Category Archives: Marketing

Getting Started With Mobile Marketing

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This article will cover ideas to get you started with Mobile Marketing. Once you read it you’ll have a clear idea on where to begin.

Why have a mobile website? Often the question is…

“Do I really need a mobile website?”

The short answer is “yes you do.”

Your main website is not built for the small screen of the average smart phone. Yes it is true some phones have full browsers. But the full browser usually does not improve the experience.

And what do we know?

We know that more and more smart phones are going be in the hot little hands of your best prospects. We know they will be relying on them more and more as time goes on.

The need to be able to match your message to your mobile prospect is the foundation of “Mobile Marketing.”

People often ask… “How does a visitor find my “Mobile Marketing Website”? One way is through search. Recently Google reported a 400% increase in mobile searches over a two year period. Most searches on mobile devices are for local businesses.

When a visitor finds your site on their mobile device special coding on the website detects the mobile browser and serves the mobile version. This is fundamental “Message to Market Match.” (that’s a concept made famous by marketing guru, Dan Kennedy). When you serve up a mobile website you have matched your message to your audience.

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Creating and Implementing a Marketing Plan

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The first of the year is an appropriate time to implement a marketing plan. The marketing plan is the primary base for the business – without customers or clients there will be no business. A marketing plan has the same process as any other strategic (long-term) plan: set goals, determine an action plan to implement and realize the goals, and reassess the effectiveness of the action taken. If you have never made a marketing plan before (or a strategic plan of any kind), the important thing is to get something on paper and start implementing. The plan can be supplemented, corrected, and assessed after it has been implemented, but before implementation it is nothing and of no help. Do not let paralysis of analysis delay action.

Set reasonable, specific, and measurable marketing goals in the relevant areas of concern. Identify and describe an ideal customer or client. Do this from recent experience and from what is apparent about the marketplace. The relevant areas of concern for a marketing plan are current customers or clients, centers of influence for referrals, networking, and principal customer or client recruiting.

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Why Your Tradeshow Marketing May Be Confusing Your Visitors

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A big part of trade show marketing is deciding the right products to show. Inevitably, to narrow down the possibilities ask yourself, “What is the most important to me? What is the most important to my customers?” Rarely is that answer on the tip of your tongue. Like many trade show participants you probably want to seize the opportunity to show off ALL of your products to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Your Indecisiveness Confuses Your Visitors

This is a big mistake but it happens all the time. Tradeshow booths are often over-stuffed, over-loaded with variety, and entirely chaotic. They can be so chaotic in fact that a visitor isn’t interested to spend his or her time trying to figure out if you have anything worthwhile to offer.

Consider this from a psychological standpoint. When the brain encounters too many options, it becomes confused, tired, and starts to shut down. When the fatigue sets in, the brain looks for a resting place and moves away from the confusion – in this case, the chaos of your booth.

There are a couple reasons an exhibitor may make this mistake. Maybe they haven’t taken the time to create a solid tradeshow marketing plan and determine one specific area to place the focus. There may also be selfishness involved. The exhibitor has not thought of what their target audience is looking for at a particular event, and they have made it about themselves and showing off all their wares at one show.

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Market Segmentation Definition and The 6 Steps Of Segmentation

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Market segmentation is the practice of dividing a company’s total set of potential buyers (i.e., its market) into meaningful groups, or segments, for the purpose of properly tailoring future marketing and advertising efforts to each group. The goal of segmentation is to maximize the company’s marketing return on investment by design programs that target only those prospects who are most likely to respond to their outreach efforts.

Doing market segmentation correctly takes roughly three parts science and one part art. It is mostly science because carrying out proper segmentation is a highly-analytical, even mathematical, process. On the other hand, since there are many ways to approach segmentation, doing an effective job also relies upon the refined judgment and deep marketing experience of the marketing analyst. This is where the art comes in.

Steps to Market Segmentation

The basic steps that should be followed in any B2C (business-to-consumer) segmentation effort must include the following:

1. Determine the geographical trade area: Are you targeting only households in a small part your part of town? An entire city? The entire country?

2. Estimate the market size: Conduct an initial analysis to determine approximately how many households exist in your trade area.

3. Eliminate any obviously unqualified households: Next, adjust your market size estimate by eliminating any households that clearly fall outside of your target market. For example, if you sell swimming pools, you should eliminate all apartment-dwellers from your market size calculation.

4. Find out who your existing customers are: If your business already has a customer base, the next step is to conduct an analysis of those who have bought from you in the past – namely, your existing customers. This type of analysis may take into account a range of household characteristics, including simple demographics (like age and income), psychographics (including opinions and lifestyles), and typical buying behaviors.

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