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Telemarketing, Which Uncle Sam Refers To As "Direct Marketing Business Intrusion", Is Being Overhauled
From The Editor's Desk

The days of bombarding consumers with un-invited telephone sales messages without their permission may have come to an end, if there is such a thing. One thing's for certain, the rules are changing due to overwhelming consumer complaints.

For years non-legit telemarketers have abused consumers with those intrusive early morning or dinner-time automated and not-so-automated telephone sales messages and ignored do-not-call requests.   Now, everyone's going to have to pay a price for ill-fated practices that the legitimate telemarketing firms should have taken a stand against years ago.

Too late!  Thanks to the FTC's amended telephone sales rule, the "business as usual" consumer marketing landscape has changed, and telemarketers will pay a dear price for ignoring consumer do-not-call requests.

Here's the jist of the goings-on according to some recent news:
When a telemarketer calls, there's usually a few seconds of silence from the time you say hello to the beginning of the pitch. That "dead air" may now be illegal, under new telemarketing rules that were announced by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The commission detailed plans to create a national do-not-call list that will let people opt out of receiving telemarketing calls, as well as reduce the problem caused by dead air and abandoned calls that ring but aren't completed by the telemarketer.

The silent pause is caused by predictive dialers, used to automate call centers. Now, IT managers are going to have to ensure that this practice follows the new FTC rules or risk huge fines for their companies. But the rules will also simplify one aspect of management. With a national list, telemarketers will have one source of do-not-call information instead of having to collect these lists from the 28 states that have them. The FTC can impose fines of $11,000 per violation if someone on the do-not-call list is called. The FTC can also penalize companies if more than 3% of calls are abandoned per day, a rule that also imposes a record-keeping requirement on telemarketers. And if the dead air lasts longer than two seconds, a recorded message must begin stating the seller's name and telephone number.



What Is Branding And Why
Is It So Important?
By: John GumasPresident, Gumas Advertising

So what's this thing called "branding" that we hear everyone talking about? And most importantly, how important is it to you and the success of your company?   Here's the confusion - if you were to ask ten different "marketing experts" to define branding, you would get ten variations on what branding means and how to properly develop a strong brand.

Branding has nothing to do with how you perceive your company. It has everything to do with how your customers and prospects perceive your company. It is a process of differentiating yourself from your competition and making sure your target audience knows why you're different and what they can expect when doing business with you. A brand is the intangible component of your company that gives customers a compelling reason to do business with you, instead of your competition.

Sounds fairly simple, but how do you build a strong brand? Unless you have a huge marketing budget to undertake a true branding campaign, you need to take a more realistic, common sense approach to branding your company. Consider an approach that uses your existing marketing promotions, efforts and dollars to continuously contribute to your overall branding effort.

Branding includes every aspect of your business and is developed directly from your customers' and prospects' experiences with your company. The following are what we consider to be some of the most important elements to the branding process:

Corporate Identity
Let's get the most basic requirement out of the way first. All of the materials and messaging (including PR) your company produces must be consistent. This includes your company and product logos, ads, Web site, brochures and other collateral materials, and anything else that delivers your message to your targeted market.

From a visual perspective, there should be a distinctive creative style to everything you create. From a messaging perspective, keep your message simple, unique, and consistent. Try not to stray off course.

Corporate Philosophy
Here's where it gets a little deeper. Developing a true brand is much more than creating ads and Web sites with a similar look and message. Branding is a comprehensive system of developing a corporate philosophy that translates into everything you do. What's it like to do business with you? From the moment a customer calls, walks into your retail location or encounters a salesperson somewhere within the channel, the building of your brand is at work. To create a powerful brand, you must incorporate every aspect of your business process into its branding development.

For example, you want to brand yourself as a customer service organization, yet when someone calls your company they get an impersonal voice mail system. How do you think this may affect your brand?

The development of a brand does not happen overnight. It is an ongoing process where you are establishing, maintaining and enhancing your company's image, recognition, trust, and comfort level among your customers and prospects at every level of contact. Build a trusted brand and it will pay huge dividends for you.

JG -



White Papers: Goals and Effective Use
By Phil Dunn Qualitywriter.com

In the world of technology, white papers are so very important. Yes, I know, they can be a major slog to deal with -- to produce, edit and read. . . and to get everybody to sign off on. However, they really are a valuable complement to traditional marketing. White papers help companies introduce new business solutions and their underlying technologies. They bridge the gap between technical detail and the 40,000-foot level of generalized understanding and bottom line decision-making.

Non-specialists can quickly learn the basics about subjects that cannot be easily explained in an elevator or on a data sheet. Specific issues and markets are often better addressed in white papers than in promotional materials, and companies that share their expertise without blatantly pitching products often engender more respect from prospects and industry analysts.

As an example, I recently wrote a white paper on XBRL (a financial reporting standard based on XML - eXtensible Markup Language) for Software AG. Consider the fact that XML has been both excessively hyped and incisively attacked by all kinds of highly qualified industry analysts. Our goal was to establish expertise, clear some of the smoke, explain some very technically challenging and abstract concepts, and outline some case studies about how XBRL is being used in a variety of financial industries. We were successful because we stuck to the facts, explained concepts in clear and simple English, and presented promotional information with complete candor. Actually, we kept the promotional information to a strict minimum.

Keep in mind that white papers are not academic studies that exist outside the realm of promotion. White papers are part of integrated marketing strategies that are designed to elicit buying action on the part of the reader. Think of the brochure or data sheet as the elevator pitch. All parties understand that they are promotional and biased. With complex technologies, brochures are designed to pique interest and offer proof of value. White papers establish expertise and competence while also serving to educate potential users on complex subjects.

White Paper Tips: Delivering white papers over the Internet is a great way to communicate in-depth information to highly targeted audiences. White papers also offer companies the opportunity to build marketing lists…. But, you've got to write them first. Some tips for producing first-rate white papers follow:

1. Offer a solution.
Many white papers waste all kinds of time and ink on theory, probability and speculation. Good white papers establish well-defined problems and offer easily understood solutions. Leave the pontificating to the industry analysts.
2. Reduce marketing language to a minimum.
These days, this tip even applies to marketing materials. The more you economize your exposition and eliminate hyperbole, the better.
3. Support assertions with evidence and examples.
Tangible, mentally vivid examples help pull readers through long pieces of text and provide them with ammo when they go to present your assertions to somebody else. Metaphor is also helpful (for example, ammo).
4. Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. Classic business presentation structure.
5. Use graphics, charts and pull quotes.
White papers tend to be long. So, help the readers along with visual cues and graphics that complement the text and illuminate your explanations further.
6. Watch the length.
Less than 15 pages is preferable for a given topic. If you find that your page count is hurtling toward novella length, consider breaking the project into several separate but related white papers.

- PD

How to use the latest e-messaging
strategies to increase profits
By Karen Fegarty

Many types of Internet advertising don't work as well as they once did. People have gotten used to banners and don't click on them. Some ezines have failed to keep their readers' interest and ads sometimes get less response. Search engines are overflowing with submissions. Getting your site listed high is almost impossible.

More and more businesses and organizations are now turning to email marketing to keep profits rolling in. While an increasing number of people say they rarely surf the Net, the vast majority of North Americans check their email every day.

Email marketing is the most effective and efficient way to influence purchases and keep customers informed and happy. It is also extremely inexpensive. Where you might have mailed out one printed customer update every month, you can now email one every week for a fraction of the cost.

Increasingly, companies need to embrace email marketing in a big way in order to stay competitive. Those who formerly used a service to send out their newsletters, sales info, and consumer updates are now doing all the emailing themselves.

New technology that is powerful yet easy to use allows anyone to handle email jobs that previously required expensive professional help. Many companies are bringing their email campaigns in house in order to have more control, grow their email efforts, and decrease costs.

Here are four features you will want to use in your
email marketing efforts:

1. Include HTML in your email messages. Most email programs are now equipped to read HTML. Your logo, banner, bullets, and color elements can make your message jump off the screen. You can even include forms that allow customers to order instantly from your message. You take advantage of impulse purchases that can lead to big increases in sales.

2. Use a campaign manager feature to schedule when your email messages will be sent out. You can prepare an entire months' worth of messages and tell the manager which weeks, days, or hours to release them to your list.

3. Take advantage of a POP import feature. It automatically takes the email addresses from messages you receive and puts them on your mailing list. This insures no one who requests information from you is left out of your next update. This also helps you grow your list as fast as possible. You can even use a feature that automatically unsubscribes those who ask to be removed from your list. Many companies say this saves them hours of work each week.

4. Make sure the software you use to send your messages includes a walk-through wizard. You get step-by-step instructions on how to do any task you wish to achieve. Instead of waiting for the tech guy to show up, you can speed through the job on your own. Karen Fegarty has been instrumental in developing new email technology.

An excellent software program for email marketing of newsletters, product announcements or personalized information messages, is Broadc@stHTML, developed by mailworkz.com.   It is an award winning marketing tool, and will allow you to reach your customers in a highly efficient, personalized manner.
- KF

5 Ways To Make Your Website Sales Letter Produce Results
 By Mike Jezek - Sales Letter Specialist

Writing a sales letter that produces positive results is an exacting science. Here are 5 suggested elements to include when drafting your sales letter:

1) Make reference to your main competitors without naming them. Just give hints as to who they are. This way your prospects will come to the conclusion themselves as to who you're talking about and this technique will be more powerful. To exact a more persuasive message you might consider including phrases such as "Unlike most of our competitor's who XXX we do XXX" ... Or "Why settle for the XXX our competitors provide when you can get our XXX."

2) Answer Objections - Your sales letter should answer every conceivable objection. As an objection unanswered is a sale lost. In this case, you want to study your competitor's websites looking for objections you can raise and answer in your copy that your competition has left out. And then make mention of it in your copy that most of your competition doesn't have an answer to this question but you do.

3) More testimonials/ other credibility builders - Put simply, the man with the most glowing yet believable testimonials wins. Set up a monthly or bi-weekly routine of acquiring testimonials. On top of that, if applicable to your industry, make references to organizations that you belong to and awards you've won. Also, acquire logo's demonstrating that you belong to the Better Business Bureau, or iCop or the like. Think about it, if you're choosing between site A which has 10 testimonials and logos displaying how secure and honest their business is compared to site B which has 3 testimonials - who are you going to do business with?

4) Comparisons/comparison charts - This one is absolutely powerful and its influence cannot be denied. Study your competitor's websites and write down their product/service weak points (price, features, warranty/guarantee, etc.) and make a bar chart on your site. Make sure your strengths are boldly compared against their weakness in this bar chart. Only hint at who your competitors are - you don't want site visitors going to their sites out of curiosity to confirm what you say is true.

5) More information - Is your offer easy to understand and clearly explained? Are you summarizing what your prospect is getting for their money and have you given as many benefits and features as you possibly can? Sounds simple, yet it's absolutely amazing how many marketers don't give enough information for people to make a decision. You'll sooner buy from a business that gives you more concise detail as to what you're getting than one who doesn't.

If you systematically apply this information, you may usher in a new golden era for your company!

- MJ



Selecting and Evaluating Keyphrases for Search Engine Marketing
By Scott Buresh
Co-founder and principal of Medium Blue Internet Marketing

Many businesses recognize that search engines can bring volumes of highly targeted prospects to their website, typically at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. Unfortunately, these same companies often overlook the most important part of their search engine marketing campaigns, which is keyphrase selection and evaluation. Keyphrases (those phrases that potential customers are using to find products or services on search engines) are the building block of any search engine marketing strategy. It is essential that they are chosen carefully, or else the remainder of the campaign, no matter how effective the implementation, will likely be in vain. What follows is a three-step process that goes over the process of compiling, selecting, and evaluating the ongoing performance of keyphrases for search engines.

1. Compiling a keyphrase list: Usually, companies are sure that they already know their ideal keyphrases. Often, they are wrong. This is typically because it is very hard to separate oneself from a business and look at it from the perspective of a potential customer (rather than an insider). Compiling a keyphrase list should not be, despite common practice, a strictly internal process. Rather, it is best to ask everyone outside of your company for their input, especially your customers. People are often very surprised at the keyphrase suggestions they get- and sometimes dismayed to realize that an average customer doesn't speak the same language that they do. Only after you have put together a list of likely phrases from external sources do you add your own. As a last step, try to add variations, plurals, and derivatives of the phrases on your list.

2. Evaluating keyphrases: Once you have compiled a master keyphrase list, it is time to evaluate each phrase to hone your list down to those most likely to bring you the highest amount of quality traffic. Although many individuals will base their assessment of keyphrase value based only on popularity figures, there are really three vitally important aspects of each phrase to consider.

Popularity
By far the easiest of the three to judge is popularity, since it is not subjective. Software like WordTracker gives popularity figures of search phrases based upon actual search engine activity (it also gives additional keyphrase suggestions and variations). Such software allows you to assign a concrete popularity number to each phrase to use when comparing them. Obviously, the higher the number, the more traffic that can be expected (assuming you are able to obtain good search engine positions). However, this number alone is not good enough reason to pursue any particular keyphrase, although too often keyphrase analysis stops here.

Specificity
This is more abstract than the sheer popularity number, but equally important. For example, let's assume that you were able to obtain great rankings for the keyphrase "insurance companies" (a daunting prospect). Let's also assume that you only deal with auto insurance. Although "insurance companies" might have a much higher popularity figure than "auto insurance companies", the first keyphrase would also be comprised of people looking for life insurance, health insurance, and home insurance. It is very likely that someone searching for a particular type of insurance will refine their search after seeing the disparate results returned from the phrase "insurance companies". In the second, longer keyphrase, you can be reasonably sure that a much higher percentage of visitors will be looking for what you offer- and the addition of the word "auto" will make it much easier to attain higher rankings, since the longer term will be less competitive.

Motivation of User
This factor, even more abstract than specificity, calls for an attempt to understand the motivation of a search engine user by simply analyzing his or her search phrase. Assume, for example, that you were a real estate agent in Atlanta. Two of the keyphrases you are evaluating are "Atlanta real estate listings" and "Atlanta real estate agents". Both phrases have very similar popularity numbers. They are also each fairly specific, and your services are very relevant to each. So which phrase is better? If you look into the likely motivation of the user, you will probably conclude that the second is superior. While both phrases target people looking for real estate in Atlanta, you can infer from the second phrase that the searcher has moved beyond the point where they are browsing local homes or checking out prices in their neighborhood- they are looking for an agent, which implies that they are ready to act. Often, subtle distinctions between terms can make a large difference on the quality of the traffic they attract.

3. Evaluating Keyphrase Performance: Until recently, judging the performance of individual keyphrases was a dicey proposition. Although it is possible to tell from your log traffic analysis how many visitors are getting to your site from each keyphrase (valuable information, but unfortunately not enough to do much with), it was very hard to decipher which phrases were bringing you the most quality traffic. Recently, however, some sophisticated but affordable tools have been developed that allow you to judge the performance of each individual keyphrase based upon visitor behavior. This new software makes it possible to periodically analyze which keyphrases are bringing your site the most valuable visitors- those who buy your products, fill out your contact form, download your demo, etc. This type of data, rather than the sheer number of visitors from each search phrase alone, is invaluable when you are refining your search engine marketing campaigns, since you can discard and replace non-performing keyphrases and put increased effort toward the phrases that are delivering visitors that become customers. This kind of ongoing analysis is the final piece of the keyphrase puzzle, and allows you to continually target the most important phrases for your industry, even if they change over time.

Conclusion: Keyphrase compilation, evaluation, and performance are all vitally important to any search engine marketing campaign. While high rankings in search engines are an admirable goal, high rankings for poor keyphrases will consistently deliver poor results. Integration of this keyphrase process into your overall search engine marketing strategy can dramatically improve your website performance (and thus your bottom line).




There are a lot of ways to market online without going broke in the process.
My advice to all Internet advertisers...use this effective medium frequently to "extend the reach" of traditional print or broadcast media and to reinforce your branding...and check out some of the reliable online marketing firms who can help you develop a strong Internet presence, and perhaps a high volume of Internet sales.  In this lagging economy, many will work close to the vest on pricing to help you develop your online and off-line business using guerilla and other marketing techniques.

Test a variety of reasonably priced online media, and see what works best for you.  When you find a winning combination, bet the ranch on it!
Whatever you do, keep an open mind to all new advertising techniques and ...test, test, test.


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