Deceptive Sales 101 (A great plug for Inbound marketing)

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Or why pretending to be someone’s Grandmother isn’t going to help you get that order.

My latest favorite term is Sales Prevention Officer… borrowed from Jonathan Farrington on the Eyes on Sales blog. Professional, effective sales processes are a combination of art and science. A great sales person is trained in acting, engineering, politics, relationship building and strategic planning.

The best salespeople understand personal improvement is a never ending process. They study constantly and follow a process or systematic approach. They invest for the long term. But some people feel the need to cheat the system. They seek a faster and less arduous path to making fast money rather than a long term process.

That is why I admire some of the “schemes” the Sales Prevention Officers invent. The lengths that some people will go- believing that there is a way to shortcut success- are incredible. And the latest one my wife received was a total deception that fizzled for one simple reason. But more about that in a minute.

If people make their buy decisions based on the “know, like and trust” factor (and this is an immutable law of sales) then how can anyone expect to circumvent one of these three tenants with false or misleading messages or tactics? Human behavior is largely predictable and a good understanding of how people’s preference of behavior affects their decision making process can be an invaluable tool in sales.

So if being deceptive, if trying to be clever to get an appointment or if using tricks to get in touch with a decision maker are a violation of trust why do people believe they are a faster track for quick success? Perhaps they think the general public are sheep?

Here is my wife’s story

A letter arrived in the mail last week. It looked odd to her so she gave it to me. It was a plain white No.10 envelope with no return address, using an ordinary stamp and addressed using a Courier font (like anyone still uses a typewriter today!)

Now the clever part… inside was a carefully folded newspaper article featuring a “story” relevant only to married woman. The newsprint was light and dry (ink on real newsprint takes days to fully dry which is why it easily rubs off on your fingers when you read your daily) and the left edge had a pretty realistic “tear” to it- but a little too consistent and straight a pattern to have been real. But all told, it was a terrific fabrication, a close facsimile of a real torn newspaper article at first glance.

Someone should get points for style and originality.

But when was the last time you read a three column by full height article in any newspaper? That is a lot of space! And the copy just screamed sales pitch, with separators speaking about one pain point after another. And of course it closed with the guaranteed solution, along with something else that was included for free. Buried in some very fine print at the end was an admission that the piece was actually an advertisement.

But what tied it all together was the yellow sticky-note at the top, immediately greeting you when you opened the envelope. In big blue handwriting it said “Sally, Thought you’d be interested, - K”.

It’s shown here in the image.

Nice! Make it appear to be from someone you know and maybe they’ll act on the offer, although the recipient has no clue who actually sent it to them. Ah! The root of the deception is complete.

But it fizzled with my wife, an incredibly intelligent and risk-averse individual who saw through the deception beginning with the envelope! Her behavioral preference immediately made her suspicious of the article, and was profoundly insulted that someone might pretend to be an acquaintance.

Nope. No way. No how. She was never going to act on this offer, even if it had been a good one (*it was not).

There is a better way

We have amazing information and data gathering resources available to us today.

• Consider  the inbound marketing tools we now have at our fingertips, systems that  allow us to easily build credibility in our product or services  and support it with automated lead generation (we use and recommend Hubspot)
• Look at all of the social media tools we have to research the decision makers in our target audience (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, along with aggregators like Nimble)
• Access to portals for content creation (E-Lance, Zerys)
• Grab hold of proven and relevant sales training processes (Sandler, TripleWin Sales)

With today’s sophisticated marketing environment no one who is serious about his/her craft should have to resort to deception or overpromising in order to be successful over the long term. And with  training and strategic management the odds are heavily weighted in our favor… and we must succeed because of all those who shortcut the process and make a bad name for everyone else!

Pay Per Click is Probably Not the Answer to Better Lead Generation

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For many a small business, especially those that rely on generating as many leads as possible online, pay per click is an easy answer, but it may not be the answer to your marketing dilemma. Your lead generation is what drives your business, and your marketing budget must yield as large an ROI as possible, which PPC can sometimes deliver quickly. Sure, people will tell you all of the great things about pay per click, (otherwise known as PPC) but PPC has some downsides that need to be understood as well.

When depending on your website to attract new clients and prospects to your business, there are a host of tools to consider. Pay Per Click is just one of them, yet many businesses have come to rely on PPC only to see diminishing returns in this form of advertising. You probably have heard about all the great things about PPC, but frankly, not all of it pertains to every business model; some models definitely work better with PPC than others.

Before we get into the negatives about pay per click, let’s discuss the advantages of PPC, because there are many. The problem is with the deployment of a PPC campaign to solve your marketing dilemmas is that there are often more negatives than positives. If you are new to this discussion, you’ll be wise to consider all sides in the use of this tactic.

Some Pay Per Click Advantages

• Targeted Traffic – PPC advertising is a tool that can target specific niche markets due to the design and placement of the ads. People clicking on your ads should have a pre-conceived interest in your product or service.
• Quick Results – PPC ads bring quick results, so if you are in need of a quick ramp up in leads, this is a great tool. Because it takes only a few hours to set up, your site can be receiving new traffic in no time. And if you are utilizing A/B testing to validate a marketing message or design PPC can help accelerate the results, make a choice faster and help minimize risks before rolling it out.
• Easy to Implement and Use – Once the ad is designed and contact is made with the search engine (be it Google, Bing, Yahoo or any other), you are off to the races.
• Controllable Costs – Because you will bid on the cost of your ads, you know in advance how much a particular campaign will cost. Your costs are only incurred when someone actually clicks on your ad. If no clicks, no expense.
• Ad Rankings – If your ad is popular and the click through rate is high, your ad can be on the first page of Google Search. Mind you, your site may still be on page 10, but your ad visibility can be on the first page.

At this point PPC must sound like a magic carpet ride to success. And for some businesses it might be. But very little is written about the downside of PPC, mainly because this tactic is so easy to get involved and doesn’t require a highly technical skill set. It is easy for someone to become very enchanted if good results are achieved quickly or one a first time campaign, leading to over-rely on this method of lead generation. In a sense they get lazy and don’t implement other useful tactics.

Here are some of the easily overlooked disadvantages of Pay Per Click, and why it may not be the answer to your marketing and lead generation strategies.

Some Pay Per Click Disadvantages

• Typically “Deal” Oriented – Some of the most successful PPC ads revolve around discount offers. If someone is looking for a “deal” on say, hotel reservations, then an ad on the first page of Google Search for hotel deals will display PPC ads offering such a service. If yours is one of them, great. However, if you are merely offering an opportunity to drive traffic, your PPC ad will not generate as much traffic as you might have hoped.
• Abuse & Fraudulent Clicks – This is a topic that receives far too little attention when speaking about Pay Per Click. A PPC ad costs you nothing until someone clicks on it, but you get charged against your budget even if no one leaves their email address. There are a lot of nefarious characters behaving badly on the Internet, and the PPC arena is a fiercely competitive landscape. Have you accidently clicked on an ad and regretted it? What if someone was actually seeking out your ads and clicking on them merely for the sake of exhausting your PPC budget? Do you think that can happen? Would you believe that there are companies willing to pay spies to burn through competitor’s PPC ads just for the sake of maliciously hurting them? It shouldn’t be assumed that online business is more honest than any other- abuse and fraud are competitive tools many businesses utilize. 
• Price Escalation – Like everything in business, there is a process that must be followed to attain top ranked keyword PPC ad costs. The top keywords are used to price ad placement and therefore cost is based on this and other factors. If your ad is bid at a price and performs well, the next purchase you make will more than likely require a higher rate than before. 
• Diminishing Law of Returns – When the PPC ad is fresh, your click through rate will be much higher than after it has been visible for a length of time. Naturally, the return on such an ad will diminish, especially when you consider the price inflation you will experience when you re-negotiate another campaign contract. Adding additional keywords to the campaign will drive up the individual click cost, but may not generate any increase in leads. Costs rise, return falls; one of the greatest laws of business.
• Competitive Bidding Wars - The search engines are in the business of making large profits, and it has to come from somewhere. The bidding process drives the price per click, and the two highest bidders will share the spotlight, whereas the lower bids will pick up the lesser performing placements. PPC ads can cost as little as a few cents to $50 per click. The old adage “It costs money to make money” remains as true in Pay Per Click as anywhere else. But keep an eye on the trends, as your budget will only go so far.
• Ads Go Stale Quickly – If you plan on using PPC as the primary driver of leads to your site, you will need to spend a great deal of time refreshing your ads. Once viewed by the public, they quite literally become invisible in short time. To be in the pursuit of targeted leads, you must have fresh appeal to draw the attention away from the fierce competition PPC creates.
• Requires Micro-Management – Based on everything mentioned here, you probably have already deduced that PPC marketing requires a great deal of management time. If you have the resources to utilize PPC as your primary marketing lead generation vehicle, you had better have sufficient financial resources to manage the great many tasks in oversight of the program. Constant ad refreshment, placement contracts, pricing wars, and a plethora of other management duties involved with driving the leads through nothing but Pay Per Click.
• Only a Short-Term Strategy – When marketing online, PPC is a great tool to gain visibility, grow some leads quickly, and is a means that controls your budget expenditure by each campaign. You will know what it will cost at the onset, regardless of how long (or quickly) it takes to exhaust your pre-paid arrangement. Pay Per Click advertising is piece of a strategic marketing plan that any company should utilize, but it should not be looked at as the panacea. PPC while a part of the plan, is not a long-term strategy. PPC costs can be turned on and off as leads are needed, but to generate a constant flow of leads, there are other alternatives that are less costly in both time and money.

Conclusion

Pay Per Click is another method of advertising and when used tactically can be a good addition to a marketing plan, but it is just that- a subset of the overall plan. It is a terrific way to accelerate test results but when expanded beyond short term, tactal use can require significant time and financial assets.

At Zen Marketing, we will provide a no-cost assessment of your current web marketing and advertising strategies, and highlight where you may want to adjust or tweak it. Visit our website to discover new ways to drive and manage lead generation using the web.

Facebook Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

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Even if you don't use it you already know Facebook is one of the most powerful social network platforms. You have probably come to realize that it’s not just for teenagers and socialites, but also for the small private business as well. Why? Because Facebook gives every business owner  an effective and affordable marketing tool. But we will agree to one thing: Facebook marketing can be intimidating.

When it comes to marketing your small business, social media should be part of your game plan. If you do not yet have a Facebook page for your business, stop what you are doing and call a marketing agency! Okay, it's so simple you really can do it yourself and in under half an hour but the point is DO IT!

Once you have your Facebook page up and ready to go, you will need to know how to use it to increase brand recognition, customer response and user activity. Here are a few simple first steps:

The first thing you will need to do is to gain followers, or friends, for your page. You can do this by promoting your Facebook page via email marketing or in your physical location. Create a special offer (perhaps a percentage off the customer's next purchase) if they sign up to be your friend on Facebook and remind them of that while they are at your location doing business. Restaurants can use tent cards on the tables. Retail stores can have signs at the registers. Place the special offer on all of your print advertising.

Once you have your first few followers, you can begin your first Facebook marketing campaign.

Posting the occasional discount or reminder to come into your store is not enough and will quickly put your audience to sleep. You will need to engage clients and share posts that are worthy of re-sharing. For example, if your business is a car wash, you might want to post a cartoon about how much pollen is in the air and then remind folks that it's time to wash their car.

And use photos! It has been proven that readers react significantly greater to image-driven posts, a major difference between Facebook and Twitter. Photo's in posts draw more attention. And phot's can elicit a humorous response!

A tip about pictures: crop them. Facebook shows tiny versions of pictures so you need to focus on the most important area.

Getting your readers engaged in answering questions on your Facebook page is another way to have them become more involved in sharing your business with others. For instance, you could ask a question such as, "What is your favorite car wash memory from childhood?" Readers love to share nostalgic answers to questions such as these and every time they post an answer, it not only shows up on your Facebook page, but it also shows up on theirs. Then, their friends can see the question and response as well and you have just introduced your brand to an entirely new set of potential clients.

Use the Facebook search feature for the keywords that relate to your business. The search for car washes in central NJ delivered someone looking for an affordable auto detailer and someone just back from Florida looking to get the bucks off the front of her car.

Think your car wash can help? Tell them you can! And now you are a solution provider instead of just an advertiser! :-)

Here are a few things to keep in mind regarding posts:

• You can write about any current event that is related to your industry or brand.
• If you find any fun or interesting video (hosted on Vimeo or YouTube) that is related to your brand or procuct/service, share it on your page.
• Encourage your audience to post pictures, stories, or questions that relate to your industry.
• From whatever the fans post, repost the content that you find the most interesting and credit that audience member.

When it comes to marketing your small business on Facebook, remember to be engaging and fun. If you only post boring business posts, your readers will not share them, nor will they be impressed. Keep it light and social and success will follow.

After all, it is called social media for a reason!

The Cold Calling Conundrum

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While the world has “gone digital,” cold calling is out of date to say the least. However, there are cold calling statistics that make me wonder; well sort of; it’s a bit of a conundrum actually.

In the past I posted articles relating to the cold calling marketing strategy. One article alluded to the fact that cold calling has definitely had its day; another stated that the marketing shift caused by technology has left even the best cold calling sales people wanting, and another still that bashed the “training systems” still being marketed on the net.

In my training workshops, I speak to professionals and discuss cold calling and their reluctance, if not abhorrence of the concept, you can read more here.

There are competing sides to the story, so to speak.

I have found that most traditional sales managers cling to cold calling, despite its decline, for the frank reason that it’s all they have ever known. When they were the sales person, they were forced to cold call, and eventually got good enough to be promoted to sales manager. I spoke about so-called training systems that are still to be found online in an article last year, which can be found in the blog archives.

Today’s consumer has all of the disruptive marketing shields; caller id, voicemail, Tivo or the DVR, Serius Radio, ad free digital news media. I wrote about this before. Every person I know hates telemarketing pitchmen. You as an executive shield yourself from unsolicited calls too. Knowing all that, why do business owners still choose to use cold calling despite all of the negatives associated with it?

The truly candid rationale I come up with is “I don’t have to learn any new strategies or tactics to get what I am after.” It’s true, inbound marketing takes time and a bit of education. Sure you will need to know how to effectively create email marketing campaigns, online lead generation and nurturing and a host of other methodologies. It is also true that cold calling is the most challenging of marketing tactics, and very few are actually good at it; that is why the stats are what they are; a whole lot of efforts for 1-3% return at best.

In the Zen Blog Archive, there are a host of articles regarding inbound marketing, and the proven fact that it costs less than traditional marketing by as much as 60%. The fact that inbound marketing is growing at such a drastic rate is because it works. But you decide.

Here are the pros and cons I was able to come up with to attempt to offer both sides of what I see is an issue facing a lot of businesses, especially this close to tax season.

PRO
On one side of the debate as to its worthiness, cold calling is a revered, yet out-dated sales generation methodology. The Direct Marketing Association study in June, 2010, noted an average of their constituents yielded a 6.1 customer to cold call ratio. With the nation’s average shrinking annually from the 1-3% average return, this is surprising. Remember though, these are a minimum of two year old statistics.

CON
The other side on this cold calling issue, which comes to us from Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina:

Cold Calling Is Dead- "Over 80% of decision makers absolutely will not buy from a cold call."

PRO
May 2011 – B2B Marketing Zone – More than 70% of all US employees are not engaged, so it is important to keep inbound sales people active through innovative games, contests and ongoing training. This article earned 7 Tweets

CON
On the same page of the B2B blog report, a Hubspot article stating, “So, why do we take our expensive salespeople and insist they must be good at "cold-calling" when the buyer doesn't want anything to do with this?”
Jan 2011 – This article earned 299 Tweets

PRO
The afore mentioned Houston Chronicle article, written by Miranda Brookins of Demand Media gives a complete explanation of cold calling, how it is done, and boasts the statistics from sources in favor of it.

CON
That same article was sponsored by an online public relations firm. Additionally, when looking up exactly what Demand Media does, the very first words on their site are “At Demand Media, we live up to our name by first listening to what our more than one hundred million monthly visitors want and then delivering the content and rich online experiences they crave.” You discern the true meaning of all this.

QUESTIONS

• Now if it is true that more than 80% of company executives want nothing to do with a cold call, why would they invest valuable resources using a method they despise? 
• When was the last time you accepted an unsolicited phone call from a stranger?
• If the national average success rate for cold calling is between 1.3 and 3%, the Direct Marketing Association claims their members (who happen to be the best trained cold callers in the world) reach 6.1%, what can you expect in terms of results?
• What amount of resources are you willing to invest for your expected return?

In the past I have done a pretty good job of bashing cold calling, but the aforementioned facts and suppositions speak otherwise to a degree. It is up to the individual executive to determine the marketing path they will pursue. Cold calling may have one time been the preferred choice of marketing tactics, but is it in this digital world today?

Strategic Marketing Crucial During Stagnant Economies for CPA's

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Regardless of this time of year, the current economic storm we find ourselves in does not seem to be relinquishing its grip on the market. It is tax time, and everyone in the financial services field is busy taking care of clients. Let us not forget the importance of the client; we need them now more than ever.

Even though the last two quarters of 2012 began to push busineswees a bit more towards recovery, we know now that this was a little spark not a substantial blaze. Our economy has been trying to maintain a growth curve, with a few areas of the country actually sliding back toward the abyss the U.S. economy barely avoided. As a person that handles their tax returns, it isn’t just about that; you must provide leadership and integrity as well.

When looking at the CFNAI (Chicago Federal National Activity Index), things don’t appear to be all that rosy.

The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity. It is constructed to have an average value of zero and a standard deviation of one. Since economic activity tends toward trend growth rate over time, a positive index reading corresponds to growth above trend and a negative index reading corresponds to growth below trend.

What does this mean when it comes to growing your business? Quite a lot actually. This is a great time to market; tax season is at full speed, but this likely won’t last. The realization that the market is rather soft presents everyone with a need to strengthen and reinforce relationships with current and past customers. Connect with your most influential customers, those that you haven’t seen in a while and those new prospects as well. Offer them some specialized services that you don’t presently advertise, and push hard toward cementing a deeper relationship through their use. Make the services highly innovative, strategic and oriented toward the customer with value in mind. Doing so will not only strengthen your current customer base, but should be setting up for a referral program. Ask for referrals once you have improved loyalty and retention; you’d be surprised at the outcome.

The most effectiove referral methods of marketing are rooted in loyalty, perceived value and integrity. If you win all three from your clients, you can win the battle for sustainability. Insuring that your marketing includes your existing customer base as well as former and new clientele, and providing excellent services while "touting" (a marketing term, by the way)  your appreciation of them, you can begin to grow organically by working with the best clients instead of always on the hunt for new clients. The new clients that join your firm will be excited with the new relationship at first, so keep the excitement going. Through innovative and value added services that are new and unique (setting you apart from your competitors), your new customers will happily provide referrals once they trust, rely on and admire your company.

Most professionally designed websites for financial services firms offer some capabilities that other industries don’t. In a previous posting we spoke of the client portals as a noteworthy service offering, include appointment setting functions and reminder systems for clients to access themselves. Another value added feature might be an auto-updated news feed from the markets, as well as other financial information. By communicating with your clientele the importance of timely information, security of data transfer and how a diminished economy affects asset planning, succession planning and the like.

As a CPA firm or other financial services organization, it isn’t always about money. Certainly cash flow management and asset protection is important, but in an uncertain economy with which we currently face, the trust factor is paramount. By enhancing your trust factor with your clients and providing new, innovative services that make your relationship more valuable, you can sustain your firm and the protection of your client’s relationship with you. Displaying a strong sense of leadership will help cement your relationship, but more so it will provide the necessary hope and someone to lean on to handle the stresses of the marketplace. If you are a firm that assists in the management of stock portfolios, your clients are under a tremendous amount of stress that ebbs and flows several times a day. Providing that solid leadership is the buoy they are looking for.

Getting out into the local community and offering tax planning sessions is another great way to generate new leads, and can allow you to be seen as an expert in your field. Plus it is a natural extension for blogging. It is an automatic assumption that when a speaker is presenting their expertise, they are the local expert in their field. Unless you blow it, your audience will respect your opinions and automatically buy-in to of what you speak. With appropriate information and a lead follow up system in place, you might find some new clients you didn’t know existed.

Leadership, specialized and innovative services and a strong dose of hope delivered to your client and prospect bases will sustain you through this difficult time.

If you are unsure of how to begin a strategy into the uncharted part of the market, a call to Zen Marketing Inc. can provide the necessary analysis, review and tactical discussions to get you on your way.

Reverse Cold-Calling, or How to Lose a Customer in 10 Seconds or Less

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We know it as Cold Calling 2.0 (in our office we refer to it as interruptive sales) but there is a tactic in telemarketing and phone sales that is guaranteed NOT win the hearts and minds of your potential customers. Don’t know to what I am referring? Reverse – cold calling is the act of trickery in getting someone to phone you. Here’s an example:

“Hello, is Mr. Jones in?” “Will you please leave him a very urgent message about a significant purchase we would like to make?”

Obviously, when Mr. Jones returns to his office and is told by his secretary that a very important call may mean a big sale. Of course Mr. Jones will call you back immediately. In this tumultuous economy, every chance at a sale is a big deal.

“Mr. Jones, thank you for calling me back. I really don’t need to purchase anything from you; I just wanted you to hear me out, blah, blah, blah.”

Can you hear the irritation in Mr. Jones’ voice? The angry breathing? The sudden slam of the receiver hitting the base of the phone? Without a doubt, that is the last time you will ever hear his voice again, unless you face him in court.

There are a lot of ways to trick someone into calling you back, or, even better, to ask for a fraudulent name you know won’t work, and when the response is that there is no person by that name; you ask for the person that does. This manipulation is the types of “cons” that have been used by swindlers and “magic beans” sales people have used for centuries, only now it can be performed on the telephone or the internet.

There are business owners trying reverse cold calling every day in this country, and the chances of this working are even less than actual cold calling itself. Cold calling 2.0, or what ever you wish to call it is not only unethical, it borders on fraudulently conducting a business enterprise, which by the way is illegal. Wikipedia doesn’t even have a definition for either of these “new and improved” methods of telemarketing.

It has been my experience that this type of deception is typically used when sales people are pressured for a certain number of call backs or appointments set; results only responses. These people are “smilin’ and dialin’” as quickly as they possibly can, so any technique can be rationalized and a perfectly acceptable business practice in their minds.

I sincerely hope my readers do not participate in these sorts of shenanigans, and I’ll leave it at that. There are other ways of growing your customer base without the need to stoop as low as trickery and manipulation.

The Art of Persuasion……Building a Relationship

The best sales people, or the folks responsible for sales are best served using the age old art of persuasion: Win Friends and Influence People. Despite the methodology of marketing; traditional or digital, the highest success will come to those that practice ethical, customer centric relationship building tactics.

The economic storm we continue to live within shows little signs of recovery, and therefore every penny a company invests in growing their enterprise must produce ROI in one form or other. Telephone sales no longer works, unless the prospect is calling you from some other form of marketing has captured your attention. It should never be the result of some form of trickery or deception.

Your marketing efforts to generate leads may comprise of a variety of “offline” methods, which is fine if they’re ethical. They can be augmented with online “inbound marketing’ strategies, which are performed via the internet and email. It may be in the form of a blog, or series of articles, eBooks, White Papers or other digital products. These content pieces should be designed to impart sincere, relationship building information that will help people. That is the way marketing is performed today. The slash and burn methods of the past are no longer effective.

Here at Zen Marketing we utilize relationship building as our foundation for all things marketing. As an inbound marketing agency, it is our job to not only develop comprehensive marketing plans, but in many cases, implement them as well. Some of our clients use us for everything, while others perform much of it themselves, and we fill in the gaps with which they are not comfortable with, or lack the resources to fulfill the task at hand.

I have mentioned this in the past, but it bears repeating. At Zen Marketing, we offer a no obligation marketing analysis of your present marketing methodologies, and offer you a solution based strategy to help you make an informed decision on how to proceed. While inbound marketing may rival traditional marketing methods in termns of investment, it offers measurability and processes that might replace everything you are presently doing. Traditional and inbound marketing integrate cohesively to increase your leads, improving your chances for sustainability and growth.

Give us a call to find out more.

Does Your Marketing Strategy Include Data?

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Professional services firms (PSF’s) rely on many things to accomplish their revenue goals, and marketing strategy certainly plays a big part. But do CPA’s, Lawyers, Architects and other PSF’s incorporate data into their marketing efforts? Whether traditional advertising methodologies or the use of digital, inbound marketing, or even a combination of the two, the data collected from the marketing activities should drive your marketing strategy. Data-driven content marketing (also called inbound and/or digital) can change the entire outcome, especially when it is automated.

There is no denying that CPA’s and accountants are involved with numerical data all day long; how much of it is intended for their marketing efforts? Not as near as much as it could or should be. Architects and structural engineers work with several forms of data, but their marketing efforts probably don’t reflect the use of data-driven marketing. Professional services firms, like any other businesses, use various marketing tactics to generate leads and drive revenues. PSF’s on a global basis are well behind other business sectors in the use of content marketing, but little is known as to why? Marketing data or what may be referred to as “open-rates, click-throughs, pay per click or other numerical equations to judge a marketing tactic successful or a failure is now necessary for improved results. These types of data offer less than a clear picture of the “ideal prospect” and may be ambiguous at best.

The proper use of data-content identifies the behaviors of the responders’ demographics and psychographics allows us to better tailor our message and “relate” more to our audiences. No longer do we have to rely on “cold calling” tactics, or outdated direct mail (although there seems to be a rise in certain print advertising lately) as we can position ourselves in closer alignment with those whom we wish to serve. PSF’s are not utilizing data for its best purposes, however.

Whether your firm operates in the B2B realm or B2C arena, the use of data-driven lead generation is equally effective. It is the correct data and the understanding of the story it tells that will better direct the potential customer’s focus. You can then reach the center of the audience, where the chances for success are their greatest. With the current state of the economy, this makes tremendous sense, as every dollar spent must result in a positive return on investment. It is time to put the “marketing shotgun” down and start using a “marketing rifle,” through automated, data-driven marketing.

Ask Yourself These Questions

• Do your current marketing efforts tell you in what content your prospects are interested?
• Can you discern which is more relevant to your ideal prospect; blog articles, print advertising, direct mail, email blasts?
• If you answered yes, what style of any of the aforementioned works best within that segment?
• What page(s) on your website attract the most visitors?
• What percentages of response to you receive from every type of marketing effort?
• How many viewed the free content download versus how many actually downloaded?
• Who opened the email and who didn’t, separated by which sample of email to which they responded?
• What works – and to what degree?
• Can you tell the difference between a successful campaign and a loser, and why?

These are merely samples of data collection that goes into today’s marketing. It is all about analysis of the information, and understanding what actions must be necessary for the tactic to be tweaked, increased or eliminated.

Marketing Automation Software (MAS) is the tool that can reveal the necessary data to better home in on your ideal prospect. Trial and error is a mindset that is a thing of the past. Marketing communications of any sort must be dissected, analyzed and reviewed over time to understand what works and what doesn’t, offering insights into what style of communications your target audience finds most appealing. Is it emails, blogs, tweets or webinars/webcasts that they resonate with? Utilizing a well-rounded marketing approach will generate a clear view of which direction your marketing should take.

Gain Lead Insight Through Data

The message which you send out must no longer be about your product or services features and benefits, the function or perceived value. It must relate to what the audience is looking for, and is fully dependent upon the buyer’s persona (purchasing manager, chief decision maker, 2nd level scout) as well as the phase they might be in; awareness, considering, justifying the purchase, or ready to purchase now. An analysis of the data in its granular form will reveal all of that information through the use of the marketing automated software. It is known in the industry as “digital body language” and fully understanding is a skill in its own right.

Once the “suspect” converts to a prospect or “lead,” the sales funnel has many levels, all requiring a different type of information share. Early leads may need nurturing just to stay in the sales process, and other early leads may rush through to the final stage of the sales funnel. Those somewhere in the middle of the sales funnel will require a different type of content to help them move toward the goal of selling them. Data analysis helps understand where leads are in the process, and knowing what type of content or messaging they are seeking will allow them to grow their relationship with your firm, and whether or not they will eventually become “buyer ready.” It makes little sense for your sales department to go after leads that are not ready to make a buying decision, and is more or less a waste of their time. Sales should be ready for the handoff from marketing at the right time to maximize ROI, and minimize lead fallout.

Lead segmentation is part of the process, and is an invaluable step in crafting the exact type of message your content needs to foster growth within your market. By understanding where in the sales process your leads are, you are better armed to focus relevant messages pertinent to that level. You would not produce buyer-ready content if your qualified lead was merely in the awareness stage. On the same note, those in the justification stage will require some content that reinforces their position in the sales funnel, and nurtures them to continue on the path to sales. Such is the value of lead segmentation. By understanding each email that is opened, each registration, every web page visitation, each social media referral all tells you what you need to do to move your target leads through to the “buyer ready” stage with the right content at the right time.

Learning to read the data takes time, but through the use of a marketing agency for such purposes makes the transition from “do-it-for-me to “do-it-yourself.” It makes little sense to jump off the high dive into the shallow end of the pool. A professional marketing agency such as Zen Marketing Inc. can assist with the marketing review, design and creation of content to eventually master your own skill set.

Lead Scoring Eliminates Guesswork

Marketing automation software is an invaluable resource for crafting data-driven marketing content (full disclosure: we use and recommend Hubspot). Through the ability to understand exactly where each lead is in the buying process, it makes delivery of pertinent information easy, taking the guesswork out of the work. By optimizing the communication cycle, your targets get the right message at the right time, improving the closing process dramatically. It becomes the rifle method rather than the shotgun approach to marketing.

We at Zen Marketing Inc. can supply a no cost review of your current marketing efforts, and provide the insight necessary to make an informed decision as to the need for an automated marketing software approach to business.

Lead Your Competition with Content Marketing

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We have covered the value of creating content marketing to allow prospects to find your website (and find you!) for quite a while now.  One way to lead your competition and establish yourself as an industry expert is by creating engaging content in a variety of media.  You not only bring valuable attention to your brand, but also gain recognition as you rise above the competition.

Content marketing is not really all that new.  Neither is the concept of being a market or industry leader.  Leading your competition may not be your goal, but driving new business should be.  Content marketing IS the way today to build credibility and drive new business creation.

Actually, content marketing gets its humble beginning by way of the earliest of human beings; telling stories around a campfire to get a point across.  Storytelling is the way people relate information to themselves, remember important things and develop deeper relationships with those telling the tales.  Content marketing is the same, except for the age of storytelling, and the delivery.

Companies across the globe are taking content marketing seriously, and the concept is gaining worldwide traction. Don’t take my word for it, take a look at reports featured on the Internet from CMI, the Content Marketing Institute. Their recent report on Business to Business (B2B) marketers states that more than 90 percent of them are invested and utilizing content marketing to drive their brands and draw prospective clientele.  Also, when it comes to content, more than 86 percent of Business to Customer (B2C) share the same enthusiasm for the practice of providing engaging content to drive leads and their brands. 

If that doesn’t convince you check out MarketingProfs, another industry leading organization, wherein their recent reporting reflects similar data.  Additionally, these reports indicate that more than fifty-four percent of each type of marketing focus expects to increase spending next year.  

Leading your competition will take some doing, but if you never start, you will never know if and how it works.  Here are three tips to seriously consider.

      Lead the Field – CEO’s must become the champions for change.  If your company is not currently utilizing content marketing as the primary marketing strategy, yet you have a website, you are missing the boat.  Change is difficult under any banner, from redirecting a team project or changing the way your business operates.  Big or small, change is tough, but in this world, change is the only constant in business. Simply put it is grow or die.

      Candidly speaking, professional service firms such as lawyers, accountants and CPA’s, the medical profession and others are not known for their poetic prose or compelling storytelling.  In fact, these professions are filled with industry jargon, or even the use of Latin to avoid the average person from understanding them. Doctors and lawyers have very specific language that sets themselves apart from the rest of the world, and that is just fine for conducting business.  If you are using the same terms in your marketing, it is no wonder why most do not have much success with lead generation from the public.  If people cannot understand what it is you are saying, how can they develop a relationship with you?

      Content marketing is only picking up speed, and the technologies to provide multi-media content is growing by the day.  If your competition is not on the cutting edge along with you, why not get out ahead of them.  After all, articulating what makes your firm different and stands out from the crowd is how we succeed.

      Tell Great Stories - Put a team of content experts together from your internal staff.  If you don’t know marketing, you had better learn.  Marketing is everyone’s job, from the front desk attendant to the CEO.  Your customer service area is a great place to start, due to its natural interaction with your customer base.

What are some of the comments and stories they hear that can be used as a basis for a victory over a problem they faced that only your business made successful?

How did someone on the staff go out of their way to make the customer happy?  An interesting bit of history about the early days of FedEx reflects just a tale, as made legendary by Tom Peters:  FedEx and the Helicopter

It seems a blizzard in the California Sierras took the telephone lines down, leaving the local FedEx office without phone service -- or any way of connecting with customers.

So a junior FedEx staffer decided to rent a helicopter to fix the problem. Without asking permission from his managers, he put the helicopter on his personal American Express card and instructed the pilot to fly to the top of the mountain where the failed equipment was located. There, the employee jumped onto the snow-covered mountaintop, trudged three-quarters of a mile in chest-deep snow and fixed the line to get FedEx back in business. An excerpt from: HOW YOU CAN UNLEASH THE POWER OF STORYTELLING by Ann Wylie

FedEx was perhaps one of the earliest corporations to utilize storytelling as a way to grow their brand and gain new customers.  They have become famous, and infamous for their ability to take customer or company actions that affected customers and turn it into compelling, engaging content.  Every business across the globe has these type of stories to share, they must unearth them and begin to use them for the sake of marketing.

Evaluate, Analyze, Rinse and Repeat – In order to know what affect your content is making on your business, it is critical to develop a set of metrics and evaluate routinely.  By analyzing your content inventory by type (video, white papers, multi-media, articles, blog posts, etc) or topic (customer success story, improvements to make people’s lives better etc), you will understand what aspects of the individual pieces have on your business marketing.  Does your audience prefer articles to multi-media?  Do particular topics resonate better than do others?

Doing so will not only keep you abreast of your marketing efforts, it can lead to re-developing existing content into a different or expanded version in another medium.  Perhaps you have a series of articles from six months ago that can easily be updated and converted into a white paper or eBook.

If all of this sounds overwhelming and too much to consider, you may be right.  What you have to do is evaluate the above and then evaluate your goals and your competition.  Is this going to get you where you want to be financially, and will this separate you from your competitors, only you can answer those questions.

The team at Zen Marketing has the expertise, the talent and the tools to conduct a marketing assessment, develop an affordable plan and set you on your way to leading the field.  Or, if you do not have the time to invest, we serve as the outsourced marketing department for a number of clients.  Feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience and insure 2013 will be your best year ever.

2012 ROI – Marketing Goals: Fact or Fiction?

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“Setting goals is a normal part of business, and what is achieved from the marketing department is a critical part of that equation.   Almost every small business sets goals for the week, month and/or year, but few actually measure their efforts against their results. Why is that?  I cannot answer this question.”

This past year was challenging for many small and medium sized businesses (SMB’s), and not a single industry was immune to the increased challenge.  If your business fell into the red ink chasm yet is still afloat, isn’t it time to consider a change in your strategies?  Or for most SMB’s, isn’t it time to develop a more strategic approach in the first place?

There is a saying about the definition of insanity: doing the same thing repetitively and expecting different results.  I do not intend to be rude, but merely attempting to point out a poignant bit of information.  Sometimes we know what is true, but delude ourselves into believing otherwise, that we are actually innovative, that we are actually managing our businesses, or because once upon a time we were successful we will be again.

There is a funny thing about truth that my grandfather taught me as a boy.  “If the truth hurts, it is supposed to.”  If you didn’t set goals last year and prayed for a positive result, you have no one to blame but yourself for what you achieved; again, I mean no disrespect.

A set of written goals and an action plan to fulfill them is better business management 101.  If 2012 wasn’t very good, shouldn’t you do everything you can in 2013 to better your business?  If you didn’t have written goals and a firm grasp of marketing, frankly speaking, your business is managing you and not the reverse.  One of the best things you can do is to evaluate your marketing strategies and tactics from last year and comprise a marketing plan that you can actually manage.

Or retain the services of a professional marketing firm to help you craft a plan that supports you goals and fits your budget.

Of course we would like you to consult us! Zen Marketing Inc. has built a niche with small to medium sized clients in many industries, but there are many good agencies locally you might retain.  We know we are not the only game in town, but we do help businesses achieve sustainability and growth as a matter of course. But enough about us…

Here are some pertinent questions to ask yourself about last year’s marketing:

• Did you have written goals and a marketing strategy?
• What worked?
• What didn’t work?
• What was your total marketing investment?
• How do you measure your tactical results?
• What is your Return on your Marketing Investment?

For some of my readers these are scary questions, while my clients have a complete, positive perspective to these queries.  While every person that contacted our marketing agency last year didn’t become clients, the advice they received improved their business and their outlook on a formal marketing plan.

The Year Ahead

If you have yet to formalize a marketing plan for 2013, consider these facts before you get too far along.

• By the end of 2011, 50% of Americans will own a smartphone (2012 was well beyond that statistic. 
• 86% of C-level executives use a smartphone.
• Did you know that 93% of US adult internet users are on Facebook? Unless you only sell to that laggy little 7% of all internet users, think again!
•  79% of US Twitter users are more likely to recommend the brands that they follow.
• February 11, 2026 GOOGLE introduced PANDA which successfully filtered out low quality websites- perhaps yours? When did you last have a website assessment?

And don’t forget, the email list of which most SMB’s place such a high regard.…all email databases expire at a rate of 25% per year!  Have you considered this as you develop your plans?

Your first priority is a measurable set of goals, with a clearly understandable method of measurement.  In the trade we refer to this as marketing analytics.  Unless you know what is working in “real time” you cannot adjust as needed.

This isn’t a once-and-done process, so know that it takes concerted effort.  Your dedication to your plan will enable you to maintain a sharp focus on what you expect and what you are achieving, with ample time to adjust before you get into trouble.

As mentioned earlier, you should strongly consider contacting a competent marketing professional (Zen Marketing or another reputable agency) to truly grasp the efficacy of your tactics from last year, and what you intend to accomplish in 2013.  You will need to learn to cross market, social network marketing, how to create a measurable marketing plan, understand the critical need to have your website mobile optimized, and the integration of marketing and the sales functions for sustainable results. If your website has not been updated in the past two years, you sorely need an upgrade.   Social media and mobile are beginning to dominate marketing importance. 

Email marketing campaigns are not as difficult as you might imagine and there are ways to automate the process.  A professional marketing agent can help with an inbox full of marketing tactics to help you grow and prosper. 

As you can see, without measurable ROI for marketing, it is nothing less than the business managing you, and not you managing your business.  We like to call that “Asleep at the Wheel.”  I sincerely hope those reading these articles are not offended with these truths, but like my grandfather said………

Here’s to better marketing!

Footnote: While every person that contacted our marketing agency last year didn’t become clients, the advice they received improved their business and their outlook on a formal marketing plan. Perhaps we should talk?

Top Three Great Reasons to Hire an Inbound Marketing Agency

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While there is a plethora (love using that word!) of good reasons to utilize the services of an inbound marketing firm, it is our belief that they all boil down to the three most important, as outlined below. We at Zen Marketing Inc., a fully digital inbound marketing agency believe that we can build your business using the latest methodologies and tactics.

Over the past five years Harvard Business Review (aka HBR) studied how patterns of business has changed to the point that instead of solution sales professionals pushing products and services, companies are already 60% involved in the acquisition process for the needs of their particular business processes or concerns. It is in that light that the conversion from push advertising to pull methods grows businesses today. Zen Marketing Inc. is a boutique marketing agency that helps businesses “get found affordably.”

Rather than attempt to conquer the Internet alone, we suggest the following considerations why you should consider working with us.

Broader Perspective – This is what we do for a living. Our staff of professionals works with a variety of industries utilizing inbound marketing strategies and tactics on a daily basis. We have in-depth knowledge of the constantly changing marketing landscape, and how to best utilize best practices of the marketing opportunities available today.

• Your Team is Already Working Full-time( or more) – With budgets under constant scrutiny and margins shrinking, do you have the necessary staffing to conduct an effective marketing program? Your team is working at capacity, and if not, you have already initiated steps to get the most out of available resources. Through the use of a dedicated marketing team, you can let your staff do what they do best, and leave the lead generation to the professionals.
• Certified Marketing Executives – At Zen Marketing, we only hire certified inbound marketing executives, from web developers and copywriters to graphic artisans and beyond. Our in-house and external teams provide on-time and on-budget performance on which you can count.
• Access to Industry Specific Marketing Data – Today’s marketing information is growing at a pace that few can keep up with, but a Zen Marketing, our research team is on the job to not only understand what works, but knows where to find the answers to complex marketing challenges.

Availability of Quality Content – Content is the core of the inbound marketing process, and at Zen Marketing, we have a dedicated staff of copywriters that are unmatched in the industry. Our writers craft compelling and engaging content full-time, and when we have everyone generating content for our clientele, we have a bank of content writers of more than 2000 certified copywriters. There is no shortage of compelling content crafts persons at Zen Marketing.

• Generates More Leads – It is a proven method of generating more leads than your present marketing efforts. Our strategies work because we utilize the most up to date methodologies. Content creation, repurposing, curation and multiplicity of use, specifically targeted to your buyer personas will build your leads quickly and effectively. White Papers, eBooks, Videos, Webinars, Special Reports, Articles and Blog Entries, all supporting a comprehensive content strategy, as well as well-crafted email marketing campaigns will boost your lead generation activity beyond present production standards.
• Landing Pages for Calls to Action – Through the use of Calls to Action landing pages, our content marketing strategies will not only improve your brand positioning, your lead generation efforts too will quickly pay off. By capturing leads at the point of content review, you can invest more time in lead nurturing and sales preparation than ever before.

More Robust ROI – Business is about dollars and cents, so it makes good sense to maximize revenues while minimizing overhead and expense. Through the use of an inbound marketing strategy, your return on investment will improve dramatically.

• Less Expensive - It has been quantified by industry leaders that inbound marketing is 62% less expensive than traditional marketing efforts. Digital marketing is far less expensive than print, television or other mediums. By hiring an inbound marketing firm like Zen Marketing Inc., you control the budget. We will craft a comprehensive marketing campaign designed around your goals and budget constraints. As an external agency, you avoid all of the health and welfare costs typically encountered with employees. 
• Better SEO – Search engine optimization has become a complex process since Google decided to change their algorithms. Companies that once held front page positioning on the search results have fallen into obscurity overnight as a result. Yesterday’s SEO is sorely outdated and no longer effective. It is imperative that the responsible party be Internet and Search Engine savvy to produce the proper results. As such experts, our team specializes in companies “getting found.”
• Marketing Tools – With inbound marketing solutions such as HubSpot software, lead generation and brand positioning is easy. As a Certified HubSpot Partner, we are fully knowledgeable in all of its uses, from landing pages and social media interactivity to deep analytics and reporting, so you know what is working and what isn’t. There are a number of ways to take advantage of HubSpot’s capabilities, from Do it Yourself (DIY) to Shared Participation, to Do it For Me (DIFM). A no obligation review of your current marketing efforts to a custom designed program is available at the asking.
• Integrated Marketing Efforts – We utilize the latest in solutions that are fully integrated into the marketing software. Everything from email campaign solutions to tracking and reporting software, your marketing can be automated and streamlined to perform with little oversight.

How about Zen Marketing? We enjoy working with clients in the architectural, finance, accounting financial services sectors, and many others... but we aren't working with you? Why not? Feel free to inquire as to how we might serve you by contacting us today.