Phil Lauterjung

Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

You’re a business owner sitting in your office pouring over the numbers from last month, trying to figure out how you can keep going without laying off anyone else.  The phone rings and the voice says, “Buddy, I’ve got THE answer to all of your business problems.”

You respond, “First off my name is Phil, and what in the world are you talking about.”  [I know, I know you probably would have hung up on the guy, but work with me on this scenario]

Caller:  “Listen Fred, I’m with XYZ Online Marketing and we can get your website on the FIRST PAGE of Google search results GUARANTEED!”  Read more... (488 words, 1 image, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

For those that might not be familiar with the term, transactional emails are typically sent to existing customers with information regarding their order process – order confirmation, shipping info, etc.  With a lot of companies these are simply text emails sent from customer service or someone else in your company.  By adding a marketing message or offer these can provide BIG opportunities for up selling and/or cross-selling, and you will start to soar above your competitors.

At the very least, these emails should include your corporate logo and tag line consistent with your website and other corporate marketing communications.  A disconnect between a well designed website experience and a text-based email can do damage to your brand reputation, especially with new customers.  Read more... (493 words, 1 image, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Everyone knows that email marketing is the least expensive and most effective form of online marketing available – right?  It’s been proven to be helpful regardless of the size of your business.  Yet, according to an Epsilon and ROI Research study, 55% of e-mail subscribers in the U.S. and Canada unsubscribe occasionally and 14% do so frequently.  Sometimes it can be a tough road.  So what gives?  Why are there such high rates of unsubscribers?

Fortunately, the same study asked the reasons that internet users unsubscribe from permission-based emails.  Here’s what they found:

 Read more... (443 words, 3 images, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

When I used to work at a Fortune 500 company we had a VP who was very provincial concerning his department.  Whenever another VP got a little too involved in his area he would  tell that other VP in no uncertain terms to “get out of my sandbox.”  I’m not quite sure why that has stuck in my brain all these years, but someone else can do the psychoanalysis on that.

I have seen that attitude persist in a lot of companies today between sales and marketing.  If you don’t believe that check out some of the other blogs on  the subject.  It’s been a hot topic lately – a lack of alignment between sales and marketing.  Read more... (500 words, 1 image, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Survey after survey confirms that email marketing is the most used internet marketing tool.  This is despite the hoopla and hype surrounding other social networking avenues like Facebook and Twitter.  The main reason for the high use of email marketing is that it works – the conversion rates can be very good if the content is excellent and there is an effective call-to-action.  That will provide the desired lead generation that in turn leads (pun intended) to more sales.  And isn’t that what you really want?  I thought so.

So here are some tips for designing and launching effective email marketing campaigns.  Read more... (560 words, 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

A number of years ago I remember approaching my boss, our president, about starting an email newsletter for our customers.  He wasn’t exactly what you would call web-savvy, and predictably said something like “why would we do that?”  I explained to him that we could keep our customers better informed at less cost (now I had his attention!) than mail or fax; and, we could incorporate images and graphics.  After I presented him with a sample and a budget he reluctantly said to go ahead.  Read more... (452 words, 3 images, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)