9 Fundamentals for Online Marketing Success
The World Has Changed, Have You?
By Greg Baszucki
Over the past 12 years, the Internet has dramatically changed the way we do business, especially in how we find and engage with customers. The Yellow Pages are no longer the primary way that customers find you, and the first step in a sales transaction today often takes place online, before the first phone call. Yet many businesses are not fully utilizing the basic online marketing tools they have available. Here are nine marketing basics that your business should have covered to efficiently connect with the in-market buyers who are online today.
1. Your Company Website
Your website is your online showcase. When someone comes to your home page, they should be able to tell right away what your company does and if it offers the products and services they’re looking for. Don’t make your prospects work to figure out whether you’ve got the solutions they need. Here are the basics to have covered on your site:
- Be obvious about the markets you serve, the products you sell, and the solutions they provide - right on your home page.
- Make it very easy for people to find your contact information, such as having a sales phone number visible on your home page.
- Make it easy for visitors to give you their email address, such as signing up for a free newsletter.
- Make sure you have an easy to find, short form where people can provide more detailed contact information and request more information. And when they do so, thank them for their interest via a landing page and an email auto-responder, and set the expectation that someone from your organization will follow up with them right away.
When providing product information on your site, always focus on customer benefits first. Many businesses are so proud of their products that they forget to translate their product’s features into tangible benefits for their customers. Your website is the ideal place to not just talk about yourself but also tell your prospective customers how you’ll meet their needs.
2. Search Engine Marketing
Today there are few businesses that are not affected by search engines. According to Internet World Stats, 74% of Americans - 228 million people - are online1 and, according to comScore, 92% of those Internet users use search engines to find what they’re looking for.2
Prospective customers are involved in the sales process earlier than ever before because they are searching online and getting information before they ever talk to one of our sales reps. You need to make it easy for them to find you when they’re conducting an online search, both as an offensive and a defensive measure. Even if a prospective customer has heard of your company, if you don’t come up in search results, or worse – your competitor does and you don’t - they could easily form a negative impression about your business, thinking it’s just not important enough to show up on page one or two of their online search results.
3. A High Quality Source for Online Sales Leads
You may have a great website that attracts and converts customers, but tapping into the marketing and technology horsepower of multiple websites can give you access to prospective customers far above and beyond anything you can generate at your own site, and at a positive ROI. This is economies of scale at its best. By working with a lead provider that has an affiliate network and also generates its own traffic, you get the benefit of piggy backing on the online marketing expertise of partners across the Web, and through one good lead provider relationship. For businesses that do not have large budgets for traditional (radio, TV, print) or experimental online marketing programs where results are not guaranteed, purchasing leads from a reputable lead provider can be the most cost-effective, risk-free way to go. With a per lead model, you are only directing your marketing dollars towards actual consumers who have waved their hands, provided their contact information, and explicitly expressed that they’re interested in purchasing the products you have to sell. A good lead provider will also scrub and pre-qualify sales leads before delivering them to you, so your sales team can focus on what they do best – closing deals.
4. The Optimal Mix of Traditional vs. Internet Marketing
While traditional advertising, including TV, radio, and print, is certainly not going away, many businesses are continuing to devote a larger portion of their marketing budget to the Internet. Aside from making it easy to track and measure the performance of your marketing campaigns, the Internet is absorbing more of people’s time and attention over other types of media. According to a study by market research firm IDC, Internet users spend about 33 hours per week online and about half that amount of time - 16 hours - watching television. Whereas time spent reading the newspaper accounted for less than four hours per week.3
And U.S. advertisers are following this trend. eMarketer predicts that online advertising spending will grow, on average, 10% year over year over the next four years.4
While what percent of your business’ marketing budget should be dedicated to the Internet (and how quickly you should get there) will depend on your market’s unique characteristics, it’s important to realize that, across the board, the trend continues to be more advertising dollars being spent online. It’s also important to make sure your traditional advertising strategy ties in well with your Internet strategy, such as mentioning in your print and TV ads that people should visit your website for more information.
5. A Solid Sales Follow-Up Process that Complements Your Internet Strategy
As marketers devote more resources to connecting with customers online, sales people need to make sure their follow-up process is complementary with their prospective customers’ expectations. Sales people should have an understanding of how customers found them online, what call to action they responded to, where they are in their buying process, and what perceptions they might have based on information they’ve already gathered online. It’s important to know which information your prospect has already seen, such as auto-responders and online reviews. Your follow up process should involve a mixed approach too – combining the phone and email when appropriate.
6. A CRM Tool
There are a variety of customer relationship management (CRM) tools available today to fit the needs of businesses of all sizes and, when used properly, they can help you acquire and retain customers efficiently and cost-effectively. Going beyond simply being a contact management tool, CRM tools can give you insight into how long it’s taking you to close your sales and which marketing programs and lead providers are delivering the best value. Your customers’ contact information is golden, and so are the records of your interactions with them, from first contact to signing a contract. Being organized about the timing of your communications with prospects and customers, and being accurate with their contact and other information will allow you to sell to them and provide service in a way that is effective and sure to impress. A CRM tool is simply a necessity in today’s selling environment.
7. Email Marketing
Email has also become a necessity for communicating with customers and prospects. Whereas search engine and other online forms of advertising are designed to draw people in, in other words - “pull marketing”; email marketing is the only medium that pushes your message directly to your customer’s inbox.
Marketers across the board, in every industry, say that email marketing is one of their best tools for communicating with customers, measuring interest, and generating their best return on investment. According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), in 2009, the return on investment for email across all categories was $43.52 for every $1 spent. And according to Jupiter Research, 44% of email users said an email campaign inspired them to make at least one online purchase. So, if your company is not yet using email marketing to send relevant messages to customers and prospects, it’s time to get on the bandwagon.
8. Social Marketing and Reputation Management
Social networking, which is loosely defined as Internet-based applications that enable peer-to-peer communication and sharing of information, has become wildly popular, and sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Yahoo! Groups, You Tube, Twitter, and others are used by millions of users to stay in touch and exchange information. It’s only natural for marketers to want to tap into those audiences. Because of their power to distribute “word of mouth” opinions swiftly to millions of people, it's critical for marketers to actively manage their business’ reputations on these sites because of the impact they can have. To take advantage of social marketing today, you need to know your audience and the social networking sites they use and how they use them. Just because a site attracts masses of people, doesn’t mean it’s the ideal place to connect with your audience in a meaningful way. Over 90 million TV viewers watch the Super Bowl, but that doesn’t mean they’re in the mood to think about which kind of CRM tool they need. Like any other marketing medium, with social networking you need to be very clear about your goals and objectives, and also be mindful of your return on your investment, and the time, money, and other resources that your social networking strategy is demanding. At the end of the day, it all needs to pencil for your business.
9. Performance Tracking and Measuring
There’s a saying I’ve heard used in business often: You can't manage what you do not measure. One of the best opportunities the digital environment has given to businesses is the chance to measure performance – of websites, online ads, searches, email campaigns, and more. The Internet has allowed business people to see a direct link, and every step along the way, from initial customer interest online to the close of a sale. Yet too many businesses are not tracking important performance metrics, such as lead close rates and costs per sale, which are fundamental for showing them what they’re doing well and where they need to improve. While it takes detailed organization and discipline to start tracking performance metrics, every successful organization today will tell you it’s well worth the effort and will pay off far more than just running your business on a hunch.
Greg Baszucki is the founder and CEO of Wheelhouse, home of CompareBusinessProducts.com
- http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm.
- http://www.intelliteaminc.com/search_engine_facts.html.
- http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/02/19/internet-outpacing-tv-for-time-spent.
- http://www.emarketer.com/Reports/All/Emarketer_2000615.aspx.