Archive for the ‘Sales & Marketing’ Category
66% of online Americans say they have made a purchase as a result of an email from a brand
2012
As always, another great piece from MarketingProfs!
Recently, MarketingProfs published a study based on purchases made through various marketing channels. They measured the success of email, direct mail, telemarketing, social media and mobile apps.
66% of online Americans say they have made a purchase as a result of an email from a brand
KM has an amazing suite of email marketing tools and features built right into our software. Feel free to contact us to find out more about them!
Now that SMS marketing has become an established player on the marketing scene, we certainly know more about it and that it is everywhere! Keywords and short codes are sprinkled all around us now—they’re in the local newspaper, at the movie theater, at your favorite restaurant and even at your local pharmacy. Why is that? The answer is quite simple, honestly. A recent CTIA survey found that US wireless subscriptions outnumber the total population of the US (327.6 million vs. 312.4 million) and that at least 50% of consumers use their phone for purchasing items and services.
As you can tell, mobile marketing can play an important role in your marketing mix for many reasons. In case you still need a little convincing, here’s a list of the benefits of using mobile marketing.
1) Instant Deliverability—SMS is lightning quick—your message appears on your subscribers’ phones moments after you hit that send button. Having a slow night at the university bookstore? Send an SMS message that t-shirts are 25% off until the end of the night. There are so many amazing uses for this fast delivered technology.
2) Flexibility—SMS allows the sender to send a handful of messages to a small targeted demographic or send a mass text to your entire subscriber list. Mobile marketing allows the sender to create messages in moments—it’s as simple as putting everything you need into 140 characters.
3) Instant List Management—With the use of short codes, opting in and opting out of your SMS subscriber list is easy, automated and can be completed in one step. Opting in to an SMS program is as simple as texting “keyword” to 55555. There’s no need to provide a name or email address. As soon as someone texts the determined keyword to the five or six digit short code, your opt ins are instantaneously added to the corresponding list. It’s that simple.
4) High Open Rates—Unlike other traditional forms of marketing, SMS has an incredibly high open rate. Statistics show that nearly 94% of all text messages are read, which means that your marketing message will be seen by virtually all of the subscribers in your campaign. When a recipient hears that text message tone, they always look to see who sent it and what it says. This is why SMS is a great marketing medium—people want to receive and read your messages.
5) Wide range of use—Mobile marketing can be used for an extensive array of purposes from announcing a new service, launching a new product, one-day sales and grand opening events—just to name a few. Subscribers can be treated as an exclusive group for offers and information that only they have access to, increasing brand loyalty.
KM offers mobile marketing services among email marketing, surveys and digital editions! Feel free to contact us for more information on any of the services we provide.
Everyone was claiming that 2011 was the year of social media, so why shouldn’t we make 2012 the year of honing our social media skills? Social media can be an amazing source for generating leads—you just need to know how to go about polishing and enhancing your efforts so that you get the most out of them.
It’s one thing get visitors to your social pages, but it’s a whole other game to create enough value to keep them coming back—and eventually converting them into a lead. Here are some ideas and guides on how to do just that:
1—Make sure your brand has strong presence
What is your company’s message? What is it you want users to know about you? Are you communicating that clearly through your posts? For the most part, people enjoy connecting with brands, and they enjoy interacting with those they can relate to or have an interest in. However, you need to make sure your social media presence is well branded—use your company colors, logos and slogans on your pages to ensure your page is a strong representation of your company and easily identifiable.
2—Use personality
Relateability goes a long way with people—we’re logically drawn to things that seem natural to us. Try using a tone in your messages that is quite conversational. Write as if you’re actually speaking to someone—loosen up and have a little fun with social media.
3—A little lesson on feedback
Users who respond to your posts, write comments and ask questions deserve feedback. They should receive a comment back or an answer to their question. Make time every day to give feedback to those who deserve it, which is everyone who took the time to give you feedback.
4—Search engines
Keep in mind that everything you blog and post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all indexed by search engines. That means that it can all appear in search rankings from Google, Yahoo! or Bing—so always be sure to bring your “A” game. Anyone and anytime could stumble upon a blog post from the previous day, and that is one of the best ways to put yourself in front of prospects.
5—Help your business while helping a reporter
In an effort to gain exposure, companies should always be searching for new ways to get their name and expertise out there. At www.helpareporter.com, there are as many as 200 stories a day that journalists are looking to talk to experts about. SO why not throw your hat in the ring? Media exposure will help your company and brand in more ways than one!
6—Social media sharing via icons
We’ve all seen them—it’s practically impossible not to spot one on a daily basis. I’m talking about that small blue box with the white lowercase “f” in it. Yes, that universal symbol for Facebook. Icons like that are key for sharing your content. In fact, those little icons make sharing downright simple. You have a lot to lose by not making your content easy to share, so make sure you have a solid strategy in place.
7—Mix it up
Different things appeal to different people. While some visitors look for articles or top ten lists, others look for videos and some might enjoy reading a good white paper or case study. My point is is that it’s absolutely necessary to offer a variety of content—it would be a complete shame to lose out on a great prospect because you didn’t over a demo video or client testimonials.
8—Content is key
I feel like I can’t write a blog or article without mentioning this point, but I’ll do what I have to do drive this point home. High quality content is worth the investment of time. Your readers and prospects truly appreciate your best practices and expertise, but the search engines do too. Google Panda among other efforts have changed the way pages are indexed, and those changes are all geared toward providing high quality content.
9—What others think counts…
…at least in the world of word of mouth marketing. Social media actually promotes word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth has been, and continues to be, a top lead generation tool. Reputation is key, and buyers have the tendency to seek referrals from their peers. Because social media is an open forum, it enables people to share their experiences. Who isn’t looking for a way to build trust with potential clients?
10—Find relevant communities and groups
Find online communities that are relevant to your product or service. LinkedIn is an amazing source where you can join different groups to start conversations and ask questions. Many times you can stumble upon someone who is asking for recommendations on a product you offer—this is the perfect time to offer demo or give them more details. Use these communities to grow your network.
Please feel free to contact us to find out more about how we can help with your marketing needs.
An inspirational piece about how to view marketing efforts for the upcoming year from MarketingSherpa.
With only a few days left until it’s 2012, we’re all focusing on what worked from last year’s marketing efforts and what’s going to be involved in strategy for the coming year. What was particularly interesting about this piece was the angle it took–how to embrace and be fearless with our marketing efforts.
If you need assistance with your 2012 marketing plans, Knowledge Marketing is there to help every step of the way. Feel free to contact us for more information.
With KM’s SmartForms, your website can be turned into a lead generating machine, gathering data and automatically engaging visitors to your site. In just a few clicks, you can generate a powerful data collection tool to gather information from visitors to your site and have them automatically flow into your email marketing list.
For example, a SmartForm can be created and placed on your Contact Us page to engage visitors to your site who are eager to learn more about your services. A SmartForm can be generated in KM’s Enterprise Communications Network (ECN™) and placed on your website that will gather information you wish to receive from the visitor. More than just a contact form, the data entered by the visitor into the SmartForm is instantly added into the ECN™ group of your choice for follow-up campaigns and messages from your sales team. The SmartForm can also be set up to automatically send a “thank you” message to the visitor for their interest in your company.
KM customers in such diverse vertical markets as nonprofit management, B2B marketing, and publishing use SmartForms to automate their marketing process. Examples of SmartForms being used by KM customers include:
- Contact Us page to engage visitors to learn more about their company
- Event Registration
- Email Opt-in such as a newsletter, whitepaper, quote request, etc.
- Subscription management
Creating a SmartForm in ECN™ is easy. Within the Groups menu, click on the icon in the SF column for the group for which you wish to create a SmartForm. Then click on the Single Optin SmartForms button to begin creating the SmartForm. The HTML code that is generated can then be added directly to your website or landing pages, helping you to turn your website into a fully automated lead generating tool.
For more information on SmartForms and how to create them, please contact your KM account representative.
