Category Archives: Marketing

November 23, 2012
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How much does it cost to generate a lead?

By | Marketing, Sales, social media | 2 Comments

The secret of effective lead generation

How_much_does_it_cost_to_generate_a_leadHow much does it cost to generate a lead is a question that is so often NOT asked. When someone asked me recently, I felt embarrassed to say I didn’t actually know how much it was costing me to generate a lead. Oops! And,  I’ve been in business a long time – and sales! I'm used to tracking all costs, including cost of sale, but like I said, I was embarrassed to say I didn’t know what it cost to generate a lead. When I asked my peers though, many of whom work for large global brands in sales and marketing departments (as Directors) they too were unable to answer the question. Quite frankly I was horrified as this really is, in my opinion business basics 101. Why then are so many business owners not tracking this statistic and metric for lead generation?

Well one of the reasons could be because many business owners buy in leads or data and are not proactively working to generate a lead. The other reason could be because they already have a database to work from. Despite these possibilities, in my opinion it doesn’t explain why so few are tracking, monitoring and analysing the costs to generate a lead.

These days there are many ways to generate a lead for your business. For example you can use traditional ways such as telemarketing, direct mail, PR, blogging, and trade shows, or go down the social media and online route.  Having built businesses and sales teams for 18 years, I know from first hand experience that the costs for these channels have continued to increase year-after-year. And, for starts-up without investment and capital or small creatives these costs are just not fathomable.

In the case of direct mail, the cost for printing and postage continues to increase and because of this so few can actually afford to do it. Whilst email marketing is far from dead, many are still not opened or are binned before being opened. Likewise, telemarketing and PR are time-intensive and sometimes equally expensive processes that can be ineffective if not done strategically. Trade shows have been getting more expensive to participate in for years and when you calculate the cost of travel, elaborate exhibition booths, and branded promotional materials it often works out as a no brainer in terms of not doing it.

What are the best lead generation techniques?

As a result of this, many creative businesses and start-ups have turned to the Internet as a means to generate a lead in a more cost-effective and productive way. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Google + and Linkedin have proved very viable methods for obtaining clean data from an authentic audience that’s engaged and interested. To me that’s exciting as many business owners and marketers have yet to experience the online marketing benefit of their blog and social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).

When done right, these social media platforms can play vital roles in enhancing your company’s search engine rankings, brand positioning and for generating a lead. It’s easy to position your company as an expert within your industry and also to convert website visitors into qualified leads and prospects who are interested in learning more about your product or service! And, once you’ve identified your cost to generate a lead, you’ll then be able to lower your cost per lead.

As many of you know, I'm experienced in start-ups without capital, but please tell me about your experiences with this, as every business is unique. I'm so interested to hear how well your marketing efforts are performing and how you're leveraging the lead generation power of your blog and social media. Please share your experiences and feedback on ways to generate a lead in the comments below as I’d love to hear. Finally thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends and check out another blog I have on ways to build your authority for your brand using social media including how to generate a lead.

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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November 20, 2012
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Colour psychology: an interview with Bernay Laity from in:colour

By | Established business, Marketing, New business, Sales | 3 Comments

Colour psychology and its affect on sales

colour_pyschology_interview_jane_frankland_bernay_laity_incolourI’ve read an awful lot of articles on branding and picking colours but it was only when I met Bernay Laity, Creative Director of in:colour that I felt I truly understood colour psychology. Until then I’d understood the significance of colour for branding, but what I hadn’t grasped was actually how much colour psychology influenced sales.

So now I fee stupid!

But I ask you, how many of you have ever considered how colour psychology affects your brand? Or whether it can turn off prospective customers and clients to your product or service? Or even how it affects your romance and dating, or the place where you work, chill out or think!!! Probably only a few of you have.

The big retail brands certainly know this and that's why they play to it – strategically. They often spend years surveying their market to discover their values, beliefs and attitudes towards colour. And, they design their retail outlets with this in mind. Recently I heard of an international hairdressing brand that took two years to find out about colour psychology and how it affected their customers buying attitudes. They then went on to launch and sell with increased success – as you'd expect!

So how does colour affect our buying decisions? How can understanding colour psychology help us to sell more? Well as someone who loves selling, these are questions I had to find the answers to. Thankfully, Bernay Laity from in:colour, a consultancy that specialises in colour psychology was there to help me. She took the time to answer my questions on colour psychology, human behaviour and buying. And, as a former textile designer I was loving it!

She started with an explanation of the application of colour psychology in our world. Science informs us that colour is a vibration of light but that it's more than just visual. Colour affects us on all levels, even if we appear unaware of it. Our life may be ‘coloured’ by pleasant and unpleasant experiences creating strong likes and dislikes of colour, but there is actually much more to it than casual preference.

According to Carl Jung, colour is the mother tongue of the subconscious.

Unbeknown to me, we use the language of colour to interpret what we see, and we relate to it at an instinctual level. In our natural environment colour signals to us the changes of season; what foods are safe to eat, and warns us of any likely danger.

The key to colour psychology is harmony i.e. everything has a relationship. In the natural world we see harmony and organisation in the variation of colour from season-to-season. Each season has its own specific qualities and characteristics of colour. It has distinct hues and tones that operate ‘in harmony.'

Our sense of colour is strongly linked to our emotions, and like a language we use colour to express how we feel – whether consciously or unconsciously. Colour psychology teaches us how to understand the effects of colour on the personality and then how to use it to enhance the interior environment and improve communications. It goes far beyond “use red to convey passion, or aggression or creativity.” It looks at the tones, the hues and the colour families all in accordance with personal beliefs of the individual or brands values of the business.

Bernay Laity discusses colour psychology

Look out for the advice on colours to wear for dating and the out-takes at the end!

To find out more about Bernay and the amazing work she does on colour psychology visit in:colour, at www.incolourconsultancy.com. 

Click the link to learn more about finding your perfect brand colour. 

Now I want to hear from you…

So finally, my questions to you are:

  • How are you using colour psychology in your branding, workspace and home?
  • Have you ever changed a colour in your home or workspace and seen a difference to the way you approach work, think or relax.
  • Have you noticed how your mood is affected by colour? If so, what colours turn you on or off?
  • Or have you ever considered seeking an expert colour psychologist for this or to improve sales?

Please let me know as I'd love to hear.

Thank you, as always for reading, watching and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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November 2, 2012
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Social media marketing and how to spot a faker

By | Established business, Marketing, New business, Sales, social media | No Comments

Social media marketing outsourcing

Social media marketing and how to spot a fakerFollowing on from my last post on how to establish your authority by using social media marketing, I wanted to concentrate on what to look out for when you're outsourcing your social media marketing, or employing someone to do this as part of your team.

Today, more and more businesses are looking to social media as a way to grow their business, promote their brand and engage with their clients.

However, businesses often have little experience with this new technology and consequently don’t really know how to tell if they're engaging with the real deal or a fake social media expert.

With the growing demand for expertise in this field, unfortunately there’s not enough supply of real talent. Gary Vaynerchu recently commented that 99.5% of social media marketing experts are clowns and sadly from what I’ve seen I’d have to agree. Not everyone who claims to be a social media expert is one. So, it’s important to be able to identify who’s a fake and who’s competant.  So, here are some key indicators to help you.

Social media marketing experts are…

Social media experts are experienced and active users of social media. In my opinion it doesn’t matter whether they’ve been consulting, training or managing social media for years. Let's face it, it's a new technology and not even a decade old. However, what does matter is that they're active users, engaging with their networks, and getting results.

You'll want to see if:

  • They've updated their profiles
  • They've completed their About page and it has hyperlinks
  • They're adding fresh, unique content daily i.e. posts, Tweets, pins and blogs
  • Their branding looks professional and isn’t breaking any of the social media platform rules
  • They're up-to-date with the latest social media trends
  • They're using the latest and most appropriate tools
  • They're engaging with their network promptly.

How to check engagement…

On this point there are a few ways to check. For example on:

  • Facebook, see how many fans are talking about their page. It will say this next to their profile picture.
  • Do they have apps installed?
  • Are they branded professionally?

On Twitter, you can see from their Tweets.

  • How often are they Tweeting other people’s content?
  • How often are they Tweeting unique content?
  • How often are they replying?  (Look for the @ sign)

On YouTube, check to see:

  • How many views they have
  • What's going on with their comments

On LinkedIn:

  • How many people are they connected to?
  • Have they set up user groups?
  • Are they a publisher that's publishing good quality content?

Social media marketing fakers are…

Social media fakers are well connected but lack quality connections. Whilst they may have lots of Facebook Likes or Twitter followers, they lack relevant followers and actual clients. They chose volume over quality every time.

On this note, it's worth knowing that you can buy hundreds and thousands of connections for as little as $5. You can also buy services to follow or add fans that are automated.

Social media fakers are poor at engagement. They don’t connect or get back to their fans. They're still operating push marketing strategies. They're inexperienced at converting prospects into ‘fans' and clients. And, they often lack a niche and insight into their clients. As a result they don’t have the knowledge to meet their clients needs.

To wrap this up…

Social media is a powerful tool for business development. However, it's not the only strategy that should be used for business development. Social media marketing should always be complemented by other elements of marketing. It doesn’t replace traditional marketing methods. Instead, it’s used to enhance them.

Always be wary of those claiming it’s the right strategy for every business. Whist there are many merits for employing social media as a tool to develop the business, especially for exposure, influence and ranking, determining whether it’s the right strategy requires careful analysis of the business and the context in which it operates.

Unfortunately it’s so easy for people to jump on the social media marketing bandwagon and say they’re experts when they’re not. Fakers give social media marketing a bad name and as a result many in business simply render the use of social media ineffective. However, when social media marketing is used strategically it's an incredibly powerful tool to support the business' commercial efforts.

Now I want to hear from you…

What are your thoughts? Are you a believer in social media as a technology to drive your business development forward? Have you fallen victim to a faker or been lucky to engage with an expert who knows their trade? What makes someone a social media marketing expert in your eyes?

Please share your stories and experience here, and if you’ve got a question, just pop it down here. If you want to contact me for a strategy call click here.

Thanks for being a sport and participating!

P.S.

Finally, if you know someone who'd LOVE the insight from this social media for business post, please send them a link. You’ll find business owners, consultants and yes, even sales and marketing managers who manage people who'll be interested to hear about this.

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October 31, 2012
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Social media: How to be an authority in your niche using social media

By | Marketing, social media | One Comment

Social media to establish your brand

jane_frankland_online_marketing_and_business_developmentWhether you’re a suit-wearing city clad type, a designer fashion label lover, or a dressed-down, cool, arty type you can establish your brand as an authority in your niche and community very easily using social media. And, as there are only a few key elements to creating an authoritative online presence, as oppose to an active brand I've listed them here:

1. Know who your customers are
Starbucks has a killer reputation within the coffee retail industry because they know exactly who their consumer is. They know their customers’ culture, workout routines, concerns, interests, passions and goals. Reaching that ground where you know who your customer is on an emotional level will give you a huge upper hand in establishing your authority. Social media gives you the power to get familiar with your fans.

2. Build a quality network
Surround yourself with the best, including your influential customers, prospects who fit your demographic and even your competition. You can locate brands, users and relevant conversations happening within your niche by searching via traditional methods or by using networking tools. You can also crowdsource, which is an excellent way to see how people feel about a product, to measure overall sentiment about an industry or brand, and to jump into the conversation – further establishing yourself as the authority and expert.

3. Ensure quality control
Just as you wouldn't compromise the quality of your product, you can’t present a half baked social media effort. So, create an editorial calendar to ensure that you’re focusing on all aspects of your brand and maintaining consistency. Have a process for peer reviews and checking of content. Being a professional brand means going the extra mile. It means looks the part. It means delivering upon expectations, and more. In terms of consistency, you need to be posting between 3 to 5 times per day.

4. Unique social media campaigns
To be an authority in your niche you have to distinguish yourself from your competition and stand out to your customers.  Once upon a time just having a social media presence was enough. Now though, as more brands are catching on, the pressure to present dynamic and creative social media campaigns is evident.

Check out lifestyle brand, POE, and the campaign, #NameHer. This was developed to incentivize users to share the name of the woman who had most shaped their life for a chance to have a signature shoe named after her. This touched consumers on an emotional level, established a unique voice, and made it a place of community. It established POE’s authority among users.

Leveraging social media to become an authority in your industry makes a full circle back to your fans. If you’ve taken these steps above, you’ve created credibility, trust, and value for your consumers. That is the name of the game when striving to be the authority.

Please let me know which social media platform you prefer for establishing your brand and authority. Tell me how you're getting on with creating a new brand or revising an existing one as I'd love to hear. If you have any more advice, please just add a comment. Thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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October 26, 2012
0

Finding your perfect brand colour

By | business start ups, Established business, Marketing, New business, Sales | 3 Comments

Colour as a sales tool – well I never!

jane_frankland_colour_brand_psychologyBeing a creative and visual person, whenever I see these statistics like the ones I'm going to share with you it brings a smile to my face. I like being a pro and to me getting your branding right so that it supports your sales means incorporating all of these key elements.

The Institute of Colour Research says that 92.6% of people when surveyed put MOST IMPORTANCE on visual factors when purchasing products or services. As colour plays such a huge role in what the visuals look like, and the impact the visual creates in the minds of both prospects and customers, it's imperative not to play down this phase. Statistics show that colour matters for these reasons:

  • 92% Believe colour presents an image of impressive quality
  • 90% Feel colour can assist in attracting new customers
  • 90% Believe customers remember presentations and documents better when color is used
  • 83% Believe colour makes them appear more successful
  • 81% Think colour gives them a competitive edge
  • 76% Believe that the use of colour makes their business appear larger to clients

*2003 survey conducted by Xerox Corporation and International Communications Research

Research also highlights that people make a subconscious judgement about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing, and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on colour alone (Source: CCICOLOR – Institute for Color Research). Colour increases brand recognition by up to 80% (Source: University of Loyola, Maryland study) and it can improve readership by 40%, learning from 55% to 78%, and comprehension by 73% (Sources: “Business Papers in Color. Just a Shade Better”, Modern Office Technology, Embry, David, “The Persuasive Properties of Color”, Marketing Communications, Johnson, Virginia, “The Power of Color”, Successful Meetings).

So if colour matters so much to a brand or products success it's right to understand the psychology behind it, right? The answer is hell YES!

The importance of colour in branding

Have you ever considered the importance of colour in branding? Probably not! But, think about it for just one moment. Coke is red, UPS is brown and IBM is blue.  Corporations such as these have spent millions on their branding and they understand that the proper use of colour is vital to creating a positive image of their brand amongst their consumers.  Colour also plays such a huge role because of memory recall. It stimulates all the senses, instantly conveying a message like no other communication method. And, when the customers feels good about a brand or product – they buy!

Choosing the right dominant colour for your brand is crucial. This colour should appear on all your promotional materials, including your logo, product packaging and potentially the clothes you wear to meetings or in front of your customers. As much as possible, the colour you choose should set you apart, make you stand out, work with your industry and image, and tie to your brand promise. It should also take into account colour psychology, as colour can convey different things depending on the culture, situation and industry.

Here's a fairly universal guide to help you decipher their meaning.

Colour psychology – what are your values?

Blue: Cool blue is perceived as trustworthy, intelligent, dependable, fiscally responsible and secure. Strongly associated with the sky and sea, blue is serene and universally well-liked. Blue is an especially popular colour with financial institutions, as its message of stability inspires trust.

Red: Red activates your pituitary gland, increasing your heart rate and causing you to breathe more rapidly. This visceral response makes red aggressive, energetic, provocative and attention-grabbing. Count on red to evoke a passionate response, albeit not always a favourable one. For example, red can represent danger or indebtedness. One of the most powerful, attention grabbing. Associated with ACTION. Creative, energy but also good for familiarity. Pushing boundaries.

Green: In general, green connotes health, freshness and serenity. However, green's meaning varies with its many shades. Deeper greens are associated with wealth or prestige, while light greens are calming. New beginnings.

Yellow: In every society, yellow is associated with the sun. Thus, it communicates optimism, positivism, light and warmth. Certain shades seem to motivate and stimulate creative thought and energy. The eye sees bright yellows before any other colour, making this a great colour for point-of-purchase displays.

Purple: Purple is a colour favoured by creative types. With its blend of passionate red and tranquil blue, it evokes mystery, sophistication, spirituality and royalty. Lavender evokes nostalgia and sentimentality.

Pink: Pink's message varies by intensity. Hot pinks convey energy, youthfulness, fun and excitement and are recommended for less expensive or trendy products for women or girls. Dusty pinks appear sentimental. Lighter pinks are more romantic. Calming and feminine.

Orange: Cheerful orange evokes exuberance, fun and vitality. With the drama of red plus the cheer of yellow, orange is viewed as gregarious and often childlike. Research indicates its lighter shades appeal to an upmarket. Peach tones work well with healthcare, restaurants and beauty salons. As it inherits some of the traits of red it inspires action but it is also about learning. It's great for information products.

Brown: This earthy colour conveys simplicity, durability, credibility and stability. It can also elicit a negative response from consumers who relate to it as dirty.  From a functional perspective, brown tends to hide dirt, making it a logical choice for some trucking and industrial companies.

Black: Black is serious, bold, powerful and classic. It creates drama, elegance and connotes sophistication. Black works well for expensive products, but can also make a product look heavy.

White: White connotes simplicity, cleanliness and purity. The human eye views white as a brilliant colour, so it immediately catches the eye in signage. White is often used with infant and health-related products.

Grey: Grey or silver is a conservative colour and conveys reliability, an established brand and security.

All the colours above can be categorized into two basic categories: warm and cold. In general, warm colours, like red and yellow, send an outgoing, energetic message, while cool colours, like blue, are calmer and more reserved. However, brightening a cool colour increases its vibrancy and reduces its reserve.

So before you begin work on your next campaign, consider the information on colour psychology listed above and share it with your creative team if you have one, to ensure colour is used effectively and supports your branding.

Please let me know which colours you are using in your branding, and how you're getting on with creating a new brand or revising an existing one as I'd love to hear. If you have any more advice, please just add a comment. Thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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October 20, 2012
0

Google penalizes websites with Exact Match Domains (EDMs)

By | business start ups, Established business, Marketing | 2 Comments

Do you have a website with an EMD?

Google wages war on website owners using EDMsIf you use Exact Match Domains as part of your marketing strategy then read on.  A couple of weeks ago I posted a comment on my Facebook Page about Google's latest update which penalizes website owners for relying on Exact Match Domains (EMDs) as a key marketing tactic.

For a long time, many were advised to use EMDs as a method of ranking for long-tail keyword phrases i.e. research your business idea and a profitable related keyword phrase; register a domain name that matches this phrase, and then build content until you hit the first page of Google. It was a great strategy and an easy way to get ranked quickly.

Now what's happened is that Google has taken a real aversion to this method of “gaming” the search engines and is now punishing websites that use long-tail keywords in their domain. Their aim really is simply to weed out “low quality” sites that use EMDs to artificially inflate the rankings of the site for a particular keyword. Unfortunately, however, some high quality sites have been affected.

So, how can you mitigate your risks and what can you do right now if you’re affected?

  • Continue to add quality content to your website. Remember that Google loves unique, well-written content that offers lots of value to your readers.
  • Build your social presence i.e Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram etc. By building up a strong social presence you’ll show Google that you’re serious about building a community and about getting REAL people involved in your brand and website experience.
  • Reduce your reliance on Google i.e. don’t have too many eggs in one basket. Obtaining high search engine rankings and relying purely on Google as your main source of traffic is a risky strategy.

Ways to reduce your reliance of Google

  • If you’re not building a list – start to now! I cannot stress this enough. Remember to build up your relationships with awesome content and interactivity. By building a list, you have some assurance and you could probably even argue that to some extent it’s a business continuity strategy!
  • Experiment with advertisements to build traffic and opt-ins to your list, whether that’s through Google, YouTube, Linkedin or Facebook.
  • Look for external traffic sources. Find relevant groups and forums in your niche. Comment on relevant blogs and add value. Guest blogging and cross blogging are also great tactics along with creating high-quality YouTube videos and linking these to your site.
  • Build a branded authority site. Google is continually showing a preference towards authority websites and this I believe is their real objective with targeting the EDMs.

Good luck with this and let me know what you think to these changes. Personally, whilst I think it's unfortunate that genuine businesses have been affected, I do see these changes as being a good thing in the long run.  Please let me know how you're getting on though and whether you've been affected. And, if you need help or more advice, just drop me a message. Thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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