Internet Marketing

Every month I sit down either one or one or as a group with a wide range of clients all interested in improving their own website marketing. Every one of them would have had a list of tasks to complete between each session. Some come to the session with these finished – others manage to slay some from the list while a few – well their list seems to remain the same month by month.

No surprises to hear that the ones that make the most progress are the ones that nail their tasks. This month I asked the efficient ones that what their secret was.

I received a range of responses. In all the bunch there was one common response – time blocking. That is the setting of a specific time each month or week to work on their website. For some it was a Friday afternoon, others started the week with some web work. Whatever the day and time they chose it went into the diary or electronic calendar as an appointment that was rarely cancelled.

I’m convinced that an hour a week over a three month period is all it takes to make great strides in your website marketing. Once you know where to focus and what to do then all that’s left is implementation – the bit that separates knowledge from results.

So where is your website marketing block?

Earlier on in the week we launched our first monthly online coaching course.

This course is targeted towards those that are interested in optimising their website for lead generation capabilities. There is a long sales page to help people find out what they get - how it is being delivered and how much it all costs - you can find this here

http://www.permission.co.nz/amember/sales.htm

Next Thursday the first teleconference is to start - the subject is how to go about planning your online marketing activities. It will be an open call that allows those attending to ask all the questions they have. The following week will be the call in day.

If this sounds like you then get clicking.

(Sorry this launch intake is just for NZ residents.)

I am creating a new coaching product - it has a blog associated with the launch.

Rather than develop it in isolation I now have over 50 responses from both customers and prospects on what they want it to include - how much they want to spend on it and if they would be keen to purchase - it’s been a very interesting process.

The launch will be in around a week - join in if you are interested

Cheers

Chris

(Sorry these two spaces have now been taken. Contact me at Chris@permissiondotcodotnz if you would like to be on the waiting list for next month’s intake.)

Having too many prospect leads coming in is a nice problem to have.

Part of what we do here is online lead generation. It’s a fancy term for using all that we know of the online space to deliver prospects and customers to our own clients. While others may be measured on search engine rankings or increased website traffic, our measurements are quite blunt - more leads and sales.

To be honest it takes a while to get a site really humming. But once going then big things really start to change. Other advertising channels start to get shut down - business targets get revised (upwards) and bold goals become even bolder.

It’s quite cool to see this type of thing happen. We price the solution so that most established businesses can see a quick return on the investment. The only limiter we have is that there are just two of us here and so only a few projects can be run effectively each month.

One lead generation client called the other day to discuss ways in which we could “throttle” the process back a bit- they were having problems keeping up with the leads they were receiving.

Growth does need to be managed; I remember from my early academic days that there is a formula you can run to work out your optimal growth rate so you don’t run out of cash in the process. But even so it’s nice to be told to slow down rather than speed up.

Anyway we have a couple of places available this month for two more companies that are interested in growing their online prospect lead flow.

We are a bit picky in who we can work with. For example we can’t work in the same industry for different clients.

So if you are keen to learn more about what we offer then contact me at chris@permission(dot)co(dot)nz in the first instance.

All the best

Chris

P.S. When you come by I’ll let you know of the testimonial I am allowed to share of the business that I mention above who called wanting us to throttle things back - its quite a neat story.

The next Marketing Association 2 day workshop in Practical Email Marketing kicks off next week - 28th & 29th August. I will be co-presenting this with Amanda Partington from Jericho.

There may be one or two places available - best to contact Amy here if you are keen to attend.

I have revised and updated the email acquisition and retention content areas. Plus we are now allowing attendees to take part in some “hot seat” sessions where for no extra charge they can harness the combined power of 30 marketing brains focused on their particular email marketing problems.

One of the areas we will be covering on day one of the Practical Email Marketing workshop is the use of automated email marketing campaigns that are triggered due to specific customer / prospect behaviours.

It’s a growing space and can provide some highly relevant email messaging to your subscribers.

Not many companies are using this strategy yet - but I’ve found one that has been successfully doing it for a while and is willing to talk about it with the group.

The “show and tell” will be to the point allowing all those attending enough time to ask all they can.

As the printed stuff is now out and about (more on the MA site) here are some pointers for those considering coming alone.

I am co-hosting this event with Amanda Partington from Jericho - we are working through last years content busily updating and adding in more.

Over the workshop two days there will be a project that teams will work on - last year the feedback was that the subject given was a challenge to shoe horn into the tasks that were set - this year we picking one that allows you plenty of freedom to flex your creative minds.

This is not a “sit still and just listen in event” - the numbers we are going for will enable for lots of interaction between Amanda and I and the rest - hence it may sell out.

I remember being at a MA event in early 2000 (back when it had a D in there) and hearing an overseas speaker ask the 300 plus audience if anyone in the audience who received spam could raise their hands - none did, what a different environment email marketing lives in now.

Things have obviously moved on since then - parts of email marketing have become easier to perform and others are much harder to get right.
We will point out what part of the process fits into each camp - with ideas on how to make the hard less problematic.

Email me if you want to know if anything specific is included . chris at permission dot co dot nz

Email opens - clicks - and visits are all great signs that there is someone out there at the end of your email list but really what online marketing is all about is seeing lead generation forms filled and extra online sales made.

That’s where the trail can get a bit harder to follow - but where the real action takes place.

A campaign that looks great at the activity end (open - click) can be attrocious at the hard end of lead and sales generation.

Over the last 6 months we have been spending more time setting up the “handover” tracking that needs to happen between an email and the website analytics tools to create this information and help us track its improvement.

I’ll post some examples soon.

Text emails are not the most attractive of messages to send out but by ensuring they are 60 characters wide helps ensure they look half reasonable in your subscriber’s inbox.

Here’s a simple email message text formatter tool that I now have on my website marketing blog site to help get those text messages in shape.

Just a new ride on mower site I’m working on in Australia - early days but things are progressing well.

Are you putting off your next edition? Has it been a long time since hit “send”? And, was your last edition less news and more letter ?

It’s a common occurrence to see motivations wane when the tasks of turning out edition after edition of email newsletter dawn on those responsible. Plus this is especially the case when these publishing tasks are usually appended to rather than instead of other monthly actions.

So to help lighten the load here is a few tips to help those editions remain rolling out.

Firstly keep in check your expectations of how much content you actually require for each newsletter edition. It is better to have three news items of merit then a total of nine with six that are just there to make up the space. As subscribers we all welcome a newsletter that quickly gets to the point while bringing us information we value.

Secondly take a lead from the success of previous email newsletter editions. Most email deployment tools worth their salt will be able to tell you how many subscribers decided to click your links to “read more” on previous articles. Use this information work out what content areas are being well received and then plan out more along the same vein of interest.

Thirdly create some “electronic buckets” to snaffle away prospective newsletter content in as it comes your way during the month. I keep a “read and review” folder in my email folders list so I can copy messages across that are worth using in my next edition. And my web browser has a similar folder where I can store away pages that are worth considering at content creation time.

And finally if all else fails try planning.

Now I know for some this will be the first on the list but for others that are more tactical than strategic a good content plan can help get some direction on what content is worth producing. Take one whiteboard add some chocolate include a jug of strong coffee - let marinate for 30 minutes with a keen crowd and you should turn out a cunning content plan of your own.

In its basic form this will have a content area for each edition and some initial suggestions on who will create what to fill the three spaces on offer.

Have fun and do keep publishing again, it’s not that scary once you get stuck in.

Hourly reports from Google Adwords can help to reveal some interesting facts about when your searchers are looking for what you offer. Where are the clicks and impressions going? Is your product a daytime or evening seach subject? And why waste your clicks on low traffic times? go here for more from Google.

MarketingSherpa has unleashed some great content for those interested in Business to Business lead generation ideas - there’s a MP3 of the presentation and a PDF of slides - on initial look it seems good stuff - go here for stuff

Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks back we published the August Edition of Subscribe. You can get your copy by going here. If you would like your own copy, and delivered a bit earlier on in the month… then subscribe off our home page here (you get some extra content for subscribing).

Are your subscribers just waiting by their computers for your next email message to arrive? Here is a great case study from John Deere - via MarketingSherpa that is worth a look through (prior to Aug 27).

The idea of building a lead generation website that appeals to a “funnel” shape of website visitors is quite simple.

The top of the funnel represents the largest group and includes all those visitors that browse your website. Gradually, as the funnel slims down, this group is reduced to include valid prospects for what you offer. This then reduces down even further to the smallest group at the funnels bottom that needs what you offer exactly when they come across your website.

Ideally we would like all those that arrive at our website to want what we offer – but this is just not realistic. There will always be more visitors that are interested in what we offering but don’t need it now – they’re “just looking” through your pages.

A website properly designed for lead generation offers content to prospects at all stages in the lead generation funnel and by doing so they capture a larger amount of sales leads than those that just focus on those prospects who need the product now.

To appeal to prospects that are “just looking” I always suggest my customers produce different types of content and then to present them in alternative ways.

For instance those “left brained” prospects will like to print out and read white papers or reports you provide. Whereas those who internalize information in a more “right brained” style may prefer to sit back and absorb more visual content presented in an audio-visual style.

So think about the different types of prospects that arrive at your website and are “just looking”. What pieces of content can you produce to appeal to these people?

And do remember the funnel shape – there are more looking than wanting – so put in the time to create valuable content that converts your anonymous “just looking” website visitor and turns them into a strong sales lead for your team.

Earlier on in the month my company Permission NZ Ltd helped Hockey New Zealand set up and deploy their first email newsletter. You can locate a copy of this edition here.

Here are some words about this project from Rebecca Hendl-Smith the Marketing & Sponsorship Manager at Hockey NZ.

“I have been looking forward to working with Permission in my new role here at Hockey New Zealand having had a brilliant association with them whilst working with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

With Permission’s support and guidance we launched Hockey New Zealand’s first e-newsletter to our email database on July 7th and have since been overwhelmed by positive feedback.

We knew we were part of a close knit and passionate group of hockey supporters nationally, but since sending out our e-newsletter with Permission we have fielded enquiries and words of encouragement from Black Sticks fans and hockey supporters from all over the world, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia.

Thanks to the team at Permission we now have a way to communicate regularily with our supporters in a cost effective manner. And as a result of the success of this project we are receiving direct and valuable feedback from supporters to help us better represent Hockey and the Black Sticks into the future.”

You can contact my team at Permission here if you would like to learn more about this solution.

Serving nice coffee is one of the many benefits that bricks and mortar shops have over their web cousins. One other less obvious are the roads and pathways that line their front door.

From these roads, malls and neighbourhoods people have no option but to drive, walk and ride past their shop. For customers these nearby excursions serve as a gentle reminder to drop in and pick up something. For prospects it could be the chance to peer through the window to check things out. All this “foot traffic” helps make the mantra for many a successful physical store be location, location, location.

But what about those same stores online?

Some mistakenly call the Internet the information superhighway. But I see no ordered way in which people traverse from website to website. To me it’s more a spider’s web of individual paths than an group treck across well worn roads.

So if there are no highways or malls to help bring people back to the front of a web store what can store owners use in their place?

Well for those online retailers that are well funded there is always traditional media advertising. Billboards seem to be the flavour of the month at the moment for those owners with deep pockets. The ads look good in whatever form they take – the agency is your best friend but you need a storehouse of cash to keep this strategy going to create ongoing traffic.

Then there’s online advertising. Here you can take those billboards, face them towards the web and see what happens. Banners of all shapes and sizes can be wrapped around high traffic sites to hook people back. Yes banners, remember those squares of advertising that you mentally block out when bouncing from website to website?

Paid search advertising is another tool to entice new and repeat visitors – especially if your site is hard to find in the generic search options. But those keywords are rising in both popularity and cost.

So all of these options will bring first time visitors to your site for a varying amount of cost per visit but having to continue to invest in any of them to make visitors return is too costly for most to achieve.

This is where effective email marketing can be rather handy.

Email is by far the cheapest and most effective way to call people back to your website. Asking, cajouling, begging and bribing all website visitors to subcribe to your email list has to be high up on your website goals.

Well written email newsletters create their own virtual “foot traffic” by enticing visitors to return to your website pages through the links contained in your copy.

But while this logic is sound and the Internet is abound with successful case studies of email marketing being used this way it still amazes me how many website fail to entice their visitors to join any email newsletter of sorts.

Yes they have billboards extolling their website, some even tell their story with television but when you visit there is no “hard to say no” option to join a newsletter so they can bring you back for cents when they brought you there with dollars.

It doesn’t take much to design an email communication that has strong appeal and set up a web form to capture subscriptions.

Please make sure it’s part of your website strategy – and failing that make mine a flat white when I drop by your bricks and mortar store next time.

Here is June’s edition – you can subscribe here to get your own copy as soon as it is published.

How about printing a copy of your next email newsletter newsletter to help your next proofing run? You will be surprised what was previously missed online now stands out on paper. Plus you get the added benefit of seeing what happens when your subscribers do the same and convert bytes to paper.