Direct mail campaigns are one of the oldest methods of marketing. However, old doesn’t equal ineffective. The way we market our businesses has changed radically in the past five years. If you recently sent out a direct mail campaign and had little success, it’s probably because you are still using old tactics. Create a successful direct mail campaign by following some of these tips. They are sure to increase response rates! Customize and Personalize We all receive dozens of pieces of mail in our mailboxes each and everyday. How does your direct mail piece stand out from everything else? To avoid a ...

    Sure, the digital age is upon us. We read our newspapers online, pay our bills online and create online photo albums. So why bother printing, especially if you are a business? Because print drives your business. Regardless of your particular niche, print materials are necessary to build brand awareness, attract new customers and create a polished and professional image of your business. Here are a five ways print drives your business. Signage If no one can find you because you lack signage, it’s a problem.  A prominent sign on your door or windows is the number one way to attract passersby. Window cling ...

Most business owners assume that their work is done when their marketing campaign is out the door. Wrong! Successful businesses know that unleashing marketing campaigns are only one step in the process to increasing web traffic and sales. The next step is analyzing how your campaign is doing against your expected outcome. Keeping constant track of your marketing campaigns helps you to refine and maintain high output for lead generation. So how does Google Analytics fit in? Google Analytics is a free online tool designed to help you keep track of the traffic that comes in, and out, of your website. You ...

These days it’s pretty easy to get overly focused on implementing your pay-per-click campaigns and completely forget about doing the search strategy and planning. However it’s critical to keep an eye on the big picture and all the steps involved to it. Planning cannot be understated especially when it’s so easy to go astray. Here are a few key points to help you reassess your PPC campaign and get it back on track. • Target Market – Be sure you understand what your target markets interests and preferences are and how your search program is going to reach them. It’s ...

Having a corporate website is an essential part of extending the reach of your business. But having a website is only half of the equation. Getting people to visit your website is the other half of the equation for online success. This, however, can be a daunting task, especially if you have just recently launched your website. So how do you drive traffic to your corporate website? While there is no simple recipe for increasing traffic to your website, there are many different things that you can do to slowly, and surely, boost the number of unique visitors ...

Evaluating your website with a critical eye is one of the best things a small business owner can do. Your website is one of the most powerful assets you have so it’s important to make sure it’s working with you instead of against you. Take the time to look over your website, or better yet have an unbiased friend do so, and ask yourself these 10 questions. An honest answer will help evaluate your website and put you on the track to making it even better. 1. What do you see first? – The first impression is the most critical. Are you ...

As the digital age advances, it’s hard to believe that print media is still a worthwhile endeavor. Between PPC ads, corporate blogs and social media strategies, it may be easy to think that online marketing alone is sufficient to grow a business. As effective as online marketing campaigns can be, no business should dismiss print media as part of their overall marketing strategy. Print media is still an important piece of the marketing puzzle. Here is why: •Print is Portable – Even with laptops and smart phones, print media still retains the ultimate portability. It’s available everywhere and to everyone, ...

Staying connected with old customers and reaching out to new customers is key to building strong relationships and brand loyalty.  The crucial task is to find a cost-effective way to do it.  E-mail marketing is a powerful marketing tool that is pocketbook friendly and highly effective.  Below are ten reasons that have turned e-mail marketing into the powerful marketing tool it is. Cost Effective Forget about envelopes or postage fees.  A key benefit of using e-mail marketing as part of your marketing strategy is its low cost.  With monthly fees starting at $20 or less, sending an e-mail newsletter to ...

  If your business is booming you are in good luck. Most businesses, large or small, are still feeling the effects of the sluggish economy. Stagnant and falling revenues have caused many businesses to slash costs – even at the expense of growing their business. Marketing is always an easy target when it comes to slashing costs. While reducing costs all around is not a bad idea, eliminating useful marketing practices can be detrimental. Marketing collateral usually gets cut when businesses try to reduce operating costs. No one says you need a brochure, a fancy business card or that snazzy mug with ...

E-newsletters have long replaced traditional print newsletters. Cost, ease of use, tracking capabilities and convenience are just a few of the reasons why business owners have turned to e-newsletters. Although there are many pros to using e-newsletters to stay connected with your customers and followers, your e-newsletters still need to be worthy enough to read.   Use the tips below to create an effective e-newsletter.   Think of Your Readers This may seem like a no-brainer, but we sometimes get too involved in what we want to say that we forget about what our readers want to hear. Understanding your readers means that you know ...

  Your brand is more than a cute logo or a catchy tagline. Your brand is the foundation of your business. As such, your brand should directly reflect your business philosophy and accurately address your target market and mission. Creating a brand image that will stay in the minds of customers is not easy to achieve, however, it is essential that you do your best when defining your branding. Think of your brand as an ambassador for your company. As an ambassador, your brand should be the best representative of your entire business model. When creating your brand, make sure you take ...

  Landing page optimization is a vital part of conversion rate optimization, a process by which you increase visitor traffic to your website. Attracting prospects to your landing page is hard enough. Holding their attention once there is even more crucial. The highest percentage of abandonment happens in the first ten seconds. Peak your visitor’s interest by optimizing your landing page. Below are six key components to optimizing your landing page for higher conversion rates. 1.  Headline – 80% of your opportunity for increasing your conversion rate lies here. Make sure your headline clearly states what your customers will get from your landing ...