Web events are great for building brand awareness, positioning your company as an expert in the industry and generating sales leads. From Webcasts, Web Conferences and Webinars, these content driven techniques work very well in B2B environments, where you can adapt them for product demos, market research presentations and/or educational sessions in exchange for contact information. 

With that said, don’t poison the effort with overt sales pitches and marketing messaging.  In the beginning, it’s all about the audience; if they respond with interest, you can then start communicating your specific value proposition. 

Depending on the audience and purpose, you can promote a Web event like any other online offering.  Your goal is to capture a targeted and captive audience and to deliver quality content, allowing 15-45 minutes of uninterrupted user contact.  Make sure you segment leads via the signup form about registrants’ levels of interest, so you can easily follow-up on the most profitable leads first.  

Webcasts: Generally refers to a live, video-only, Internet broadcast.  Inherently passive, it’s delivered from one speaker to many listeners, often 50 or more.  Mostly, works best in B2C environments for performance events, entertainment and/or educational content.   

Web Conferences:  Primarily used for small group presentations that are data or document driven.  Web conferences support two-way interaction and are generally used near the close of the sales cycle.  Conferences mostly involve some combination of teleconferencing, PowerPoint presentations, live desktop-based whiteboards, and chat software. 

Webinars: Webinars are the most complex format, mixing multimedia components such as one-way audio conference, PowerPoint presentations, (sometimes video), whiteboarding, live polls or surveys and one way instant messaging for participants to submit questions. 

Making Webinars Work

Designed to reach a large number of participants over a widespread geographic region, Webinars generally require a sequence of activities to be successful: promotion, registration, confirmation and reminder emails, thank you messages, access to presentation materials, usually recorded Webinars for those who couldn’t attend, and feedback via surveys.   

Expect fall-off from registration to attendance; perhaps only 30-40% of pre-registrants actually show up.  Of those, you’ll probably find only 5-10% of your registrants are close to sales ready.  Move carefully in these environments.  Use these opportunities to build credibility and trust.  Establish a relationship and answer questions objectively.  Timing is everything. 

Here are some tips for planning Webinars: 

1. Focus on high quality, relevant content to attract a strong attendance.
2. Your promotion should clearly answer, “What’s in if for me (WIIFM)?” 
3. Consider paid ADV or newsletter sponsorships to promote your Web event.
4. Record and post your Web event on your web site to provide ongoing value.
5. Obtain feedback via online surveys – maybe even share the feedback as part of your follow-up “thank you” email.
6. Always include contact information for future contact.

Consider Web events as premium branding and lead generation opportunities.  Various web-based solutions are available from Gotowebinar, Microsoft Live Meeting, or WebEx, just to name a few.  Have ideas to share, please do in comments below.

Marketing is critical to business growth.  Unless a business focuses on and aligns their offerings with specific needs targeted towards a specific market segment, a business will not succeed. 

With that, marketing is the process of “maneuvering” an organization towards the success of selling a product or service that people need or want and are willing to pay for.  From anticipating customers’ future needs and wants (market research), to providing a product roadmap (product marketing) to then communicating, promoting, distributing and selling – marketing spans many areas of business.

In an attempt to guide customers towards a specific offering, effective marketing must be entirely clear on defining and communicating its’ value proposition (or set of benefits) to a set of targeted end users – then actually delivering on that value through the offerings presented.  In creating awareness, it’s essential those top value points are communicated through the various marketing channels of communication.

What is Direct Marketing? 

Direct marketing is a channel of marketing primarily focused on “lead generation” and emphasizes trackable and measurable results per campaign.  There are two main characteristics that distinguish it from other types of marketing.  

1. Direct marketing attempts to send its messages directly to a highly targeted group of consumers, without the use of intervening “mass media” such as radio or TV.  This always involves direct communication with consumers or businesses (many times unsolicited) including; email marketing, direct mail, telemarketing, fax campaigns, door hangers, and more.  

2. Direct marketing is focused on driving sales directly attributed to a specific “call-to-action.”  Whatever medium is used, “direct response advertising” asks the prospect to take a specific action usually within a specified timeframe (i.e. call by end of week and receive 25% discount). 

In turn, direct marketing usually offers a clearer picture on ROI then other marketing channels thus providing marketers a much needed tactical approach which can provide results both sales and management teams can easily relate to and understand - so that in your next meeting when they ask “what have you done for me lately” your reports will justify all activities and expenses. And what a thrill that is.

Email is a great tool and can be used effectively for direct marketing programs if done properly; however, there can be low rates of return, you can risk annoying would-be customers, and have to understand spam guidelines to avoid a negative impact. 

With that said, email marketing is a powerful medium if you carefully craft an effective campaign.  Here are 9 ideas to help you succeed: 

1.     Don’t rent email lists.  Don’t learn the hard way.  At first, it may seem like a good idea – paying a low price for thousands of names and emails.   However, most of the time the quality isn’t there (i.e. the demographics aren’t highly targeted, many emails are outdated, etc…) and there’s the risk of being accused of spamming, which quickly diminishes credibility.  You never really know what you’re getting.  So don’t do it! 

2.     Build your own list.  There are many good ways to build an email marketing list.  On your web site have visitors opt-in (whether for a newsletter, at check-out or when completing an online form).  In your retail establishment, ask customers whether they’d like to receive email communications from your business when they are paying for their purchase.  With that, don’t make it a simple request - be specific about what’s in it for them (i.e. get a bonus, receive discounts, learn about special sales and events, and more).  Sell them on the value of the communications and guide them into signing up. 

3.     Be clear about your value.  Make sure your emails are exciting and full of substance.  The communications should be informative and useful.  Offer tips, ideas, suggestions… things of value to your customer.  Use the email’s subject line to announce the offer upfront. 

4.     Be consistent.  You should view your email marketing communications as ongoing dialogue between you and your customers and prospects.  Consistency is key.  Schedule your emails weekly or monthly based on the communication needs of your business.  Also, be consistent with formatting and type of content you provide.  Work towards having customers anticipate your next communication. 

5.     Keep it simple.  From layout and design to the amount of content you include, make sure your communications are easy to read and pleasing to the eye.  Limit the content to only “pure value”.  Bring in a marketing writer to at least review your content.  The best way to fine tune this creation cycle is to collect samples of emails that work and emulate their structure, design and basic content blocks.  Always proof your work many times over. 

6.     Be aware of spam triggers.  Many people use spam filters.  While they are helpful for the end consumer, they make your job more challenging.  They keep you from reaching your customers and prospects.  Arm yourself by understanding what types of words are likely to set off spam filters (i.e. FREE, Special Offer, etc…).  Many email marketing tools have “spam checkers” built in as part of their service.  If not, you can easily find one.  It’s important to educate yourself to be effective. 

7.     Effective campaign management.  Another challenge to email marketing is actually managing your campaigns.  Once you have the customer data, you need to be able to segment and target them, manage the data sets, the campaigns and the communications within those campaigns.   There are many great companies offering effective and affordable services – from the basic (www.icontact.com) to the more elaborate and more expensive (www.Eloqua.com).   These are just 2 of many, so do your research to be sure you find the right one. 

8.     Make it easy.  Make sure it’s easy to sign-up; from a quick form in retail to 1-click opt-in on web sites - make it painless to join. Also, make it easy for readers to pass along your communications.  By nature, email is viral – so encourage people to pass it on.  Lastly, make it easy to opt-out.  The ability to unsubscribe is key to following spam guidelines and keep your would-be customers happy. 

9.     Test for effectiveness.  From testing your campaigns before you send them to reviewing metrics of specific campaigns after sending them, make sure you understand what’s working and what’s not.  Take corrective action based on those results.    

Summary:  Email marketing is an effective marketing tool once you understand the limitations and empower yourself with the knowledge on how to create, optimize and deliver successful campaigns.  Do your research to ensure success.

Please post your ideas and suggestions below for further dialogue. 

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business (MERCHANT or Advertiser) rewards affiliate partners (or PUBLISHERS) for each visitor or customer directed to the Merchant’s site - which is brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.  Referrals are usually generated by placing Merchant links on the affiliate’s web site, then affiliates aggressively marketing their web site, in turn referring (driving traffic to) the Merchant’s site thus earning a referral fee or commission.  To date, the affiliate marketing model has evolved to not only include web site owners but bloggers and forum activists as well. 

Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of internet marketing, including affiliate networks (i.e. Linkshare, Commission Junction, Performics and more), affiliate management companies and in-house affiliate managers, specialized 3rd party vendors, and various types of affiliates/publishers who promote the products and services of their partners. 

Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods including organic SEO, paid SEM, email marketing and banner advertising. Sometimes however, affiliates use “black hat” techniques like publishing bogust product / service reviews to promote Merchant offers. 

Affiliate Marketing is an Entrepreneurial Venture

Affiliate marketing is driven by entrepreneurs at the forefront of internet marketing. Affiliates are usually the first to take advantage of new emerging trends where established advertisers are generally not active. Affiliates primarily learn by “trial and error”, which is also why most affiliates fail before they earn significant income to become “super affiliates” who generate thousands of dollars in commissions per month.  Many compare Affiliate Marketing to offline MLM and Network Marketing.

Brief History of Affiliate Marketing

Since the beginning of Affiliate Marketing, through it’s 10+ year history, there have been many failed attempts at creating an industry organization to  provide regulations, standards and guidelines.  For now, it is a self-regulated industry.  

The only places where varying industry people come together are via online forums and/or industry trade shows. The online forums are free and anonymous where even small affiliates can have a big voice. Trade shows are not anonymous, but most affiliates are not able to attend those events for financial reasons.  

CPA Networks vs. the Affiliate Model 

Most recently, there has been a threat to the traditional Affiliate Marketing model by CPA Networks (CPA= Cost Per Action) such as AzoogleAds or Hydra Network. Traditional affiliate marketing involves significant resource allocation and requires a lot of maintenance including the management, monitoring and support of affiliates. CPA Networks on the other hand eliminate the need for the Merchant / Advertiser to build and maintain relationships with affiliates, because that task is performed by the CPA Network for the Advertiser, who simply puts an offer out, which is in almost every case a CPA based offer.  From there, the CPA Networks take care of the rest by mobilizing their affiliates to promote specified offer. CPS or Revenue Share offers are rarely found at CPA Networks, which is the main compensation model of classic affiliate marketing.          

Lead generation refers to the creation or generation of prospective consumer interest into a business’ specified offering.  In general, lead generation is associated with marketing activities targeted at generating sales opportunities for a company’s salesforce.  (Marketers are the gatherers –the salesforce are the hunters.) 

• A lead is a prospective customer, who has provided their information and shown interest in making a possible purchase.

• Generation activities are the marketing initiatives that produce a perceived interest as well as customer information.

How Lead Generation Works

 Lead generation depends entirely on the decision making process of a buyer. 

§         Complex Sales Cycle: For a complex sales cycle, the key is to identify the most likely prospects and then educate and further qualify them before spending more time, money and resources on them.  The education benefits the buyer; qualification benefits the seller.  This gradual lead cultivation process can go on for months and includes several individuals involved in evaluating a solution.

• Commodity Sales Cycle:  For commodity offerings, the issue is connecting consumers at the right time, place or interest cycle.   Companies have to sift through unqualified candidates to find the few qualified candidates that are looking for a particular product or service.

Although there are several marketing approaches, most involve one of two primary methodologies: Broadcast or Concentration. 

• BROADCAST involves communicating to a broad set of candidates with the expectation of a statistical response back to the marketer. (Advertising is a classic example of broadcast marketing.)

• CONCENTRATION involves identifying and creating a specific set of well-matched candidates into a broadcast-effective sub-set. (Vertical segmentation and trade shows are classic examples of concentration marketing strategies.)

Lead Generation Methods

 Lead generation can utilize various marketing methods including: 

• Broadcast Advertising
• Direct Mail
• Event or Tradeshow marketing
• Seminar or Training
• Publicity and Public Relations
• Whitepapers or Product Literature
• Email marketing
• Web marketing (Search Engine Optimization or other Internet Media buying)
• Telemarketing

Internet Lead Generation

Since 2000, an increasing number of sales organizations have been shifting their direct marketing budgets to Internet marketing initiatives. The Internet allows for the development of extremely targeted lead generation campaign offering geographic, demographic, and contextual targeting opportunities. 

Capture Lead Information

Lead Acquisition is one of the most critical activities within the lead generation process. Identifying or attracting a prospective customer is an expensive and complex task, which becomes even more so if you do not have mechanisms to capture that information for action, some of which include: web forms, email, inbound calls, business cards, inquiry cards, scanners and more. 

In all, lead generation is one of the most impactful marketing initiatives a company can plan and budget for.  With that, all lead generation programs should involve ROI metrics once completed to in fact show results and revenue return.

Landing pages are often confused with splash pages, bridge pages, jump pages and microsites. 

• Splash pages are graphic introductions - often full screen - to web content, mostly upon entry to a web site.  Usually, splash pages are made in flash and allow the user to skip them, which almost all visitors will.  In general, splash pages are an extremely bad idea.  Visitors usually dislike them and your site traffic will generally plummet as a result of having placed this barrier in front of it.

• Bridge pages (a.k.a. doorway, portal, and gateway pages) are designed to be particularly enticing for search engines, not visitors.

• Jump pages attract attention to a particular offer or event.  They must be navigated through to get to the desired content.

• Microsites are a cross between a landing page and a regular web site.  They often have their own domain names, and even brands separate from the organization’s brand.  They are used when a marketer wants to offer a user an extended experience for branding or educational purposes.  Many times a visitor might even return to a specified microsite as a destination.

• Although landing pages can have several linked pages, they generally don’t allow many navigational options.  You can move forward through the conversion process, or you can leave.  On the other hand, microsites invite you to explore and look around within the experience.

Market Segmentation: Dividing your market into smaller sets of prospects who share certain characteristics; you need to segment and prioritize your markets. 

For online marketing initiatives, you need to locate the various sites on the Internet where your target audience hangs out, so you need to know who they are.  (Please keep in mind your online target audience might differ slightly from your offline audience.  You discover the variations only by experience.)

 Types of Market Segmentation: 

• Demographic segmentation (B2C):  Sorts by age, gender, socioeconomic status or education for B2C companies.
• Lifecycle segmentation (B2C): Realizing consumers need different products at different stages of life (teens, young singles, married couples, families with kids, empty nesters, active retirees, frail elderly and more).
• Specialty segmentation (Mostly B2C):  Targets a narrowly defined “very niche” market (i.e. 35 year old male owners of classic Mustangs)
• Geographic segmentation (B2C or B2B):  Targets areas as small as a neighborhood or zip code or as broad as a country or continent.
• Vertical Industry segmentation (B2B):  Targets all elements within a defined industry as a B2B strategy.
• Job segmentation (B2B):  Identifies different decisions makers (such as engineers, purchasing agents, and managers) at specific points of the B2B sales cycle.

Recommendation: Focus on one market segment at a time, gain market share and profits and then invest in the next market segment.  Otherwise, your limited marketing time and advertising funds are spread too thin to have a significant impact. 

Check out one of my favorite images below depicting the marketing/sales funnel.  From generating new leads/top of the sales funnel, to developing leads/middle of sales funnel to finally closing qualified leads/sales revenue opportunities.  To me, the image below really shows how marketing activities make a direct and ongoing impact on the sales cycle.  Effective, targeted and consistant marketing initiatives are critical to sales success.  If your marketing and sales teams are in “lock-step” with each other as well as with the prospective customer, success is inevitable.

Image is kinda hard to read, so click to enlarge >>

An integrated marketing automation solution I am presently evaluating for one of my clients is Eloqua.  Have you heard of it?  What do you know about it? Or, what marketing automation tool/s are you using and having success with?

Lead scoring:  Automatically rank qualified leads using common “lead quality” definitions like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need & Timeline)