Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
business builder marketing
by Duane Crandall
Many business owners know they need an online marketing program but they struggle over how to implement these efforts. Here are some basic tips for using search engine marketing and e-mail marketing effectively.
First, target active information seekers.
Online advertising companies such as Google and Yahoo have proven that consumers use the Internet throughout the buying cycle to gather information, investigate and compare products. A recent study of 1,500 participants demonstrates how highly consumers value the Internet as a purchasing tool:
• 93.2 percent of the participants said they would research a business-to-business purchase online.
• 95.5 percent of the participants indicated they would use a search engine at some point in this
• Most users decide which search list item to click on within seconds of scanning the page, proving that position is a factor. Over 60 percent of visitors click on the top three listings.
• 63.9 percent of the participants would choose a search engine to start their information search over consumer review sites, e-commerce sites, manufacturers’ sites and industry portals.
The key to effectively communicating your message is to be in the right place at the right time. Search engine marketing enables you to achieve prominent placement on the lists that search engines generate, resulting in greater click-through traffic of active information seekers, or qualified leads, to your site.
Second, leverage data and automation tools.
Good search engine placement is a great start, but there are key follow-up steps that can help you get even more out of your investment:
• Collect information. Capitalize on search engine traffic by collecting data from your visitors. Any data you gather early on can help you to personalize your communication with potential customers and advance your chances of a sale.
Three simple pieces of information should be gathered during the customer’s first contact: name, phone number and e-mail. Additional profiling data can be collected later in the sales cycle. • Follow up efficiently. It’s not enough to have a customer’s contact information. You should also have an e-mail messaging system in place to use it. The system can automate a personalized customer response, leaving more time for your sales staff to focus on mature leads.
Automated e-mail messages can be personalized and appear to come from the appropriate sales person, although each e-mail message can serve your entire sales staff. E-mail messaging sequences can be automatically tailored to the type of information the recipient is seeking. You can automate both e-mail marketing and list maintenance too, thus cutting down on employee hours.
• Analyze and react in real time. Using an automated system, your sales team can receive leads in a categorized and actionable way.
For example, the feedback from the system can tell you the date of the e-mail, its content, what link was clicked, and what day and time, divided up by individual customer. Finally, integrate tools and track results.
Search engine marketing generates targeted traffic to your site and allows you to follow up with e-mails that can be personalized and segmented. Leads can be fostered with automatic messages that give customers the information they need at the time they need it. Search engine marketing and e-mail marketing also enable you to track your results and the amount spent per conversion.
Savvy business owners know that advertising success is determined by the level of personal communication you have with your prospects. Leveraged properly, the Internet is a tool your business can use to turn interest into a sale.
[contact] Duane Crandall is founder and CEO of Knowledge Marketing, the online marketing division of Plymouth-based Tecknowledge Management, a Web site development, consulting and e-marketing firm: 763.746.2799, dc*******@*****an.com; *******@*****an.com“>www.teckman.com
