Marketing Message Makes a Difference

March 14, 2012 Posted by admin

Marketing message is a critical part of your brand’s success—it’s important to take the time to get it right. It is essential that you define and communicate your benefits in a way that captures your prospect’s attention.

In creating, defining and refining your business marketing message, your first goal is to make crystal clear what you do.Whether your company offers corporate video production, audio production services or quality link building, make sure the marketing message brings it forward to customers and potential clients.

The second is to pique the reader’s interest, leaving him feeling as if he might be making a mistake if he doesn’t at least find out more about you. Many businesses spend weeks and months focusing on precise marketing message and getting their benefit statements clear and correct. Why? Because ultimately it makes a huge difference in closing more sales and business development.

Before you do any marketing, conduct your own messaging strategy session by asking the following five questions:

  1. What are the challenges our product, service or firm can help prospects overcome?
  2. What are the words our prospects use to describe their challenges?
  3. What is our solution (using words prospects can relate to)?
  4. What are the specific benefits of our product, service or firm? (Use the answers above and put yourself in your prospects’ shoes by asking “So what?” and “Why should I care?”)
  5. List your benefits with clear messaging targeted to each prospect.

Your marketing message is your first impression. Make sure it’s one that gets people coming back to find out more.

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This blog provides marketing ideas, business development info and website marketing trends.

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Watch Out: Fixed Annuity Risks

February 20, 2012 Posted by admin

With the prevalence of warnings that accompany annuity products, it is important that you understand the risks involved in your investment planning.  You should carefully consider the fixed annuity risks before you make any sort of decision regarding your hard-earned retirement money.  A fixed annuity is generally considered a low risk investment options, though there are certainly some things that you should consider before you purchase.

For many financial planners and investors one of the primary concerns that they have regarding any new vehicle is related to the amount of risk they are taking on.  This is true for just about any type of financial investment, regardless of the size or nature of the product.  The risks of a product are important to understand and should be a major contributing factor to whether or not you invest in the product.  Even some of the more conservative and risk-averse investment choices have a degree of risk associated with them.

The fixed annuity is safe in regards to receiving what you are contracted to receive.  Because the annuity product is issued through an insurance company, the annuity owner does not face the same risks as other financial industries.  The insurance industry is regulated on the state level, each state having similar guidelines for the insurance companies it regulates.  As such, insurance companies maintain a much more conservative overall portfolio than investment firms or banks do.  The fixed annuity risk from company failure is quite low as a result.

The real fixed annuities risk that you may face is through inflation. Because of the nature of the contract, the investment is designed to pay out a fixed dollar amount for a specified number of periods.  Many annuity owners choose a life annuity option and receive payments for the remainder of their life. The payment will generally not change, and is therefore at risk to inflationary factors.  Some provisions in the product may account for small inflation adjustments year by year, but few annuities can handle high inflation periods.

When you see warnings about fixed annuities, the most common reason is due to professional fraud.  Most warning are associated with an insurance salesman trying to sell you a product you neither need nor understand.  Because fixed annuity can have higher commissions to the agents selling them, it opens the door to dishonest planners pushing annuity products their clients do not need.  This is not to say that just because you planner recommends an annuity, he is a fraud and a cheat.  What it does mean is that your planner should be able to adequately explain to you the benefit of using a fixed annuity rather than some other financial product.  There are still a number of very good reasons to use annuities in retirement planning.

There are certainly different fixed annuity risks that you should be aware of.  You should never purchase an insurance or financial product without first understanding the risk that you will be taking on.  Understand however, that without risk there is no reward.  A little bit of risk may ensure that your accounts will continue to grow.

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Landing Pages Trends 2012

January 8, 2012 Posted by admin

The new year is a particularly good time to reflect back on the successes, challenges and opportunities from 2011 and make some great plans for landing pages in your online marketing 2012.

To get you started, here are my favorite landing page trends for the new year:

  1. Interactive. This year, we saw a lot of customers creating what I call “interactive content”. Incorporating in-page enhanced content elements like accordians, tabs, sliders, lightboxes and more. I am sure there is a better name for it, but basically it’s a way of creating a content-enriched experience while staying conversion focused. At ion, we took it up a notch by creating a no-code, no-tech way for marketers to deploy these kinds of elements on their LiveBall pages and I am super excited about how these sorts of interactive content modules improve the user experience while keeping the emphasis on conversion. <br> </br>
  2. Mobile ready. We had a surge of customers creating mobile landing experiences in 2011 and expect that marketing trend to continue fast & furiously into the new year. Bottom line: mobile users expect mobile experiences. Don’t let them down. In LiveBall, we have two ways marketers can deploy mobile-optimized pages—either by using mobile page templates (super easy!), or by letting LiveBall automatically mobile-optimize any standard-browser page (even easier!). Pretty cool stuff.
  3. Social. Marketers are learning how to incorporate social elements into their conversion-focused landing pages. Allowing your visitors to like, follow and tweet your stuff is important. Some customers like to do it right on the landing page, others like to wait and introduce social content on the ‘thank you’ page. Either way, it’s a great way to extend the conversation and socialize with your visitors.
  4. Progressive. Forms continue to increase in complexity and we make sure LiveBall can keep pace. We see more and more ‘multi-step’ forms where a visitors steps through 2-4 short forms to complete the conversion—this format is highly effective and often beats a single-page form in a head-to-head test. We also see customers serving up different forms for different visitors. For instance, if a visitor provides basic contact information on their first visit, on their subsequent visit they are served up a form with profiling questions. Why keep asking the same person for the same information when you can build a profile over time by asking different questions along the way?
  5. Local. If your marketing is any way, shape or form even a little bit local, you can capitalize on that by serving up localized pages to make the experience highly relevant. Localize your landing pages for browser language, region, country—really, anything that makes sense for your particular marketing.
  6. Dynamic. Why serve up the same page content for everyone when you can serve up dynamic content that is relevant? Different headlines for different ads. Different images for different audience segments. Mobile-optimized page for mobile traffic. You can create one basic page and then extend it with dynamic content to ensure it is relevant for the audience that lands there. The most popular form of dynamic content we see is dynamic content substitution for keywords where marketers populate the users search query in their landing page content. Cool stuff and often a nice conversion booster!
  7. Relevant. Well, duh. Relevancy drives conversions. But being relevant means different things to different people. It starts with message match. But a visual and contextual match also matter. Craft your experiences to appeal to the visitor in the moment, taking into consideration what they clicked on and what they expect when they land.
  8. Integrated. Integrated means many things. Integrated across your company, so that landing pages are no longer a ‘skunk works’ project that gets done in your spare time. Get everyone involved from executive sponsorship to product marketing, it sometimes takes a village to launch an effective high-converting landing page strategy. Integrated also means getting all the parts to talk. Marketers have a burgeoning list of tools they are using to get their job done—from CRM, SFA, marketing automation, analytics, CMS and more—no point in fighting it, just make sure that everything works together seamlessly.
  9. Optimized. Oh yes, you know you have to test it. Whether you want to fly by the seat of your pants and test without a plan, or you want to follow a methodical landing page testing program, you need to be testing in order to lift conversion rates. Learn what works and what doesn’t with real-time A/B and multivariate testing – another website marketing trend in 2012.
  10. Disposable. This one might surprise you. It always hurts my heart when I see marketers over-invest time, resources and money into any one single landing page. A landing page should take an hour, or a day, or even a couple of days if you are re-inventing the wheel entirely. But it shouldn’t turn into a multi-week, expensive endeavor. Why? See #9. Because you might test it, and it might not work. And then you will be hesitant to throw it away because you invested so much in it. Find ways to bring your vision to work efficiently without breaking the landing page bank. A landing page platform live LiveBall can be a big help in this regard. And if you do need to make a big investment in a single page, plan in advance how you can slice, dice and re-use it in multiple ways should you need to change course when the testing results start rolling in.
  11. Data-mined. It still surprises me when an online marketer doesn’t know some basic stats about landing pages—visitors, bounce rate, conversion rates, etc. This year it’s time to make sure you have a good handle on the basics and then dig deeper for insight into user behavior, traffic source segmentation and more. There’s conversion gold in the data, so work it!
  12. QR landing pages. Obsessed with QR codes? Yes, I am. QR codes rock. They’re great for anything from a boat hull to a conference tote bag. While the 11 things above are about things you can do to your landing pages to make them better, our 12th trend is about marrying offline, mobile and online marketing in a big way. QR pages are the easiest way to connect with your audience on the go, and a landing page is perfectly poised to bridge the gap and help you make a big impact when people scan landing pages.
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Cyber Monday Marketing Ideas

November 22, 2011 Posted by admin

Ever since Shop.org coined the phrase “Cyber Monday” back in 2005, online retailers have realized the sales potential of this first Monday after Thanksgiving. After all, people are back at their office jobs, tired and overweight from the Thanksgiving holiday. What better to do than shop online?

Palmer Web Marketing gathered some Cyber Monday marketing ideas for eCommerce sites.

  1. Bounce Back Discounts: Capitalize off the huge amount of traffic you’ll be receiving by offering an incentive for the next purchase. While Cyber Monday sales are great, you really want consistent customers who will order all year long, even when there are no special offers. Try sending out a follow up email with a gift certificate or coupon code to everyone who makes a purchase.
  2. Make It Viral: Take to the opportunity to capitalize on this huge traffic surge to encourage customer viral marketing. On your emails and landing pages for whatever promotion you run, include a link to a tell a friend form where shoppers can email your special to friends and family.
  3. Clearance Loss leaders: A classic strategy, but I’ve found it works well online. Most of the time, customers will buy additional full-price merchandise, especially when they realize they have to pay shipping anyway.
  4. Free Gift at Threshold above Average Order: Give away some sort of gift item once customers reach a certain threshold. In order to determine the threshold, take a look at your average order on last year’s Cyber Monday and increase it bit. However, make sure the gift warrants spending that much.
  5. Offer Deal on CyberMonday.com: If you doing something really noteworthy, you may want to highlight it on CyberMonday.com, a deal site run by Shop.org. Many prominent brands feature promotion there all year round, not just Cyber Monday.
  6. Random “Blue Light” Specials: Randomly highlight items throughout the day on your site. Better yet, highlight different items everyday through the holiday season to keep people coming back.
  7. Send 2 Reminder Emails For whatever promotion you run, make sure you keep your company top of mind after the Thanksgiving holiday. There will be a ton of marketing emails floating around, so you may want to send an initial email right before or after Thanksgiving. Then follow up with another right as the sale begins.
  8. Give Store Credit, Not Discounts: Don’t give away the farm by offering outrageous discounts on your products if you don’t have to. Consider offering store credit in the form an online gift certificate that can be used towards a future purchase. For example, rather than offering a $25 discount, offer a $50 store credit. Incentives like these tend to cost less, and they may actually be more attractive to your repeat buyers.
  9. Spread it Out: 1 day sales are great for everyone, except your fulfillment staff. In order to prevent hysteria for your warehouse and customer service staff, run the sale over a few days rather than 1 day only. This also will allow time for customer viral marketing to kick in.
  10. Create Product Bundles: The value of a product bundle can be perceived as greater than the sum of its part because you are conveniently creating a one stop gift.

For more ideas, you might considering using the Wayback machine to view your competitor’s site last year at the time. I hope some of these ideas have been useful for you. Happy holiday selling!

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Internet Threats and Cyber Security

October 18, 2011 Posted by admin

A digital war is raging within our computers alongside with cybersecurity services becoming more of demand in business environment. As Internet threats like Trojans, worms and viruses are running rampant through business networks, business owners face the question of information security and data safety for their businesses.

We often take business cyber security for granted, but as information technology has evolved, so have the internet threats. They have come a long way from attaching themselves to chain letters. Internet viruses work like biological viruses, penetrating through layers of protection to infect several cells.  Each of those cells then has the same purpose: to become cell-seeking drones and continue the spread of the virus. In the same way, computer viruses infect computers and use them to contact other computers and spread the virus.

The good news is that you won’t be getting as many annoying spam emails, thanks to Microsoft. There was a network of self-operating computers called the Rustock botnet that was capable of sending out 25,000 spam emails each hour. Your business may have experienced this viral takeover before – a seemingly harmless email with an attachment that, if opened, injected a virus into its new host. Your computer then becomes a zombie (that’s actually the technical term).

In March 2011, Microsoft, and the University of Washington teamed up to confiscate the botnet’s control servers and cripple its infrastructure. Once the emails stopped, the antivirus software on the infected computers was able to detect and correct the problem, significantly reducing the number of effective zombies.

The bad news is that malware is still developing new methods for infecting computers, in business environment, medical field and other industries. This process often begins with a popup message denying access to a program or file. It then works its way into your system controls and could end up locking you out of administrative rights on your own computer.

The scary part is the methods it uses to get into our hard drives. Have you ever gotten a Facebook instant message or wall post from a friend saying something to the effect of “Whoa, I can’t believe you did this! You’re a party animal!” with a link to what appears to be a picture. Upon clicking that link, the malware creeps into your system. The other most common malware source is a downloadable PDF file. Often sent from someone you know, the PDF has a lethal hitchhiker on its way to bring your computer down.

To avoid these problems and ensure your business database and sensitive information is protected from cyber attacks, be sure to regularly update security software and scan all email attachments before opening them. There’s much more to cyber security, of course, but every bit counts.

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Form 1099 Tax Reporting Requirements

September 1, 2011 Posted by admin

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) includes an expensive new tax information reporting requirement, which will fall heavily on small businesses. Currently, businesses report – on a Form 1099 – any service-related transactions over $600 involving an unincorporated business (sole proprietor, partnership, and LLC). Beginning in 2012, the new healthcare law requires businesses to send Form 1099s for annual business-to-business transaction of $600 or more for both property and services.

This means that a small business owner will have to file two forms – one with the vendor and one to the IRS – for almost every business-to-business transaction. In addition, since Form 1099 reporting requires the inclusion of a Taxpayer Identification Number for the vendor they do business with, small business owners will also be forced to spend time tracking down the number for every vendor requiring a Form 1099.

The reporting requirement substantially increases compliance burdens on honest small businesses.

  • Increases paperwork and administrative burden for every additional 1099 form prepared. Small businesses lack an in-house finance department to track this kind of reporting and that is why complying with the tax code is already 66 percent more expensive for a small business than a large business.
  • Increases costs incurred for mailing any additional 1099 forms and for hiring outside help to ensure that the business complies with the law.
  • Seeks to capture non-compliant corporations, but places the burden on compliant small businesses.

National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) is leading the fight to repeal the expanded Form 1099 reporting requirements. Small business owners already face a tremendous expense in complying the with the tax code. In fact, the IRS’ Taxpayer Advocate found that the cost to comply with the new requirement may cost businesses more than any tax revenue raised.

According to an NFIB Small Business Survey tax paperwork is the most expensive paperwork burden ($74 an hour) placed on small businesses by the federal government. NFIB will continue to fight this expensive and burdensome new tax paperwork requirement placed on small business.

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Promotional Video or Corporate Video Production?

August 18, 2011 Posted by admin

You‘ve seen how effective the use of videos can be, and may have decided that you want to talk to a video production company to help turn your ideas into a finished product. Before allowing the production team to work their magic, you need to have a clear idea of whether you need corporate or promotional video production. This decision is dependent on several factors, like intended audience, intended response, and which types of media would be best to host your new video.

Most often, the idea associated with creating a video is that of promotional video production. Examples of this concept range from a short welcome video on the home page of your website to full commercials or infomercials intended for use on television. These types of videos are meant to be persuasive, explaining to the audience why your company has the solution to their problems, and the intended response is for viewers to actively pursue that solution, thus creating revenue for your company. The video should explain how consumers or clients would benefit from the use of your product or service in the easiest way possible, appealing to the simplest mind of your targeted demographic.

If the video will target current employees or team members and is mainly intended for internal use, you will need a very different type of production: corporate video production, to be specific. These videos could be used for informative purposes, such as a tutorial about a new software program, or more inspirational use, like preparing employees for an acquisition or new department. There is no need for persuasiveness in this style of video, and because your intended audience is already very familiar with the workings of your company, the use of jargon is appropriate and often expected.

Though promotional video production is the most widely experienced style of video, corporate video production is just as important and just as effective in capturing the attention of viewers in the Information Age. Either way, the video will convey a very important message about your company’s image, so employing a video production company is a key step in the process.

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