Business owners know that bringing in new sales can be extremely challenging and often frustrating. More often than not, a potential prospect never makes it from sales lead to paying customer. There are a number of steps along the path to purchase and prospects can be lost at any one. But it doesn’t have to be this way! At least not in the world of online marketing. Great content generation can help move prospects through your sales funnel more effectively. Continue reading “Content Marketing and the Pathway to Purchase”
Category: Marketing Communication
All It Takes is a Little Nudge
People may sometimes think about marketing as the process of convincing someone to buy something they may not be initially inclined to purchase. Maybe it’s luring a customer away from a competitor or convincing someone to buy something they don’t really need.
From a more marketing-friendly perspective, though, the process could be seen as Continue reading “All It Takes is a Little Nudge”
Captivating Consumers With Top-Notch Product Images
How important are product images in your online marketing activities? If you effectively describe the product specifications, give some detailed reviews and have an in-depth description, is that enough? It seems like it isn’t. In fact, Lumina Datamatics cites a survey by the National Retail Federation showing that 67 percent of customers consider images more important than product-specific information, long descriptions and product reviews.
Think about that for a second. Continue reading “Captivating Consumers With Top-Notch Product Images”
Guiding Consumers to the Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)
The word “sales” often conjures up some very specific images. A man in a suit holding a briefcase going door-to-door selling encyclopedias or vacuums, for example. Or a guy hustling in a car lot. But as we know, sales is, in reality, a process. A process that ends with a pitch. The direct pitch to the customer or the final sales touchpoint is the last step in the sales process and is often referred to as “the bottom of the funnel” (BOFU). It follows TOFU (top of the funnel) and MOFU (middle of the funnel) activities that are designed to move the consumer down a pathway to a purchase. Continue reading “Guiding Consumers to the Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)”
Focusing on Value Over Features in B2B Sales
To a large extent, the sales and marketing world can be divided along two broad lines: business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer (B2C) and products versus services. Sales strategies for B2C services will differ from B2B services, which differ from B2B products, etc. There are best practices and pitfalls for each quadrant of possible scenarios created by this way of looking at sales and marketing. Continue reading “Focusing on Value Over Features in B2B Sales”
Best Practices in Defining Your Value Proposition
The value proposition for a product or service is a foundational element in any sales and marketing activity. The value proposition responds to consumers’ question of “why” related to your products and services. “Why should I buy your product?” “Why should I subscribe to this service?”
A value proposition isn’t an off-the-top-of-your-head pitch to potential customers. It has to be carefully crafted, based on a solid understanding of your audience’s needs and values. Writing for Forbes, Rebecca O. Bagley recommends a three-step process for developing a value proposition: Continue reading “Best Practices in Defining Your Value Proposition”
Best Practices for Social Media Marketing
It’s hard to succeed at anything if you’re not focused. Whether you’re golfing, driving, taking an exam or giving a presentation, losing focus on your objective can be disastrous. The same is true of your social media activity. Granted social media marketing is a longer-term activity than golfing or giving a presentation, but the importance of focus is no less important. In particular, we’ve selected three key elements marketers should keep their focus on when engaging in social media. Continue reading “Best Practices for Social Media Marketing”
Tips for Marketing Your “Boring” Business
Let’s face it. Not all businesses are as flashy and exciting as manufacturing high-end sports cars, groundbreaking technology or exquisite luxury items. The marketing for some products is as simple as letting people know the product exists. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for most companies, and this means they may need to work extra hard or be extra creative in making sales. As Ryan Holiday writes for The Huffington Post, Continue reading “Tips for Marketing Your “Boring” Business”
Gaining a Better Understanding of Where Your Audience is Coming From
What event or events would you say have had the greatest impact on the United States during YOUR lifetime? It’s a question put to 2,025 adult survey respondents in a mid-2016 Pew Research Center poll, the results of which were covered by Claudia Deane, Maeve Duggan and Rich Morin. Before looking at the article, try to answer the question yourself. What are the 10 historic events during your lifetime that have had the greatest impact on the country? Continue reading “Gaining a Better Understanding of Where Your Audience is Coming From”
The Risky Business of Mixing Marketing With Politics
Politics permeates virtually every aspect of our day-to-day lives, and it’s constantly on display in every channel of media. So it’s no surprise that in seeking to connect with, and seem relevant to, their customer base, marketers from time to time invoke the politics of the day. However, the risk of such tactics often far outweighs the marginal rewards. Continue reading “The Risky Business of Mixing Marketing With Politics”