Marketing Automation

It seems that a lot of the problems with CRMs stem from the fact that users don't completely know what the system offers, or how to obtain that information. If you're coming in through an authorized reseller partner or consultant of the vendor, that helps the lines of communication to be much more open and convenient, but still, this does raise the following point. If we are to get the most out of our investment in CRM, we must not only know which features are available, but also how to use them. And that's the subject of our article today.

This article will focus on understanding some of the features a good CRM program offers for marketing automation. While some CRMs do not focus too heavily on marketing automation, this is a crucial part of your relations with clients as many times it is the initial communications that you will develop with them.

So let's take it chronologically. Are you taking advantage of your CRM's web-to-lead capture? Do you have to manually enter leads instead of having them flow into your system automatically? Why is this feature such a crucial part of your marketing/sales process anyhow?

We all know that managers have a ton of work to do. They oversee the progress and success of the individuals in their sales teams; they focus on their own monthly, quarterly and yearly goals; they report their findings to upper management, and so on. For smaller companies, in addition to all the above they must play the role of system admin to their sales software, which is usually a CRM. Anything that we can do to minimize the work they manually have to do, the better.

If you haven't already, make sure you take advantage of your system's web-to-lead capture. This can result in hours per week saved, which adds up to days per quarter saved.

Once your leads are in the system, now you'll need your marketing people to send out messages to your leads and warm them up. Are you doing this manually? Is there a dedicated marketing person who selects a group of people every Tuesday and Thursday and sends them literature via email and other marketing collateral? If so...why?

Your CRM should have an email automation feature. With this feature, you can automate all your outgoing emails to prospects, based on the date that you first enter them into a certain track. Thereby, you ensure that they receive emails at specified intervals, and should they respond you could pause their participation in the track at anytime. Fast, easy, and best of all, it's all automatic! And that marketing person who does everything manually can spend his or her time on more revenue generating opportunities.

Now that your leads are on an automated drip marketing track, you'll also want to keep track of who is reading your emails, how many times they've opened the email, thus tracking the interest level and purchase potential. This is a crucial feature that you'll need to differentiate your A level leads from your B and C leads and turn those A leads into sales quickly.

And finally, you or your marketing team will want to make sure that you're getting the most bang out of your marketing bucks, so make sure you utilize the system's marketing reporting features. If your system is built for campaign management and analysis, you'll be able to quickly report on the ROI of all your marketing campaigns and activities and ensure that your company is spending its marketing dollars wisely.

Story' Marketing

People love a good story. This is a cold hard fact of life. This, however, is not a new phenomenon. Anthropologists and historians believe that the art of storytelling has been with us since the beginning of human existence. In fact, much of humanity has been defined by stories.

This fact holds true today as well. When you want to relay the events of last night's hot date to your best friend, how are you going to do it? Are you going to blather off a list bullet points about the evening? That's not very likely. Chances are you will tell a story about how the date went.

We can use stories to talk about the past or the future. Stories help us to relate to one another in a powerful way.

When it comes to marketing your business, there is tremendous power in your story. In fact, as a small business owner, one of the greatest assets that you have in your marketing efforts is your story.

Your story will help to humanize you and is the ultimate tool for differentiation in a vast sea of similar products and services.

Employ "my story" marketing by being willing to let your audience know about the origins of your business in real depth. You can outline what led you to be a business owner in the first place. You can let your audience know more about who you are as a person and what your values are.

All of these things help people to lower their guards and see you as a human being. You wont just seem like another company looking to separate their money from their wallets.

"My story" marketing will allow you to lay the foundation for your audience to trust you. This is very important. Think about it. Lets say you are looking to buy a car and you go online to so some research on two different dealership websites. On the first is just a page that shows some pictures of cars. The 'About Us' section has some generic info that about when the dealership was founded and how many cars they sold last year.

The second site has the exact same pictures of the exact same cars. But in their 'About Us' section, they tell the story of how the dealership came into existence. It talks about the owner and his family. It lists the values and mission statement of the business with their views on the importance of treating the customer like family.

Who is more likely to get you business? It's a no brainer, right?

The best part about 'my story' marketing is that no one business is alike. Every one has its own distinct story. Put together your story and have somewhere online where you display it. This can be your website, a blog, a Facebook fan page or even a YouTube Channel. Videos work extremely well for conveying you story because your audience will not only hear your story but also see you delivering it. This resonates even more strongly with people.

You may not think you have a compelling story but that doesn't matter. As long as it is yours, it will be effective.

My Story Marketing is a VERY useful and valuable tool to put in use in your own marketing system. Start utilizing it today.

Are you looking for increased success in marketing your small business?

Professional Videographer

In some cases, you may need to do a presentation and you only have a few days to do it. You might think that the best thing to do would be find someone who owns a camera, or if you know someone who knows a thing or two about using the camera and hire that person to do the video presentation for you. This could be an option, if your only goal is to take videos of an office party or celebration.The fact of the matter is, if you want to have a video presentation that will surely impress your colleagues, especially your boss, you need to have more than that.

The person you decide to hire might not know as much as you thought he does, and just knowing when to press the record button is just not enough. Hiring a cameraman would be your best option, someone who knows what to do and is an expert at documenting video.

There's nothing wrong with being a beginner in videography, but when you need your video to look like it's been professionally done, then you need a professional to do the job. Someone who has the skills and the experience.

If you are a cameraman or a videographer, it is not enough to just know how to operate a camera. You should also know how to listen to a director and follow his directions so that the outcome would be better. In case that there is no director, a good videographer should know how to best use his camera to tell a story. Cameramen are also storytellers, and the means they use to tell the story is video.

A good videographer considers many aspects about filming first, like framing, using artificial or natural light and optimizes as much as he can about the video to create the best shot possible. Knowing his angles and how he will position himself for the shoot is also a very important aspect. Whatever the situation may be, a professional videographer knows how to handle his camera and make the situation work for him.

If you take a look at a home video and compare it to having a video that's professionally done, then you would realize that hiring a professional to do the job is really worth it.