Category Marketing
Slow, But Some, Advancement In Consumer Indices
According to The Consumer Reports Index for July, by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, the economy is showing broad improvements in the condition, behavior and expectations of consumers. Though showing improvement, problems remain, including the proportion 16% of Americans that were unable to afford medical bill or medications, or 8.9% who have lost or have reduced health care coverage, well above levels seen in 2009. A worrisome development is a rise in Americans’ homes going into foreclosure in the past 30 days.
The Consumer Reports Employment Index numbers show job creation increased to 51.1, its highest level since April 2009. The Employment Index has pointed to employment growth in three of the last four months. In July 7.8% of Americans started a new job versus 5.7% that lost their job.
Consumer spending across index categories rose in July, particularly in the area of personal electronics and major home appliances. Per capita retail spending was up slightly for July ($274), reflecting June activity, from the prior month ($234).
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Marketing, The Economy on August 5th, 2010
How Many Telemarketing Calls Does It Take to Initiate a Lead Gen Conversation?
SUMMARY: Marketers have so many fancy online options at their fingertips, they forget how useful (and successful) telemarketing can be for lead generation. So many don’t follow the right rules or give up too soon.
We have exclusive new data and strategies to help you to make the right calls in your next campaign. Includes:
-> How many attempts it takes to complete a conversation with a C-level executive
-> Nurturing a lead through the entire process
-> A sample voicemail message
Business-to-business telemarketing has survived every technology that’s come along in recent years. Even with the development of the Web, email and now Web 2.0 as marketing tools, the telephone still remains a crucial piece of a B-to-B lead generation strategy.
Why? Telemarketing works. Business prospects surveyed by eBrand Media earlier this year were surprisingly positive about the telemarketing experience:
o 53% said they added a technology vendor to their database for consideration after receiving a cold call
o 40% said they invited vendors to provide additional information by phone or electronically
It’s clear that prospects respond to a well-conducted telemarketing effort. But with so much pressure to try sexy new lead generation tools, some marketers might not be paying enough attention to this old-school tactic. “People are using telemarketing, so how can you make sure you’re doing it right?” asks Kathy Rizzo, VP Marketing, TeleNet Marketing Solutions. “What are some things you need to look at to make sure you’re not becoming complacent?”
To answer these questions, Rizzo and her team conducted a survey of 205 B-to-B marketers in Q4 2006-Q1 2007 and analyzed thousands of telemarketing campaign records in their database. Based on some key findings of this research, we have identified five tips to help you tweak your own telemarketing campaigns for maximum effectiveness:
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Marketing on July 23rd, 2010
Relationship Management – How To Build A Community That Will Spread Your Brand’s Word
Forbes CMO Network
Douglas Atkin, who wrote The Culting Of Brands: How To Turn Customers Into True Believers, observes that brand communities have mushroomed since he published his book six years ago, and social tools like Facebook and Twitter have exploded. But, he says, most brand stewards are confused about what “community” means.
“Being a fan or follower is not the same as being a member of a community,” he writes. “Membership delivers a whole higher degree of commitment. It also demands a whole other level of engagement from participants and, consequently, a deeper appreciation by the community leader of their responsibilities.”
Atkin then offers five different strategies for building a community along with examples of marketers who have done so. But the golden rule in the brand-community business, he says, is “BE USEFUL.” If you prove that you genuinely care about the people who are giving you their hard-earned dollars, “the social networks will enable people to tell others. If you don’t, they’ll also enable people to tell others.” – Read the whole story…
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter on February 22nd, 2010
New Chart: How Merchants Manage the Affiliate Search Marketing Dilemma
SUMMARY: Competition between companies and their affiliates is natural. Affiliates can be very effective at creating revenue-generating traffic through search so there’s an inherent tension in the system. See the main attitudes/policies with which merchants attempt to deal with this issue.
With the advent of search marketing came the problem of competition between companies and the affiliates with whom they have, hopefully, symbiotic relationships. It’s in an affiliate’s best interests to generate search traffic using the most alluring keyword terms, and these are often branded, including the company name itself. Merchants for their part generally want to take full advantage of those same terms and to avoid ‘paying twice’ for affiliate search-driven clicks that they feel would have come to them anyway based on the keyword.
At the same time, affiliates can be very effective at creating revenue-generating traffic through search (some merchants simply cede paid search to their affiliates) so there’s an inherent tension in the system.
Below we see the main attitudes/policies with which merchants attempt to deal with this issue. Interestingly, the number of them who completely reserves brand/trademarked terms has dropped in favor of more nuanced approaches:
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Affiliate Marketing, Marketing on November 25th, 2009
eBrand Media Social Manager Pro – Build a movement born from the bond between your friends, fans, followers, and brand.
eBrand Interactive, a division of eBrand Media, is a full service agency, and over the past nine years we’ve successfully created, launched, and managed hundreds of internet media campaigns for many of the web’s leading brands. I’d like to introduce you to the eBrand Media Social Manager Pro. We’ll build a movement born from the bond between your friends, fans, followers, and brand.
If you don’t have a Facebook fan page or a Twitter stream established, we’ll launch those channels on your behalf. If you do have a Facebook page and Twitter account set up but are short on the resources to manage it for the purpose of generating sales while building the brands equity; we can help there too.
Facebook has approximately 500,000,000 members. How many of them are current or potential customers of yours? Keep in touch with your fans. Discover what they want and give it give it to them.
Twitter’s growing presence represents a golden opportunity to create, build, and monetize relationships with people and companies who have chosen to follow you!
Have you built out your company’s presence on social networks? Are you aware of how effective social networks are for not only listening to your audience but for driving revenue too? Looking to expand market share?
If you’d like to get more out of your social networking efforts, we know how to successfully create, manage, and montetize your friend, fan, and follower relationships.
Posted by eBrand Media Public Relations Department in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, eBrand Media on November 19th, 2009