Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

My company recently tried out Google’s new Click-to-Call advertising program and it turned out both a comedy and a disappointment.

3 phone calls were made at a cost of $81.46. This is almost $27 per phone call, bloody expensive! Well, hmm not really if the calls were actually sales leads. Now comes the funny part.

One of the calls was made by a guy who called just for fun. It’s the first time he saw a click-to-call ad and keyed his number on our ad just to see how it works.

The second was made from Pizza Hut asking if we want to order a pizza!

Finally, the third call went missing in action. God knows, where the call went.

The best Christmas present for my company this season is the collection of a big amount of money from various projects which had been owed to us for quite some time. Some of these overdue have been more than 90 days. While the collection of this money has been a big cash present for us; there are still a couple of bad debts which had yet to be recovered.

As stated by the Australian credit management, there are typically 3 reasons why customers don’t pay.

• The customer can’t pay
• The debt is disputed
• The customer had no intention of paying

When you have customers like them, it will affect your cash flow and as we all know, cash flow is king. So what steps can you take to speed up the collection of your money and not to have bad paying customers?

1. First rule: Get payment first before you deliver. Get at least a portion or 50% up front before you start work.
2. Send out invoices/bills on time. The earlier you send it out, the sooner you can collect your money.
3. Monitor payments/receivables daily. Keep a close eye of this everyday; make sure you know which payments are overdue.
4. As soon as the invoices are overdue (our term is Net 7, which means it is overdue after 7 days), immediately send out reminders. The longer the invoice is not paid, the harder it is to get your money.
5. Call your customers or their accounts department to chase up the payment. The faster you get your money, the better your cash flow.
6. Extend customer payment if they can’t pay but you need them to commit to a formal payment plan.
7. As soon as you have identified a bad customer, stop sales to them and stop servicing them until they have paid or at least make a commitment to pay.
8. Get the professionals to collect your money. When it is way overdue and the customer is not paying, it is time to hire a debt collection agency.

Now I hope this will help you and myself to be better in collecting our money. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

You gotta have a look at this funny ad if you are in the advertising or marketing industry. It’s all over the internet now and it’s really hilarious.

‘Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat’. In other words, planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal.

Many people in the west believe that this quote is made famous by the great Chinese general Sun Tzu 孫子. However, when I did a search on the web, there were a number of discussions that this quote is not by Sun Tzu. Neither could I find this quote on the Chinese version of the Art of War 孫子兵法.

Now, this really puzzles me. So who exactly wrote this quote?

So how many times does a consumer need to see your advertisements before he/she will remember, respond and then buy from you? Marketers call this effective advertising frequency.
Well, it really varies depending on whether it is push or pull advertising.

Push advertising - most traditional offline advertising such as magazine, newspaper, TV as well as online banner ads and emails are push marketing.

Pull advertising - Examples are search engine advertising (Google adwords, Yahoo search marketing), directory listings, yellow page ads etc.

I would say push advertising will take many more times than pull advertising to take effect.

Some says around 3 to 5 times; others say the magic 7; while Thomas Smith, a nineteenth century London businessman (1885) says it is the 20th time.

The first of many is known as the 3+ frequency. Research has shown that consumers need to see an advertisement around 3 plus times before it becomes effective (can recall product and brand).

The second is known as the seven times factor. A cardinal rule of thumb in advertising is: potential customers usually need to see the name of a product seven times or more before they’re motivated enough to even think about making a purchase.

Finally, Thomas Smith says that it can take up to 20 times!!

The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it.
The second time, they don’t notice it.
The third time, they are aware that it is there.
The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before.
The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
The eight time, they start to think, “Here’s that counfounded ad again.”
The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something.
The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it.
The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
The fifteenth time, they start to year for it because they can’t afford to buy it.
The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.

With all this research and theory shown, does that mean that people will automatically buy your product if they see your ad 3, 7 or the 20th time? Well not really, if you ad is not relevant to what they need, want or searching for. Even if they see your ad a thousand times, they will still not buy a damn thing from you. However, it is still important to know the more places your ad is available to be seen, the greater your chance at making that sale.

Now question time, do you know what is your effective advertising frequency? On average, how many times does your customer see your ads before they buy from you? This is a tough question especially you are advertising offline. However, in the online environment, your web analytics should be able to give you these stats.

Everyone wants to feel that they are important. This is the reason why you have different service/product plan such as silver, gold and platinum or deluxe and premium. There are rarely basic or starter plans nowadays. Customers want to buy or belong to a plan that is of high value and status.

This is the same as what I call the condom theory. Almost all condoms nowadays come in the size of big, large, extra large. Which man wants to buy a small size condom and admit that their penis is small!?

The thing here is even if you are offering a really basic service; named it well where your customers will feel that they are important and of value.

In 1997, Steve Jobs, the founder and former CEO of Apple Computer, returned to the company to help revive the ailing personal computer market. One of the first calls he made was to Lee Clow, TBWA/Chiat/Day’s legendary chairman and chief creative officer worldwide. Apple was considering a number of agencies at the time, but Jobs cut short the review process and awarded the business to TBWA/Chiat/Day, noting “I don’t pick advertising agencies; I pick people.”

People are the ones that make up the company. It is people that we deal with in and out each day. When you are marketing or selling to a business, you are actually dealing with its people. It is not about my company and your company. It is about me and you. Most importantly, develop a relationship and make them like you.

It is also important in your business that you emphasise this people factor. Build your people up and build your business around them whenever possible, make them a big part of your business. At the end of the day, it is them that are doing the marketing and selling not your brand!

Ever since the first merchant promoted his product to make a meaningful trade, marketing has been an essential part of any sales or promotional formula. Today, the formula seems complex, but it doesn’t have to be. At the core of any effective marketing strategy is value.

So how can you create value for your customers? Begin with a firm understanding of your market. Who are your best customers? Who has a need that you can meet with your products and services? Delivering value becomes easy once you understand what you customers need and you find a way to deliver it at a fair price.

If you’re struggling to create real value for your customers, learn from the following example which is very easy to duplicate and delivers value for all involved. This company - we’ll call them Services Unlimited (they asked me to keep their name confidential), has been delivering web design services for nearly a decade. They understand their customers and are always trying to deliver top notch service. However, business has been slow and they are looking to improve their marketing effectiveness.

One of the designers, who’s established some great relationships with customers, suggests that the company share the materials he shares with his customers online. The material he’s referring to is a guide on how to choose the right service provider. The agency likes the idea and repackages the guide as, “10 Things You Must Know Before Choosing An Agency!” before publishing it to the web. This is information that is valuable to their prospective customers and improves the agency’s success.

The company promotes the online resource (pdf) via their web site, to customers, prospects, and through pay-per-click campaigns. Before being able to download the guide, entering a first name and email are required. Once the email address is confirmed through a verification email, users are given access to the downloadable PDF. This has been set up as part of an auto-responder, dripping messages on prospects at different intervals.

The purpose of the auto responder is to provide additional value, build a relationship/affinity for the agency and essentially move them through the decision making process. Now you might be wondering how successful a short list of do’s and dont’s may be, but done correctly, each touch provides value.

So How Did This Campaign Perform?
Okay, you are probably wondering what a free download and a bunch of emails could possibly do for a slowing business.. everything. The effectiveness of this campaign was better than any other direct marketing they had done in quite some time. The conversion rate of 5% was more than double what they were receiving on other campaigns. Additionally, many of the relationships they established were long-term and helped to shape much of the work they do today.

This company learning from their promotional efforts focused on value and now offer other promotions such as a ‘web page makeover’, ‘free evaluation’, etc. When you focus on delivering value, the business will come. Said another way, know what your audience wants and give them a taste - prove value before you ask them to take a chance!

For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

A couple of weeks ago a loyal Marketing Blog reader said something to the effect of, “..for a Blog ranked #1 on Google ‘Marketing Blog’, it sure looks Amateurish”. As someone who reads EVERY comment on this blog, I had to agree.

Truth be told, when the Marketing Blog launched a little over 3 years ago, I never imagined that it would gain such a huge following from so many smart, dedicated, and interesting people - all with a passion for marketing!

This new look is designed to help you find the information you’re looking for even faster and allow all of use to share valuable content via Twitter, Digg, and other social media sites. My hope is that you find tremendous benefit in the marketing related items covered on this blog and participate in the process. Keep sending those comments and sharing your experience.

I’d love your feedback! As Always, let me know what you think about The Marketing Blog but specifically about the new look.

-All the best,
Michael Fleischner

For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Okay, so by now you’ve heard all the “news” about Bing being the next big thing. I’ve read about a dozen articles and even the Bing Guide For Webmaster’s and I’m ready to give you my two cents.

First off, if you haven’t visited Bing yet, give it a try. It will better help you to understand my pros and cons and also give you a sense of the user experience. I actually used it a couple of times after hearing of the big release without fully appreciating all of it’s functionality.

Before I give you my quick overview, let me say that the only reason I’m even remotely interested in Bing is because Microsoft (who obviously owns the Bing search engine) has announced they are buying Yahoo! Just like any big organization it’s only a matter of time until they support a single search algorithm and considering the millions they dumped into Bing - and considering how screwed up Yahoo! is internally (sorry Yahoo’s), it’s my opinion that Bing will prevail.

Okay, so what’s good about Bing? A couple of things actually. Based on their research which confirmed the famous “F” pattern which describes how users view a web page, they found that the majority of users never go past the first 5 organic listing. This has shaped their content presentation and layout. Additionally, Bing provides access to categories of information, related search queries, and access to expanded information. Essentially they are bringing as much content forward as possible to make your search more efficient.

This functionality is based on research and an every intelligent algorithm that aggregates the search behavior of tens of millions of queries and user behavior. I know it sounds like big brother but it can also help you have a more rewarding search experience where you actually find what you’re looking for quickly and easily.

What are the cons? Well, I wouldn’t necessarily say that having someone help you make decisions is a con, but it does feel kinda creepy. I also don’t believe that there is always a majority. What I mean is that the algorithm itself, but aggregating results across all users, is bound to have some shortcomings.

From a marketing perspective, it also has the possibility of changing the game somewhat. For example, if clicks are what drives top search engine placements, then web site owners are going to have FREE SEX in the title tag of every web page on their server.

I know I’m exaggerating a little bit but anything can happen. From my perspective, I still think SEO best practices are still essential. My advice to you is to make sure every web page you produce has a single theme and unique meta tags, URLs, etc. Bing is trying to categorize content and web pages so make sure you do the thinking for them. That’s really the only way to win the artificial intelligence game!

For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.