Speed-to-call is the largest driver of lead conversion in the first two minutes after the lead has been generated, and calls in less than a minute have a 391 percent improvement on average conversion rates. The importance in speed-to-call and response time was found to be as the main lead conversion among business-to-consumer organizations, including best-in-class financial institutions, insurance carriers and higher education providers. This research by Leads360, a provider in sales lead management software, shows that it is important for businesses to contact leads within seconds of an inquiry. Companies that provide quick responses have a large advantage over those that ...

Small businesses often times have a smaller marketing budget and need to be wise in how they spend that money. However, one area where they should not hold back money is in their website design. According to a recent survey, approximately 75 percent of web users admit to judging a website's creditability based on its website design. On average, visitors take only 50 milliseconds to make a decision on a website's visual design. Some basic web design aspects that businesses should be careful of are: Using unprofessional images and fonts Having complicated navigation Hiding important product/service information Not updating the information available on your website Bad language ...

Almost 75 percent of online retailers either have or are creating a mobile strategy, according to a Forrester Research study. Approximately 20 percent already have a fully implemented mobile strategy. "Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations," said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president, principal analyst, Forrester Research, and lead author of the report. Online retailers with mobile strategies are investing in features that support a cross-channel experience. One of the most popular features being offered is product and price ...

If you haven’t been paying attention to how your website is performing, you are losing out on valuable information. Paying attention to your web metrics can help you figure out exactly what is and isn’t working on your website. Web metrics software is easily available and can provide you a lot of information. However, it can become overwhelming if you don’t know exactly what the information is and means. Once you learn what your metrics is telling you, then you can use that data to manage your website. There are four basic ways to break down your web metrics: Traffic, Conversion, Performance, ...

We have already talked about how you can Improve Your Email Click-Through Rates With Social Media. Cross-promotional marketing efforts can help your company spread the word as you launch new marketing platforms, as well as boost follower interest. By reaching out to your leads and customers through multiple channels, you can appeal to them in a variety of ways. Here are 10 marketing strategies to maximize your cross-promotional marketing mix. Announce your new LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter accounts in your email newsletters to have readers sign up and follow you. Post links to your newsletter or blog posts on Twitter and Facebook ...

Variable Data Printing (VDP) allows companies to customize their direct mail marketing campaigns in order to provide custom content to individuals. VDP lets you change text, graphics, and images. This means you can create fully optimized direct mail campaigns that appeal to each specific person who is seeing your direct mail piece. Without customized marketing materials, it can be difficult to stand out. Personalized communication can help increase readership, a response, and return on investment. When doing a VDP direct mail marketing campaign, it is important to test the campaign against traditional static campaigns to ensure that the VDP campaign is actually ...

There are many options available to generate new leads for your business. Whether it is through direct mail marketing, search engine marketing, or online advertisements, you can find the marketing plan that works best with your company and its budget. However, if you have leads coming in, you have to make sure that you are not letting them get away. Many businesses let valuable leads get away because they do not have a process or system for managing and following up on these leads that are generated. Here are 6 ways to create a successful customer relationship management program (CRM) to help ...

Once you get a website for your company up and running, you shouldn't just forget about it. You must take some time to analyze your website, who is linking to your website, and understand the basic structure of how your website works. Google Webmaster Tools allows webmasters to see how Google is crawling and indexing your website, if there are any problems or errors, and share information to help your Google rankings. After adding your website to Google Webmaster Tools, there are 4 important areas that Google webmaster will show you: Links This are can show you all of the places that are ...

Including social media sharing options like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Digg in your email marketing messages can generate a 30% higher click-through rate than emails without a social sharing option. According to a study by GetResponse, only half of email marketers are including social media links in their emails, even though it can vastly improve the effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns. The survey found that emails that had at least one social sharing option had a 30% higher click-through rate. If they had at least 3 social sharing options, then it had a 55% click-through rate. Twitter is the most popular ...

If you haven’t been paying attention to how your website is performing, you are losing valuable information. Paying attention to your web metrics can help you figure out exactly what is and isn’t working on your website. Web metrics software is easily available and can provide you a lot of information. However, it can become overwhelming if you don’t know exactly what the information is and means. Once you learn what your metrics is telling you, then you can use that data to manage your website. There are four basic ways to break down your web metrics: Traffic, Conversion, Performance, Maintenance. Performance Once you ...

Author and online consultant Mikal Belicove outlines the potential benefits of having a corporate blog as a tool to educate customers and prospects. Business Blogging

When running an email marketing campaign, personalizing your emails for each subscriber can help improve open and response rates. However, personalization means more than just addressing the subscriber by name. According to a survey by e-Dialog, respondents showed an increased desire for more personalization by knowing what products/services they like, the offers they like, and their preference on communication. Name was the fifth highest concern, while location, age, and gender fell even further on the list. Consumers were more likely to say they opened at least half of marketing emails when senders seemed to “know me a lot.” When asked about what the types ...