Online Sales Dip
Sales dip again, raising doubts on the US Recovery. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/63d63220-7554-11df-a7e2-00144feabdc0.html
Survey reveals E-mail & Search are the best performing marketing channels
E-mail & search are the best performing marketing channels — that is according to Datran Media’s “4th Annual Marketing & Media Survey,” which surveyed more than 5,000 marketers online in December, published this week by Christopher Hosford in B2B Magazine. In fact, nearly 4 in 10 executives at Fortune 500 companies, publishing companies, and media and ad agencies revealed e-mail as the best performing digital channel and 24% singled out search. Do these channels work as well for your business?
Read the full story: http://ow.ly/1xzKd
Sheri Taylor Gilchrist is President of Gilchrist + Partners, a marketing services firm dedicated to applying behavioral and neuromarketing practices to improve the performance of marketing programs . http://www.gilchristpartners.com
Forget Scarlett O’Hara, Marketers Should Be Thinking About Retaining Customers
I just came back from lunch with a friend and we discussed the state of the economy and the toll it’s taking on business and consumer spending. It seems that the more people I talk to, the more they are willing to share their concerns about the economy and how it has impacted their own personal buying patterns. It is almost as if, sharing their stories and dealing with the economic climate head on, has become the “in” thing to do.
Look around the lunchroom in your office. How many employees are brown bagging it to work and discussing that kitchen renovation they put on hold? Yet if you ask them what items that have not cut out, they might tell you that they are still keeping their monthly spa treatment, the regular night out with the girls or little Jack’s trip to soccer camp. I read this as an ideal opportunity for firms to reach out to their customer base and speak to them directly. Since “openly sharing” has become more status quo, now is the time to capitalize on your customer’s willingness to engage with you and talk directly about how you can be part of a solution. This applies to both the consumer and business audiences.
But this approach doesn’t seem to be happening and I’m wondering what is going on. Whether media plans couldn’t be changed or the marketing departments are hoping no one will notice, I keep seeing marketing messages asking customers to buy more, get another new credit card, upgrade your cable service, travel to a trade conference, and the best one yet, buy and trade stocks online, it’s a commercial of a baby trading online, having fun ! Are you joking? It’s a creative and funny ad, but highly irrelevant. Unless the baby throwing up is a metaphor for the market declines.
It’s as if some of these marketers have not been on planet earth the last 3 months and have forgotten about reality. So the question is this: Are some of these marketers pulling a Scarlett O’Hara? It’s the “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow” approach.
I wanted to test this Scarlet O’Hara hypothesis and so I called my investment firm, they tried to sell me more mutual funds. I called my credit card company and they offered me more credit. Isn’t this the formula that got us into this mess in the first place?
Next time you fast forward your DVR to watch your show, take a closer look at the ads. Millions of dollars are still being spent on placing these high-priced ads with the completely wrong message. I’m here to tell you, Mr. Marketer, you missed the boat. I’m not saying every Marketer is off base here, of course not! But for those of you that haven’t already done so, now is the time to think candidly about your marketing plan and definitely put your retention radar on high alert!
Factor Online Behavior To Improve Conversion
Are you factoring the online activity of your leads before you rank and contact them?
A recent lead generation campaign we ran for a well-known insurance firm found that tracking and analyzing the online behavior of visitors on the corporate website significantly impacts the quality of a lead and the conversion rate to sale.
By adding this step into the lead generation process, the sales force had more information about the prospect and could develop a better target profile in order tailor the conversation. That’s before the selling even began.
During the first 3 weeks of the campaign, conversion rates improved by 77% for those leads that had been tagged and tracked prior to the first email or phone call.
Whether your firm is responding to a request for more information or simply following up to an email, 9 out of 10 times, your prospect has exhibited some sort of online behavior before they contact you.
Sheri Taylor Gilchrist is President of Gilchrist + Partners, a Boston-based marketing services firm dedicated to applying behavioral and neuromarketing practices to improve the performance of marketing programs. http://www.gilchristpartners.com
Turnaround Time on Web-Based Leads Impacts Conversion
Remember the days when all you had to do was respond to a web-based lead in less than 2 hours and your prospect was impressed with your turnaround time? The sales force was thrilled that the marketing department had integrated a lead capture tool that delivered leads directly to your inbox during the day. That was then, however this is the era of NOW. It’s no longer good enough to wait several hours in the current real-time marketing climate when you have literally minutes or even seconds to capitalize on a lead. A recent survey from MIT and InsideSales.com reveals that odds of qualifying web-based leads are 21 times greater if the lead is responded to in 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes. Luckily with the latest real-time software, the capability marketers need is only a click-away. Some of the latest software can capture information about your leads, including their behavior on your website, pages they’ve viewed, marketing or media that drove them there as well as any materials that may have been downloaded in one snapshot. Armed with this collective information, you can rank and profile your leads in seconds and respond in minutes. Check out Salesforce.com’s CRM tool which has been shown to improve inbound lead conversion by 400%; www.salesforce.com or products like LeadCaster, which allows you to connect with visitors while they are still on your site; www.leadcaster.com
In this highly competitive climate, it’s never too late to consider integrating a real-time data tool to improve your online lead conversion.
Sheri Taylor Gilchrist is President of Gilchrist + Partners, dedicated to applying behavioral and neuromarketing practices to improve the performance of marketing programs . http://www.gilchristpartners.com
Social Media Is Changing Online Behavior (via Sheri Gilchrist)
via Sheri Gilchrist
Paid Search Going Strong
Marketers should consider the power of paid search when setting media budgets. More small and medium-sized businesses are using paid search in place of other traditional business media. This week B@B Magazine covered the latest research from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), noting that paid search will grow by 14% this year. http://ow.ly/1rnVB
B2B Marketing Spend To Reach $4.8BB
NEW REPORT: B2B Magazine highlights that interactive spending by B-to-B marketers will reach $4.8 billion by 2014 according to a new report from Forrester Research.
