I think it is safe to say that Social Media Marketing is now considered to be one of the major parts of a business-to-business marketing program. Yet, it is more surprising to find that a lot of companies still underestimate its sheer power in the B2B world. Is Social still “the next big thing” to be taken advantage of or are we past that? Is it just something to play around with, with no real practical ROI advantages or better still does it have some complicated learning curve in order to make it really work? If you think that social media marketing is just simply adding a business Linkin page, a Twitter or Facebook Business Fan page into your marketing mix think again.   There are really only four rules to using Social Media Marketing: Keep it relevant, Keep it interesting, Keep it timely and Think twice before you post.   Do that and Social Media Marketing is a very powerful add on tool to one that involves any kind of telemarketing or teleprosecting. In telemarketing you need to have a specific pointed message you want to get out to your targeted market. The more pointed the better your results will be.   In Social we are looking to create a company’s message and awareness in the marketing place, so Social Media becomes s a very powerful tool which can push out and take in a very narrow targeted message designed for a telemarketing program. The more focused the message the stronger your reach will be. Then make sure that your companies profile’s is totally in sync with your company and the product or service you are offering. Making and taking advantage of every chance you have to push your content, state your message and increase your visibility. Social media networks are just new ways to get your message out. Not quite the same old but in a way. Yet Social Media Marketing makes you easier and more accessible for new customers and prospects to become interface with and become familiar and gain name recognition. This is especially true for a launch of a new product or service, where any kind of market recognition is vital between the combination of lead generation strategy with social and telemarketing.   Turing to Search Engine Optimization;  SEO is the best way to capture relevant traffic from the search engines, not pay for clicks as some would want you to believe, but the success of SEO is always moving around. Thank you Google, not! It’s no longer enough to regularly update your blog, or make sure and have optimized your title tags or Meta descriptions and key words and to check out all those links pointing back to your site. Google Yahoo and Bing and other search engines ARE calculating some of your rankings off of social media presence. Now even Twitter is getting rated by Google so go figure. And that is a fact not a guess! Strong brands are using social media not because they want to but because they have to. This makes being active on social media act as a lighthouse to search engines that your brand is legitimate, credible, trustworthy and active. What does that mean for you? If you want to rank for a given set of keywords, having a strong social media presence is almost mandatory. How important? Well, if you need to develop your online presence and push your message you really don’t have a choice.   Lastly I almost always advise clients to either to use a micro site or a landing page to draw in all their targeted social media hits. Again adding the element of telemarketing in this really important. A potential prospect needs a place to go and look information that is directly related to the targeted message you are talking about and pushing out through social. You need to set up a spot where you can have your 3F’s (Friends Fans and Followers) hit your site to get your press releases, company news, product information, blogs and any YouTube videos you might just have. If using a micro site, landing page or pLURS you can also use this as an entry to your websites real homepage and target it deeper in with a telemarketing program’s and call to action.       Larson Notes & Satire: Keep in mind that joining a social media marking with telemarketing is a lot more than just adding another business-to-business marketing program. This is a 1-2 punch of social and phone which puts you right in the middle of everything that your customer or prospect is including customer service, marketing research and product development.   It is important to know the audience and think of how you can extend the conversations from online to offline. And this is where b2b telemarketing and social media can make such an impact and take the “cold” out of cold calling.   For the answer to your sales and lead generation problems call Larson & Associates at 847-991-1294 or email me athoward@larsonassociates.ws.  One call is all it takes.   Howard Larson Larson & Associates Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition Making good businesses great and great businesses even better 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates.ws http://www.larsonassociates.ws http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates   https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate   P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you should add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

As an entrepreneur it is a very normal and natural want to do everything yourself. I mean it’s your baby. You started it, you’re building it, you must know what is best. But if you do all the work yourself you are saving money? Are you getting the best effort and talent in targeted areas of your business? The question is, could someone be doing a better job for you?   If you’re like a lot of entrepreneurs or small business people when we first start out, you might be forced to do everything yourself because of “sweat equity”. Money is not there to do what needs to be done so, you do it. But there comes a time when you need to either delegate or outsource.   Once you get to this point in your businesses life you have to have a reality check and realize that to do everything yourself is not practical and there are some things you are really not qualified to do.   Lucky for you that almost anything you need can not only be outsourced but there are able, willing experts out there to do the work. So you have lots of choices of not just want to outsource but who to outsource to.   According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the average small business owner spends up to 40% of his or her time on routine administrative tasks. Constantly working on non revenue-producing tasks that could be more productively and cost-effectively performed by a highly skilled, knowledgeable assistant is losing your business significant income.   Steps in determining what to outsource   Step 1:Decide what tasks are taking up your time or that you are not qualified to do, such as web promotion, social media marketing, bookkeeping, janitorial, etc.   Step 2:Find out how much time you are putting into each task.   Step 3:Determine what you would do with the time that you would save by outsourcing.   Step 4:Determine the tasks which should or cannot be outsourced or the things that you are most qualified to do. Not everything can be outsourced.   Step 5:Prioritize every task. When you outsource, don’t give too much responsibility the first time you unless you know them or they come very highly recommended from a trusted friend.   Step 6:Now assuming you certain tasks you are going to have someone do for you, write a task list of what you expect to have accomplished either on a daily or weekly basis.   When you get to that point in your businesses growth when you need to outsource and you will find your business able to grow even faster. Call Me, Howard Larson, now, at 847-991-1294, for a free consultation.   If results are what you need and expect contact us today. We do what others only promise.Larson&Associates / We Make Good Businesses Great & Great Businesses Even Better. www.larsonassociates.ws 847-991-1294 All associates located in the United States But remember, you can ONLY get the Larson advantage at Larson & Associates     ...read more

Yes it is time to add services that work! It use to be that all a good printing company had to do was continually invest in their people and their equipment. That was about all it took to stay competitive and increase productivity and quality. Even now companies should be making sure that they are continually investing in these important skill sets of: Technical skills Sales skills Customer management skills Purchasing skills Negotiation skills Social media skills Yet as good as having all these skills sets are they are no good without the right services in place. Skills without the services are worthless. You will not be able to push the envelope, to make things work and have a trained staff in place to hit the ground running and get superior results if you can’t put everything in place and ready to roll in perfection. Customers are not going to let you learn things on their dime. Customers are not going to let you train yourself and staff with the very lifeblood of their companies marketing at stake.  The world does not have time to stop while you learn the new communication and marketing techniques.  To change for the future printing companies need, yes I said need, not think about, adding services. Now that might not sound like something you want to be doing but to achieve sales growth and market share it is not an option. It is no longer enough to just put ink on paper. To roll off the perfect printed piece and smile. To have the perfect press check as you sip a cup of coffee with your client in the customer lounge. Print companies have to sell a complete value added services. You cannot sit back and do one part of the marketing/advertising package. More now than prerecession it is do it all or die a slow painful death. As a Printing company you had better be considering what your customers need. They understand the challenges that they face and you had better start. If you can’t, don’t or won’t produce solutions to overcome their marketing challenges they will go shopping for a supplier that will. Larson Notes&Satire:  So what’s a printing company to do?  1st you can begin by looking at some new services and try to decide what areas you can move into (with the least amount of pain). If you can’t do it alone you need to find a synergistic partner who will not steal your customers. 2nd, review your key accounts, you know the 2 or 3 that make up 60% of your companies business. The ones that if you lose your company goes out of business. As ask them what other services they would want you to be offering them in a more holistic marketing attack. 3rd review your sales message. You need to be more inclusive of the all areas of the communication process to get your customers the kind or results they need in a way they expect.  If it were my shop, I’d be looking at picking a synergistic partner with a history of blood and ink running though my veins that matches my values.   So where does that leave us? I have been around the block a few times. Been full time with my own company since 1975 as well as having grown up in the business working for my father’s company starting in 1966. Walking in to the smell of ink, the sound of the feeder grabbing each sheet of paper, the pounding of our Gordon as it die cut card stock. Yes I have a history, and what I hope is a more glorious future.  If you want your business to be more call us for an appointment. Howard Larson Larson & Associates Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition Making good businesses great and great businesses even better 847-991-0488 howard@larsonassociates.ws http://www.larsonassociates.ws http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

Have you put together your business plan for the year? I hope so. If not it’s not too late. (If you need help we offer a Pick My Brain Service http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Pick_My_Brain ) In a way that is what a New Year is all about. A fresh start, a new beginning. Are you thinking of and planning out that spring or summer vacation? Do the same for your business. As a business owner planning is a key element so while you are in the process, why not take your telemarketing call center into consideration? Believe it or not, your telemarketer can actually do wonders in the planning, execution and implementation of that hot new promotion you’ve been thinking up. Ask yourself, who is going to do the promotion? Who will carry the torch? You sales staff is already strung out, your marketing team can only put the word out. But who is there left to reach out and grab the prospect and pull him into the offer. Your outsourced telemarketing team. Larson Notes&Satire:  Do we have a rabbit up our sleeves? No but your next customer might be up there. Yet we have a song on our lips and we are singing out. The question is, is it your song or your competition’s? “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Howard Larson Larson & Associates Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition Making good businesses great and great businesses even better 847-991-0488 howard@larsonassociates.ws http://www.larsonassociates.ws http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

Larson&Assoc; Receives 2012 Best of Palatine Award FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASELarson&Assoc Receives 2012 Best of Palatine AwardPalatine Award Program Honors the AchievementPALATINE November 13, 2012 -- Larson & Assoc has been selected for the 2012 Best of Palatine Award in the Merchandising & Marketing Consultants category by the Palatine Award Program.Each year, the Palatine Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Palatine area a great place to live, work and play.Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2012 Palatine Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Palatine Award Program and data provided by third parties.About Palatine Award ProgramThe Palatine Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Palatine area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.The Palatine Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community̢۪s contributions to the U.S. economy.past award winners have been: American Red Cross / Intuit, Inc. / Best Buy / Merrill Lynch ...read more

Go Take A NAP Ya you heard me, go take a nap! Seems that marketers all over the place are trying to connect with customers and prospects. Social, web, mobile, email, direct mail, phone. Go take a nap. NAP is nothing less than Name, Address and phone number. If you’re into social media marketing you want the 3 F words working for you (friends, family, fans), lots of them. But to take it to the next level you want to take a NAP with them. This kind of central information is the very foundation for business growth, off line and online. Whatever kind, this is base marketing information you need so you can have a consistent attack. You have to do this this day in and day out, over and over. After that you need to keep accurate and up-to-date. Larson Notes&Satire:  We NAP all the time. We take naps for ourselves and we take NAP’s for our customers. Name, address and phone number. This is not marketing done from the hip but thought out planning to make your customer base strong and ever building. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Howard Larson Larson & Associates Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition Making good businesses great and great businesses even better 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates.ws http://www.larsonassociates.ws http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

Offer social proof on your website.While peer pressure is sometimes thought of as negative, in social media reviews&recommendations are more times than not a positive thing. On the web these can be displayed as customer testimonials to increase engagement and conversions. Your customer base will hopefully be able to relate to other customers and/or their comments, and get a good feeling on how effective your services or products are from someone how has used you or them. So, find some of the nicest things that consumers out there have said about you (and don't forget you can encourage them) and share it with the world. Test email subject lines.Email marketing campaigns won’t be successful if emails aren’t just delivered but also opened, which is why it is important to use testing of subject lines for your email. One way that marketers can quickly test email subject lines is withwww.subjectline.com. This is a free subject line scoring tool that can evaluate subject lines and provide you with scores, as well as deliverability and marketing tips and advice. All you need to do is take a little bit of time, 15 minutes or so, to sit down and create great powerful subject lines. Generate a Fivesecondtestatwww.fivesecondtest.com  for your site to assess its usability and its readability.When you don’t have the time to conduct user tests, this handy Web-based tool lets Web workers upload a screenshot of their Web page and then creates two different five-second user tests, one for memory and one for descriptive feedback. And, you know, it only takes five seconds.1. Create a new testUpload a screenshot or mockup, set some questions you want answered and wait for the feedback to roll in! 2. Users complete your testTesters have five seconds to view your image and must then answer the questions you have set. 3. View your resultsWe collect all of the responses for you, extract the frequent keywords and then present the data with beautiful graphs. Insert dynamic meta descriptions into your HTML.Yes, meta descriptions and meta tags are not dead! One of the easiest ways to improve your search marketing efforts is to include useful, compelling meta descriptions on your Web pages. Just be sure that they are relevant to the page’s content and are captivating enough get a user to click on the search result. Monitor keywords on Twitter.It is important to keep an eye on discussions that are relevant to your company. This can help your social media attack to make better connections with your audience, and you might ever pick up some content ideas. While there are lots of tools that can be used for monitoring social media mentions, two free Twitter-specific tools worth checking out are Monitter http://www.monitter.com  and Twitterfallwww.twitterfall.comMonitteris a real time twitter search tool that enables you to monitor a set of keywords on twitter. It also allows you to narrow the search to a particular geographic location, allowing you to find out what’s going on in a particular part of the world.To begin: just type a search term into the box above and click the “add column” button - or, if you prefer, click on the “Trending” link to load three columns with current twitter trends in them.And then there isTwitterfallTry one of the following:•Try adding a search to follow something you're interested in.•Add a list to follow specific groups of people.•Type in an address into the geolocation panel to see what people are talking about in that area.•Login to Twitter to view your timeline, mentions, or direct messages. Take a few minutes every hour or so to see who is using your keywords in the Twitterverse. Assess your forms.Does your email subscription form ask for unnecessary information? If so you may be scaring off possible customers. You really need to be removing any unnecessary information from your forms. The only information you need on a newsletter subscription form is a name and email address, especially because more targeted information can always be obtained at a later time. Fix up and customize your 404 page.Whenever a user is trying to reach a website’s page that is non-existent or missing, they are usually directed to a page where they’re informed that that specific page cannot be recalled by the HTTP server; this is what is called a 404 error page. You never want your visitors to land on one of these, but it can and does happen. When it does you need  to have a custom 404 page that will not only gives them some information, but also offers additional useful content and encourages them to continue exploring your awesome website. If your 404 page is uninformative and boring, take a little time to create one that will be a little more inviting? Adjust white space to improve readability.Finding the right balance between too much and too little open spaces can make your website read easier. Your text needs room to breathe so that your visitors can view it easier. Spend a few minutes looking over your website to make sure it's optimized for readability. Larson Notes & Satire:  Take a look at the sites we have gone out and listed here. Social Media is not a toy where you sit on the sidelines and watch what happens of dabble in it here and there. You are either a player or you lose. If you do each of these little exercises you are on your way. If you can monitor your key words at least a few times a day, you are looking good, very good. If you even do it once every other day you are ahead of the crowd. But If you can’t, talk to us. We can make it happen for you on a daily basis. But remember social media is an ongoing project, not a onetime event. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Howard LarsonLarson & AssociatesTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better847-991-0488howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociateshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttps://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

GM pulled of its ads from Facebook, this led many marketers to wonder if advertising on facebook or any social media site is a good thing. It is, and it isn’t. With 900 million (900,000,000) active users can you ignore facebook and all of social media? Is it worth paying for? Another good question. In a study by Resolution Media and Kenshoo seperatly, they7 looked at the effectiveness of Facebook ads, these 2 companies analyzed global data of 65 billion (65,000,000,000) Facebook ad impressions and 20 million (20,000,000) Facebook ad clicks over a wide range of brands and categories. Now remember these are ad clicks and not what social media or even (in my humble opinion) how social media marketing should be used to get maximum exposure for you. What is the long term viability of facebook and social media advertising? “Social media has quickly become one of the preferred channels for brands, and when done right, can foster meaningful relationships between brands and consumers in ways that were never before possible,” says Alan Osetek, president of Resolution Media. “The purpose of this study was to define what ‘doing it right’ means in terms of measureable actions and outcomes, and giving marketers a model for demonstrating effectiveness.” The study showed thatSponsored Stories and Post Adsreceive about double the click-through rate (CTR) of Social and Web Ads, which means that ads with social context resonate better with audience members likely due to a personal connection. Additionally, Post Ads draw more attention because they usually feature special offers and are larger than normal ads. I guess this is true because they did a study on it but, well I usually ignore those kinds of adds myself unless I see it and it really matters to me at that specific time. The data also shows that higher CTR leads to lower average cost-per-click (CPC) rates, with Post Ads averaging a CPC of $0.24, Sponsored Stories averaging $0.46, Web Ads averaging $0.59 and Social Ads averaging the highest CPC at $0.78. But for advertisers that choose the cost-per-thousand (CPM) model, Sponsored Stories are the most expensive ad type – averaging a CPM of $0.31 compared to Web Ads that averaged the lowest CPM of $0.18. That could become a lot of money, couldn’t it? Hope you have deep pockets  for the start up. This might be more pricy than direct mail.  The study also showed a new metric called “Exposure Rate,” which measures targeted engagement on Facebook. This metric determines the percentage of the target audience that you are reaching out to and exposing your message to. High exposure rates correlate to a high CTR and conversion rates, with the ads that reached 76-100 percent of their intended audience also receiving an average CTR of .038 percent and conversion rate of 31.92%. In comparison, ads that only reached 0-25 percent of the intended audience resulted in an average CTR of 0.028% and a conversion rate of 11.81 percent. High exposure rates don’t guarantee success, you need to balance this metric with frequency and I might add time of day, to find the number of times the average Facebook user has been exposed to your ad. The study shows that there is a conversion rate drop-off of 32 percent when ads are shown to consumers more than six times. This means that the ad is being shown too frequently, your target will start to ignore it. Additionally, the CTR averaged 39 percent lower after the sixth impression. One way that marketers can optimize exposure rate and frequency is by maintaining a CPC above the maximum recommended bid. This is because the study’s data showed that the exposure rate was higher for ads with CPCs that were greater than the maximum recommended bid, driving the average exposure rate up by 11.5 percent. Additionally, the data showed that frequency dropped when the CPC was above the maximum recommended bid, by an average of 1.7 exposures.  Larson Notes&Satire:  We all are not made of money and for most of us PFC makes no sense.  Social Media still comes down to the 3 F’s, family friends and fans.  Nothing else really matters. Keep your F’s safe, close, protected, happy and interacted. When “they” say “doing it right” what are they really saying? Do I hear spend money? In almost anything I read from street smart marketers and sales people it is interaction. Seems funny that my postings are getting an exposure rate of 12-18%. It does not seem to matter what time of the day it is, the % is almost always the same. Would PFC be a good thing? Then I need to really question paying a higher rate for CPC. Come on who is fooling who here? I’m not a big advocate of paying for clicks in the first place. Now it may have its place but does have its place but not as the center part of your marketing plan. Think long term, think organically. Then start thinking trichannel. social, telemarketing, direct mail and watch your numbers really take off. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Howard LarsonLarson & AssociatesTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better847-991-0488howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociateshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttp://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarsonhttps://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.   ...read more

So you’re asking what the heck am I talking about. In marketing there is a rule of thumb that 40% of a targeted marketing program or a direct mail project should be n the list, 40% should be in the message and 20% in the creative. It is one of those things that history has shown us is a truism. It is like a lot of things in advertising, marketing and graphics people want to take short cuts. It happens all the time. (See yesterday’s blog) like when I want to add a mailing program with a telemarketing program. So in a mailing program when we talk 40-40-20 people ask why do I need great creative? I have 80% with the good list and a powerful offer. Well that might work in a solid telemarketing program but when ink hits the paper… it better look good. But why make a big stink over 20%? If the best you can do is put in a “REPLY NOW” tag, if everything in the page is so important that the whole piece is in a bold type face, try again. With the right deal the right target odds are you will get “good” results but is that what you’re about, good, when you could have great? Larson Notes&Satire:  one of the tag lines I use a lot reads: “Making good businesses great and great businesses even better” That is what we are about. Not just good enough, not making things great but making great even better. I am a big advocate of the 40-40-20. Yes I will do a 40-40 and leave the rest project and I know I will get blamed for less than stellar results, but in the 37 years of being in business that part has not changed. Clients cut corners when we don’t tell them or give the reasons why. Even when we do, they try to cut. So next time your thinking about a project, try Me. Blame me. After all I am from the city of big shoulders. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Howard LarsonLarson & AssociatesTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better847-991-0488howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociateshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttps://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

The Reach In the US there are over 149 million residences, businesses and PO Boxes throughout the country. Did you know that 98% of people residences and businesses, bring their mail in every day it is delivered and 77% sort through it immediately? That 15% of all consumers receive at least one catalog and 12% are receiving at least a letter of postcard or flyer from a company looks at and makes a purchase on that company’s web site? According to one survey of 6,400 online shoppers households that receive printed catalogs shop online more often and spend more time at a company’s web site regardless of age, income, region or education. The Impact Direct mail is over 52% of all mail in the United States The Direct Mail industry employs over 3.1 million people The global direct mail advertising services is forecast to reach $25 BILLION in 2015. On average those who receive a catalog spent 28% more and buy 28% more items than those who do not receive a catalog Direct order B2B Direct Marketing sales are projected to increase 5.4% over the next year. Larson Notes&Satire:  So why am I so excited about direct mail? The percentages and the numbers make if (still) a force to be reckoned with. Think about it double digit percentages? How you ignore it. Then you add in a few other channels and ….. And the growth? Looks like above GNP to me! I really don’t care of your B2B or B2C. This has to be one of your channels you are using.  In any comprehensive lead generation plan I put together I put in direct mail, (usually a postcard) Why? (Let me bang my head against the wall for a second), a direct mail program will net you 1% to 3% return. A telemarketing stand alone program should net you 1% to 3% return. Though in a little Social Media and you are going to be getting 12%-15% return. Most people and companies don’t do it because of the cost or perceived cost. Oh well you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Howard LarsonLarson & AssociatesTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better847-991-0488howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociateshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttp://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarsonhttps://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

Myth 1: WOM is not influential in B2B.Fact: WOM is the #1 influencer of B2B purchase decisions. Few B2B customers ever buy anything without first asking around about their experiences with the vendor and/or product. In a recent survey of B2B decision makers by Forrester Research, 84% of respondents said Word of Mouth recommendations influence their purchase decisions. While nearly all B2B companies have blogs, only 24% of respondents said they trust blogs. Other research firms also have found that WOM rules in B2B. 84% - WOM60% - Salesperson59% Web sites58% Print publications45% - In person events43% - Analysts43% - Social Media41& - E-Mail40% - Web events30% - Interactive Media24% - Blogs Myth 2: Business people are not active users of social media.Fact: Business people are first of all people and they are buyers and furthermore even more socially active than the average consumers. They buy things not just for themselves but for their businesses as well. Forrester recently surveyed B2B buyers to learn about their usage of social media. The results were off the charts. B2B buyers are nearly 20% more active creators of social media and twice as active consumers of social content. Based on the survey results, Forrester told B2B marketers: If you’re not usingWOM/socialas part of your marketing mix, you’re late to the party. Myth 3: Businesspeople don’t advocate companies and products.Fact: Businesspeople are more active Advocates of companies and products than consumers.Another myth that has pervaded B2B marketing is that businesspeople don’t advocate companies and products. Fact is, B2B executives are more active recommenders than the average consumer, according to a study conducted by WOM research from Keller Fay. The study showed that business executives have 118 WOM conversations weekly compared to 100 for consumers. On average, executives mentioned 102 brands times per week compared to 77 for consumers. In 61% of the WOM conversations, executives recommended a brand or product to a peer or colleague. 40% of B2B Buyers are Advocates. Myth 4: B2B companies only have a few Advocates.Fact: B2B companies have many Advocates. As B2B marketers know, within a single account there are multiple people who spread Word of Mouth. This includes end users, gate keepers, technical buyers, decision makers, and others. While some are more influential than others, all of these people are part of a Word of Mouth Community within any one account. At a single company, there may be 500 people who are part of a Word of Mouth community. Thus, a B2B company that has 100 customers may have a total Word of mouth community of 50,000 people (100 accounts x 500 people.) Assuming that 40% of these people are Advocates, the company could have 20,000 Advocates (40% of 50,000). This number is a large, highly influential, yet under-leveraged Virtual Sales force. By energizing their Advocates, a B2B companies can amplify positive Word of Mouth and drive qualified referral leads and sales in a continuous flow. Myth 5: The impact of Word of Mouth can’t be measured.Fact: The impact of Word of Mouth can be measured as precisely as any form of online marketing.There are dozens of tools that enable B2B marketers to measure the quantity and quality of Word of Mouth about their companies and products in the blogosphere and on social networks like Twitter.Advanced Word of Mouth analytics enable B2B marketers to go beyond measuring buzz to measuring business and marketing results. For example, advanced analytics track Advocate impact on open rates, click through rates, and conversion rates. These advanced analytics enable marketers to harness the proven power of Word of Mouth and track its impact as precisely as a PPC or email marketing campaign. Larson Notes&Satire:  There are many good ways to marketing a company and no one way works good all by itself.  If you can work 3 or 4 tools in tandem you will have a much better attack and you results will follow off the charts. Point is that most of us are not working our 3 f’s (family, friends and fans) hard enough. We don’t engage them, we don’t work with them, heck are we even telling them what they need to know to push us and our companies out to their spheres of influence. Now I never ask for or give recommendations to people or companies I know nothing about. I get enough requests from people asking for referrals that I have no knowledge of and I’ll be damned if I will recommend someone I know nothing about nor have I ever used their service of product. Make you one of my friends or fans? Yes that I will do but you need to earn the right to get more out of me. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Howard LarsonLarson & AssociatesTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better847-991-0488howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociateshttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttp://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarsonhttps://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.   ...read more

April Home Sales Shoot up. Sales of U.S. existing homes surged in April, according to the National Association of Realtors, which reported an increase of 3.4 percent from March levels and a 10 percent jump from April 2011.  All four regions of the country saw upticks in sales volume, and the median prices for homes sold was $177,400, an increase of more than 10 percent from the same month in 2011.  Also, sales of new homes improved in April to an annualized volume of 343,000 homes. That’s well below the peak of more than 1 million built during the real estate bubble, but it represents a 3.3-percent bump from March’s sales figures. According to the National Association of Home Builders, 100 of the country’s 360 markets that it indexes are now deemed “improving” markets. Only 12 markets were considered “improving” when the NAHB started the index last fall. •Permits. Permits for new single-family homes in April reached an annual rate of 715,000. More permits were issued in March (769,000), but April's number still is 23.7% more than in April 2011.•New construction. Ground was broken on nearly 30% more homes in April (717,000 annual rate) than in April 2011 (and 2% more than in March this year). YCharts.com puts the improvement in perspective with a graphic showing new housing starts since the crash began in 2007.•Homes completed. The number of finished homes is rising, too. Privately owned homes finished (651,000 annual rate) were up 10% over March and 20% over the same time last year.•Homebuilder confidence. New surveys show homebuilders more optimistic about their prospects than at any time in the last five years. Analysts follow builders' sentiment carefully, because their ground-level knowledge of their local markets is thought to predict housing health. Writes USA Today: Sales of existing homes. The number of transactions is growing. The National Association of Realtors reports that sales of existing homes rose 3.4% in April over March. They were also 10% higher than last year at the same time. As the US Housing Market shows signs of recovery it is time to rev up your marketing efforts towards this area. Why are new homeowners so important and desirable? They buy things. Not just buy but at a higher rate than other market segments. For large brands they buy more big ticket items like appliances and furniture. For the small business person this group more times than not have a loyalty to local businesses. So why does housing matter? They buy things. Larson Notes&Satire:  So consider this:35% of new homeowners buy bedding33% of new homeowners purchase lawn equipment, tools and hardware50% of new homeowners purchase home decorations and accents15% of new homeowners purchase computers, home security and automobiles Within the 1st few months> The average new homeowners spend more in the first 6 months than established residents spend in 2 years.> The average new homeowners spend more than $9000 of purchases within the first four months of a more> Within several weeks nearly 60% of homeowners and 40% of renters purchase furniture> New homeowners establish 71 new business relationships with in the first few months of their move> 35% of new homeowners just had a new baby or are planning on it. Look at the things this group of people buy. Do you sell any of these things? If so, how do you attract them? Well we have our ways but one of the best is the new blanket zip code mailing by the US Postal service. Great deal with blanket coverage. Then you can go after making connections with relestate offices, agents and the like. Need help? Call us. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Want to be a Blogger but can’t write?Try our ghost blog writing service! Howard LarsonLarson & AssociatesTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better847-991-0488howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttp://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarsonhttps://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

As we move into May or 2012, I thought it might be nice to take a snap shot of what other B2B Marketers are doing in Social Media at the moment. Looking at the usage below, you will find no real changes in B2B SM Marketing. LinkedIn still rules with blogging and Facebook neck and neck. 30% - LinkedIn20% - Blogging19% - Facebook16% - Twitter 8% - YouTube 6% - the 3 Fs (Friends, Followers, Family) 1% - Google+ B2B User PreferencesLinkedIn is heads above everyone else, Facebook and Twitter (Blogging is not a SM site) virtually tied as alternative social media channels by b2b marketers. Then as you can see above YouTube, the 3 F’s, Then there are the other “guys” like Flickr, Digg,  Stumbleupon and Tumblr as favorite social channels. No, most marketers engaged in SM are using a combination of several channels, there are clearly defined preferences. When b2b marketers were asked to choose the one most important method that they use for their social outreach), LinkedIn was the clear leader, chosen by 30% of respondents. Following it were blogging (20%), Facebook (19%) Twitter (16%) and YouTube (8%). The ObstaclesThe biggest problem B2B marketers are facing when it comes to SM is (after the legal department) an overall lack of resources. 70% of Business Marketing Managers find this to be the major problem toward implementing a good solid social media marketing program. Other problems encountered are: 57% a poorly defined success metrics and key performance indicators.  44% a “lack of knowledge about social media” is holding them and their companies back. Management resistance, cited by 22%, may stem from the preceding three obstacles. Larson Notes&Satire:  As you all know I am working Facebook, then LinkedIn with some twitter. But with Ping.fm I can get a unified message to Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Plaxo, Google Buzz, Tumblr, Bebo, Flickr to name a few extras with one quick “PingIt” And, the faster the better “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Want to be a Blogger but can’t write?Try our ghost blog writing service! Howard LarsonLarson & AssociatesTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better847-991-0488howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttps://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

You want more leads, my prospects more customers. Who doesn’t? So what do you do? Join a Chamber of Commerce? At Professional Industry Association?  Formal Networking Groups? Let’s look at the cost incurred by each. They all have their place if you get work out of them, or do you just like being in a group for the fun of it? Me, I join for the money. Friends are a side benefit. Education a side befit as well. So what are the “true” costs? Chamber Of CommerceIf you are the a-typical small business you open the doors to your business and trot off to join your local Chamber of Commerce.  Is it a wise investment? Well... It cost you say: $300.00 to join, then there are the 10 – 2 hour meetings a year at a cost of $20.00 plus time.  Join a committee? There is another 3 hours a month x 12. Then add in drive time or 1 hour a meeting and your “investment” is only $8400.00. If you don’t think your time is worth $100.00 an hour you might want to rethink your being in business. Total cost is $8700.00 Investment gap:If you pick up 5 clients at $1200.00 each, for $6000.00 in new business leaving a short fall of $2700.00 Professional Industry AssociationAnother business normality is to go off and join a Professional Industry Association. Cost might only be $500, if you’re lucky. Then there are (again) the 10 meetings a year, most likely dinner meetings so the cost goes up to $30... a pop in a plus 2 hours or drive time (at least here in the Chicago area) and you have a $4500.00 nut to crack. Investment gap:If you can pick up 2 clients out of a group like this you are doing good. There might be more prospects but the competition for them is greater. Yet the pay back is higher to say $2000.00 per customer for $4000.00. Result a short fall of $500.00 I hope you’re getting $500.00 in education. Formal Networking GroupThe last of the big 3 in lead generation and referrals is the Formal Networking Group. These groups can be great as their sole purpose is the generation of business for their membership. Annual dues are $450.00 the weekly meeting and yes this is usually a weekly time investment is about 2 hours for time and a lunch cost of say $15.00. Out of pocket is $1200.00 for dues and lunches and time investment is $10,000.00 based on working 50 weeks a year, for a total of 11,200.00. Investment gap: With the average sale being $1200.00 you need to get 10 new clients to break even. Now the big picture cost if you did or do all three? Only $24,400.00 Now you can tell me, I write all this off for my business so it is a tax write off.  So the investment is only half that amount. Sure, ok but it is still money spent and it is out of pocket till you reclaim it back from Uncle Sam Larson Notes&Satire:  Now just imagined if you took that money and put it into a targeted marketing plan? For $24,400.00 I could work wonders for you. Give you a combo, Telesales, Direct Mail, Social Media Marketing plan. If you choose to do a Larson Telemarketing Lead Generation Plan what is the pay back. Now mind you this is the stripped down bare bones program but if you were to give me $1200 a month or $14,000 a year, that would give you a program of 40 hours of concentrated Lead Generation work. And on the average that would give you a pay back of at least bare minimum 5 to 8 leads of which yes they are not customers yet but in 1 month that should be 20 to 32 leads or 240 to 384 leads a year. Do you feel lucky? Ask yourself what is your closing ratio? If you had that many leads could you would you fail? What is your closing ratio, all great sales people I know, know theirs. Good or bad, they know. 1 out of 10? 1 out of 5? Do you even know? When they know their numbers they know what they need to accomplish number wise to hit the income figures they want to achieve. Numbers don’t lie, nor do ratios. When we talk about what is truly cost effective or will give you the best payback, pick your path to your success. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Want to be a Blogger but can’t write?Try our ghost blog writing service! Howard LarsonLarson & AssociatesDivison of US Telemarketing LLCTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better630-358-4354howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttp://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out. ...read more

In a survey by the Center for Exhibition Industry, their CIRE index overall trade show activity grew by 2.7%. Considering this is after 3 consecutive years of reduction there was of course cause for general excitement in the industry. The index goes and scores 4 areas of performance.+2.7% - Net square feet+2.3% - Number of exhibitors+3.4% - Number of exhibitors+2.3% - Ad revenue The area of strongest growth were machinery and finished goods showing a very strong 11.2% growth, with the building, construction, home and repair category going down 5.3%. Does it make sense for you to make the trade show plunge? Are your prospects and customers there? Do you have the staff to work a booth? Do you have the money to put together a minor booth and stock it with necessary flyers and brochures? Larson Notes&Satire;:Should your business be in or back into exhibiting shows? The do have a cost and it can be pricy. Chamber of Commerce shows might be within reach and you might only need 3 or 4 new accounts to break even, but when you jump to the major shows you better have a plan to make it cost effective. We at Larson have a service where we will go in and call all the attendees to invite them to your booth, we set up appointments for you while at the show so you have quality one on one time with the prospect (and your competition doesn’t) then after the show is all closed up, our post trade show calling service where we will call up all the business cards and badges scanned to see if they got the information they needed, to find out if they had any questions, if they need to see or talk to a sales rep again and above all else see it they are ready to talk to a sales rep to buy. If you don’t have a system for follow up you and I both know what will most likely happen. You will hand those leads to your staff; they will call the first 5. Get 5 no’s. Throw up their hands saying these leads are junk and stuff them into the top desk drawer never to see the light of day again. “We don’t sell lists, we find customers.” Want to be a Blogger but can’t write?Try our ghost blog writing service! Howard LarsonLarson&Associates, a Division of US Telemarketing Group LLCTarget Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisitionMaking good businesses great and great businesses even better847-991-0488howard@larsonassociates.wshttp://www.larsonassociates.wshttp://larsonassociates.blogspot.comhttp://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFanshttp://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociateshttp://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarsonhttps://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix?  Call today and find out. ...read more