Therein Lies the Challenge

As you inch across that relationship tightrope in a make or break alliance with your customers – those people you already have a relationship with – email marketing can be a cost-effective and powerful way to building and maintaining the edge you need. It’s not only about cost, however, as it’s also, simply, the most effective channel to remaining in front of this vital audience. That’s what email marketing is all about.

There are caveats, of course, included alongside any innovation and email marketing is no exception. It’s a blessing, certainly, because of its low cost and ease of use to your customers and the rest. But because of its low cost, there’s no limit to what you and every other entity can send. Your customers’ inbox, as a result, is a toxic overload of messages and all are competing with yours. A challenge indeed.

So What to Do?

As you deal with the dilemma of spam filters, there is no doubt that your customers aren’t pleased with an overload of messages for products and services they don’t need. So how do you get your message through to them?

Well, the good news is that your customers want to hear from you. They want value from you so your messages need to be important, well-targeted, and provide a content-rich experience. Plus, there’s the challenge of unequivocal compliance with anti-spam mechanisms. It’s an important integrated mix of elements that need addressing, or else your message to your own customer will be intercepted and spam filter-bound.

Deliverability

By any means, this is not an exclusive rendering, but a few deliverability elements you should initially ponder. There’s nothing here that you haven’t heard before, but as a legitimate eMarketer, give serious consideration to these best practices to improve your overall email marketing effectiveness. Or else!

Permission – I know you know this, but remember to confirm with the people on your list that they’ve actually requested to be on it. When your customers or prospects say they want future email from you, allow them to confirm (or verify) their request. It’s just good practice.

The list – You should regularly remove undeliverable addresses, as Internet Service Providers (ISP) track the percentage of undeliverable emails to certain addresses within a period. They could block other messages if you continue to do the same.

Trusted sender – Encourage your recipients to put your “From Address” into their address book, trusted sender list, or approved sender list. As a trusted sender or contact, your email will be delivered and remain exempt from anti-spam measures.

Language – Stay away from using language and tactics that look like spam to a content-based spam filter (especially in your Subject line).

You should avoid:

a) Spam-like words/phrases such as – free… guarantee… credit card… income… call now, etc.

b) All caps – This dramatically increases the likelihood of being filtered.

c) Certain punctuation – It’s not grammatically correct to begin with, but stop with the !!! and ??? as this tactic can trip the filter.

d) Symbols – If describing currency in your email marketing campaign, use $ and not $$.

CAN-SPAM Compliance – Do a legal review of the January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law to ensure your email practices are in compliance.

Frequency – One of email recipients’ biggest complaints is receiving too many emails from the same entity/marketer. If different departments (customer service, research, sales) are sending messages simultaneously, that’s not a good thing.

Expectations – To ease value, importance and frequency objections, tell your intended email recipients what you’ll be sending and how often.

Don’t hide – Your recipient might know your company, but they still need to recognize you. This includes a familiar brand and email “From” line and email address.

Email Service Provider (ESP) – to effectively help with your strategy, manage your data, design your email, and track your results, you should consider using an ESP. Almost needless to say, an ESP, among many other things, for your email marketing program will build legal requirements into their platforms so you don’t have to worry about compliance.

Other -

• Always include information in your Subject line.
• Avoid using mostly images in your message.
• Avoid using attachments as it’s better to link to files via a website.
• Deliverability and performance metrics will increase if you simply perform list hygiene. It’ll lead to higher deliverability and fewer complaints, and thus, a better reputation.
• Do not excessively use “Click Here.”

Obviously, no single tip will guarantee your email delivery, but utilizing as a group can certainly help.

Email Best Practices

When your customer/prospect allows you to send them future emails, they do so expecting something of value and that is something you can control. Remember, your subscriber wants email from you but only if it’s interesting and of value to them. They may not react today but soon, as they know good email (that’s in their best interests) from a good company when they see it.

However, even if you succeed and make it to the inbox, if your recipient thinks it’s spam – your address is flagged.

I’ll end with this: Simply, follow email marketing best practices by complying with CAN-SPAM laws… stay cognizant of and put into practice the tips you read here (and elsewhere)… and create overall compelling messages that result in higher inbox deliverability and response.

Fresh technologies will continue to appear, no doubt creating new communication channels to customers. So the rules of customer engagement will continue to change, and you can bet against that at your own risk. But until that next technology arrives, email in all its eclectic glory is ours to command.

Another important aspect of a successful enterprise is the quality of their customer service, both offline and online. In today’s digital age, there are many tools that help companies stay in touch with their customers via the Internet. And the best part is that it increases their sales. Customer relations can really be broken down into three areas:

-        New client acquisitions: sales process

-        Improving current clients’ experience: building a strong base of loyal customers

-        Repeat-business: long-term retention strategies

Before we had the Internet, there were tons of books written on each of these three categories. The tactics improved with time, and new ideas were discovered, but the whole “customer service” process has not undergone a massive change until the era of the Internet.

With that, many companies are still clinging to the old ways of doing business and are simply “testing out the waters” with their online marketing. Others, on the other hand, are jumping in with both feet – and reaping the wonderful benefits of modern-day technology.

A very useful piece of software that has become an integral part of many company’s successful customer service process is called Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software. It’s a web-based program that is integrated into your company’s website and eventually automates many of your operational tasks, which saves you a lot of time and money.

Here is a quick list of some of its most essential components:

• Sales process: this phase includes contact management, tracking of the sales process for new clients, and automatic price generation
• Marketing: automatically qualifying and generating leads and measuring your success with various marketing campaigns (on and off-line)
• Job scheduling: tracking of pertinent documents, scheduling and email correspondence between various departments; very useful for smooth collaboration between workers in remote locations
• Social Media integration: brings companies into their clients’ social world by carefully reaching out through various social media campaigns

Salesforce CRM works not only within the framework of a web browser, but also on various smart phone devices. Instead of trying to come up with different software applications and trying to figure out how to make them work together (and they usually don’t), Salesforce CRM takes care of all your sales, customer service and marketing needs in one program. Wouldn’t it be great to have these processes automated? Learn more about it HERE.  

Yes, you can use a free Blogger or WordPress template or worse yet – not have a website at all! But consider the fact that every person who sees you online will judge you and your business by what your website looks like.

Would you rather do business with a professional-looking person in a nice, clean suit, with combed hair and neatly organized paperwork; or would you care if the person looked like he or she just rolled out of bed and “the dog ate their homework?” The point is that your website should be your online sales representative and serve as the face of your company just as much as a live salesperson would be in the real world.

If you are ready to take the plunge and build a new website or re-design your old website, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Your customer will form an opinion about your company within the first 10 seconds of coming to your website.
• Well thought-out web design gives an impression of business stability, which means your new clients will be comfortable with making the purchase or calling you.
• An interesting-looking site will be intriguing enough to make people want to explore it.
• If you are selling products online, a professional web designer will run you through all the options of making your website secure; the safer people feel with giving you their credit card info, the more likely they are to buy.
• A good website will make you stand out above your competition.

There are so many things you can do with a website that without the help of a professional web design service you can easily get bogged down in all the minutia.  A web designer will not only make your website good-looking and functional, but he or she will also help you define your online goals and achieve them by using proper applications within your new site.

Some optional website features might include: use of social media icons on your site; email capture; live chat; “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) and targeted keyword insertion; addition of a blog; a video presentation for your visitors to see; and many other similar options, all geared toward converting visitors into leads primed for conversion into customers.

In addition, professional web design companies have lots of tricks up their sleeve as the Internet is constantly evolving and changing. Web development companies that have been in business for many years know the skills of the trade and can help businesses have a powerful web presence so that they can excel online.

P&N Distribution, although primarily a Rheem distributor, also carries parts and services of other well-known manufacturers such as Honeywell, LG, Dunkirk, Modine, Benchmark and Lukjan. Priding themselves on next-day service, P&N not only sells and services parts but also provides instructional classes for service providers (see http://www.pndistribution.com/training/ for more information).

P&N’s new website boasts bold, primary colors and an open, airy feel with plenty of white space. Geared primarily for the trade, the site is easy to navigate with a simple text-based, horizontal “tab” toolbar at the top and a host of images that link to the manufacturers’ websites.

Behind the scenes of the site is a robust content management system (CMS) called WordPress, which enables the site owner to control content in the site and keep it up-to-date. Also, WordPress has built into it many features that are instrumental in achieving high search engine ranking. Helpful in this regard is the use of Google Analytics, which we set up for the site, so that the owners can view very detailed statistics of site traffic.

Keeping in mind that the purpose of the website is to attract and convert leads, on all the main areas of the site is a “Quick Contact Form” designed to make it easy for anyone to contact P&N. In addition, through the use of Google Maps, it is very easy to find each of the four locations as well as print out a map.

So congratulations, P&N, on your new site. We hope that it helps you find new clients, service existing clients and lets people know exactly what you do.

According to Nielsen, 79% of large businesses are using social media “to engage their audience…build buzz, establish relationships, foster communication…and cultivate long-term brand awareness and consumer trust.”

The article claims that it doesn’t matter what type of company you are or how much experience you have. All you need is to learn a few simple rules. “Social media is not so much a new idea as it is a way to communicate ideas, and the nature of a good idea hasn’t changed. The same marketing principles from 50 years ago apply today; they are simply communicated in a different way.”

This is a very good article that offers concrete suggestions on how to use social media. There are four “take aways” that you can immediately utilize in your own business.

• Raise Brand Awareness

• Drive Valuable Traffic

• Grow Consumer Loyalty

• Build Brand Equity

In addition, the article gives a handful of very valuable examples of successful social media campaigns from which we can all learn.

1. LinkedIn

2. Merchant Circle

3. Facebook

4. Twitter

5. Yelp

6. Plaxo

7. Fast Company

8. MyWikiBiz

9. Ecademy

10. Spoke

11. 123People

12. BxBusinessWeek

13. Fast Pitch Networking

14. ZoomInfo

15. Google Profile

16. Naymz

That’s the gist of the article, and rather than put my spin on it, I’ll let you read the article and see for yourself how the author cleverly explains the relationship between the two, how good content, in fact, leads to improved link popularity.

In a blog post entitled Looking for clear-cut social media ROI? There’s an SEO for that!, the author, Hugo Guzman, claims that you can calculate the ROI of your social media efforts by correlating the relationship of these efforts with the improvement in search engine rankings. Simply stated, social media marketing improves SEO, which increases website or blog visitors, which increases leads, which increases conversions (or sales).

Truly, it’s a lot more complex than this, and Guzman lays out a very convincing case for the importance of social media marketing. You be the judge, though, and determine for yourself if your business can benefit from marketing on the various social media sites.

Abrams cites the example of small company in California, which has built a thriving business as a result of the owner spending “about five around hours a month” working social media sites.

According to Abrams, “The truth is that social media marketing for small businesses can work. Or, it can be a colossal waste of time. Like every other part of your business, it doesn’t just happen, it takes work and strategy.”

How can you make social media work for your small business? To summarize:

• Get beyond Facebook and Twitter

• Develop a niche

• Keep LinkedIn up-to-date

• Make a commitment

• Understand your goals

• Watch review sites

If you’re trying to figure out a social media strategy for your business this is a “must” read.

Google Apps and Docs as well as Microsoft Office are in the clouds (so to speak). Salesforce.com, a CRM platform that we at WWWC have a great deal of experience with (see case studies at http://www.wwwcomm.com/projects/case/advancedsnow/,) is also an example of Cloud computing. I was reminded by our CTO, Kevin Gilper, that we’ve been hosting applications “in the cloud” for nearly ten years now.  Cloud computing, once a mystery, is actually very common and will continue to grow as a result of the time and cost savings of implementation and adoption.

• Reduced Cost
  Cloud technology is paid incrementally, saving organizations money.
• Increased Storage
  Organizations can store more data than on private computer systems.
• Highly Automated
  No longer do IT personnel need to worry about keeping software up-to-date.
• Flexibility
  Cloud computing offers much more flexibility than past computing methods.
• More Mobility
  Employees can access information wherever they are, rather than having to remain at their desks.
• Allows IT to Shift Focus
  No longer having to worry about constant server updates and other computing issues, government organizations will be free to concentrate on innovation.

According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is internet computing whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand similar to an electricity grid.

Cloud computing is a paradigm shift following the shift from mainframe to client-server in the early 1980s. Details are abstracted from the users, who no longer have need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them. Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves over-the-Internet-provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided by the Internet.

The term “cloud” is used as a metaphor for the internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagram as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents. Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online that are accessed from another Web service or software such as a Web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers.

Most cloud computing infrastructure consists of services delivered through common centers and built on servers. Clouds often appear as single points of access for all consumers’ computing needs. Commercial offerings are generally expected to meet quality of service (QoS) requirements of customers and typically include SLAs. The major cloud-only service providers include Salesforce.com, Amazon and Google.

According to wikiinvest.com, a simple example of cloud computing is Yahoo email or Gmail. You don’t need software or a server to use them. All a consumer needs is an internet connection and you can start sending emails. The server and email management software is all on the cloud (internet) and is totally managed by the cloud service provider Yahoo, Google, etc. The consumer uses the software alone and enjoys the benefits.

The article is filled with excellent tips – some general, some very technical – that might require the help of your web designer, but there are some that you might be able to do yourself if you have a content management system (CMS) or can edit the content in your site. To name a few: page names, directory structure, Meta tags, flash, navigation, and much more. Even if you don’t want to do your own SEO, you’ll find good information in the article that is useful for any website owner.

Gary Przyklen, in this article on how to optimize videos for SEO, shares some of his success formulas for optimizing videos using YouTube. If there were an algorithm for YouTube – as there is for Google – it might involve the following three criteria:

• Text in your titles and descriptions
• Number of views and recent trending
• Ratings

Gary ends his article with the following advice: “Although video isn’t new to the web, many marketers and businesses fail to make the best use of tools and social networks that will take their video and SEO results to the next level. If you’re going to invest time and money in boosting your SEO efforts this year, do yourself a favor and start considering video in your marketing mix. You’ll be glad you did.”

“WWWC was eager to set up a site that combined Encore’s product information with a way that customers could contact the company online,” said Robert Savar, President of WWWC.  Savar went on to explain that the creative team at WWWC “developed YourFloorDirect.com to reflect the same easy floor shopping experience customers found with Encore Floors.”  He added that YourFloorDirect.com “takes it one step further by giving consumers lots of information right up front, making it even easier for them to contact YourFloorDirect and schedule a consultation.”

EncoreFloors.com and YourFloorDirecct.com allow consumers to sample and purchase carpets, rugs, hardwood floors, vinyl, and laminate without leaving home.  Instead of visiting and browsing floor samples in specialty stores, homeowners can contact YourFloorDirect.com and receive a free at-home consultation and estimate by a flooring expert. 

“The new website is a perfect way for old and new customers to browse options and renovation opportunities on one simple site,” Savar said. “YourFloorDirect.com is really a great portal for Encore Floors to showcase all of its services in one unique site.”

In this age of advanced technology and easy access to the internet, a business’ online presence has become so very important.  If you’re a serious entrepreneur or business person, you can’t “just” have a website, you have to have a website that is well designed, one that is not “just” attractive but (“just” as important) easy to navigate, complete with online support and services, professional-looking with valuable information and content, and able to not only capture the visitor’s attention but retain existing client loyalty for your product/service. In other words, the design of your website can either make or break your business’ brand.  This is why web design is so important to your business.

Your web design must convince prospects that you mean business.  It must reflect your company’s competence and reliability. You have to be able to convey all of the most important details your prospects should know right at the outset in order to keep them on the site and prevent them from clicking away from the home page. (Next time you check your site statistics, look for the number of bounces.)

As a web design company, we of course recommend hiring a competent web design company with experience and a portfolio of sites to show with testimonials from satisfied clients. There are so many “do it yourself” website applications – you could certainly try to design your own site. But don’t! It’s not worth the cost savings because in the long run it will end up costing more in terms of lost business and dissatisfied clients.

With a well-designed professional site – built by professionals – you will have a secure foundation on which to grow your business. You’ll also have a professional staff at your disposal to help you with marketing your site online and helping you expand your site as new technology emerges or as your needs for new features arise. Once your site has been launched and running properly it will be time to go into marketing mode. Be prepared!

Much like the computer giant Apple, Mediabridge wanted a website that reflected the efficiency of new technologies.  WWWC designed a website that incorporated clean lines, sharp shades, and easy navigation tools to reflect Mediabridge’s dedication to product quality and customer care.  This basic website design also symbolizes efficiency and helps customers find the products they need with the fewest page transitions.

In addition to color, WWWC customized the shopping cart software to provide Mediabridge customers with a safe, easy, and secure method of purchasing online.  “We fully customized ProductCart, a software program by Early Impact,” said  Savar, “to help Mediabridge transition their business from Amazon to their own website.”  Since ProductCart is fully compatible with PayPal, Google, UPS, and hundreds of other systems, the software gives Mediabridge customers the same purchasing flexibility they have on Amazon.  And, since the software is compatible with popular accounting and management software, Mediabridge has even greater control over their inventory and sales.

With the flexibility of their own online storefront, Mediabridge can experience unlimited online growth opportunities while still providing the same quality of service to existing customers.

- Website Traffic – 68%B
- Brand Awareness – 61%
- Engagement with Prospects – 60%
- Engagement with Customers – 52%
- Brand Reputation – 47%
- Prospect Lead Quality – 40%
- Revenue – 38%
- Prospect Lead Volume – 37%
- Useful Product Feedback – 26%

In order to determine the ROI you’re getting out of your blog and social media efforts you will have to decide which metrics are most important to you and determine a clear way to measure the success or failure of your efforts.

• Don’t read EVERY tweet. It’s perfectly okay. You have permission.
• Follow anyone who follows you (and unfollow spammers/jerks).
• Promote other people 12x to every 1 self-promotional tweet.
• Build lists to watch people who matter to you more closely.
• Retweet the good stuff from others. Sharing is caring.
• Set an egg timer. Twitter is addictive.

Since Method LLC focuses on the efficient use of communication and technology, WWWC redesigned the logo and brand using timeless designs with bold simplistic style.  The new blue logo emphasizes efficiency and focus, giving consumers an immediate sense of the company’s strength and dedication.  “Our web design team incorporated the same sense of focus and efficiency into the design of the website, using blues and grays to balance color and shape in order to create a website that successfully reflects the focus and drive of this trusted company,” explained Bob Savar, President of WWWC.

“To complete Method’s re-branding,” continued Savar, “we took the new logo and designed bold new marketing materials with redesigned business cards, letterheads, and digital graphics and templates especially designed for print materials. Essentially we’ve created a package that gives Method the tools they need to engage both new and existing clients well into the future.”

http://www.methodllc.com

The best thing about social media sites is that they are accessed by a large audience. Social media marketing can be used effectively to build links for the site, manage online reputation of the company, and even increase awareness and visibility of the site.

Building a profile on social media marketing sites will help the search engines, and ultimately the customers, “find” the business.  The profile should tell readers about the business owner and the products/services, with links to the business site.

Build Brand

Entrepreneurs and business owners must brand and attach themselves to a specific topic, making them the experts. Writing articles and posting them on blogs in these social networking sites can help others become aware of the business’ products and services.  By contributing to these sites, the business is branding itself.  The key is to use a soft sell approach.

Once business owners establish the credibility and expertise, customers’ belief in whatever products or service the company offers will follow. The business will then make the sale.

To illustrate:  A house owner would not hire a plumber to paint his house, but he may ask the plumber to recommend a good painter if the plumber has a good reputation.  This is an example of offline social networking.

Anyone who expects to achieve immediate results in the form of sales by engaging in social media marketing will be in for a disappointment.  A tweet will not make phones ring, make a customer walk through the door, or fill out an order form on the website, although this may happen in some lucky situations.  If someone becomes a fan of a business fan page on Facebook today, it doesn’t mean this fan is going to buy the company’s product or service tomorrow. Having a website doesn’t mean people will automatically visit it. The key is to understand that social media marketing can be an effective marketing strategy. But first the business owner has to determine the available resources, decide on which marketing methods are currently working and which are not, and know where competitors and potential clients are hanging out online.

To sum up…social media marketing cannot be taken for granted.  Social media marketing has a huge upside potential to boost sales if used properly and executed effectively.

The target audience must first be determined in order to plan the marketing campaign.  Every plan must be based on a target market analysis.  You need to know the types of social media sites they are using, the things that they look for when they use those sites, and what content must be used to catch the attention of these prospective customers.

Blatant marketing/selling on social media marketing sites doesn’t work. The approach must be more subtle.  The goal is to increase online presence, create backlinks from a major traffic site, and build brand.

Increase Online Presence

Whether the business has been around for quite awhile or just starting, it is important to build its presence on the internet if it wants to be exposed to its target audience/market.

In our next blog entry we will discuss “Creating Backlinks” and”Building Brand.”

Social media marketing has been greatly used by open-minded business owners who understand that in this day and age, traditional marketing alone does not contribute much to a business’ competitive edge, especially if a competitor is maintaining an online presence.  Social media is seen by many marketers as the next gold rush.  Studies show that social media campaigns drive traffic, promote any brand, and generate leads that build influence, which eventually generate sales.

“Social” means a “friendly gathering,” “media” means “a form of communication,” and “marketing” means “processes for creating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society in general.”  As a phrase and in context, social media marketing can be explained as an online gathering for communications that are part of a process designed to create, deliver, and exchange offerings for customers, clients, partners, and society.

Strategies for social media marketing programs are focused on creating content that attracts online users’ attention, generates web conversations, and encourages readers to share it with their social networks.  Some of the more widely used social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg, YouTube, and StumbleUpon.  A message posted on any of the sites spreads from user to user and gets responses because it is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.  It then becomes more like a social buzz or “word of mouth.”

The problem some people have with social media marketing is in their understanding of what it is supposed to do.  Some are interested but don’t know how to use it.  Others don’t believe in its value to their sites or businesses.

In our next blog entry we will discuss “How to Execute Effective Social Media Marketing” and “How to Increase Online Presence.”