By Steven Kilgore October 27, 2010
Only because there is no Zero star option. No response and no goods after nearly 6 months ...read more
By Researcher July 01, 2010
Not Recommended. Very Bad Experience with this Used Lab Equipment Dealer. Will Make False Claims and Does Not Honor Warranty Contract without Legal Action. ...read more
Caution, sarcasm ahead! Are B2B marketers insane? I don’t think so, but if insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, then I’ve got a few candidates for the nut house. I actually saw this Request a Quote form on a technology vendor’s website this week: Do you see any problems with this form? How about “A representative will contact you within 24 hours to help you with your request.” 24 HOURS?….Really? Thanks! I appreciate your fast follow-up! What they don’t seem to realize, or care about, is that I’m busy and in 5 minutes I’ll beGONE….never to return. Ok, so the response time thing is an issue, a BIG issue, but it’s not the only one that makes this form ineffective. The fact is, these types of forms have been in existence for 10+ years and everyone’s onto the game. When’s the last time YOU filled one of these out? Come on, be honest. Here are several compelling reasons why these outdated methods need to be relegated to the trash heap. High-quality prospects rarely fill these out because: they know this is just going to send an email to a sales person and they are not ready for that discussion they fear their information will be pushed into an evil marketing automation system and they will be spammed relentlessly by mindless downstream “lead nurturing” systems they know they can easily find pricing elsewhere via Google without have a sales person call them (see below) sales people rarely respond in a reasonable time with anything of use (averages over 27 hours) ….and more So, why would good prospects bother? Most don’t. It’s no wonder marketing folks using these types of forms spend their days fretting over how to justify the marketing budget….they are wasting dollars continuously! Precious marketing dollars are being spent on every demand creation method imaginable with the primary goal being to drive traffic to the corporate website. Once there, highly-qualified visitors run into forms like this…and vanish without a trace. I’m ranting a bit today because I’ve had at least 3 discussions in the past week with technology marketers about using our service. Each one has said the same basic thing, “We already have an RFQ form on our site that goes directly to sales, why do we need EchoQuote?” To answer that question I always run this test: Go to Google’s keyword analysis tool and type in “<YourCompanyName> pricing” and “<YourCompanyName> price” and see what kind of results you get. Are people searching for pricing for your company or products? (Also try the test with your competitors names…maybe there is an opportunity to capture some of the prospects looking for pricing for their solutions.) If people are leaving your site to search for pricing, you have a problem and we need to talk. What we will recommend is enhancing your existing Request for Quote page with something that looks like this: Notice that we didn’t replace the Request for Quote form, we just moved it to “Option 2 – Full-Service Request”. In addition, we’ve added a more appealing “Option 1 – Self-Service Request”. Which works better? Interestingly, the Self-Service option will typically convert 3-5 times as many prospects as the Full-Service Form. To understand why this happens, you may want to check out one of our client’s blog posts, “The Psychology of Automated Price Quotes Can Boost Sales Leads 250% to 300%”. So where does the Self-Service Button GO? Well, there is an intelligent back-end system waiting to give you exactly what you want, a budgetary quote, as long as the sales team approves it. The automation makes it fast meaning most requests are handled within 5 minutes…beats 24 hours, eh? If you want to really see how it works, you can price our service yourself using our EchoQuote™ tool.. Move On So can we all just please agree that these relics from the last century need to be put out to pasture for good? Resource: LeadLifter.com . ...read more
By LeadLifter November 18, 2011
Are you spending more marketing dollars and getting less results? Has the quality of your leads worsened to the point where the sales team complains? If so, this article is for you. Excerpt “If you want a lead, give something of value. Want better leads? Give better value!“ Disclaimer: I found this article so compelling that I decided to post it here but the full credit goes to Brad Fallon. Brad is the author of Creating Customers Out of Thin Air: Secrets of Online Marketing for Offline Businesses. You can buy it in bookstores, but he’ll give you the pdf free if you ask nicely: brad@mysmartsuite.com Brad is the founder of Smart Marketing, Inc. and the Smart Suite, an interactive marketing technology platform. His latest project is building the leading pure research laboratory for investigating search engine techniques and theories: www.seoresearch.comWhy Most B2B Websites Don’t Work The problem with so many web sites today is that they are built around an advertising model – but the wrong kind. As a result, business owners are throwing away money hand over fist when they could be pulling in tons of qualified, interested prospects and customers. If you want your web site to capture more quality leads, this article is for you. You see, there are two types of advertising, but only one kind of web site. Unfortunately, most web site designers don’t seem to know this. Branding vs. Direct Response In the traditional advertising world, branding advertising is the kind you normally see on TV and in magazines. The company shows a picture (hopefully something cute that gets attention) and tells something about the product. Then, the next time you are in the store, you are supposed to remember this product among all its competitors because of the more favorable impression in your mind about this particular brand. This is the kind of advertising for big companies with big advertising budgets and money to burn. Ad agencies love this kind of advertising for three reasons. First, there is zero accountability for the ad creators. Usually, there is no way of knowing if the advertising ‘worked.” Second, these ads are great (for the ad agency, not the business owner) because if they don’t work, the answer is usually to “run more ads.” After all, they say, a person needs to be exposed to your ad seven times in order to create an impression. Since agencies get paid based on the amount of media bought, this works out well for them. Finally, these are the kinds of ads that win awards. Ad agencies don’t win their industry awards based on how well the ad works, but how creative and original it is. Unfortunately, ad agency awards don’t bring in new customers or pay your bills. Direct Response The other type of advertising is direct response advertising. Direct response ads are completely different. First, they are 100% measurable. The ad always asks the prospect to take a specific direct action, either to buy or to request more information (and therefore become a lead). In all cases, the results of each individual ad are tracked and you know with certainty how well the ads are working. Second, direct response ads are designed to create action on the part of the prospect. Whether the intended action is to make a purchase, request more information, buy an entry-level product, or otherwise become a lead, the only thing that matters is how many ad viewers respond. This is exactly the same thing with a web site. In other words, the purpose of a web site is one thing and one thing only: To capture as many leads as possible as a percentage of all site visitors. Web sites should work like direct response ads Unfortunately, too many web sites look like they are competing for a design award – at the expense of making sales. The rest of this article will help you improve the successful response rate of your web site by looking at it from the perspective of a direct response marketer. As a result, you can start capturing more leads and making more sales – without spending another dime. In fact, more than half the battle is in understanding the right questions to ask. “How can I make my web site better?” is not the right question. Neither is “How can I improve my design?” On the contrary, once you start asking the right questions, you’re halfway there. We could spend a week on the fine points of headlines and calls to action and the placement of the offer on the web page. But all that is secondary to the basic philosophy of what you are trying to accomplish. Once you know what you’re trying to do, you’ll spend more time thinking about how to do it – and measuring everything you try. And your results will keep getting better and better. So, given the fact that you want to capture more leads on your web site, what direct response techniques can you quickly implement to make that happen? Now you may think there are 14 million different things you can do on a web site that could make a difference (and you’re right). So what do you focus on to make the most difference as quickly as possible? Simple. Focus on the characteristics of all direct response ads. As we go through each one, be thinking of what changes you can make on your web site to improve each one of these areas. And remember, one of the keys to direct response marketing is to test. You don’t have to guess perfectly every time. But as you continually test one improvement against another, you’re measured results will continually get better and better. Step One: Focus on getting a response With far too many web sites, you can just look at them and know they are not capturing as many leads as possible. How? Because the web site does not even invite a response – at all. In other words, many web site owners seem to want to limit themselves to only talking to people who absolutely, positively want to buy from them right then. “Are you ready to buy now? If not, forget it; I’m busy.” On the contrary, the web site should invite the prospect to take a small step to get more information and begin a new relationship. The good news is that many people are using the web to research products and services. But they may be very early in their buying cycle. The problem is that if they make it to your web site and they are “just researching,” there’s no guarantee they will ever be back. Indeed, most of them won’t remember your web site at all a few days later. Sure, some web site visitors will pick up the phone and call right then, or fill in a form, or send an email. But many of them are not ready for that step just yet. They need more information first – don’t make them leave your web site to go get it! So your challenge is to capture their contact information (especially their email address) while they are on your web site the first time, and get permission to send them more information. Then you can (automatically) follow-up with them by email (for free), providing more information and building a relationship over time – until they are ready to buy. This seems obvious when you think about it, so why do so many web sites blow it and not even try to capture email addresses? Probably because they are used to traditional “branding advertising,” and they build their web site to match this model. It’s probably worth noting that many web designers are from graphic design and traditional ad agency backgrounds. So this kind of design is what the web designers are generally used to making – a nice looking ad with a cute picture to capture attention, and a phone number at the bottom. If they’re interested, they’ll call. You on the other hand, should work with your web designer to create a direct response model web site that focuses solely on capturing leads. If yours is an e-commerce site, some will buy right then. But in either case, more will buy after they visit the site – if you capture their information while you have the chance. Step Two: Write a Killer Headline In direct response marketing, the headline is always the most important part of the ad. It’s called “the ad for the ad,” because this is what gets more or fewer people to actually read your offer. In most direct response ads, 80 percent of all the people who see the headline will not even read the ad. So the headline has to be as strong as possible – and it makes all the difference. Even with tiny Google AdWords, changing the title can affect the click-thru rate by 100% or more. Like any direct response ad (an ad that wants someone to do something), the headline on your web page is key. You want the site visitor to stop surfing, stay on your site, read about your company and take action by giving you their email address. When you start testing things to improve response rates, the headline is a great place to start because the headline can make the biggest difference in the success of the sales letter or ad. Experienced headline writers know that merely changing the headline can affect the conversion rate of the exact same ad by several thousand percent. On an average sales letter, the best copywriters may spend fully half their time just writing and thinking about different headlines. It’s that important. That being said, how does this relate to, say, your B2B software company’s high-tech-oriented web site. Simple; have a great headline on the home page to make people want to learn more about your product. Once you realize how this works, you will be amazed at how many company’s web sites don’t even tell you what they do for a living on the home page, much less make you want to learn more about what they can do for you. When a prospect lands on your home page, the pretty design isn’t what captures their attention. It’s the headline. All the web sites that don’t even have one are simply wrong. Don’t make this mistake. And don’t make the mistake of using a label instead of a headline. A headline isn’t just a “heading” that tells the name of your company, or describes your product, or (worse) says “Welcome to our web site.” A headline is an overt benefit statement that tells your visitor what’s in it for them. And please, no platititudes, generalities or mere features. Your headline should be a statement of the unique benefits that only your company can say – your unique selling proposition. Step Three: Write killer copy that tells your story – conveniently Without getting into an entire book on copywriting, here are a few points to keep in mind to convert more site visitors into leads on their first visit. First, think of your web site copy as a 24/7 sales person sitting right in front of your prospect whenever they want to listen. Like any good sales presentation, you need to talk about the prospect and the benefits of your product for her. Not about yourself, your company, or your features. They only care about their needs and how you can help them. Use the word “you” a lot, not “we.” Take about benefits, not features. And make it easy and convenient for them to listen to (read) your presentation. This means don’t make them click all over the place to read your sales message. It’s amazing how many web sites get the prospects right where they want them, and then make them go somewhere else after just a couple of points. And then go somewhere else. And then go somewhere else. Stop that! If you had a 30 minute sales presentation with a decision maker, would you stop every five minutes and say, “Well Bob, that’s a little about how we can lower your production costs twenty percent. Now let’s move into the conference room right across the hall and we’ll talk about our excellent warranty.” After making him get up and move every five minutes, I think the prospect is likely to say, “No, I think I’ve got the picture. Thank you very much for the excellent presentation. We’ll be in touch.” Silly, right? Then why do so many web site stop every few paragraphs and make you click somewhere else to continue? Just like the example above, this is crazy. If the prospect is going along reading your sales message, he either likes it or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, he’ll stop and go do something else anyway. You’re not any better by hiding the stuff he might like on another page. And if he’s liking it, why in the world would you want to stop every couple minutes and say, “Are you still interested? Really? Ok, then are you interested enough to click over here and wait for another page to load, find the place to start reading, skim through the fluff at the beginning and start reading again? You are? Great, just click here.” Every single time you make him stop and think about whether he really needs to hear any more your’re going to lose a certain percentage of readers. So try to do this as few times as possible. Just so you know, there is no rule that a page can’t scroll down. In fact, it’s a lot easier on the reader to scroll down than to continually load other pages, figure out where to start reading, and jump in again. Again, we’re not talking about using the web site to do everything for everyone. We’re talking about how to capture more leads as a percentage of all site visitors. One way to do that is to refrain from continually interrupting them in the middle of your sales presentation. And don’t be afraid to put your message on the home page – for two reasons. One, most links to your site will point to the home page, so why make someone have to go somewhere to get your sales message? They’re already there; take advantage of that. Two, it will help with your search engine optimization. As other sites link to your home page, the more copy (and keyword search phrases) that you have on that page, the better. Finally, if you are using pay-per-click campaign to drive traffic to your web site, then you definitely want your sales message to be on the exact page that you are driving them to. You’re paying to get them there, so have a great headline to make them start reading, a very strong first paragraph, and enough information to get your message (and become a lead) without having to click somewhere else. Step Four: Use plenty of testimonials, and then use some more One thing that direct response copywriters understand is the power of testimonials. When people don’t know you, and you’re trying to get them to do something, there’s nothing better than third-party endorsements to do your selling for you, increase your credibility, and make the prospect feel like they’ll be in good company by doing business with you. So include a “Testimonials” page on your web site. But don’t make the same mistake I saw on a large software company’s web site last week. Where they were talking about the features and benefits of their product, they had a link that said “Testimonials.” It’s good that they had them, but remember Step Three, above. Don’t make them click around to see them. Put at least some of them right there on the same page so the prospect can read them and get the full effect without having to jump through another hoop. And put some on the home page. For getting strangers to take action, showing testimonials from other customers just like them is one of the most important things you can do. Don’t hide them! At least show one or two on the home page, and then have a link to see more. Step Five: Don’t rely on your prospects to figure out anything – use a strong call to actionfor everything on your site. One of the most important things in getting a prospect to take action, whether it’s to sign a contract or subscribe to an email list, is also the most important. You have to ask. Every sales person learns this in Sales 101 and it applies just as much to web site sales copy. Likewise, people that write direct response copy for a living know the importance of the “Call to Action.” For example, you’ll never see a direct response ad that just lists the phone number at the bottom. I mean, if they’re interested, they’ll see the number and know to call right? Wrong. Copywriters who want their prospects to take action always, always, always tell them exactly what to do every step of the way. Listing your phone number (or your email address) is not enough. Check out this list: Get a Self-Service Quote Right Now Call us right now at 555-1234. Call us 24 hours a day at 555-1234 – operators are waiting for your call right now. The first 50 callers get a free ____. Call us right now at 555-1234. For more information, fill out this card completely, and drop it in any mailbox. You get the idea. But for something that’s as proven as the concept of the importance of strong calls to action, apparently few web site owners believe it. On most web sites, the best you have is a tab that says “Contact.” And you’re lucky if you don’t have to search too hard for it. Here’s three simple rules for almost any web site: Display your contact information on every page. The top right, or the left or right-hand column is a good place. You never know when a prospect is going to get mildly interested enough to want more information. Make it easy. Make all of your contact information mini calls to action. Don’t just show your email address and think they’ll figure out what to do with it. Say, “For free information about lowering your costs twenty percent, just email us here.” Don’t even think they’ll know what to do with your phone number. Say “Call us 8-5 Pacific Time at 555-1234. After hours? Submit this form and we’ll get right back to you as soon as possible.” Always give them at least three ways to contact you – however they are most comfortable. They can call, or email, or fill out a convenient form/quote request.Step Six: Consider your quid pro quo. If you want a lead, give something of value. Want more leads? Give more value! A certain percentage of people that come to your site may be desperate for what you sell right now. They’ll pick up the phone and call. That’s great, but if that’s all you get you’re missing out big time. Many people are using the Internet to research products and vendors, often in the very early stages. One of the secrets to capturing more leads online is to consider the prospects that are not red hot right now. The whole idea is to capture their email address now, and follow-up with all of them over an extended period of time until they become hot down the road. Then, you’ll be right there to help them. But only if you captured their contact information way back when they were only mildly interested. In order to get them to give you their email address, you have to give them something – a quid pro quo. And it’s important to think about who we’re talking about. Often, it’s prospects in the early stages of research, so what do they want? Information. Research. Knowledge. Examples include: <strong>Self-Service Budgetary Quote – our favorite! </strong>White papersFree reportsCritical check listsQuick start guidesProduct demonstrationsFree trialsIndustry surveys Of course, you can give away other things as well. “Download our free trial and automatically enter to win…” Conclusion: Think like an infomercial, not a beer ad If you work for a company that has plenty of money to burn on cute and funny ads, I’m not knocking it. The world can always use better beer commercials. But if you need to get a return on every marketing dollar invested, there’s no better place to start than the Web. Through search engines, you can find prospects who are not only in your target market, but are actively researching what you sell. But the key word is “researching.” They’re not always ready to buy right now. However, if you can get their contact information now, and follow-up, you will be right there when they become a hot prospect down the road. And unlike your competitors, you’ll already have developed a relationship. In order to get in the door first, be there early and think like a direct response marketer. You’re spending a certain amount on each ad. Is it paying for itself or not? Track everything. Test everything. And use proven direct response principles to convert as many web site visitors as possible into qualified, interested, red hot prospects. About the author Brad Fallon is the author of Creating Customers Out of Thin Air: Secrets of Online Marketing for Offline Businesses. You can buy it in bookstores, but he’ll give you the pdf free if you ask nicely: brad@mysmartsuite.com Brad is the founder of Smart Marketing, Inc. and the Smart Suite, an interactive marketing technology platform. His latest project is building the leading pure research laboratory for investigating search engine techniques and theories: www.seoresearch.com Thanks Brad, awesome article. www.LeadLifter.com ...read more
By LeadLifter October 24, 2011
We’re starting a new company from scratch (it is actually a re-branding of a company that has a successful 5-year history) and are going to document over the next 30-45 days all of the marketing and social media activities we perform. Want to come along for the ride? First, we need you to follow Leadlifter on twitter because that is where we are going to post subsequent weekly updates for this social media “diary”. For any marketing related activity, you need a goal. Ours was simple; pull 10,000 new, unique visitors to the LeadLifter website in 60 days. Our first task was to come up with a new company name. We, like many companies, have evolved into a broader company but still maintained the name of our original software tool. Over time the tool name (EchoQuote, which is appropriate for our customer’s customers) began to cause us issues because it did not resonate with our target clients - B2B Technology Marketers. The new name itself, LeadLifter, was actually conceived and adopted via a LinkedIn Discussion Group. This is truly an example of using social media to start and build a new company presence. The 4-Week Social Media Presence Plan Once “LeadLifter” was chosen, we turned our focus on how to blast onto the social media scene with this new brand. A bit of planning was in order and we came up with the following: Week 1Establish a Marketing Protocol (MP) document to glue all of our public messaging around our core themeEstablish a virtual “person” that would represent our company’s social media team in a cohesive manner Week 2Setup all of the major social media channels using our virtual person and marketing protocol document Week 3Accelerate our visibility by establishing many two-way connections on twitter, facebook, linkedin et al Week 4Drive increased following by increasing content delivered via all channels Simple Enough, eh? Let’s get started! Week 1 – Establish a Marketing Protocol document Before blasting ahead with our social media frenzy, we need to be rooted in some core concepts. During week 1 we hired Michael Sparks of Inspire Communication to help us define our core marketing messaging using his Information Design methods. He was fantastic! Here’s what we came up with and formalized in our Marketing Protocol document: Company Name (via Linkedin discussion): LeadLifterTagline: “Maximize Marketing. Boost Sales.” What LeadLifter Does LeadLifter™ maximizes your marketing efforts and supplies your sales team with qualityleads, fast. Key concepts: • Maximize marketing• Boost sales Our solutions maximize your marketing teamʼs efforts and supply your sales team with quality leads, fast. We do this by helping B2B marketers capture more high-quality leads from their existing websites quickly and inexpensively. We then help deliver those leads directly to the sales team for quick response, shortening the sales cycle and increasing sales. What Makes LeadLifter Unique LeadLifter™ is designed so you see immediate and measurable results from yourmarketing efforts. Key concepts: • Immediate results• Measurable results LeadLifter™ is designed for companies that want to see immediate and measurable results from their marketing efforts. Unlike other marketing agencies and services that can take months to deliver mediocre results, our tools and services are tactical and measurable. Many of our clients see an increase in measurable sales funnel activity from day one. LeadLifter™ solutions fit seamlessly into your existing marketing efforts enabling you to maintain and optimize your marketing edge. LeadLifter™ solutions deliver leads, with a quality and speed, that will amaze your sales team. Measurement for the CEO LeadLifter™ provides measurability that executives demand. Key concepts: • Measurable results LeadLifter™ solutions provide the measurability that executives demand, to support the value of their marketing efforts. No other solution has a higher Return On Marketing Investment (ROMI) leading to a high Return On Investment (ROI), and the results are supported with real-world numbers! Who We Help LeadLifter™ specializes in helping small to medium sized technology companies withfast growth expectations. Key concepts: • Small to medium Sized• Technology companies• Professional sales team• Fast growth expectations We specialize in helping small to medium sized technology companies with fast growth expectations. Our clients sell complex products and/or services that require professional “sales to end-user” interaction to close. Our typical client has between 20 and 500 employees with annual revenue between $5 Million and $200 Million. Contact us to learn more and see if we can help your marketing fill your sales funnel! Who We Are A team of B2B professionals experienced in marketing and selling complex, hightechnologyproducts and services. Key concepts: • Sales, Marketing and IT professionals• Experienced in high-tech B2B and government• Shorten sales cycles• Improve margins We are a team of B2B Sales, Marketing and Information Technology (IT) professionals experienced in what it takes to market and sell complex, high-technology solutions to commercial and Government organizations. We develop LeadLifter™ solutions to help technology companies maximize their marketing, shorten their sales cycles and improve their margins. About Us LeadLifter™ helps companies in their marketing and sales efforts by converting websitetraffic into high-quality leads. Key concepts: • Revolutionizing marketing• Boosting sales• Converting web traffic to sales• Tailored solution• Measurable results LeadLifter™ is revolutionizing how companies maximize their marketing efforts and boost their sales. LeadLifter™ helps companies in their marketing and sales efforts by converting website traffic into high-quality leads. We combine software, marketing and sales best practices, and our own secret sauce to typically generate double-digit conversion rates for our clients. We know that every company is unique. Thatʼs why we take the time to get to know our clients, their business, and their target audience. The result: A tailored solution that produces measurable results! LeadLifter™ (as EchoQuote™) was founded in 2007 after realizing two very important voids in the market: • There were no effective inbound lead generation tools on the market for B2Bbusinesses with professional sales teams • Most companies were producing only negligible ROI from their online marketingefforts, an average of 4% conversion rate, missing opportunities! Since then, LeadLifter™ has created multiple lead generation solutions and helped organizations of all sizes turn their websites into conversion machines! END OF MARKETING PROTOCOL Week 1 (continued) – Establish a virtual representative for our social media team With the Marketing Protocol in place, it was time to begin setting up the social media channels. We had the right messaging for the required areas but there was a problem. How could we be consistent with a standard login/password across all our channels over an extended period of time. You’ve got to plan on the mobility of today’s associates that may join or leave your social media team. If you use an individual’s name for all of your channel setup(s) you may find yourself lost if that person leaves. So, we came up with “Max“. Max was derived from our tagline Maximize Marketing but interestingly enough the name could be interpreted as a “person”. We wanted that personal connection and Max has a nice ring to it. We created an email address for Max at LeadLifter.com and added email aliases for our social media team members so we could all cover each other. The stage was set to begin our social media channel setup. We had our Market messaging standardized and our universal “max” signon ready to go. Next week we will explain how we setup our channels, hope you can join us! If you haven’t done so already, we need you to follow Leadlifter on twitter because that is where we are going to post subsequent weekly updates for this social media “diary”. Thanks! ...read more
By LeadLifter September 28, 2011
Biotechnology is an area within biology where technology and engineering are used to study living organisms. Methods used in biotechnology are also used to manufacture and create biological products. These biological products are used in the creation of medication and to conduct research in genetic en... ...read more
Botany is the study of plants and their environment. This is one the most popular areas of study for science fair projects. Usually, these experiments require few supplies, and they make a perfect introduction to the scientific method for young students. As a result of the broad nature of this field o... ...read more