One of my colleagues recently asked me, out of all the aspects of marketing including online marketing, marketing strategy, Web 2.0, market research, etc., what was the most important? Without hesitation I replied, "Testing".
Many of my marketing friends might argue and profess that if you don't have the right message, reach the right audience, the right timing, or the right offer, you won't succeed. And to that I say ABSOLUTELY! In fact, those are the very elements of a successful campaign that can be identified through proper testing. So how do you know that your messaging is optimized or that you're reaching your target audience in the most effective way possible? Only proper testing can give you that information.
When someone on my team says that a particular campaign was a success I ask, "how do you know?" The answer often has something to do with metrics around campaign performance. But this information is merely releative. If your click through rate was 20% and your conversion rate was 0.35% for an online campaign, it may have generated a positive return, but is 0.35% the best we could have done? Did we test the campaign to set expectations before full launch?
By testing multiple landing pages, post cards, direct mail packages, keyword campaigns, and other marketing campaigns, you can find what resonates best with your audience and set proper expectations for performance. Once you've established a baseline, continue to test and experiment with different messaging, timing, and offers and compare your results against your baseline. Then, when someone asks you how well your campaign performed, you can say good, bad, or indifferent based on real data.
A great example of this was a recent email marketing campaign completed by my team. They tested 3 subject lines - everything else remainded the same (the list, the email creative, the price, the timing, etc.). During our test, one subject line outperformed the others 3 to 1. Wow! What a difference this made in our overall campaign performance when we sent the email to tens of thousands of potential customers.
Ongoing measurement and testing is essential for marketing success. If you're not testing your marketing campaigns on a continuous basis, you're missing out. Of course, once you establish a solid control (baseline), you'll have a hard time out performing it. In general, you'll only improve your success rate about 10% of the time. But continue to test, test, and test some more and you'll see your knowledge and results increase.
About the Author
A keen carp fishing enthusiast and developer of carp fishing baits including krill and layers boilies.
carp fishing baits
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Search engine marketing - menus
DIY Search engine optimisation
Marketing comes in many forms, as explained above fax marketing is cost effective and one of the least used strategies, don’t let everyone know this or all will be adopting the method! Another area that is often seen as black art is search engine optimisation also known as SEO. Most small companies cannot afford to employ SEO companies to conduct their internet marketing due to the initial and monthly costs. You may think this is a black art that is best left to the pros? After reading this introduction and the other articles within my site you will soon realise that its not a difficult process only time consuming.
menu covers, menu holders, placemats, blackboards, menu stands, folders
SEO facts in laymans terms
1. Secrets of SEO are based on what the search engine algorithms require to place your site high for a key phrase
2. You must have your key phrase within your meta tags, alt image tags and within the headlines and main text of your web page in the right density.
3. Once you have a site that conforms with Google guidelines then it is ready to promote.
4. Promotion comes in many forms including submission to search engines and gaining links through various means.
5. Links are amongst the most important factor, if for example you have submitted your website to a few hundred directories and swapped links with web sites of a similar content and carry on gaining links over a period of time your position in Google will increase until you gain a top 10 position i.e. on page one. It therefore stands to reason that you will get more custom, the whole process will not happen overnight but costs nothing but a little bit of time and effort on a bi-daily basis.
The above gives you an overview of SEO; for more tips and down to earth advice on this black art subject read my articles on SEO in Bristol
Promoting your company through fax marketing or DIY search engine optimisation is not rocket science, but methods that are cost effective and efficient within your marketing campaign.
menu covers, menu holders, placemats, blackboards, menu stands, folders
I work for a company with a turnover of over £3,0000 and the only person employed for marketing, I have saved the said company over £500,000 in marketing revenue through conducting a marketing campaign on its behalf. You too can save money through some thought and appreciation of the strategies that are available to you.
If you enjoyed this article feel free to copy and paste it into your website retaining the links.
More information on alternate marketing can be found at these sites small business seo internet marketing web design internet marketing
Marketing comes in many forms, as explained above fax marketing is cost effective and one of the least used strategies, don’t let everyone know this or all will be adopting the method! Another area that is often seen as black art is search engine optimisation also known as SEO. Most small companies cannot afford to employ SEO companies to conduct their internet marketing due to the initial and monthly costs. You may think this is a black art that is best left to the pros? After reading this introduction and the other articles within my site you will soon realise that its not a difficult process only time consuming.
menu covers, menu holders, placemats, blackboards, menu stands, folders
SEO facts in laymans terms
1. Secrets of SEO are based on what the search engine algorithms require to place your site high for a key phrase
2. You must have your key phrase within your meta tags, alt image tags and within the headlines and main text of your web page in the right density.
3. Once you have a site that conforms with Google guidelines then it is ready to promote.
4. Promotion comes in many forms including submission to search engines and gaining links through various means.
5. Links are amongst the most important factor, if for example you have submitted your website to a few hundred directories and swapped links with web sites of a similar content and carry on gaining links over a period of time your position in Google will increase until you gain a top 10 position i.e. on page one. It therefore stands to reason that you will get more custom, the whole process will not happen overnight but costs nothing but a little bit of time and effort on a bi-daily basis.
The above gives you an overview of SEO; for more tips and down to earth advice on this black art subject read my articles on SEO in Bristol
Promoting your company through fax marketing or DIY search engine optimisation is not rocket science, but methods that are cost effective and efficient within your marketing campaign.
menu covers, menu holders, placemats, blackboards, menu stands, folders
I work for a company with a turnover of over £3,0000 and the only person employed for marketing, I have saved the said company over £500,000 in marketing revenue through conducting a marketing campaign on its behalf. You too can save money through some thought and appreciation of the strategies that are available to you.
If you enjoyed this article feel free to copy and paste it into your website retaining the links.
More information on alternate marketing can be found at these sites small business seo internet marketing web design internet marketing
Internet marketing, small business seo, search engine freindly web design and a bit about menu covers, folders, stands, holders
menu covers, menu holders, placemats, blackboards, menu stands, folders
Within your marketing strategy do you concentrate on the traditional marketing methods like advertising in magazines, or on other high ranking websites etc? Have you considered, or do you invest in other areas that are more cost effective and bring a better return? Are you or your business missing out on valuable areas that could mean the difference between success and failure? Let me outline some cost effective and efficient strategies that may help you to achieve your aim of increased leads without paying for expensive advertising in magazines. In fact some of the methods described here can be carried out by you or your company / employees! Advertising in magazines and yellow directories costs your company a small fortune. There are other less expensive options that should be considered, that can gain you as much if not more custom.
Firstly I would like to explain how a fax marketing campaign can gain you more custom than an expensive advert in a monthly magazine Secondly, how to get your small business to the top 10 in a
Most companies hate receiving unsolicited faxes – fact. It is annoying on a regular basis; the sender is using up all of your paper and line time! Scoundrels!! I must agree that I too hate these fax marketing techniques and get pretty upset every time the machine indicates another, more annoying than junk emails!
However, occasionally one prints’ that advertise a service that I am interested in, this fax is often filed away for future correspondence as the said companies’ services are interesting to my business. Most of the faxes I receive are irrelevant to my marketing strategy; however there are some that I do contact. These are normally those faxes sent from reputable marketing companies, occasionally I do ring and adopt the advertised services; the remainder go in file 13 (also known as the bin).
Let’s analyse that? On average it costs several hundred pounds to employ a professional fax marketing company to send out 20,000 – 30,000 faxes. If you’re chosen fax marketing company is targeting the right business audience (as a reliable company should do with its extensive database) you are sending faxes to people/companies that are more likely to adopt your services.
Stats suggest that when you target the right audience you will have a lead rate of 1 in 100; on average 1 company/person will contact you in 100 faxes sent. This equates to possible sales of your service to 200 new customers if 20,000 faxes were sent! For example your company offers ‘web design’ and the average price for your service is £1000 (average for 20 page static site) then you have a potential 200 new business leads equating to £200,000! It is cost effective and efficient marketing that often brings more custom than advertising in traditional media.
Although you will receive leads the downside is that a certain percentage of those receiving your fax may complain and a very small percentage will contact you and request that they receive no more or words to that effect!
There are many fax marketing companies on the Internet, only a few I would trust, one of which is
Overall fax marketing is an extremely cost effective and an efficient means of delivering your services to a niche target audience.
Firstly I would like to explain how a fax marketing campaign can gain you more custom than an expensive advert in a monthly magazine Secondly, how to get your small business to the top 10 in a
Most companies hate receiving unsolicited faxes – fact. It is annoying on a regular basis; the sender is using up all of your paper and line time! Scoundrels!! I must agree that I too hate these fax marketing techniques and get pretty upset every time the machine indicates another, more annoying than junk emails!
However, occasionally one prints’ that advertise a service that I am interested in, this fax is often filed away for future correspondence as the said companies’ services are interesting to my business. Most of the faxes I receive are irrelevant to my marketing strategy; however there are some that I do contact. These are normally those faxes sent from reputable marketing companies, occasionally I do ring and adopt the advertised services; the remainder go in file 13 (also known as the bin).
Let’s analyse that? On average it costs several hundred pounds to employ a professional fax marketing company to send out 20,000 – 30,000 faxes. If you’re chosen fax marketing company is targeting the right business audience (as a reliable company should do with its extensive database) you are sending faxes to people/companies that are more likely to adopt your services.
Stats suggest that when you target the right audience you will have a lead rate of 1 in 100; on average 1 company/person will contact you in 100 faxes sent. This equates to possible sales of your service to 200 new customers if 20,000 faxes were sent! For example your company offers ‘web design’ and the average price for your service is £1000 (average for 20 page static site) then you have a potential 200 new business leads equating to £200,000! It is cost effective and efficient marketing that often brings more custom than advertising in traditional media.
Although you will receive leads the downside is that a certain percentage of those receiving your fax may complain and a very small percentage will contact you and request that they receive no more or words to that effect!
There are many fax marketing companies on the Internet, only a few I would trust, one of which is
Overall fax marketing is an extremely cost effective and an efficient means of delivering your services to a niche target audience.
Visit the menu shop for menu covers, holders, stands, place mats, covers, blackboards
menu covers, menu holders, placemats, blackboards, menu stands, folders
The author is a keen carp fishing enthusiast who enjoys all things about carp baits including the design of many different carp fishing boilies such as layers, layered boilies, krill and Robin Red.
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