BusinessBruce.com » Marketing

The Value of an Existing Customer

Haz Tan — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:04:49 +0000

The difference between Marketing, PR, Advertising and Branding

Haz Tan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:20:42 +0000

Image courtesy of Neutron, LLC.

40 Key Emotional Drivers

Haz Tan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 23:02:17 +0000

Sourced from Victor Schwab

B-to-B prospects respond to the same key emotion drivers consumers do. In “Mail Order Strategy” (Hoke Communications, 1956), Victor Schwab compiled the following 40 key emotional drivers.

People want to gain:
Health
Popularity
Praise from others
Pride of accomplishment
Self-confidence
Time
Improved appearance
Comfort
Advancement: social-business
Money
Security in old age
Leisure
Increased enjoyment
Personal prestige

They want to save:
Time
Discomfort
Risks
Money
Worry
Embarrassment
Work
Doubts

They want to be:
Good parents
Creative
Efficient
Recognized authorities
Up-to-date
Gregarious
“First” in things
Sociable, hospitable
Proud of their possessions
Influential over others

They want to do:
Express their personalities
Satisfy their curiosity
Appreciate beauty
Win others’ affection
Resist domination by others
Emulate the admirable
Acquire or collect things
Improve themselves generally

45 Rules for Creating a Great Logo Design

Haz Tan — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:08:07 +0000

Do not use more than three colors.
Get rid of everything that is not absolutely necessary.
Type must be easy enough for your grandma to read.
The logo must be recognizable.
Create a unique shape or layout for the logo.
Completely ignore what your parents and/or spouse think about the design.
Confirm that the logo looks appealing to more than just three (3) individuals.
Do not combine elements from popular logos and claim it as original work.
Do not use clipart under any circumstances.
The logo should look good in black and white.
Make sure that the logo is recognizable when inverted.
Make sure that the logo is recognizable when resized.
If the logo contains an icon or symbol, as well as text, place each so that they compliment one another.
Avoid recent logo design trends. Instead, make the logo look timeless.
Do not use special effects (including, but not limited to: gradients, drop shadows, reflections, and light bursts).
Fit the logo into a square layout if possible, avoid obscure layouts.
Avoid intricate details.
Consider the different places and ways that the logo will be presented.
Invoke feelings of being bold and confident, never dull and weak.
Realize that you will not create a perfect logo.
Use sharp lines for sharp businesses, smooth lines for smooth businesses.
The logo must have some connection to what it is representing.
A photo does not make a logo.
You must surprise customers with presentation.
Do not use more than two fonts.
Each element of the logo needs to be aligned. Left, center, right, top, or bottom.
The logo should look solid, with no trailing elements.
Know who is going to be looking at the logo before you think of ideas for it.
Always choose function over innovation.
If the brand name is memorable, the brand name should be the logo.
The logo should be recognizable when mirrored.
Even large companies need small logos.
Everyone should like the logo design, not just the business that will use it.
Create variations. The more variations, the more you are to get it right.
The logo must look consistent across multiple platforms.
The logo must be easy to describe.
Do not use taglines in the logo.
Sketch out ideas using paper and pencil before working on a computer.
Keep the design simple.
Do not use any “swoosh” or “globe”symbols.
The logo should not be distracting.
It should be honest in it’s representation.
The logo should be balanced visually.
Avoid bright, neon colors and dark, dull colors.
The logo must not break any of the above rules.

Source: http://www.Tannersite.com

Measuring the pulse of Web Marketing

Haz Tan — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:55:24 +0000

Marketing has a wide plethora of mediums in today’s area, but if you are a web-based company, you will probably be focusing on website visits as a major source of incoming leads.

Two key metrics for any company that makes a majority of its revenue from a webpage are:

1. Unique Homepage Visits

This will result from three main areas: Pay-Per-Click, SEO, and Affiliate Sites. Obviously, you want this to be a high number, and also very importantly, a number with strong growth.

a. Pay-Per-Click aka PPC

Vital statistics are Click Through Rate, Conversion Rate, Cost per Converison.

b. Search Engine Optimization aka SEO

Vital statistics are # of 1st page rankings, # of #1 keywords, # top 5 keywords, # inbound links, Google PageRank.

c. Affiliate Sites

# of Affiliates per Month (growth rate), $ generated from affiliates.

2.Visitor : Conversion ratio.

This is currently the golden chalice of web-based business. Back in the day (Web 1.0) , one could just drive traffic to a site to have it valuable. These days, getting traffic is easy – it is converting them that requires some analysis and thought.

The difficult thing with conversion ratio, is that it is a much more analog statistic, due to the element of human psychology and cognitive science. With the homepage visits statistic, it is quite digital – the more sites you have driving traffic to yours, the more your number goes up. With conversion ratio, it will largely depend on continual testing for your demographic. So far, I have found the following statistics to contribute to the ratio:

a. Pages per Visit.

The more pages your visitors see, the more they’re likely to find something they want and provide a conversion for you. The trick here is getting them to look at the greatest number of pages possible. Critical elements to make sure are finely honed are the site navigation system and the search system.

b. Average time spent on Site.

The more time a visitor spends on your site, the more likely something has captured and engaged them. Critical elements to make sure are finely honed are the page layout, content, and marketing material. In this Web 2.0 age, the clean design and site interactivity all contribute in this area.

If every visitor that comes to your site spends a lot of time on each page and is reading through several pages, it’s safe to say you’ve engaged their attention. The more of somebody’s attention you can capture, the easier it will be to close them, whch brings me to another key Visitor:Conversion contributor.

c. Cart Abandonment Rate / Page Bounce Rate

This is when you’re in the process of closing the visitor lead. Critical elements are similar to Average Time Spent on Site, except in this stage you’re in less of an informative mode vs a reassuring mode. Just like when you’re going to buy a new TV – you first look at a TV and think about what you want, then as you’re about to make your purchase, you want it to be as easy, and reassuring as possible that you’ve made the right decision. If this number is high despite an engaged visitor (indicated buy high pages per visit and average time spent on site), something is scaring off the visitor.

High Visits + High Conversion Ratio = Lots of Money Creation! Of course, marketing may generate the money, sales may capture it, but it is up to operations to keep it, which is the topic of another discussion.