Developing more customers is a feast or famine activity. While the strategies are very subjective, the results are not. And when lead generation and lead conversion are working, the results are exciting - no exhilarating! However, when they are not working, the results could not be more discouraging. And these discouraging results often breed inconsistent, or worse, nonexistent effort.
If you are a student of business than perhaps you too have been perplexed by how two professional practices that appear equal in so many ways can have such drastic variations in their level of success. One practice develops an abundance of leads and an abundance of customer revenue opportunities and begins to monopolize the competition. Through consistent lead generation, lead conversion and business acquisition, it expands into a large multinational corporation. Another professional practice, of equal quality of service, run by professionals of equal intelligence and work ethic, is often hampered by customer scarcity, and represents more of a time-consuming job to the owner than a rewarding and profitable business.
Well let us assure you, lead generation and lead conversion represent two of the defining factors between customer abundance and customer scarcity. Lead capturing and customer service are also significant culprits, however lead generation and lead conversion are where the prospect relationship begins! So the logical question to ask is - what marks the difference between success and failure?
FACTORS IMPACTING YOUR SUCCESS DEVELOPING CUSTOMERS
Two marketing issues will contribute to your lead generation and lead conversion success, or lack thereof. These marketing issues include (i) marketing exposure; and (ii) message relevance.
Marketing exposure considers the best strategy to communicate or channel a specific marketing message to members of your target markets. Remember, if your target clients do not know that you exist, than they will not be able to become leads. Marketing exposure is achieved through lead generation and lead conversion channels which may include online and offline advertising, allied resource networking and referrals, social networking, video or article marketing, canvassing, direct mail, your website, customer events, customer networking, email marketing, mobile marketing, telemarketing, seminars and webinars, novelties, and broadcasting.
Message relevance considers whether the content of your marketing campaign is consistent with the subconscious emotional wants and conscious rational needs that drive your prospects selection of your classification of professional services. If your messages are not relevant or targeted, than they will not engage your target audience, even if you are able to establish significant exposure. Message relevance requires targeting marketing campaigns on specific customer groups that have similar needs and preferences (niche marketing); developing a critical customer understanding; and positioning your services to generate specific and favorable perceptions and impressions in the minds of your target customers.
In this article, we will focus on the former issue of developing significant marketing exposure amongst targeted niche market sets.
DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
In order to develop significant marketing exposure, three important tasks must be carried out. These tasks include (i) identifying a targeted niche market opportunity, (ii) determining the places where members of this niche market congregate; and (iii) brainstorming the best strategies to favorably communicate or channel your marketing message.
Identifying Niche Market Groups. Targeted marketing requires that you focus client development campaigns on niche markets. Remember if you are not focusing on niche markets, than your marketing messages will not be relevant and targeted and your lead generation and lead conversion rates will be compromised. This does not mean that you need to focus your services on niche markets, but rather each individual marketing campaign. A niche market can be defined by the profile of its members and the type of services that are required.
For instance, if we consider real estate agents, than niche markets may include young professionals, middle-aged families or empty nesters. Their unique real estate interests may include freehold townhouses, luxury condominiums, or single family homes. Each represents a select real estate interest. However niche markets may also be defined by their specific service needs. For real estate, these may be property buying or property selling. Than our highly targeted niche real estate market may be middle-aged professionals, interested in selling their starter condominium, or upgrading to a single family home, in a select target area.
The most important considerations when identifying niche markets opportunities are as follows - (i) do the members of this niche market have similar service needs? and (ii) will they be motivated by similar marketing communications?
If you have moderate to high level of experience, than you are most likely aware of the needs of specific market groups. This will address the first consideration. However, as for selecting the most targeted service communications and service communication channels, it will be imperative that you carry out an assessment of the internal and external motivations, a discipline often referred to as customer psychographics, and beyond the scope of this article.
Determine Where Niche Markets Congregate. Once you have identified niche markets with similar needs, the next step is to determine where members of these niche groups congregate.
Members of a niche group may congregate in specific living or working areas, gyms and recreational facilities, conferences and tradeshows, websites, social networks, trade magazines, restaurants, educational facilities, broadcast channels, and social institutions. By the way, each of these arenas offers excellent opportunities to channel targeted and relevant marketing messages and generate significant lead generation and lead conversion exposure.
The best strategy for determining where members of your niche markets congregate is to carry out a demographic survey. This survey is easy to administer, will not require significant amounts of your time, and will provide you with many valuable insights that will help dictate your future client development efforts.
The following provides a list of select demographic characteristics, and corresponding customer development opportunities. Provided that you're demographic research shows that members of your select target markets have a strong tendency to congregate in these living, working or social spaces, than excellent exposure may be achieved by the corresponding lead generation and lead conversion opportunities.
Personal
Home address & phone number: Billboards, Direct Mail, Canvassing, Novelties
Email address: Email Marketing
Age: Advertising, Social Media, Social Networking
Member of Linked In, Facebook, or Twitter: Social Networking
Professional
Profession and professional subscriptions: Trade Magazines, Trade Websites
Frequented conventions or tradeshows? Client Events, Conventions and Tradeshows
Work address and phone number: Canvassing, Direct Mail, Novelties, Telemarketing
Transportation to work: Billboard Advertising, Broadcasting
Social
Clubs or social institutions: Advertising, Client Events, Social Functions, Sponsorship
Hobbies or interests: Information Guides, Seminars or Webinars
Magazines or newspapers subscriptions: Advice Columns, Offline Advertising
Service Needs
Greatest service needs: Online Advertising, Forums, Speaking Opportunities, Website Advertising, Blog, Article or Video Marketing
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While this above list is certainly not inclusive of all the relevant and targeted demographic characteristics that will provide insights into the spaces where your target markets congregate, it provides you with a framework for understanding some of these select living, working or social arenas, and the corresponding lead generation and lead conversion opportunities.
Customer Development Channels.Once you have determined some of the arenas where you're select niche markets congregate, it is time to select lead generation and lead conversion channels to broadcast your marketing message.
For example, let's consider the first question in the above table asking a prospect for their personal address. If in response to this question, you observed that many of your target clients with similar preferences and needs lived in the same neighborhood, or same street, or even same condo buildings, then this shows that they are congregating or concentrating in close living spaces. A targeted billboard advertisement (for introverted prospects), direct mail campaign (for analytical prospects) or canvassing campaign (for extraverted prospects) could then generate massive exposure at low cost.
DO NOT FORGET CLIENT PREFERENCES
Of course marketing exposure will not be the only consideration. You must also consider your customer's response to specific marketing content and marketing messages. And with this in mind, by integrating your understanding of marketing exposure with the study of customer preferences and response to specific marketing messages, then you will have established a comprehensive plan for developing strategies that are certain to out-market, outsell and outperform!
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Five Secrets to Conducting Successful Online Surveys
In order to have a successful online survey there are a few secrets that will certainly help ensure your efforts are successful. Many large corporations and even small businesses are now using online surveys, which is helping their business grow in a variety of avenues. For those that offer a service or product learning what customers think of your products and services can greatly aid in getting your products or services to the masses.
Software
The five secrets start with using quality online survey software to create your survey. Features offered should include such things as design, distribution, branding, detailed reports, and support. You should choose a company that will provide you with such things as support all languages, ready-made survey templates, auto numbering, and a specific or unlimited amount of responses, surveys, pages, and questions. Not only will you want all of these great features but also a few more that will help you have a Successful Online Survey include the ability to insert photos, customised thank you page, password protection, and even pre-set survey themes that allow you to add your logo. Distribution features are also very important especially if the software offers a variety of media outlets.
Anonymity
In order to have a successful online survey your surveys should allow participants to answer all your questions and remain anonymous at the same time. Most people will be honest if they do not have to attach their name to the information. This allows them to talk freely without giving out, not only their name, but also their email address. Too many times, surveys ask for a participant's personal information, which many individuals are reluctant to provide due to spam email or other issues.
Pertinent questions
No matter what you want to learn about your company or service, the questions you ask need to help you learn this. If you want to learn if customers are satisfied with your services, you will need to have questions on the survey that will address this issue. If you are more interested in if customers are enjoying the products you manufacture you will need questions that centre on this factor. Remember, to ask questions that will help you evaluate the responses and have a successful online survey.
Involvement
When considering what type of questions to include in your online survey, people do not like long drawn out surveys, but ones that are easy to answer but also offer the opportunity to expound on their responses. If you use all multi choice questions, you will not be allowing your participants to explain their choices or to add to their answers. It is best to always offer a larger text box that can be written in if the participant feels it is necessary. This allows them to be more involved which will ensure you have a successful online survey.
Reports
The last and one of the most important secrets of a successful online survey is that you receive adequate reports from the software you have chosen to use. You may need to include such things as geographic location, sex of the participants, or if they have tried more than one of your products. Be sure that you receive quality reports so your success can be measured properly.
Software
The five secrets start with using quality online survey software to create your survey. Features offered should include such things as design, distribution, branding, detailed reports, and support. You should choose a company that will provide you with such things as support all languages, ready-made survey templates, auto numbering, and a specific or unlimited amount of responses, surveys, pages, and questions. Not only will you want all of these great features but also a few more that will help you have a Successful Online Survey include the ability to insert photos, customised thank you page, password protection, and even pre-set survey themes that allow you to add your logo. Distribution features are also very important especially if the software offers a variety of media outlets.
Anonymity
In order to have a successful online survey your surveys should allow participants to answer all your questions and remain anonymous at the same time. Most people will be honest if they do not have to attach their name to the information. This allows them to talk freely without giving out, not only their name, but also their email address. Too many times, surveys ask for a participant's personal information, which many individuals are reluctant to provide due to spam email or other issues.
Pertinent questions
No matter what you want to learn about your company or service, the questions you ask need to help you learn this. If you want to learn if customers are satisfied with your services, you will need to have questions on the survey that will address this issue. If you are more interested in if customers are enjoying the products you manufacture you will need questions that centre on this factor. Remember, to ask questions that will help you evaluate the responses and have a successful online survey.
Involvement
When considering what type of questions to include in your online survey, people do not like long drawn out surveys, but ones that are easy to answer but also offer the opportunity to expound on their responses. If you use all multi choice questions, you will not be allowing your participants to explain their choices or to add to their answers. It is best to always offer a larger text box that can be written in if the participant feels it is necessary. This allows them to be more involved which will ensure you have a successful online survey.
Reports
The last and one of the most important secrets of a successful online survey is that you receive adequate reports from the software you have chosen to use. You may need to include such things as geographic location, sex of the participants, or if they have tried more than one of your products. Be sure that you receive quality reports so your success can be measured properly.
Do You Have a Mobile Strategy?
There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush (EZtexting.com). This is an astounding statistic and gives you an idea of why so many businesses are jumping to mobile as a way to reach their customers. There are a lot of reasons businesses should have a mobile strategy.
Growth
The worldwide smartphone market grew 54.7% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011 (IDC). There is no doubt that the sales of mobile devices have been pretty amazing. With this fast growth taking place it is no wonder that people are rushing to beat out their competitors by creating mobile products and adapting current products to meet their customers mobile needs. There are more mobile phones on the planet than there are TVs (EZtexting.com).
Personalization
Mobile coupons get 10 times the redemption rate of traditional coupons (Borrell Associates). Mobile is able to provide a more interactive and targeted experience than any other channel because consumers have to opt-in to programs to get offers and alerts. The ability to target messaging with mobile means that consumers get the information that they decide they want and this leads to successful marketing. 70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour (Mobile Marketer).
Accessibility
91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7 (Morgan Stanley). That means that you have a captive audience around the clock with mobile. This differs from other channels while a phone can be turned off just like the tv and computer people are less likely to turn the phone off giving businesses more opportunities to reach the consumer.
Engagement
It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message (CTIA.org). The growth, personalization, and accessibility that mobile offer have given businesses an effective way to engage with their customers. Marketers are able to create more meaningful interactions for consumers and consumers are more likely to engage with them.
What should your business do about it?
Start by optimizing your website for mobile. With so many people using their mobile devices to access information it is important that your business information is there. Going to a site that is not mobile-friendly can be frustrating and cause users to leave the site soon after they visit it, so it is important to make sure your site is optimized.
Next you should look at your products and think about whether or not there are any applications you could add to your product line that would make it easier for consumers to use. You want to make sure that consumers have the easiest time possible using your products and mobile applications put your products at the fingertips of your customers.
References:
Borrell Associates. (2010). Local Mobile Advertising & Promotions: Mobile Coupons Set to Cash In (April '10).
CTIA.org. (2012).
EZTexting.com. (2011). 2012 Mobile Marketing Fact Sheet.
IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. (2012). Smartphone Market Hits All-Time Quarterly High Due to Seasonal Strength and Wider Variety of Offerings.
Morgan Stanley. (2009). Mobile Internet Report.
Tsirulnik, Giselle. (2011). Mobile ads driving purchase intent among smartphone users: Google. Mobile Marketer.
Growth
The worldwide smartphone market grew 54.7% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011 (IDC). There is no doubt that the sales of mobile devices have been pretty amazing. With this fast growth taking place it is no wonder that people are rushing to beat out their competitors by creating mobile products and adapting current products to meet their customers mobile needs. There are more mobile phones on the planet than there are TVs (EZtexting.com).
Personalization
Mobile coupons get 10 times the redemption rate of traditional coupons (Borrell Associates). Mobile is able to provide a more interactive and targeted experience than any other channel because consumers have to opt-in to programs to get offers and alerts. The ability to target messaging with mobile means that consumers get the information that they decide they want and this leads to successful marketing. 70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour (Mobile Marketer).
Accessibility
91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7 (Morgan Stanley). That means that you have a captive audience around the clock with mobile. This differs from other channels while a phone can be turned off just like the tv and computer people are less likely to turn the phone off giving businesses more opportunities to reach the consumer.
Engagement
It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message (CTIA.org). The growth, personalization, and accessibility that mobile offer have given businesses an effective way to engage with their customers. Marketers are able to create more meaningful interactions for consumers and consumers are more likely to engage with them.
What should your business do about it?
Start by optimizing your website for mobile. With so many people using their mobile devices to access information it is important that your business information is there. Going to a site that is not mobile-friendly can be frustrating and cause users to leave the site soon after they visit it, so it is important to make sure your site is optimized.
Next you should look at your products and think about whether or not there are any applications you could add to your product line that would make it easier for consumers to use. You want to make sure that consumers have the easiest time possible using your products and mobile applications put your products at the fingertips of your customers.
References:
Borrell Associates. (2010). Local Mobile Advertising & Promotions: Mobile Coupons Set to Cash In (April '10).
CTIA.org. (2012).
EZTexting.com. (2011). 2012 Mobile Marketing Fact Sheet.
IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. (2012). Smartphone Market Hits All-Time Quarterly High Due to Seasonal Strength and Wider Variety of Offerings.
Morgan Stanley. (2009). Mobile Internet Report.
Tsirulnik, Giselle. (2011). Mobile ads driving purchase intent among smartphone users: Google. Mobile Marketer.
5 Simple Ways to Make Progress With Your Marketing
Running an online business requires a ton of marketing... even some things you might not consider marketing. Article writing, blogging, social media updates, sales page copy, campaign emails, video scripts, networking elevator speeches, bios...
It can be overwhelming when you think about it. Sometimes it even seems easier to just not do anything at all.
Here are five strategies to help you simplify your marketing plans - and to make sure you continue to market!
1. The first - and the key to any project - is to break down your marketing into bite-sized small pieces. Then, take one task at a time. And if you're a list maker, then each of those pieces is an individual task - much nicer to your psyche as you try to get things done, and you get to cross off those to-do items more often!
2. If you have graphics (or other pieces) to go along with an article, blog post, or sales page, take care of those first. Have your graphics designer create the graphics. Take the picture and upload it to your blog platform. Send the photo to your virtual assistant that will go along with your article that you'll send later.
3. If you're writing an ezine that has different sections (Note from Me, promotion, What's Coming Next, etc.), write one of those. They have to be done anyway, and there's nothing saying you have to write your entire ezine in one sitting (and, actually, you shouldn't!).
4. Create checklists for various activities you do over and over. When you have a process that you follow each time, instead of recreating the wheel, it makes the tasks in that process easier to digest, and things don't feel so overwhelming. Everything has a process, by the way: from writing and publishing an ezine to launching a new product. Next time, document the process, and then you'll have a handy checklist to work from in the future.
5. Batch like tasks. If you have to write blog posts, articles, sales copy, responses to potential clients, do all of one type of work at once. You'll get into a rhythm, and you'll be more efficient. Each time you have to switch from one kind of task to another, you're using up time and mental energy.
What are some of your favorite tips and strategies for getting your marketing done - easily and quickly?
It can be overwhelming when you think about it. Sometimes it even seems easier to just not do anything at all.
Here are five strategies to help you simplify your marketing plans - and to make sure you continue to market!
1. The first - and the key to any project - is to break down your marketing into bite-sized small pieces. Then, take one task at a time. And if you're a list maker, then each of those pieces is an individual task - much nicer to your psyche as you try to get things done, and you get to cross off those to-do items more often!
2. If you have graphics (or other pieces) to go along with an article, blog post, or sales page, take care of those first. Have your graphics designer create the graphics. Take the picture and upload it to your blog platform. Send the photo to your virtual assistant that will go along with your article that you'll send later.
3. If you're writing an ezine that has different sections (Note from Me, promotion, What's Coming Next, etc.), write one of those. They have to be done anyway, and there's nothing saying you have to write your entire ezine in one sitting (and, actually, you shouldn't!).
4. Create checklists for various activities you do over and over. When you have a process that you follow each time, instead of recreating the wheel, it makes the tasks in that process easier to digest, and things don't feel so overwhelming. Everything has a process, by the way: from writing and publishing an ezine to launching a new product. Next time, document the process, and then you'll have a handy checklist to work from in the future.
5. Batch like tasks. If you have to write blog posts, articles, sales copy, responses to potential clients, do all of one type of work at once. You'll get into a rhythm, and you'll be more efficient. Each time you have to switch from one kind of task to another, you're using up time and mental energy.
What are some of your favorite tips and strategies for getting your marketing done - easily and quickly?
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
A Key Ingredient to Developing Powerful Branding for Your Business
Developing relevant and targeted marketing messages, the quality of message that will motivate your potential customers to consistently take action, is fundamental to any marketing campaign. Otherwise, messages may not be targeted to the subconscious emotional wants and conscious rational needs of your target customers. Relevant and targeted marketing messages often require careful Service Positioning.
Service positioning is the process of determining the specific perceptions and impressions that must be established in the minds of your potential customers in order to motivate them to pursue and eventually select your professional services.
The Importance of Service Positioning
If you neglect the process of service positioning, than your lead generation and lead conversion messages will be left to chance and luck. However, if you carefully position your services with consideration to your target market understanding, than your ability to effectively speak to the emotional preferences and rational needs of your prospects will prompt them to action and increase your marketing success.
There are several important considerations to be made as part of the service positioning process. These considerations include the your relative standing in the marketplace, your unique service proposition (USP) or tag line, and your positioning statements.
In this article we will focus on the second of these considerations, your unique service proposition or tag line, and discuss how its effective development and implementation into your marketing communications will significantly improve the initial prospect engagement achieved using select lead generation channels.
The Power of Including a Unique Service Proposition (USP)
Your unique service proposition (USP) or tag line or slogan is one of the most powerful service positioning tools for effectively branding your professional practice and engaging a prospects subconscious emotional attention.
Your USB or tag line is a short phrase that conveys your service benefit. This USP is often added as a headline to business cards, websites, promotional literature, novelty items, your website, blog, email marketing campaigns, and other marketing strategies.
The purpose of headlining select lead generation channels with your tag line is profound. From the perspective of service branding, this string of words placed alongside your logo and company name are critical to defining your position within the marketplace. However, if properly executed, your tag line will not only brand your services, but initially grab the attention of your prospects, given its relevance to one of their common and significant emotional wants or needs. This is when the true power of the tag line is released because, by aligning with this emotional want, the USB will prompt their desire for more information on your professional practice, motivating them to fulfill just about any call to action (CTA) promoted as part of the lead generation strategy.
For this reason, your USP is an excellent vehicle to initially engage prospects, and bridge this initial exposure with a desire for more information, the precursor of course, to effective lead capturing. However, in order to grab a prospects attention, it is important that your USP is consistent with the needs and desires of you target clients, the benefits of your services, and conveys a service proposition with impact and punch.
Developing an Effective USP
In order to establish the greatest impact and punch, your USP must focus upon the emotional gratification that your customers will receive by selecting your services. A tag line may or may not communicate anything sensible. Some of the most successful USP's are vague to enable several different interpretations by the subconscious mind. The important thing to remember in developing a unique service proposition is that its true power comes from the associations developed in the subconscious mind. While there is no hard and fast rule for how to develop a tag line, here are a few important rules to consider.
1. Keep it short and memorable;
2. Focus on the promise of emotional gratification or your service benefit;
3. Make sure it's vague enough to capture a prospects imagination;
4. Make sure it's compatible with your client's perceptions of your relative standing in the marketplace; and
5. Make sure it is reflects a specific emotional want of a specific target market.
In our experience, unique service propositions may be classified into one of five broad categories. These five categories may include an Experimental Service USP; a Performance Service USP; a Value Service USP; a preemptive persuasion USP; or a sensory stimulating USP.
1. Experimental Service USP
There are two main experimental service USP's. The first often referred to as an experimental niche market USP takes the position that you are the only specialist or expert servicing a specific market or customer set. The second, often referred to as an experimental niche service USP, will emphasize an aspect of your professional practice that sets you apart from the competition. For example, if you were a financial advisor then you may state, "Achieve the Greatest Returns with Our Proprietary High Growth Investment System."
2. Performance Service USP
To establish a performance service USP, you may state your high relative performance or high relative standing in the marketplace. Performance service USP's have a tendency to be more explicit and rational then the remaining four broad categories. For example, if you were a mortgage agent then your USP may state, "Saving You Thousands of Dollars on Your Mortgage!"
3. Value Service USP
A value service USP will focus on offering the greatest benefit or greatest value for the price. While a value USP may start off vague to elicit the unconscious mind, it will often finish off with an explicit statement to rationalize the claim. For example, your value unique service position may be, "Not only another accountant, however the best value for your tax return". Value Service USP's have even been known to even offer service guarantees such as, "Significant weight loss or your money back, guaranteed!"
4. Preemptive Persuasion
With a preemptive persuasion you will favorably differentiate your service by establishing a link or association in your prospect's subconscious minds between your service and a positive emotion or gratification that your prospective customers are seeking. For example, a chiropractor may develop the USP, What is Relief?... John Doe Chiropractic. In this case, relief is the emotional gratification and John Doe is relief.
5. Sensory Stimulating USP
A sensory stimulating USP involves loading messages with emotional associations, brand imagery or sensory stimulation. While often ambiguous, the message will have a subconscious appeal, engaging the prospect to generate several subconscious interpretations. For instance, consider the marketing campaign of one Toronto real estate agent which employed the USP, "Why hire a lamb, when you can hire a tiger." The brand or service imagery was generated into ways. First, the message differentiated this agent's brokerage from another local brokerage branded by the broker's last name - Lamb. Second, the agent's physical pose in the marketing campaign delivered an impression of strength and success, including large tattoos of tigers on each of his folded arms. While the statement provided no practical message, the sensory package was memorable, exuding an image of power that attracted a young niche market that was looking to reinforce or reassure their competitive edge and strength in a competitive Toronto real estate market.
Implement Your USP Today
Your USP will not only be an exceptional branding tool for your business however a lead generation message that preempts prospects to desire more information on your company. Therefore, if you haven't already developed one, than do so today!
Remember, no matter the category of USP you select, it is imperative that you consider the emotional wants of your target market, your current relative standing, your service benefits and the preferences of your target markets.
By addressing each with impact and punch, your USP will drive prospects to fulfill your call to action and contribute immensely to your marketing and lead generation success!
Service positioning is the process of determining the specific perceptions and impressions that must be established in the minds of your potential customers in order to motivate them to pursue and eventually select your professional services.
The Importance of Service Positioning
If you neglect the process of service positioning, than your lead generation and lead conversion messages will be left to chance and luck. However, if you carefully position your services with consideration to your target market understanding, than your ability to effectively speak to the emotional preferences and rational needs of your prospects will prompt them to action and increase your marketing success.
There are several important considerations to be made as part of the service positioning process. These considerations include the your relative standing in the marketplace, your unique service proposition (USP) or tag line, and your positioning statements.
In this article we will focus on the second of these considerations, your unique service proposition or tag line, and discuss how its effective development and implementation into your marketing communications will significantly improve the initial prospect engagement achieved using select lead generation channels.
The Power of Including a Unique Service Proposition (USP)
Your unique service proposition (USP) or tag line or slogan is one of the most powerful service positioning tools for effectively branding your professional practice and engaging a prospects subconscious emotional attention.
Your USB or tag line is a short phrase that conveys your service benefit. This USP is often added as a headline to business cards, websites, promotional literature, novelty items, your website, blog, email marketing campaigns, and other marketing strategies.
The purpose of headlining select lead generation channels with your tag line is profound. From the perspective of service branding, this string of words placed alongside your logo and company name are critical to defining your position within the marketplace. However, if properly executed, your tag line will not only brand your services, but initially grab the attention of your prospects, given its relevance to one of their common and significant emotional wants or needs. This is when the true power of the tag line is released because, by aligning with this emotional want, the USB will prompt their desire for more information on your professional practice, motivating them to fulfill just about any call to action (CTA) promoted as part of the lead generation strategy.
For this reason, your USP is an excellent vehicle to initially engage prospects, and bridge this initial exposure with a desire for more information, the precursor of course, to effective lead capturing. However, in order to grab a prospects attention, it is important that your USP is consistent with the needs and desires of you target clients, the benefits of your services, and conveys a service proposition with impact and punch.
Developing an Effective USP
In order to establish the greatest impact and punch, your USP must focus upon the emotional gratification that your customers will receive by selecting your services. A tag line may or may not communicate anything sensible. Some of the most successful USP's are vague to enable several different interpretations by the subconscious mind. The important thing to remember in developing a unique service proposition is that its true power comes from the associations developed in the subconscious mind. While there is no hard and fast rule for how to develop a tag line, here are a few important rules to consider.
1. Keep it short and memorable;
2. Focus on the promise of emotional gratification or your service benefit;
3. Make sure it's vague enough to capture a prospects imagination;
4. Make sure it's compatible with your client's perceptions of your relative standing in the marketplace; and
5. Make sure it is reflects a specific emotional want of a specific target market.
In our experience, unique service propositions may be classified into one of five broad categories. These five categories may include an Experimental Service USP; a Performance Service USP; a Value Service USP; a preemptive persuasion USP; or a sensory stimulating USP.
1. Experimental Service USP
There are two main experimental service USP's. The first often referred to as an experimental niche market USP takes the position that you are the only specialist or expert servicing a specific market or customer set. The second, often referred to as an experimental niche service USP, will emphasize an aspect of your professional practice that sets you apart from the competition. For example, if you were a financial advisor then you may state, "Achieve the Greatest Returns with Our Proprietary High Growth Investment System."
2. Performance Service USP
To establish a performance service USP, you may state your high relative performance or high relative standing in the marketplace. Performance service USP's have a tendency to be more explicit and rational then the remaining four broad categories. For example, if you were a mortgage agent then your USP may state, "Saving You Thousands of Dollars on Your Mortgage!"
3. Value Service USP
A value service USP will focus on offering the greatest benefit or greatest value for the price. While a value USP may start off vague to elicit the unconscious mind, it will often finish off with an explicit statement to rationalize the claim. For example, your value unique service position may be, "Not only another accountant, however the best value for your tax return". Value Service USP's have even been known to even offer service guarantees such as, "Significant weight loss or your money back, guaranteed!"
4. Preemptive Persuasion
With a preemptive persuasion you will favorably differentiate your service by establishing a link or association in your prospect's subconscious minds between your service and a positive emotion or gratification that your prospective customers are seeking. For example, a chiropractor may develop the USP, What is Relief?... John Doe Chiropractic. In this case, relief is the emotional gratification and John Doe is relief.
5. Sensory Stimulating USP
A sensory stimulating USP involves loading messages with emotional associations, brand imagery or sensory stimulation. While often ambiguous, the message will have a subconscious appeal, engaging the prospect to generate several subconscious interpretations. For instance, consider the marketing campaign of one Toronto real estate agent which employed the USP, "Why hire a lamb, when you can hire a tiger." The brand or service imagery was generated into ways. First, the message differentiated this agent's brokerage from another local brokerage branded by the broker's last name - Lamb. Second, the agent's physical pose in the marketing campaign delivered an impression of strength and success, including large tattoos of tigers on each of his folded arms. While the statement provided no practical message, the sensory package was memorable, exuding an image of power that attracted a young niche market that was looking to reinforce or reassure their competitive edge and strength in a competitive Toronto real estate market.
Implement Your USP Today
Your USP will not only be an exceptional branding tool for your business however a lead generation message that preempts prospects to desire more information on your company. Therefore, if you haven't already developed one, than do so today!
Remember, no matter the category of USP you select, it is imperative that you consider the emotional wants of your target market, your current relative standing, your service benefits and the preferences of your target markets.
By addressing each with impact and punch, your USP will drive prospects to fulfill your call to action and contribute immensely to your marketing and lead generation success!
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
How To Get Traffic For My Website
"How to get traffic to my website"is a very common question regularly asked amongst Internet marketers.
Whether you are new to the business or a well-seasoned Internet traffic is something that can make or break your online business.
Some may classify traffic generation as a "Dark Art" which needs to be mastered. Truth be told there are many ways of generating traffic to your website, the trick is finding the method that is most suited to you.
Article marketing and forum posting are very popular methods of traffic generation as well as blogging, however there are a couple of methods that you may not have heard of...
Ever heard of Online Giveaways???
This is a great source of traffic generation, however you do need at least 500 people on your list before you can use this form of traffic generation.
How Does It Work?
There are numerous websites online that run online giveaways, all you need to do is look them up through your search engine.
Once you have found a site that you like you simply offer something to giveaway for free. This free gift would be the gift that you are offering on your squeeze page.
All you need to do is give your website details to the online giveaway provider and "hey presto" you have instant free traffic!
The only downside to this is that you need to have at least 500 people on your list to promote the giveaway to.
This is how the online giveaways survive and it would be unfair to utilise this resource without giving something back.
The second traffic source that I would like to share with you is...
FREE AD'S
This method involves using one of the online free ad websites such as Craigslist. This method can cost a little bit of money depending on your computer graphic skills.
You simply need a small advert created which advertises your squeeze page and post it on the free ad website in the niche that you are marketing for... FREE!
You can easily outsource the design of your banner/advert by approaching a site that specialises in designing online ad's. This shouldn't cost much more than $30.00.
This method can give you a quick surge of traffic and can be very effective if you post your ad on several sites.
There are numerous other traffic generating methods out there which may prove more fruitful for you, but if you feel like your in a traffic rut give one of these tried and tested methods a shot.
You never know they might give your campaign the boost it needs!
Whether you are new to the business or a well-seasoned Internet traffic is something that can make or break your online business.
Some may classify traffic generation as a "Dark Art" which needs to be mastered. Truth be told there are many ways of generating traffic to your website, the trick is finding the method that is most suited to you.
Article marketing and forum posting are very popular methods of traffic generation as well as blogging, however there are a couple of methods that you may not have heard of...
Ever heard of Online Giveaways???
This is a great source of traffic generation, however you do need at least 500 people on your list before you can use this form of traffic generation.
How Does It Work?
There are numerous websites online that run online giveaways, all you need to do is look them up through your search engine.
Once you have found a site that you like you simply offer something to giveaway for free. This free gift would be the gift that you are offering on your squeeze page.
All you need to do is give your website details to the online giveaway provider and "hey presto" you have instant free traffic!
The only downside to this is that you need to have at least 500 people on your list to promote the giveaway to.
This is how the online giveaways survive and it would be unfair to utilise this resource without giving something back.
The second traffic source that I would like to share with you is...
FREE AD'S
This method involves using one of the online free ad websites such as Craigslist. This method can cost a little bit of money depending on your computer graphic skills.
You simply need a small advert created which advertises your squeeze page and post it on the free ad website in the niche that you are marketing for... FREE!
You can easily outsource the design of your banner/advert by approaching a site that specialises in designing online ad's. This shouldn't cost much more than $30.00.
This method can give you a quick surge of traffic and can be very effective if you post your ad on several sites.
There are numerous other traffic generating methods out there which may prove more fruitful for you, but if you feel like your in a traffic rut give one of these tried and tested methods a shot.
You never know they might give your campaign the boost it needs!
Marketing Your Medical Practice With an Effective Web Presence
When it comes to marketing your medical practice, consider spreading the word on the World Wide Web. The results are staggering, and you'll be rewarded with patients' trust. We are living in the 21st century, and no longer can a medical practice survive merely on the basis of advertising through local media. The reason being, a majority of the world's population is shifting toward the Internet for all their medical concerns. Gone are the days when finding a relevant doctor was a hassle. Being a medical practitioner, you should be delighted as the power of the Internet makes your practice more visible. It has not only drastically reduced investment as compared to other means of marketing, but also provided high-quality online presence to healthcare professionals.
One of the crucial roles web marketing plays is that you can reach a wider audience. Considerable numbers of physicians try to achieve online presence on their own. However, if marketing is not your forte, you can always outsource it to reputed medical marketing agencies. Easy accessibility to the Internet has compelled healthcare professionals to hire Internet marketing companies. Simply put, seeing the current marketing trend, doctors from the past are also moving forward with the change.
There are multiple options for marketing through the web. All you require is a computer and an Internet connection. Spreading knowledge about your practice with a custom-made website is one of the most timesaving methods. A content-rich website including crucial information about operational hours, facilities provided and services can help you reach the target base. No matter how much you invest in other marketing techniques, you cannot neglect the influence of web marketing on the patients.
The success of your web promotion totally depends on how efficiently you use search engine optimization. There are certain keywords or phrases that patients search to find your practice online. Your web content should be composed of these keywords, as leading search engines will "crawl" for this content and subsequently determine your website's page ranking. Experts in SEO, who have deep knowledge of ever-changing Google algorithms, can help you achieve better online visibility. Once you hire SEO professionals, you can be certain that your website will be featured among the top pages of Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Another method, which has been dominating the world of medical marketing for the past few years, is social media. Understandably, drawing attention is different from building awareness. You can draw attention with custom-made websites, but you can expand your practice with social media. When you create your practice's profile at Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you connect with existing and potential patients. These websites are meant for social activities, and as a physician, you can use them to your advantage by sharing information about breakthrough cases, innovative policies, and modern facilities. The reason these sites have become a huge success is that not only do they give you a medium to interact with patients around the clock, but patients can also resolve their queries instantly.
Thousands of medical practices have attributed their success to an effective web presence. So what are you waiting for? If you don't have a web presence, establish it immediately. Now is the time to step up and give those prospective patients the medical information they deserve.
One of the crucial roles web marketing plays is that you can reach a wider audience. Considerable numbers of physicians try to achieve online presence on their own. However, if marketing is not your forte, you can always outsource it to reputed medical marketing agencies. Easy accessibility to the Internet has compelled healthcare professionals to hire Internet marketing companies. Simply put, seeing the current marketing trend, doctors from the past are also moving forward with the change.
There are multiple options for marketing through the web. All you require is a computer and an Internet connection. Spreading knowledge about your practice with a custom-made website is one of the most timesaving methods. A content-rich website including crucial information about operational hours, facilities provided and services can help you reach the target base. No matter how much you invest in other marketing techniques, you cannot neglect the influence of web marketing on the patients.
The success of your web promotion totally depends on how efficiently you use search engine optimization. There are certain keywords or phrases that patients search to find your practice online. Your web content should be composed of these keywords, as leading search engines will "crawl" for this content and subsequently determine your website's page ranking. Experts in SEO, who have deep knowledge of ever-changing Google algorithms, can help you achieve better online visibility. Once you hire SEO professionals, you can be certain that your website will be featured among the top pages of Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Another method, which has been dominating the world of medical marketing for the past few years, is social media. Understandably, drawing attention is different from building awareness. You can draw attention with custom-made websites, but you can expand your practice with social media. When you create your practice's profile at Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you connect with existing and potential patients. These websites are meant for social activities, and as a physician, you can use them to your advantage by sharing information about breakthrough cases, innovative policies, and modern facilities. The reason these sites have become a huge success is that not only do they give you a medium to interact with patients around the clock, but patients can also resolve their queries instantly.
Thousands of medical practices have attributed their success to an effective web presence. So what are you waiting for? If you don't have a web presence, establish it immediately. Now is the time to step up and give those prospective patients the medical information they deserve.
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