Which Lead Generation Tactics Get the Best Results

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
The worst number in business is one. If you have just one source of leads, it is only a question of time when the price per click goes up or the targeting options change or the viewership of the publication changes.

Because of this, you want to have several lead generation mechanisms in place. This way, if something happens to one of them, the other ones will continue working for you and generating new leads. This article will introduce you to five tactics you can use in your business.

1. Media Buying

Media buying is the process of negotiating and purchasing advertising time and space.

The secret to successful media buying lies in knowing your audience. One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can make is to advertise a niche offer to a broad market. The ad campaign will be expensive and the response will be small. This is not how you want to run your campaigns.

You need to know the age of your buyers, their gender, level of education, income, family status and interests. You also want to know what publications they read, how they spend their free time and what websites they visit.

Once you have this data, you can start making intelligent choices about how and where you can advertise to them. One of your goals should be to find media that are not obvious to your competition. This way you will be able to purchase space and time at reasonable rates (because the competition is not yet there) and be the only advertiser in your category in that media.

If there are certain media that you would like to use for advertisements, but can’t afford, call them or email them and tell them how much you can pay. Often, you’ll be able to get a last-minute offer if one of their advertisers pulls out and they have some free time or space. Many media are very negotiable as to how much they will sell advertising for. This is not something they advertise upfront, but if you negotiate, you will often be able to get a great deal.

2. Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is a great way to market products and services because in affiliate marketing you don’t have to pay for advertising upfront and you don’t have any risks.

Typically, you pay for advertising or lead generation activities first. These activities generate leads. Then, you have to do the work to convert the leads into paying customers. If the work is successful, only then you get your money back and a return on your investment.

This is not how things work in affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketers do all the work for you. In exchange, you pay them a percentage of the sales or a pre-agreed amount per sale for all the sales that they make.

The best way to use affiliates is to scale your sales systems that are already working. Nobody wants to pay money to test something that is not proven. While you may get affiliates to test your offers, if they lose money, they will not work with you again. If, however, you have a system that works and need more leads or need to convert more leads, then working with affiliates is a great way to go. You will make more money and your affiliates will make money, which will make them want to work again with you in the future.

3. Social Media Marketing

Today there are all kinds of social media, from Pinterest to Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn. However, this does not mean that you have to be everywhere. You need to be where your customers are. If you are selling a consumer product, you probably do not need to be on LinkedIn. If you are a high-end executive recruitment boutique, then being on Pinterest may not be a good strategy for you.
Find out where your customers spend their time. Then, get in front of them.

The good news is that social media today offer a variety of tools and ways to reach prospects and existing customers.

Using Facebook Pixel or Google Tag Manager, you can mark everyone who visits your website or certain pages on your website. You can also create audiences based on sequences of pages that people visit, videos they watch, elements of pages that they click on and parts of the pages they scroll to. Then, you can retarget these visitors with custom ads on social media and other websites. The opportunities for marketers today are virtually unlimited.

4. SMS

SMS or text messaging can be a very effective way to target customer but you need to be very careful with how you use it. Today most people use text messaging to communicate with their friends and family. They don’t get a lot of advertising messages via text. For this reason, you want to only text them about something important. Reminders typically fall into the important category and work really well. For example, you can send a reminder about a webinar. You can also send a reminder about a demo or a sales call that you have coming up.

You can also offer your existing customers to notify them via text about special sales and events.

At the same time, sending regular updates and marketing messages via text messaging is probably not a good idea. Most people check their text messages very frequently and if you are sending them messages that they don’t find valuable, they may feel as if you are spamming them and interrupting them with no good reason.

5. Ringless Voicemail

Ringless voicemail is a relatively new technology, which is why it is extremely effective.

Ringless voicemail works only will cellphones. According to studies, over 90% of adult Americans own a cellphone, which means that you can reach virtually any person with ringless voicemail marketing.

Ringless voicemail works by completely bypassing cellular networks. It contacts the cellular provider directly via a business landline call and drops a message on the server of the cellular provider. The provider then moves the message to the server space of the recipient and notifies the recipient about the message. This way there is no call made to the recipient, no charges to the recipient and no interruptions.

When the recipient checks his or her voicemail, he or she can listen to the message. The message can be as long or as short as the sender likes. This means that you can create ringless voicemails that are really effective.

A ringless voicemail can have options that connect the recipient to a sales person or drive the recipient to a website. By using these options you can measure the ROI from your ringless voicemail campaigns and make sure that you are spending your marketing dollars wisely.

Four Ways to Control How Your Business is Perceived

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
In today’s global economy, competition is fiercer than ever, and businesses need to do everything that can to stand out from the crowd. Understanding and controlling how your business is perceived is crucial if you want to be sure you not only get the attention of your customers, but also leave the right impression.

Ask for feedback

Before you make any changes to the corporate image of your brand or business, you first need to understand what the current perception is. The best way to achieve this is to ask for as much feedback as possible. Don’t restrict your enquiries to your current customer base – they are likely happy with the status quo otherwise they would not be using you. Instead, find out how your brand is perceived by those currently making use of other services, especially those of your closest rivals.

In this digital age, the perception of your business matters more than ever as it is the fundamental reason why consumers choose one product over another. Potential customers don’t only want to be sure that they are getting good value for money for the products or services they buy, they also want to be able to feel good about what they are doing.

Use high-quality promotional materials

Bespoke printed folders with contents that perfectly match the nature of your business are a great way to ensure your company or services are perceived in the way you wish. They not only boost awareness of your brand but also its identity. The flexibility of the format means your folders can contain anything from price lists and press releases to sales brochures or vouchers for special officers. You can also adjust the size of your folder to enable it to carry a DVD or other multi-media material. Position these around your office and reception area; use them for meetings and give them to customers and clients.

Stay on top of your social media accounts

With the right combination of tweets, posts and stories, your social media accounts can help you connect with millions of people all over the world. However, one slip-up can have lasting repercussions. In 2014 a young employee of American Apparel tasked with finding a picture to fit in with a 4th of July celebration posted a picture of what turned out to be the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding to the corporate Tumblr account. The image was swiftly removed and an apology posted, but the damage had already been done with many perceiving the company to be insensitive and incompetent.

Keep on top of your social media and use your accounts as a means to connect with your customers. If a mistake is made, apologize.

Avoid complacency

The world continues to change at a rapid pace, but if your business insists on standing still and doing things the ways they have always been done, it will soon be seen as a dinosaur and get left behind. Always keep tabs on the competition and any key developments in the field in which you operate. By being aware of potential changes to the market well in advance, you’ll be in a position to ensure your products and services remain desirable for decades to come and cement a reputation for being a forward-thinking organization.

Business Events: Why You Need To Hold One!

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Event hosting is, without a doubt, one of the very best ways to promote a business, and yet, few businesses are taking advantage of this simple method of promotion. Companies from all manner of industries, from technology to beauty businesses, are hosting events, and are reaping the rewards from doing so.

A lot of small(er) business owners are under the common misconception that event hosting is something that is made for larger businesses. However, that isn’t necessarily the case – event hosting can be beneficial for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Arranging an event doesn’t require a huge budget, despite what you might have heard, so it’s a fantastic way of promoting your business regardless of its size and your budget. The events that you host don’t have to be overly lavish with hundreds of attendees, speakers, and lots of food and drink, they can be a more modest affair. Instead of hosting an event at your place of business, you can hire a venue, use event equipment rental, and outsource all of the other tasks that come with holding an event. The fact is that to be a success; an event doesn’t have to be expensive.

Now, onto the question of why you should host events in the first place. For a guide to all of the best benefits of event hosting, read on.

Brand exposure 

One of the major benefits of hosting business events is the brand exposure that comes with them. When you hold events, whether they are for other business owners or local people, they offer a fantastic opportunity to gain exposure within the local community. Your company’s name will be associated with the event that you host, promoting your business to a wider audience.

A more targeted audience 

The reason that business events can be such an effective method of increasing your customer base is because you have a more targeted audience to appeal to. The fact is that different event types attract different people, and the chances are that your business event will link to your business in some way, and will attract people with an interest in the industry that you are in. This gives you a more targeted audience to appeal to, and a better chance of boosting your customer base with relevant customers.

Chance to network 

Hosting a business event that appeals to both other business owners and the local community is a great chance to network. The fact is that these kinds of events not only allow you to get to know your customers and potential customers, but also other people within the local community who own and run businesses. You never know, one of these companies could end up being a good match for your business, and you may be able to forge a brand partnership because of it.

The fact is that hosting a business event is a great idea for a whole range of reasons, but especially because, if you take the time to plan it properly, it can be a fantastic way to network with other relevant people within the local community.

Don’t Underestimate The Power Of Old School Marketing

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Any good business has to keep up with technology to survive. You won’t get anywhere these days without a good website and social media presence but they aren’t the be all and end all. Too many companies are directing all of their resources toward newer, more technologically focused marketing techniques and neglecting all the old school ones. While you do need to be up to date, some of the tried and tested marketing strategies are still just as effective as they always were. They’re also usually a lot cheaper so it makes sense to use them. If you think that these marketing techniques are obsolete, think again.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
Photo by Tomás Del Coro from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (Sign Spinning 2017) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Trade Shows

Getting out there and meeting potential customers face to face is always a bonus. It gives them the chance to get a sense of who you are as a business and people are more likely to put their trust in somebody that they’ve met personally. A trade show is a great way to get thousands of potential customers in one place and show off your products. There’s going to be a hell of a lot of competition out there so you need to make sure that you’ve got great trade show displays that will catch people’s attention. There’s no way that people can visit every stall that’s there so you’ve got to make yours stand out. It’s also worth applying early so you can get the best position possible. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the best place to set up camp is right next to the entrance, people like to do a round before stopping anywhere so right at the entrance is actually one of the worst places. You’ll get way more foot traffic on the end of a row or in the corner somewhere.

Promotional Gifts

Everybody loves something for free so a good promotional gift goes a long way. It gives your company value and it’s a brilliant way to give people a taster of your products. It’s also a good way of encouraging people to buy other products in order to get the promotional gift. If you don’t believe me, just think about the toys that you get in a McDonald’s happy meal or in boxes of cereal. Kids are constantly hassling their parents to buy that stuff just to get the gift. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive and if you’re getting them in bulk, it’ll be even cheaper.

Sign Spinning

When people walk past signs and billboards in the street the conversion rate is pretty small. Half the time they’ll just get ignored. Sign spinning is a pretty cheesy way of advertising but studies have shown that it does actually work. The spectacle draws people in and then they’ll read the information on the sign as they watch. It doesn’t work everywhere but if you pick a busy promenade that gets a lot of foot traffic then you’re likely to see some good returns on it with very little investment.

Always keep up to date with technology but don’t underestimate the power of old school marketing techniques.

The Reasons Why Video Marketing is So Powerful

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticleMany businesses don’t consider the power of video marketing because of the huge costs involved when it comes to video production. However, video marketing has been proven to be so powerful these days that even the smaller businesses that don’t have video production in their budgets are now jumping on the bandwagon. Businesses in all industries are now faced with high competition regardless of the niche, so it’s important for any business to compete with even better marketing strategies to have a chance of surviving – and that’s where video marketing comes into play. If you’re considering video production as your next marketing ploy, look at some of the below reasons why video marketing is so powerful.

Videos Boost Conversions

It has been proven that videos help boost conversions and sales. The figure differs between different industries, but there are reports that suggest a simple landing page video production has boosted conversions by a massive 80% – something that just can’t be ignored in the world of online marketing.

Excellent ROI Prospects

Many businesses overlook video production for their marketing ploys simply because they think it’s too expensive. No one can deny that the cost is often eye-watering, but given the fact a ROI is mostly guaranteed, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be considered. Yes, video production could cost thousands or even more, but the returns on offer are limitless.

Viral Boosting Opportunities

All it takes is one video to get shared once for it to get shared hundreds of thousands of times. Granted, it takes a cracking idea to get onto that sort of level, but there’s no reason to suggest that it won’t happen for your business if you do it well.

Videos Build Trust

If your customers don’t trust your brand, you’re not going to have a brand that lasts. Therefore, it’s paramount you try and build trust from the get-go so your potential customers aren’t going to go elsewhere. Videos help businesses add a touch of human appeal to their brand, and that’s extremely important when building relationships.

Search Engines Crave Low Bounce Rates

If your website has a high bounce rate, search engines are going to penalize your pages because they think there’s obviously a reason why your visitors are leaving your pages quickly. By taking advantage of video marketing, it means your visitors are instantly attracted to the video and they’re going to stay on the site longer. This will, in turn, provide you with a lower bounce rate and you will be well rewarded with better SERPs in the long run. Contact a company like ClickIntelligence.com if you want to build links to help towards your SEO efforts.

Video marketing is excellent for those that can afford to go down that route. An 80% rise in conversions, better bounce rates, higher SERPs, and a helping hand to build trusting relationships are just some of the reasons why video marketing/production is one of the most powerful online tools there is.