Tools | Branding | Tracking
Tools
Computer & Web applications Tools such as computer and web applications are critical for building the creatives, marketing concepts, deployments, processes and procedures necessary to implement successful strategies of the four pillars for business success: 1 –Store/Website; 2 – Exposure; 3 – Acquisition; 4 – Conversion. The following are some, but not all of the primary tools I have applied for the branding, marketing and processes used to develop business for many of my clients: | |
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS Microsoft Office Suite Word Excel Powerpoint Access  WEB APPLICATIONS  Website Design  WordPress HTML 5 PHP CSS 3 Bootstrap FTP Amazon Web Services EC2 Cloud Storage SES End User Computing Business Applications |   Adobe Office Suite  Acrobat DC Dreamweaver Photoshop Illustrator       Database MySQL  Tracking  CMA CRM  Automated Marketing Drip Campaigns Task Scheduling |
Internet Marketing & Branding
THE 4 PILLARS OF MARKETING
Internet Marketinginvolves four pillars for business success, 1 – Website and/or Store; 2 – Exposure; 3 – Acquisition; 4 – Conversion. If even one pillar of the four are missed, the marketing strategies most likely fail.
1 – Store and/or Website.
Today if a business’ store front is not in some way tethered to the web it is losing business. Social media platforms such as Google, Yelp, Facebook and many more drive traffic to business. Your website is also your online store. With the advent of mobile devices, responsive websites featuring media-rich content and user-friendly access to all areas. Websites need to be easily viewed on all platforms, desktops, tablets and smart phones as more than half the world’s population surf the web via tablets and cellphones, so without today’s technology, business is lost.
2 – Exposure.
With the millions of websites now online, competition for web visitors is as fierce as ever. SEO and SEM are no longer the only avenue to capture the attention of internet visitors. The digital and data marketing era is upon us. Multi-channel and bundled marketing with digital ads, email, social media, programmatic, geofencing, profiling, brand management are new solutions for exposure. No longer is there a need to wait for search position, digital reach is here and the branding of the business name becomes first and foremost.
3 – Acquisition.
Contact information collection is critical. Combining all of the digital reach applications and solutions now available, it is now possible to steer store or online users to a business’ website. With “call to actions” and “hooks”, potential new customers can be driven to landing pages where contact information can be acquired with offers, discounts and free items. A name, phone number, email address and more can be captured. Once a business has that information, the power of customer conversion can begin.
4 – Conversion.
The store or online visitor has submitted their information. Your business has received it, and with that, trust has been given and the customer conversion begins and building their loyalty. Having an effective response time along with specific content the prospective customer expects is critical. It is in this timeline where many business’ falter with short branding times of merely a week or two. It takes diligence and effort, with automated marketing, tasks (emails, phone calls) over time until the branding process of weeks or months has effectively sold the customer and sales captured.
Sales and BDC
THE 4 PILLARS OF SALES TRACKING
Sales and BDC (Business Development Cycle.) At the end of the day, after all of the tools and marketing strategies have been in place and applied, it always comes down to sales and return on investment. In all of my consulting, tracking took precedent over everything else.
Without goals and objectives, all of the tools and marketing processes are pointless, and it all begins with effective tracking.
Tracking is critical because it encompasses 1 – a business’ lead sources (marketing), 2 – customers (conversion), 3 – the BDC staff (if there is one; appointment set-to-show conversion,) and the sales force (appointment set-show-sold or one-shot close, and finally; 4 – sales ROI (return on investment.)
1 – Lead Sources.
I have created tracking tools to aid my clients in tracking their lead sources. Whether lead sources come through traditional or online marketing, paid lead providers, cold calling, follow up or other means, tracking provides not only overall costs, but conversion rates, to determine what sources are producing the best rate of return. This allows a business to determine where to spend their marketing dollars on their future plans.
- Customers.
If customers are not tracked, opportunity is being lost. A CRM is imperative as it tracks many of a customer’s information; email and phone tasks that were completed, and those scheduled for the future. To track each and every customer is to brand your business name with that customer.
- BDC and Sales Force.
As I’ve set up the tracking of staff employees in any product or service sales/BDC department for clients, it performs a number of results. First and foremost, it establishes goals met or not met. Second, tracking provides analysis of weaknesses and strengths of BDC and sales employees and allows visual areas where training may be needed. For example, a salesperson, if their closing goals are low but their shown appointments are high, they most likely need more training on closing the sale.
- Sales ROI.
With definable tracking mechanisms for lead sources, customers, employees, the sales return-on-investment can determine the profit or loss of each and to determine future marketing budgets to move from loss to profit or to move from profit to greater profit and success in two ways. First, knowing what marketing areas work better than others and move more of your budget there; and two, improve each department area’s weaknesses that were revealed in tracking.