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Archive for January 29, 2011

bikram | January 29, 2011
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Changing Marketing Landscape and Marketing Budget in 2011

With the changing nature of online marketing from primarily outbound to significantly inbound marketing, it is anticipated that there will be a change in the way companies earmark budget for various marketing activities.

The house is divided on this. Some marketers say the budget will decrease for some key area, while other says it will increase significantly. To find out which group says what, MarketingSherpa ran a survey taking more than 1,100 marketers as representative sample.

The result was something which any level headed marketers would have expected. Companies across the board are expected to reduce its spending on outbound marketing tools and increase spending on inbound tools. (See image for details).

Changing Marketing Landscape and Marketing Budget in 2011

As the study above suggests, companies will increase the money they earmark for website, search, social media, e-mail, etc. 64% respondents said the companies are waking up to the importance of having a website in their marketing arsenal.

This will, indeed, help the companies broaden their reach. Companies may be late, but it is good that they have woken up to realize the importance of having a website and branded e-mail addresses.

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bikram | January 27, 2011
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E-mail Marketing Strategy Chart – Channel V/S Objective Which One To Use When

E-mail marketing is a wonderful tool of mass persuasion done personally. Marketers have used it since the very beginning, and if you are starting out on the Internet then you must build your own list and start sending mails out.

But before you do that, you need to see why you should run an email marketing campaign, and what should be the objective of such enterprise. To help you ascertain that, I am going to provide you with a study report that MarketingSherpa conducted for its MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey using more than 1000 marketers as sample size.

It was found in the survey that increasing web site traffic is the most effective goal for e-mail marketing across the B2C channel. E-mail marketing also works well in increasing sales revenue and improving customer relation, retention in B2C channel.

In B2B channel, it works particularly well in creating brand awareness, lead generation, and website traffic. See image for complete data. e-mail marketing objective by channels

Keep the above given details in mind when deciding on what objective to set and what to expect from your email marketing efforts, based on the channel you are using.

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bikram | January 27, 2011
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PPC Strategy Chart – Which Tactics B2B Marketers Is Uses the Most

Content creation and promotion are two most important activities that any marketer can do to keep his or her business afloat on the Internet. When it comes to promotion, SEO and PPC are two of the things that bring more traffic to your website.

In an effort to determine which PPC tactics is used most by a B2B PPC marketers, MarketingShepra has conducted a survey on 900 plus B2B marketers, and they gained a lot of insight from that. I am going to share that with you in the image below.

The study showed that A/B testing ad copy is the most commonly used PPC tactics (sphere size is the indicator of which tactics is used the most), and so is A/B testing of landing page content. These tactics may not be as effective as are improving landing page load time and Geo-targeting is, but these are the most often used tactics.

  Most-effective-PPC-tactics

Could be it interpreted as marketers’ fixation with classic A/B testing model?

A/B testing is indeed effective, but devoting exclusive time for this activity will not produce the result wanted. A PPC marketer must employ other techniques. In light of the above study, geo-targeting and landing page loading time improvement are two things that a PPC marketers can do. They are also not very difficult, all one need is some dedicated hours of time.

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bikram | January 24, 2011
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Mistakes you should Avoid While Giving a Presentation before the Client

Presentations are indeed tension prone when they are delivered in front of the client. Client’s indifferent expression and frown definitely hikes the pulse rate of the presenter. But don’t forget the fact that client called you for the interview because he or she wants to hear from you, not to pull you down. So, as long as you avoid the common mistakes and control your negative gestures you can impress your clients and bag the deal easily. Here are some common mistakes we often do while presenting before the client. Try to avoid them.

Don’t let the stress be visible

Even if you are bitten by the tension bug and you just can’t stop being nervous pretend to be absolutely fine. Don’t let the stress show on your face or in your body language. It will make your clients feel that you are quite vulnerable to tension and you definitely lack something or other in your presentation. It will make the client even more critic or sarcastic. So, walk with a smart face and positive gestures. Let not the stress show on your face. Slowly the pretention will get into you, and you will turn confident from within.

Don’t stretch things too much

Clients often go to sleep or simply overlook if you stretch a point beyond a limit and unnecessarily go on and on. Keep your points short and effective. Long presentations are mostly boring and also leave the viewer confused. Don’t overstuff your presentation with too many words. Only write in points.

Don’t read out

Often we commit the mistake of reading out sentence by sentence from the power point presentation. Don’t do it. It shows lack of knowledge of the content. You may read a point from the PowerPoint slide, and then elaborate it in your own language and style while facing the interviewer. A constant gaze at the presentation is strict ‘no no’. Don’t even carry a small paper in your hand to read out from it unless you have some very crucial statistical data.

Don’t look here and there

Make maximum eye contact with your client. Don’t look at his attire or here and there in your surroundings. Make eye contact, but don’t gaze at the client either.

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bikram | January 23, 2011
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Mistakes you should Avoid While Launching a Garment Shop

If you are new to the clothing business and dreaming of launching your own brand store you should consider couple of things like – your brand’s unique selling proposition, your target market, pricing, marketing strategies besides concentrating on the product line and its variety itself. Several brand owners being too self-obsessed and mesmerized by own brand end up committing several mistakes while launching the garment shop. Those mistakes are actually fatal, can make your brand weak overnight by drawing in wrong brand impression. Here are some noteworthy mistakes which you should avoid.

Don’t overlook local taste and preference

You cannot afford to overlook taste and preference of the local people. If you are an international brand and launching your brand for the first time in a particular country or state, consider local taste and preference. If you choose to overlook local taste considering you are an international brand, you may witness a sharp fall. Even if you are big, before entering any new state or country do ample research about its people and their taste and preference. If you wish to appeal to the general mass and not remain as a brand for few, customize your clothes keeping in mind local taste and preference.

Don’t forget the local flavor

When you are launching your new garment store, keep in mind local flavor. Communicate in local language and style. Make sure you captivate the local flavor in your advertisements while keeping the brand’s own style same. If you are launching your brand in different states and every state has its own culture and language, communicate in the same style.

Too broad range of audience

It’s often seen marketers launch a new brand while addressing a broad range of age group. In this age of fierce competition when there’s a clothing store in every lane, don’t address such a wide range of target audience. Narrow down your audience. Address a niche market like only for teenagers or plus size women. It will help you to gain fast popularity among a defined group of audience.

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bikram | January 23, 2011
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How to Promote a Brand through Facebook

Facebook is a great social networking site not only for friendly interaction, but also for promotion and sales of a brand. It’s a great platform to promote your brand especially if your target audience is youth of urban and semi-urban areas. Facebook has created a buzz all over, especially among the age group of 14 to 40. Facebook promotion is a smart way to instantly generate buzz in the market and hike sales. Here are few ways regarding how you can promote your brand through Facebook.

Create your brand’s fan page

Create a fan page for your brand. Make sure you gain maximum numbers of followers or fans of your page. This is the best way to create a buzz all over the Internet. First make sure your friends follow your brand. If your friends will follow you, their friends will automatically follow you seeing your brand on their list. Make sure you update your fan page many times in a day, with latest happenings of your brand. It can be anything like new brand endorser you have roped in or new product to be launched or new award your company has bagged in. Just keep posting on your Facebook fan page wall. You will be soon flooded with ‘like’s and ‘comments’ of followers. If someone asks any question, make sure you reply him or her back. Also thank people for their appreciation.

Start interacting

Just a wall post won’t draw much attention of the followers always. So start interacting. You may just ask for followers’ suggestions on some topic or ask them to comment on a product by putting a picture or video. It will draw in lot of active participation of viewers, stirring awareness among them. You may ask people to tag themselves on the picture of product they like.

Advertise on Facebook

You can also advertise on Facebook at a nominal cost, directly reaching your target audience. A small captivating advertisement with special offer or discount to Facebook members will draw lot of members to your website. Make the advertisement crisp and effective, landing one directly to your website.

Frequent contests

Fans always look forward to winning gift vouchers, free gifts or products. Make followers feel worth of their following. Put contests like best slogan about the brand or best logo concept, best comment on a picture. It will generate lot of buzz among followers. Keep attractive prize for winner like – one year’s endorsement contract or free trip to Hollywood or prize money. Once the winner is selected, declare the name on your page. It will inspire others.

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bikram | January 22, 2011
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How to Bring More Customers to your Pet Shop?

Do you have a pet shop where you are offering lovely pets to your customers? But you just don’t know how to increase sales and fetch more customers to your shop. Here are few tips for you.

Tempt pet lovers with your collection of pets

People may consider you like just another pet shop unless you tempt them with your pets. So, exhibit your pets to the world. Show how cute and irresistible they are. You may put large pictures of your pets on hoardings in different parts of the city. They not only draw eyeballs but also generate lot of buzz. You may put a very adorable puppy’s picture on the hoarding, which is very big and prominent. With an inviting line below and your brand name you may draw many eyeballs. You may also display some pets outside your shop inside a glass window. Make sure you display the best looking ones and a variety of them. What is visible is what sells. So make sure your pets get seen everywhere. In all your advertisements show each type of pet one by one, so that people come to know about the variety you offer.

Make them look adorable, well kept and stylish

Everyone wants a clean, adorable and stylish pet. So if you are having a female bunny, you may put a pink ribbon on it. If you put such pets on display and in your communications they will attract lot of attention. If it’s a big male dog, accessorize it accordingly. But remember; don’t overdo it, by putting too many clothes, hat, shoes and sunglass. That makes them feel miserable. Keep all pets clean, well combed and with maintained nails.

Free gifts

The word ‘free’ always lures customers. Lure your customers with free gifts like pet bath kit or free pet medical checkup for next three months, free pet training manual, free food kit or a small cage. Such offers will definitely make people come to you.

Promote your maintenance factor

How do you wish to be different from other pet shops? You may emphasize on the fact that you sell only very healthy and rich breeds who are extremely taken care of, well maintained by care takers and checked by veteran doctors every week. It will make people feel great while buying a pet from you, considering they are taking a healthy and nice breed home.

Pet shows

Make sure you participate in all national pet shows. You may also sponsor an event. It will soon popularize your name among the pet lovers.

What are you waiting for? Get started, now!

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Gossimer | January 19, 2011
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bikram | January 16, 2011
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How to Promote a Book Store?

Book is a bookworm’s delight, a treat for every book lover. But with growing fetish for lifestyle oriented hobbies and growing number of bookstores, even a good bookstore often remains in the darkness of ignorance. Are you pondering over the fact how to draw more footfall to your bookstore? Here are some useful tips for you.

Tie up with educational institutions

In this age of fierce competition it’s always better to define a fixed amount of customers every month. Tie up with an educational institute; it can be a business school or medical college or anything. Make sure you have a huge stock of the books for the courses the institute is offering. Put posters within the institute about your book store and its location. Lure students with special discount by showing the institute’s identity card. It will definitely bring a lot of students to your store and also spread good words about you at a rapid pace.

Book fairs and exhibitions

Participate in book fairs and exhibitions. It’s a great way of reaching out your target audience. Take a prominent spot in the book fairs and exhibitions. You may offer discounts or attractive gifts with every purchase. Being an integral part of every annual book fair of the state will soon make you popular among the readers.

Invite authors

Invite authors of bestsellers to your store. You may invite them for inauguration or launch of their books and organize a small event within the store itself. It will bring in media, book lovers and a lot of attention. Readers may come to your store to meet the author and get his autograph on the book. You may promote the event promising first 50 buyers photograph with the celebrity author.

Chat session of writers

Organize a lovely chat session of celebrity writers over a cup of coffee. Ask them to share their valuable thoughts. You may have a topic or it can be random too. You may choose such special event on days like your store’s birthday or international writers’ day. Make sure media covers this and you get lot of attention.

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | January 16, 2011
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Does The Means of E-mail Delivery Effect Relevancy?

From time immemorial, marketers have been arguing about the effect of delivery mechanism on the relevancy of the mail message. Marketing folks have kept themselves involved in such discussion to ascertain that their messages found a willing pair of eyes to read them. The owners of which should subsequently make a decision to do as marketers suggested in the mail.

In an effort to provide somewhat definitive answer to the question of e-mail effectiveness and the impact of delivery mechanism, MarketingSherpa, one of the most famous online marketing companies, has run a test taking a sample size of 1,115 marketers. The marketers were asked what technique they use to deliver the mail to get maximum return. The result of the study is presented in the following image, in which you can see that the marketers have also suggested the difficulty lever of each method.

The result suggested that “segmented email campaigns based on behavior” is the most difficult to execute, but it is most effective. And the one which is least effective is the method that “allowed subscribers to specify email preferences”. This one was least difficult of the all as well.

E-mail Delivery Effect Relevancy

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