Build It Marketing

Want to see great revenue lift from a single promotion? ...and the missed opportunity of not having email promo? This case study illustrates how a quickly implemented test proved out dramatic revenue lift for a B2B wholesale store chain’s new email campaign. In this random-select, A/B split test, an email blast was sent to only half of all active, eastern U.S. customers, to promote a single upcoming sales event. Results: Group A: These customers did not receive advance email promo for the sale event, and showed total revenue over the sales event dates of $640,176. Group B: This same-size group of customers did receive advance email promo for the sale event, and showed total revenue over the sales event dates of $1,661,770. A 259% boost! One million extra dollars? From a single promotion? Let’s all lean in to that! Promote your business fully and thoughtfully with well-timed, customer-focused content—and get magnified revenue lift for your customer events!

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

$2.8 million revenue bump from LAPSED customers: This products distributor client had 1,148 lapsed customers, who had previously received only monthly mailings and unwelcome, unattractive, faxed promotions. As part of a newly established email marketing program, we identified and isolated all lapsed customers, and then simply sent a more timely and relevant promo to them, via email, for an upcoming three-day sale event. Results: Revenue over the three-day event that came solely from previously lapsed customers was: $2,846,203. This was an average ring per customer of $2,479, versus ZERO lapsed customer revenue for the prior year’s event. Got Zombies? Invite them in: Zombies are bad for your business. But don’t shut the door on them just yet. Instead, try something new—invite them in—engage them, bring them back to life. Thoughtful, timely interaction can reactivate even bored, lapsed customers, and can get you some real revenue lift!

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

Case Study I: ROI of a customer email address, over one year: This case study shows the ROI from promoting over email—highlighting the potential revenue from adding customer email addresses to your CRM system. This simple example shows a national company’s revenue from active customers, for F14-15, where roughly 56% of customers had provided their email address. This group then received newly established, customer-centric, timely and relevant promotional email campaigns throughout the one-year time period, in addition to the mailed promotions that they’d been receiving. Revenue results were measured over this span. Results: Yearly revenue from customers with no email (mail-only): $55mm Yearly revenue from customers with email plus mail: $182mm—a 326% lift! Ask, promise. What is the magic formula for getting these email addresses? In most cases, when a customer was simply asked, they provided an email address so that they’d get more timely notice of sales events. The way they were asked made all the difference. The more savvy salespeople had added the question to their regular in-person or phone conversations with the customers. Most customers appreciated being asked, knowing that the salesperson cared about getting timely and relevant information to them. This was not asked coldly, anonymously or flippantly, but as part of the ongoing customer relationship. Where less fluid salespeople had failed was in asking for an email address as if they were forced to ask “by Corporate.” Deliver, get ROI. Then followed a new, well-planned email campaign to these customers, with really relevant content, positive imagery of what the customers’ end game was: great results from the products being offered. One very successful campaign offered better early-order pricing on the products that the customer had historically purchased and was likely planning to stock up on for the coming season. The email blast schedule was efficient, and customers were not overloaded with messaging. We continued to respect the customer relationship, and saw a 326% lift in revenue across these customers. Meaningful customer interaction, thoughtful offerings, and timely promotions can get you some real revenue lift. Do the math, and then do the bump!

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

Begin building the partnership with your clients—the simple, 4-step plan: Get on the same page: embrace your client’s concerns with this 4-step strategy:

LOOK: Be well versed in your client’s situation—their company, their industry, and any current developments—before you walk in the door. When visiting a client, look around and take stock: what is new, what seems to be buzzing, and what seems to be lacking.

ASK: Make sure you know what the client’s primary concern is right now, and what is coming down the pike for them. You are visiting/calling on the client about a specific, very current need or opportunity. During the conversation, ask about their other current or upcoming needs, based on what you’ve observed, or based on industry developments.

LISTEN: When the client answers your questions, simply listen fully to what they say. Listen to what they leave out from the story, and then ask more questions and, again, listen thoughtfully. Offer relevant solutions to their concerns. Do you have any new products to offer to meet these industry developments? Which solutions, in addition to your basic offering, have helped your other clients grow in the current environment? Use these parables to illustrate your ideas.

GROW: Grow with the client: let the client know that you are their most reliable partner by continuing to look, ask and listen. You’ll both move forward and grow when you make a practice of “always be helping”: acknowledging the client’s concerns, and offering relevant and timely solutions.

Then, stay on the same page: This proactive approach will help you both, and you’ll build a solid partnership!

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

Having trouble being thankful year-round? Here are some great things to focus on:

You have job skills: Everyone brings something to the table. Know your value, and see the value in those around you. Sales, Marketing and Finance don’t always see eye to eye, but they all need each other like a desert needs water. Look around: you probably have some excellent co-workers. With the not so excellent ones, think of one thing about them that is outstanding and brings something to the equation (even if it is just his great cowboy boot collection.)

If you have a job, you have customers: There are never enough of them, but you do have some customers, and some—if not all—bring you meaningful work to dig in to—what every human craves.

You have a boss: Yes, some days you secretly think the boss is a ding-dong idiot. Other days they are the great driving force of your favorite project. Sometimes the boss is a mix of the two. In reality, many days, your boss is the buffer between you and someone higher up—this can be a frustrating thing, but also can be a great, great thing. Put yourself in your boss’ shoes. Learn from their good qualities. Understand what drives them to succeed on their toughest days.

You have family, and laughter: Neither of these are consistent, but your crazy family, and the ability to smile at beauty—and to laugh at absurdity—will heighten your enjoyment throughout the year!

We do live in a land of opportunity: It is a truism that opportunity in employment is not consistently and fully there for all of us (women, people of color, older workers.) However, we do ALL have more opportunity in this country than in some other places on the globe. We live in a place and time of the “great experiment”—so let’s all work to better the odds. Some things work very well, and some things we have to improve upon together. Understanding, reaching out, celebrating what makes us each unique—this employment of our time will prove to be meaningful work for all of us.

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

A professional and comprehensive leads conversion program has two parts: INBOUND MARKETING—attracts leads to your company/product OUTBOUND MARKETING—converts leads to customers

INBOUND MARKETING starts with a search: The core of your digital marketing program will be search engine optimization (“SEO”.) This is the vehicle that helps your company or product get found on an online search, and attracts leads to your website. Beyond SEO, your best inbound marketing tools are: Targeted online ads, with trackable click-thrus so that you can measure ROI Relevant website content, which warms up a website visitor by encouraging them to navigate around the site. Webforms, with compelling offers which invite your leads to provide contact information, bringing them into your CRM system/sales funnel.

OUTBOUND MARKETING starts with “hello”: Once a customer’s contact info is in your system, you can say hello and thank you, find out what their pain points are and answer these with relevant sales enablement/follow up tools. These keep you in front of the lead while your sales force completes the conversion process with personal attention: Email marketing Direct mail Leave-behind brochures, PowerPoints and other in-person sales enablement tools

The frequency question: Inbound and outbound marketing require using two key guidelines: offer ONLY relevant/helpful “content” (messaging) and don’t overwhelm the customer with too much volume.

Attract, convert. Attract, convert. Focus on steady, smart marketing, with short-term and long-term forward motion, and you’ll grow your customer base.

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

Online promotion warms up the customer, and keeps you in the forefront by assuring that: The customer has heard of your company You are a legitimate player You have what they need

Here’s what the purchase process looks like, and what you must do at each phase to build customer relationships:

Need recognition: The customer realizes that they need something that they don’t have, and they’ll have to purchase it from somewhere. Their next activity is online search.

Online Research: The customer begins and completes the online search for options, which match their search criteria: what comes up on the screen when they type in what they are looking for (search terms.) You’ll match their criteria with great SEO.

Consideration of options: Of the results of the customer’s online search, they will judge which option most closely matches their search criteria. What does your website say about you, and at what volume does this match the customer’s current need? You’ll meet this hurdle with great website content.

Purchase decision: The customer has chosen one supplier, you. You’ll make it easy to reach you and to buy from you, with readily available contact info, prompt response time and great sales enablement tools to close the deal.

Post-purchase activity: You’ve acquired the customer, now what? Can you win them over with service, and does your follow up activity reinforce the decision to buy from you? What other services do you talk about with the customer to help them grow their business to the next phase? Make sure you meet the challenge of this critical phase, with amazing ongoing customer service, and with a plan for cross-sell/upsell activities, which match the customer’s next need recognition.

Keep your promotion activity current, and  you’ll keep moving forward alongside the customer!

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

Has your company survived the recession under your leadership? Great job! Now that you are out of the woods and on the upturn, take stock. Have you missed any beats in marketing, and does your marketing plan feel now feel stale and stodgy? If you’d like to go from stodgy to edgy, move your company’s marketing plan closer to goal with digital marketing tools! A lot has changed in the sales and marketing world—with customers, strategies, and the marketing tools that are now available to make your moves more effective:

CUSTOMERS: How customers shop for your services has changed immeasurably, in every industry including yours! Customers now research online before they purchase. They’ll need relevant answers to their queries, from helpful suppliers like you!

SALES/MARKETING STRATEGY: “ABC--Always Be CLOSING” is now: Always be HELPING. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, and then be the helpful partner that they need to grow their business.

MARKETING TOOLS: We have more options, with the addition of the digital space: we can get in touch with customers where and when they search for answers!

Digital marketing tools are essentially the same as traditional marketing tools. The newer marketing tools share basically the same ideals/goals as the old, they are just online: Online ads = work the same as a traditional billboard, radio or magazine ad, etc., and results can be tracked Emailed campaigns = work similarly faxed or mailed materials, but with much better tracking options

So, if things are the same, why add digital marketing? Because it is much faster, more nimble, better for your customers and better for you! We are now able to be where the customer is when they are researching a purchase. We are in the conversation with the customer, being a business partner with the helpful information they need to make their ideal purchase decision, and then to more easily track our own campaign ROI. Let your leads take the lead, and you’ll take your business as far as you can go!

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2015, Build It Marketing

Hammering at air Wondering where your lead-gen efforts are going, and whether they are worth your time and budget dollars? You might need to reset your GPS, start over from scratch, and use a more scientific approach: consider where your target audience is, and make sure you get the right tools for your targets.

Where are your customers? Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What are they looking for online, what search phrases are they using to find someone like you. What content might they respond to, with a click-thru to your site? What offer might influence whether they give you their own info on a webform?

Inbound Marketing: Great inbound marketing involves using the right lead generation tools. These are the ones that get you in front of prospects, online—in real time—driving traffic to your website, and gathering actionable prospect data.

Do you have the right tool set for on-boarding leads? Get the basic online marketing toolbox. Your best inbound marketing tools: SEO Online ads Webforms Relevant webpages User-centric content User-guiding web navigation

Got click-thrus? Use this actionable data to monitor your programs, and to stay in touch with customers in a relevant way. Keep an eye on what your prospects are responding to with a click, their points of entry to your site, what pages they visit, and what pages they exit on. Your goal is to get them to take an action on your site like navigating around and filling out forms, and exiting on a point of purchase page, such as store locations, for a brick and mortar business, or the check out page of a commerce site.

Rinse. Repeat. Don’t let cobwebs grow in your toolbox. You should be regularly looking at these three basics: Where are my customers? Are my lead-gen tools working for me? Is my content relevant and compelling, and are ad viewers/site visitors responding positively to my messaging—are they taking the desired action?

If it’s broke, fix it! (With great tools that really do work.)

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

Your Selling Points You know these already. These are your top three perceived benefits of buying/why your current customers choose you. They are your magic beans. These should match your target customers’ top three business needs, and then will become the backbone of your sales/marketing messaging. This is the formula that “magically” makes the customer say yes to you.

If you’ve been out there selling, you know these selling points. They are the things you’d say in the first minute of a cold call, or an elevator pitch.

Your Drawbacks You may or may not know these. Drawbacks are any current drawbacks of buying, perceived or real. They can make your customer hesitate, or say no. Sometimes these are things you can change, sometimes not. Many times, these are items that your target audience perceives as drawbacks, such as not having a huge staff or a brick and mortar office/store, but when addressed up front and in a sober manner, your customers can see that these “drawbacks” are actually assets, i.e., small staff/online storefront make you more nimble when meeting customer needs, and help you make the most of their budget dollars.

Changing Customer Needs Customer needs change over time. Your existing customers and prospects might have outgrown your business model, or they are unaware that you’ve added services and have kept up with the industry. If you haven’t kept up, listen to your customer pushbacks--if it’s an easy fix, then fix it, and let your customers and prospects know that you’ve listened and have moved to better meeting their needs.

Sugar and Smart People I’ve had clients cite, “I’m overweight”, or “I’m a woman” as some of the reasons why a prospective customer might say no to them. I would say that if a prospect already knows this much about you, then you are in front of them presenting, and so you are already half way to a “yes.” In some cases, customer prejudice might actually be a stumbling block or stopping point. The world is not made up entirely of sugar and smart people, but in general, superficial objections move away within the first moments of a spot-on ad or presentation that meets a pressing business need. Know yourself. Be your most amazing self. Know the customer’s needs and use your top selling points to meet them.

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

The Positive Effect of Old-School: What do you do when “the old-school team refuses to leave and make room for digital/millennial thinking”? If the whole organization feels stodgy and a bad fit for you, move on. If it’s just that your pain point is meshing your skill set with the old-school management, then direct your energy toward the real net positive effect, for yourself and your organization, of a mixed-generation management team. Some key points of wisdom to listen for, and learn from, are: Corporate goals—very old-school building block, and the basis of everything you should be doing in your role Customer profiles and customer needs, and the perspective of changes over time Marketing the business before digital—what was done before and what worked;      and that using this perspective will help predict which new technologies/media will stick. Where the bodies are buried, and how to step over them And, basically, years of business management intelligence, implemented

Your Approach: To fully access the expertise of the management team, you might have to adjust your own attitude. Go back to that space when you were no longer a teenager, when you were on your own for the first time, and you realized that your parents were not complete drooling idiots, that they were right about a lot of things—how you then felt embarrassed for having put them in that space of inferiority because of their age and because of your own insecurity. Probs not a good idea to make that mistake in a business setting.

Practice Your New-Found Idolatry in These Two Scenarios: Negotiating with customers—when speak, when to lie down, when to beg: Great old-school sales people have not really had to adapt from “always be closing” to “always be helping”. They have a natural sense of helping customers, and know that part of this is gauging the customer’s mood when negotiating. Sometimes customers need to hear something that they might not want to, sometimes you need to hear something that you might not want to, and sometimes you will need to really fight to keep the business. Get with your superiors on this—they’ve been through it before.

Pitching an idea—wind up before you throw: Having success pitching an idea to your superiors means gaining their consensus, whoever they are and whatever their perspective. Don’t get frustrated in meetings because things aren’t going your way, if you haven’t laid some groundwork ahead of time. When you have a big presentation with internal stakeholders (a.k.a. your superiors,) make sure you preheat the oven. Visit with each stakeholder separately prior to the big meeting, and get her/his individual opinion, feedback and approval. Make changes as necessary before your presentation. Then when you are in the larger meeting and presenting, you will have several cheerleaders who feel that you are representing them, not resenting them.

Own your ideas and be very bold with them, but be respectful with those above you on the org chart. They hired you for a good reason, but they are not called “superiors” for nothing.

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

Bubbeleh, Don’t Worry So Much Who do you want to reach? If you can identify them, and your product or service can meet their needs, you can get in front of them online. Don’t be overly concerned with knowing which of the latest media you can access—the more marketing changes, the more it stays the same. Focus instead on identifying some basic marketing criteria for getting in front of customers: • Where your customers are • What they need right now • How you can meet that need

Where Are All The Customers? All of your customers are online. A little bit louder now: ALL of your customers are online. Where they are online depends upon what they are all about, and you know your customers well enough by now to answer these questions: For B2C, are they young/old/male/female/luxury buyers/practical buyers and where do they live geographically? For B2B, which online publishers (websites) support their business within your industry?

What Do They Need, and How Can You Meet That Need? On your optimal day, all of your target customers are online looking to purchase something from someone just like you. All purchases start with an online search, and all searches start with a need. What is your customer asking for when they search for someone like you online? What is their primary need, and how are they stating it (i.e., “My car is getting older”), and what are the secondary needs? (“I need this quality/luxury level in a new car, at this price point”.) If these are ideal customers for you, then the answers to these questions should match to what you’ve stated within your product’s online value proposition, and in your company’s online mission statement.

You’re Perfect. Now Get Professional Help. Now you’ve done the heavy lifting. You’ve identified your ideal target customer, identified their need, and outlined which of your products meet that need and why. You’ve done what only you can do—outlined your own marketing goals using what you know best about your products and customers. Now, hire a professional to turn this market intelligence into stellar content, and to get your message across—online and in real time. So, Bubbeleh, stop shvitzing, and don’t worry so much—you’re perfect.

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

Making SEO relevant to the stakeholder What do you do when you want to move a company into the current century, but the purse strings are held by “the old-school generation who refuses to make room for digital marketing” You can poke fun if you want—“the robots are taking over!” or you can get real and help the process along so that everyone benefits. Know that when you are pitching any new idea to an old-school stakeholder, you need to do what good SEO does, and make your argument relevant to your audience.  Make your SEO plan relevant to your stakeholders.

SEO is like the yellow pages—explaining SEO to the CEO “Why in my day…” Before the intenet, if you wanted to buy something, you would look up possible vendors in the local yellow pages phone directory, or, for farther reach, in industry-generated listing catalogs. You would spend time calling a few companies to see which was the best fit for your needs. Knowing this perspective is how I made SEO really relevant to an old-school CEO, and also gave him an easy verbal tool to spread the good word. I likened new technology to its old-school counterpart: “SEO is like the new yellow pages.” SEO is indeed the new yellow pages, but with SEO we have more options and can get much better information, reviews and instant answers on products. If you can provide relevant and unique information, online, that the customer is looking for, your organic SEO will improve.

Keywords. Be real, be relevant. Don’t let your organization get “keyword happy”, just because your old-school stakeholder has heard about keywords from their golf buddy. With keywords, here is the basket you have to fill for your customer once they find you online: a relevant and compelling answer to their search question. You will provide this by adding keywords to your website that the customer might type in when they start their search. These keywords should be such that actually apply to your business, or you will not be relevant to the online customer and they will simply not choose you. These keywords should be embedded into your page metadata, and in your copy. Don’t ruin your copy, or be so obvious with SEO and keywords that you end up saying “Jennifer Anniston” 50 times in one sentence. This will not help you win the customer you want. Be real, be relevant.

Everyone now uses online search. Whether you buy online or in a brick and mortar, you research online first. I was once pitching to a Sr. VP who did not understand SEO or see the prevalence of online search. He’d stated that, “only young people do this—our customers don’t care.” I took a deep breath—my most valued negotiating skill—and as I did I looked around his office. I spied his Land’s End bag. Knowing he was all business, and not likely a mall-shopper, I said, “where do you go for clothes, Macy’s?” Startled, he replied that he had no patience for that, that he simply bought all his clothes from one catalog.  “One and done—efficient,” he said happily. I complimented him on the simplicity of that and his choice of catalog. I asked him if he ever looked up the merchandise, size, etc. online before placing his phone order, as I do. Well, yes—I just go online, punch in what I want, take a look at it and call the number. Aha. Online search. No further argument, your honor. Even he had to laugh. More importantly, he got it—that everyone researches online before they buy, even a 70-year old former farmer.

Make them the hero. Within a few days of presenting SEO to that aforementioned CEO, I heard him say to his Financial Controller, “It’s simple, Bob, SEO is like the new yellow pages.” That’s when I knew that my evil robot plan was working.

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing

The New Bad Reputation Ahhhh online reputation—it used to be such a death knell: I once likened it—speaking to a male SrVP—to the shunned “wanton” girl of old who got pregnant in high school— BTW, I said in my head, no one ever vilified the impregnating boy. Now, no one is shipped off to a convent or otherwise cut off all from human contact if they become the central figure in any scandalous side-whispered story. This kind of potential meteor to personal reputation no longer has the stunning impact it once did, or logic might prevent the Kardashians from being something to keep up with, or prevent Donald Trump from being a viable candidate.  

Volume Control There’s some of this dynamic when managing your company’s online reputation, but there are also some key points of difference, having to do with the number of comments about your company that are out there—the “chatter” volume. It used to be that one bad comment could sink the team. Readers are now able to accept a bad online comment or full-on scathing review here or there. The reader can see it as subjective to the reviewer’s personality—a bad day, a disgruntled employee, a competitor—as long as the good reviews far outweigh the bad. You can control the volume of good reviews, or “chatter”, to great extent, by controlling the customer experience. That is, knowing and being what your customers truly want. With the ready access to the reviewing process, a positive customer experience is crucial now. Companies are finding that if they did not care so much before, they now need to get with the customer experience program.

The “Trump Effect” The Trump effect only works for celebrities. It does not work in business—ongoing perceived negatives in the media will not get you mileage. Some tips: Avoid getting in the news media or online chatter with shoddy workmanship, bad service to customers, or poor treatment of employees. Keep your reputation stellar by making sure that everyone in your corporate food chain knows how important s/he is to the customer. Train your people to see and accept that everyone is a sales person. Every single employee who comes into contact with a customer in any way is part of the sale—the person answering the door, the phone, or the online chat helpline.   Last week, I had a technical push through for a client that involved three different online companies. I had to contact all three to sort out the pre-existing problem on the customer’s website. At one company, the online chat person corrected my speech on a topic that I’d already stated that I needed assistance with. At the second company, a phone helpline person acted like he was going out of his way to give me six strands of non-proprietary code. The third did a great job, and was very calm and helpful. I had not yet chosen any of the three to consolidate the business under. They all provide essentially the same product—which one do you think would get my recommendation to the client for future business transactions? And, (pregnant pause,) which one would get my good review?

--Vicki Sanches

copyright 2016, Build It Marketing