November 15, 2012

Online Marketing Strategies

Are you new to online marketing? Perhaps you’re already got a few strategies going put you’re trying to figure out how they should all fall into place.  What ever your situation I’ve put together what should be the components of all well rounded and well thought out marketing strategy.  This will be the first post in a series where I do a deep dive into each set of online strategies.  Check back every Thursday for the next in the series.Online marketing strageties

I think many organizations approach internet marketing wrong from the start.  That is they do what’s popular without first sitting down and figuring out an overall strategy to reach their online goals.  I like to think of online marketing as a series of interrelated hubs.  You don’t have to engage in them all, if that’s your strategy, but you must consider them all.  So without further ado let’s dive in….

Online Marketing Strategy

At the center or nucleus is what I call your IM Stragety or Internet Marketing Strategy.  To me it represents the idea that there is a plan.  If you’re a small organization it does not have to be elaborate.  If fact you should be able to write your plan down on a sheet of paper, or the back of a napkin.  The more elaborate a plan the more difficult it will be to maintain.

CRM

CRM stands for customer retention management.  A CRM database is where you store every detail of information regarding each and every person who comes into contact with our business online or off.  It’s your lead management system.

The reason I locate it near the nucleus is because I consider my database my most valuable marketing asset.  I could go to work for any reverse mortgage lender I want to because I have a database of more than 5,000 seniors that have visited my reverse mortgage websites over the past two years and have completed the contact form.

If you’re not managing your leads properly you’re wasting your time, energy, and money.  Here’s something to make you go…hmm!  According to a recent HubSpot report nearly 50% of all leads are not ready to buy on the day they convert on your site.  Your CRM is the tool you use to stay in touch with, and nurture those folks who you’ve spent bloods, sweat, and tears, to get them to your site and to give you their contact information.  Don’t squander it.

I’ve talked to people who store all of their contacts in a spreadsheet.  If you’re not using a CRM tool, do yourself a huge favor and start using one today.  Check out my earlier blog post on the benefits of  CRM software to learn a little more and how you can even get started for cheap and better yet for free (I like free don’t you!).

Workflow Strategy

A good CRM tool will allow you to implement workflows that automate task based on information or rules you have inputed into the CRM.  I think of workflows as the engine that pulls the CRM train.  Without workflows you’ve just got a bunch of data and the more of it you collect the more valuable workflows become.

What you can do with workflows

Using workflows you can trigger actions based on any information you know about your leads.  This empowers you to do what every marketer wants to do, that is to, send the right message, to the right person, at the right time.  Here’s an example:

  • Leads who have viewed a certain page on your website
  • Leads from companies with more than XYZ employees
  • Leads from companies in XYZ industry or XYZ location
  • Leads with a specific website history like page views, clicks, downloads, etc.

How I used workflows for reverse mortgage marketing

My goal as a reverse mortgage consultant was simple.  Generate 1 inbound lead every day.  At the end of the month I had 30 leads.  I knew that of the 30 I would only be able to get some percentage on the phone right away.  Of the people I actually spoke to I knew that roughly half, or 50%, would not be in the market immediately.  They might want to do a loan in 3 months when they turn 62, or next year when their spouse turned 62.  I still considered these to be high quality leads.  Many RMC’s don’t.

Why did I consider these to be high quality leads?  Because I knew I could do a better job than most nurturing those leads.  So here’s what I did.

  • I wrote 12 different letters (one for each month).
  • Loaded all the letters in the CRM
  • Set a category in my CRM so I could tag leads as ‘sent letter 1, 2, 3, etc.
  • Setup this rule in the CRM (Zoho in my case): If letter 1, then letter 2 in 30 days.
  • Had the report automatically generate and show up in my assistants to do list, and….
  • Bada bing, bada bang, bada boom all she had to do was a mail merge, stuff the envelope with the letter, and run it through the postage machine.

View the entire Marketing Strategy Series.

 

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November 15, 2012

Online Marketing Strategies

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