Apr

26

Determine Lifetime Value of Small Business Customers

April 26, 2006 | Leave a Comment

In an article at B2B Marketing Trends, Lloyd Corder says there are seven questions to ask to measure the return on your marketing investment.  Among them is this question: 
7. Lifetime Customer Value (What is the value of a new customer over the lifetime of its business with our organization?)
A lot of marketing focuses on finding new […]

Apr

25

How to Know When Your Copy is Bad

April 25, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Jonathan Krantz writes an interesting short piece at the Marketing Profs blog about how to recognize when your copy sucks.  Among the dead giveaways he says are:

Lots of superlatives such as “excellence,” “cutting-edge” and “innovative.”
Lack of a clear “what’s in it for the customer” message.
Shortage of tangible, meaty specifics.
Presence of self-congratulatory chest beating, i.e., “We’re […]

Apr

18

Sales Tips - What Selling is Not

April 18, 2006 | Leave a Comment

“Selling used to be about closing.  But it isn’t anymore.  It used to be about handling objections or about preventing objections from coming it.  *** And selling isn’t about being confrontational.”
So starts a short audio file (podcast) by Greg Balanko at the Business Performance Coaching blog.  I’ve paraphrased his words a bit, but those are […]

Apr

13

Infomercials Coming to the Web

April 13, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water, look out.  Infomercials are coming to a website near you.
“KickStartMedia.com, a startup company in San Diego, has a head start selling tools that teach small businesses and online entrepreneurs how to make their own Internet Infomercials with one goal in mind: converting viewers into […]