Download Tips to Boost Marketing ROI

Tips to Boost
Marketing ROI
Table of Contents
About the Author................................................................................ 3
5 Tips to Get Your QR Codes Scanned.......................................... 4
Marketing Trends: Humanizing Your Brand............................... 5
Tips to Improve Retention Marketing...................................... 6-7
Improving Online Conversion:
10 Tips to Optimize Landing Pages............................................... 8
Contact Us.............................................................................................. 9
About the Author
Brian Snider
Brian S. Snider is President and Chief Creative Officer
of The GRI Marketing Group, a direct and digital
marketing agency based in Trumbull, CT.
Celebrating 28 years of service, GRI has built a
client list that includes Embrace Home Loans,
Bloomberg, Time Consumer Marketing, Conde Nast,
McGraw-Hill, New England Journal of Medicine,
New York Life, Pitney Bowes, The Hartford,
InterMedia Outdoors and dozens more.
Brian has been personally involved with hundreds
of campaigns for both b-to-b and b-to-c. In his
current role he has responsibility for agency positioning, strategy and vision.
He also likes to get “hands on” with the creative teams for each GRI client.
He holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Administration from Northeastern
University. When not at work or hanging out with family and friends, Brian enjoys traveling,
spending time on the golf course, on a tennis court and in his recording studio.
5 Tips to Get Your QR Codes Scanned
If you thought QR codes were everywhere in
2011, you will be seeing more in 2012 as the
QR code provides a method of instantaneous,
impulsive responses. In fact, 20% of US smartphone owners scanned a QR code with their
phone as of December, as did 16.1% of Canadians.
You can get creative and use QR codes in
many places to make your print interactive —
magazines, billboards, product packages, store
shelves, catalogs, or on a direct mail piece such
as forms or envelopes. Here are a few tips to incorporate QR Codes
into your marketing materials so your audience
will scan.
to make a purchase, provide information
or offer a discount? Once the QR code is
scanned, take the consumer to a targeted
landing page that continues to carry
the message and offer from the printed
material. You can also embed a video in the
landing page to show case studies or see a
demonstration.
3. Educate Your Audience Ahead of Time
Use other media to increase awareness
about them. Create blog posts on your
website that talk about your QR Codes. Put
one on your social media pages or in your
email signature. Talk about them in your
e-newsletter. By taking those steps, you
may not only create curiosity, but you may
increase the chances that your audience will
know what to do with them when they see
one on your printed pieces.
4. Get Personal with Your Message
1. Provide Instructions Near the QR Code
Awareness of QR Codes has increased
dramatically over the past year, but there
are still plenty of people out there who don’t
know what they are or how to use them. To
assist those folks, provide instructions near
the QR Code on your printed materials. This
can be done by simply including text such as
“scan to subscribe”.
2. Give People an Incentive
Provide consumers with a good reason to
scan the QR code and include that incentive
on the printed materials. Will it make it easier
On a direct mail piece, a QR code can link
a consumer to a personalized URL (PURL).
A PURL provides a Web address for an
individual so the content at that address can
be unique for that visitor, and marketers can
create unique QR codes linking to PURLs for
everyone on their direct mail lists. This
online interaction can be tracked, making
it easier to measure in terms of campaign
ROI. The text PURL can, of course, be put on a
direct mail piece in conjunction with a QR
code, allowing recipients to manually type
it into a Web browser if they don’t have
smartphones or would rather engage from
a computer.
5. Shorten the Destination URL
This one is very important! QR Codes can
hold a lot of data, but the more data that you
have in a QR Code, the harder it may be to
scan it quickly. Make sure to use a service
that shortens your URLs before generating
the QR Code.
Marketing Trends:
Humanizing Your Brand
Marketing in 2012 is more than just selling
your products and services. With 70% of brands
planning to boost their presence across social
media platforms, customers and prospects are
more apt to move quickly from one marketing
message to the other. Your marketing message
needs to be educational, relevant and filled
with personality to create an immediate connection with your customers and prospects. So
how do you add value and inject personality to
humanize your brand? First, start by paying
attention to your customer
and prospects behavior
and listen to them on
social networks, community forums and through
the use of surveys.
90% of Fortune 500 marketers cite brand building as a benefit of social media and 81% cite
mining customer insights. Monitoring your
brand on social networks will help identify
customer concerns that need to be addressed
and may give you a competitive edge. It can also
identify brand advocates and there is nothing
more powerful than customers saying how
great your brand is on social networks!
Listen to what
your customers
have to say.
Once you learn more about your customers and
prospects, then you can talk to them the way
you would talk to another human being. Use
your social networks to not only answer questions but also ask them. Try sharing little known
facts about your company to strengthen your
social customers bond with your brand. Package your product or design your marketing message to inform, entertain, surprise
and provide value rather than just sell.
For example, a travel company can recommend
the best way to pack for a trip or suggest the
best locations to travel by season, a kitchen
appliance store might offer wine pairings with
meals, a technology company could write a
how-to white paper that doesn’t hype its own
product. Getting your customers to
become brand ambassadors Get your
and talk about your product customers
for you instantly humanizes Talking about
your brand in a way that
your brand.
even the best promotional
copy can’t match.
Pinterest, a fast-rising social network that focuses
on sharing images and content, is gaining
popularity in the media and among brands. For
example, a non-profit organization looking for
volunteers featured Pinterest in their monthly
enewsletter for three consecutive months. The
marketing team evolved the message to include
more useful and relevant content on their Pinterest site which gradually increased response
each month. By the third month, the team saw
a 256% increase in Pinterest related clicks. Build on your relationships by saying “Thank
You” to your customers
for their business and to
your prospects for their
interest in your product. The human touch is so vital
to the customer relationship and you can show
your appreciation by simply making a phone
call, sending a note or by visiting them.
Thank your
customers
and prospects.
Bottom-line: people are bombarded with
advertising messages. To break through the
clutter and to build brand loyalty, many organizations are putting more emphasis on “personal
interactions” and nurturing their engagement
with customers and prospects.
Tips to Improve
Retention Marketing
During a time of tight purse strings in both business and consumer spending, organizations are
looking to improve their bottom line by increasing focus on their customers. Finding the right
formula to strengthen the relationship between
customer and business is a struggle. Today, marketers are challenged with retaining customers
during a global recession and channels that
now give the consumer significant power to
make purchasing decisions. It is tough to keep
brand loyalty alive when buyers can find, compare and evaluate what to purchase through
social media and other online channels.
The cost of acquiring
a new customer is
estimated at 6 to 7 times
what it costs to maintain
a current one. Research shows that the probability of selling
to an existing customer is 60 – 70% while the
probability of selling to a new prospect is 5 – 20%
(from Marketing Metrics). The nurturing of loyal
customers is a strategic imperative when statistics
show a 10% increase in customer retention
results in a 30% increase in the value of the
company. And, the cost of acquiring a new
customer is estimated at 6 to 7 times what it
costs to maintain a current one. Keeping customers is one of the most effective
and yet neglected ways to control marketing
costs. Several tactics for holding onto those
customers are:
Increase spending of existing customers
by focusing on customer behavior
In order for a loyalty program to succeed, the
focus should be on customer behavior. Digital
media and digital marketing have helped
businesses understand customer characteristics,
behavior and preferences. This information can
be used to develop personalized, targeted marketing programs. Regular communication with
customized content and special offers are part
of a good retention program. Amazon.com is an excellent example of a
company offering customized content. Amazon
Daily is a customized blog based on your
preferences and topics of interest. A good
way to keep customers coming back for more
is to customize your own blog or site so that
visitors first see information that they have
tagged to be of interest. Or, offer a selection
of content to them such as whitepapers or
product information all based upon their
selected areas of interest.
Improve the natural churn rate
Poor customer service accounts for 70% of
customer loss. Most of this is due to a mismatch
Continued…
contact through customer advisory boards or
less structured customer calls will often alert
you to a problem. You can learn a lot about customers by monitoring on social media such as
blogs, twitter and forums. Ask for opinions by
sending out surveys on a regular basis and offer
an incentive to those customers who respond. Create a client portal in which customers gain
access to exclusive information about the service or industry. One approach is to enable customers to share information with one another
in terms of experiences, tips and tricks. This information can be meaningful.
Develop an email personality in all of your
customer service emails, even those that are
automatically generated. Make it sound like
there are humans who do care about whether
your customers are satisfied. Phrases such as
“your fabulous new piece will be on its way in
less than 24 hours” or “we’re so delighted that
you ordered from us” have a personal, chatty
tone. Create brand advocates
Rewarding customers for referring you new
business or for repeat buys is a powerful way to
build relationships. Consider “membership” cards or programs that
accrue points. Some successful examples are: AAA Member Services, offers excellent cross promotions with hotels and other travel companies
T.G.I.F’s Gold Points, where points are accrued
for every meal and you earn complimentary
drinks and appetizers
Amazon Prime, which offers complimentary
2-day and discounted 1-day shipping as well as
frequent $25 “we love you” gift cards
Triggered coupons give immediate gratification of a reward or a discount right at the point
of purchase. For instance, every time you use
your CVS ExtraCare card, you receive discounts
on the spot and coupons to use for future
purchases. Social Media, Local Marketing and
Mobile (referred to as “SoLoMo”) are channels
when integrated provide highly targeted,
context-rich communications to keep consumers coming back. Encourage users to share by
offering incentives when they post a link to
your offer on facebook, twitter or other social
media sites.
Plan a “win-back” program as an effort to
win-back a customer who had already made
up their mind to leave. You often see win-back
programs used with Direct TV and the cable
channels offering attractive rates or packages as
a last ditch effort.
Effective loyalty and retention programs take
time to provide return on investment. You will
differentiate your programs by identifying and
connecting with the unique characteristics of
your customer base and creating additional
value for your customers.
Improving Online conversion:
10 Tips to Optimize Landing Pages
The landing page is the final step in converting
a visitor to a lead. It starts with a valuable offer
and must have a form to collect visitor information. These 10 tips will help you optimize your
landing pages to generate qualified leads.
1. Explain Value of the Offer
The landing page must clearly explain the
benefits of receiving the offer in exchange
for their contact information. The content must
answer the question: “what’s in it for me?”
Headers should clearly explain the offer and
be consistent with the call to action visitors
clicked on to reach the landing page. The
headers should start with an action verb like
“learn” or “download”.
2. Consistent Headers and Call to Action
3.5 Second Rule
In less than 5 seconds, visitors to your
landing page should be able to understand
what the offer is, the value of the offer and
what they need to do to get the offer. Make
it easy for the visitor to scan the information
by using 3 to 5 bullet points.
Short forms are always better than long
forms to make it easier for a website visitor
to become a lead. Only ask for the information that will help you or your sales team fol
low up with or qualify the lead.
4. Create a Short Form
5. Place Content Above the Fold
The content and form on the landing page
should always be visible above the page’s
fold. Testing has proven you will see a higher
conversion rate if visitors do not have to
scroll down to see the form.
6. Go Naked
Remove menu navigation and links that
could distract the visitor from filling out the
form or provides an easy means to escape. The only action you want the visitor to take
is to fill out the form and become a lead.
7. Include Attractive Images
Including a relevant, interesting image on
the landing page will help your visitors
visualize the offer. For example, you can use
an image of the cover of an eBook or White
paper, first slide of a webinar presentation,
or screenshot of free-trial software. After someone completes the form on your
landing page, redirect them to a thank you
page. This is a perfect opportunity to ty to
upsell the lead on another offer of to just let
them know that you will be in touch with the
8. Redirect to a Thank You Page
9. Test, Test, Test
Test your landing page to see what works
well with your audience. 10.Optimize your Landing Page for
Mobile Devices
Traffic on mobile devices is soaring, so it is
imperative that your landing pages are easy
to view and navigate on all devices. Nothing
turns off a visitor or prospect if they can’t
read and or react to your content.
Want more information?
To request more information or to schedule a
complimentary initial consult, call: 203-261-3337 X11
or go to www.gridirect.com/contact-us