Core Marketing

Dan Masterson - 3 Legs of Conversion-Rate Marketing

2006-12-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

And once again some more useful tips for those in Internet marketing

These are my notes from a lecture given by Dan Masterson who was CTO when MyFamily.com launched. He spoke on: “3 Legs of Conversion-Rate Marketing” -Ways to get people to return to your site and to purchase from your site:

CREDIBILITY
-Good content
-Transparency-Not afraid to show team behind the site-People want to know there are people behind the site, that they will be taken care of
-Designed well-Professional look-design consistent with theme
-Testimonials
-Show degrees or accreditations
-1-800 number
-Privacy policy
-Feedback element
-Return policy

USABILITY
-http://www.sensible.com/
-Book: “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug
-Book: “Design for Non-Designers” by Robin Williams
-www.useit.com/
-www.webpagesthatsuck.com
-If it takes more than 10 sec for your page to load people will leave.
-Be careful how many images and how big they are
-Bold keywords so people can get a gist of content-people scan, they don’t read so bolded words stick out

SALABILITY
-Testimonials
-Seth Godin books
-USP, communicate that within a few seconds e.g., Avis: We try harder; Budget: Cheaper; Enterprise: We’ll pick you up at your door
-Most people will drop out of the eCommerce process when they see how much shipping is. Incorporate shipping into cost of product.
-Scarcity-e.g., “Offer only valid for 7 days…” or “only have a limited number…”
-smiling people, show regular people, “Feel good”-emotional sale

Examples
-carrotink.com

Dave Martin: Take Your Internet Business to the Next Level

2006-12-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

Here’s some great things to think about when running an Internet business.
These are taken from my notes after listening to Dave Martin speak on:
“10 Specific long-term things that will take your company to the next level”
I apologize if they are somewhat random.

1. Start with a plan
2. Create Routines
-It won’t get done unless you plan time to do it
-Spend 70% of time on these things:
A. Measuring and improving ROI
B. Writing quality content
C. Link building

3. Identify Personas
-Book: Brian and Jeffrey Isanberg “Waiting For Your Cat to Bark”
-Identify primary segments: Everybody in the company should know all about them

4. Keyword Prioritization
-Be a chess player: know the next series of plays ahead of time
-http://startlaunch.com/research
-http://tools.seobook.com (SEO for Firefox)

5. Essential Metrics
-Create two sets of metrics
-A larger set for yourself
-A smaller set to show management (to combat meeting marathoners)
A-Closed web deals
B-Cost per lead
C-Leads by product
D-Converting keywords
E-Keyword ranking report

6. Usability – At all costs
-Test & Measure – Rinse & Repeat

7. Build Trust & Resolve Concerns

8. PPC – Put the Odds in Your Favor
-Start with less expensive ones and work your way up
-Start with a small set, weed out ineffective words, then move on to next set (build up)

9. Enticing Content
-Quality, relevant content (Don’t over do SEO)
-“getafreelancer.com” – Copy writers

10. Mosaic Link Building
-Probably most important element to SEO
-Make link building look natural

Marketing Research Pays

2006-12-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

Jim Nuckols, the Vice President of Marketing for Cardinal Health, spoke recently about some mistakes his company made in regards to marketing research. In respect for the company I won’t share specifics but I would like to share the overall lesson learned.

Management at Cardinal Health was looking to expand their services. A product idea was conceived that everybody liked and that seemed to just “feel good”. Because everybody in management liked it and felt it would be a success little marketing research was done. They launched the product and two years latter they still weren’t profitable.

Fortunately this story has a happy ending. Cardinal Health decided they should do some marketing research and found that they were marketing to the wrong demographic. Once they understood this some minor adjustments were made to the product and their marketing shifted to the new target demographic. Jim said that almost over night they saw a huge increase in sales.

Lessons learned:
-Do marketing research
-Understand who your target demographic is
-Rely on raw data and not always your gut

Consumer Drivers and Target Demographics

2006-12-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

Some notes from a lecture by Andrea Thomas, Vice President of Global Chocolate, Hershey’s. Andrea is responsible for the global platform innovation and branding of Hershey’s chocolate.

Here are some interesting consumer drivers Andrea spoke about you should think about as you position yourself in the market and look to the future:

Key consumer drivers:

-Aging Population

-Growing affluence

-Demand for quality vs. quantity

-Increasing sense of “entitlement”

-Demand for sophisticated and robust taste

Andrea emphasized the importance of knowing your target demographic and of creating the whole product experience around your brand positioning. She used Hershey’s new Cacao Reserve as an example, a product she was highly involved in. Cacao Reserve is a higher quality chocolate so Hershey’s defined one of their target demographics as those who would attend a wine testing. In the same spirit of wine testing Hershey’s has created some free promotional kits, specifically for that target demographic, that facilitate chocolate testing parties or that can be used at wine testings. To further appeal to that target demographic they included the word “reserve” in the name of the new chocolate bars in assimilation of reserve wines, which are the best wines reserved for special occasions.

Specificity

2006-12-04T23:57:00.000-07:00

Today I heard Dr. David Alcorn speak, who is the Director of the Institute of Marketing at Brigham Young University. He spoke on marketing strategy, but more specifically specificity, a word Webster’s Dictionary defines as “the quality or condition of being specific.”

Dr. Alcorn has been involved in marketing research and marketing consulting for a number of years and he mentioned the importance of being specific when measuring intention. He said, “The more specific we are in measuring what we want to measure the more likely we are in predicting behavior.” He then gave the comparative example of a hotel asking clients if they enjoyed their stay versus asking clients if they would recommend the hotel to their best friend. The first question is vague and not necessarily specific to what the customer really feels. However, the second question is much more specific to what the customers really feels regarding their stay at the hotel.

“Specificity eludes to ‘core values’”, Dr. Alcorn said. When you address customer’s core values in all areas of the marketing cycle—by being more specific in how you address them—you will better be able to reach them and they will be more receptive to your outreach. By addressing customer’s core values you will naturally practice core marketing.

Some Marketing Quotes

2006-12-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

I have had the opportunity during the past few months to attend a guest lecture series where some prominent executives and higher-management of corporate America spoke on marketing strategy. In some subsequent blogs I plan on sharing some of my notes from those lectures, but for now let it suffice that I share a few quotes as a primer.

From Dan Kunst, Executive Vice President of Marketing of Avail Medical, I share two quotes:

“Marketing should drive everything in a company.”

“Customer perception is everything.”

Gary Severson, Senior Vice President of Wal-Mart, quoted Aristotle:

“Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your calling.”

And lastly, Rhett W. Fornof, Regional Director of Utah and Idaho for Enterprise Rent-A-Car:

“Marketing is keeping your customers happy.”

Ok, one more. This is a quote Rhett W. Fornof shared; it is by Jack Taylor who is the founder of Enterprise Rent-A-Car:

“Take care of your customers and employees first…and profits are sure to follow.”

Rhett Fornof Lecture Notes – Break-Away Strategies

2006-11-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

I was able to hear Rhett W. Fornof, the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Regional Director of Utah and Idaho, speak today. Although not an alum of Brigham Young University Rhett is a member of BYU’s Marriott School of Business National Retail Board. Interestingly Enterprise Rent-A-Car is a family owned business started in 1957, that has 40 plus years of growth, and that did $8.2 billion dollars in revenue last year.

Rhett spoke about many important things pertaining to marketing, things pertaining to “core marketing”. So I’ll share some of my notes on what he said and then elaborate on two breakaway strategies he is implementing.

He spoke on how Enterprise is benefiting from cause related marketing and how they are working to create a culture of service among their employees.

He spoke about the importance of creating a seamless presentation for the customer in developing a brand image.

He said, “Marketing is keeping your customers happy.” (Core marketing? Yeah, I think so.)

The two breakaway strategies he is implementing in the Utah and Idaho region are these: 1) rent to 21 year olds and older and 2) accept cash deposits. These strategies are labeled breakaway because the other rental car agencies aren’t doing them, which means that Enterprise has opened up a large profit center that other agencies are excluding. The question was brought up during the lecture if renting to younger than 25 year olds was cost prohibitive due to a higher accident rate among that demographic. Rhett said that their experience is that it hasn’t been that much higher, and that (surprisingly or not surprisingly) the demographic with the highest accident rate is the age group over 75. Rhett mentioned that he is able to implement these strategies in the Utah/Idaho area because of the honest culture. Whereas, he said, if he were in downtown Detroit there would be no way he could allow customers to make a deposit with cash because too many vehicles would be stolen.

Free and Useful Internet Marketing Tools

2006-11-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

I’ve been taking an Internet marketing class from Paul Allen, the founder of MyFamily.com (and a whole slew of other companies), and I just wanted to share some of the good tools he, and a few others, have shared with me.

-First of all there is Paul’s blog. He often blogs about interesting and useful things related to Internet marketing. Also, be sure to check out the lecture videos on his website as well.

-Free web analytics: www.google.com/analytics.

-Free web site optimizer tool: services.google.com/websiteoptimizer.

-Learn what’s currently happening in the Internet marketing world: www.marketingvox.com.

-For help with developing keywords: www.inventory.oveture.com. This tool will tell you how many people searched for a specific keyword last month using Yahoo. Paul Allen suggests a good rule of thumb is to multiple that number by 4.4 to determine how many people searched for that keyword using Google.

-A website that offers free photo downloads (many are professional), that can be useful for building your web pages: www.sxc.hu. Just be sure to check if there are any restrictions on the use of each photo.

-For a list of Internet marketing tactics regarding Search Engine Marketing, Web Site Conversion Rate, Link Popularity, Email Marketing, Viral Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Distribution Tactics, Content Tactics, No-Cost or Low-Cost Tactics (guerilla marketing), Offline/Online Marketing, Track Everything Using Web Analytics, Developing Credibility, Generating Online Sales, Outrageous Tactics: www.infobaseventures.com/internet-marketing-tactics.html

-Learn all about taking the Internet mobile: pc.mtld.mobi.

-For info on generating usable web pages go to Jakob Nielsen’s www.useit.com.

-Start a blog: www.blogger.com.

Specialize: Marketing Implementation

2006-11-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

What I mean by specialize is that once you have your marketing plan (the blueprint) it’s time to get marketing (busy building). Quit tinkering with the Tinker Toys and getting weak results, and start using good solid resources to make your project effective and strong. Now that you’ve done effective research and analysis you have a marketing plan that’s certain to succeed—so implement it already, and not just half-heartedly. I read somewhere that a terrible thing happens without marketing—Nothing! How true that is.

A company I know of was very product-oriented. However, after some consulting they decided to refocus themselves and become more market-oriented. They did some research and analysis and came up with a really good marketing plan, but then they sat on it. The owner allowed other concerns to take priority and necessary resources needed to launch the plan were tied up with other peripheral tasks. The marketing plan kept ending up on the bottom of the “To Do” list and soon they were back to their product-oriented ways. Yet the owner continued to be frustrated with low sales (hum, I wonder why). It’s not enough to go half the way.

I use the word “specialize” for this step because I believe you need to become a specialist in implementing your marketing plans. I’ve seen this so many times where marketing plans end up shelved, are poorly or halfway implemented, or are basically abandoned once implemented. In marketing a race half run is never won. Give marketing more of your time and effort; you’ll be surprised at the outcome. Keep track of your statistics so you know how effective your efforts are. Spend more time doing those things that are most effective. If your marketing isn’t working then step back and do any necessary follow-up research and analysis, and make any adjustments you need to. It’s amazing that for how common sense these things are, and how effective they can be on the bottom line, so many people don’t do them.

Marketing Analysis

2006-10-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Analysis, Analysis, Analysis. Analysis is the second step in the research, analyze, specialize process. Imagine research as being the source of your lumber and hardware, and analysis as being your blueprint. I’ve talked before about how important it is to understand your target demographic, that is the research step, but a thorough analysis of your target demographic can make all the difference in creating or not creating a relationship with them. For instance, last time I wrote I mentioned a company that had not clearly defined their target demographic. Once the target demographic was researched and defined, some analysis was done. It was even basic analysis, but how powerful it was! That analysis determined that the company was trying to approach customers in a manner that they didn’t want to be approached. The company was then able to design and implement marketing strategies designed with the target demographic in mind.

Sometimes—and this is especially true of business owners and managers—it’s easy get caught up in the day-to-day operations and it’s difficult to step back and get a fresh view on things, but I feel it’s important—and even imperative—that that happens. Having good and current data on hand, and consistently viewing it and analyzing it, will enable you to know where your strengths and weaknesses are, will help you know where your efforts are most effective, and will overall enable you to build long-lasting and satisfying customer relationships.

Marketing Research

2006-10-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Research, Research, Research. Marketing research is one of the most important steps in the research, analyze, specialize process; but not many people do it! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, research is a light in the dark. Yeah, yeah, there is some very specific, really technical research that can be done, and maybe that’s why so many skip this step. But even some research is better than none for crying out loud. You don’t have to be a scientist to do marketing research. I’ll give you some quick advice and then give a few examples of good and bad marketing research.

So you have a business idea to sell some product or service. Sit down for even just a few minutes and define your target market. It’s all about defining your target markets DEMOGRAPHICS. Here’s some questions to get you rolling: How old are they? Are they female or male? What is their lifestyle like? How much income do they make? Etc…. The answers to these questions will be useful in determining if you really want to sell that product or service. For instance, maybe the market is too small or too saturated with other providers. It will also help you determine how you should approach your target market. Let me give you some examples.

EXAMPLES:
A group I was involved in was asked to help with some marketing research for a start-up company that was getting ready to release some software they had just developed. They couldn’t define who their target market was. The owner and developer had seen a need for his product at the business where he was working and at a business where his friend worked, but he didn’t know how many other businesses out there were in need of his service. So here he was with a developed product and he wasn’t really sure if anybody needed it. A lot of time and money can be saved by some simple preliminary marketing research.

I knew of a company that had been trying to approach their target market through a long series of free lessons. Fortunately the company was doing at least some marketing research and was tracking the results, but the results were negative. Although many people were accessing the lessons, nobody was taking the time to actually read them, and many stopped accessing the lessons after just the first or second. A meeting was called and the suggestion made that they define their target market. Some research was done and one of the defining characteristics of their target market was that the individuals were very busy. A very busy individual is not going to sit down and read a long series of lessons; they just don’t have the time! That simple research made a huge impact in how marketing was done in the company.

Research, Analyze, Specialize

2006-10-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

I knew of a company that had just under a year of web presence. They had thrown together a website, had scraped together some PPC campaigns, did some basic SEO, and then sat back and expected results. The results were sporadic. So a few adjustments were made, and again the results were sporadic. It seemed they were always searching but never getting anywhere. This is a very common experience, possibly more common in smaller businesses and start-ups, but it even occurs in big businesses too.

All too often businesses shoot from the hip in marketing, so to speak. They have an idea they think is great and so they’ll scrape together some campaign or plan, throw it out to the consumer, and then they wonder why it’s not working. Soon they’ll throw that idea aside and try another one, but usually they achieve similar results. Once in a while they get lucky and find something good. They will run with it but when it fades off they are right back where they started, searching in the dark. What they need to do is Research, Analyze, and Specialize.

Many companies don’t spend a lot of time on marketing research. Good research is powerful and can tell you who your customer is, and then what are the various ways to approach him or her. Good research is a light in the dark. Next you need to analyze your research. Good analysis allows you to focus the light beam which in turn lets you see the best course of action in front of you. Instead of scraping things together and shooting from the hip, you now have a well-defined plan. That leads into Specialize. Specialize is the call to action. Take the plan you’ve formulated from your research and analysis and put it into action. Before you might have been trying random things to obtain your objective, but now because of your research and analysis you have a defined plan that you can carry out and specialize in. You now know where to place your time and energies and you can specialize in those things. Research, Analysis, and Specialization will help you know where you’re at, where you’re going, and what you need to do to get there. I plan on going more in depth in each of these in the future.

The Commencement

2006-09-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

Every blog has a beginning, and well...this is mine. I chose the title "Core Marketing" because I intend this to be a blog about marketing and about how marketing should be integrated at the core of every business. What I mean is that it's not enough to just produce a product and push it in the face of the consumer, screaming the whole while how marvelous your product is and how you can't believe he/she has lived without it all this time, hoping he/she will suddenly see the light (the light you're holding above their head) and spend great quantities of their cash on your product. No, it doesn't work that way, at least not like it used to. Maybe there are a few people out there you could bully into buying your product, but consumers en masse are becoming much more savvy than they once were. Even before Burger King allowed you to "Have it your way" consumers were beginning to realize who really drives the market-them.

Therein lies the power of the Core Marketing principle. It's the understanding that if your product doesn't fulfill the needs or wants of consumers then they won't buy your product. In today's world successful businesses are ever mindful of the consumer, and those businesses are tailor-made from the receptionist to the CEO, and from the factory floor to the sales floor, to fit the wants and needs of the consumer. In essence, they have marketing at their core, and hence they are successful.