Email Marketing – Whose business are you actually promoting?

July 9th, 2011

Maybe it’s because I’m such a stickler in branding and protecting my client’s business image that I am amazed that over 400,000 businesses use Constant Contact as their email service, and that number keeps growing.

Constant Contact has done a brilliant job promoting their email service using TV and radio commercials to expand marketshare within the industry. But the single greatest marketing device that has had the most impact on their phenomenal growth is the Constant Contact icon that appears at the bottom of every email that goes out via Constant Contact. This simple device has enabled Constant Contact to become the 800 lb. gorilla in email marketing – allowing the company to go public in October 2007 and reaching a market cap of over a $1 billion earlier this year.

One of the most brilliant marketing ideas I ever seen is the Constant Contact icon that appears at the bottom of every email that goes out through Constant Contact.

When email marketing was relatively new, I was a Constant Contact customer.

Why?

Well even though there were numerous email marketing companies, I had little experience with this new medium and found it difficult to determine which features I needed and what differentiated one email provider from the rest. So I went ahead and did what many people do when trying something new – I went with the company I had heard about and was most comfortable with. (FYI, that’s part of what branding is all about.)

However, I was annoyed that the Constant Contact icon with its “Try It Free” sales message appeared in the footer of my eNewletters. Here I was providing free advertising for Constant Contact, yet had to pay them for the privilege.

Who’s got it better than that?!
It’s like how the IRS requires employers to collect payroll taxes from their employees, yet doesn’t give them a dime for the bookkeeping, overhead and administrative costs incurred.
Why couldn’t I put my own company logo at the bottom of the emails I send out?

“Can’t be done!” was their reply.

Well it turns out it can be done, by iContact, a competitor to Constant Contact. I immediately moved my email account over to the very accommodating people at iContact.

And since I am a marketing agency, they set me up a program in which I can provide email marketing services for my clients at a price less than what clients could receive direct. This allows me to offer my clients professional oversight of their email marketing, while they do as much of the direct interaction with their account as they feel comfortable with: updating their database, tracking email responses, creating new emails newsletters and promotions – ALL with templates branded with their own logo, and not anyone else’s.

I’m happy. Clients are happy. It’s a win-win!

Tags: branding, constant contact, Email Marketing, icontact
Posted in Email Marketing, Marketing, Uncategorized | Comment »

Getting Your Aviation Business Ready for Primetime – Step 1

June 20th, 2011

When to take your aviation to primetime. As a marketing consultant to the aviation industry, many times my clients realize they need to step up their marketing to a more professional level – in other words, they are ready for “primetime.”

Step 1: “Houston, we have a problem.”

What prompts this realization? Usually, it’s the acknowledgment that the status-quo no longer works:

1. Their past promotional efforts has been somewhat effective, but they have a strong suspicion they can get a better return on money invested.

2. Realization that the usual referral, or word-of-mouth business is not going to sustain and grow their business in the future.

3. Opportunities lost to the competition that is doing a better job marketing themselves.

4. They require professional structure and guidance in their marketing efforts to take this burden off current management.

5. They realize that sales is not marketing – and the best sales people usually are not the best marketing people.

6. Their brand image is dated, sales message ineffective, and their current marketing does not represent their company they way that they would like.

The best solution is to hire an experienced VP of Marketing with aviation experience and a passion for this industry. The cost of this marketing pro, with an assistant, office space, benefits, etc. can easily exceed six figures. Usually, that expense is far beyond the reach of most mid-sized firms.

Another alternative is to hire a marketing consultant with aviation experience. (I happen to know an excellent one, if, by chance, you need a referral!)

Tags: Aviation Marketing, aviation marketing budget, growing an aviation company, when to change marketing strategy
Posted in Airport Marketing, General Aviation, Marketing | Comment »

Getting Your Aviation Business Ready for Primetime: Step 2

May 12th, 2011

Spending $ to make $ for your aviation business goals

Question: How much money should you spend on marketing?

Answer: The least amount to achieve your business goals.

Response: Goals? What goals?

You should know what goals I’m talking about: the one-month, twelve-month, five-year sales projections that you and your staff are committed to reaching. So, if all goes well, in a few years you’re going to sell your business for a huge profit and retire to Tahiti.

Step 2 – You have to spend money to make money.

To do so, you’ll need clear and objective sales goals for your aviation business.

Without goals you’re flying without a magnetic compass – let alone a GPS, so start developing sales goals and track them religiously. Once you start tracking sales, you should be able to determine approximately how much money it takes to get a new customer.

Let’s do some math with a basic blueprint for developing an aviation business sales & marketing budget.

If you secured, for example, ten customers last year that generated $10,000 in revenue ($100,000 in gross sales), and after deducting all expenses, salary and overhead, your net profit would be $1,000 per customer ($10,000 total).

However, by carefully tracking your marketing and sales expenses, you may determine it costs $1,000 to get each new customer (thus a $10,000 marketing budget). But after deducting cost of sales and marketing, which, unfortunately, ate up all your profit, the results are discouraging.

But let’s look forward to this year.

GOAL: To increase sales by 30%, requiring you to secure 13 new customers.

So how much do you need? That’s right, $13,000.

Here’s how to get the $13,000:

You have $10,000 from last year (which of course you’ll roll over to this year). Plus you have ten new customers from last year, AND because you provide such excellent service and value, you estimate you’ll retain five who will produce about the same revenue as last year. Because there were no sales or marketing costs for these repeat customers, your business realized $5,000 of additional gross profit, of which $3,000 will be allocated to this year’s marketing budget, giving you the necessary $13,000 budget you need – AND your business nets a nice $2,000 profit for this year.

Can you be this disciplined in establishing your marketing budget for your aviation business?

As you can see, if you keep growing your business and are diligent tracking new customer acquisition costs, you can and will grow your business quite nicely year over year.

Tags: developing aviation marketing plan, how to determine marketing budget, spending marketing dollars
Posted in Marketing, Strategic Planning | Comment »

Getting Your Aviation Business Ready for Primetime: Step 3

March 2nd, 2011

A key ingredient in growing your aviatin business is developing a strategic marketing plan.

A key ingredient in growing your aviation business is developing a strategic marketing plan.

Step 3, Do you have a plan, Stan?

Developing a strategic marketing plan for your aviation business is one of the most important steps a company takes to reach business goals and attain long-term growth and success, yet it is many times ignored.

An effective marketing plan supports a company’s overall business goals and objectives, with detailed marketing strategies and tactics answering the essential questions of Who? Why? What? Where? When? How? and How Much?

Who? Who is the “situation analysis” of your specific marketplace, including company background, products and/or services and the company’s mission. This also identifies key prospects by distinct market segments (Who are they? How many? Where are they located? What are their needs and values? What are their buying motives? etc.) Who also addresses marketplace issues such as: Who are your competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses in comparison to your company? What trends, issues and opportunities exist in the marketplace, and what strategic options are available in which to benefit from them.

Why? Why focuses on your company’s specific goals and objectives, and what role marketing will play in achieving them. The best goals are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, with a Timeline for achieving them.)

What? What is the “game plan” through which marketing objectives are achieved. This determines the best marketing strategies to be used. The key aspect here is company positioning: the key benefit or promise your firm delivers; how your company is currently perceived by customers, and how it should be perceived; and how your company differentiates itself from competitors. It also forms the basis of the creative sales message that will be the foundation of your marketing.

When? When is the marketing timeline: the chronology and deadlines for meeting each task, by what date, and by whom.

How? How is the actual implementation or action plan. It specifies which marketing tools, tactics and media to use, along with timing and weight. This is where most creative work is done: advertising created, news releases distributed, brochures developed, trade shows attended, digital media created, etc.

How Much? How much refers to the budget that is necessary to fully implement your market program, and how to best allocate funds for each tactic.

10 Benefits of a strategic marketing plan:

1. Encourages a thorough review of all factors that impact success for your business, and brings to light

2. opportunities and pitfalls often overlooked by “winging it.”

3. Provides a powerful direction and long-range view to minimize impulsive and costly decisions.

4. Stimulates optimum use of marketing budget and resources.

5. Provides an accurate market-driven foundation on which to build operating plans.

6. Builds consensus and support with internal staff and departments.

7. Fosters coordination and consolidation of efforts; maximizes efficiency and effectiveness.

8. Empowers team members to take action appropriate and consistent with overall company goals.

9. Facilitates an objective evaluation of past actions and results; fosters increased utilization of strengths, avoids repetition of mistakes, and indicates where improvement is necessary.

10. Clearly delineates goals, facilitates measurement, course corrections when necessary, and recognition of superior performance.

Tags: aviation marketing plan, how to write a marketing plan, writing a marketing plan
Posted in Airport Marketing, General Aviation, Marketing, Online Marketing | Comment »

Search Engine Optimization Tip #2: Don’t Delay Integrating SEO Into Your Website

February 27th, 2011

SEO lets your business get found!

Building or revamping a website can be an arduous task, as there are many aspects to address: finding a designer, choosing designs, colors, functionality, hosting options, creating content, hiring someone to write content, program, etc. Often search engine optimization is last on the list, if on that must-do list at all.

Make Search Engine Optimization a Priority

While you’re focused on getting your website up and running, don’t let SEO become a rainy-day task to be put off until later. Later may never come, and you will soon wonder why people are not visiting your new and improved site.

If an objective of your website is to drive traffic from search engines, meaning a search on Google, Yahoo, Ask or Bing culminates with your website high on the list of results, then SEO must be a mandatory part of your initial planning.

It is easy to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours developing a decent website, but what will it matter if no one can find you? Regardless of how fabulous and functional your new site is, the effort will be futile if search engines cannot index your website.

What is Indexing?

Search engines develop automated programs, called robots or spiders that crawl the web searching for content. These automated programs follow links from one web page or website to another, continuously seeking new content. When new material is discovered, the programs index, or save, all information found. Then, when a prospective customer types words or phrases into a search engine, the matching information saved is reported in the results page.

Your overriding goal should be to have your website appear first and foremost in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) the person sees on their browser.

How high your website appears in the search results depends on how relevant your website’s information is to algorithms and programming factors used to rank the comparable importance of your website within the web universe. That rank is impacted by as many as a hundred factors that search engines keep top-secret. It’d be easier obtaining the Coke recipe than cracking the search engine algorithms and programming.

7 Pitfalls to Avoid When Optimizing Your Website:

Hiring a writer who doesn’t understand SEO. Content is king. If your content doesn’t support the search terms that drive traffic to your site, you’ll end up having to rewrite the text later, costing more time and money.
Hiring a web designer who only works in Flash. Search engines cannot index content of Flash sites, regardless of how fancy, flashy and innovative they appear. This is a major disadvantage, and will probably result in your complete site being recoded in search engine friendly HTML.
Hiring a programmer who uses Ajax or other code language that search engines can’t read and don’t recognize.
Not including basic page titles, descriptions and keywords in your websites meta-tags. This is SEO 101, but you’d be amazed how many websites don’t incorporate this key information.
Going the do-it-yourself route and using free templates offered by your hosting service to build your website. Many times these use frame architecture, which again search engines can’t read.
If you’re hiring a SEO firm, check them out. Get someone reputable with proven results.
As mentioned in a previous SEO blog tip, stay away from SEO firms that promise results that seem too good to be true. They may be using use “Black Hat” SEO methods that may deliver short-term results, but cost you more in the long-run.

Tags: Aviation SEO, aviation websites, importance of search engine optimization, SEO for aviation
Posted in Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Uncategorized | Comment »

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