No amount of capturable data can tell you when someone is unsatisfied with a situation and willing to pay good money to solve it. There can be digital clues left here and there but there is no tracking mechanism for the human psyche. Despite all the efforts attempting to control your behavior and mine, we still act on our own volition.

Top of Mind Rotation

Whatever you’re selling, you think people need it or will be better off having it. The problem is they are doing fine without it, until they aren’t! This is why regular newsletter-style updates that include valuable, problem-solving information should continually be placed in front of your customers and prospects.

As long as you keep including interesting tidbits and valuable content, your audience will welcome getting your regular updates. When they need something, and your newsletter hits them with an expert recommendation that’s relevant, it’s as if they just got a referral to your business. Something like, “Oh, I should just call these guys, now that I’m thinking about it!”

Newsletters Fill the Gaps

Over the last ten years, our email newsletter has generated over 30% of our clientele. It’s almost predictable. Not every newsletter generates new business but about 1 out of every 4 or 5 does, and this result has been consistent over the years. It works like this:

1. Be curious! Get really interested in conversations with all of your business associates about what’s going on in their companies and industries.
2. Attend business events, have conversations and make mental notes. Then capture the notes!
3. Build themes and topics around your industry’s problem-solving opportunities. Think in the terms of the expert that you are.
4. Write articles and make videos that address specific market needs and publish them on a regular basis – monthly or more often when possible.
5. Publish an email newsletter with front-loaded, value-based summary information about your article and link to it.
6. Proactively contact audience members who show repeated interest though your analytics. Suggest one-on-one networking meetings.

Notice the simplicity and logic of this B2B direct marketing approach. Add it to your marketing mix, especially if email is missing or spotty. With regard to items 1 – 6, they can all be outsourced effectively. We welcome questions about these services.

Regularity is Perfect Timing

Most businesses need to stay connected with their customers and associates to remain relevant in their market. Doing so on a regular basis is the key and email is one of the best ways.

Beyond this simple approach, the power and sophistication of marketing automation can bring your integrated digital campaigns to new levels. Some companies need it. Others don’t. It really depends on how the pipeline is best filled and that can be different for every organization.

One thing is certain. When prospects identify you as the resource for them and reach out to engage, you’ve struck gold! New business that’s generated from your strategic marketing efforts feels really good, fits well and lasts long.

The post Timing is Everything in Needs-based Marketing appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

There are countless ways to grow your business! And it probably takes more than two of them to succeed, so what could we be talking about here?

Growing a B2B business starts with a net new client premise. If you own the business, you’re probably thinking a lot about how to grow it and maintain steady growth. I bet you have a few key prospects in mind and are thinking about when you might call them. When one of them calls you, you’re giddy!

Don’t worry, this isn’t about cold calling vs inbound marketing.

During a recent meeting, my colleague Matt Barden from Industrial Marketing distilled business development down to its essence and I may be paraphrasing. “New business comes in two ways; making calls or getting calls. You call or you get the call.” In both cases, the sale is up to you. Simple maybe, and simple is what works! I can’t count how many cold calls I’ve received from marketing automation companies in the last year but it was at least 5 or 6 and they all tell me they do it because it works. Ironically, their services promise more warm leads with fewer cold calls.

As a potential reseller, I’m a good target for their calls so I expect and welcome them.

This is not about cold calling nor is it about getting back to basics.  Rather, you need to start thinking about having the data/intelligence to make really effective outbound calls and get well-qualified inbound calls as well. Then your firing on all marketing cylinders!

Create and Use Intelligence!

You can have realtime market intelligence coming from individuals at known companies that tell you when to call the prospect and what they’re interested in. At the same time, you’ll be receiving inbound calls and leads based on your strategic online campaign that’s bringing intelligent content to your target audience.

Hopefully, you’ll close more deals when that happens.

The Digital-Human Nexus

Here’s the crux of it all. Boatloads of people are online right now either searching for products and services related to your business or they’re passively educating themselves on personal and work-related topics. They really want to find that ideal solution online and when they find it, they want you, a human being to help them get exactly what they want.

Small companies that decide to step it up with integrated search and content marketing campaigns tend to up-level their businesses faster than they expect.

When you discover the abundance of the realtime, electronically-connected marketplace, you can’t wait to get your message circulating in it. You want to personally connect with all those business prospects who are online. You can actually witness the digital-human nexus and experience it with a voice conversation once your communications jump from the screen to the phone or a meeting place.

Moving Out of the Desert

If you want to move your brand from nowhere land to the bustling bazaar of daily commerce, you’ll need to make a modest to perhaps moderate investment in a couple of digital platforms that will support your organic website – the hub of your brand. Costs for these services have settled at reasonable rates and the tools work better than ever! The best thing? Everything is fully transparent, measurable and accountable. You’ll be in the know!

You can see your investment working (or not) without any smoke and mirrors.  In other words, your marketing team won’t be using dubious analytics and vague forecasts. They’ll be giving you qualified sales leads and you’ll be measuring new business results from your campaigns. You’ll know the real bottom line.

Double your Sales Pleasure!

Do you want to grow? Call or be called. Better yet, make great calls and get great calls too. When your campaign is set up and integrated, all you really need to do is have the conversations that close new business.

If you have questions about how this program can help you grow your business, feel free to call us at 603-345-7223.

The post The Two Ways to Grow Your Business appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

The information technology age has enabled me and countless others to start businesses and create great careers for ourselves. Publishing and broadcasting are no longer the exclusive realms of big business, requiring large amounts of capital. The internet has leveled the playing field for anyone with an interesting or worthwhile message to compete with major media networks for audience attention.

Thankfully for my business, this includes advertising and public relations. I want to make clear that I’m extremely grateful for what technology has enabled me to do; create a job I love and serve more people every day.

I prefer the desktop experience when working, but lately, I’m using my phone more out of efficiency and convenience. If I can do something easily and quickly on my phone to serve a client, I’m all in! However, I’m human and prone to instant gratification like everyone else. That’s where the smartphone can be dangerous to productivity and progress.

Beware of The Enemy Smartphone!

I often find myself picking up my phone because I know what it can do and because it’s there. For no reason at all, I can pull myself away from an important task to get an update on… I don’t know… There must be something new and cool going on somewhere in my network or the world, right? Why do I rob my myself and others of this valuable time? Because I’ve been conditioned by our culture to “be connected 24/7.”

Now I’m working hard to counter that bad influence! I’m training myself to ignore the amazing shiny object that beckons me with audio-visual notifications.

The do-not-disturb setting or off button can work wonders. And it’s amazing how people move on with their lives after texting or emailing you if you don’t respond right away. Of course, “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” However, when I hear my phone ring, I try to pick it up immediately because people making the effort to speak with me usually deserve a returned effort and who knows what opportunity might spring from a real live conversation?

A Touch Too Much!

My new phone is amazing with all its dazzling color brilliance and crisp graphics. Everything on it calls for my fingers to activate it by the slightest touch. In fact, my phone is always ready to open an app and order something online if I simply touch it the wrong way. For example, a travel insurance policy order was placed on my phone apparently by an inadvertent screen touch on some Google ad that I didn’t notice was open. I had to spend significant time on the phone to cancel the order! That’s dangerous in addition to time-wasting. Touch screens tend to be a touch too touchy, in my opinion.

Check it less and reduce your stress!

Technology has, unfortunately, shown us it’s power to diminish happiness as much as enhance it. There is a whole class of addiction surrounding the socially-fueled highs people get from interactions on their devices. At least one of Facebook’s founders even admitted that they designed the platform to hook people on instant social recognition, and they have been successful in that quest.

Oftentimes, the “conversations” that go on in social media will tend criss-cross, with no direct human presence, and lead to anger and stressed out feelings. Just not worth it! People can certainly abuse communication technology and I for one am attempting to align it with my goals and values.

It’s really all about making sensible choices. What tools will provide the most leverage for the task at hand? Are you using the tools to produce or just be amused?

When it comes to business communications, I’ve found nothing works quite like the telephone. Sometimes, keys in the ignition and some road time is what it takes to leverage your business relationships.

Learn From an Expert

My friend and colleague Carol Phillips of Health Design wrote a great article that inspired me to think about how I’m using technology to communicate and get work done. I’m trying to avoid the useless entertainment and chatter that often lead to stress and regret. You may want to read Carol’s excellent article about a more balanced approach for using technology to enhance life rather than detract from it.

Finally, I invite you to call my smartphone at 603-345-7223 if you have questions about using technology – in a good way of course – for your marketing communications.

The post Use Technology Right: Stick to Your Business! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Marketing Automation (MA) works amazingly well when careful planning and diligence are behind it. But caution: you cannot throw money at a third party professional, sit back and expect MA to generate qualified leads. Building an effective marketing automation platform requires an investment in staff time as well as funding to implement the campaigns.

The work is required on two fronts: data management and content development. Unless you invest the time and tedium necessary to capture, build and manage customer data, all the best technology won’t help you. You also need to focus on the quality of your content and calls to action: writing, design, photography, video… PRODUCTION! That cost is always there because you need strong, relevant messages to compete in the digital marketplace.

So, if you have to put so much into it, does Marketing Automation really offer a lot of value in return? Yes, especially if you use it as designed: a tool for “smart” and efficient content distribution.  The automation part kicks in to help boost campaign results by distributing content based on known audience preferences – all stemming from their actual behavior. But first, you need to pull people to your content; get them to navigate your website and take action on your landing pages.

Marketing Automation “turbocharges” well-produced content.

You can set up the most powerful and sophisticated MA system available but if you write and produce gobbledygook content with lousy graphics, your visitors will shrug and move on. If your landing pages don’t convert, MA is a complete waste of your time, resources and money.  Without conversions, i.e. qualified inbound leads with authentic inquiries or direct online sales, you may as well just start randomly cold calling prospects. You’ll probably sell more that way!

Getting anyone to take action requires that you persuade them through a series of emotional and logical appeals. When you apply the AIDA method of persuasion, you’ll have an ideal guide for writing your messages. It helps convince your prospects to decide that your solution is right for them. So what exactly is AIDA?

AIDA simply stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. There you have the universal progression of thought processes leading to a decision to act. Breaking it down further…

Attention:  How do you grab someone’s attention? Call them by name if you can or else “shout” something valuable to their known persona. This can be a perfectly relevant subject line, headline or maybe a 3-second audio/video clip.

Interest:  Once you have their attention, signal that your information is relevant to them. Apply it directly to their needs and aspirations.

Desire:  What’s really valuable to your target audience? What’s in it for them? How will your solution make life and business better? Tell a compelling story. Paint a picture of success or pleasure with words and images.

Action:  The only thing that really matters in your campaigns is, do your visitors and prospects take the desired action in response to the messages? Do they ultimately purchase? Show them clearly what to do. Offer personal assistance or an incentive to sign up, make the appointment or buy!

Keep marketing technology “right-sized” for your business.

It’s easy to lose sight of marketing fundamentals with so much emphasis on new tactical technologies. For many small and even some medium enterprise businesses, an effective marketing program can be accomplished with a website, an active blog, an email marketing platform and 2 or 3 social media pages. If using a CRM, it’s crucial to promptly feed the database (manually if needed) with inbound web leads emailed to a salesperson and/or saved in the forms capture database. Then your sales team can better fulfill their roles to advance relationships, follow up and close more deals.

While I’m wide open to changing my views with evidence, it’s currently my opinion that Marketing Automation is a tool best suited for large organizations with multi-faceted products and multiple target audiences. Most small businesses probably don’t need it, at least not yet. Forms code from many low-cost Email Service Providers can be embedded on landing pages and generate auto-responder emails with drip campaigns.

The automatic segmentation of leads and ad retargeting based on site visitors’ behavior can be very powerful for large sales organizations and professional service firms. To remain competitive today, most big companies need the qualifying, segmenting and lead funneling capabilities of a robust CRM integrated with a Marketing Automation platform. Think Salesforce & Pardot or Pipedrive & Sharpspring.

Whatever you do to modernize your marketing efforts with technology, remember that, to cite my friend and former colleague Gary O’Neil, “You cannot move people unless you touch them.”

The post Marketing Automation automates what you feed it! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Forget your friends’ advice. Just Google it!

Do you need a certain product or service about which you know little? If so, Google wants you to ignore your friends and pay attention to their search engine instead.

When it comes to seeking referrals, do your friends have the best resources to help you find what you need? In many cases, yes, in other cases, maybe and in still others, no! When your friends and family come up dry, there’s one place to go; the Internet.

Let the numbers work for you!

Chances are, most of your friends and associates don’t have the right experience or enough knowledge about your industry to make fully informed referrals. It’s even more likely that your current customers and friends don’t associate with enough prospective clients to feed you enough referrals to sustain and grow your business.

Person to person word of mouth still has a lot of business influence but in a hyper-competitive, digitally enabled marketplace like we have today, you need a strong internet search presence to validate verbal claims by individuals. Even if you get a good personal referral, your prospect will go online to check you out before calling. You can be sure they’ll Google you first. What shows up when they do? This is the simplest and one of the best SEO tests you can do.

Google yourself now!

Go ahead, Google yourself! What’s in the first few positions on the first page? Is it your content or someone else’s who shares a name? Is your own website or LinkedIn Profile in one of the top positions? If you do show up on the first page, is the information favorable and complimentary or could it raise questions about how well positioned you are in your industry?

Creating a favorable and growth-oriented presence that is searchable on the Internet is a sustainability imperative today, even if you’re still chugging along on word of mouth. At some point soon, if not already, the default action of most people will be “I’ll just Google it…” instead of “I’ll just ask Larry…”

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The acronym for “Keep it simple, Sherlock!” – KISS – has been around a long time and its wisdom holds fast today. The KISS rule reminds us that being over sophisticated can overcomplicate matters, creating both confusion and unintended consequences. The more people and variables you throw into any situation, the more complex you will make it and the harder it will be to manage.

Naturally, we all want to work smarter and develop the optimum efficiencies for operating our businesses. Oftentimes that requires building out a process with multiple variables working together which can be a sophisticated and complex undertaking. However, once the system is in place and working, the rest of managing the business can be quite simple. Note I didn’t say easy! In fact, one of the simplest ways to guarantee success in any endeavor is to work very hard at it every day. Nothing easy about that!

There are mind-numbing complexities in the Digital Marketing Industry that have a lot of executives thinking that they are behind the technology and missing opportunities. I’ve spoken with a few who’ve been quite anxious about where their business is today in relation to digital marketing best practices. To them, I say relax! The principles of sales and marketing haven’t changed. In fact, by definition, principles do not change. Only the technologies and communication methods change with time and progress.

The changes are actually being adopted slower than many people perceive. And, yes, even Millennials respond to communication principles just as their grandparents do. They have the exact same set of emotions and physical needs. Do you have to be on Snapchat or Instagram to reach them? No, but you do need to have the right sales culture and a strong Internet presence that includes social channels.

Simple Patterns from Complex Data Sets

Rather than worrying about whether you’re utilizing the right kind of analytics and marketing automation tools, take a look at what you already have available. Google Analytics is free, very robust and can be embedded into just about any website. Marketing automation companies like HubSpot and Pardot have their own proprietary analytics platforms that also provide comprehensive traffic, engagement and response data.

My suggestion is to determine the top 2 or 3 key performance indicators that best measure growth and profitability for your unique business. The point is to avoid analyzing too much before acting. Analysis paralysis is a very real phenomenon and it can choke growth oriented activities like making targeted sales calls or blasting out valuable audience content in a general interest newsletter.

For example, a salesperson might hesitate to call a prospect not currently being tracked in the database. Or, the marketing manager might think she needs to segment her email list and A/B test responses with different sets of content when, in reality, the general newsletter article to the entire list would be even more effective and get published without delay.

Figure out your fundamental sales & marketing metrics; things like:

• Average number of sales calls per appointment
• Prospect meetings per closed sale
• Website visits per download conversion
• Downloads per sales inquiry – leads
• Lead closing ratios
• Email marketing response rates

Use Google’s or other analytics tools embedded on your website to monitor what kinds of content attract the most searches and visits and deliver the most conversions. Plus, utilize your email marketing service’s reporting of contacts’ engagements with your emails. Mailchimp, in particular, has some amazing email tracking and reporting tools if you want to get fancy with it.

Remember the Principles!

Keep your focus on implementation; executing the sales and digital marketing activities at the quality level and frequencies needed to grow your business.

Always work on the quality of your communications to keep improving your content from the target market’s perspective. Deliver the content across all channels and keep your messaging themes consistent.

This is really a pretty simple marketing formula that has been proven to work for small and medium-sized businesses in several diverse industries. Today’s marketing tools and systems may appear very complex but in reality, they apply the same simple marketing and selling principles that have been around since the dawn of commerce. To quote my former colleague, Gary ONeil, “If you want to move people, you have to touch them.” Simple concept but hard to do. Let’s get to work!

The post Simplifying Complex Marketing Data appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Manifold is defined as numerous and varied; of many kinds…

Consistency in messaging across multiple media outlets is a well established best practice in marketing communications. You hear about it all the time. Simple enough, right? So if companies would just do it – website, social media, blog, content, events, outdoor, print, mobile, television, radio, collateral, etc., they’ll do just fine.

Okay, knowing this, do we drain our coffers now or borrow to finance marketing communications up to our debt limit? Neither is an acceptable option so the question becomes: How can a business choose which marketing channels to use and how many should be consistently deployed to produce growth and profitable sales results – all for an affordable and sustainable budget?

Take a look at your current growth pattern and profit margins.

Like most executives, you know you can do better!

Are you like some company leaders who know they MUST do better?

Having finite resources, how do you determine how many different channels you can afford, and which ones will give you the most profitable returns? In the digital world, you can do more, maybe much more!

When I hear about how some of my clients have, in the recent past, spent all of their marketing budgets on newspaper advertising with increasingly disappointing results, I “feel their pain.” I lost my shirt trying that not too long ago. The publication even had great circulation in the heart of my target market.

Image by Moma, Sao Paulo, Brazil

In previous decades, advertising in “mass media” like regional newspapers and local radio & TV was certainly expensive but very effective at getting the phone to ring and feet through the door. Now the ROI from using a traditional one or two-channel approach is proving to be negative for most businesses and some of the newspaper holdovers are finally realizing that highly effective and affordable digital marketing tactics are passing them by. These tactics always include multiple distribution channels by virtue of how people use the Internet, which is extremely multi-faceted.

Your website, social pages, email marketing, blog, online maps, directories, local reviews and other online content can be every bit as good or better than those of giants like Wells Fargo,  IBM, Coke, Apple, Marcum, Microsoft, La-Z-Boy, Harvard… you name your big brand! You can compete head-to-head with them in terms of design, content quality, target market distribution, and local search engine marketing/optimization.

How do you plan a Manifold Marketing Strategy to increase growth and profitability?

• Take a look at what has worked and what hasn’t in the last 12 – 18 months. Did success or failure result from your message reaching enough of your target audience or not?

• Evaluate your message content:  Do your promotional concepts align with the priorities of your target market? Are your messages clear and succinct?

• Does anyone care about your creative ideas or do they only care about what your products and services can do for them to make life and business better?

• Study your industry for successful marketing case studies. What are similar businesses doing online that’s working for them? Study their websites, blog and newsletters. Did they transition from traditional “mass media” to a more digitally-centric strategy? Did they hire new consultants or work differently with established vendors? What services did they add and what did they drop?

Once you’ve evaluated your current position and answered the questions posed, you’re ready to start leveraging your money instead of simply allocating it!

Everyone gets their business and consumer information online now. That doesn’t mean they never read print or watch TV but it does mean that you can reach them on the Web just as readily and for much less cost.

I was fortunate to build a strong brand in content marketing services with zero capital. I launched a startup business in a super-competitive market facing a legion of well-financed competitors. Struggling to scrape together about three hundred dollars in total, here’s what I accomplished in the first year: An awesome logo design, a nice website, an active blog, business cards, a highly effective email marketing program and a stellar reputation in social media. It’s fair to mention that I also had a network of professional friends that I developed through years of networking. I’m not unique in this sense. Everyone has some kind of a foundation on which they can stand and work.

If one broke man can build an established, steadily growing 5-year-old business by spending his last few dollars on marketing, think about how an already established firm like yours can do so much better! By implementing a manifold marketing strategy optimized to reach customers and resonate with their priorities, you can begin taking big bites out of your competitors’ market share and your brand can be the dominant one in your local market.

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