Phil Lauterjung

Social media continues to receive a lot of press.  Today eMarketer had an article “Why You Need a Strategy for Social Media.” I wonder if someone there had read my last post on this topic?  Probably not, but I can dream can’t I?  Their lead point was that no one is asking if they should have a strategy, but how and where should they participate.

Any one who has followed this blog knows that I don’t have any argument with their premise.  However, as they do with almost everything they post, they had a graph showing the reasons that U.S. marketers use social media.  The graph was from a study done last July by Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law titled: “Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risks.”  Read more... (428 words, 3 images, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

If you want to grow your business you must to use social media.  It’s as simple as that.

Just in case you need more proof I will share some recent stats from Econsultancy.  This is something they do every six months and it gives a good snapshot of where people are communicating and doing business.  Make no mistake, if you aren’t at least listening in on the conversations you are losing out on very valuable information.  Information regarding your industry, your competitors, and your potential customers is exchanged via social media every minute of every day.  Read more... (397 words, 2 images, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

I have written in the past about marketing automation and how it can help you grow your business.  Yesterday I experienced this from the customer’s perspective.  Of course, the average customer wouldn’t have recognized the use of a marketing automation system; but, it served to remind me of how effective it can be.

It was just another phone call among many others on a typical day.  This one was from a pleasant female voice with Edible Arrangements.  She asked if I remembered buying one of their arrangements last year for Valentine’s Day.  I don’t normally remember everything that I buy for my wife – probably because I buy her so much, hah .  But this time I did remember because I was in Kenya last year for the month of February, and quite far away from my wife.  Read more... (504 words, 2 images, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

One question that frequently comes up when discussing email marketing campaigns is: what are reasonable results to expect? Results can typically vary widely.  Fortunately, Silverpop recently did research on this subject and I know that many of you will be interested.  The results are based on random sample sets of 7,000 email messages delivered to recipients in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany.  The best part of their data is instead of giving the usual average rates they also included the median as well as the top quartile and bottom quartile.  This will allow you to get a better idea where you might place, and where to put you focus to improve your results.  Read more... (486 words, 8 images, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

NOTE:  I have added a plug-in that gives me more flexibility with fonts and sizes.  So I’m trying to make this more readable.  Let me know what you think in the comments.  Thanks.

I have written in the past about the importance of developing a “buyer persona” that incorporates as much as possible about your typical customer.  The persona should include demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral information about that company and your persona.  Read more... (523 words, 2 images, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

When I first started in sales – in the dark ages – buyers had to contact us if they were interested in our products.  Not any more!  All they do is hop on their favorite search engine and start clicking away.  Gaining a clear understanding of this new buying cycle is critical to reaching buyers at an optimum point.

Online buyers tend to take their own sweet time doing research before settling on a product to purchase.  Studies have shown that these wandering buyers conduct as many as a dozen or more searches over many weeks before deciding.  These are not usually the same searches over and over.  Most are multiple searches on the same topic.  Read more... (640 words, 2 images, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)