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Five to THRIVE
Top Five
Marketing
Essentials for
Successful
Businesses
Today
Packed with best practices and actionable steps, our educational
guide is for any business looking to grow now.
Specialists in Direct
& Digital Marketing
Five to THRIVE
Five to Thrive: Top Five
Marketing Essentials for
Successful Businesses Today
If you access enough “how-to” websites, blogs
and conferences, you’ll realize there’s no
shortage of great ideas in marketing. But even
the most deep-pocketed automaker, breakfast
cereal manufacturer or fast food restaurant
chain is hard pressed to do them all.
So where does that leave you, who is responsible
for marketing but with a much more modest
budget?
As a marketing services provider focused
on businesses and organizations like yours,
CORE Communications spells out what should
be at the top of your list of “must-haves” in
marketing. Packed with best practices and
actionable steps, Five to Thrive is a great place
to start if you’re looking to establish or expand
your business, organization or nonprofit now.
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Essentials for Successful Marketing Today
#1 Essential:
Professional Identity &
Printed Sales Materials
Useful to businesses, organizations and nonprofits of all
types, professional identity and printed sales materials
identify you and distinguish you from competitors. They
also carry important messages to key audiences.
Because they’re often among the initial communications
that a target will receive from your operation, it’s
important these items make a good first impression. In
light of this, you’ll want to ensure your identity and sales
materials convey a professional image and carry the
same appearance and feel of your website, direct mailers,
advertising and other communications.
Display and distribute these tools to your best
advantage.
Use your professional identity and printed sales materials to:
• Display in your lobby or waiting room, or on your sales or
service counter
• Hand out at trade shows, conferences or other events
• Include in sales presentation leave-behind packages
• Feature in direct mail kits or insert with invoices
• Fulfill consumer requests for more information
Take stock of what you have, to determine what
you need.
Are you well supplied with the following items?
• Business cards
• Stationery, including
letterhead and envelopes
• Corporate capabilities
brochures
• Case studies
• Product or service flyers
(i.e., sell sheets)
•P
ocket folders (to organize
and present case studies,
flyers and more)
•B
usiness forms, including
purchase orders, invoices
and receipts
• Note pads
• Annual reports
Tip:
Check to see if the designs are
current and consistent with
your other items. It’s rare that an
organization produces all materials
all at once. Many are postponed at
time of start-up for more pressing
needs, while supplies of others are
depleted unevenly. As a result, it’s
not uncommon to find different
materials with contrasting looks or
out-of-date information.
Tip:
Audit the efforts of your key
competitors. If the garden center
down the road is drawing away
your customers with seasonal
newsletters, you may wish to
create a series of your own.
Tip:
Look beyond the obvious. It’s not
too much of a stretch to include
promotional items, displays, signage,
vehicle graphics and even uniforms
among your professional identity
efforts. If so, the same standards
for design and quality should apply
to them.
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Five to THRIVE
#2 Essential:
A Web Presence
Without exception every company, organization and nonprofit
today needs to “be where customers go.” And overwhelmingly,
your audience is going to the Internet to shop for goods and
services, locate brick-and-mortar sites, make donations and
communicate with other Web users.
How important is a new or updated website to your marketing
effort? In the U.S., 97% of Internet users research shopping
information on the Web, according to Google.
Begin with the basics: A website.
• Good: After obtaining a URL (uniform resource locator, or Web
address), post a home page and a contact us page. Tip: If creating a
new URL, keep it short and make it memorable.
• Better: Replicate your sales or capabilities brochure online, with
multiple pages or screens establishing who you are and what you do.
• Better Yet: Add a lead generation tool such as a registration form
linked to the home page and other pages on the site. Make it short
and easy to use. Also, give visitors an incentive for signing up such as a
discount, e-newsletter, white paper or free trial.
Get “social” on Facebook
and elsewhere.
Listings on Facebook,
Pinterest, Twitter and/
or LinkedIn are a must
for marketers today, according
to digital campaign specialists
Balihoo:
• 91% of local searchers use
Facebook to find nearby
businesses online, making it a
valuable source for referrals.
• 59% of consumers trust online
reviews as much as personal
recommendations.
• Best: Enhance your website with useful content that entices visitors
to stay awhile and return often. Post blogs, white papers, research,
reviews, case studies, videos, endorsements, maps, upcoming events,
industry links, technical specifications and more. Also, optimize it for
mobile use with simplified navigation and content that’s rendered in
narrower columns for easier viewing on smartphones and tablets.
Drive website traffic with these best practices.
• Claim your free local listings: Local maps found at bingplaces.com and
listings.local.yahoo.com, among others, allow you to post your data at no
charge. By “claiming” your listing, you help local searchers find you when,
for example, they enter search terms such as “swimming pool supplies,
Daytona Beach.”
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Is a website necessary?
Just about everyone thinks
so including, no doubt, your
competitors. Consider that no
fewer than 150,000 website
addresses are registered every day,
according to Verisign.
Essentials for Successful Marketing Today
• L ist your site on other local directories: There are many
general online directories and review sites for local businesses,
including hotfrog.com, insiderpages.com, kudzu.com,
superpages.com and yellowpages.com. By listing your website
on these directories, you’ll optimize it for local search.
•S
ee if you qualify for Angie’s List: Be sure to see if
angieslist.com has a category for you. The site offers free
listings for many product sellers and service providers.
• Post your site on specialized directories: Research online
directories devoted to your type of business. For example, sites
like dentalreferral.com, dentistry.com, healthgrades.com and
knowyourteeth.com help prospects find dentists. Similarly,
consumers searching for a financial planner might find a
suitable resource online at feeonlynetwork.com, financialadvisors.findthebest.com or fpanet.org.
• Boost your rankings with organic SEO: If your website attains
low rankings on Google, Yahoo and other search engines
when common search terms are used, that means it’s difficult
for prospects to find you. The solution is organic SEO (search
engine optimization), wherein keyword placement and other
techniques can boost your website’s rankings – and its traffic.
• Increase visitors with PPC or paid search: With PPC (payper-click) advertising on Google and other search engines,
you’ll bid on keywords (e.g., emergency plumber, Kalamazoo)
which, when entered, will call to the screen your display ad
(most often in the upper-right screen area). If a viewer clicks on
your ad and is directed to your website, you’ll pay a small fee,
but only up to an amount you’ve established ahead of time.
• Build traffic with links: The more links your website has
with others, the higher the rankings you’ll achieve on search
engines. Increase your links by posting blogs regularly,
submitting your site to directories, and connecting with similar,
non-competing sites. For example, a veterinarian might link
to websites for dog breeders, dog groomers and pet supply
companies. “Social sharing” by establishing pages on Google+,
Twitter and Facebook brings similar traffic-building benefits.
What makes a good website?
Five must-haves.
Be sure your site features:
1. An attractive design that matches the
look of your other communications.
2. Simple and intuitive navigation that
helps users reach pages readily.
3. Text, photos and/or illustrations that
communicate your messages clearly.
4. Content that provides value in
order to draw viewers and induce
repeat visits.
5. Information on how to contact you
or, better yet, an incentive to register
for ongoing communications.
Is mobile optimization
a must?
Google believes it is. The
search giant reports that 61%
of users are unlikely to return
to a mobile site they had
trouble accessing. And, even
worse, 40% of them go to a
competitor’s site instead.
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Five to THRIVE
#3 Essential:
A Prospecting Program
As a complement to your “be where customers go” Web-based
marketing effort, you will need a “go where prospects are” strategy.
Why? Internet marketing is largely passive and dependent on
consumers coming to you. To reach farther and succeed faster, you
also need to drive customers or donors to action. That requires
proactive marketing achieved through a sales prospecting or lead
generation campaign.
For prospecting programs, the most common and effective tactic is
often direct mail. It offers many advantages for lead generation:
• Precision targeting/list
availability
• Higher response rates
• Personalization
• Flexibility in formats
• Appreciation; it‘s not
“Snail mail?”
Isn’t that old school?
Not according to the latest data.
Nearly 90% of consumers say
they want to receive sales and
promotional offers via direct mail
(Nielsen). And, when evaluating
products or services, 73% of buyers
prefer mail. (Source: International
Communications Research)
perceived as a nuisance when
personalized and targeted
• Tangible and impactful
• Long shelf life
A word on email: The proliferation of spam, or unwanted
communications, has largely negated the value of email as a
tool for sales prospecting – at least among those who have not
previously opted-in for your messages. That said, email remains
important in customer communications as a tool for nurturing
relationships and growing sales or donations, as well as a
powerful follow-up technique.
The three key elements for more effective direct mail.
Among leading direct marketers, it’s believed that the quality of your
list accounts for 50% of a campaign’s success; a compelling offer, 30%;
and the creative approach (e.g., format and graphic design), just 20%.
Here are some key considerations when crafting your direct
mail campaign:
1.
Begin with a great list.
Mailing lists fall under three basic types, the first one of which
you’ll build on your own, and the latter two which may be leased
or purchased to supplement your own data:
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Sometimes a list is not
the answer.
For restaurants, oil change shops,
dry cleaners and many other
establishments, proximity to a
prospect is often a deciding factor
in whether they choose one
provider over another. Every Door
Direct Mail™ (EDDM) from the
U.S. Postal Service® lets you reach
every home and business within
a selected area at rock-bottom
rates. Mailing costs are minimized
because names and addresses are
not printed on each piece, and the
purchase or rental of a mailing list
is not a concern.
Essentials for Successful Marketing Today
•H
ouse file: Comprised of people with whom you have an
existing relationship or names and addresses you’ve captured
from your own lead generation efforts, the prospects and
customers in your house file are five to 10 times more likely to
respond to your offer than those on any other list.
•R
esponse lists: These are databases of people who have
responded to some other marketer and may include magazine
subscribers, event attendees, charitable donors or mail order
buyers. Prospects on these lists will respond at three to five times
the rate of those on compiled lists.
•C
ompiled lists: These are large lists which have been created
from multiple sources such as government records and phone
directories. Like response lists, they enable you to specify any
number of “selects” to focus on those you’ve identified as your
most promising prospects. These selects include consumer
demographics such as marital status, household income and more,
as well as business firmographics like market segment, annual
sales, number of employees and other data. Compiled names
respond at lower levels than the first two categories, but they
can still be effective when used with an attractive offer. They also
provide the advantage of wider market coverage.
To gain a better idea of the micro-targeting capabilities of
Response Lists and Compiled Lists, see the column at right.
2. Create a compelling offer.
Having targeted your most promising prospects, you’ll need to entice
a positive response to overcome the reader’s natural inclination toward
inertia. How? With an incentive. Typical ones include:
• Discount or coupon
• Free trial or sample
• Free consultation
• Invitation to a seminar or
performance
• Free demonstration
• Free installation
• More information, often
in the form of a brochure,
newsletter or white paper
• Free shipping
• No or low-cost financing
• Free estimate
Micro-target with over
67,000 databases
Today’s marketers can take
advantage of an incredible
array of mail and email
databases with which to
augment their house files and
pinpoint their most promising
prospects. Among your options:
Consumer databases, including:
• 1,620 investor lists
• 606 home service buyer lists
• 2,401 donor lists
• 797 magazine circulation lists
• 284 insurance buyer lists
Other consumer lists featuring:
• Households by income
• People by occupation
• Households with children
by age
• New homeowners
Business databases,
inclusive of:
• 497 advertising/marketing lists
• 989 banking/financial lists
• 446 building trades lists
• 3,314 business executive lists
• 941 educational market lists
• 416 engineer lists
• 567 government lists
• 700 healthcare industry lists
• 313 small office/home
office lists
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Five to THRIVE
#3 Essential: Prospecting Program (continued)
3.
Get creative to get better results.
Here are six tried-and-true tips on developing a mailer that cuts
through the clutter, captures leads and drives responses:
Best practice #1: Write headlines that not only promise a benefit,
but also add an element of urgency. Examples: “Save This Weekend
Only” or “Respond Today for your Free Trial; Offer Ends Friday.”
Best practice #2: Talk to your audience, not at them. How? Craft
your copy in the first person, as if you’re addressing the reader
one-on-one.
Best practice #3: Answer the reader’s question of “Why should I
care?” with benefit-oriented text.
Best practice #4: Include a postscript. Why? After the headline
and opening sentence, the P.S. is the most-read part of a
direct mail letter.
Number of Media Types Used
in Direct Marketing Campaigns
Unsure
8.3%
Five or more
2.7%
One
8.1%
Four
12.4%
Two
30.5%
Mean = 3
Three
38.0%
Source: InfoTrends, Capturing the Cross-Media Direct
Marketing Opportunity, 2010
Best practice #5: Feature a strong call-to-action. Example: “Respond
today to reserve your space. But hurry, seating is limited.”
Best practice #6: Take advantage of the medium’s many formats,
including enveloped mail (often considered best for business
communications) or lower-cost self-mailers. Other options include
postcards, dimensional mail (with a gift, video) or catalogs.
More tips to drive responses!
• Boost responses with a cross-channel approach: relevant as possible. Personalizing your direct
mail can lift your response rates by 30-50%,
Don’t limit your lead-generation efforts to a
according to the Direct Marketing Association.
single medium. Those employing two, three or
more types in a cross-channel marketing effort
• Improve mail response rates with QR Codes:
can improve response rates by as much as 35%,
On printed mailers, add a QR (Quick Response)
reports InfoTrends.
Code to your appeal so that recipients can
immediately reply to an offer with a scan using
•M
ultiply your efforts … and results: 84% of
their smartphone.
marketers employ more than two types of media
in their direct marketing campaigns, notes
•T
est, evaluate and test some more: Direct
InfoTrends. (see chart above)
response pros try different headlines
and various offers to see which ones draw
• Personalize your message: Address the
the strongest responses.
recipient by name (and title, if applicable) and
individualize the message and image to be as
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Essentials for Successful Marketing Today
#4 Essential:
Ongoing Customer
Communications
Having worked hard to grow your business, organization or
nonprofit via your “be where customers go” approach and “go
where prospects are” strategy, it’s important to stay in touch.
Why? You never know when someone is ready to place an order
or make a donation. Of course, the best way to ensure you’re
top-of-mind at the opportune moment is to develop a contact
marketing strategy.
For ongoing customer communications, one key tactic is email.
Effective and efficient:
Email’s role in customer
communications.
• 91 percent of all U.S. consumers use
email daily. (Source: ExactTarget)
Among its potential benefits are:
• Immediacy – email messages can be created with great speed,
giving you the ability to send real-time messages
• Low cost, in comparison to other options
• Precision targeting and segmentation
• Ability to test various elements and determine what works
best for your audience
• Immediate feedback through open rates and
click-through rates
Contact marketing: Plan for success.
When developing your annual strategy, you’ll want to consider:
•B
udget: What is your estimated cost of implementing your content
strategy vs. your expected revenue per customer? AOV, or average
order value, is often another key metric in planning.
• More than 43% of email is now
opened on a mobile device, making
mobile-friendly versions of your
emails a must – and underscoring
your need to keep such messages
short and simple as consumers are
unlikely to read long emails on their
mobile devices. (Source: Litmus)
• The rate at which emails prompt
purchases is estimated to be at least
three times that of social media.
What’s more, the average order
value is 17% higher. (Source: eMarketer)
• Over 75% of marketers are using
more promotional emails to market
their business than they were just
three years prior. (Source: Direct
Marketing Association)
• Segmentation: Contact marketers typically allocate resources
by target, with the highest priority given to your best customers
(i.e., multiple buyers) and then first-time purchasers, inquirers and
dormant customers in descending order.
• Frequency: You might plan, for example, to contact multiple
buyers 24 times per year and inquirers on only 12 occasions. A sales
catalog you mail twice a year would count as two contacts.
• Types of contacts: Don’t limit yourself to one technique. Smart
marketers employ a number of different methods, including direct
mail, email, phone calls, trade shows and sales visits.
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Five to THRIVE
#4 Essential: Ongoing Customer Communications (continued)
• Promotions: Consider your strategy for special offers when planning your
content marketing. For example, you wouldn’t necessarily want to offer free
shipping to those who order regularly.
• Personalization: Individualize your messages to the greatest extent possible.
A general email blast (“Spring Fertilizer Sale This Weekend”) may be effective,
but a personalized one based on a prior purchase (“Replenish Your Scott’s
Fertilizer This Spring And Save”) even more so. One retailer reported a tenfold improvement in response rates by personalizing messages by shopping
behavior. (Source: McKinsey)
Make the most of the opportunity for ongoing communications.
3 Do this: Make your message relevant. If the content isn’t of interest to your
audience, you’ll drive unsubscribes … instead of sales.
3 Do this: Carefully consider where to direct consumers once they clickthrough your emails. By linking prospects to a customized landing page
that features the offer or item featured in the message, you can increase
conversion rates by over 25%. (Source: Omniture)
3 Do this: Continue to solicit new email addresses via opt-ins on your
website, social media pages and elsewhere. The average email marketing
list expires at a rate of 25% per year, making list generation an ongoing
strategy. (Source: HubSpot)
3D
o this: Make your emails mobile friendly. Today, more than 40% of email is
opened on mobile devices, according to Litmus. So when considering mobile
marketing, keep your messages short and simple to increase readership.
3D
o this: Track your results. Email providers often offer the option for you to
track total number of opens and clicks per link, bounce rates, unsubscribe
rates and more – allowing you to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts.
3 Do this: Offer those wishing to unsubscribe the option of receiving fewer
emails instead. As many as 65% of readers unsubscribe because of too
many emails. (Source: Chadwick Martin Bailey)
Direct mail: Another effective tactic in contact marketing.
In place of or as a complement to your email communications, direct mail is a
useful tool for nurturing customer relationships. While less immediate and costeffective than emails, it offers the benefits of precision targeting, personalization
and flexibility in formats.
That said, you’ll want to refer back to pages 4, 5 and 6. The same key
considerations, best practices and useful tips on direct mail as applied
to prospecting programs will also pertain to your ongoing customer
communications.
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3
Essentials for Successful Marketing Today
#5 Essential:
A Marketing Partner
You Can Count On.
Having reviewed the essentials, marketing managers
often ask “How do we get started?” or “Where do we go
from here?”
We’d suggest you focus on the CORE, where smaller
marketing budgets generate bigger results.
Lean, local and independent, CORE Communications is
networked like no other. We’re backed by one of the largest
and most successful companies in the field of graphic and
marketing communications. But we aren’t burdened by their
overhead, so neither are you.
All services are executed on a pay-as-you-go basis by CORE
Marketing Central – our award-winning team of planners,
writers, designers, Web specialists and direct marketing
experts. However, neither of us pays for this resource until
we use it. And pricing is well below that of even small
marketing agencies.
The CORE result? Professional marketing services for
those companies and organizations with modest resources
that must make every dollar count in a direct and
measurable way.
Please contact us today to see how our unique,
cost-efficient business model will benefit you.
Dave Hofelich
General Manager
CORE Communications of Plymouth
1302 Anderson Road
Clawson, MI 48017
Cell: 734 928 5437
Fax: 248 655 0440
Email: [email protected]
Specialists in Direct
& Digital Marketing
www.corecommunications.net/clawson
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CORE Communications - Clawson
Specialists in Direct and Digital Marketing
734-928-5437
www.corecommunications.net/clawson/