Posted by Samantha Coren on Thu, Sep 02, 2010
While some still feel that e-mail is old school web marketing, it still matters to any good pull marketing strategy. There are a lot of haters out there who think e-mail marketing is dead. Well, one of my favorite things to do is prove haters wrong - with evidence of course.
I've been working with a business in Waltham for the past few months on revamping the way they do their e-mail marketing. For years, they've been using e-mail primarily as a way to distribute their newsletters and promote upcoming events - pretty much par for the course on the way the vast majority of folks market via e-mail. They have a fairly decent sized contact list with mostly high click rates and low unsubscribe rates on all the messages they send. However, as nice as these stats sound they weren't translating to new leads or customers.
In August, I worked in conjunction with their business development manager to generate leads for an upcoming conference. We collaborated to compose and distribute a simple HTML email with a single call to action to a landing page where recipients could sign up for a free promotional item that related to the event.
The result? Well, see for yourselves:
So how can you do this?
Build a Quality Contact List
Everything starts with building a contact list. There are several black hat (less than legitimate) ways people might try to do this. Buying lists of e-mail addresses isn't going to give you the best audience, nor are you putting yourself in a good position to be in compliance with the
CAN-SPAM act. The best way to build a contact list is by offering your website visitors quality content and capturing an e-mail address in exchange. The company I’ve been working with has been creating, distributing, and fostering a community around their content for 20 years. Keeping an up to date list of all your customers is quite easy to do if you have an e-commerce component to your site. If you’re a small physical shop without an online shopping cart element (let’s say a local bakery shop), you can offer discounts or coupons in exchange for an e-mail address.
As always, it’s important to make sure that all your e-mails have an unsubscribe link available and that you spell out if you keep their e-mail private (don’t distribute it to others) on your forms. It’s not just best practice - but it prevents you from being a spammer in the eyes of CAN-SPAM.
Promote Free Content that Relates to Your Paid Products or Services
Everyone loves free stuff - everyone loves free stuff even more when they feel like they're getting something of value. Some businesses can be hesitant to distribute their hard work for free. Think of it as a chance for your prospects to get a taste of what you have to offer. The more quality content you put out related to your business, the more folks will get the impression that you're really trying to be a thought leader and will think of you first when it's time to buy.
KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid!)
A lot of times when I open an e-newsletter, certain promotional offers get hidden in a hodgepodge of other announcements. What can you do to make sure your offers are getting noticed? A simple, single e-mail blast that only promotes that offer. Let's face it - it can be tricky to keep anyone's attention in this day and age of mega computer multitasks. Heck, I have a window open for my e-mail, my Twitter, my Google Calendar, and half of Microsoft Office right now as I write this! By keeping the messaging short, simple, and to the point you'll improve your chances of getting a coveted 15% or higher click rate.
Make Sure You Have a Measurable Conversion
Your e-mails should always have a link you can track hits on. If you're just broadcasting a message with every e-mail you send, you're not going to get the best ROI on your e-mail marketing efforts. Pulling people out of their inbox and back to you should be the ultimate goal of any e-mail you send in your campaigns.
What are some ways you've gotten the most out of E-mail Marketing? We'd love to hear about it in the comments!
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Posted by Jeff Machado on Wed, Sep 01, 2010
As you start to put the principles of pull marketing into action for your business, there might be moments where you feel like nothing is working. You understand the theory of pull marketing. You buy into it. And you start to change your business model to accommodate it but usually there’s something missing - though you can’t put your finger on it.
So, you’re probably wondering what separates those who really make pull marketing work for them (with results ranging from increased lead generation to creating a community of fans on Facebook) versus those who simply know about it.
Here’s what you need to know:
Those who successfully make pull marketing work for them are those who are devoted to educating others and sharing their knowledge.
When you feel like you’re on a mission to share a message that you have and you’re willing to help others overcome a problem they are experiencing, you build up an energy that helps you overcome the usual excuses such as “I don’t have time to market my business” or “This Internet marketing stuff won’t work for my business.”
How do you awaken this desire to educate and share your knowledge though? Here are 10 things to help spark you into action:
- Do a Twitter search for people looking for help on topics related to your business
- Spend some time on LinkedIn Answers and look for opportunities to chime in with your expertise (and not your promotions!)
- Join an industry related forum and find threads where you can add value
- Use a social media monitoring tool like Trackur to find relevant blog posts to leave insightful comments on
- Put your FAQs into presentation form and upload the document to a site like SlideShare.com
- Ask your current clients how they believe you have been most helpful
- Host a monthly meetup group on Meetup.com to discuss issues in your industry
- Create and moderate a Facebook page related to a topic that’s important to you in addition to your company page
- Curate several popular blog posts in your industry on your own blog to save your readers time
- Set up an automated lead nurturing campaign that presents your leads with at least one actionable item that will solve a problem.
If you were only able to do a few of these in the genuine spirit of helping, you would be able to connect with like minded individuals who would have a need for what you have to offer. Go where the people are, interact, and you’ll finally get that pull marketing funnel up and running.
Where are you on the spectrum of pull marketing? A total beginner or someone who is still looking for ways to make it work? Let us know in the comments!
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Posted by Jeff Machado on Thu, Aug 05, 2010
Implementing a solid lead generating strategy is only the beginning of creating an effective sales funnel. Once you have captured an email address, it’s now your chance to follow up with these leads to help turn them into customers and clients who speak wonders about your business.
A lead nurturing campaign will help you keep in touch with these leads. If done correctly, you’ll be on your way to developing raving fans of your business.
Here are 7 tips to follow when you want to create lifelong customers from your lead database:
1. Think Long Term Relationships
The worst mistake you could make with lead nurturing is to be short sighted about the potential of these leads. To be successful with lead nurturing, you have to see every lead as an investment. Investments need time to grow and increase in value. The stronger relationships you have with these leads, the more valuable your lead database becomes.
2. Set A Schedule
Automated lead nurturing works well when you have a set schedule of how you’re going to execute the campaign. Based off the lead generating content you created, you should now have lead nurturing content that is distributed at distinct time periods from when your prospects have become leads. Without an automated lead nurturing strategy, your leads will quickly begin to forget who you are.
3. Organize Your Content
Following up with your leads isn’t about blasting sales offers to them on a daily basis. Instead, it’s a process of getting these people to know, like, and trust you more. The most effective way to do this is to organize your content and distribute what is relevant to your leads’ interests. Whatever you send out should be somehow related to what they originally received as part of becoming a lead.
4. Ask Questions
When someone opts in and becomes part of your lead database, they are looking at you as an expert in the subject that you’re talking about. Use this to your advantage. Try sending out a survey that captures their questions. You can use this information in blog posts, videos, follow up emails, and more. When you answer their questions, you’ll increase your expert status in their eyes.
5. Increase Closeness
Email marketing isn’t what it used to be. You can’t just blast out an email and expect conversions anymore. Instead, you have to use multimedia strategies like videos and webinars to help your leads through the buying process. When they can actually see and hear you, it starts to decrease their buying resistance.
6. Define Your Calls To Action
All of your emails should be designed with one solid call to action in mind. Whether it’s to fill out a survey, read a blog post, or contact you for a consultation, you should define exactly what it is you would like your leads to do as a result of that email. Focus their attention on the benefits of taking that action when you write your emails.
7. Create Irresistible Offers
When you have finally reached the point where your leads have warmed up, it’s time to reach out to them with an irresistible offer. If you have taken time to get to know your leads more, you’ll know exactly what it is they’re looking for. Your offer can be tailored specifically to their needs so the demand has already been created.
What's your bonus lead nurturing tip? What's missing from this list? Let us know in the comments!
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Posted by Samantha Coren on Wed, Jul 21, 2010
At PullnotPush I have the opportunity to work one on one with the owners of businesses developing
inbound marketing strategies for lead generation. For local businesses that only perform services in person, such as an auto shop or hair salon, capturing qualified leads can be tricky. If your website visitors and leads aren't coming from the areas you service, then you aren't going to get the best ROI on your inbound marketing efforts.
So how do you ensure you're attracting both relevant and local attention with your landing pages?
Here are a few easy tips that will help you appeal to the locals and easily filter out unqualified leads:
Use an Offer that Encourages Visitors Come Into the Store
Let's say you run a small coffee shop and you're trying to figure out a way to build up an e-mail list for your monthly newsletter. One thing you might want to try is offering a coupon on a cup of coffee to your website visitors in exchange for their e-mail address.
Or suppose you run a flower shop and want to spark interest in your monthly newsletters; letting people know they'll receive in-store discounts through your newsletter will encourage more folks to sign up.
No one wants to give away their email address – incentivize your potential leads to do so through meaningful offers!
Give People the Option to Schedule an Appointment or Quote
If giving out discounts isn't your style (and shame on you - everyone loves deals!) you can create a landing page that lets people schedule an appointment or get a free quote. However, if you do this you'll have to stay on top of people opting in to fulfill these requests and qualify the leads as potential customers. In this case, it's a good idea to include a field to capture a telephone number.
Make sure to designate someone in your business to respond to new leads coming in if the offer requires contacting the lead within a certain amount of time. If you have HubSpot, it's easy to notify someone on your team via e-mail the second a new lead comes in the Form Manager settings.
Require a Zip Code on Your Sign Up Form
You don't need to be wearing a tinfoil hat to feel uncomfortable giving away your home address to a form on the internet. However most people aren't shy about just giving out their zip code. This is also essential lead qualifying information for businesses that provide on-site or delivery services to a limited area.
Do you run a local business? What are some ways you've attracted local traffic through your website that resulted in new customers?
Posted by Samantha Coren on Tue, Jun 22, 2010
Do you sometimes get the feeling that Google Adwords is a vampire sucking you dry? Let's be honest here - you've spent hundreds (or thousands!) each month on paid search and haven't seen it translate to an increase in leads or sales.
Want to start seeing results? Here are three ways you can set your next PPC campaign up for success:
1. Don't use words you already rank high for organically.
Before even thinking about what search terms to add to a paid search campaign, you need to check your organic traffic. Find out what keywords people are already using to find your site using your analytics software of choice. If you notice that you're already getting a lot of traffic for a certain term without PPC, then chances are it's not a good investment in paying for that traffic.
2. Link to a landing page.
One of the biggest "no-no's" we come across with paid search campaigns is that, more often than not, people are just linking to their home page. Sure, you might get a nice traffic increase, but you can bet your bounce rate is going to skyrocket. Most home pages tend to be designed as an "internet brochure" for a company and don't contain a way to capture lead information directly.
Why is it better to design a landing page for your PPC campaign? The more leads you can generate from a paid search, the better. This gives you a way to build up a lead list so you can actually nurture people who visit your site into customers via e-mail marketing. People are more inclined to give you their contact information (in this case an e-mail address and name at the bare minimum) if you have some sort of compelling offer you're willing to give away for free.
3. Choose "middle of the road" keywords.
Another mistake we see people make when setting up paid search campaigns is picking many low-traffic terms instead of a few higher cost ones that get traffic. There's a false economy in going with several lower-cost "long-tail" search terms. It's not worth your time setting up a whole campaign around a bunch of terms that aren't going to generate any traffic.
You're better off utilizing those lower traffic keywords within your SEO within website strategy by using them in your content. So what should you pick? Terms that bring in that are priced to bring in traffic, but don’t break your budget.
On a final note, you should avoid falling into the trap of relying too heavily on paid search to generate traffic and leads. PPC should always be an ancillary marketing effort and not your primary focus. Remember, there's no substitute for generating remarkable content that pulls people to your site without paying for their visit!
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Posted by Jeff Machado on Mon, Jun 07, 2010
There's a basic fact about Inbound Marketing that we all must understand - generating a lead and turning that lead into a customer both require skill and hard work. While the activities look different on the surface, they both share one powerful and common thread however.
That powerful and common thread is none other than content creation.
Want more leads? Create more content.
Want to turn more leads into customers? Create more content.
Why Content Is The Answer To Your Lead Generation Problems
Whenever I talk to anyone about lead nurturing, I ask them to think about their own buying habits. I ask them if they're willing to drop down the cash or sign the check as soon as they find out about a potential service or product. Usually, the light bulb goes off right at that moment. People need time to think about the product or service they're considering.
Usually, this same person will then take this info and start blasting sales messages to their leads, hoping some of them will be reminded of what's available and take instant action. I'll shake my head a bit and let them know that this just doesn't work either.
Following up with content changes everything. When you're not promoting yourself, you're adding value. The best thing is, this type of lead nurturing doesn't require you to shell out a ton of cash in order to see results. All it takes is some time and a willingness to take all the information and resources you have available to somehow make the lives of your potential customers better.
It should go without saying that you need to treat your leads like gold if you want them to take the next step in the sales process.
Not sure what type of content to share as part of your lead nurturing? Here are 3 quick ideas:
Tell A Story Through Video
Creating content doesn't require you to sit down and write for hours. All you need to start with is an easy to use video camera like the Flip video and the willingness to put yourself out there for the world to see. Every business has a story - something that makes you more human to your prospects.
Doing a video that has personality helps increase the Know, Like, and Trust factor that helps loosen up and want to know more about what you have to offer.
Share A Blog Post
One of the things I emphasize most to my clients is that blogging generates business. The reason for this is two-fold. First, blogging helps you to get found online and makes it easier for you to convert those visitors into leads.
Second, blog posts can be used as part of a lead nurturing campaign to help answer some of the questions your leads have. If you have one blog post that is particularly insightful, you need to make sure your leads have read it and have a chance to interact with you in the comments section.
Conduct a Survey
Need an easy to follow up with your leads? Put together a survey to start gauging where your leads are at in their knowledge of your niche. By doing this, you'll be able to look at what you're offering and see if those offerings are in line with where your leads are at.
Using that information, you can also fine tune your lead nurturing even more. If it turns out that your leads are beginners, you can get rid of that technical and advanced whitepaper that you inserted into your automated lead nurturing campaign and replace it with a webinar that explains the basics more in depth.
How have you used your content as part of your lead nurturing process? Do you find that it helps your leads to get to know you and your company better? Let us know in the comments!
Posted by Samantha Coren on Thu, May 06, 2010
Mother's day is just around the corner. It's that time to show your appreciation for that one special lady who brought you into this world. To me, my mom is the one person I've learned to trust the most - I feel comfortable sharing just about anything with her.
When learning how to create a landing page your main goal should be getting the visitor to share their information by building a compelling offer. To accomplish this, you have to establish trust. How do you go about doing that? By listening to your mother:
Don't speak with your mouth full.
Many times, you'll run into the urge to spill every little detail about your offer onto your page. In the case of landing pages, less is certainly more. Boil your promotional offer down to a handful of key benefits. Focus on one simple call to action needed in order for visitors to receive your offer.
It's rude to talk about money. More often than not, the data collected from landing page forms will be used by companies to qualify sales leads. When it comes to marketing to consumers, many people don't like to submit information related to their income. If you're confident in requesting intimate information such as their earnings, you'd better have a pretty darn good offering that will motivate them to give you an accurate number - if they even decide to fill out the form at all.
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Anytime you want people to fill out a form on your site, put yourself in their shoes first. Chances are, you're going to want to know how your information is going to be used. Always be upfront with the privacy of the information you collect on your forms.
Wash behind your ears.
Before promoting your landing page, you need to make sure all the little details are taken care of. Is your copy easy to read and free of errors? Is your page properly optimized for search engines? Have you removed any links that will take your visitors off the page before submitting their form? Does the completed form send the information to the right place? Is your automatic follow up e-mail sending properly? Have several people proof the page before you make it live for the rest of the world.
Say "Thank You".
A confirmation page or e-mail with a simple thank you message is a always a nice touch. It's also the courteous thing to do. Do you have any "motherly" landing page advice to share? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Posted by Jeff Machado on Mon, Mar 22, 2010
The number one reason I'm an early riser is so that I can make content creation a priority while still handling all my other responsibilities. When that alarm clock goes off at 5am, I'm thankful that I don't have to rush and be thrown right into the mix. Instead, I can ease into my day with a relaxed and pliable mind. As a result, I'm able to get a lot of writing done. In fact, last week I was able to finish an entire whitepaper (launching soon!) as a result of early rising.
Whitepapers are extremely valuable for their lead generation potential. A well written whitepaper has the power to answer your prospects' questions while at the same time showing how you and your business can help solve the problems they're having.
If you can match your whitepapers with a prospect's needs, you will have no troubles generating leads. While the power of whitepapers is generally understood, it's a wonder that there are still businesses out there without these lead generating materials.
1. Make Whitepaper Creation A High Priority Item
The first thing that helped me create the whitepaper in a week was that I made the process a high priority. It's important to move away from the process of "Wouldn't it be nice to have a way to generate leads?" to "What are the actions I can take today for B2B lead generation?" When you ask yourself the right questions and see the process as a result of daily action, you have prepared yourself for the work (and yes, work is required!) ahead.
Another helpful tip is to ask yourself reflective questions about your day. If you can't answer what you did during the day to make progress on your whitepaper, you can use the resulting feeling from this question as the force behind maximizing your next day's activities.
2. Go In With A Strong Outline
I used to be afraid of outlines. Mostly, this was a result of me overthinking the process and making it more complicated than it needed to be. For your whitepaper, try to outline 7 tips, trends, mistakes, or other easy to digest format that you know your prospects will benefit from. Use the common problems you see on a daily basis as the inspiration for each of these points.
Keeping your current customers or clients in mind while you're coming up with these tips also helps you write a better whitepaper because you'll be able to reference specific situations.
3. Set A Timer
Writing a whitepaper requires concentrated effort over a period of time. It's difficult to sit down in your chair and hope a whitepaper will just come out of you. As an alternative, set a timer for an hour each day. There will be times when the words will flow while other times, nothing will come out. No matter what, you have to respect this hour. One of the things I struggle with is writing in a completely linear fashion. Some points come to me easier than others. Use what comes to you and find a place for it in your outline.
4. Review, Fill In, and Edit As Necessary
By the end of the week, you should have a fleshed out whitepaper that's almost ready to launch. Let the whitepaper sit for a day or two. Then, you can go in with fresh eyes to make the changes necessary. You can add in more stories, Edit points that don't quite make sense. You should also polish the design to make it ready for download.
While we are all limited to the same 24 hours a day and some of us will say that we're just too busy, these tips can be applied repeatedly to generate high quality lead generating materials on a weekly basis. Do you have any tips to share? What is your experience with creating a whitepaper? Leave your comments below!
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Posted by Jeff Machado on Tue, Mar 02, 2010
The promises of Inbound Marketing seem difficult to achieve at times.
Instead of relying on a few big marketing pushes to bring in a flood of leads, you need to be focusing on a long term approach for generating leads on a daily basis. Writing articles on a daily basis is just one of the many strategies you can use to increase your results from Inbound Marketing.
Here's what you can do with your articles on a daily basis to generate more leads:
1. Test Your Calls to Action
The truth is, not all of your articles will be a success. Some of them will get barely any views or prospects won't click through to your site to see what you have to offer. One of the reasons people don't click through is that they don't feel that your call to action to download a whitepaper or webinar suits their needs enough.
What this means to you is that you should test out different lead generating materials in the call to action area (also called the Author Resource box) to see what type of giveaway resonates with your readers.
2. Share Your Articles on Social Media Sites
Just because your articles are hosted on a site like EzineArticles.com doesn't mean they need to stay there. If you're creating well written articles on a daily basis, you should share them with your fans and followers on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. When your articles have high value and help out your readers, they will often share the article with their own followers and friends.
Taking just 20 minutes on a daily basis to write an article and just a few seconds to share it on Twitter or Facebook allows you to multiply your reach across the Internet.
3. Use Your Most Successful Articles as Inspiration For Whitepapers
Article marketing is also one of the best market research tools you have at your disposal. An article that gets lots of views or gets shared often on social media sites (also known as going viral) is one that you should reuse in as many different ways as possible. You can use the outline of this article to help you create an even larger whitepaper.
Then, you can use your newly created whitepaper as a lead generating material that you promote with even more articles.
Bonus Tip: If you need more content for your own website, try taking sections of your articles and expanding on them as blog posts. You don't have to always come up with new content. You just need to think of new and original ways to use your existing content.