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Outbound Marketing – four ways costly

3/8/2010

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It’s amazing how much of the marketing budget is still spent on outbound intrusive marketing which ends up either in spam or in trash. And there is so less effort spent on being found by those who are in fact searching for someone just like you. It’s time to stop wandering in the lanes distributing flyers and stand tall in the center of the square so your customers can see you clearly. Especially if you are an SME, having limited budgets and precariously balanced cash flows.

Why is Outbound marketing so costly?

Direct Cost – There are always mammoth costs involved in outbound marketing. Huge budgets are sanctioned for designing, printing, distributing the flyers, buying databases and engaging agencies. Any marketing department will tell you the same story. And are the results proportinate? Statistics say conversions rates for outbound marketing campaigns are very low, usually 1-3%. Inbound marketing is inexpensive. Having a website is a basic thing these days for all companies. You just have to put correct content and tools to convert your website into a lead generation machine. The conversion rates are great in inbound marketing. You know that prospects are interested because they have engaged in conversations with you. They have checked on you, they have found a match between what they want and what you do and have approched you with something specific. In short, they have qualified themselves.

Loss of opportunity – It’s the age of Internet and mobile phones. Everyone has easy access to information, the means to get it at their fingertips, just when they need it. So chances are people are looking for you over internet, over mobile apps while your attractive flyer was thrown away by them a week ago as junk mail. Sounds familiar? You are losing an opportunity a second by not being where you should have been. How often can you send a flyer or make a sales call? You can be present on internet 24 by 7. That eliminates so much unpredictability about “being found” and “being reachable”. Increases your odds, isn’t it?

Brand Image – Unwanted communication is bad publicity. Unsolicited mail is Spam. Being available at your customer’s beck and call is service. Service builds credibility and loyalty. Intrusion gets negative brand image and should be avoided as much as possible.

Environment damage – It is quite disturbing to know how much junk we get in mail. Read here to know the statistics.   One less flyer is definitely a help.

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It is not about keywords, it is about words

27/7/2010

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Yes, words matter. How you say, when you say them, to whom you say matters. But do keywords matter more than words? do databases matter more than customers? Website traffic matter more than visitor satisfaction?

In today’s digital world, Search engine optimization and pageranks are fast becoming a technique – an algorithm to be cracked, a puzzle to be solved. But is it true? What is Marketing afterall?

Marketing is no rocket science. It is plain simple common sense (not so common for the same reason?). You can pick up cues to marketing from day to day life. Think about yourself. Do you like to buy something from a specific shop because the owner of the shop is an warm person? Do you like a movie because it had catchy dialogs? Do you enjoy a party when you happen to meet someone with whom you can have a good conversation? Do you get moved when your old school teacher remembers everything about you even after so many years? do you like a junior because he just knows what you need, talks less but sense? Do you like to buy from a pushy salesman who comes to your doorsteps or a shop where you can browse yourself and pick up your own stuff at your pace – even though the shop is four blocks away? do you like a swimming coach who tells you how well you are progressing or the one who keeps shouting at you for not following an instruction?

You got all your answers.

Marketing is all about engaging your visitors. It is not about information, it is about how you put it. In these fast paced times, everyone says that they do not have time to read texts. Yet people buy books, read blogs, check websites. They say you should write less in your marketing communication. I disagree. You should write “interesting”. Even though your visitors do not have time, they will wait a lilttle longer and read a paragraph more if they like what you have written, it is matters to them, if it is useful to them, if it answers a key question for them. Be it the website, the marketing newsletter, event email or advertisement.

It has to be interesting – so go play with your words, make it catchy and entertaining. It has to be personal – address people by their first names, remember their preferences, send them only what they like only after their permission.

It has to make sense – so don’t write unnecessarily about yourself. It has to be about them and not you. Just think about them and write what will matter to them.

Make it look beautiful – Though we may not admit every time, nobody likes plain. And remember, beautiful does not mean cluttered and busy. It means pleasant and easy.

It has to be light – We all have our own share of problems and tensions in our lives. We can always do with a lighter note, a pitch that tickles than pricks.

And last but not least – always respect your audience. In a try to make yourself look taller, we forget that we are in a way trying to make our customers look smaller. A customer will run to you if you make him/her feel great with you. Nobody likes to feel inadequate and helpless, even though we all may be exactly that in reality.

If you have interested visitors, you will have more website traffic, better pageranks and a good flow of leads who will believe you can surely help them. You are the warm, listening, understanding friend they have been talking to after all. 

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Inbound Marketing - Digest 1

9/7/2010

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Wikipedia says: Inbound Marketing is a style of marketing that essentially focuses on getting found by customers. This sense is related to Relationship Marketing and Seth Godin’s idea of Permission Marketing. David Meerman Scott recommends that marketers “earn their way in” (via publishing helpful information on a blog etc.) in contrast to outbound marketing where they used to have to “buy, beg, or bug their way in”.

Time for some basics : SEO Vs SEM. Wiki (my fav place for definitions) says Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion.

Stay available, be prepared and then let your customers find you. What better way to get accurately qualified leads? and the beauty is that the customer qualifies itself. No wonder Inbound marketing is the buzzword of today.

Inbound marketing is for individuals too. For celebrities, for people who want to be found by web searches, for people who like to be in news, and for people who want to be read by others. Use social media, write a blog, have a website and tune it for keywords. It’s always nice to appear on top of the google or bing search, innit?
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