Email Marketing

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Watch your step when you get up, because Leverage Marketing is about to drop some top notch email marketing services!

Our email marketing specialists have been buzzing around our office to make sure our email program is in shape so we can keep you in the hive with what goes on around here at Leverage. It’s been a proven efficient technique that we’ve been perfecting since our beginnings. Now, for the first time we are bringing this program to you — our privileged customers.

Email marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to stay in touch with your customers — whether you’re trying to up sell a customer or get them to make a purchase, an email campaign keeps your company top-of-mind. It is a more effective means of marketing your products and services compared to other advertising techniques. While your budget may be getting cut across other channels, you should be increasing your budget for email marketing. Email drives a high ROI and the results are measurable.

According to Stephanie Miller, vice president of strategic services at Return Path, there are excellent opportunities for email marketers during recessions.

“Due to its high ROI, executives are actually paying attention to email marketing. It’s up to us to rise to this occasion, and dissuade everyone else from thinking of email as a cheap alternative. Email has proven its ability to sell, engage and build loyalty,” said Miller in a recent article for Email Insider.

Leverage Marketing is not only able to create, build and implement email marketing campaigns, we can also look at the email marketing you’ve done in the past and make suggestions on how to improve. We can help you keep your customers engaged with your products and services. Think of us as your nimble email marketing consultants. We will help you execute a campaign to drive traffic and increase sales, and we offer customizable packages can tailor to your budget.

According to an email report by the Direct Marketing Association, in October 2008 the ROI for email marketing was $45.06 per dollar spent, while non-email marketing had a $19.94 ROI per dollar spent. What does this mean for you? For us, that’s at least five extra Starbucks coffees for our caffeine addicted employees.

If you haven’t already started gathering names for email lists or started emailing that list you already have, now is the time to start. Contact us today to learn more.

Recession 101: Spend more to save your company…wait what?

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In tough times small business owners are fearful of losing their businesses, and they’re willing to do everything to save it. But if we told you to actually spend more during a recession, we would probably be expecting something along the lines of a glass vase or some other object dramatically shattering against a wall near us. The truth is, however, that there must be a balance between spend and save, especially during a tough economic climate. Balancing a budget, redirecting company resources, or just spending less money on that TiVo your office desperately needs – call it what you want, here are a few tips.

                Simply put, do what must be done to save money!  In order to give your company a chance to survive, there has to be some corner cutting, perhaps even some massive shredding. Take a careful look at all of the business expenses, and try to reduce spending on what isn’t necessary or cut it out altogether. Although this seems like common sense, some companies refuse to give up their company Starbucks fixes. And although most devices are becoming wireless for more portability, buying desktops over laptops can save a huge wad of cash. Reviewing the inventory is a good idea as well, as some businesses like to order a gazillion pads of Post-It notes and leave them to collect dust in the closet. Even saving on small things as that will make a difference in the long run.

                Here comes the slightly confusing part. While you’re out trying to hoard each paperclip and ball-point pen, increase your marketing spend to as much as possible. Say what? You’re crazy. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? Yes, you’re right; it may take a person who isn’t exactly all there to invest in anything at this time. But it does make sense. Other companies are trying to save money by cutting their advertising, which means there’s less clutter in the marketplace. Less clutter equals more potential to reach a customer who isn’t completely overwhelmed by the amount of advertising they see daily. Keep careful tabs of how much you spend and how much return on investment you make. If there is some advertising that’s only wasting you money, get rid of it fast.

                And don’t just focus on one type of advertising, either. Aim towards the types that bring the most Return on Advertising Spend, such as paid search and search engine optimization. Ask your advertising agency if they offer discounted fees with a signed commitment. Companies use this strategy because usually they’re confident they can achieve positive results without having to worry about a client suddenly dropping. Even yours truly, Leverage Marketing, utilizes such techniques. By contracting these types of agencies they become your partners, and partners are mutually dependent on each other’s success. That is, in the end we want you to succeed just as much as we want our own companies to. – AL 

Last Minute Valentine Shopper

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My Dear Valentine,

What have you done for your Last Minute Valentine Shopper? Valentine’s Day is around the corner and is seemingly crazier than ever. There will be long lines at the checkout for greeting cards, gifts, and fighting for the last dozen wilted roses. The need for unique gift ideas and finding another way to avoid the crazy lines will all happen online. The last minute shoppers will actively search for flowers, gifts, and Valentine Cards. We have gathered our weapons and moved forward to battle the ‘Valentine’s Rush’ and prepared our clients by integrating and displaying text ads into their campaigns. Further preparation for the combat can be done at Google’s Content Network (GCN) and Youtube. Do what you can and help last minute shoppers in the battle. Hope you have a great Valentine’s Day!

Yours,
LM

Google stops Print Ads product, traditional media cries a single tear

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Google recently announced that in February they will be cutting corners and chopping off their Google Print Ads product. While this may not affect some advertisers and companies, it shines light on the fact that traditional advertisement may be heading to an early, although perhaps foreseen demise.

The search engine king better known as Google gives us an ominous sign that traditional print ads aren’t as effective as other new forms of advertising by shutting down their ambitious print product.

The idea of their product was to create better “calls to action” on newspaper ads by making customer response tags that point to various mediums of communication such as their website, a text messaging system or a toll-free number. These communication mediums were wired with Google Analytics in order to better track the effectiveness of these ads.

After a little over a year in business and a sluggish economy began to muzzle its way in, they decided to take the reins off of print ads because of the lack of impact it has created (Read more here). Google’s attempt at trying to apply what works for online search advertising to traditional, decades old advertising was a valiant attempt, but it shows a glimpse of what the ever-changing advertising landscape will look like.

Search engine marketing has the ability to be reviewed, scaled and modified in order to create the highest return on investment by using tools such as Google Analytics. Periodically your search engine marketing specialist can go into this tool and eliminate the poorly-performing ads and test new ones, thus maximizing ad revenue. With traditional newspaper ads, tracking ad dollars is nearly impossible. Ever ask anyone if they’ve used Google search? We’ll bet our left shoe they’ll say yes. Ever ask anyone if they open up a newspaper to only look at advertisements? We won’t bet our shoes on this one, but chances are more people have used Google. The point is not that we need new shoes, but rather a Google ad can far outreach a newspaper ad in terms of impressions on qualified traffic. And this rings true for all of the other search engines as well.

Because of said advantages of search engine marketing and our choking economy, there is currently a gradual shift into more trackable ad spending. The age of the one-stop-print advertisements is sadly dwindling away into the past, and we must embrace what’s new and working. Calling to mind that our economy is currently turning blue in the face, companies are trying to streamline their operations to get the most out of their money, which is exactly what Google did. We wish traditional advertisements good luck, and make way. – AL