Marketing Program Development
22 June 2009
Modern marketing points prospects to the Web. You can use your website to automate your marketing, sales, and delivery processes. Then use all other marketing activities (direct mail, tradeshows, etc., to drive people to your website.Every business is different, so don’t get lost in the generalities on this page. SolutionPipe can design a marketing program that fits your business. Below are a few of the basic steps:
1. Design to the end goal and choose a good end goal. If your marketing goal is to lower the cost per lead, then your program is short sighted. Leads are great, but they are not the end goal. Sales should always be your end goal. Many marketers avoid tracking from campaign to purchase, because it is difficult. Okay, we agree it is difficult, but not impossible.
The most common barrier that stops a marketing group from tracking through to the sale is habit. Offline marketing (direct mail, advertising, events) is notoriously difficult to track, so for years, marketers have avoided it. Today, however, most online marketing activities can be tracked with relative ease. Simply put a tracking code on your activity (web form, email campaign, SEO pages, etc.) and pass it through to the store or form. Once you have the person’s contact information, keep the tracking code with the record. In fact, keep multiple codes if you can.
When you analyze your sales for the month, run the tracking codes and create a report about which activity contributed to the most sales. If you can measure it, you can manage it. And if you can manage it, you can improve it.
2. Tell prospects what to do. This is probably the single most important design feature for any marketing campaign. You may think it is obvious that your marketing copy is encouraging someone to purchase, experience shows you must explicitly tell the reader what to do if you want to get the greatest response.
When people visit a website, on each page, they are asking the question, "What can I do on this page?" Rarely are website visitors asking, "What can I learn?" Each page should have a clear call to action.
Another mistake is to provide too many action choices. If you really want them to fill out the form, then remove some of the other choices. I frequently hear prospects say that they did not know what they were supposed to do on a web page.
3. Make it easy and conventional. Marketing gurus say the "user experience" is important, but what experience is your website visitor looking for? If the visitors just want to know what you sell, then the ideal experience is to tell them what you sell as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Offering free content may be "sticky" to some visitors, but it does not always make the purchase process easier.
We usually assume that our home page is one of the results pages one of the major search engines. This is were the buying experience starts for most shoppers. Did you make it easy to find the products and services you sell through the search engines?
Next, think of what most shoppers want to know when they visit your website. What do these people have to offer? Does it meet my need? Is it easy to buy? How much does it cost? Why should I buy from these guys as opposed to the others that showed up in my search? Answer these questions quickly and you have made the experience easy.
After a few years trying to sell the same product line, experienced marketers often try to get creative with thier work. They choose interesting words to talk about old products. They talk about new features and choose unconventional ways to sell conventional things. We all get bored with the basics, but visitors to your website are not bored. This may be their first time to experience your brand. Be sure to talk about the conventional features and benefits before mentioning the unconventional ones that only 2% of users will ever use.