Archive for December, 1969

This Week: Marketing With Original Content

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
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Having been in marketing for more than a dozen years, I can tell you that one thing that positions a company and product better than any other, is original content. Having unique content that is relevant to your audience can dramatically improve your business.

What is original content?
Anything that your write and publish (online, pdf, ebook, blog, etc.) is considered original content.  Often times creating original content is seen as a nice to have and not a must-have.  However, if anyone is to really make a difference for their products or brand, generating original content needs to be front and center.
This is why websites like CNN.com and MSNBC are so well known – original content.  Everything on their site is authored and done so with care and attention.  Now you might be say, “I sell widgets.  What does original content have to do with my business?”  That’s an excellent question and one worth answering.
If am in the market for buying a widget, I’m probably going to search online.  From my first search, original content is going to win out.  Sites that have original content, that write their own reviews, product descriptions, and so on, are going to be ranked higher in search results.  Additionally, as I engage with the content – perhaps product reviews or descriptions – I’m going to move through the purchase decision process and buy something.
Sites that are using descriptions from other websites or don’t have much content that speaks about widgets, aren’t very engaging.  A site that creates and publishes different reviews, opinions, usage suggestions, and so on, will keep readers engaged and moving towards the ultimate outcome of a purchase.
Original content doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming.
The complaint I often hear is that creating original content can be very time consuming or simply cost a bundle to have written.  In my experience it doesn’t have to be.  Of course writing content for a website initially is going to take some time.  Once established, publishing a new article or adding some information from time to time is easy to do.

There are also plenty of plug-ins and other applications that can integrate reader comments, product reviews and so on.  By using these widgets, you can quickly integrate new content into your website site that is both relevant and meaningful.  Many of these widgets are free or very low cost.
If you’re searching for original content, there are sites out there such as eLance that can connect you with writers, publishers, and experts to author whatever content you need created.  Most authors can now write for the web or print.  Don’t be discouraged by the need for original content, embrace it.

Use original content to generate leads.

One of my favorite ways to use original content is to offer access to specialized information at a price.  Browsers may be interested for example in downloading a guide on how others have used their widgets (previous example) to do a special kind of project.  By asking browsers simply for their name and email, you can add them to your auto responder or prospect list.
Creatively using original content to get individuals to opt in is the first step in creating a pool of potential customers.  Think of their greatest needs, challenges, and requests for information and author something of value.  The result will be meaningful content that they are willing to exchange something for – usually contact information.

Original content is necessary for being successful online.  If you want to rank well on search engines, find a pipeline of potential customers, and be a resource for existing customers who continue to buy from you, then consider developing original content and you’re sure to win every time
For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

Affiliate Marketing Made Simple

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | No Comments
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It’s been a while since I spent any time talking about affiliate marketing even though it’s something I do every day. A friend of mine asked me for a quick primer on affiliate marketing so I thought I’d share my thoughts with everyone who reads this blog. 

I know from the many comments and emails that many of you are interested in driving more traffic to your websites, improving rankings, and making the most from your PPC and other online advertising.


Many of you have also shared your goal to generate revenue online through affiliate marketing. For those of you who may not be all that familiar with affiliate marketing, the concept is simple: get paid for selling someone else’s product. You might be asking, “why sell someone else’s product and not my own?” The reality is that affiliate marketing isn’t for everyone but it’s great if you don’t want to deal with the hassles of running your own traditional business.

Selling physical products, either from a retail establishment or online with a website requires that you advertise, sell, and process orders – usually through an online shopping cart. Once you’ve made a sale, you need to package and deliver the product, support any calls that come in (product questions, shipping inquires, reship damaged inventory, etc.). The process is labor intensive and time consuming.

Enter affiliate marketing. When selling someone else product through an affiliate network the steps are quite simple. You begin by selecting an affiliate product, do some affiliate advertising, and send traffic to a vendor’s sales page. When a prospect converts you get paid.  Simple, isn’t it?.  The advantage to you is that you’re earning revenue with no inventory, no customer service, and no hassles.

What’s wonderful about affiliate marketing is that there are plenty of product to choose from and dozens of large affiliate networks that aggregate many advertisers into a single platform, making the process of finding relevant products easy. Different products and offers also have different payouts. You can choose to sell big ticket items with big commissions or smaller offers. There are even recurring offers that deliver a steady income to the seller month after month… my favorite!

Getting started with affiliate marketing is simple to do. Visit a site like Clickbank to find suitable offers and promotional links.  All you need to do is start driving traffic through the links posted on your site and as prospects purchase items for the vendor’s web page, you get paid. Most affiliate sites pay every couple of weeks by check, direct deposit, or via PayPal.
There are lots of ways drive traffic to your affiliate offers.  Use your website, write and distribute an article, review the product on your blog, tweet about it, use PPC marketing, etc.  There are many ways to promote different types of products.  I recommend that you choose products that have a good commission ($25 or more) and are related to your content.  If you have a web site about trucks, refer users to affiliate products such as truck parts.  If you stay relevant, you’ll get good results.  Wander too far off course and your traffic will never convert.

If you want to start making money online, I encourage you to sign up for an affiliate network.  It costs nothing and can begin generating some extra cash for your wallet.  Successful affiliate marketers can make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, or more.  Affiliate marketing is a great way to do business online and everyone should join in.

For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

The Power of Free Trials

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | No Comments
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This week I was surfing the web looking at different types of offers and couldn’t help but think about all of the different approaches to getting prospects further along in the purchase decision funnel. This is one of the most important areas that we, as marketers, can focus on.

One type of sales/marketing promotion that I’m seeing quite a bit of is the free trial. Online, the way this generally works is to offer a 7 day or 30 day free trial.  When signing up for the offer, you are asked to enter your credit card information. Upon trial expiration, you’re charged the full amount for your product or service.

Many services are subscription based too, charging your credit card a recurring fee. Subscription sites are a great way deliver information and provide a great deal of value. These sites, and others like them, are using free trials to allow you to experience the product or offering. Those who continue on with the product or service are more loyal and better informed about what they are buying.

I know a number of Internet marketers who offer subscription based services and they claim a much higher level of engagement among customers and higher degree of satisfaction. The question I have to ask myself as a marketer is how I can apply this methodology (free trial) to my own products and services?

This week, think about the products you’re marketing or selling. Is there a way to give your prospect a sample of what you offer? If you are offering an informational product, can you share the first chapter or first couple of pages (..as I have with my book, SEO Made Simple)?  Can you offer a small sample of your physical product? If you are a retail store, can you construct product samples that would allow prospective customers to take something home and try it out for a short period – charging them if the item is not returned or returned late?

I realize that free trials aren’t ideal for everyone or every product.  None-the-less, they force us rethink how we expose our prospects and services to our target market.  If free trials aren’t viable for your business perhaps they can encourage you to rethink the payment model for your products or services.  Can users buy a basic service (sample) and then pay for the standard or platinum service?  What type of upgrades can you offer – adding features beyond an initial purchase.
By rethinking the value of a trial you can take your marketing to the next level.  The key is to experiment with different offers.  Measure how many prospects take you up on the initial offer and then the upsell or ongoing subscription.  It’s important to focus on life time customer value, not just the initial purchase price.

Let me know if you’re usin free trials and how successfuly they are for you!

For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

The Most Powerful Form of Marketing: WOM

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | No Comments
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I’m often asked, “What is the most effective form of marketing?”  To which I respond, “word of mouth.”  Nothing is as effective as word-of-mouth marketing.  The real question is how to generate word of mouth from your customers on a regular basis.  There are a variety of ways to generate word-of-mouth marketing and many are overlooked by companies large and small.

One of the best ways to generate a referral is with a strong customer advocacy campaign.  Do you honor and reward your best customers?  When customers are celebrated, there’s lots to talk about.  You can share their honor with others in their segment or group.  Additionally, you can repackage the information in the form of news or video, easily distributed throughout the Web.  This creates awareness and interest for your product or service.

I personally like using surveys to get at the heart of what your customers like and don’t like about your products or services.  By utilizing open ended questions like, “Who do you know who could benefit from our product?”  Experiment with different ways for generating referrals from surveys that are personalized and based on customer insights.
Another great way to create word-of-mouth is through a customer referral campaign.  Referral campaigns are simple to implement but require a solid understanding of your audience.  By asking and rewarding your customers for referrals, you can have them do the selling for you.  This type of personal selling is one of the most effective.  Consider low cost methods of rewarding your customers for referrals.  This could be a discount on existing services or added bonuses.

Other word-of-mouth campaigns may be effective in utilizing testimonials.  Today, with the help of blogs, video, and web sites, when customers have a good experience they have lots of ways to share it.  The challenge is to direct your customers to promote good experiences, not bad.  Although I’ve tried to solve this dilemma for over a decade, the only discovery I’ve made is that you have to take the good with the bad.

There’s actually a silver lining here.  Research has shown that when customer comments contain both positive and negative feedback, they are more believable.  The key is to encourage your customers to speak up about positive experiences and downplay the negative ones.  When you receive or come across negative comments, respond to them – work with your customers to make things right.  After that, let them go.  The balance of positive and negative works in your favor.

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.  Think of ways to elicit positive feedback from customers.  If you focus on generating word-of-mouth, you’ll quickly find a number of methods for encouraging referrals from your customers. 
For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

Making Money With Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | No Comments
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Whether you’ve been using AdWords for years or have never even heard of pay-per-click advertising (PPC), know that it’s an essential part of any Integrated marketing program.  I recently provided some of my most valuable pay-per-click advertising secrets on an interview with Jonathan Taylor and Russell Portwood at Blog Talk Radio (listen here).  During the interview we discussed how to get started with Google AdWords and some valuable secrets for making money online.


If you’re not running any campaigns on Google AdWords, I suggest that you open an account.  The beauty of PPC advertising is that you only pay when an individual clicks on one of your ads.  You might have tried PPC in the past and generated a lot of clicks but no conversions.  Perhaps you tried it for a short while and found it too complicated to manage.  I know how you feel…

The Long PPC Road
When I started in Internet marketing, pay-per-click was just coming on to the scene.  The premise was great, only paying for an action, but the results weren’t so good.  Over time, as the tracking become more sophisticated and the quality of analytics improved, results started to improve.  I’ve spent over 5 years making small distinctions in pay-per-click advertising campaigns that have dramatically improved my results.

Many people believe that to get quality traffic you need to spend a ton of money or always be in the #1 paid position.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Some of my highest converting keywords cost the least.  Additionally, and here’s a free tip, I often get higher conversions when my ad shows in positions 3 – 6.  I find that prospects clicking in the ’sweet spot’ are more buying oriented than just doing research.

To be effective with PPC, you need to run a number of campaigns on your own.  I attended at least half a dozen workshops on pay-per-click advertising and spent close to $1,000 on so called PPC courses only to find that there wasn’t a lot of “new” information designed to improve the effectiveness of my campaigns.  What I learned through trial and error was certainly more valuable.  Always seek hands-on experience if you wish to be success.

PPC Made Simple
In a couple of months, I’ll be sharing everything I know about PPC advertising in my next book, “PPC Made Simple.”  Until then, I wanted to share a few tips you can use right away to start improving campaign performance.

1.  Set a budget of $10 – $20/day.  It doesn’t take much to determine if a particular type of PPC campaign is going to be profitable.  Start with a small budget to generate clicks and watch your campaign closely.  Usually, for around $100 you can determine whether or not you’ll be successful.

2.  Do your keyword research.  Start with the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find frequently searched upon terms.  In addition, do some competitive research using any one of dozens of tools that reveal what terms your competitors are bidding on.  Once you’ve compiled a list, focus on buying keywords.  Use the Microsoft Commercial Intent tool to optimize your keyword list.

3.  Use a tool like the Google AdWords Editor to help manage your campaigns. The tool costs nothing and can help you stay on top of the performance of your campaign.  Additionally, you can easily manage multiple campaigns simultaneously.

4.  Use the AdWords Dashboard.  As usual, Google AdWords comes with it’s own resources for evaluating campaign effectiveness.  Learn the value of your AdWords dashboard.  This gives you information about your click-through-rate, cost per click, and overall campaign metrics.  The more you understand the data being provided, the more effective you can make your campaign.

5.  Implement Google Conversion Tracking.  When you implement conversion tracking, you can quickly and easily see which keywords and ads drive sales.  This is the most important aspect of any PPC effort and essential for long term success.  If you know which keyword/ad combination is most effective, you can optimize your PPC budget.

These are just a few tips to help you improve the performance of your pay-per-click marketing campaigns.  Again, it’s essential that you start using Google AdWords in order to learn how to implement successful campaigns.  Even though you may have four or five campaigns that don’t generate a favorable return, one profitable campaign can more than make up for it.

Once you launch your campaign, utilize the metrics provided by Google to refine and improve your campaign.  By learning the ins and outs of pay-per-click advertising you are improving your overall knowledge of Internet marketing and finding new ways to promote your products or services.  In addition to generating sales, PPC is a great tool for lead generation as well.
For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

Watching the Super Bowl…

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | No Comments
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Each year I look forward to watching the Super Bowl.  Even though my favorite team wasn’t playing this year, there’s just something about seeing one of the year’s biggest events.  I suppose the real reason why I’ve always tuned in to the Super Bowl is because I’m simply interested in the commercials.  In addition to watching the ads, I’m equally curious as to whom the new advertisers are as well as who continues to spend the big bucks year after year.
This year was a combination of movie previews and some new advertisers as well as the traditional advertisers like GoDaddy and Budweiser.  Although I saw more station programming ads than ever before.  I guess the network had a little difficulty selling out all of their ad space!

Is it worth the price of advertising?
I thought a number of this year’s commercials were pretty underwhelming (which seems to be more true each year).  Personlly, whether Dockers is showing a bunch of men walking through a pasture without their pants or Careerbuilder gives us an office tour where employees have nothing but their underwear on, I could care less.  From my perspective, most the advertisers just don’t get it.  The only exception is perhaps Bud Light where their audience is the exact segment that’s watching the game – those who attend or watch sporting events.  Because of their significant presence, I’m sure they got a pretty favorable price for all of their exposure.

Even so, the purpose of advertising is to engage, brand, and create awareness.  Effective advertising is also capable of measuring a result.  Other than GoDaddy, who gives some of their target audience a reason to go online, there was no real direct response vehicle on any of the ads.  Can you say “missed opportunity”?  That is, if you’re trying to reach millenials or even thirty-somethings.  Maybe I missed it, but no references to social media (Facebook or Twitter) or even texting.  Although I’m sure that plenty of people were texting during the game.
The Super Bowl is also a decent platform for new product launches from my perspective.  FLO TV was completely new to me and I didn’t even realize that such a device existed.  But without any call to action that was personally relevant to me, I’ll probably forget about it in morning.
I guess the advertisers who are spending the bucks are so certain of the effectiveness of their ads that they don’t need to measure their results-although I find that impossible to believe. If advertising is still based on impressions, and not action, then it still has a very long way to go.  This is why TV advertising continues to slow and more marketers are taking to the web. Not only is it measurable, but many advertisers only pay for action. 

What’s the real challenge?
Without direct response, how do these advertisers know if their advertising is generating the result they’re looking for?  I wonder if they even thought about the goals of their campaign.  A house made of full cans of Bud Light – cute.. but was it worth the $1M Budweiser had to pay for it?  Personally I like to know if each dollar I spend delivers a positive return.  I guess that’s why I spend most of my money on online advertising and little else.
Part of the reason why I don’t quite understand Super Bowl advertising is because I don’t understand the target market.  It seems to me that everyone from 8 – 80 is probably watching the game.  That’s probably why the Who was the half time entertainment.  The Who were big before I was born but I still thought they were pretty good.  I’m just surprised they weren’t wearing Pepsi T-shirts, although the drummer’s cybals seemed to be painted with Pepsi colors. 

As long as there’s TV, on the tube or your computer, there will be advertising.  You wont see any of the companies I consult for advertising on the Super Bowl.  But then again, when everyone is watching TV on their computers, I might not be able to avoid taking the plunge.  And that day is soon upon us.  It’s already begun and the next few years will likely complete the transition.  Super Bowl here we come!
For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

Blogging About Burgers? A Lesson In Social Marketing…

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | No Comments
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Last week’s post on what we could learn about marketing from wine labels, was a great hit – thanks for all of your comments and feedback. So I thought I’d continue on with our food theme as it seems to be a popular topic for marketers AND food critics.

This week, I’d like to get us all thinking about burgers!  That’s right, big juicy hamburgers with the works.  Now you might be asking, “What do burgers have to do with marketing?”  My answer, EVERYTHING!  As you know, marketing today is about much more than the traditional 4 p’s (product, place, price, and promotion).  It’s about social media, community, and focusing on what you love.  Add the power of social networks and the fact that individuals can easily contribute to the larger discussion via blogs, mobile devices, and so on, and you have a new marketing landscape.

The Straight Beef!
A couple of weeks ago I was at a reception and met Scott Blumenthal.  Scott’s a really bright guy and told me about a project he’s been working on with John McManus and Michael Marino.  They’ve created a blog to talk about and review hamburgers.  Each post is filled with insightful information about the burger joints they frequent and provides an honest review of the hamburgers they’ve eaten.  The blog also contains some eye opening stats like how many burgers (and whole cows) these guys have consumed over a lifetime – 1,066 to be exact.  
My first time visiting the blog, The Straight Beef, I got really excited about what I found.  I like a good burger just like the next guy, but the marketing implications were staring me in the face.  Not only is the content of the blog entertaining, but it invites the community at large to participate in the discussion.  Have you had a burger today?  Did you think it was particularly good or bad?  Leave a comment or email the burger guys directly at burger.reviews@gmail.com.  Now this is marketing!!!

Burger Vendors Beware
If you’re a restaurant or roadside stand, there’s no hiding.  Social media marketing is continuing to gain momentum and is the way that we, as consumers, will get more and more of our information.  The products we want to buy, the services we want to learn more about – conversations are happening about them all over the Internet and we can easily participate or sit back and learn from the experiences of others before we make a buying decision.  This is true for almost anything, even hamburgers.

I think that Scott and his blog partners have really hit on an essential marketing theme.  That theme is to use media like blogging to share what you know and build a community around your passion.  These essential elements can build a following and get everyone talking about a particular product or service.  Do you know what people are saying about your brand? your products? If not, you should.  Be part of the discussion and consumers will get to know you and associate positive feelings towards your brand.

I’ve think I’ve spoken more about burgers in this post than I have in a year.  However, being reminded about how easy it is to be part of a larger social marketing community, even if it is about hamburgers, makes me want to talk about them much more often! Don’t underestimate the effect that this type of information (a review) can have on your products.  People are reading.. and writing!

Be sure to rate your next burger at The Straight Beef blog. I’m always searching for a better burger!

For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

Marketing Lessons From a Good Bottle of Wine

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
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I look for good marketing no matter where I happen to be.  The other day I heard someone on the radio talking about wine bottles and the marketing connection.  That definitely got my attention as wine labels have so little room for copy that a number of marketing strategies must be at play to influence a purchase.
So what sells wine?  I think there are a few things that move someone through a purchase decision process in the wine market.  I’m no wine expert and quite honestly know little about “good wine” but can certainly tell you what marketing strategies encourage consumers to make that buying decision.

The label. Okay, so we all know that the label is important.  The color, the shape, the imagery.  All of these components have an impact on purchase decisions.  Each color used gives a hint to what consumers might find in the bottle.  Are the colors harsh?  Do they say, “I’m bitter” or are the colors unique and creative, giving potential buyers a sense of newness and being different?

The shape and size of the bottle.  The size of the bottle and overall packaging gives a good deal of information about what you might find inside as well.  Is the bottle traditional in shape?  Is is tall or short?  Each of these nuances must be congruent with other marketing factors to create a story worthy of pursuit.

The price.  Much like a Cadillac, many people buy on price.  Why?  Because price can give you an understanding of value.  Two wines side by side.  They look similar and are of the same size.  However, one has a price of $8.99 and the other $24.95.  Which one is better?  Price may give you the impression that the second, more expensive bottle is “better”… but is it really?

Recommendation.  Does the wine fit the occasion? Has it been recommended by someone in the store or someone you know who told you that you had to try that particular brand, vintage, etc.?  In the wine game, recommendations are a critical aspect of the purchase.

So there you have it.  Some factors that influence wine purchasing.  Are you a wine connoisseur?  If you are, what influences your buying decision?  You may add in some additional factors like, “..all Napa Valley wines are good so this one must be good as well”.  This is the final aspect of buying wine (and similar products) and that is your personal experience.  Nothing can replace experience as a driving factor in making buying decisions. 

The next time you’re in the market for a bottle of wine, notice what drives your purchase. Enjoy and bottoms up!!!

For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

Marketing Lessons From A Cereal Box…

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

This morning I took a few minutes to read the cereal box sitting on the table in front of me. Although I’m an eggs and toast kind of guy, a good bowl of cereal hits the spot now and again. After reading the promotional copy before me, I realized just how good it was from a marketing perspective – Concise, meaningful, and relevant!  It’s amazing what you can find on a cereal box!

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Maybe it’s time you took a look at your web site or print copy

When I was in grad school, I spent a lot of time learning about direct marketing and what separates good copy from bad.  As an author, I often struggle with the written word as writing a book (SEO Made Simple) is different than writing a direct mail piece or even website copy.  I learned a lesson a long time ago that came back to me while I was reading my box of Rice Krispies.  When writing copy, ask yourself “who cares?” after each sentence you write.

That’s right, “who cares?”  After writing each line of copy, I was taught to ask the question who cares?  If you actually try this exercise you’ll find that a number of your sentences are without personalization, are too vague, or simply hold no value for the reader.  After writing each line of copy ask “who cares?”  If you can answer using the copy just written, you’re on your way to more effective copy writing.

WIFFM


The other aspect of marketing copy that makes a real difference is the old acronym of “What’s in it for me?”  Is your copy directed at your audience?  I was at a sales meeting this past week and presented to three similar groups. However, each group had their area of specialty and focus.  When asked to present to each group, I found myself asking, “Why should they care about the information I’m presenting?”.  When I realized that the presentation wasn’t ideal for groups 2 and 3, I found myself up late one night making changes to the presentation.

If what you have to say isn’t relevant, it will be ignored.  Your copy needs to reflect the mindset and focus of your target audience. It’s best to get feedback from those you’re targeting and continually work to improve your understanding of their needs, environment, and ultimately the messages they resonate with.

What You’ll Discover On Your Cereal Box 

The next time you read your cereal box, you’ll discover that with very limited space, and few words, good copywriters make you feel the value and benefit of what you have in your cereal bowl.  I’ve learned over the years that great copywriting is hard to find.  Bu then again, I never really stopped to read my cereal box.  I suppose great copywriting was there all along.  Enjoy your breakfast!
For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

This Is Getting Personal…

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I just read a great comment from someone about personalized messaging. As you know, I’m a big proponent of GETTING PERSONAL. When communicating to your prospects, how personal are you getting?

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Now you might say that you deliver very personalized communication. This could be in the form of emails or direct marketing pieces that address your customers or prospects by name. But in today’s marketing environment, you need to do better. Addressing someone by name is simply a starting point. If you want to be effective, go deeper.

A great example is a recent communication I received from the college I graduated from. I could tell from the envelope and wasn’t at all disappointed when I ripped it open. “Dear former student” it read. Come on! They didn’t even have the decency to call me by my name. So of course, it went immediately into the trash. But it got me thinking…

Here is an establishment that knows a lot about me: my name, birthday, the courses I took in school, my fraternity, how many on campus parking tickets I got, etc. Yet they have failed to leverage that information from the perspective of getting my attention or giving me a reason to support their cause – very disappointing.
As a marketing person, I pride myself on not only gathering information about prospects and customers, but using that information to create a meaningful experience for them. If the letter addressed me by name and referenced personal information, it would dramatically improve my interest. “Dear Michael, we know it’s been X amount of years since you graduated, but a lot has changed. The marketing program here has been expanded…” OK. Now you’ve got my attention.

Personalization is your friend. Even if you’re sending thousands of emails or direct marketing pieces out to your audience, make it personal. Not only should you be using the information you’ve collected, but focusing on messaging that addresses the fundamental needs of your prospects. We’ll discuss more advanced messaging strategies in later posts, but for now, remember to get personal!
For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.

Source: Michael Fleischner – Marketing Expert

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