing to consumers who have specifically shown interest in your product/service and (effectively) have given you permission to market to them (in a way they want to be marketed to)! This is most commonly done when consumers sign up (i.e. give out their email address) to download product information or receive a newsletter. The importance of having good customer data to personalize your marketing is critical since these prospects can remove their permission anytime (by opting out).     
• Event-Based Marketing- Imagine someone just supplied their personal information and downloads information about a new vacation resort. This event triggers an marketing automation tool to send out a targeted promotional offer that is customized, timely, informative, and useful. Everyone potentially wins. The consumer gets something they were actually looking for – when they want it!  This type of marketing is heavily Internet focused and relies on good automation tools.  
• Location-Based Marketing- Now that cell phones have Internet access AND they have embedded location devices (i.e. GPS locators), we can expect to see mobile advertising based on location. Of course this will also be personalized and permission-based but imagine you are leaving work for lunch and you receive a text message with ‘2-for-1 lunch deals’ at restaurants in your immediate area. Over time the system also realizes you prefer Chinese over Mexican, etc.  

Take-aways from this marketing evolution …

Mass Marketing is moving to Relationship Marketing

Few Large Campaigns are moving to Many Customized Campaigns

Product Focus is moving to Customer Focus

Short-Term Revenue is moving to Long-Term Customer Loyalty

Resources …

The CRM Handbook- great book on CRM implementation, especially read Chapter 2 (CRM in Marketing)

Post from BNET on the subject of ‘Broadcast Marketing‘ and why it doesn’t work anymore.

 

 - Steve  (www.SPMsolutions.NET)

When Does a CRM Lead Become a Contact?

When implementing a CRM (customer relationship management) system, many business owners struggle to understand how standard definitions relate to their specific business processes. CRM software solutions (Salesforce.com, ACT, etc) typically use terms like lead, contact, account, opportunity, etc. which may or may not clearly apply to your business vocabulary. Usually it’s best to first understand how these terms are generally defined and then decide how (and if) to modify them to fit your specific business processes.

LEAD – anyone you think may be interested in your product or service. Leads are usually tracked by their status (e.g. open, contacted, unqualified, or qualified, etc.) and by their source (e.g.  a referral, networking event, tradeshow, purchased lead source, web enquiry, etc.). Sometimes companies keep another category they call ‘names’ to track purchased mailing lists, etc. that really aren’t leads.   

CONTACT – an individual (associated with an account) usually associated with a unique business opportunity. Contacts are usually tracked by their (duh) contact information (address, phone number, email, etc). Once leads are qualified and considered as potential prospects then are usually converted to a contact/account pair (and usually assigned to a salesperson).

ACCOUNT – generally an organization with whom you do business (could be a customer, vendor, partner, etc). Accounts are usually tracked by their industry (finance, manufacturing, etc.), their type (e.g. customer, competitor, partner, etc) and sometimes many other details like website, revenue, number of employees, etc.  Multiple contacts usually exist within a single account (i.e. for different departments, projects, etc).

OPPORTUNITY – is a specific business potential associated with an account and contact. Opportunities are the source of sales forecasting and revenue tracking. Opportunities are usually tracked by their campaign source(direct mail, internet marketing, etc.), stage (e.g. needs assessment, proposal, closed won, closed lost, etc.), estimated revenue, probability and closing date. Generally your sales team is handed opportunities (not leads).

Remember that the overall goal is usually for marketing to generate (and nurture) leads until an opportunity arises. They then they pass along these qualified leads to the sales team to close. The overall process is running smoothly when the sales funnel is filled with thousands of leads, which turn into hundreds of contacts, and finally into tens of opportunities that keep your crack sales team fully occupied!

For more background information on CRM systems and definitions visit;

CIO Magazine CRM Definitions        Salesforce.com CRM Best Practices

 

- Steve (www.SPMsolutions.NET)

Why Your Business Needs a CRM Database

One of the many challenges facing small businesses is keeping track of their customers, prospects, and vendors.  In this economy, customers are  spending less and taking longer to make buying decisions. Today’s CRM solutions allow you to keep track of  all your critical relationships, especially your sales leads, ensuring you get maximum sales revenue.

Many businesses also find themselves unable to grow solely by referrals alone.  Some are now marketing for the first time and wondering where to get new leads and who to address their marketing efforts towards. Remember, leads can come from a number of different sources including current customers, past customers, referral partners, vendors, tradeshows, seminars, website searches, etc. – as well as purchased lists.

Your existing contacts and relationships are an obvious first place to start but getting them all collected and stored in a central location can be quite a difficult challenge. This is where a simple CRM database can help out. It could be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or (even better) an online, database-driven tool like SalesForce.com. These types of  database CRM tools have now progressed to the point where they are cost-effective and easy to use for smaller businesses. Check out a few of the on-demand, SaaS (software as a service)  solutions that charge a reasonable ‘per-user’ monthly subscription.

• Salesforce.com - the big player in the industry with many  partners
• Sugar CRM - a popular ‘open source’ provider with good features
• Zoho CRM - inexpensive CRM (plus other small biz apps) 
• Free CRM - yes it’s free but is pretty basic and includes ads

For a reasonable fee and no long term contract, you can keep all you contact information in one location, safely backed-up and online, where you can access it anytime and from anywhere using a simple web browser. Now you just need to categorize your leads and contacts (i.e. where they came from, what their interest is, what the next steps are, etc.). Obviously if your database is large, you’ll want to concentrate on short-term business opportunities first without getting completely bogged down in data entry and updating.

So what should you expect to achieve by implementing a centralized, database-driven CRM system? Well if you do it correctly you should have;

• A permanent, centralized (and safe) storage of of all customer data and transactions.
• Improved business ’relationship’ with your customers.
• A bigger pool of prospects to market to.
• Better visibility and control over marketing and sales effectiveness.
• More insight into new opportunities and sales forecasting.
• Fewer leads that don’t get followed up on.
• More qualified leads being passed along to your sales team.

For more information visit some of these sites:

    Benefits of CRM        Open Source CRM?       The CRM Handbook

And they’re certainly are some real issues to address when implementing any CRM system. Here’s a great post that summarizes things to expect:

   9 Dirty Little Secrets of CRM

 

- Steve      (www.SPMsolutions.NET)

New B2B Marketing/Sales Trends

To survive this difficult business environment, businesses cannot continue doing what they’ve always done in the past. Marketing and sales are now being forced to ‘do more with less’ due to reduced staffing and budget cuts. Here are some of the trends I’ve noticed in the B2B marketing and sales world …

1. There is an increased emphasis on measured results and ROI of all marketing expenditures.
2. Sales cycles are getting longer with buyers much more cost conscious about their purchases.
3. Businesses now need to generate new leads outside their normal sphere of relationships and contacts.
4. Increased use of marketing automation tools to reduce expenses – while still nurturing leads who may turn into prospects in the future.
5. More emphasis on website copy optimization that clearly portrays a company’s ‘value proposition’ and a clear ‘call to action’. No more ‘business card’ websites.
6. Growing use of internet marketing and search engine optimization so businesses can easily ‘be found’ when prospects are looking for their product/service.
7. Tracking and monitoring of website traffic including keywords used to get there, and referral sites.
8. Increased use of multi-channel marketing campaigns (print, email, internet, telesales, etc).
9. Prospects are looking for (and downloading) much more product information and collateral as they perform their due diligence before buying.
10. More effort is being spent on lead scoring so the sales team is only given qualified leads and expected to follow-up on all of them.

 In the good old days businesses may have been able to flourish with casual marketing efforts and less than 100% lead follow-up but not anymore. In this challenging economy, every qualified lead might be worth thousands of dollars to acquire making it more important than ever to (1) understand which marketing approach worked the best and (2) ensure each and every one is followed up on by the sales team.

- Steve  (www.SPMsolutions.NET)

Marketing Your Business On Craigslist – Part 2

 

To maintain the familiar look-and-feel of a local online ad network, CL takes great pains to limit overzealous posting by commercial marketers. One of the biggest challenges for business marketing is getting as many impressions as possible without being tagged as spam. Remember, you’ll get the most response from your ad by having a good quality ad and by posting it as often as you can without getting flagged. Some of the things that CL dislikes and will get you flagged include;

1. Excessive posting.
2. Posting of identical ads.
3. Posting non-local ads.
4. Posting in the wrong category.
5. Promoting affiliate marketing products. 
6. Automated postings.

In my view, we can skirt the rules (somewhat) for items #1 and #2 (and possibly even #3) but don’t even worry about items #4 or #5. Here’s why.

Preventing excessive posting or identical ads is certainly needed to maintain the usefulness of CL. At the present time, CL will keep a post active for about one week but allow you to re-post it after about 48 hours. CL examines each post and, if the content looks too close to a previous post, it blocks it. So how do people get around this? Well they either use the same ad with different titles, use more graphics (which CL can’t really identify), or simply add some random text to each new post. For most of us, simply remembering to post every few days is usually sufficient.

CL uses many different techniques to identify who the poster is and where they are located. They may put cookies on your computer and probably monitor your IP address to help prevent abusive posting and to prevent posting non-local ads. Posting in wrong categories is basically user monitored. Every user can flag mis-categorized postings so don’t waste your time trying to do so. Automated posting is prevented by using human-readable text checks and/or email confirmations of postings.

For most of us (casual) CL users I’d recommend the following process;

1. Put together your ad using a great title, an attractice graphic, and a call to action.
2. Store the graphic file on a free public, online storage site (e.g. MSN Skydrive).
3. Put together the appropriate HTML code that points to the URL where your graphic is hosted.
4. Add an Outlook task that reminds you to post twice per week (e.g. Mon and Thurs).
5. Include the ad title, HTML code, and text in your Outlook reminder so you can simply copy and paste it into CL.
6. Register for a free CL account and note the best categories to post.
7. Continue to post your ad for a few months and then change it to remain fresh.

There are two ways to measure the success of your ad. The first is to simply monitor phone calls to your business and ask how they heard about you. The second is to put a link to your website in your ad and then monitor your website activity using Google Analytics to see how many were referred by CL.

Craigslist continues to attract over 50 million users each month so there is absolutely nothing like it out there for local small businesses.

     Marketing Your Business on Craigslist – Part 1

For more information on Craigslist try this site;

      http://www.craigslist-book.com/blog.html

- Steve (www.SPMsolutions.NET)

Dental Economics Levin Group 2008 Practice Survey

Dental Economics and the Levin Group recently released their 2008 annual practice survey at a very critical time. Certainly dentists cannot be immune to the overall economic challenges that other small business owners are facing. Now we have some data to analyze and start to work on what to do to minimize it’s effects. The data also serves a a great benchmark to measure your performance versus other practices in similar situations.

Dentists certainly are feeling the effects of the downturn in the economy as seen by the following challenges;

• increasing accounts receivables 
• active patient count remaining flat
• 20% of dentists experiencing high levels of stress

On the positive side of things the survey found;

• median dentist compensation actually rose slightly
• practice overhead rates decreased slightly – to 60% of revenue
• median staff wages increased slightly in most categories
• more than 56% of practices have implemented a bonus plan

Overall it was a pretty mixed result with some negative news but plenty of things to remain positive about. All dentists should be concerned because things could get worse quickly, especially since this downturn is expected to last longer than previous slowdowns. Dr Levin also added that “Dentistry is often one of the last industries to feel the full impact of an economic downturn.”  

    <The full detailed report can be found here>

- Steve

10 Easy Ways to Grow Your Website – FREE eBook

 
I’m always a big fan of free things and also firmly believe that most businessess do not take full advantage of their website.

For helpful tips on planning and designing your business website, download this free e-book on “How to Build a Website That Sells”.

Microsoft Office Live Small Business and Entrepreneur Magazine are working together to help entrepreneurs start and nurture their businesses by providing solutions that can be put into action immediately. 

This 54-page downloadable e-book (in PDF format) includes tips, techniques, and tools to help you design an effective and engaging Web site.

Download the e-book via;

   Build a Website That Sells: 10 Easy Ways to Grow Your Website

- Steve

PS – Get more information on our Websites and Internet Marketing

Basic SEO Strategies You Should Be Using – Part 1

 

The Holy Grail of website performance is to come out on top of a Google search (90% of searches are done on Google) when your prospective customers are ready to buy and are looking for your product or service.  

This goal is so sought-after that it has spawned a whole industry of so-called ‘SEO experts’ who claim to know the secrets of SEO optimization and, for a small fee, can guarantee that you come out on top of a Google search. You certainly can’t blame people for all the interest since there is a reported 400 million searches done every day!

 The truth about SEO seems to be that the specifics of Googles’s search algorithm are so well protected, and constantly changing, that any attempts at exploiting them will (at best) be temporary. Google is constantly updating their algorithm specifics so any attempt to exploit them will certainly lead to changes to elminate any unfair advantages.

So what should business owners know and understand about SEO to make sure their websites get their fair share of the search engine results? First throw out any idea of trying to use any ‘secrets’ to gain a competitive advantage. It is a waste of time and money, and any gains are only temporary until Google catches on and changes things. Let’s get real - there aren’t any real secrets in this world-wide-web. In fact, Google will tell the basics of what you need to do to come up on their search engines (see the links below) so why not play by their rules?

The best approach is to simply follow the basic objectives of all search engines – that is to 1) provide the user with websites that are most relevant to their search criteria, 2) list websites that are content-rich and 3) only suggest websites that seem to be popular among others who have searched for similar items.

So there you have it. Create a site that has clear keyword descriptions, has lots of valuable content and is popular within the web community (e.g. lots of links to it). That’s great for a general statement but what should you do or have your webmaster do?

In Part 2 of this post I’ll explain the 4 basic strategies you (or your webmaster) should be implementing. Basically you should;

1. Know and Use Your Keywords
2. Make Your Website Search Engine Friendly
3. Ensure Your Website Has Valuable Content
4. Let the Search Engines Know You Are There

To better understand what Google uses for it’s search engine you might as well go to the source (i.e. Google). Here are a few good links for background reading.

     Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

     Google Webmasters/Site Owners Guide

 - Steve   (www.SPMsolutions.NET)

 

Marketing Your Business On Craigslist – Part 1

Craigslist (CL) continues to be one of the best websites for online classifieds, with an amazing 12 billion page views per month! It’s available in over 550 cities (worldwide) and continues to be free for all services other than job ads (priced at a reasonable $25 each). CL is designed to have a simple, local feel for users looking for special deals from people looking to sell their ‘excess stuff’. While it is not intended for business advertising, the huge number of visitors makes it irresistible to marketeers looking for free advertising.

While Google presents its listings to users by search-criteria relevance, CL presents listings chronologically. This means that to get a ’top listing’ on CL you have to post continually so you are on the first page when a visitor is searching. Obviously CL has gone to great lengths to prevent this so their service retains its small-town local feel.

So how do you get started advertising with Craigslist?

First visit www.craigslist.org and then select the city you live in. Now double click on ‘Services’ and then enter a few different descriptions of your business to see (1) what is already listed and (2) which category it is listed in. See how the ads are written, note how their services are described and their call to action. Businesses that do well on CL seem to be ones that offer good ‘perceived value’ to visitors. Remember that people searching CL are usually looking for a ‘deal’ on something so make sure your product/service looks like something they cannot do without.

I would recommend signing up for a CL account. All it requires is a valid email address. The benefit of having an account is that you don’t have to respond to a CL confirmation email for each post. It also allows you to keep track of all your posts.

The simplest way to get started posting is with plain text. Your call-to-action can either be a phone call or an email response to the post (you have the option of hiding your email address from spammers). Your ad has three separate sections. The first is the Title. This must clearly articulate what you are offering and do so in an interesting and appealing way. The second is the ad Body. Keep it short and emphasize what the customer gets by using your product/service, not your features and specs. Finally, you need a clear Call-to-Action.  For more information on how to post an ad visit  www.craigslist.org/about/help/how.

Want to make your ad stand out from the crowd? Fortunately, CL recognizes basic HTML commands so you can actually embed such things as graphics, illustrations, hyperlinks, bold items, bulleted lists, etc. It doesn’t take a lot of work to put together a colorful ad, with exciting text copy, and then send users to your business website for more information.  For more information on posting using HTML visit  www.craigslist.org/about/help/html_in_craigslist_postings/details.

In Part 2 of this post we’ll talk about how to set up a system to post regularly and get maximum exposure for your small business.

- Steve   (www.SPMsolutions.NET)

Social Media for Small Business – FREE eBook

  

When used properly, social media can be a great tool to help your business reach untapped, potential customers and stay connected to current ones. But there are a few things you’ll need to know to help you get the most out of social media as well as your online presence in its entirety. Microsoft Office Live Small Business sponsored the creation of this eBook in an effort to help break social media down into easy-to-understand pieces, so you can make sense of and make use of this powerful resource in a way that grows your business.

In “Let’s Talk: Social Media for Small Business,” respected author John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, breaks the concept of social media down into easy to understand pieces. With the help of this e-book you’ll generate new business and capture the hearts and minds of new customers.

via Social Media for Small Business ebook: Microsoft Office Live Small Business

- Steve  (www.SPMsolutions.NET)