Category Start a Business
How I found all the customers I needed for 30 years….
Marketing with Directories in B2B business –
How I acquired all the new customers I ever needed
using nothing more than a 28¢ salesman…
By Mark Goggin
Peter Drucker – the father of marketing consulting – said that THE PURPOSE of a
business – any business — is to attract customers. It would be best, to do that at a profit.
But, for a business to be a business its number one task is to…
…Acquire customers
Yet, in many small and medium size businesses customer acquisition is put on the back
burner.
There can be many reasons for this.
Expense is often one of them. Also, it is time-consuming. And, finally, it is seen as an
unreliable, “hit or miss” process.
For 30 years I had a small business and so I faced each of these issues.
How I solved my customer acquisition problem helped me stay in business for 30 years.
If you are in a B2B business, my solution may help you streamline at least part of your
customer acquisition problem. Certainly, there is no cheaper and more effective way to
accomplish this.
Here’s what I did…
Posted by Mark Goggin in Marketing, Small Business, Start a Business, Strategy on November 3rd, 2009
eBrand Media shares how to increase conversions by assuring customers.
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
eBrand Media has always been a strong proponent of keeping a security symbol in the homepage “hero” spot. Every site guest arrives with a degree of anxiety and their anxiety level increases exponentially as they move further down the shopping funnel towards the cart. Every friction point should be removed for the purpose of bringing form and function together to create an online store that is positive, easy to navigate, pleasant to be in and conducive to frequent and extended visits.
Clarity, clarity, clarity, and if you think you’ve given enough clarity, give some more.
The prospect of identity theft has led the majority of online users–53 percent–to stop giving out personal information online, according to a study released by Consumer Reports WebWatch.
Additionally, 30 percent of the consumers surveyed reported reducing their overall use of the Web, while 25 percent say they no longer make online purchases, according to WebWatch. The report, “Leap of Faith: Using the Internet despite the Dangers,” was based on a survey of 1,501 online adults.
Even those who continued to shop online reported taking precautions. Fifty-four percent of online shoppers said they now are more likely to read a site’s privacy policy or user agreement than in the past–while 29 percent say they shop online less frequently than before.
The results show a growing concern about identity theft, said Beau Brendler, director of WebWatch. “There’s been a pretty steady drumbeat over the last three years about it,” he said. In addition, the wave of headlines about security breaches at databases has led consumers to rethink how to best protect their personal data, he said.
A previous study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project also revealed that consumers had changed their online behavior, partly because of security concerns. The Pew study, “Spyware,” concluded that fears of spyware and adware had driven 48 percent of Web users to stop visiting certain Web sites.
In keeping with this theme we’d to share a valuable case study with you that we came across in our virtual library, obtained from a leading marketing journal.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business, Home Based Business, Small Business, Start a Business, eBrand Media on March 3rd, 2009
eBrand Media is developing an exciting and unique marketing opportunity! What we’ve learned.
By Tom Polanski
Recently, my team discovered an area of the net which offers some of the best targeting on the net and it isn’t hasn’t been exploited yet. In other words we’ve discovered an audience of tens of millions that are not being marketed to while they participate in activities that reveal their interests, attitudes, opinions and ultimately, their life style.
My team developed an overview of the different ways that these people can be marketed to based on past and current behaviors. We could send HTML and text e-mail and attach ads to e-mail exchanges, and most importantly the data is available so that advertisers could target on a most granular level.
So here in summation is our situation…. we’ve done some preliminary research and we’re reasonably confident that there may be real opportunity in this discovery. However, we’re faced with a number of challenges which include but are not limited to:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Growing a Business, Marketing, New Advertising Media, Start a Business, eBrand Media on July 8th, 2008
The Start-Up Business Checklist – 10 Questions Every New Business Owner Needs to Ask Themselves
By Tom Polanski
So you’ve decided to start your own business – that’s great news! Now you’re probably asking – “What’s next?” There are a lot of different paths you can go down to help build your business success, but the very first thing you’ll want to do is lay out a marketing and start-up plan for yourself! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Tom Polanski in Start a Business on May 2nd, 2008