Posted on 5th July 2010 by Susan Venancio in Business Tips |Marketing |Social Media |email marketing
Business Growth, Business Tips, contest, customer, customer service, email, email marketing, giveaway, ideas, incentive marketing, internet sales, Landing Page, marketing strategy, micro site, online promotion, Social Media, special offer, sweepstakes, web marketing
Online incentive marketing strategies are an affordable and powerful marketing tool. These are the online promotional contests such as, sweepstakes, giveaways and special offers companies use to get their customer’s attention. Going online with this type of marketing is taking over; it is quick and easy for the user and cost effective for your company, saving on postage, paper and printing costs. When planned well with clear goals your return on investment (ROI) is worth it.
Online incentive marketing campaigns can be created for a small or large scale plan, something for any budget. Your promotional contest sweepstake, giveaway or special offer prizes can range from company logo items (pens/pencils) to coupons, gift cards, products and/or services and vacation destinations, just make sure that it is FREE. People love to win FREE stuff! The idea is to generate customer interest and enthusiasm. Campaigns that create a strong emotion (make your contestants laugh) will get recognized and passed along through the various channels; email and social media networks, etc.
Here are 10 reasons to plan an online incentive marketing campaign:
- Find future new customers
- Increase website traffic
- Build your marketing prospect list
- Strengthen your loyalty with existing customer relationships
- Immediate sales increases
- Company gets exposure
- Increases new/existing product or service exposure
- Increase marketing research survey response rates
- Improve product/services using contestant ideas
- Testimonial responses
This is a great tactic to generate an online buzz for whatever you decide to promote. As said before: People love to win FREE stuff! This should be a win/win. To be sure of a win/win measure your efforts. You want your efforts to get the attention it deserves. Creating a landing page or a micro site will make it easy to track your measurable desired data.
Best wishes for a successful online incentive marketing campaign. Cheers!
Posted on 26th August 2009 by Jose Bono in Business Tips |Marketing
Economy, email marketing, seo, Social Media, website
What most business owners realize in this economic downturn is the decrease in revenue. So naturally, cutting back on the overhead will save the day …right? Trimming the fat will determine our future …right? Limiting or eliminating spending on marketing is the right move …right?
Don’t make the mistake of assuming all businesses are pulling back on their initiatives. In fact, your competitors may be counting on your nervousness. Now is the time to strategize and market smarter. Targeting your audience, targeting those personas on your website, improving your e-marketing plan … those need to happen now. How the heck do we know this?
As a service provider to many businesses in California and the east coast, we are seeing the trend of scaling down on expensive ads and shot-gun tactics to sharpshooting optimized techniques. The best part … it’s working. They are seeing real results in this economy. Real visitors, real conversions, real sales.
What should you do? You should start … start somewhere. Start online. Here are 4 real goals for your business:
- Email your customers – send them a straight forward email about your new deals, new products and more. Use inexpensive services like Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) to help you achieve this.
- Freshen up Your Website – even if it’s just a couple new images and new content, you need to do it now.
- Be Found – Google is your friend. Be sure to add your business to Google’s free local business listings (www.google.com/local/add). Yes it’s free!
- Socialize – get your Facebook page and Twitter account set up for your business. Your competition may be doing this already. It’s just one more audience that you’re not taking advantage of – And it’s free.
So don’t panic. Take a deep breath before you jump. The water’s fine. You can still market to people in this environment successfully.
Posted on 30th June 2009 by Jose Bono in Business Tips |Social Media
Business Tips, customer service, Social Media, Social Media Success
- Listen: Whether you or someone else in your organization does this, you need to listen to the actions on the network. You can use simple tools for monitoring and get a better understanding of what customers are saying by PAYING ATTENTION.
- Ambiguity is a Good Thing: Visitors will always have good things and bad things to say about your company or your products. Your concern shouldn’t be how to respond to every comment, but how to organize them all. Positive and negative responses should be welcomed and give a sense of real CUSTOMER SERVICE when you reply.
- Test Your Purpose: Ask five people in your organization what they think your product is all about, what it stands for. If they all say the same thing, you’re safe. If not, it’s time to rethink your company mantra and stick to it. It becomes even more apparent when you try to convey on your social networks what you and your products stand for.
- Influence, don’t control: There’s a reason dictatorships don’t work well with the majority. Don’t try to control the conversations, just show up and take part.
- Be generous: Take some of the things that don’t seem valuable to you or the company and let your customers check it out. Behind the scenes tours, samples, etc. Don’t try to hide mistakes … openly apologize on your social networks and treat them like gold. Customers really are that important=)
Posted on 15th June 2009 by Jose Bono in Business Tips |Social Media
coa, directories, leads, seo, Social Media
These days, it’s all about leads. While larger companies with significant overhead continue to adjust with layoffs and cutbacks, smaller business remain agile and busy. Gaining new customers at a lower COA (cost of acquisition) becomes even more important than ever. Contacting potentials and existing clients can be a full time job in of itself. So where does a business focus it’s efforts to gain new leads?
To help you in your lead ventures, I’ve compiled five key points that all small businesses can use. Already tried some of these? Then try the ones you haven’t yet. (more…)
