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MarketingTipstried-and-true

to Drive MoreBusiness

34 summer 2012 | thepartnerchannel.com

as marketers, we see a lot of failures and successes when it comes to marketing. Today, marketing is far more complex than it once was due to the sheer number of marketing channels available. However, many of the same basic principles still apply. No matter what’s in your marketing mix,

here are some of the most effective marketing tips:Translate Your Goals into a Marketing Calendar – Like with

many things in life, there are always small steps you can make to reach the final goal. Achieving your marketing goals isn’t much different. Once you have outlined your marketing goals and your marketing tactics, start outlining each in a marketing calendar. The calendar or schedule should cover a 12-month timeframe, breaking down initiatives month by month or by quarter. The calendar should also include what each activity will cost and who in your organization is responsible for executing the tactics. The calendar will not only give you the big picture for the year, but it also will help keep you on track along the way.

Include Link Buttons to Social Media Sites Everywhere – Using Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook is an easy way to gain followers and expand your reach. Be sure to include links to those sites everywhere in your marketing materials including newsletters, email signatures, website pages, blogs, ads, etc. It’s easy to do and a great way to cross-pollinate and reach a larger audience.

Set Up a Social Media Schedule – We are all busy, and it’s often hard to keep up with social media activities. Creating a social media schedule can help keep you on task with:

» Checking your social media sites twice a day, including early in the morning and after lunch.

» If you are a Hootsuite.com user, setting up three updates for the day, spaced out by a couple hours.

» Assigning a different task to different days of the week. For example, publishing a blog post every Wednesday or looking for new Twitter contacts to follow every Thursday.

Be Creative and Develop Relevant Content – Having trouble coming up with new and fresh content for social media sites and blogs? Fortunately there are always new items to write about – you just need a little creativity. Here are some ideas to get the content juices flowing: write about special offers and promotions, new products, product features and improvements, or new service offerings; provide links to relevant online articles and industry information; link back to popular blog posts; promote customer successes or case studies; promote recent press releases or coverage; blog about your campaign progress; ask a question or develop a short survey; promote a recent presentation and post it to SlideShare (www.slideshare.net).

Optimize Your Online Presence for Social Search – The Web 2.0 phenomenon has been evolving for years – social sites have changed how we interact online and market to leads. Google

Search is taking note, and they have introduced Google Social Search, which ranks sites based on their social media popularity. This allows small businesses to have stronger rankings than traditional search methods since a few referrals can carry enough weight to shoot you higher up the rankings.

Create and Promote Testimonials and Case Studies – It’s always better when your customers can toot your horn, right? And case studies are one of the best ways to showcase your expertise and tell real-life stories of your customer successes. Be sure to capture testimonials and quotes from customers in your case studies and integrate them into other marketing activities, including posting them on your website, using them in presentations, featuring them in email campaigns, and so on. Case studies can continue to provide a lot of value and mileage in your marketing efforts.

Provide Valuable Offers – Be sure to include valuable offers in your marketing efforts to help showcase your expertise and establish thought leadership as well as credibility. Great value-oriented offers include white papers, webinars, podcasts, research reports, assessments, eBooks, etc.

Create a Strong Call to Action – It is vital that all marketing communications contain a strong call to action to get recipients to take the next step. It is hard enough to develop a campaign that will grab interest, so don’t waste the opportunity in generating a lead just because you didn’t have a straightforward and easy way for the prospect to take the next step. Whether it is having a clear “Register Now” or “Start Your Trial Here” button, you want to make sure that the call to action is simple, easy to find, and communicates a sense of urgency.

Keep Your Mailing List Up To Date – To market effectively, you need to have a clean and up-to-date mailing list or database. Nothing is worse than sending communication to non-existent contacts or wrong email addresses, which impacts your response rates and overall effectiveness. Set a reminder on your calendar to check your database every couple of months and be sure to search for typos, duplicates, and generic email addresses, and then update the database accordingly.

Check Your Email Campaigns and Email Newsletters for Spam Issues – Eleven percent of B-to-B email is being marked as spam. While this statistic is not horrific, it does present a challenge to improve your email campaign open rates. After all, email is still the strongest force that influences buyers to make a purchase decision, even more than direct mail, telephone, social media, texting, or apps. If your email campaigns are being blocked from inboxes, you could be losing business.

To avoid potential spam issues, watch your readership stats for dips. If you see a drop or performance that is below industry standards, identify and fix the problem. If a domain routinely rejects your emails, you might need to contact the system administrator.

story by Jennifer Culbertson | illustration by Matt Mastrud

thepartnerchannel.com | summer 2012 35

Generate Effective Email Subject Lines – The email subject line plays an important role not only in email deliverability, but also in getting your marketing messages opened and read. Here are some subject line best practices: Make it short and descriptive (rule of thumb is about 35 characters) and include an offer. Make sure the “from” line communicates who you are as the sender (a person versus a general email address). List the key information first, and remember that urgency drives action.

Set Up a LinkedIn Group to Communicate and Connect – LinkedIn groups are by far one of the most powerful aspects of LinkedIn. For those companies that may not have a company blog or forum, setting up a group on LinkedIn is an excellent way to connect with customers and prospects as well as establish thought leadership and create a community with your contacts. It’s also a great way to drive traffic back to your website from your group.

Make Facebook Work for You – We certainly can’t ignore the largest social media site in the world! Business is becoming more and more a part of the Facebook experience. Staying on top of the new Facebook Timeline is key to developing your company image through pictures. Consider putting targeted ads on Facebook. Take advantage of the “Like” feature by making it easy for your website and blog to be liked through placement of Like buttons.

Always Test Your Campaign – It’s a best practice to test the elements of your campaign to see what email copy or landing page layout works better. One of the most common ways to do this is

through split testing, which allows you to simultaneously test two versions of material such as a web page, newsletter, post card, or email. Split testing is essential for improving performance to see what style or copy works better – and why.

Track and Measure Your Marketing Campaign Progress – Every campaign takes time to mature and begin to show results in the market. Be patient, keep focused, and remember it takes time (typically six to nine impressions) for prospects to begin to pay attention and take action. Tracking the progress of your marketing efforts and building benchmarks are key to understanding what’s working and what might need to be adjusted.

Each of these marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way for you to boost your marketing efforts and your sales. From the basics to more advanced, these marketing activities have proven themselves over the years and will hopefully set you apart from the rest of the pack. Now all you have to do is to put them into action!

Jennifer Culbertson is owner of Looking Glass Marketing and specializes in working with Microsoft VARs and ISVs to build and execute marketing strategies that drive results. With her 19 years of marketing experience within the channel, coupled with her understanding of Microsoft Partner needs, she can help take your marketing to the next level. For more information, contact Jennifer at Jennifer@lookingglassmarketing.com or 614-453-5927 and visit www.lookingglassmarketing.com.

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36 summer 2012 | thepartnerchannel.com