digital marketing
Ensure That Your Web Site Pulls in Buyers
From Digital Dealer Magazine May 2008
by : Peter Batten
Your online store is just as important as your showroom, and the reason why is clear: 70 percent of new vehicle buyers use the Internet to vehicle shop, as do 61 percent of used vehicle buyers (2007 J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com & Used Autoshopper.com studies). But, as you may have noticed, simply having a web site will not increase your traffic, leads, or sales. In fact, a flaccid web site can do more harm than good as potential customers quickly ascertain that they will not find the information they want and leave your site in favor of a big portal or automaker site. But it does not have to be that way. You can make your dealership web site a best-in-class consumer destination with the features and tools that give your customers the comprehensive content, intuitive navigation, and breadth of information found on leading portals and manufacturer sites. That’s right: your site can be as impressive as any automotive site out there. And you can do it all with a minimum of development time.
Lifestyle search capabilities
With a lifestyle search, a consumer can search for vehicles that match their needs without having to know any esoteric vehicle information. For example, a customer can search by body style, like SUV, coupe, or convertible, instead of having to start searching by make and model. Many consumers do not know what exact trim they want; they just know they need an SUV because they carry cargo on slippery roads, or a compact because they want to save on gas bills. Lifestyle searches are intuitive for consumers, allowing them to find the vehicle they want with the least amount of hassle and frustration.
Powerful comparison features
A J.D. Powers and Associates study focusing on best practices on manufacturer web sites found that consumers loved powerful comparison tools that allowed them to compare multiple vehicles at one time (2006 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation StudySM – J.D. Powers and Associates). They found that side-by-side and advantage-based comparisons are especially useful because shoppers can quickly scan the results and even print out results for future consideration. There are several companies who can equip your web site with a robust comparison tool in record time.
Vehicle images and videos
The same J.D. Powers and Associates study cited above found that consumers gravitate to vehicle images and videos, which put them immediately in the virtual driver’s seat. Videos are especially valuable for demonstrating functionality and versatility of a vehicle including: acceleration, cornering, stopping, and much more. Color changes and interior shots are invaluable for helping the consumer to experience the vehicle and for generating excitement and the desire to buy. Consider including a comprehensive equipment listing for each of your vehicles alongside a detailed photo that consumers can click to view different angles, interior shots, colors, and live-action video. Build-A-Car tool tied to your inventory
The advantages of a Build-A-Car tool on your web site have been well documented. Give consumers the opportunity to design the car of their dreams and they will stay on your site longer, return again and again, and convert into a valid prospect at a higher rate. Bump this tool up to the next level by integrating it with your inventory so customers can see what you have available.
Online credit applications
You want prospects to become buyers. An additional feature to help you meet this goal is the online credit application. By including a secure link to a credit application that a customer can immediately complete, you are saving that customer time and hassle and also converting a lead into a viable prospect. Use the credit application as a virtual shopping cart to close qualified buyers in record time.
http://www.digitaldealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1914
7 Strategies for Marketing in a Downturn
Published: May 22, 2008, from iMedia Connection, by: Guy Maser
The following tips will carry your company through the lean times and beyond.
In a challenging economy, you must find new ways to make marketing work more effectively, get more out of marketing investments, and measure and account for marketing decisions. In short, you must make changes. Doing the same things in an uncertain economic environment and expecting the same results is, at worst, a definition of marketing insanity. At best it is a flawed strategy.
How can your company be one of those success stories that market and grow their businesses during challenging economic times? The following strategies will help you allocate marketing investments to better performing programs that will carry your company through the economic downturn and beyond.
Get targeted
A fundamental but sometimes overlooked marketing tenet is to “fish where the fish are.” In other words, invest in those specific, targeted media where you know your customers and prospects will be exposed to your message.
Research shows that virtually all engineering, technical and industrial professionals now use the internet throughout their work process. The same holds true in most B2B markets. But the internet is vast, and the fish you are looking for may be using specific websites where the content is directly related to their information needs. Work with your media partners to identify and target those sites.
Measure performance
While it’s always the right time to purge marketing programs that don’t perform, it may be time to scale back any marketing plans whose results you can’t measure or are unsure about. In other words, re-allocate and “right-size” marketing budgets to measurable programs. Online programs — which are built around delivering visibility, impressions, clicks, leads and customers — are easy to measure.
Think integration
Integrated marketing means your marketing strategy takes advantage of multiple media, resources and customer touchpoints to create a whole that’s greater and more effective than the sum of its parts. The more that marketing efforts are integrated and comprehensive, the greater impact you can achieve in gaining visibility in your market, qualified leads and sales.
Maintain frequency and consistency
The benefits of regular visibility in the market tend to compound over time as more prospects recognize your company. This improves your opportunity to get on a prospect’s short list of potential vendors and also shortens the sales cycle. A consistent online presence where your customers and prospects are looking for information — including websites, directories, search engines and e-newsletters — will help your company stay visible as well as provide measurable lead generation benefits via online contact.
Push and pull your way to success
Most marketing can be classified as either push or pull: companies push their message out through tactics such as direct mail, advertisements and e-newsletters; and they also establish a presence in online directories, websites and search engines to pull customers in real-time when prospects are searching for information, products and services like those your company offers. Rather than struggling over whether to allocate resources to push marketing or pull marketing, seek out a media partner that has your target audience captive and can offer both push and pull programs under an integrated program.
Focus on quality over quantity
If marketing efforts focus solely on quantity over quality, fewer leads will convert, more sales resources will be wasted, and sales people will begin to distrust marketing’s lead generation programs. Commit to programs in which quality is a key attribute: programs that can deliver interested prospects, provide prospect contact information and offer reports of program performance.
Seek assistance from media partners
The economy is likely forcing you to make harder and smarter decisions about allocating budgets. While you may be facing challenges, you don’t have to face them alone. Ask media partners to demonstrate how their marketing solutions help your company achieve the strategies mentioned above.
Ask them:
- Do they have your target audience’s attention?
- Can they keep your company visible to prospects and customers at all times?
- Do they offer a variety of integrated marketing solutions aligned with your goals?
- Can they provide both visibility and lead generation?
- Do they deliver targeted, quality leads with full contact information?
- Do they provide reports you can use to measure the performance of your marketing and justify your marketing investments?
During challenging times or when things are going well, marketers need to clarify goals and create tailored, integrated marketing solutions that complement the current media mix and extend their companies’ ability to compete and win business in the market. Utilize a wide range of digital media advertising and marketing solutions. Consider keyword ads, email marketing, searchable product catalogs, banner ad networks and industry-leading e-newsletter advertisements. Figure out the right combination and you will deliver the right message at the right time to the right audience and integrate with your traditional marketing efforts.
Maximizing Pre-Owned Traffic From the Internet
By: Pat Ryan, Jr.
From Digital Dealer Magazine February 2008
Every week seems to bring an interesting new study on how consumers are using the Internet in their car buying process. While all of these studies point to the importance of an evolving e-strategy for dealerships, it is not always easy for dealers to glean actionable takeaways from these studies. With all the data flying around, this presents a great opportunity to make sense of it all. Let’s start with the most dramatic headline.
The 2007 Dealer eBusiness Performance study sponsored by Yahoo revealed that 88 percent of consumers use the Internet for research prior to visiting a dealership. At the same time, dealers we hear from typically report 15 to 20 percent of their business coming from their Internet departments.
What happened to the 68 percent of buyers that used the Internet to research vehicles yet were invisible to the Internet department? Simply put, they may have shopped your “virtual frontline” but did so anonymously; some later came to visit your dealership while others bought from your competitor.
Why do the majority of buyers using the Internet choose to stay invisible to your Internet department? Because the majority of Internet shoppers are reluctant to share their personal information online with dealers or third-party web sites and therefore never become a “lead.” The result: the majority of visitors to your “virtual frontline” are invisible and untouchable for your Internet team.
How does this impact my business?
Dealers routinely work hard to engage every guest who walks their lot and shops through the traditional buying process. In the online world, if your vehicle is not competitively priced with similar vehicles in your market, a consumer will leave your virtual frontline for another dealer’s with one click, never returning and never speaking with anyone on your team. Buyers will also “vote” with their mouse by clicking away from vehicles that do not have enough pictures, have poor quality pictures, or lack compelling descriptions.
What makes dealerships vulnerable to these kinds of missteps?
Dealerships traditionally priced pre-owned inventory on a “cost-plus” basis-pricing the vehicle to ensure they have enough room to negotiate with a customer and still sell a vehicle for a strong gross profit. Since pre-owned vehicles are more varied in value because of age, condition, mileage etc., consumers were unlikely to find a similar vehicle to yours across the street, giving dealers the upper hand. However, in the Internet age, customers can see your pricing next to nearly all of the similar vehicles in your market, making cost-plus pricing a barrier to driving traffic from the Internet.
In addition to the consumer being empowered by the Internet, dealers who are inconsistent in putting enough pictures or robust vehicle descriptions online will find themselves clicked past by consumers as well. It’s no longer enough to just be online. Dealers need to excel online by being as diligent in merchandising your online inventory as you are in the presentation of your dealership’s showroom.
How can I maximize my pre-owned traffic from the Internet?
1. Market pricing – Replace “cost-plus” pricing with market pricing by competitive shopping every vehicle versus the competition. This ensures that your pricing will appear fair for its value in online search results. Treat competitive vehicles online the same way you would if they were on the frontline across the street. Price based on the “key strengths” of your vehicles but be realistic given the competition.
2. Consistently execute the online advertising fundamentals – Mystery shop your own dealership to ensure all of your vehicles are online with robust descriptions and pictures. You’d never put a vehicle on the frontline without detailing it. Make sure you detail your online vehicles to the same standard.
3. Mystery shop the competition – Experience your dealership’s “virtual frontline” versus the competition as the consumer will experience it. Go to an online advertising site such as autotrader.com or cars.com and see how your vehicles compare. If you are using market pricing and executing online advertising fundamentals consistently your vehicles should show well, but you may find that your vehicles differentiation is not clear to a potential buyer. For example, you may find that your vehicle is the lowest mileage vehicle in the market. In that case it may be okay to be the highest priced vehicle; you simply need to ensure that your online listings are highlighting the value. Know each vehicle’s online market and ensure that your listings are highlighting the unique value of each vehicle.
With those three simple steps any dealer can ensure that they are maximizing the potential of the online advertising they are purchasing. The key is to execute consistently, the same way you do every day in merchandising the showroom and frontline at your dealership.
http://www.digitaldealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1787
Making Your Vehicles Stand Out Online
by : Glen Garvin
Digital Dealer Magazine, April 2008
Each month millions of potential car buyers go online to research and shop for used vehicles. In fact, studies show that in 2006, 59 percent of all pre-owned vehicle shoppers used the Internet during the buying process. Internet research and shopping is no longer a trend, it’s now part of the dealership sales cycle.
So what happens when someone goes online to research or buy a vehicle? Most consumers will use a search engine to find the information they want, and end up at portals with thousands of vehicle listings. And that means lots of competition for the sale.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking; consumers often narrow their list of potential vehicles by using detailed search criteria and, by default, this will reduce the number of vehicles in the search results. Let’s look at this two ways: First, for the consumers who narrow their search, there will still be competitive listings and it is even more important for you stand out amongst those final listings. Think of it like Dancing with the Stars, you don’t need to stand out in a really crowded field; you just need to be “good enough.”
When the contestants are narrowed down to just the best, you need to differentiate and stand out. Secondly, we should consider the buyer who hasn’t yet decided on their make or model, because they’ll often research many different makes and models. They’ll come across hundreds…maybe thousands of vehicles. There’s no doubt you need to stand out.
But wait, you say, you’ve also paid your third-party lead provider a nice premium for a high ranking on their site. Yes, that will help drive consumers to your listing. But how do you get someone to focus on what you’re selling? What can you do to differentiate your listing and make your vehicle stand out online?
The first step is using enough photos to showcase all aspects of the vehicle. In 1921 the New York Times ran an article entitled “Use of Pictures for Advertising.” It was based on a national study of large retailers and concluded not only that “people want pictures,” but that images used in advertising a) attract attention, b) arouse interest and c) create desire. That was over 85 years ago, but if you think things have changed since then in the world of advertising…not. It’s still the rule of thumb when it comes to promotion. In the retail auto industry, displaying nine vehicle photos is common and probably acceptable, but never less than six. Many dealers see the value of showcasing their vehicles, especially ones that might be uniquely equipped, with upwards of 20 photos.
The quality of the image is also important. This is determined by photo resolution or pixels, short for “picture element.” Pixels are small color samples of the image. The more pixels a digital image contains, the clearer the photo. The industry standard for photos has been 800 x 680 pixels. That might have worked 10 years ago, but not today. With the introduction of flat screen desk monitors, the standard size of monitors has increased to 19 inches. Many people are using screens that measure 23 inches or more. Photo resolutions of 800 x 680 don’t transition well to screens that size. Trying to enlarge the photo beyond its normal resolution doesn’t work either; trust me. You’re going to need a photo with a minimum 1024 x 768 resolution in order for it to appear clear and sharp on someone’s monitor. And here’s something else you should know: blurry, poor quality images are not only a big turn-off to buyers, they make your dealership look second-rate.
Videos are another great way to make your vehicle stand out online. They elicit curiosity because the viewer wants to see what’s going to happen next. Videos can also engage a buyer faster and with more emotional impact than almost any other online sales tool or technique. It’s an ideal format for providing in-depth data on vehicle owner history, emphasizing what options the vehicle has above and beyond the standard package for that make and model, or pointing out the vehicle’s rarity or other unique aspects. Don’t forget to add some flare to the presentation with music and professionally done voice-overs.
You’ll also attract and interest online buyers by focusing on differentiators in the listing’s features and seller notes sections. For example, in the features section, make sure OEM certifications are noted. Many buyers are drawn to certified pre-owned vehicles because it means the car has been fully inspected, is in good condition and comes with a warranty. And remember to provide complete data on unique options and equipment. What is it about this car that makes it a must-have?
In the seller notes section, emphasize selling points such as fuel economy, low mileage, excellent condition, one owner, how well the vehicle was taken care of, any accident history, the maintenance history of the car and availability of maintenance records. Use this section to really sell the vehicle on an emotional and personal level. Emotion leads to elated customers having outstanding experiences when shopping and purchasing a vehicle. This aspect of car sales has largely been ignored online, yet is a critical component of the sales cycle. Describe how the buyer is going to feel when they get behind the wheel of the car. Talk about the lifestyle benefits to owning this vehicle. Create content for this section that will have an impact on the consumer.
Finally, make sure that vehicle history reports from companies such as CarFax and AutoCheck are available. It will make the buyer feel more comfortable with their purchase. Consumers, rightfully so, are fearful of being “had.” These types of reports increase consumer confidence and reduce objections. They also shorten the negotiation and buying process.
Each vehicle in your inventory is unique and has its own story. All of the content in your listing, from photos and audio/visual to features/seller notes, should work together to tell that story in a way that compels a customer to take ownership during the buying process. When that happens, more sales are closed and higher grosses are achieved. It’s a win for everyone – the customer enjoys the purchasing experience and gets the vehicle they want, and the dealers sell more cars at a reasonable profit.
http://www.digitaldealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1881
Your Dealership.com
Ward’s Dealer Business, Apr 1, 2008 12:00 PM
You likely shop or research online with the expectation that the websites you visit will have the information you seek.
When the sites you select don’t have the information, you probably click on another and keep clicking until you find something that meets your needs.
Consider yourself a focus group of one and apply what you learn in your own experience to what you would want if you were visiting your own dealership online.
While you are reading this article, go to your own website and click along with me. Try some simple tasks and put yourself in a “customer mode.”
- Look for a new or used car in your inventory.
- Look for specials on vehicles, service or accessories.
- Look for your phone number and address and see if it is easy to see.
Hopefully, you were able to complete these tasks with no problems. If not, do something about it and contact your website builder the same as you would a tradesperson to fix a leaky roof or a heater in your physical facility.
Now, try some advanced tasks:
- Schedule a service appointment.
- Order a part or an accessory.
- Look for how you submit a credit application.
- Look for the dealership team photos or individual contact information.
- Look for a personal description on the used vehicle of your choice (more than the basic specs).
If you think like your customers, you likely have limited time to do tasks of this nature. Most people lack the patience to read and learn at a website. So they click and move on.
Compare your site to simple sites like Google.com where you are instantly acclimated to what they want you to do – search.
Compare Google.com to Yahoo.com and see the difference. One is a utility (Google) whereas the other is a destination (Yahoo). Your site is more similar to Yahoo but should have the clear and easy navigation like Google.
When you design or redesign your site, think of it just like you would your physical dealership.
Make it clear where everything is located and provide the signage (navigation links) to assist your customers in finding what they need right away.
I visit so many dealerships and used to think signage was not necessary because, after growing up at a dealership, it seemed pretty simple.
However, I really appreciate it now when I see a sign that says customer parking or service or parts and know the dealership customers appreciate it too.
Put yourself in a customer state of mind and see if you can navigate your website quick and easy. And if not, do something about it. The easier you make it, the more likely your prospects will contact you to complete the next steps.
We are always asked to mystery shop dealerships and provide feedback on how the Internet or business development team responds to our inquiries and then suggest ways for improvement.
You should do this yourself from time to time both online and offline. Online is easy. Create a fake email account and submit a request for sales, service, parts, etc. and see what happens.
Offline may sound silly, but I recommend telling your team you are going to be a customer this week and walk in and try to talk to someone about what you saw online.
Ask your manager and sales people about the vehicle you saw on the website and see how they respond. Hopefully, they will not say, “Let me get our Internet specialist to help you.” You would not want them to say, “Let me get my newspaper specialist” if they said they saw an ad in the paper.
Now that the Internet has become the primary tool of most automotive shoppers, your entire team must become acclimated to the dealership online.
Reuse. Recycle.
I’ve always thought that as bandwidth expanded and became less of a hindrance to online multimedia (I don’t know anyone that’s still on dial up!), we’d see a lot of crossover and repurposing between traditional media (television, radio, newspaper, direct mail) and new media (internet, email, mobile, etc.). But to a great degree, that crossover has yet to materialize.
The question, of course, is this: What are you waiting for?
Why are your radio spots and television spots not featured on your website? Why are the coupons and offers available in the newspaper not downloadable from your website? How much information about your inventory can I get via my cell phone? Why do your sales people still not have email addresses (honestly, it happens)?
All these things are possible. More importantly, they’re smart business. Not only does it help to integrate your overall marketing mix, but repurposing content from one platform to another costs next to nothing. The TV spot is already created, the offer is already on the table and the art is done, etc. So get it out there already. With so many customers going online, you can’t afford not to put your best in front of them each and every time.
D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC
Maximize PPC campaign returns
Published: April 14, 2008 in iMedia Connection
Has your PPC campaign maxed out in terms of ROI? Not to fear — you can continue to boost returns by following these suggestions.
As I trawled through my daily fix of industry emails yesterday, I was amused to see two articles in the same newsletter that, on face value, told significantly conflicting stories.
The first covered a MarketingSherpa survey under a doom and gloom headline announcing that 60 percent of large companies are cutting marketing budgets this year; the second covered the IAB’s latest UK ad spend survey that proudly reported that continuing growth in online ad spend will result in the internet overtaking TV as the biggest ad channel in Britain by the end of 2009.
Of course in reality both pieces were ostensibly saying the same thing, and it is nothing new: Online should weather the economic downturn better than traditional advertising channels. The reality will remain to be seen, but what is certain is that for some search engine marketers this perception presents something of a conundrum.
To the uninitiated, PPC presents the Holy Grail of marketing — a totally accountable, scalable and measurable ad channel. Accountable and measurable it certainly is, but 100 percent scalable it certainly is not.
Every PPC campaign will, at some point, reach a saturation point where the optimal keyword mix has been reached and where adding new terms actually starts to negatively impact CPA targets. Exactly where this saturation point is differs from campaign to campaign, and that’s where the science of PPC planning and buying comes in.
For search engine marketers, the question is what you do when you’ve reached that saturation point but are getting pressure to deliver more results from your boss or clients.
The answer is, first and foremost, to work on ad and landing page optimization. Any successful PPC campaign depends on constantly testing and retesting different ad copy and landing pages. This is arguably even more important in times of shaky economic conditions. Remember, as the economy changes, so too will the ways in which people think about making purchases, particularly for luxury or high ticket price items. Plan and optimize accordingly.
Secondly, consider integration. A number of surveys have revealed that integrating display with search can result in at times significant uplifts in clickthrough rates and conversions. Ensure you take a close look at campaign metrics immediately after any offline or online branding campaign has been pulled. Did the change have any impact on your conversions? Cross-media analytics, whilst more complicated to run, can help increase campaign effectiveness in the long run.
It is also important to remember that integration is equally applicable when it comes to traditional media. Running a TV campaign, for example, without a supporting PPC campaign may cause you to miss significant opportunities and not make the most of your media spend. This is particularly important today as Wi-Fi penetration continues to increase — your potential customers are more likely than ever to be searching for your brand or ad slogan online directly after seeing a TV spot.
Another area to consider is exploring other PPC networks to see if you can find more quality traffic to complement your existing campaigns. Adding new networks to your media schedule can offer incremental reach to your PPC campaigns, but be mindful of the trade-off between the time you invest in campaign management and the results you actually achieve.
As a rule of thumb, if you are working with smaller networks, it is worth choosing only those that have the in-house capability to handle much of the legwork for you in terms of campaign set-up and management.
Reaching saturation point in your PPC campaigns can happen regardless of what sector you operate in and regardless of the state of the economy. How you deal with the issue is what will give you the edge over your competition.
Text-Only or HTML: Email’s Million-Dollar Question
It’s one of the most commonly debated issues in e-marketing: Should the emails you send out be text-only or should they be HTML? The argument for text-only goes like this… It feels less like advertising, it’s better at getting around spam filters, the most important emails people get are usually text-only. The argument for HTML is this… The message feels more “polished,” I can include graphics, animations and other high-impact items, and I’m able to carry my brand into the message.
So which should you use?
The answer, as you might expect, is both. Anytime you’re sending a person-to-person message, it should be text-only. This applies to sales and service staff following up with customers and other such one-to-one communications. But when that message is coming from the dealership (rather than an individual) HTML is the way to go. It will do a better job of carrying your brand and carries a more put-together, dynamic message.
D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC
Study: Auto Market Among Top Online Sales Categories
From Auto Remarketing
April 08, 2008
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Despite widespread retail declines across the American economy, a recent study projects an upswing in online shopping for 2008. This includes the auto industry, which analysts predict to be among the top three Internet sales categories.
The State of Retailing Online, a Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research, anticipates that online retail sales will increase by 17 percent this year to $204 billion.
The auto industry is expected to account for $19.3 billion of those sales, which would make it the third-largest online segment behind apparel ($26.6 billion) and computers ($23.9 billion), the report highlighted.
“From higher shipping costs to changes in consumer shopping habits, online retailers are not immune to the current economic climate,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org.
“But the fact that online sales will increase substantially this year demonstrates the resilience of the channel and is a testament to the value and convenience most customers find when shopping online,” Silverman continued.
The study pointed out that as people become more comfortable with the Internet, online retailers must choose between two sales focuses: retaining current customers or attracting new ones.
According to officials, 53 percent of online retailers’ marketing budgets is devoted to finding new online customers, while 21 percent is for customer retention.
But, many retailers have used search-engine or affiliate marketing as effective retention tools that not only market to existing customers, but bring in new shoppers, as well.
“What’s spearheading online retail sales growth is a tale of two shoppers that visit the Web for very different reasons,” explained Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research principal analyst and lead author of the report. “The casual shopper goes online to look for the best price, leveraging the transparency of the Internet to save money.”
“However, more affluent customers appreciate the convenience of shopping online and are not necessarily looking for the best deal,” Mulpuru continued. “Retailers would be wise to recognize there are significant opportunities within both audiences and should market to them accordingly.”
In order to find new customers, retailers have used search-engine marketing more than anything else. According to the study, 35 percent of sales have originated from that source.
Moreover, 90 percent of respondents stated they use pay-per-performance search placement. Seventy-nine percent plan to make it a greater priority in the coming year, officials stated.
Still, such offline strategies as catalogs and direct-mail have helped retailers convert shoppers to the Internet. What’s more, the study indicated that retailers tend to use those tactics more than TV or newspaper advertising.
According to the study, 65 percent of respondents said they would focus more on social networking resources, while 55 percent indicated they would devote more focus to widgets.
These type of campaigns, however, are thought to be more useful in brand-building versus driving revenue or sales conversion, officials indicated.
Instead, officials stated, the report recommended that e-mail marketing and free shipping promotions be used to boost sales.
Best Practice: Tracking E-Marketing
One of the great promises of e-marketing is that it’s trackable. You’ve been told for years that e-marketing would lift the fog of accountability from your marketing mix and show you what worked, when it worked and even why. Well all of that is true (mostly), but most folks aren’t taking the simple steps needed to make that dream a reality.
So here’s what you do: Incorporate a series of simple landing pages in to each marketing touch you send out. Require people go to a web page to register or collect their prize or whatever. Then don’t just set up one landing page, but a different one for each marketing message (the pages may look and function the same, but you’ll need unique pages). By tracking hits, downloads and forms submitted from these pages, you’ll have a near-perfect understanding of which messages are driving customer action and which aren’t. And that, my friend, is measurable marketing done in a simple, straightforward way.
D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC
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