Marketing
Choosing the Right Internet Marketing Firm
A frequent mistake that businesses make is hiring an internet marketing company too quickly — primarily based on price. Your website is a visual representation of your business and a poorly designed site can frustrate visitors, misrepresent your products and even lose sales. Before you hire an internet marketing firm, research the answers to these questions:
1. How Much Experience Does The Internet Marketing Company Have? Do They Have Any Special Qualifications Or Specialties?
Longevity in the industry is a good indicator of stability and skill. Online marketing firms that have been in the business for a while and built admirable reputations are usually known for sound design work and customer service. Choosing an internet marketing company that has been around longer means they will be more likely to be around in the future for ongoing maintenance and updates to your website.
The answer to this question will give you a general idea about the skill set at the web company. Having a tertiary education is good. Having a lot of experience is better, and combining experience with a tertiary education is best.
2. How Many Staff Members Do They Have And What Are Their Roles?
Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to effective web e-marketing. Companies on average have one designer, a couple of web developers, analysts, and a few sales and support people. Some companies use Just-in-Time staffing, adding or removing staff as needed. This helps keep overhead low and skills fresh.
3. In Addition To Internet Marketing, What Other Services Does The Agency Offer?
Many prominent internet marketing firms are branching out and offering other services, including web development and design. SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Web Content Writing, Social Media Marketing, Blog promotion, and Google AdWords Management are services offered by many experienced online marketing companies. The key is finding a company that offers the services that you are looking for.
4. Does The Internet Marketing Firm Spend Time With You To Gather Business Knowledge And Give You A Formal Proposal?
It is good to select a web marketing company that will take the time to offer a custom solution for your website. Oftentimes, the online marketing firm will provide you with a questionnaire to fill out so that they can get a better feel for your goals, competition and overall website needs. Your website will play a large part in your overall brand marketing. Therefore, it is important that your internet marketing firm have a clear picture of your overall marketing goals.
5. What Are the Internet Marketing Company’s Payment Terms?
For anything from a small non-profit site to full corporate branding, most internet marketing companies will charge an upfront deposit and stage payments based on agreed milestones and deliverables. Be wary of any internet marketing firm that asks for payment in full before starting the project.
6. What Is The Internet Marketing Company’s Policy On Non-Disclosure And Privacy Of Information?
In order to create the perfect marketing plan for you, your internet marketing firm needs access to important information about your company — information you wouldn’t want your competition, or anyone else, to know.
This is particularly true if you are starting a new company. You don’t want others to steal your concept before you’ve had a chance to monetize it. Therefore, a solid non-disclosure and privacy policy will protect your information.
7. What Are The Average Timelines For Completing Your Web Design Project Including Ecommerce, Logo Design, And Corporate Branding?
If the company does both web development and internet marketing, ask what the firm considers a typical turn-around time for projects similar in size to your own. This should give you a fairly clear idea if the website designer/developer has time tracking and project management systems in place. If you have a hard deadline that you need to meet, be sure you tell the design company up front so that they can plan accordingly.
8. Who Will Be Your Central Point Of Contact For Your Internet Marketing Project?
It is important to have a single point of contact for your project to ensure nothing gets lost in translation. A Project Manager should be assigned to all web projects. If you are working with a small web company, however, the Project Manager may also be the web designer and/or web developer himself.
9. Does The Company Outsource Any Project Components To Third Parties Or To Countries Like India? If So, Which Components?
While outsourcing may be a valid business decision to save costs and keep overhead low, you’ll want to be cautious with any internet marketing company that takes your project and out-sources large components to another country. If you have concerns about low quality, cheap labor, and remote project management issues when jobs are outsourced to India, be sure to bring them up before your project begins.
10. Can The Internet Marketing Company Help With Website Content Copy Writing?
SEO copywriting can make or break your website. Your website design may draw the reader in and focus their attention where it needs to be, but the words themselves do the selling. And if the content is optimized correctly, your website can be showing up on the front pages of the search engines for your chosen search terms.
Be sure the internet marketing firm you choose offers copywriting and ask to see samples — particularly samples of sites within your same industry. This will give you a good foundation on which to base your decision.
11. What Programming Languages And Operating Systems Does The Internet Marketing and/or Web Development Company Work With?
Ideally, your web development company should offer both the open source PHP/MySQL and ASP.NET programming languages. They should make a technical recommendation on which platform would best meet your needs and budget.
12. Do The Internet Marketing And Web Development Experts Build Websites To Web Standards?
Standards compliance, such as W3C and Web Standards Group are highly recommended industry practices. The main reason is consistency in how your visitors view your website on different platforms and future proofing.
13. What Is Covered In The Firm’s Website Testing/Quality Checking Phase? Are You Able To See The Website While It Is Still In Development?
Basic testing requirements should be browser testing, checking for broken links and general usability tests to ensure the website is easy for website visitors to use and interact with.
By seeing a development staging version, you will be able to check the website before the launch date and make any necessary adjustments.
14. Does The Internet Marketing Firm Allow Clients To Host Their Websites With Any Host?
Sometimes, for the sake of functionality or other good reasons, a web company may ask that you host your website with them, but this is not always the case. You may have existing commercial relationships with an ISP or web hosting company that you would prefer to use. It is important to know before hiring an internet marketing firm if they will require you to move hosting to them.
15. Do They Provide Any Training Once The Website Is Launched?
If your website project includes customized systems or software, it can be extremely helpful if your internet marketing company provides you with training documents for future reference. If your system is very detailed, it might even be optimal to arrange for a training program or ongoing customer support. However, this is really only necessary if you plan on hosting the website yourself or you have your own people to support it after development.
16. Is The Internet Marketing Firm Knowledgeable in Web 2.0? Is This Included In Your Quote, Or Are There Extra Charges?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a science in itself; an experienced Internet marketing company should be able to offer you a variety of options including organic, PPC and social media marketing as well as online advertising. Depending on your business requirements, you should consider hiring an internet marketing company that can create a custom online campaign to help you achieve maximum results.
Usually there is an extra charge for single items like developing videos, commercials and ads, photo shoots, copywriting and so on. Ask about these if they are part of your marketing plan.
17. What Is The Charge For Website Updates After The Initial Website Is Completed?
While marketing is an ongoing process, the website is often considered a one-time effort. But there is always extra work to be done: changes and updates, new content and so on.
Be aware of the charging structure for updates to your website. Consider how often you will require updates and ask the internet marketing firm how they handle future updates and maintenance.
If you have frequent or large updates to your website, you could consider a Content Management System. A CMS is only really useful in the event of regular changes and if a staff member has good training in it. If neither are the case, it may just be cheaper to have the supplier to manage small updates.
18. What If You Find A Problem Or Code Bug After The Site Is Finished? Does The Graphic Design Company Have Any Kind Of Code Warranty Or Guarantee?
Often web companies will make the change if it is small for no additional costs. However, be aware that if it is a change and not a bug fix, you may be required to pay extra. Typically, internet marketing companies will give you several designs to approve initially and then involve you every step of the way. Each approved section of the project is considered finished. Going back and making changes — even if they seem simple — can be costly.
19. Is The Copyright For The Website Transferred To You When The Project Is Complete? What About Images in The Website? Logo Design?
Copyright law is a specialized legal field. You should ask to own the copyright on all of the work designed and developed after you have paid in full for the project.
20. Will The Website Development Company Comment Your Source Code?
Commenting code is part of good website development. If code is commented well, you won’t spend a lot of time if the unthinkable happens and you’re forced to find another website supplier either part way through the project or its maintenance.
Finding the answers to these questions may seem time consuming and quite involved, but it is an important part of the interview process. After you have interviewed several companies and had your questions and concerns addressed, you should be able to select a talented internet marketing and web development company that is knowledgeable and easy to work with. The firm you choose also needs to have the ability to produce a web design and website that represents and enhances your overall corporate branding.
Of course, you could choose to not follow our suggestions and just hire the least expensive firm available — or a friend of a friend who does graphic design and internet marketing. But then you could end up with a real mess. Your internet business depends on how good you look. You wouldn’t ask a friend to install a new set of teeth for you, would you?
Marketing Tools for Realtors That Can Double Your Income and Cost Almost Nothing
What do you imagine if you hear the marketing phrase, referral letter marketing? I’ll bet you $100 you’re guessing that I’m talking about testimonials and recommendations from past clients.
That’s not a shabby marketing approach for Realtors either. Although, what I’m getting at is collecting a stream of client referrals from other professionals such as mortgage brokers, landscapers, attorneys and contractors. And the only thing you’ll need to do is write a nice little letter, written by the greatest real estate agent (you!).
What referral letter marketing really boils down to for Realtors is this: locate a list of professionals with clients likely to purchase or sell a house. Then you just write down a personal letter that truthfully shows off who you are and send it to this list in the regular mail (no email).
Be sure you get unique and use an envelope that stands out from every other white, standard envelope in the mail. Follow up with each professional by telephone, if possible, and go on to mail/contact them once per month.
You’d be surprised how numerous successful Realtors use this marketing technique for their entire careers, very nearly eliminating marketing expenses to acquire clients. Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with copying what the “big boys” practice.
1st, let’s get a list of professionals that really have the clients you possibly could work with…
- CPA’s
- Lenders (apparent, right?)
- Financial Planners and Advisors
- Real Estate Lawyers
- General Contractors
- Appraisers
- Residential Electricians
- Residential Plumbers
- Residential Landscapers
- Roofing Contractors
- Tree Cutting Professionals
- Residential Handymen
- Get the concept?…
That list should get you off and running but there’s many more you can add in the future.
So how can you get a full list of all the professionals you’ll wish to work with? Wonderful question, glad you asked. You have a duo of options, depending on how much cash you retain in your marketing budget.
One choice is to explore the yellow pages on-line. As a Realtor, you already have a region you operate in so stay within that geographical region, in general. If you don’t mind the manual labor, this can be a perfect choice for you.
You’ll sift through to get the entire name, phone number and mailing address of each professional. This alternative is totally free of charge but certainly more time consuming than a number of Realtors might like.
A separate option for compiling your list of respected professionals is to just buy a list. In the same way you’re probably on one or more Realtor or agent lists being sold out there, just about every profession has their own list for sale too.
Relax, these types of lists aren’t dishonest or unethical. Several people don’t know but these types of lists are compiled and available for sale when professionals, like us real estate agents, join an association or give their info to a publication that they subscribe to.
There are quite a few list companies out there to pick from. Attempt to pick a list company that has all the professions you’re searching for, rather than going to separate list companies for each profession. Buying your list will cost you a few marketing dollars but you’ll save yourself a pant load of agony and working hours.
Once you’ve obtained your marketing list (whichever way you decide to get it), it’s time to start writing this personal letter to send to your list. I don’t have space here to tell you about copywriting, unfortunately. That’s a topic all by itself.
All you need to realize right now is that this letter can’t be “salesy” like a letter you’d mail to your farm list of homeowners.
You can replicate and re-use your letter for each professional but the referral letter itself needs to make each professional who gets it, to feel like they’re the sole one in the world that you sent it to.
The point is that you ought to write this referral marketing letter as if you were talking to them face-to-face. Don’t apply the same flavorless language that your bank does when they mail you a boring letter in the mail. Speak to them like a real person and catch their curiosity.
This is off subject but this form of “real person” marketing goes for all your marketing pieces: classified ads, emails, postcards, etc.
The “meat and potatoes” of the letter needs to explain that you would like to create a professional relationship with them where you can refer business to one another. Your goal is to be their “pocket Realtor” who gets all their referrals, for free! You want to emphasize how they’ll profit from this relationship without doing any selling, got it?
You could happen to know something about the company one of these professionals work for so feel free to drop that in your letter to make it more personal. Maybe you personally know of a client who’s used that professional, toss that in the letter also. Unless you blab about their mom, for some reason, it’s almost impossible for you to get too personal in your letter.
My suggestion would be to definitely jot down this referral marketing letter in your own words. But if you just detest penning this style of marketing material, you can rent an economical self-employed writer to do it for you.
Perform a Google search for “self-employed writers” and you’ll understand a number of companies to choose from. With a few of the sites you’ll find, you can choose freelance writers from all over the world, which is somewhat handy. The excellent thing is several of these companies let you check reviews on each writer, how much they charge and even contact them with “consultation questions”. You might go as far as posting the project you want accomplished and waiting for writers to apply. It’s wonderful.
Okay, so far you have your marketing list of professionals and your marketing letter completed, now it’s time to send it and get some clientele. Just please don’t just mail it in a plain white envelope similar to everyone else… please, please, please!
Get another unusual mailing package or envelope with some color or size to it. The idea is that you need your mailing piece to stand out amongst every other letter that professional is receiving that day. Also, a good way to personalize your letter and have it opened, is to have the mailing and return addresses hand-written.
When you collect your mail, which pieces do you open straight away and which ones do you discard without a second look? Exactly, letters that have hand-scripted addresses constantly have priority!
In addition to the referral letter you wrote, the next thing you’ll want is to throw in a distinctive marketing piece. One marketing thought would be to put together a video with Animoto, burn it on a DVD and mail it with your letter.
A buddy of mine used poker chips as his marketing object when he sent out a mailing for his life insurance business. The slogan he printed on the poker chips was “Don’t even think about gambling with your life”.
Isn’t that brilliant? That’s an example of what I’m talking about when it comes to getting creative with your marketing, precisely like the top real estate agents do.
With this referral letter, make sure you specify for these professionals to not only call your telephone, if they want, but also to check out your blog or site. It’s crucial to give them the choice of how to contact you. You simply don’t know which professionals prefer the phone or to suss you out on your site first.
The final step we’ll address is absolutely critical. The mother of all marketing principles is “repetition”. If you look at marketing stats in general, it’s been shown that consumers and prospects need to hear or view the same marketing message more than 6-7 times before they feel comfortable enough to answer back.
Following up with this marketing list of professionals is crucial to getting the highest reply rate that you can. Following up with these professionals with another letter or a phone call every 4 weeks or so would be my suggestion. If you have it, using a professional’s e-mail address would be a fine follow up also.
But please be careful about not suffocating them, however you decide to follow-up. Be courteous and give them space but at the same time, don’t let them forget which Realtor or agent they have to be sending clients to.
A little time saving tip: if there’s money in your marketing budget, try hiring a college student or high school teenager to stuff your mailers for you. I’d still tell you to create your referral letter yourself but feel free to pay somebody else to address the envelopes and stick the letters inside.
This sort of hired-hand will be about as cheap as you can get and you’ll salvage so much time that you won’t understand what to do with yourself.
Bottom line, I just think this is one of the better marketing ideas for Realtors or agents out there. As long as you are consistent about building these relationships, you can garner yourself a career-long stream of free customer referrals.
Invention Marketing: Promotes Your Invention Among Consumers
To invent something new is always a bonus to the consumers. A new invention requires new ideas, lots of imaginations and new challenges. Although a person can develop new product as new invention but it may be possible that he/she don’t have proper market strategies and resources to make the product popular. In that case the person can take the services of invention marketing companies which provide services like market study, patent assistant, prototype development, engineered drawings, networking, trade show representation, licensing agreements, product distribution and market research.
It is noteworthy that if the invented product is very useful but is not properly marketed among the potential buyers properly then it will result in a waste. Thus it is very important to first make people familiarize about the product. To make available your product among esteemed consumers, you must go for taking the services of invention marketing companies. With the help of their services it is sure you will get recognition that you and your product well deserves.
Invention marketing companies provide best presentation to the product. First of all these companies start with a proposal or concept and finally the new invented product is in the hand of popular retailers throughout the country and abroad. Although there are many steps in between but it’s up to the investor to choose invention marketing companies for all steps or just for one step. They are available for investors in all phases of invention marketing strategy process.
The Invention Help Marketing team is a leader for Invention marketing. They represent individuals and small companies who have either prototypes or invention concept. They are interested to promote those companies who have genuine profit potential. The Invention Help Marketing makes profit, only in the case if inventor or individual inventor’s agent makes profit. Due to this factor both parties can earn and encourage themselves. Simply having an idea of new invention is not enough. After inventing a product, there will be an energetic marketing strategy and presentation so as to create the demand of the product. If potential buyers are not available in the market then it is considered must to generate an interest for the product in the minds of the buyers. After that they are available to buy new invention in future.
The Invention Help Marketing is in each and every aspect of product promotion process. They are specialized in prototyping and packaging to presenting and negotiating. They provide services like patent licensing, graphic design, market analysis, marketing campaigns, prototype building, physical display presentation, trade show presentation, manufacturing, video presentation building, web designing, consulting web marketing and product package design etc.
So if you have a potential invented product then just contact to Invention Help Marketing which is one of the best Invention marketing company.
To invent something new is always a bonus to the consumers. A new invention requires new ideas, lots of imaginations and new challenges. Although a person can develop new product as new invention but it may be possible that he/she don’t have proper market strategies and resources to make the product popular. In that case the person can take the services of invention marketing companies which provide services like market study, patent assistant, prototype development, engineered drawings, networking, trade show representation, licensing agreements, product distribution and market research.
It is noteworthy that if the invented product is very useful but is not properly marketed among the potential buyers properly then it will result in a waste. Thus it is very important to first make people familiarize about the product. To make available your product among esteemed consumers, you must go for taking the services of invention marketing companies. With the help of their services it is sure you will get recognition that you and your product well deserves.
Invention marketing companies provide best presentation to the product. First of all these companies start with a proposal or concept and finally the new invented product is in the hand of popular retailers throughout the country and abroad. Although there are many steps in between but it’s up to the investor to choose invention marketing companies for all steps or just for one step. They are available for investors in all phases of invention marketing strategy process.
The Invention Help Marketing team is a leader for Invention marketing. They represent individuals and small companies who have either prototypes or invention concept. They are interested to promote those companies who have genuine profit potential. The Invention Help Marketing makes profit, only in the case if inventor or individual inventor’s agent makes profit. Due to this factor both parties can earn and encourage themselves. Simply having an idea of new invention is not enough. After inventing a product, there will be an energetic marketing strategy and presentation so as to create the demand of the product. If potential buyers are not available in the market then it is considered must to generate an interest for the product in the minds of the buyers. After that they are available to buy new invention in future.
The Invention Help Marketing is in each and every aspect of product promotion process. They are specialized in prototyping and packaging to presenting and negotiating. They provide services like patent licensing, graphic design, market analysis, marketing campaigns, prototype building, physical display presentation, trade show presentation, manufacturing, video presentation building, web designing, consulting web marketing and product package design etc.
So if you have a potential invented product then just contact to Invention Help Marketing which is one of the best Invention marketing company.
A Marketing Compass
What we now call “marketing” began long before the name was coined. In the mid-1800s, traveling salesmen camouflaged worthless tonics in fancy bottles in order to peddle their “snake oil” to a gullible public. Early successes led to the belief that the right marketing approach could help produce favorable results in virtually any business situation. The result was a proliferation of new promotional applications-some ethical, many not. Over the years, companies of all types have spent billions of dollars to figure out what works and what does not and marketing has evolved from its rather crude beginnings to encompass a plethora of sophisticated strategic and tactical techniques.
Over the years, the consumer products industry has led the marketing charge and created marketing best practices that helped spawn consumer giants. Meanwhile, most financial services firms are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the era of sophisticated marketing.
Putting The Customer First
Peter Drucker was an academic and marketing luminary whose writings have greatly influenced the thinking of marketing practitioners. Over fifty years ago, Drucker developed the concept of a customer-centric marketing approach and coined the term “customer defined value.” This concept has since become an integral part of marketing literature and the guiding principle of modern marketing. The following statements, paraphrased from Drucker’s extensive writings, reflect his fundamental mandate that “the customer’s interests must come first:”
- The only valid definition of business purpose is to create a customer.
- What the business thinks it is producing is not as important as what customers think they are buying; what customers consider to be of value is decisive.
- Every business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.
- Marketing is your whole business as seen from the customer’s point of view.
While the concept is straight-forward and easily articulated, most financial services organizations have found it difficult to implement meaningful customer-centric practices. Some of the most common obstacles have included a product-push mentality, a focus on short-term profitability, under-investment in marketing activities, and the lack of solid market intelligence about the needs and wants of target markets.
However, in the future the most successful financial services organizations will be those that make Drucker’s principles their own through client-centric and creative applications.
The Advancing State of Financial Services Marketing
The financial services industry has lived on the edge of turmoil for the last couple of decades. As a result, the industry has undergone significant structural changes. Further, in response to increased competitive pressures, many financial services organizations have also become aware of the need to reconsider their traditionally conservative, undisciplined and very expensive marketing practices. They realize that future success depends on developing and refining market-driven processes.
Our observations suggest that the more progressive financial services organizations are currently experiencing an intellectual and practical transition that has caused them to elevate the role of marketing within their firms.
Traditionally, marketers concentrated their efforts on implementation initiatives while management dealt with the broader strategic issues that affected the firm’s future. The advent of customer-driven marketing and the attendant need to understand market-driven influences caused management to recognize the importance of accurate, timely and in-depth marketing intelligence-concerning customers, markets, distribution channels, products and services-to the strategic process. To address these new needs, Marketing Directors began to play an increasingly important role in the strategic planning and decision-making process.
As a result, the very nature of the marketing function in many firms is changing dramatically. This new breed of marketing professional now works closely with senior management on important strategic projects that will impact the entire organization and shape its future success. These projects include the development and refining of:
- the firm’s mission statement and key messages
- business objectives and value propositions
- statements of the company’s relevant differentiation and competitive advantages.
At the same time, however, the status quo still prevails in many financial services organizations that have not yet recognized the benefit of adding sophisticated marketing to their business mix. Some organizations continue to squander valuable marketing resources on advertising campaigns focused on increasing visibility or gaining “share of voice.” In addition, the persistent problem of differentiating marketing from sales still remains largely unresolved in many of these organizations.
The Bottom Line
The financial services industry is currently going through a dramatic marketing transformation. As effective financial services marketing evolves to a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary activity, successful firms will create a culture of customer orientation throughout the organization and incorporate advocacy for customer welfare in all corporate decision-making. Unfortunately, this puts the goalpost a significant distance away for far too many financial services firms.
The challenge for management is to provide the leadership required to displace the status quo and create a culture of opportunity. To compete effectively, financial services firms must become attuned to the market and adopt (and maintain) a market-driven focus on an organization-wide basis. Those firms that successfully develop a customer-oriented culture will be rewarded with enhanced opportunities for innovation, improved performance and incremental profitability.
Email Marketing Freeware – Does It Really Work?
Marketing is base of every business aware among people. Depending on the facilities, place and population marketing is planned. The most cited example is village people, explain what is your business product is, make them understand he would carry forward the same to his friends and thus it spreads all over the business making your business successful. Television and other modes of advertising are also one of the best modes of advertising.
According to the interest of the people, the medium of marketing is changing day by day in this 21st century.We find few developed and developing countries use Internet as marketing medium, few countries rely on Televisions and few still rely on newspapers. Now, days have been changed to electronic medium, business man using cheap and best method of marketing.You can promote your business through few of the available resources that are very cheap at cost and timesaving and they are promoting through fax, via Emails, SMSs and through PPC. Each and every have its own advantages and disadvantages there.
Email marketing is most popular method among them all. Just because of cheap, best and good feedback from user. In email marketing bulk of email address to be collected and send email newsletter, containing services, promotions and new business strategies, to all of them in bulk. It is not possible for us to send the emails in bulk manually, there are lots of software available in the market that help us know the sender and recipient of the emails, tracking time, emails that bounced back, junk emails, whether the email sent was read or not etc.
Due to affordable price, good response from the users, promoting through emails is the one of the finest way to approach people. Excellent record of emails, best planning strategy in business is the only way to market through emails. To get the email addresses we have multiple ways, to buy the email addresses legally from the email service provider or any other or to go through RRS Feeds or subscribers. Every resource should have separate database like Electronics and Entertainment. This lets us know the feedback categorized.
But like of excess of every thing, more email marketing can be turned into spamming and in result you would be got punished by government of country. So, while doing email marketing you should also follow law too. In email marketing content of email newsletter should be targeted and length of newsletter should be less, otherwise importance of email newsletter.
Emails traced automatically is one of key factors of campaigning through emails.
The popularity of email marketing depends on the type o business you do, there are few advantages and disadvantages in the email marketing software, they rely on the type of business you do . Marketing through emails is now a developed mode of campaigning the product. We find many companies providing good services through various marketing strategies such as Short Message Service marketing, Electronic Mail marketing in different countries. In countries like US, UK, Asia and UAE we find many companies rendering their best service in email marketing.
Datadepot.biz is the most reputed organization helping online businesses with email marketing. For further information on Email Marketing Tools visit the website.
Tips on Creating Successful Marketing Projects For Your Clients
More than ever before, companies are hiring marketing consulting businesses with one important criterion in mind: “How can this marketing consultant help me get the most out of my marketing dollars?”
With increasing pressure to maximize the return on their clients’ marketing investment, marketing consultants are all too aware that campaigns that miss the mark cost their clients time and money. And at times, clients will seek compensation for those losses with a lawsuit.
Although marketing consultant liability insurance will protect your consultancy, a lawsuit can still deal a stinging blow to a marketing business’ professional reputation and take away valuable time from client service to focus on defending the lawsuit. To manage this risk, it is important to understand and correctly translate a client’s needs into a successful campaign.
Measuring Success
Most marketing consulting projects are focused on one of two outcomes: building brand awareness or generating leads. Each situation calls for similar assessment tactics, but involve very different execution strategies.
A brand-awareness campaign focuses on building a company’s reputation within a market and growing corporate or product name recognition among a targeted demographic. Because brand awareness can be hard to quantify, this type of project creates unique challenges for a marketing consulting business seeking to justify a customer’s marketing investment. Clearly discussing the project objectives with the client will aid in minimizing marketing consulting risk and liability.
Results for lead-generation campaigns are generally easier to track, as these projects produce tangible, traceable results. These marketing campaigns are designed to generate leads that will in turn help the company to sell a product or service, whether it’s an immediate buy such as a soft drink or book, or a longer-term commitment such as a technology system or membership. But new sales aren’t the only measure of success. Many companies also have business objectives to grow their customer base; convert prospects to buyers; or turn existing buyers into high-volume, loyal customers.
Where Does the Client Stand?
Before a marketing consultant can develop an effective strategy to achieve the desired results, he or she must first develop a comprehensive understanding of the client’s industry and customer base. Most importantly, any marketing strategy must be tied to a company’s strategic objectives to ensure greater success and reduce risk for marketing firms.
To translate a customer’s needs into a viable marketing project, the first step is to achieve the deepest possible understanding of what a client’s business objectives are. In assessing a client’s needs, a marketing consultant must consider numerous factors that will affect the company, long after the marketing campaign has finished. Smart marketing consultants employ an interview process to better define potential opportunities and ensure agreement on the campaign’s objectives. Questions may include:
- What is the client’s business goal and strategy to achieve it?
- Who and where are the client’s customers? What are they buying, and why?
- What markets would the client like to move into?
- What is the goal of this campaign? (Increase revenue? New customers? Market penetration? Repeat business? Customer loyalty?)
- What marketing efforts has the client made in the past, and what were the results?
- What is the client’s marketing budget, or acceptable cost per lead? (This is a key question.)
- What IT systems and personnel does the client have in place to track campaign results and return on investment?
- Who are the client’s competitors, and what are they doing right or wrong?
- What differentiates the client company from its competitors and makes it the best choice for customers?
Typically, gathering the answers to these and other questions can start with an initial meeting with the client. However, to gain more in-depth insight as a project begins, a marketing consultant can interview both internal client contacts and the company’s customers, and assess the market space in which the company operates. Customer surveys, case studies and testimonials are all useful sources for customer perspective into what makes a company stand out.
With all of this information as a foundation, a marketing consultant should be well-prepared to define the vision and scope of a project, research options, develop success measures, create an internal approval process, and formulate tactics to achieve the client’s marketing and business objectives. A good tip to reduce marketing liability is to ensure your project plans include milestone checkpoints and defined success measures.
Incorporating New Technologies
As marketing consultants assess their customers’ business needs, it’s vital to consider how those needs might be served by the latest technological innovations. For example, almost all marketing campaigns now have some online component, whether it’s a landing page that customers can locate using a URL in a print ad or a more advanced interactive campaign with Twitter or Facebook.
An added benefit to Internet marketing is the ability to get immediate feedback on the profitability of a campaign. Using analytics programs, you can count unique site visitors and track click-through rates, providing an immediate measure of customer response. As part of the project scoping process, marketing firms must identify the client’s current platforms, applications and metrics, as well as provide recommendations on new technology to support the business outcomes desired. At the same time, when employing online marketing, the potential for a marketing consultant’s liability may increase because outside applications, functionality and databases may fail to perform or experience security flaws, all of which could pose a situation for litigation.
Today’s client companies are counting on their marketing consultants to help them understand how to integrate the newest technologies and marketing techniques to get the best return on their marketing investment. By combining a thorough understanding of the latest marketing trends with a solid understanding of a company and its objectives, a marketing consultant can create campaigns that will win customers over, while reducing marketing liability and winning their clients’ repeat business.