Online Marketing 101: Create a Strong Call to Action
November 16, 2008 by OneIMS · Leave a Comment
What Is A Call to Action?
A call to action is simply a strategic communication in your marketing materials telling your customer what to do next. So many marketers create persuasive and alluring marketing materials, but forget to give interested parties a concrete method to move forward and make a purchase. Your call to action is the most important part of any marketing communication because it gives your customers the information they need to take advantage of your services.
Imagine The Questions and Provide Answers.
The best way to write a simple and effective call to action is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. What questions will they have after hearing about your products and services? Here are some general questions that should be answered in any call to action:
- How do I contact this business? Can I contact them by telephone, email, fax, or through their website?
- Why should I choose this company? Will they save me money? Will they do the job better than the competition?
- Is there a deadline for me to contact this company so that I won’t miss out on any promotions or discounts?
With a strong call to action, your customers will not have to wonder how best to proceed if they want to take advantage of your services. A call to action translates directly into sales and satisfied business partnerships as potential customers effortlessly receive the information they need to contact you.
E-mail Marketing: Still Going Strong
November 13, 2008 by OneIMS · Leave a Comment
Have you spent a considerable amount of time working on an e-mail campaign only to realize that it might never reach the intended recipient’s Inbox? What if it ends up in their Junk mail folder, never to be seen again? Or worse, what if they choose to unsubscribe from your mailing list and click on the dreaded “mark as spam” button?
As change is taking place in our world, most recently evidenced by the financial crisis on Wall Street, it’s imperative to remember that marketing strategies must keep up with the times. In other words, change is not always a bad thing, but in terms of e-mail marketing, the techniques used today should be savvier than those used in previous years. As all these concerns are valid, instead of throwing in the towel regarding e-mail marketing, let’s take a look at why this marketing tool is still thriving and how you can utilize strategies to avoid being lost in the sea of other businesses.
One of the greatest advantages of this tool is being able to track its deliverability. As with any project you put time into, you want to know if it was successful and if you should employ the same strategy again next time. E-mail marketing offers these statistics to you so you are not left wondering, and also allows you to be wise about how you spend your time and money. Although postal campaigns have their own benefits, one of the drawbacks is that you don’t know how many people actually received the mailer and read it. On the other hand, an e-mail marketing system allows you to track the number of e-mails that were not only sent, but also how many were read, deleted, and what links they clicked on within the e-mail.
In today’s industry, the rise of smartphones (i.e. Blackberry, Palm Treo, etc.) have also added quicker access to the Internet, which translates to faster receipt of your e-mail. Especially as many of the people in the commerce industry spend time traveling, working with a business that utilizes e-mail marketing is a sigh of relief.
So how can you be confident that people are not only receiving your e-mails but they will choose to keep it coming? To save the day, enter opt-in lists. This means that the individual chooses to give you their name and e-mail to send future e-mails their way. A few ways to go about this include putting opt-in forms wherever you have a web presence. Include the forms on your site, your blogs, and any other place where people can link to your business. Another method is to utilize auto responder to respond to a request from an individual. The message should be brief letting them know what they’ve subscribed to, and remind them they can always opt-out if they choose to do so. This way, it’s putting the choice back into the hands of the customer.
Please, contact OneIMS today at 1-888-ONE-IMS1, or send an e-mail to info@oneims.com and let us help you with your next E-mail marketing campaign.
Actionable Analysis: Lessons Learned from the Presidential Campaigns
October 20, 2008 by OneIMS · Leave a Comment
Today’s online marketers can learn a lot from the techniques employed by the Democratic and Republican strategists advising the candidates in our current presidential election season. Inspiring voters to rally around a specific party or candidate is much like motivating consumers to have confidence in a brand or purchase a product. As we daily witness the events of the 2008 presidential race, online marketers can benefit from a closer analysis of the dynamics of marketing segmentation.
Presidential marketing campaigns are fueled with enormous budgets, massive manpower, and seemingly almost unlimited resources. Despite the numerous complexities and nuances involved in “marketing” a candidate, much of the strategy boils down to three important segments that online marketers should bear in mind.
Demographics
The importance of demographic features has perhaps never been so evident as it is in the 2008 elections. The same demographic traits are equally relevant for online marketers considering their target market and customer base.
Location - How do customers behave in the geographic location you are targeting? What are the unique considerations in the region?
Age - Senator Barack Obama has had an unprecedented ability to motivate young voters. Undoubtedly, this is a major consideration for campaign strategists on the Democratic team. Is age a factor in your product’s purchase or use? Is your marketing targeted to a certain age group?
Gender - Do women or men use your product more often? Consider gender in your marketing campaigns.
Ethnic background - We’ve seen the influence of ethnicity in this year’s presidential race. Are your products widely used among a particular ethnic group?
Preferences
Although demographics always play a notable role in motivating voters in a political campaign, strong feelings about important issues such as the economy, immigration, healthcare, and the war in Iraq also have a powerful influence on voters’ decision-making process. Online marketers would do well to consider these personal preferences that often influence consumer spending.
Hobbies and Interests - What does your target market enjoy? What gets your target market excited?
Status - Consumers often make purchases with consideration to how they want to be perceived by other, such as Coach handbags or jewelry from Tiffanys. Do your products appeal to a certain status consideration?
Conscience - Like voters, consumers often make decisions because of their sense of right and wrong. Obama’s “change we can believe in” campaign motivates voters because of its appeal to conscience. Marketing to a target audience with shared principles is an effective practice. For example, manufacturers of environmentally friendly “green” products appeal to consumers with a desire to be responsible stewards of the Earth’s resources.
Behavior
Campaign strategists must consider the behavior of voters to confirm that supporters will actually appear at polling places on Election Day and vote. Online marketers must also consider the behavior of consumers when making important marketing decisions.
Website actions - Consider pages visited, links clicked, and items placed in shopping carts. The behavior of website visitors is valuable information about the effectiveness of your online marketing.
Interactive behavior - This includes RSS feeds, social media involvement, email forwarding and other interactive marketing practices. What does the consumer’s involvement indicate?
Purchasing - When a consumer purchases your product, he has essentially “voted” for you. Analyze purchases to continue to improve your marketing effectiveness.
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