Email marketing still driving leads

So, where do your leads come from? Is email still a viable part of the Marketing Mix? I consulted Susan Muegge to see what she had to say.

Marketers have hundreds of internal discussions about the dangers of email over-saturation and SPAM reports, but according to the industry experts over at eMarketer, email is running neck and neck with product reviews for the most influence on consumer purchases online.

According to their latest research, customer reviews average about 13 percent and promotional emails average about 12 as the type of advertising that most influences U.S. adults. Check out the full article and a performance graph.

You're probably wondering how this is relevant.

It matters because the article reiterates the importance of utilizing the right marketing mix to reach your ideal buyers. While some are reading blogs (much like you!), others are still reliant on their inboxes for product information. For those marketers who dropped direct mail when email came out, you've lost 30 percent or more of your audience because you chose to only invest in the latest and greatest. Balancing the Mix is key in marketing, but especially when you have a long sales cycle.

Original Post by Susan Muegge on her blog, "Muegge Marketing"

The Keys to Your New Hybrid Website

Organizations around the world spend untold sums of money driving traffic to their corporate websites but few stop to think about what to do with that all that hard-earned traffic. Why don't websites directly support sales activities? It has something to do with the troubled marriage of design, technology and hybrid cars.

Take, for example, hybrid autos. The internal combustion engine and the electric motor are both decades old technologies, but it was an exciting innovation when they were put together. But what does this have to do with your website?

There are just three keys to understand in order to ensure this marriage of design and technology will succeed in turning your website into a lead-generating machine.

1 :: Demonstrate Don’t Debate

Often corporate websites aim to convince the audience of their marketing message. Understand, however, that an enormous amount of content bent on debating with your audience is a sure-fire way of getting them to close the window and go elsewhere.

Instead, demonstrate your message with visuals, testimonials and interactivity. Allow your audience to arrive at their own (influenced) conclusions and it’s their great idea, not yours.

2 :: Incentives with High Perceived Value

Once you’ve won traffic to your website and demonstrated your organization’s value, the next step is to get them to take some action identifying their interest. Humans rarely act without incentive, so give them one with an offer. In this key, the offer should be one with an extrinsic value much greater than its intrinsic value. In other words, don’t ask people to fill out your form to win a mouse-pad. Mouse-pads are perceived to have little to no value, but they cost you (their intrinsic value)a fair bit of money to produce.

By contrast, a proprietary report highlighting the latest research influencing decisions costs very little per report, but has tremendous value to the prospective customer as obtaining that information themselves is prohibitively expensive.

3 :: Qualify don’t just Quantify

Finally, you’ve driven the traffic, peaked their interest by demonstrating your value and offered an incentive of great value to them in return for taking a specific action. The question is, what’s that action? What could be worth all this trouble?

Ask them to complete a short form. Not just name, email and address, but ask them "qualification questions". These questions help determine the quality of the sales lead. Is this contact worth following up with immediately, at a later date, or at all?

Follow these keys and integrate the design and the technical aspects of your website together and you’ll successfully turn your online sales brochure website into a real corporate asset that provides an ongoing return on marketing investment.

To learn more, download our white paper "Easy Marketing :: The Business-Building Website."

From: Issue 2 of IpsumNEWS