JDM Marketing Blog

Big Marketing Ideas has Moved - Sort of.

2011-07-08T17:13:00.001-05:00

This post will be the last big marketing idea on the 5-year-old Big Marketing Ideas blog, well, sort of.

The blog (most of it anyway) is moving to JDM's new website at: http://jdm-digital.com/news/. Head over that way for the latest self-promoting news, best practices, and hopefully some interesting reads.

So, for the final Big Marketing Idea...Never be afraid of change. ;)

Mobile Marketing Statistics

2011-03-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

Mobile marketing is finally gaining traction. Check out some of the cool statistics in the below image. Feel free to re-purpose it if you like.

Related mobile marketing articles:

Compdata Surveys – eComm Accordion

2011-03-29T11:17:00.000-05:00

Compdata Surveys sells compensation and benefits data to VPs of HR for many large organizations looking to retain top talent and stay competitive.

Their original site was so complex, it had to be built on a custom CMS platform and when the time came to update the site for maximum SEO, it came to the team's attention that potential customers' tended to restrict their purchase to the industry and product category available on the screen. Few, if any, added to the cart and kept shopping.

The challenge to the JDM Labs team was how to display over 1400 products and 4 variations on one screen in a way so simple anyone would be hard-pressed not to buy a few complimentary products.

The answer was a jQuery-powered accordion plugged into the Wordpress admin with all the functionality, logic and customization the client requested.

After more than a million lines of code, 500+ change orders and four months in technical development, the new site went live over Christmas weekend 2010.

Take a look for yourself (http://compdatasurvey.com/order/) and comment your feedback below.

About Compdata Surveys

Compdata Surveys is a national compensation survey data and consulting firm. Over the last 20 years, we have amassed the largest and most comprehensive database of current compensation and benefits information. Each year, we gather compensation information from 5,000 organizations covering more than 6 million employees across the country.

Impact Achievement Group's New Website

2011-03-14T18:03:00.001-05:00

Impact Achievement Group, provider of assessment, coaching, and leadership development training focusing on employee selection, retention and engagement, recently launched their all-new website.

Developed in association with HRmarketer and JDM Labs, the new server-side PHP site features an updated brand, easy-to-use tabbed navigation and XDC forms to streamline the hand off between marketing and sales.

Learn more about Impact Achievement Group's new site from the team at JDM Labs.

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages

2011-02-21T20:11:00.001-06:00

Landing Pages are one of those web page types that can become the real workhorse of your online advertising efforts. Here's just a few easy ways to increase conversion rates of your landing pages so this workhorse becomes the star of the show.

1. Test, Test, Test - The 3 Keys to Landing Page Success

Before we get into the really juicy stuff, I want to remind you to test your landing pages--and test often.

It's as easy as identifying testing goals. Then coming up with two identical landing pages and changing just one thing about them—preferably the call-to-action. This split-cell test (or A/B Test) is a statistically valid way of testing a change in your strategy and knowing (not guessing) how much better (or worse) it works.

2. Add ToolTips to Form Fields

Every fill out a form yourself and wonder, "Why do they need to know that about me?!" Research has shown (and our gut feeling says they're right) that privacy online is more critical to users than ever before. Allowing landing page visitors to roll-over a "?" icon to display a small ToolTip explaining why they are being asked that question and how that information is going to be used will drastically increase conversion rates.

If you need a little technical help with ToolTips, consult the JDM Labs Codex. There's a post in there all about ToolTips. Feel free to steal.

3. Less is Definitely More

For God's sake, keep any lead forms minimal. Ask yourself what information is really critical and what is 'nice to know'. Eliminate any field that is not critical.

As a rule of thumb, JDM recommends keeping your form fields down to 5 questions: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone Number, and one qualification question such as a Title/Role drop-down.

4. Helpful Form Validation

Try to get away from the old JavaScript error window when the user doesn't complete all required fields. Instead, get creative. Allow users to complete their phone number or email--not both. Also, having fields throwing an error highlighted is handy. Finally, pay close attention to your validation error messages. "Missing Fields" is not a very helpful error message. Instead, use something like, "Please enter a valid company email" or "Please enter your 10-digit phone number."

5. Get Above the Fold

Try to put your call to action well-above the fold. Also, try to keep your form either on the top-right or only partially below the fold.

Stay tuned to JDM's Big Marketing Ideas blog for more Landing Page best practices. If you have any ideas or questions, feel free to comment them below.

JDM Celebrates 4-Year Incorporation Anniversary

2011-02-17T10:51:00.001-06:00

Today, February 17, 2011, JDM is celebrating our 4-year incorporation anniversary. A big thanks goes out to all our fantastic clients, partners and our talented marketing team.

So much has changed and yet so much has remained the same over the last four years. We've lost. We've won. We've played. We've mourned. It's been quite a ride.

We're all looking forward to the rest of 2011 and to new ventures, new partners and the evolution of marketing. Stay tuned. There's lots more where that came from.

Take a Tour - Forget the Demo

2011-02-11T10:48:00.000-06:00

With all sorts of SaaS businesses, the most critical phase of the sales process is the demo. The trouble with converting sales prospects into sales opportunities is low conversion rates. Here's a Big Idea to increase your demos by 10 to 15 percent.

Time was, providing demonstrations to prospects was something few were offering and set those prospects at ease. "It's not a sales meeting—it's just a demo." they would think. Today, everybody uses 'the demo' and the vast majority use it as an excuse for a sales meeting. Now, prospects are far more reluctant to accept (much less request) a demo for fear of a 20-minute hard-sell.

Big Idea :: Ditch the Demo!

While the everybody's are pushing hard for the demo, offer a "Tour." Instruct sales team members to leave the hard-sell at home, but other than that, it's a demo by another name.

JDM has already experimented with re-positioning our clients' product demos as "product tours" and found as much as a 10% or 15% increase in conversion rates—almost overnight.

Why?!

I'm sure you're wondering why. Let's play a quick mind experiment. Pretend you don't know anything much about Quickbooks and read the following two sales pitches.

I'd like to invite you to take a Quickbooks Pro demo.
Would you like a quick tour of Quickbooks Pro?

Which of the above two sales pitches feels less like a sales pitch and more as a free learning opportunity with little or no obligation to buy? I would wager the second on--as our research suggests.

Which one did you pick?

Google PageRank Update - Does it Matter?

2011-01-21T12:11:00.000-06:00

Google has just announced an update to the PageRank values of many sites within the Google Toolbar. This is the first significant toolbar PageRank update since April of 2010.

So are you, excited? Upset? Sad? Angry? Yes, Google has updated the PageRank you see in the Google Toolbar, but what does that mean and how does it actually effect you? We put the question to the super-tech nerds from JDM Labs. Here's their take on how Google's PageRank update effects you.

Cornish Time

2010-12-21T09:22:00.001-06:00

For those of you that don’t already know this, the southern-most part of England is known a Cornwall and the inhabitants of this very rural part of the country are a breed all their own. To the Cornish, you see, time is relative to what they would rather be doing. That is, if you ask a Cornish plumber what time he’s coming by to fix your emergency, he’ll likely respond in earnest, "directly, of course." "Directly", in Cornish, essentially means, whenever I don’t have something better to do and the pub is closed.

To the Cornish, the hectic work schedule of Americans is proof that we can't do anything in moderation. To them, we work too much. We earn too much money and spend far more even than we make. As a visitor to Cornwall, it’s hard to argue with that logic.

I've never met a Cornish marketer, but I feel as though one would argue that American businesses focus too much on urgency and not enough on priority. I can’t tell you the countless hours JDM spends on tangential work that somehow has been assigned unequivocal urgency.

To be clear, if your house is flooding, a Cornish plumber will be there in no time. If the faucet is dripping a little, you’d be lucky if he’s there within the week. That’s right; the service provider is dictating priority to the customer!

So before you call your lawyer, your accountant or your marketing firm to say the sky is falling, remember Cornish time and ask yourself, "Is this really a priority or just perceived urgency." If it’s the latter, perhaps it’s something we should get to "directly."

Cornwall is an absolutely beautiful part of the UK. See for yourself in Marea Downey Photography’s "Cornwall Collection."

Social Media Chatter-to-Sales-Lead with Google Realtime

2010-12-15T09:14:00.004-06:00

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’ve certainly heard about "Google Instant." What you may not know about is Google’s "Realtime," a new(er) feature that can turn all that brain-bleeding online chatter into useful marketing data that, for the savvy marketer, can translate into uber-relevant sales opportunities.

For the longest time, business executives, sales members and even some marketers have been asking themselves (and me) "how can I turn my social media efforts into profits" and I'm getting pretty tired of hearing about it. So, let's talk briefly about how to turn all that mind-numbing chatter into sales leads and do it for free using Google's Realtime.

First off, we have to find this undervalued feature. Go to http://www.google.com/realtime and enter a search term. As an example, let’s say you’re a home remodeling company. Do a search for "New House" with the quotations to filter out the stupid stuff.

Here you’ll see today’s Facebook updates, tweets, blog posts, etc. from people bragging, complaining and otherwise discussing their new house. As you run through today’s information and then this month’s and so on, you’ll quickly find numerous opportunities to reach out to prospects (via twitter if it’s a tweet, Facebook if it’s a status update or blog comment if it’s a blog post) to see how your remodeling & renovation business could help.

Whatever the contact medium, the soft-sell is a must, but your contact could not be more relevant or timely!

In reality, using Google Realtime in this way is primitive compared to solutions that can monitor hundreds of key words at once for as little as $500 per month (in the case of MutualMind), but this does, at least, illustrate that all that social media chatter can translate to into a lot more than a necessary evil. It can translate into a sales contact that is relevant, timely and (hopefully) profitable.

Any chance I’ve put the "how does twitter make me money" stuff to bed?

I hate passwords

2010-11-15T07:21:00.009-06:00

These days, it seems that everybody has some sort of online client portal they want to manage you through. Currently, I'm maintaining a list of over 350 different usernames and passwords for all the various portals I'm supposed to be using. Worse, my company has been working on a client portal too. Et tu, JDM?!

So rather than bore you with all the features the new portal has, let me just mention my favorite—Auto-Login Links.

That's right; "Auto-Login Links" allow authorized myJDM users to login without entering a username or password. Every message, notification or online invoice comes with a special link allowing users to arrive not just at the most relevant page on myJDM, but without even seeing the login screen.

The JDM nerds are all excited about the release, the security, the integration, the navigation—whatever. I'm just excited that at least my company's portal is one less password every one of our clients has to remember.

Passwords are so last month!

Check out all the shiny new features of myJDM in our Shameless News release.

GREAT Marketing will Ruin a GOOD Product

2010-11-09T08:20:00.002-06:00

Sounds counter-intuitive doesn't it, but it's absolutely true. Great marketing can simply ruin a low-quality or even good-quality product or service. Before you dismiss this post on its face, let me offer an example we can all relate to.

Banking in the 00s has become a "Gotcha Marketer's" paradise. Sky-high ATM fees, bank fees, huge conglomerates with no ties or interest in the community. It's all pretty discouraging.

According to Bart Narter, senior vice president at Celent, a banking industry research firm, "Overdraft charges, in particular, generate customer steam. Fee income, primarily from bounced checks and overdrafts on debit card, account for close to half of all bank profits."

So while banks have been running brilliant marketing campaigns with spectacular offers like "Free Checking," "24-hour online banking" and "no minimum balance", the joke is on each and every one of us. Big banks simply can’t live up to their own hype and still turn the kind of profits their investors demand.

A recent J.D. Power and Associates survey reports that satisfaction with banks in general, out of a possible score of 1,000 points, is now at a level of 748. That's down slightly from 763 three years ago. But what has really plummeted is loyalty. In the 2007 survey, 46% of customers said they "definitely" would not switch banks in the next 12 months. That figure has fallen to only 34% of customers in 2010, which represents a 26% decline.

So while great marketing can win you new customers, it's how you deliver your product or service that ultimately retains them. Let your marketing promise the stars and you will only disappoint those hard-won new customers.

The Halloween Consumer Spending Index

2010-11-01T13:11:00.000-05:00

These days, the economy is far more scary than ghouls and goblins, but that didn't stop Americans from embracing the (expensive) delights of Halloween.

This year, U.S. adults spent about $5.77 billion to celebrating Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation, up from $5.07 billion in 2007. Who says cobwebs can't stimulate the economy?

That's good news in an otherwise grim economic outlook. The Commerce Department said last week that Gross Domestic Product, shrank by 0.3 percent in the third quarter, largely due to sharp declines in consumer spending. This leaves little doubt with economists that we're in a recession that may be long and deep. However, on the heals of Halloween retailers are reporting far more treats than tricks.

Contrary to the grim picture economists are touting, the "Halloween Consumer Spending Index" seems to be up from last year which may signal, an albeit slow, domestic economic recovery.

NPR wrote a whole article last week, "In Tricky Economy, Halloween A Treat For Retailers." We'll have to wait and see if the holiday spending spree carries over through the "golden quarter."

AT&T Pre-Game Experience Campaign

2010-10-20T17:39:00.001-05:00

Recently, AT&T launched its Pre-Game Experience campaign.

The combination: event, Web 2.0, and Social Media Marketing campaign targets young, college football and tailgating enthusiasts. There's also a very Web 2.0 photo contest to win tailgating necessities like flat-screen TVs and BBQ grills.

The micro-site is gorgeous, XML is valid and built on a heavily customized CMS.

The only thing that seems to be missing is a strong social media component. There is no Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media marketing medium that we can find anywhere on the site itself. Perhaps this component is being added later... Until then, take a look: http://gamedaytradition.att.com/. It's a really cool little site!

New Website Launched for Cowgirl Consulting

2010-10-19T15:40:00.002-05:00

JDM is proud to announce the launch of another B2B website for our client (and partner), Cowgirl Consulting.

Started by Fort Worth CRM expert, Anna Rodriguez, in 2009, Cowgirl Consulting has experience developing solutions for more than a dozen large national and international companies on marketing automation and integration.

The new site (http://cowgirlconsulting.com) features W3C valid XML, social media integration, table-less CSS/Javascript layout and next generation search engine visibility.

"JDM is a great firm to work with." Says Rodriguez. "Their intuitiveness and creativity is spot on. I was comfortable leaving the creation of my website completely in their hands and I got exactly what I wanted, and it looks better than I imagined. The entire experience of working with JDM has been uncomplicated and enjoyable."

If you're looking for marketing automation or customer relationship management (CRM), we highly recommend contacting Cowgirl Consulting. Tell 'em JDM sent you!

Take a look and comment on this post with any feedback you may have.

Don't Penalize Payment!

2010-10-15T13:11:00.002-05:00

On the first day of my very first pricing class in college, the professor opened with the following one-line statement: "Never make it hard for customers to give you money!" The point was simple. Get as sophisticated as you like setting up pricing structures, but for god's sake, don't make it hard to actually pay. So why do so many businesses not just make it hard to pay them, but actually charge a penalty if you don’t pay them in the manner they prefer?!

I recently found an unpaid bill under the stacks of paperwork on my desk. It was due in just a few days, so rather than chance it, I decided to call the automated payment line and pay via their check-by-phone service. To my surprise, they wanted to charge an additional $12! I have to pay more to pay on time?!

I'd understand if I was speaking with a human, but this was a totally automated system—not a human for miles. The service only costs the business a few cents, so where does the extra $12 go?

Business owners, it's a bad idea to make it difficult for customers to pay you. It's even worst to penalize them for paying you via an instant payment method. That said, how do they get away with this? The answer is exactly what that same professor said at the end of the last day of class: "...in the end, something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.” As long as customers are willing to pay $12 to pay their bill, those businesses will keep up their Gotcha Marketing strategy.

Probability Marketing

2010-09-20T08:36:00.003-05:00

We're results junkies, but the only thing we like more than results is observed, hard data. Why? Because campaign data allows us to apply statistical models to our sales and marketing pipeline framework, affectionately nicknamed SPOC (pronounced "spock").

"SPOC" stands for Suspect / Prospect / Opportunity / Customer. Using campaign data, we can begin to predict (assign a probability to) how leads will progress from the Suspect zone all the way to the Customer zone. We call this transition percentage, a "Conversion Rate." Once calculated (or estimated for early campaigns), we can determine a sales and marketing budget that will generate a positive ROIm as well as the most efficient marketing mix.

SPOC, for all it's complexity, is simply a Probability Sales & Marketing model. The value of Probability Marketing is marketing dollars and resources can be deployed cost-effectively, results are predictable, and employees are motivated and aligned with the larger corporate objectives.

The near-term results of Probability Marketing are shorter sales cycle times, higher conversion rates, and higher average sales prices.

Effective sales and marketing starts with quality (from lead qualification) and then quantity (from increased campaign frequency). In other words, it's more cost-effective to "Aim Small, Miss Small."

Beyond the basic principal of Probability Marketing here's a few things the model proves time and time again:

Start by creating marketing assets (qualified house list, portals, downloads, videos, etc.) and sales assets (ROI and TCO calculators, case studies, testimonials, etc.).
Never put a sales person "in front of" a prospect with less than a 33% chance of close.
Streamline the sales, marketing and closing process. As they say, never make it difficult for customers to give you money!

Don't Be the Used Car Salesman

The final big idea of Probability Sales & Marketing is breaking with the traditional "used car salesman" model. Classic sales training is all about the Art of Persuasion—getting a prospect to buy by manipulating the 5 steps in the buying decision. Probability Sales & Marketing, instead, uses the Art of Agreement and Commitment. Only high-probability prospects - those willing to commit step-by-step to the buying process - are worthy of sales and marketing's time.

How do you determine who these "high-probability prospects" are? It all comes back to Probability Marketing.

Learn more about the Value Equation and Perform Businesses from our friends at the Ephor Group.

URL Shorteners Wolves in Sheep's Clothing?

2010-09-08T18:55:00.003-05:00

URL shorteners, such as bit.ly and tinyurl, are services that help take longer URLs (which can be over a hundred characters long) and transform them into manageable links that almost never exceed 20 characters. URL shorteners are not new—TinyURL has been around since 2002. But their popularity has skyrocketed with the rise of Twitter, which only allows for 140 characters in any message.

So what could be so wrong with something so innocent?

Technical Difficulties
From a technical standpoint, URL shortening services add another layer of indirection to an already creaky system. A regular hyperlink implicates a browser, its DNS resolver, the publisher's DNS server, and the publisher's website. With a shortening service, you're adding something that acts like a third DNS resolver, except one that is assembled out of unvetted PHP and MySQL, without benevolent oversight. In the ecosystem of a link, each party is harmed to some extent by URL shortening.

bit.ly.spam.ly
Let's face it, without a reverse lookup, that shortened URL could take you to all sorts of spammy places. Although early-adopters quickly found ways around this problem, late-adopters to microblogging find these strange URLs wolves in sheep's clothing.

It’s clear that URL shorteners will be around as long as micro-blogging (which shows no sign of slowing down. The challenge for the web community is to find ways to enjoy the benefits of URL shorteners while protecting against their downfalls.

Other Big Ideas:

Get Mashable's 2 Cents
Delicious Founder, Joshua Schachter's thoughts

Aim Small, Miss Small

2010-08-23T09:01:00.001-05:00

I've never been much for hunting, but I do like target shooting. A friend of mine taught me to "aim small, miss small." In other words, aim for the whole beer can and you might miss it entirely. Aim for the hole in the "g" on the label and, even if you miss the letter, you'll still hit the can.

"Aim small, miss small" also applies to B2B direct marketing.

Most direct marketers play the numbers game and send their generic message to anyone they think might have even the remotest interest in the message. Then they're surprised when unqualified responses trickle in.

If you "aim small" and develop a small, but highly targeted list, a highly relevant message and drive them to equally relevant content, response rates will drastically increase.

I know what you're thinking: small list = few responses (even with a high response rate)—and you're right. The key is your targeted message can only "miss small." You can't get too far off-base if you're speaking to a very select group of prospects the way you can when you're speaking to an entire demographic.

"Aim small, miss small" is the motto of evolved direct marketers who demand the highest quality responses at a price that will generate a positive ROIm. It also spells trouble for beer cans.

That's Marketing...

2010-08-06T13:30:00.004-05:00

On countless occasions, professional marketers find ourselves explaining not just what we do, but what marketing, in general, is.

I like to use the following explanation—especially after a few cocktails. Feel free to use it yourself. It's not trademarked...

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, I'm fantastic in bed.

That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, He's fantastic in bed.

That's Advertising.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, Hi, I'm fantastic in bed.

That's Telesales.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."

That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, "I hear you're fantastic in bed."

That's Brand Recognition.

Well, I hope that helps anyone out there having trouble explaining marketing activities to friends and family. I have a few more for Social Media, Online, etc., but they're a little too racy for a corporate blog—even JDM's.

Stay tuned to @MarketingEvolve on Twitter for a few others too scandalous for Big Marketing Ideas. Got one of your own? Comment them below.

SEO Gold Hidden in Keyword Analytics

2010-08-02T08:35:00.000-05:00

These days, online marketers understand the importance of data, but manipulating huge data-sets looking for that pearl of marketing wisdom, can be a challenge—to say the least. As Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik explained in an interview for Search Engine Strategies 2010 Expo, most people only look at the first 10-20 results that their analytics tool provides. However, this is only the beginning of what the data can show.

Kaushik makes a good point. The real keyword gold is hidden in the diffused data after the top 20 results. The problem is manipulating that data efficiently, finding a pattern and correctly interpreting it. There are lots of tools out there that can help with data manipulation (including HRmarketer's new keyword tool), but none that help interpret it (which is why JDM's iAnalytics™ are a service, not an application).

Any SEO-er worth his salt will be quick to admit that SEO is more art than science.

Social Media Marketing Tips from OMS

2010-07-23T11:50:00.002-05:00

The 2010 Online Marketing Summit was recently held in Dallas. Take a look at a few of our social media learns from the conference.

Forget "Inbound or Outbound" Marketing Communications

During almost every session, "Forget inbound or outbound" was the mantra. The Big Idea is all about two-way dialogues that are relevant, local and compelling. Delivering your marketing message to the individual—not the demographic. "Personally Engaging + Emotionally Intelligent + Highly Interactive = Dramatic Customer Results," According to Ephor Group's Charles Bedard.

Leverage Web 2.0

Web 2.0, or the ability for users to generate content for you by interacting with your website, is the key for small and large businesses with anything resembling a content marketing strategy. If you're a smaller company, form a "content team" that adheres to an editorial calendar. However, don't expect them to do ALL the work. Leverage user generated content. Case in point, Amazon leverages its user to write most all of its book and product reviews. It would simply be impossible to hire experts to write a review of every book, CD and product.

Develop a Culture that can React Quickly

These days there are countless tools that allow you to monitor social media mentions, trends and analytics, but what can you do with all that real-time data if you can't react quickly and efficiently?

The trick is to develop a culture that allows for quick reactions that can ride a trend wave. Encourage employees to participate (personally) in social media discussions around your business and its activities. If you can weigh in on the trends surrounding your brand in a relevant, value-adding way in real-time, you're already weeks ahead of your competition.

Forget "Web Chat"

There was a time that being able to chat live with sales support staff during the buying decision was the epitome of a modern brand. These days, its reputation as a value adding service is completely shot. According to Patrick Bultema, web chat has "been polluted by call center mentality and over-scripting."

Save your breath–er–fingers.

Relevant Social Media Content:

Has Facebook Jumped the Shark?

2010-07-16T13:44:00.009-05:00

In 2007, MySpace reached critical mass with just 3 million members and the thought began to creep into everyone’s mind that the giant may soon be toppled. After a combination of technical & security fowl-ups and a surge in spam, the giant, indeed fell.

Facebook, fueled by early adopters saw an influx of new users who jumped from the sinking MySpace ship, quickly grew and eventually monetized.

Today, TechCrunch announced that Facebook is approaching 500 million users (100 million more than just 5 months ago).

As even more users flock to Facebook, and the social media site begins to be just as noisy an informer as Twitter, we must ask ourselves:

"Has Facebook Jumped the Shark?"

If so, what might this mean for social media in general?

SugarCRM, How Sweet It Is…

2010-07-13T09:32:00.001-05:00

CRM solutions have been broadly recognized and widely implemented as part of any sales-focused organization's sales and marketing strategy. These days, leveraging a CRM solution as a touch-point between sales, marketing and customer service is 21st century marketing 101. The challenge for small businesses or even medium-sized businesses working with ever-tighter budgets is that a CRM initiative can equal a significant increase to their operating overhead.

Enterprise-level solutions like SalesForce.com have recognized that they must tier their product, but even the lowest tiers can cost hundreds of dollars per employee, per month. Wouldn't it be great to start off with a CRM solution whose tiers go all the way down to FREE? Meet SugarCRM.

SugarCRM simplifies implementation and adoption by cutting out everything but the tools you really need to develop a marketing engine that streamlines the sales process and quality customer support that keeps lost customer rates to a slow drip.

Sugar's bottom tier (called SugarCRM Community Edition) is 100% free. You simply download a ZIP file and install it on your web server (if that sounds scary, JDM has a CRM service package just for that). If ever you find you outgrow the Community Edition, you can upgrade to one of their other tiers—which are still less expensive than a comparable Salesforce CRM tier.

SugarCRM is used by big names like Coca-Cola, Men's Wearhouse, GoDaddy and thousands of small companies all over the U.S.. Indeed, even JDM uses a customized version we call SugarJDM.

If budgets are tight or the timeframe for rolling out a CRM was yesterday, we highly recommend looking into SugarCRM, but don't let the technical stuff bog you down. That's something JDM can handle.

Learn more about some of the other players in the CRM space in our post: "The State of CRM."

"How to SEO for Bing" SEO Article

2010-07-06T16:49:00.007-05:00

JDM has certainly discussed SEO before in articles, white papers and blogs. Nonetheless, the question comes up in conference call after conference call: "How is Bing different in terms of SEO?" To address this question, JDM has just published a new SEO best practice article, "How to SEO for Bing."

Fundamentally, Bing isn't that much different than other search engines. In fact, according to Bing's Principal Group Program Manager, "SEO is still SEO. Bing doesn't change that. Bing's new user interface (UI) design simply adds new opportunities..."

JDM's "How to SEO for Bing" article tackles a few key ways to capitalize on those 'new opportunities' they mention.

Learn more about this and other SEO articles on our Bathroom Reading resource page.