Cutting through the Clutter The Marketing Essentials Every Business - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Cutting through the Clutter The Marketing Essentials Every Business - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Cutting through the Clutter The Marketing Essentials Every Business Needs to Grow Sales Quick Poll How many of you actively Example Marketing Strategies market your company? Advertising Newsletters & Digests 1. 15. Direct Mail
Quick Poll
- How many of you actively
market your company?
- Actively Market = consistently
expend real-to-you time and dollars
- Of the active marketers,
how many are employing:
1 marketing strategy 2 strategies 3 or more strategies
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1.
Advertising
2.
Direct Mail
3.
Telemarketing
4.
Website Design & Content
5.
Search Engine Optimization
6.
National & Local Listings
7.
Review Management
8.
Blogging
9.
Whitepapers & Case Studies
10.
Video & Infographics
11.
Product Inserts
12.
Literature
13.
Social Media
14.
Public Relations
15.
Newsletters & Digests
16.
Promotional mailings
17.
Lead Nurturing & Marketing Automation
18.
Networking
19.
Tradeshows, Events & Seminars
20.
Business & Channel Development
21.
Focus Groups & Surveys
22.
Loyalty Marketing
23.
Product Marketing
24.
The many technologies all the above require
Example Marketing Strategies
The Small Business Revenue Challenge
- Most small businesses don’t have a
deep marketing bench
- So you have to rely on outside agencies
more than big companies do.
- Most marketing problems are
multidisciplinary yet most marketing agencies are solo strategy specialists
- Ad firms, PR agencies, SEO firms, …
- So instead of “measuring twice,
cutting once” you
- Go with your gut or
- Do what worked for a colleague in a very
different business
- The result: expensive disappointment
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- 1,876 marketing and technology vendors, in 43 categories
(doubled in 1 year)
- All claim they can help you grow
(Items for specialized businesses or advanced use have been removed)
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We’ve Boiled this Chaotic Universe Down to the Marketing Essentials Every Business Needs
STRATEGY, MANAGEMENT & BENCHMARKING ESSENTIALS
- Strategic Analysis & Planning
- Program Management
- Benchmarking & Analytics
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A Marketing Truth
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- While this has always been important in Marketing it is even
more so in today’s busy, overloaded, short attention span world
- Everything you do in Marketing, has to done while keeping
“What’s In It For Me” in mind
Is there a solution? Given my need, what are my
- ptions for
addressing it? Who is best? Whose solutions (or companies) work for me? Which is best? Which specific product or service is best? Will I continue to value my purchase? Are there
- ther things I
can buy?
A Marketing Framework: The Sales Funnel (a.k.a. the Customer Journey or buying cycle)
Proprietary & Confidential
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I don’t want my dog to run away
- “How to keep my
pet safe”
- “Humane ways to
contain my dog”
My credit card # is
- “Long lasting
electric fences”
- “Electric fences
with installation included” “Rechargeable electric fences” “Electric fences with GPS”
Visitor 1 Visitor 2 Prospect Customer
“Replacement batteries” “How to video”
An electric fence is the best solution – who should do the work? I think Sit, Stay Home is the best. Should I get the GPS version? I need a new battery, I have a new dog that needs to be trained on the fence
Prospects and Customers Need Different Info at Different Times
Is there a solution? Given my need, what are my
- ptions for
addressing it? Who is best? Whose solutions (or companies) work for me? Which is best? Which specific product or service is best? Will I continue to value my purchase? Are there
- ther things I
can buy?
A Marketing Framework: The Sales Funnel (a.k.a. the Customer Journey or buying cycle)
Proprietary & Confidential
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I don’t want my dog to run away
- “How to keep my
pet safe”
- “Humane ways to
contain my dog”
My credit card # is
- “Long lasting
electric fences”
- “Electric fences
with installation included” “Rechargeable electric fences” “Electric fences with GPS”
Visitor 1 Visitor 2 Prospect Customer
“Replacement batteries” “How to video”
An electric fence is the best solution – who should do the work? I think Sit, Stay Home is the best. Should I get the GPS version? I need a new battery, I have a new dog that needs to be trained on the fence
Prospects and Customers Need Different Info at Different Times
Is there a solution? Given my need, what are my
- ptions for
addressing it? Who is best? Whose solutions (or companies) work for me? Which is best? Which specific product or service is best? Will I continue to value my purchase? Are there
- ther things I
can buy?
A Marketing Framework: The Sales Funnel (a.k.a. the Customer Journey or buying cycle)
Proprietary & Confidential
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I don’t want my dog to run away
- “How to keep my
pet safe”
- “Humane ways to
contain my dog”
My credit card # is
- “Long lasting
electric fences”
- “Electric fences
with installation included” “Rechargeable electric fences” “Electric fences with GPS”
Visitor 1 Visitor 2 Prospect Customer
“Replacement batteries” “How to video”
An electric fence is the best solution – who should do the work? I think Sit, Stay Home is the best. Should I get the GPS version? I need a new battery, I have a new dog that needs to be trained on the fence
Prospects and Customers Need Different Info at Different Times
Is there a solution? Given my need, what are my
- ptions for
addressing it? Who is best? Whose solutions (or companies) work for me? Which is best? Which specific product or service is best? Will I continue to value my purchase? Are there
- ther things I
can buy?
A Marketing Framework: The Sales Funnel (a.k.a. the Customer Journey or buying cycle)
Proprietary & Confidential
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I don’t want my dog to run away
- “How to keep my
pet safe”
- “Humane ways to
contain my dog”
My credit card # is
- “Long lasting
electric fences”
- “Electric fences
with installation included” “Rechargeable electric fences” “Electric fences with GPS”
Visitor 1 Visitor 2 Prospect Customer
“Replacement batteries” “How to video”
An electric fence is the best solution – who should do the work? I think Sit, Stay Home is the best. Should I get the GPS version? I need a new battery, I have a new dog that needs to be trained on the fence
Prospects and Customers Need Different Info at Different Times Their Needs Reveal Much About Them!
Strategic Analysis and Planning Prevents Expensive Disappointment
- Determining issues early is much cheaper than fixing them later
- You brother-in-law recommends his ad agency:
- If it worked for his business, it should work for yours, right?
- And it seems to work: it brings more visitors to your site!
- But if your real problem was poor site design
- visitors get bored/annoyed/frustrated so convert to a lead less often
- You’ve hired a great vendor but they’re solving the wrong problem
- Your marketing dollars are being spent inefficiently:
- You should get more leads for the ad dollars you’re spending
- All the other money you’re spending for traffic is also being spent inefficiently
- More insidious: this inefficiency is invisible: you don’t know you should
have more leads!
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Start with the Big Picture
- Answer questions about your business, competitors and
current level of spending
- What are your business and marketing goals?
- How strong is your competitive position?
- What’s the right amount to invest
in sales & marketing overall?
- Which specific marketing programs and
tactics will be the most effective?
- What’s the right budget level for each?
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Then Dig Deeper
- What benefits do you provide customers?
- What are your sustainable competitive advantages?
- Who are your customers, what are their “personas”?
- Take stock of what you’re doing; how can you leverage your
strengths and minimize your weaknesses?
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Program and Project Management is an [Unfortunate] Necessity
- Marketing today is multi-disciplinary, multi-channel and complex
- Tasks have to be done in the right order
- People, tools and resources have to be available at the right time
- Your marketing program, campaigns and projects have to be
continuously monitored and managed (sometimes in real time)
- Luckily, there are many tools, ranging from
- Excel – tasks in rows with columns for Who and When
through
- Many commercial solutions
- LiquidPlanner.com – online project management tool
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Analytics and Benchmarking
- Growing your sales & leads is
expensive in time and dollars
- Our recommended philosophy:
- “If you can’t measure it, why do it?”
- Analytics answers two critical
questions:
- Where did our visitors and leads
come from?
- Which of our activities generated
the visit or lead?
- So you can
- Do more of what’s working and less
- f what’s not
- Become more efficient over time
- Keep in mind, there are 4 ways a
lead comes to you:
1.
Submits from your web site:
- Google Analytics track these
2.
Phone calls
3.
Emails
4.
In-Person
- You need a way to track and
analyze all 4 to get the complete, accurate picture
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Analytics and Benchmarking
- Do more of what’s working
and less of what’s not
- Only 27% of this firm’s leads
came from Web submits!
- Usually, >50% of website leads
arrive as phone calls.
- Making decisions just on web
submit data is like looking for your car keys only under the street light
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Leads & Sales by Strategy Leads & Sales by Contact Point
- Charts from SR Analytics system -
Strategy, Management & Benchmarking
- Can’t “set once and
forget”!
- Continual change
- Competitive landscape
- Your goals & objectives
- SE ranking algorithms
- Lots more
- Requires:
- Strategy & Program
Management
- Start with high level plan
- Quarterly plan w/budget
adjustments where needed
- Monthly review
- Analytics for
benchmarking
- Review visitor sources, site
content, site navigation, cost per lead, cost per sale, etc.
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A Word about “Inbound” Marketing
- Inbound Marketing
- Get prospects to come to you via
content & social media
- Strength:
- Qualified, educated prospects
- Weakness:
- Highly dependent on 3rd parties
you don’t control
- Google’s search algorithms
- Social Media firms’ policies
- Marketing
- Spreading the word about your
business
- Advertising, Telemarketing,
Tradeshows, PR, Networking, …
- What most think of as Marketing
- Strength:
- Has stood the test of time
- Best way to reach the widest possible
audience in the shortest amount of time
- Particularly effective in B2B marketing,
and/or with higher-end products.
- When you need face-to-face meetings, or
to network at trade shows & events.
- Weakness:
- Targeting is critical
- Requires many different marketing skills
- Inbound Marketing = writing
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- Which is better? Neither!
- Every business needs a mix of both
- Big companies rely on a mix but are
skewed to Advertising & Sponsorships
- $20B market for Inbound Marketing
software
- Advertising alone is a $220B market (10X)
IN-PERSON MARKETING ESSENTIALS
- Networking
Networking
Pros
- Can be very effective, especially for
- Business to Business (B2B) sales
- Complex products or services
- Personal relationship sales
- Attorneys, CPAs, Advisors
- Advantages
- Seems very low cost
- Seems easy, just do it!
- You get real time feedback so no
need for benchmarking
Challenges
- Very high time and opportunity costs
- Especially if it is a key person’s time
- Inefficient use of a good salesperson
- They should be closing deals not generating
leads
- Hard to benchmark
- Google Analytics only cares about the Web
so is useless
- “Emotional impressions” take the place of
statistics
- You feel good leaving so you feel it was effective.
- The fact that months later, nothing closed, is lost
- What should be continuously improved?
- Networking groups
- Pitch
- Venue, etc.
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EMAIL MARKETING
- Newsletters & Digests
- Promotional Mailings
- Lead Nurturing
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Email Essentials
- 1. Promotional mailings generate leads and sales
- WIIFM – I’ll get a deal or some useful info
- 2. Newsletters & Digests help move prospects through the Sales Funnel
- Weekly, Subscription Digests from your blog
- Some up front work, but then it’s “free”
- Once you connect your blog to your Mail Vendor, every week’s newly written piece
automatically goes out
- WIIFM – info I find useful
- Monthly Newsletter
- Promotions, News/customer wins, Tips & Tricks, Success stories, best blog posts from
the month
- WIIFM – primarily useful info, only 1 promotion per issue
- 3. Customer Service emails solidify the relationship & generate repeat
business
- Renewal reminders, appointment confirmations, etc.
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Especially true for email marketing
Tips to Building Your Opt-In List
- Allow visitors to subscribe to your news content, newsletter
and/or blog right on your website
- Minimize the number of fields required
- Default “yes, please subscribe me” on your contact forms
- Add to your email signature
- Add “opt in” on your ecommerce checkout page
- Physical list in your store
- Subscribe tab on Facebook
- Sign up list at in-person events, trade shows, seminars, …
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PAID MARKETING ESSENTIALS
- Online Advertising
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Paid Marketing Essentials
Pros
- Unlike traditional advertising, you
Pay Per Click (PPC), not impression
- Requires minimal financial
investment vs direct mail / print ads
- As little as $250/month
- Relatively easy to set up
- Yields immediate results and can be
turned on and off immediately
- Unlike SEO, Content Marketing, etc.
which take time to build
- Excellent initial strategy!
- Can be reduced once the others kick in
- Precision
- By choosing keywords wisely, you can
target any stage of the Sales Funnel
Challenges
- It’s very hard to become an expert
and requires your time and attention to maintain
- Google Adwords alone has over 300
settings that need to be managed forever
- If you’re not doing it well, you will
be overpaying Google
- The smaller the budget, the
- Longer it takes to see results
- Fewer the number of ad firms who
will be interested
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WEB MARKETING ESSENTIALS
- Website Design & Content
- Search Engine Optimization
- National & Local Listings
Website Design Essentials
- Structure: Logical navigation with
key pages
Home Services and/or Product pages About Blog Contact (forms; phone)
- Good use of visuals and layout
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Website Content Essentials … for Google and Humans
- Well written, error free content
- Calls to action on all critical pages
- What is that page “selling” to the reader; what do you want them to do next?
- Learn more, contact us, submit a form, download a white paper, etc.
- Site has content for Visitors in all stages of the Sales Funnel
- Fixed “marketing” pages (long lived, more formal)
- Regular blog posts (shorter lived, more informal, can be highly specific)
- Great place for Visitor 1 and Visitor 2 educational content
- Site has depth (but not too much!)
- Balance of 2nd and 3rd level pages
- Content has weight
- You have paragraph descriptions, not just bullet points.
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Planning Especially Crucial for Websites
- B2C businesses
- How much thought, analysis and
planning went into the design of your store?
- Why should your ecommerce
site be any different?
- B2B businesses
- Unless they come to your office
your website is the primary image your customers have of your company
- It is key to establishing your brand
- It is an unfortunate truth: there
are fashions in website design
- Do you want to convey your
business is old fashioned?
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A Comprehensive Site Plan is Needed
- Each row in
Excel is a page
- Each column
should indicate the page’s:
- Audience
- Keywords
- Calls-to-action
- Etc.
- Before any work is done
- n the site
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SEO Essentials
- SEO
- is not: ranking for a specific keyword
- is: a long-term strategy to direct
prospects (in known stages of the Sales Funnel) to the pages most likely to convert them
- SEO touches on virtually every
- ther marketing activity:
- Design
- PR
- Content Marketing
- Social Media
- Hosting
- etc.
- Two main components:
- On-page SEO
- Elements on your website that search
engines can see
- Content
- Technical factors
- Can be done in-house
- Off-page SEO
- Elements on other websites that search
engines can see
- Links from other sites to your site
- Inbound Links – these are how search
engines know how “good” your site is!
- Listings and directories
- A page on some other site that lists /
describes your business
- Very challenging to do in-house
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Local Marketing
- Local
- Any time there’s a geographic reference in a search:
- “electric fences Concord MA”
- Local sites are how search engines know you’re local
- 3 Big Benefits to Local Marketing
- 1. Extends your promotions/presence across the Web
- Don’t just get them to come to you, go to them too
- 2. Strong SEO boost
- 3. It’s where the reviews are
- “88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as
a personal recommendation” Forbes
- National Listings are important too
- Links from sites specific to your business and industry
(associations, trade shows, suppliers, …)
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CONTENT MARKETING ESSENTIALS
- Blog & News Content
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What Is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing is the creation & distribution of content to attract qualified prospects
1.
Creating content
- Blog (Original) content
- News (Curated) content
- Other content like eBooks, video, infographics, download bait
2.
Distributing content
- Email digests
- Your site
- Download bait, blog posts
- Social media
- FB, TW, LI
- Other sites
- Reddit, SlideShare
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Benefits of Content Marketing
- Education is what moves prospects through the Sales Funnel
- V1: Is there a solution?
- V2: Which company is best?
- Prospect: Which product is best for me?
- Customer: What other product could make my life better?
- Content can be precisely targeted to the prospects in specific stages of
the Sales Funnel
- Good for SEO by keeping your website fresh
- Allows you to
- Interact with prospects and customers (“engagement”)
- Target and speak to smaller, more focused groups of prospects
- Raise brand awareness & showcase your experience and expertise
- Integral to lead generation
- Download bait – the “reward” for giving up their email address
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Content Marketing – Where to Start
- Define your objectives and strategy and make a plan
- Who is your target audience
- What resources are available
- Time available to write, manage, promote
- Staff
- Expertise
- Frequency and schedule
- Platforms – which social sites are best for your target audience
- Different social sites for different businesses
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Sample Content Marketing Plan
- Monthly Editorial Calendar
to organize it all
- You want 3-6 weeks in “the bank”
- Content Creation
- 4 Blog posts per month
- Other content as needed:
- Videos, infographics, white papers
- Content Distribution
- Automatic email digests
- Reposting on:
- Google+
- The content
- is immediately available to your social network (your friends, the friends of your
friends, and so on)
- builds your social network over time (as prospects discover it via search)
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Your approach (+ technology) should be: Write Once, Use Many Times
SOCIAL MEDIA & PR
- Social Media
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Social Media Essentials
- Select your networks
- Where are your customers? Prospects?
- Know your bandwidth
- Better to build one solid network vs
spreading yourself too thin
- Post regularly
- News items, blog posts
- Share other people’s content
- Grow your network organically
- Interact with people you’re
connected to
- Likes, shares
- Customer Service: praise, complaints
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Social Media Tips
- Don’t oversell!
- 80/20 rule: spend 80% of your time on social media activities that are not
self-promotional
- It takes time to build a successful social network
- Stay connected: you can’t have a social media program in isolation,
rather, it’s a two-way street
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SALES-ENABLING TECH. ESSENTIALS
- Web, Phone & Email Analytics
- Websites & Content Management Systems
- Site Hosting & Support
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Website Essentials
- What platform do you use, and can you add new content?
- If it’s one of these platforms
- DNN, WordPress (standalone/paid); Drupal, Joomla, Ruby on Rails, Magento
you’re probably OK
- If it’s one of these platforms
- Wix, Square Space, GoDaddy Builder; WordPress Free
you should consider an upgrade
- If it’s a static html website that requires HTML editing – time to replace!
- Do you have access to FTP and database?
- Can you add Analytics tracking code?
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Site Should Be Responsive + Fast
- Site is
responsive
- Can be viewed
- n multiple
devices: a Smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop
- Content loads
quickly
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Testing + Monitoring + Tracking is Set Up
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SALES RENEWAL
- Marketing Investment Analysis
- The Marketing Essentials Solution
- Flex Marketing
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Marketing Investment Analysis
- 15 minute online questionnaire that answers the 3 most common
questions we get:
- Am I investing the right amount in sales & marketing?
- Which marketing strategies & tactics are best for my business?
- What should their individual budgets be?
- Four page report, written by humans, within 48 hours
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Marketing Essentials Solution™
An easy-to-adopt marketing and technology solution that delivers a tailored-to-your-business mix of
- the Marketing strategies, programs and tactics
- and sales-enabling technology,
that all businesses need to increase their leads and sales.
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Marketing Essentials 6 Month Trial
- Month 1:
- Together, we assess your current sales & marketing activities and sales-enabling
technologies and recommend improvements.
- Decision point: choose to continue or not?
- Month 2:
- We implement the technical changes
- Months 3-6:
- We will coach and advise on best practices for
the essentials marketing activities discussed in this seminar. You:
- Benefit from our experience and expertise
- Accelerate through learning curves
- Have a sounding board for issues that arise
- When it’s no time for amateurs, we hire & manage:
1.
Online advertising agency
2.
Off-Page, SEO firm
3.
Networking expert
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- All-in-one solution includes tech:
- SR Analytics™
- Sales Renewal platform for web
submit/call/email lead capture & ROI-focused analytics
- SR EasyAuthoring™
- Sales Renewal enhancements to
WordPress and other blog platforms that makes blogging of
- riginal and curated content easy
- Technology for:
- Email, Content Curation, Local
Listing and Trackable Phone #s
Marketing Essentials After 6 Months
- After 6 months of training and hands-on experience, you can
make an educated, informed decision about your next step:
1.
Self-Service:
- Take the Marketing Essentials Solution you've been trained on in-house and we
part friends.
2.
Marketing Essentials:
- Continue using the Marketing Essentials Solution as it continues to grow your
leads and sales.
3.
JointSourcing:
- Upgrade to our custom JointSourcing Solution™ that shares risks and rewards as it
turbocharges your growth
- $2500 per month for 6 months includes almost everything
- Only extras: ad spend and email & hosting fees
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Flex Marketing™
- An on-demand, guided marketing solution
- You decide how much marketing assistance you need each month and what
you’d like us to actively help with. We offer experience, guidance and motivation, as well as boots-on-the-ground help in getting things done.
- The possibilities are endless:
- Help you reformat an email newsletter;
- Send this week’s newsletter out;
- Edit and give feedback on your blog post;
- Dive into Google Analytics;
- Figure out if you should be using Facebook or Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter;
- Promote your Ladies Night Out online and with a press release;
- Set up an quick way to sell tickets online to your event
- Set up a tool like Hootsuite to efficiently manage those channels.
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Flex Marketing™
- Flex Marketing is priced to fit your budget –you choose how
much you’d like to invest.
- The plan includes regularly scheduled meetings (phone or Skype), during
which we’ll discuss any questions or issues you may have, set goals, create an action plan, and divvy up responsibilities.
- Month-to-Month Flex Marketing
- Minimum $450/month (3 hours). Additional hours at $150/hour. No
minimum monthly commitment.
- 4-Month Flex Marketing
- Minimum $375/month (3 hours). Additional hours at $125/hour.
Minimum commitment: 4 months.
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Follow-up
- Please fill in the attendee list so we can send you the link to
download the presentation and supplementary material
- Feedback
- We would greatly appreciate it if you could take 5 minutes to provide
your feedback on this seminar
- www.salesrenewal.com/workshop-survey
- Contact Info
- Audrey Trieschman, VP Client Marketing
- atrieschman@salesrenewal.com
- 508-529-4300 ext 104
- Keith Loris, President
- kloris@salesrenewal.com
- 508-529-4300 ext 101
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