Lead generation is a huge part of business success and plays an important role in many internet marketing plans. All companies need to generate customer interest and inquiries about their products or services. There are many different ways that a business can generate those leads – some of which we will cover in this four part series. In this post, we will start with form fills. What is a form fill? Form fills involve having…
The previous two marketing tools I have written about – white papers and special reports – need to be free of obvious bias, or they lose their strength to persuade readers. But case studies cover some of the same ground, while making your case, entirely. One of the beauties of case studies is that they can be long and exhaustive, short and sweet, or any length in between – it all depends on what you…
I was talking with our copywriter John here at eBridge and a number of years ago he wrote for a marketing newsletter in a natural resource industry. At various times the publisher would approach him to tell him that he needed more subscriptions in order to keep paying the big bucks. These were the days before the Internet, so everything he tried had to be based in direct mail, faxes and phone calls. Not a…
Sooner or later if you do any marketing online, you will hear about using whitepapers. But I wonder how many of the people who talk or write about them really know what a white paper is. The term has been around for at least 100 years and was first used to describe deep background documents or position papers published by the British government. They were called white papers because they were printed on white paper…
1. Frequency. As I mentioned before, make sure your press releases are either newsworthy, or that they tell a good story: Quality always trumps quantity. But that said, try to make sure you issue frequent releases to help keep your name high in the minds of editors. 2. Target your releases. Don’t just send them out to every publication and PR service you can think of. Ask yourself who will find your release relevant and…
1. Make sure your press release is newsworthy. If it is truly a newsworthy story, editors are much more likely to use it. 2. If you are sending a release about a product or service, write a story about uses and benefits, not a blatant pitch for your business. 3. Write a compelling headline that makes people want to read more. We like to check the headlines we write using the free Headline Analyzer tool at www.aminstitute.com/headline/index.htm. 4….
Let’s say you are spending too much on marketing and need to cut costs, or you want greater marketing exposure, but can’t increase your budget. One quick answer is to use the power of press releases to enhance your content marketing. There are four good reasons for using press releases for marketing: 1. Press releases cost much less than other forms of advertising. They may be distributed free, or for a small one-time fee. 2. You…
The short answer is: You can’t – at least not head to head. But there is a mighty lesson to be learned about competing with giants from a small Australian company called Messages on Hold (MOH). MOH may no longer be as small as they once were, but they are still tiny compared to the major telecom carriers in Australia and the Pacific region. Nevertheless, in a very short time they have climbed from obscurity…
Frankly, there are no secrets. Good marketing works in all kinds of economic circumstances. So, the non-secret to marketing in a recession is this: practice sound marketing, paying particular attention to the rules and techniques of direct response marketing: Start by understanding your market. Who are you already selling to and where can you find more like them? What do you know about them that will help you sell to them? What do they need…
The article by Guy Masono I’ve referred to in the past describes the last two of the 4Ts as Transact and Track. I’m going to discuss in more detail what I believe these two mean for your marketing campaign. Transact, Masono writes, “refers to opening a two-way communication with customers and prospects based on the nature of an inquiry.” For example, your website has a lead-generating form that visitors may fill out in order to…