It is 2017; You Need a Responsive Website

Responsive sites are not built with any device in mind. Instead, they are built to be scalable to any device, no matter its size. It is a huge leap forward from mobile sites. These were sites built only for mobile devices. It usually requires the site owner to create two sites; one for mobile and the other for desktop devices. On the other hand, responsive sites can adapt to any existing or future devices.

Shopping on Mobile Devices is growing

One of the reasons why you should create a responsive site is that mobile shoppers are growing steadily. Recent data indicates that 80% of all Americans have shopped through their phone at one time or another. Failing to make the site responsive could lead to some serious losses.

It Affects a Site’s SEO Ranking

With Google having recognized that most people now use their mobile devices to access the internet, it edited its algorithm. The new update to the Google algorithm ranks sites with responsiveness higher. Google considers a responsive site to be crucial to helping customers get the most relevant results from it.

It Reduces the Bounce Rate

When a site is built to be responsive on multiple devices, it helps with the retention rate. Bounce rate is another factor that may influence how Google ranks a site. Additionally, it affects how easily customers can navigate through the site. If they have a hard time navigating, there is little chance of successful conversion.

More Than Half of All Traffic Comes from Mobile Devices

Most sites now report that over half of their traffic is from mobile devices. It is not that hard to find a good web developer to augment the site. Additionally, the costs involved in making the site more responsive can be recovered from the increased conversion rates.

Increasing Your Bottom Line: 3 Direct Marketing Tips for 2017

The promise of lower taxes and fewer regulations has many business owners excited about what 2017 is going to bring. Will your bottom line increase in the new year? There’s a good possibility it will, but you shouldn’t wait on legislation to make it happen. Take matters into your own hands and make more money with these direct marketing tips.

Start Trending

If you haven’t jumped on the social media bandwagon, do it now. According to Aabaco Small Business, 74 percent of consumers say that social media played a role in their purchasing decisions. If you don’t have a presence on social media, you’re missing out on sales. In fact, social media is so influential and effective, that many small businesses and startups rely on it solely for their marketing needs.

Get Personal

People don’t pay attention to impersonal, bulk marketing campaigns anymore. Think about it, what’s the first thing you do when you get a letter that’s obviously junk mail? Do you open it? No, you chuck it straight in the trash bin. Your potential customers do the same thing. If you want to get their attention, make your marketing personal. Instead of sending a mass generic email, send a postcard that addresses a need they have.

Sell Solutions

Building on the above statement about consumer’s needs, you should always try to sell solutions and not products. If you can identify your base’s needs and address them through education and product knowledge, you will never have to make a hard sale again. Consumers will see the need for your product and make the decision to buy on their own and quicker.

This year is your year to make more money than ever before. If you want a huge bottom line in 2017, adjust your marketing strategies to make it happen.

Diversity is the Key for Effective Marketing

More than ever before, marketing cannot be one-dimensional and achieve success. Regardless of the business or brand that you want to promote, you’ll need to use an assortment of marketing strategies to achieve your desired results. Just like it takes a variety of building materials to build a house, it will take variety to build your marketing strategy. Here are some things to consider regarding marketing diversity.

Social Media

Many businesses still haven’t recognized that social media platforms are crucial for effective marketing. The big four include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Although it can be overwhelming to think of mastering these, an attempt to master at least one starting out would be a good idea.

The reality is that this form of marketing takes time and that requires money. If you don’t yet have the resources to launch an all-out social media blitz, that’s no problem. Take small steps to start. Later, you can get involved in more of these platforms and post more frequently.

Personal Website

It should go without saying that if you don’t have a personal website, potential customers won’t take your business seriously. They may figure that you’re just a scammer or that you’ll deliver products or services that are below par. Your website is often the first impression that a customer has about your business. Invest the resources to make sure that it’s a good impression.

More and more businesses are investing in content marketing for their websites. This often means that a blog is present on their company website. Content marketing on your website accomplishes several key things.

It adds value to your website in the eyes of Google, causing your site to rank higher. It also gives your customers free, helpful information and sets you up as an authority who can solve their complex problems.

As already shared, the importance of marketing diversity can’t be understated. There are plenty of other forms of marketing to consider as well such as email, event marketing, calling, direct mail, print and web ads, press releases and more. By combining several, your marketing strategy will become effective.

Top Ways to Cross Sell Your Products

Cross-selling is the process of selling an additional product that is related to the customer’s original purchase. Cross-selling is a vital tool businesses can use to increase sales as well as add value to the customer’s experience. Here are some tips businesses should consider to help improve their cross-selling sales numbers.

Listen for the Cues  

It is incredibly important to listen to your client’s needs and react to what they are telling you will appropriate products. When customers are presented with products that have no connection to the current needs, they will perceive that you do not value them. For example, if a customer is shopping for a computer make sure you know who the computer is for as the product you cross sell if they are purchasing for their child needs to be different than if they are buying for their husband.

Create a Sense of Urgency

Once you have determined a product that may add value to the customer’s original purchase you should create a sense of urgency. This can be done by pointing out the additional product is only available for a limited time or that you are running low on inventory. If you are offering a discount on the additional purchase you can also remind the customer that the discount is only available for a limited time.

Use Incentives

You can increase your cross-sell numbers by offering your customers something for purchasing an additional item. For example, if a customer if buying an item for $35 offer them free shipping on all orders over $50 or offer 10% all orders over a certain amount.

Bundle Up

There is a reason fast food meal deals work so well and it is because customers are buying products that fit together at an attractive price. There is nothing stopping you from adopting the value meal strategy with your products. Bundle up products that make sense together and offer them at a good price and customers will be naturally drawn to it.

The holiday season is a wonderful time to up your cross-selling game as customers are always looking for one more gift to put under the tree!

Keeping a Strong Relationship With Your Clients and Prospects Using Social Media

The power of social media can affect your business in a dramatic way. Getting it correct, however, can be a challenge. Generally, the fundamentals of good business communications apply to social media as well. So here are four points to help build a solid foundation and grow a better relationship with your customers.

Listen Closely

Read more and talk less. People have a tendency to open up on social media. They’ll tell you plenty and appreciate that you took the time to listen. You’ll get candid feedback-and-insight into what’s important, and what’s not, in the relationship.

Post Quality

Be careful what you post. No post is better than a bad post. Remember, these are people you want to do business with. In their minds, the quality of what you put out there represents the quality of how you do business. Also, if you publish interesting content, your followers may share it with their followers.

Be Consistent

One of the best ways to maintain a strong relationship with your clients and prospects is to be there on a regular basis. Don’t post and disappear. Consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Have a daily routine to check and update your social media. This will send your contacts a message that you value their conversation.

Promote Others

Promote others and they’ll promote you. Spend some time sharing and talking about content published by your followers. There’s a good chance they will do the same for you.

So remember, while the medium may be different, the same rules apply to social media as they do to any other form of good communication.

What Is Keeping Your Customers Up at Night? And How to Ease Their Minds

Fear and worry are most likely keeping your customers up at night. These concerns run the gamut of topics such as financial, health, interpersonal, web related and more. Regardless of the industry that you’re in, every night there are people with “pain points” specific to something that you can help to resolve. With a little effort, you can discover your customers’ worries and provide them a helping hand.

Step 1: Gather Information

Although you may have an idea of the problems that your customers are dealing with, it will take some work to understand them fully. You’ll need to gather information, preferably from different sources, to find out their problems.

Seek out opportunities to talk with them face to face. You’ll also benefit from sending out a brief survey by email to your customers. Why not have a few rating questions and end it with asking them about what their worries are? You can also scour the web to find out what is bothering customers in your industry. Read customer reviews about products or services that are similar to your own.

PPC expert, Robert Brady suggests getting some help from Google. Start typing an industry-related search phrase and see how google tries to guess what you’ll ask. Google does this based on things that people have searched for in the past. Brady, on blog.ispionae.com, says, “These queries show you areas that people are concerned about. They are windows into the hearts and minds of your potential customers and offer you opportunities if your product can solve the issue.

Step 2: Interpret Your Findings

Once you’ve gone through the step to find the answer to what is keeping your customer awake at night, you’ll want to bring all your research together. Preferably in a group, sift through your findings and find reoccurring customer concerns that you may have missed in the past. These are the problems for which you’ll want to provide solutions.

Step 3: Implement a Plan to Help

Although every plan will differ in the details, there are some things that all businesses should do. Communicate with your customers and alleviate their fears. You can reassure customers through your website. You can also provide videos, blog articles, snail mail, email and personal interaction where you discuss and address these concerns. Lastly, you’ll want to do all that you can to make good on your promises so that your customers can happily walk away with a solution.

How to increase web traffic with your direct mail piece

Nothing surpasses the effectiveness of a direct mail when used correctly, in driving that much-needed traffic to your website.  Why so? By placing more emphasis on a specific market, using a particular call-to-action, the response is ultimately maximized in this segment.

Increasing website traffic via direct mail involves a combination of tact and skill to grasp recipients’ attention.  Essentially, it involves the same strategies used to drive recipients to pick a call but instead of leaving a number for them to get back, you include a URL with an incentive to get the recipient to visit.  The incentive is what separates the good from the best; it should be carefully crafted to maximize response.
Below are a few tips to achieve this;

  • Use a simple URL; remember the direct mail URL is not clickable, this means it has to be simple and straightforward for a user to key it into a browser. The tip here is to make it easier to spell to avoid typing errors from the recipients’ end.
  • Include a convincing reason for the recipients to visit your site; a URL by itself is not enough, place a strong offer in your mail that will entice recipients to visit your website. You can include some cash discounts or a free trial depending on your line of work.
  •  Drop in a clear call to action; a call to action guarantees a greater response rate; the more specific you are, the better. For example, if you can include a line like, “visit this URL, sign up and get a discount on your first purchase.”
  • Include a deadline; a deadline gives a sense of time and urgency to your mail campaign.  Recipients are more likely to act on it before the deadline expires. This will drive more traffic to your website before the deadline expires.

Direct mail strategy is tailored to meet the needs of a specific audience, and research has shown its superiority in yielding results when applied to perfection.

Direct Mail Marketing Tips to Boost Response Rates

Direct mail marketing is not dead. On the contrary, many companies still have great success doing things the old-fashioned way. They’re just more focused on what they send, who they send it to, and how they send it. So make your next campaign a success with these helpful tips:

Target your market

Don’t sell sand in the desert. Get the right offers to the right people. High customer response rates come from good targeting. So make sure you’re investing time and resources into effective customer targeting.

Include a call-to-action.

One of the most important parts of any mailing is the call to action. Be concise and tell readers exactly what you want them to do and what they’ll get for doing it.

Use innovative packaging.

Bulky mail stands out and attracts more interest. A recent study done by the Canadian Postal Service revealed that 85% of people will open mail if it “looks interesting.”

Provide potential customers with multiple ways to respond.

Include an email address, an 800 number, and your web address. According to the Direct Mail Marketing Association %43 of direct mail recipients prefer to respond online as opposed to an email or a phone call.

Offer your customers something to get excited about

You’ll most likely be investing a lot of time and money into your direct mail marketing campaign. Make sure you have an exceptional offer for your customers. Everyone loves a good coupon or a great sale. Make sure to give them something exciting to act on.

One last tip

Repeat the offer in bold type throughout the letter. Most readers usually skim instead of reading the entire message. You’ll want to make sure that they can pick up your offer in every section of the mailer.

Design Fundraising Direct Mail That Works

Simplicity is ultimate sophistication when it comes to designing your fundraising direct mail. It needs to be in such a way that grabs the recipient’s attention. Indeed, the more details you add, the more likely that your mail will end being trashed. Below are three vital ideas to incorporate in your mail’s design that actually work.

  • Pre-empt what they will see first and make it visible

Most people only skim through mails. Making sure that your headings are bolded ascertains that your reader has a higher chance of noticing your message. Ensure that pictures incorporated on your mail have captions, and that the PS is in bold. Your recipient should just glance at your mail, see and understand what it is about and heed the call to action.

  • Make it brief

In as much as your mail needs to be compelling, making it long only increases the probability of it losing meaning. Design it in such a way that it has great but contextual content. Try not to sound too corporate while picking out a message. Practicing a little ‘donor-centricity’ by not necessarily praising your course but by appraising your donors could also increase your intended fundraising proceeds. Make use of bullet point and short paragraphs as they are easier to skim through.

  • Be specific

Prior knowledge of your intended audience forearms you with knowledge on how much they could be able to raise. People tend to give more when you give them a certain range of specific amounts. Therefore, including a phrase such as ,’Your most generous contribution of $100,$150, $200 or more will go a long way in helping us realize our objective’, will work in your favor.

Fundraising through direct mail is a less costly way of raising money. Done the right way, it is the most efficient method of reaching out to potential donors.

 

5 Ways to Stand Out From the Competition In Sales

5 Ways to Stand Out From the Competition In Sales

Are you looking for some ways to separate yourself as the best when it comes to sales? Doing so doesn’t just happen. It takes intentional steps gained through knowledge and experience. Here are 5 ways to do that.

Leave the Competition Alone

Bringing up the competition rarely benefits you. It’s like taking a stick and stirring up a bee’s nest. Simply walk by the nest and keep going. Although it may seem that the opposite is true, the people you’re relating to want to hear about your products. Running down the competition will make them less impressed with you and put them on the defensive. You’ll show yourself as more mature, competent and professional if you stay on the high road.

Offer Better Prices

Everyone must make money to function and businesses are no different. Understandably, the focus is often on how to make more money. You may fear that offering better prices will lose you money but not necessarily. Look for ways that you can cut costs and transfer some of those savings to your customer and you’ll start getting noticed more.

Become an Industry Expert

Learn everything you can about your industry. Leave no doubt in your customers’ minds that you know exactly what you are talking about. That sort of expertise takes time to develop. Find a few new ways every week to get better and wow your customers.

Embrace Your Uniqueness

You are unique in ways that no one else is. Unfortunately, the tendency is to suppress these differences. Being yourself will break down barriers and build relationships. Are you humorous, compassionate or non-threatening? Anyone will appreciate those qualities. No one likes to interact with a sales machine. Real, authentic people interactions are always more fun and sell more. This is true of both personal interaction and advertising. When it comes to being authentic, salesforce.com has this to say: “Be yourself, be interesting, be interested.”

Highlight Benefits

Anyone can rattle off a bunch of facts or features about their products. Although this can be interesting to potential customers, it doesn’t scratch them where they itch. Show them all the benefits they will experience in life by choosing you instead. That will set you apart much better than quoting rote facts. Facts are like a frozen pizza just pulled out of the freezer. Benefits are a slice of delicious, hot pizza on a plate from a restaurant. They’re easier for the customer to digest.

Being different makes all the difference in sales. Ask yourself every day how you can be unique so customers can’t help but pay you a visit. That’s a place where every business can eventually be.