Thinking about starting an online community to improve your business? A new survey shows that online communities are adding increased value to organizations, despite some obstacles.
Organizations said the greatest value of online communities is that they:
Increase word-of-mouth (35%)
Increase brand awareness (28%)
Generate new ideas faster (24%)
Increase customer loyalty (24%)
Among the greatest obstacles, organizations cited:
Getting people involved in the community (51%)
Finding enough time to manage the community (45%)
Attracting people to the community (34%)
Online communities promote business
When starting an online community, survey respondents advised other organizations to focus on the value to the members, keep it simple and keep it fresh and simple, among other tips.
“The 2008 Tribalization of Business” study, surveying organizations using online communities, was conducted by Beeline Labs, Deliotte and the Society for New Communications Research.
Well, you know how and when to use customer incentives, now you have to make the customer feel like it’s urgent. This next step may be a little more difficult … with the economy down, people have less money to spend and take more time to make buying decisions.
Thank goodness for Sean D’Souza at Copyblogger, who just wrote an incredibly clear, straight to the point article on how to create urgency in a bad economy. By comparing the buying process to having to use the bathroom, he outlines how to get to the toilet (aka. checkout) quicker.
A great incentive may be the difference between a customer taking the next step in the buying process or moving on to greener pastures. Especially during economic tough times, it’s important to choose the right incentive for your sales program without going over budget.
So, when you start to think about what incentives will encourage customers to buy, but not break your budget, remember McIntosh’s simple rules:
The incentive should relate to your product or service. There are a lot of teenagers out there with iPods acquired when their parents made a business-related purchase. Instead of filling the pockets of your customers’ kids, walk though the buying process and imagine what would really affect your customers’ buying decision.
Offer incentives that make it easier for customers to get their manager’s approval. Incentives like financing programs, free training or covering travel costs add true value that can be measured in dollars.
Introduce incentives at the right time. When a person enters the buying cycle and is still gathering information, they may pay little or no attention to incentives encouraging them to buy right off the bat. Save the incentives for later in the buying cycle when the customer is closer to making their decision.
Keep it simple. The most simple incentives are the most effective and most memorable: “Buy one, get one free,” “Buy now, pay later.”
Directly address the customer’s problem. “If we don’t solve the problem, we’ll do this to fix it.” Don’t make any promises you can’t keep, but try to gain the customer’s trust.
We’ve talked before about how the customer is not always right, and now there’s proof. Well, at least enough stories compiled in one place to make us believe it’s true.
So, for anyone who has ever been in customer service – The Customer is Not Always Right (Funny & Stupid Customer Quotes). Even if you’ve never been in customer service, you’ll still get a kick out of it.
Business to business marketing is a strange animal compared to business to consumer marketing. Among other differences, B2B markets are smaller, have a much longer sales cycle, and deal with complex services and products.
Understanding the difference between the two can help you effectively reach your target audience and create more sales. In Web terms, it means you must develop targeted B2B SEO that will attract the right customers to your site who are interested in buying your product.
Business to consumer marketing is straightforward, most consumers know what they want or need when they go out looking for it. With business to business customers, it gets a little more technical. They may know what the problem is, but don’t know the exact solution they need to fix it. B2B marketing should be implemented with a full understanding of your customer’s needs, problems and the solution that will fit.
While B2C customers may do some research before making a purchase, it usually doesn’t compare to the lengths B2B consumers must go through to find the information they need. Your website content should contain all the information B2B consumers need when making a purchasing decision. Quality SEO starts with quality content.
The biggest step to targeting the right customer is developing the right keyword strings. Don’t be afraid to approach existing customers for help. Ask them to describe, in concrete words, their problem and the solution they’re looking for. Knowing the keywords existing customers would use can help you attract potential customers with the same problem. This strategy will help you get a great head start on keyword research.
Remember, you’re not always going to hit a home run on the first swing. SEO is a long-term effort that takes endless research and tweaking to get it right.
There are tons of tools out there to help and most won’t cost you a penny to use. Jump on over to the Search Engine Journal where Ann Smarty has compiled the most ultimate collection of free online SEO tools known to man.
With so many messages, in so many places, about so many products, consumers have learned how to tune out most of the marketing they’re bombarded with everyday.
So, how do you position your B2B marketing message to stand out from the rest? How do you give it so much soul that consumers will want to listen?
Watch this so simple video from Greg Cordell, Chief Inspiration Officer at Brains on Fire:
The top reason why customers move on from a certain company is customer service, followed by price. Vendors most often cut ties with companies because of price pressure.
According to the Sherpas, the survey revealed surprising information about customer loyalty:
“First, customers are less likely to leave for a competitor over price and will give you the opportunity to keep the business. Second, they are more willing to pay a premium to continue their relationship. Third, they are strong external advocates of the brand.”
Business to business marketers rate customer reviews and testimonials among the most effective tactics for improving conversion rates, but new research reveals most sites are not using these credibility indicators to their full advantage.
Earlier this month, Marketing Experiments held a free Web clinic full of research and advice on how to use testimonials effectively to increase conversion rates. Even better, they give it all to you for free and without having to fill out any annoying registration forms.
The clinic reviews recent research results and testimonial best practices to answer some reoccurring questions, including:
“Do credibility indicators help, and if so, by how much? If not, how did they become so ubiquitous? What will make them most effective?”
“There are exactly one hundred million billion new viral marketing campaigns seeded every 10 minutes – the vast majority are completely dire and destined to fail.” – Mike Laurie at Ship’s Biscuit.
To avoid being “completely dire and destined to fail,” those at Ship’s Biscuit have compiled the best viral videos of our time, pointing out similar patterns that led to success.
Take a look at this extensive list of the best viral videos on the web, maybe you’ll come up with some new marketing ideas and become the next viral video star. Who knows? Either way, it’s Friday and you need a break, so take a look.
At a time when concern about climate change grows daily and gas prices are inch closer and closer to $5 a gallon, more people are doing their part to conserve natural resources and become more eco-friendly. Those same people are looking at businesses to do the same.
“Say what you will about ulterior profit motives and eco-hucksterism, but smart marketers recycle, save energy, cut carbon emissions and generally seem to get this topic as a means to making bottom-line numbers. All of the eco-marketers are keenly aware that a skeptical public is going to keep them on their carbon-footprint toes,” according to Advertising Age.
Studies show that Americans are are quick to identify environmentally irresponsible companies and base their purchasing decisions on those opinions. Consumers between the ages of 18 and 29 are more likely to spend more money on environmentally-friendly products than any other age group, according to a Global Market Insite survey.
Becoming a green marketer doesn’t mean you have to overhaul your entire business strategy, just take it step by step. By making a few small changes to the way you do business, working greener can boost your bottom line and reduce your corporate carbon footprint.
Here are some small steps you can take toward a greener marketing strategy:
Use less paper. The average office goes through about 350 pounds of paper per employee, per year, according to the NRDC. Set printers to print double-sided and buy recycled copier paper.
Analyze your marketing. Find out what’s working and what’s not. Stop sending direct mail to people who don’t read it and will never read it. Unread direct mail is a waste of paper and your productivity.
Use tools like Catalog Choice.Catalog Choice is a nonprofit organization, sponsored by the Ecology Center of Berkeley, with a goal to eliminate all the unwanted catalogs in the mail to “simplify your life and save natural resources.”
Use recycled paper for marketing pieces. Print it proudly on each marketing piece to show customers that what they’re reading was printed on postconsumer recycled paper. Customers will appreciate it and so will the environment.
Take it online.Studies show that more consumers are using the Web to shop. For each marketing piece you send out, try to find an online equivalent. Or, simply cut back on your direct marketing and spend more on online marketing.
For more lists of countless tips for making your office greener, visit the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Web site.
“This isn’t just about buying into a trend; it’s about giving the next generations a fighting chance in a more hostile environment. In this area, marketing, just as it did on seat-belt use and smoking, is playing a crucial role.” according to Advertising Age.
No one is perfect and neither is any business, but if we all make a few little changes the outcome may be bigger than we could ever imagine.
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