Category: HTM Blog

  • How to Use Inbound Leads to Improve Sales

    How to Use Inbound Leads to Improve Sales

    Are you looking to generate more leads and improve sales? Then you need to improve your inbound marketing strategy.

    If you don’t have an inbound marketing strategy in place or your current plan isn’t seeing results, this article is for you.

    Generating inbound leads is one of the most effective ways to increase sales. People do everything online, so meeting them where they’re at is how you’re going to attract them to your business. Cold calling and outbound marketing tactics have their place, but businesses are seeing far more success from inbound marketing.

    This strategy allows your target audience to find you and get in touch with you when they’re ready to buy. But how exactly do you generate inbound leads? In this in-depth guide, we’ll show you what inbound marketing is, the benefits of this strategy and how to do it right.

    What is Inbound Marketing?

    To generate inbound leads means to attract customers by addressing their problems and needs. Marketers offer relevant and valuable content to help customers in every stage of the buyer’s journey. Leads find your content through channels like social media, search engines and blogs.

    This differs from outbound marketing in the sense that the customers come to you when they’re ready. Marketers create content that their target audience is looking for, and prospects are then able to find your business when they’re searching for a solution to their problem. Your helpful content allows you to attract inbound leads be building trust and credibility.

    Inbound marketing focuses on educating the right consumer rather than broadcasting to all of the consumers. People search online for solutions to their problems and questions. With the right inbound marketing strategy in place, you can show those leads that your product or service is the best solution.

    The Benefits of Inbound Leads

    Inbound marketing can significantly increase your sales among many other benefits, including:

    Qualified Leads

    Your content serves to educate your leads, simplifying the sales process. Your sales team won’t have to work as hard to answer questions or persuade people who aren’t ready to purchase. When people consume your content, they learn more about why your product is the solution and they’re ready to get their hands on it.

    Converting Customers Becomes Easier

    Your company can tailor your content to match your ideal prospect and target audience. When you speak directly to the right consumers – the people who need your product or service – they are more likely to see the value in what you have to offer. The relevance of your content will have more potential to attract prospects, convert them into customers and increase sales.

    Boosts Reputation

    Your inbound marketing strategy and establish you as a thought leader in your niche or industry. Sharing valuable content across your social media channels can increase your brand awareness and visibility. As a result, you’ll likely generate plenty of referrals and inbound leads.

    Shorten the Sales Cycle

    You can nurture your inbound leads by segmenting your list. Send your prospects relevant content you know they need to in order to make a decision.

    How to Use Inbound Marketing

    Now that you know all of the ways inbound marketing can boost your business, it’s time to learn the right way to do it. Here are four ways to increase sales by generating inbound leads.

    1. Make Your Website SEO Friendly

    As we stated earlier, consumers are researching online before they make a purchase. Because of this, your business’s website needs to show up on the first page of the search engines when they type in their query. This starts with optimizing your website for the search engines.

    Everything in your website – pages, meta descriptions and title tags – need to be optimized so that the search engines understand what your website is about. Then, your site’s pages will be the search engines’ first option for people searching for that content.

    If you run a storefront, verify your company on Google+ as well. This way, Google Maps will show your location when people are looking for local companies.

    2. Create Valuable Content

    Secondly, you need to implement a consistent schedule for publishing new content on your company’s website. Create quality content that will serve your target audience and publish new posts routinely. Not only will your content help your prospects, but consistently publishing new content helps your website rank higher in search engines.

    Your website’s blog is how you establish credibility and authority with your audience. Consumers will start to see you as an influence in your niche and come to trust your brand.

    3. Use the Right Keywords

    Optimizing your website and blog posts for relevant keywords can help get your site to the top of the search results. Sticking to a consistent blog publishing schedule will help the search engines to recognize your keywords and rank your site higher as well.

    Use relevant keywords in your blog titles, headlines, and content. Place them in your URLs, image alt tags and meta descriptions.

    4. Use Enticing Calls to Action

    Driving prospects to your website through SEO is just the beginning of inbound marketing. Now that you have people interested in your content, you often have to nurture those inbound leads to increase sales.

    Include call-to-action buttons on your website to direct your audience to the next step. You might link to a landing page where people can download an eBook or a white paper. Including forms where consumers enter their name and email address allows you to continue the conversation with email marketing.

    Lead Generation Made Simple

    Inbound marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate leads and increase sales. By publishing relevant, valuable content consistently, your prospects will be able to find your content easier and recognize your brand as a trusted authority. Then you can segment your leads and maintain relationships through email and personalized content.

    While inbound marketing is extremely effective, it can also be overwhelming. Make sales even easier by letting the professionals help you! Check out our lead generation services today!

  • The Marketing Basics of Inbound Lead Generation You Should Know

    The Marketing Basics of Inbound Lead Generation You Should Know

    inbound lead generationAcquiring new customers is never easy. If it were, you wouldn’t need to read an article about it. You’d just do it!

    While the internet has certainly created new avenues for customer acquisition, it still takes effort. It still costs anywhere from 4 to 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.

    Thankfully, the new communication channels created by the internet have also made new customer acquisition and inbound lead generation easier.

    But how do you get started?

    Keep reading for a closer look at the basics of inbound lead generation and how you can get started with it today.

    The Basics: What’s a Lead Anyway?

    Before we dive in, let’s define something: a lead.

    If you work in sales or marketing, you’re probably pretty familiar with the term already and probably have a pretty well-formed definition.

    But, for the sake of getting down to the basics, here’s a definition: A lead is any person who’s shown some level of interest in your company’s product or service.

    Their interest might be vague, but there’s something there. Something that makes it worth your while to talk to them.

    A lead could be as simple as someone who’s read one of your blog posts or as in-depth as someone who is actively inquiring about one of your products or services.

    Lead Generation: What It Means

    If leads are simply people interested in your product or service, how do you make that happen?

    This is where the concept of inbound lead generation comes in.

    Inbound lead generation is the process of turning people who know nothing about your brand into leads. Lead generation is all about warming people up to your brand.

    Inbound lead generation is not necessarily about selling a product just yet, the idea is simply to generate interest–and, ideally, to turn people into fans of your brand.

    How to Get Started With Inbound Lead Generation

    Inbound lead generation starts with an offer.

    The most ubiquitous form of an offer in the digital space is knowledge.

    Whether it be in the form of written content, a video, or something else — you have knowledge or expertise in an area that your prospects do not. Offering your knowledge or instruction on a given topic is a great way to tell people that you know a thing or two.

    Conveying your knowledge builds trust … well, I don’t have to tell you that trust leads to lots of good things.

    It All Starts With Traffic

    Your offers, ultimately, must lead to traffic.

    Blog posts or updates about your latest product or all of the exciting improvements you’re making to your marketing department are not going to attract a lot of attention.

    Valuable knowledge and educational material are what people are looking for. No matter what you’re selling, odds are, someone wants to know more about your area of expertise.

    If you’re selling car insurance, for example, you should have a pretty good idea of what people are looking for when shopping around. You could write a blog post exploring the primary benefits shoppers are looking for in an insurance provider. Another post could explore the different types of car insurance policies available.

    Don’t forget about promoting your content though. An “if you build it they will come” attitude won’t get you very far. If your goal is traffic, you’re going to have to leverage social media and be active within your industry.

    How to Turn Traffic Into Leads

    Once you’ve generated some interest and traffic, the question is how to turn that traffic into leads.

    The trick now is to offer readers or viewers an even more in-depth offer. If you’ve peaked a reader’s interest with an overview of all the different types of car insurance policies available, offer them a chance to really dive in with a comprehensive guide to selecting an insurance policy.

    This where true inbound lead generation happens. Offer your readers something truly useful in exchange for a way to get in touch with them.

    Now you truly have a lead.

    This is often best done by capturing names through a form or lead page that will also point your new leads to the offer.

    Putting It All Together

    So you’ve got a few leads (hopefully), now what do you do with them?

    This part is up to you and will depend largely on the type of product or service your organization offers.

    But having a list of leads that are already warm to your brand is an invaluable resource.

    To review, an effective inbound lead generation strategy should employ several factors:

    1. Compelling, educational content that attracts visitors.
    2. An in-depth offer that compels visitors to take action.
    3. A means to capture leads so that you can communicate further.

    What About Buying Leads?

    The compulsion for marketers to fill lists quickly is near universal.

    More names are always better, right?

    Organically growing a list of leads is difficult and it’s easy to think that you can cut down your workload by simply buying something that would take a great deal of work to build on your own.

    With lead generation, growing organically is almost always better than buying names. After all, purchasing a list can often have negative consequences.

    Conclusion

    All businesses practice lead generation in some form or another. It’s a strategy that’s effective across virtually all industries.

    Cultivating and capturing leads should be one of the top priorities of your digital presence.

    Take a look at our blog for more on inbound lead generation and how to make it work for your business.

  • 10 Tips for a Successful Inbound Marketing Campaign

    10 Tips for a Successful Inbound Marketing Campaign

    Today’s consumers are highly empowered. The Internet provides them the gratification of instant information — with a few clicks or the swipe of a finger, customers can find what they need.

    As a company, an inbound marketing campaign gives you the power to give consumers the information they’re looking for. In fact, about 67 percent of companies ranked inbound marketing as one of the top 3 marketing priorities.

    But, creating a successful campaign is easier said than done. How do you know what marketing tactics to use? How do you determine the best time to email consumers versus posting on social media?

    The truth is that inbound marketing is nuanced. But, with the right tips, you can be successful in building your brand.

    Keep reading for 10 helpful tips for launching an impactful inbound marketing campaign.

    1.  Define And Understand Your Business

    With any successful marketing campaign, research is a must. Marketing is only successful when you understand your business and the industry.

    Before marketing your business, you have to define it. What are your revenue goals? What key performance indicators need to be measured? What is your ideal sales process?

    Outside of your business, you’ll also need to understand the industry. Ensure you stay up-to-date with changes within the industry.

    Keep tabs on how your competitors are marketing their product or service. Be aware of any current events that may impact the industry.

    2. Know Your Target Audience

    In the ideal world, every person in the world has a need for your product. As nice as it sounds, this isn’t true for every company.

    You need to know who is on the receiving end of your marketing efforts. Even if your product appeals to a large audience, targeting specific groups within the larger one is more effective.

    To understand your target audience, you’ll need to create a customer profile. Demographic and psychographic information are huge factors in determining your typical customer.

    For example, your typical customer demographic may be a middle-aged married woman living on the West Coast. From a psychographic standpoint, she may have a lavish lifestyle and enjoy traveling around the world.

    Demographics help you understand the type of person that may buy your product. Psychographics drill down into the why a potential consumer may buy your product.

    3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

    Any content you create for marketing purposes should be written with SEO tactics. Using SEO will boost your company’s search visibility.

    The more high-quality links on your company’s website, the higher it will rank in search engine results.

    Must-use SEO techniques include:

    • Create unique informational content often
    • Back-link creation
    • Keyword and keyword phrase usage
    • SEO-friendly URLs
    • Using catchy titles and meta descriptions
    • Alt tags for images

    4. Use On-site Content Marketing

    As part of your company’s inbound marketing campaign, content creation is a must. On-site content includes all content that is hosted on the company website. This content will drive traffic to the site.

    First, the content will drive potential consumers to the site. It will also keep current customers engaged and interested in your brand.

    On-site content marketing maximizes client retention while increasing the chance of new clients.

    On-site content includes:

    • Homepage content
    • Company blog posts
    • Product pages
    • About us/content page

    5. Also, Use Off-site Content Marketing

    Off-site content will also drive content to the company website. But, this content is published on another site. In turn, it builds links to your site.

    By publishing content on other websites, you’re able to gain visibility with new potential consumers. Off-site content can also boost referral traffic.

    Off-site content includes media coverage, guest posts, press releases, and more.

    6. Build a Solid Website

    A well-designed website is a fundamental building block for your marketing campaign. Your company’s website needs to be built with user experience and user interaction in mind.

    A quality website:

    • Provides a simplistic layout
    • Is easy to navigate
    • Offers information content
    • Loads within 2-3 seconds

    If your website doesn’t meet consumer standards, you’re likely to lose a sale.

    7. Connect With an Influencer

    Every industry has an influencer. These are people who are leaders and shakers in the industry. Often these social media stars have high reputations and even bigger fanbases.

    You can work with an influencer to strengthen your brand through content and social media posts.

    8. Use Social Media

    Getting involved in the community is a must. You can use social media to build engagement and visibility. The more active your company is on social networks, the better.

    By using social media, you can ensure the right content reaches the right people. This boosts organic traffic flow to the company website.

    When using social media, be sure your company has complete profiles, to include contact information, the company logo, and background information.

    9. Mobile Optimization

    More than 51 percent of all Internet usage is done through a mobile device. With billions of mobile device users, it’s more important than ever to provide a mobile-optimized website.

    Mobile optimization means designing the company website so that it loads on screens of all sizes. The best design method to achieve this goal is to use responsive design.

    The more users who can access the company website, the better.

    10. Measure and Analyze

    After launching your inbound marketing campaign, analyze the key performance indicators you set in the beginning.

    Where are most of the inbound traffic coming from? What topics are most popular with customers? How long are visitors staying on the website? What links are clicked and which ones aren’t?

    You’ll also want to look at conversion rates. A successful campaign should increase conversion rates. In turn, your company should be making a higher profit.

    Knowing how successful the campaign is can shape future campaigns. Knowing what techniques work the best will ensure your marketing dollars don’t go to waste.

    Looking for Growth? Trust Us With Your Inbound Marketing Campaign

    Do you have a solid in-house marketing team? Are you well-versed in creating inbound marketing campaigns?

    If not, now is the time to consider outsourcing your company’s marketing. Our team at HyperTarget Marketing offers a wide variety of marketing services. From SEO to mobile optimization, you can trust us to help build your brand.

    Ready to build buzz around your company’s name? If so, contact our team to learn more about how we can help you.

  • Inbound Digital Marketing: Trends to Consider

    Inbound Digital Marketing: Trends to Consider

    Inbound digital marketingWhen it comes to increasing traffic on your website, your inbound digital marketing campaign matters.

    According to The Annuitas Group, nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.

    Your inbound marketing efforts should be geared toward drawing visitors to your website. But you should also be focused on getting them repeat visitors.

    You can do this by designing a website that is easy to navigate. It should also offer relevant information and useful products or services.

    Read on to learn the inbound digital marketing trends you need to use today!

    Write Relevant Blogs

    One of the best ways for you to bring people to your website is by creating well-written blog content.

    According to TechClient.com, websites with blog content tend to have 434% more indexed pages than websites that don’t.

    Indexed pages are those on your website that are found by search engine servers. These servers use skimmers to look for keyword and trending topics in an industry.

    This helps a website’s search engine optimization (SEO) — where it ranks in search results.

    But it’s not enough to just write a blog. You need to be sure your content is easy to read and provides value to your reader in the form of relevance content.

    Offer a Blog Subscription on Your Home Page

    A good way to gather information is by having a pop-up offer that greets people on your home page.

    Not only is it quick and easy — simply asking for someone’s email — it also helps you build a list of contacts to send messages about your blog content.

    You can also choose to have your pop-up messages offer someone a limited time deal for your product or service in exchange for their email address. Also, consider requesting a user’s home state or country. This can help you ensure you are sending them content that is more relevant to their lifestyle.

    Want to make your blog subscription offer more appealing?

    You can keep your message short but also include information about how often they will be receiving it.

    Create Interactive Video Content

    Another effective piece of an inbound digital marketing campaign is to include interactive videos for your visitors.

    One of the best ways to do this is by hosting webinars on your website that discusses some of the hottest topics in your industry. But be sure that your webinars provide value and are interesting for your viewers.

    Over time, you can build up a loyal following of people who are eager to tune in.

    Not sold on video content?

    According to a Cisco study, 80% of the world’s internet traffic will be video by 2019!

    Besides, video helps bring your written content to life in a way that will stand out to your readers.

    Mobile-Optimization Matters

    When it comes to creating a successful inbound digital marketing campaign, you need to ensure your website is designed with mobile-optimization in mind.

    In November 2016, websites were viewed on mobile browsers more than on desktops worldwide for the first time in history. And it’s a trend that isn’t slowing down.

    Emailmonday.com conducted a study that found 79% of those polled used their cell phones to read email. When you consider that 77% of Americans now own a smart phone, it should be easy to see why making your website optimized for mobile use matters.

    Do you need another reason to optimize your site for mobile users?

    Google has reported that people are five times more likely to leave a website that is not friendly to a mobile user.

    Use Email Marketing

    This increase in smartphone popularity and mobile web browsing also means your email marketing efforts should be a focus of your inbound digital marketing campaign.

    Email is a great way for you to reach customers and potential customers in a unique way. But like everything else in marketing, you need to be sure your message is creative and captures a reader’s attention.

    Do you have a unique webinar or article that’s coming out soon?

    Tell your readers about it in your next email message. Include a working link that takes them directly to where they can sign up for a reminder or watch it live.

    Remember, you want your email message to make it as easy as possible for the recipient to access the content that you are directing them to on your website.

    You can also consider writing a newsletter and offering incentives that are only available through email. These can be things like coupon codes or special deals that are only available to members of your mailing list.

    Maximize Social Media Presence

    Social media isn’t just for keeping up with old college friends and former co-workers. It’s a great way for businesses to advertise online free of charge.

    But it’s not just a matter of creating a Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn page with your business contact information.

    You need to be sure that the information you have on these websites is accurate and is drives interest in your products or services. One way to do this is to provide links to unique website content through these social media platforms.

    Before you begin your social media marketing campaign, be sure you have the staff trained in how to use this to your company’s advantage. You can try offering weekly deals for people who like your Facebook business page or follow you on Twitter.

    These are also great places to receive valuable feedback. But be sure that when you do, your company is reacting to what your customers are saying.

    The last thing you want is for your customers to feel like their opinions don’t matter to you.

    Leverage Your Inbound Digital Marketing Campaign

    Your website is a great way for you to make a positive first impression on a potential customer.

    But to make the most of your online presence online, you should use an aggressive inbound marketing campaign. This will help build your brand and increase traffic.

    Try these digital marketing trends with your websites and check out our other articles about how to make your business stand out.

  • Inbound Phone Calls: What’s Your ROI?

    Inbound Phone Calls: What’s Your ROI?

    inbound phone calls

    With all the emphasis on digital marketing these days it can be easy to forego one of the most proven ways to boost your marketing. Inbound phone calls are having a resurrection in terms of marketing trends for one simple reason:

    They work.

    But unlike the Pay Per Click (PPC) and analytics resources at your disposal when strictly focusing on digital campaigns companies can suffer when it comes to measuring the returns on investment.

    And just like PPC, there are Pay Per Call opportunities when using phones as a marketing tool for your business.

    No business owner wants to waste money. In today’s marketing environment operations and sales, executives need to measure ROI (Return on Investment) for any campaign.

    Knowing what works and what doesn’t is vital. The good news is calculating ROI for inbound phone calls may be easier than you think.

    Debunking The Myths of Inbound Phone Calls

    Too many business owners have suffered under the notion that they don’t need a full suite of services to handle inbound calls. And while it is true some customers in certain sectors prefer doing their business online, this can’t be the sole support mechanism for your business.

    Especially for markets outside the retail sector, where services and support are the core offering of a business, it’s difficult to go without excellent phone services.

    Simply put, for some goods and services customers require phone support and the myths of inbound phone calls are prohibiting many business owners from seeing the whole picture.

    Looking At The Full Picture of ROI

    Call tracking and sales and conversions are all data gathering possibilities when it comes to tracking inbound phone calls. Another myth is that you can’t have the same level of granular data if you augment your marketing and support with phone service.

    For companies to succeed in the age of information it is imperative they understand that phone use is not traditional call center communications.

    The most tech savvy companies are able to mine keywords, predict buying patterns, and even analyze caller behavior with their inbound calls.

    But many businesses calculate ROI in terms of sales alone. What about customer retention, upselling, and the long sales cycle some products and services require.

    Looking at the full picture of ROI means incorporating sales into every part of your business plan. As long as companies only consider ROI as a direct link between a marketing campaign and direct sales they will lose the full potential of handling inbound calls professionally.

    In truth, customer retention should be a priority when calculating ROI.

    The Expense of Client Retention

    Mishandled clients and customers spell disaster for any business. Your core customers are the ones who help you predict revenue and margins and prepare for fluctuating needs for service and support.

    Without a core group of customers to depend on your business will always be teetering on collapse. All of us have witnessed the poor service and support from the big cable networks and the result is that customers are headed elsewhere.

    Even the most intelligent and advanced technology companies, like streaming media, cable, and internet, have suffered by ignoring true ROI.

    To adjust an old saying: Forget what it costs to handle inbound phone calls, can you afford not to?

    Plus, calculating how fast things move on social media is a necessity. Handling inbound calls like a pro can be a marketing campaign in itself.

    On the other end, failing to do so could have your company all over live video in no time.

    The Cost Of New Clients

    A major paradigm shift in terms of customer retention and new sales has come to the business landscape in recent years. Data confirms what the wise have always ingrained into their corporate culture.

    It is much less expensive to keep an existing client than to try and secure a new one. Studies have shown that simply increasing customer retention rates by 5% can result in 25 to 95% more profit for your company.

    Are you and your decision makers factoring in that type of return when calculating the ROI of inbound phone calls? No one is suggesting that you abandon business development and marketing efforts, but simply focusing on retention often beats new sales.

    Think of the minimal investment you need to make in terms of customer service and support and the high level of return. Can your sales team say that a 5% investment will deliver ROI at those percentages?

    Customers Who Are Ripe For Conversions

    Ask any digital marketing expert and they will talk at length of the importance of conversions. Creating content, boosting SEO, and targeting a new client base is never enough.

    ROI becomes a factor when we start focusing on conversions. Beyond capitalizing on the impact to your bottom line and overhead resources with inbound phone calls, the vehicle also is ripe for conversions.

    Unlike following click bait or chasing keywords, your customers who call are already an interested audience. Inbound call marketing means integrating your digital campaigns and phone support to get the most out of your investment.

    As stated above, this also includes unprecedented market research when linked to your data gathering efforts.

    But leading your current and prospective customers to your inbound phone services is setting the table for conversions. You have a willing audience at your disposal who has contacted you.

    Putting It All Together

    While each company is different in building an ROI timeline and key metrics to measure success, it’s important to include as many factors as possible when considering inbound phone calls.

    Even industry leaders have shown that mishandling your call efforts will lead to fast turns in the health of your company.

    It’s best to make the most of every aspect of your marketing and operations and trust the experts.

    HyperTarget Marketing can help. We can pinpoint an ROI increase in desired channels and provide you the service and data to show results.

    Call us today!

  • 10 Tips To Succeed At Pay Per Call Marketing

    10 Tips To Succeed At Pay Per Call Marketing

    We’ve already covered how the raw conversion power of pay per call marketing could take your company to the next level.

    But just using this incredible technique isn’t enough: you need to do it successfully as well.

    You may be thinking that your strategy is working. But when you become too satisfied with “pretty good” results, you risk destroying your ROI through complacency.

    That’s why we’re giving you the ten best tips for a successful pay per call strategy that allows your business to thrive.

    1. Know The Cost of Pay Per Call Marketing

    Pay per call campaigns can vary greatly in cost, so doing research on how much your campaign will cost is vital to functioning as a business owner.

    Don’t fall behind on PPC marketing costs in the name of convenience. Because if you do, you will experience the greatest inconvenience of all: losing your business.

    Stay focused, stay vigilant, and do your research. One hour of market research could add up to thousands of dollars in costs over time, so it’s well worth the price of admission.

    2. Know Who You’re Working With

    We’ve talked about how pay per call is the new click.

    As with click, there are plenty of shady businesses out there who care more about exploiting you for their bottom line than helping your business.

    A poorly executed campaign can destroy your brand even if it’s not your fault: don’t be seen as a mindless spammer or fall victim to marketing strategies that do not value executing a quality campaign.

    Instead, work with smart people who have good ideas on how to revolutionize your marketing strategy. Their strategies are what you need to elevate your bottom line.

    3. Know What Success Is

    Everybody wants to be a successful business owner. But what is a success in terms of running your business?

    Every entrepreneur has a different view of success. And as much as that applies to the overall strategy of a business, it also applies to the evaluation of a pay-per-call campaign.

    Your pay per call marketing strategy will never be successful if you don’t know what being successful means. So sit down, define your objectives, and apply those objectives to your marketing campaigns.

    This will also help you get a strategy that develops over time, instead of one that clumsily hops from ill-defined goal to ill-defined goal. So if you haven’t had this conversation with yourself, get to it.

    Being able to continually measure your growth and direction will help you achieve more with your business.

    4. Quality over Quantity

    This one seems obvious, but for some reason, it’s lost on too many business owners. When it comes to pay per call marketing, more isn’t better.

    Better is better.

    You’d be shocked at how many people care about the number of calls they get out, and this is a short-sited and even deadly strategy.

    People are complicated. There are ways to predict how they’ll act, but one thing that does nothing to do that is looking at the average success of campaigns and figuring that, just by virtue of a call being made, a certain number of calls means a certain number of customers.

    The reality is, you need to focus on quality calls with good leads and better results.

    5. Monetize All Traffic

    If you aren’t making money, you’re losing it. That’s also true for pay per call marketing.

    Monetizing traffic is beyond important: it’s essential for your business.

    If you aren’t monetizing, you can kiss your ROI goodbye, and you’d have nobody but yourself to blame. With it taking so little effort to do this, why are you not boosting your income and conversion rate as efficiently as possible?

    6. Always Optimize

    Optimization is at the heart of any digital marketing strategy, whether it’s pay per call marketing or pay per click marketing.

    We’re in a second renaissance. And for professors and tech enthusiasts, this is great. For business owners, it means constant competition with people who have better optimization strategies.

    So, read the marketing magazines and stay on top of things to keep yourself on the cutting edge of business.

    7. Caller Experience

    If your callers have a bad experience on the phone with one of your agents, you haven’t just lost a customer: you’ve lost a potential customer.

    That’s because that person will never be convinced to buy your product after the awful experience caused by an incompetent strategy failing to focus on caller experience.

    Make sure it’s a pleasant experience to be on the phone with your agents. It could save you and your marketing leads.

    8. Analytics

    Being told about how great analytics are by a marketing blog is a bit like being told how great vegetables are by your doctor.

    It’s nice to hear, but it’s also a bit boring.

    Unfortunately, we’re going to tell you to eat your vegetables and focus on analytics with your approach to pay per call marketing.

    The reason for this is simple: analytics work. It turns out going in with the numbers is the best way to do things: makes sense.

    9. Test Everything

    You’re probably familiar with the use of A/B testing on websites, but did you know that you could do a similar thing with pay per call marketing?

    A/B test your campaigns by building well crafted and clearly different ideas that you can evaluate against each other. Don’t let your experiments last forever, but periodically continue to test things with no variants to see what works and what doesn’t.

    Your ROI will thank you.

    10. Trust The Pros

    All of this is a lot to keep track of.

    That’s why the best thing you can do is find people who know what they’re doing to help.

    Around here, we take pay per call marketing seriously. That’s because, like you, we’re business owners and this is what we do.

    We’d love to get in touch with you to help you do what you do better through our marketing strategies.

    Contact us so we can work together on some amazing things.

     

     

  • HyperTarget Marketing at LeadsCon New York 2015

    HyperTarget Marketing Exhibiting at Booth 510, LeadsCon New York

    Monday, August 24 – Wednesday, August 26 2015 New York, NY
    Booth #510

    The New York Hilton Midtown
    1335 Avenue of the Americas
    New York, NY 10019
    212-586-7000

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
    HyperTarget Marketing
    213.973.9905
    info@hypertargetmarketing.com

    New York, New York – HyperTarget Marketing director Eric Evans and his support team will be exhibiting at LeadsCon New York 2015 in The New York Hilton Midtown at booth #510. This fantastic gathering is set to bring together some of the most respected agencies working in the vertical media, online lead gen and direct response marketing space. Stop by the booth to learn about the advantages of pay-per call marketing as a lead generation mechanism, as well as to gain insight as to how the industry has changed in light new developments.

    Pay-per-call marketing emerged as an advertising solution to pay-per click, in which advertisers pay for qualified impressions on a per-call basis. The goal of pay-per-call marketing is to generate qualified calls (calls with a legitimate interest in a product or service), which can in turn reward publishers and ad networks appropriately. The pay-per call industry has experienced rapid and extreme growth, especially as users and begin to rely more on mobile phones for interfacing with brands, a trend that has been recognized and accounted for by major search engines. Come meet the team and discover what HyperTarget Marketing can do for you.

    About HyperTarget Marketing: HyperTarget Marketing is a lead generation and call marketing solutions company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 2009, HyperTarget was an early adopter of pay-per-call marketing and has a passion for helping businesses get highly qualified inbound call leads.

    Find out more at http://www.leadscon.com/leadsconny/

  • What Pay Per Call Could Mean for Your Business

    In theses days leading up to Affiliate Summit, I have been thinking about what it is that we do at HyperTarget. Now I’m not talking about all the fun we have at our offices here in Santa Monica, CA, the many wonderful day to day interactions we have with our clients, or the awesome performance of our sales team (without which we would quickly find ourselves doing nothing at all!). I’m talking about what it is that we do for our client’s businesses, and how we do it.

    What We Do

    I find it surprising when I talk to people about HyperTarget, how much confusion there is about pay per call marketing. After I finish explaining that I do not create phonebooks for a living (though if there was enough interest, I would) the next question is always the same, “Do you have a website?” I think that this question is not rooted in an ignorance of how business, especially marketing, is done today, but rather a real confusion regarding how we remain relevant in the digital space when we work with a marketing platform that is almost 150-years old.

    The question is one that I encounter often, and for all intents and purposes is justly founded. Traditionally, we have tended to think of the telephone as an older means of lead generation. The first thing that comes to mind are those pesky 5 o’clock phone calls that annoyed many households and ruined plenty of family dinners growing up–nothing like bothering people to make them receptive to a pitch.

    Change for the Better

    glengarryglenross-image4
    Image courtesy of The Movie Network

    However, when the first internet capable phones were introduced to the market in the early 2000s, the dichotomy that existed between phone use and internet access came to an end. Now, not only were the same networks providing the infrastructure for the exchange of telephonic and internet data, users could access this data in tandem. Suddenly, the user experience of researching a phone number and making the call were streamlined into a single activity.

    It is with this development that pay per call has truly come into its own. While pay per call is an effective affiliate strategy across all platforms, the fact that people are researching purchases on a device that has the capabilities to make those fact-finding and converting calls opens up new possibilities for growth in the industry. This is only compounded by the fact that around 30-50% of inbound calls convert versus the 2.35% conversion rate of most pay per click campaigns.

    Why Pay Per Call

    This is the brilliance behind adopting a pay per call strategy for inbound marketing and qualified lead generation. First, the leads come to you. Whereas in the past the process of finding leads, buying leads, and networking may have been an absolute necessity in any sort of lead generation, today the problem is sifting through the enormous amount of data available to establish leads. Pay per call represents an inversion of the telemarketing paradigm as far as having an enormous source of potential leads out of which only those who are interested call you, reducing the need for outbound marketing.

    The question remains, are these “Glengarry” type leads? Yes, and without the cold calls. In addition to the advantage of having leads call you, these leads are qualified by the fact that when they call you they are expressing interest in your product or service. That is why you see conversion rates that are typically over 25% in pay per call campaigns. And as great as it can be to build brand awareness through pay per click campaigns, the ultimate goal of any campaign is to be closing.

    Do you think that this sounds like something that you would be interested in? If so, see how much power a phone call can do for your business:

    call us

  • Twitter For Inbound Marketing (And Conversions?)

     

    Twitter, introduced in July of 2006, has proved to be more than simply a way for whiny teens to vent to the world and share transcendent insights on the modern condition (in 140 characters or less, no doubt). While it certainly has become a place to catch up on key pieces of celebrity gossip and the latest trends coming out of different and obscure industries, Twitter has proven itself to be a quite effective inbound marketing tool.

    This is namely due to the fact that as a business you can grow your following by adding users who exist within the niche or who are a part of the key demographic that you hope to be following. But that is only the beginning. While the creation of content should never occur in a vacuum (i.e. posted and forgotten about), Twitter is an especially effective tool for content promotion as it gives businesses autonomy over the amount of exposure a piece gets and the audience who sees it.

    With Great Power, Comes A Great Many Sponsored Posts

    Twitter recognized the powerful potential of their service in the hands of marketers and first launched their self service ad platform in March of 2012 on an invite only basis before expanding the service to all users in April of 2013. This platform allows for businesses and individuals to have promoted accounts for commercial and advocacy organizations, promoted tweets for the promotion of specific content or messages and promoted trends (which is essentially a refined form of newsjacking trending hashtags for promotional purposes).

    8477893426_9181cdabc4_oOf course, the advantage of all these different types of ads is that fact that based on usage trends and, though I hate to use the word, the “big data” that exists regarding the key demographics behind these trends, you can successfully target (hyper-target you might say) your desired audience by matching your promotional efforts on Twitter with your sales data on conversions by demographic–assuming your sales team has been scrupulously keeping track of said data (they should be).

    In the Cross-Hairs

    Twitter is about to make this process even easier. They recently released a seemingly innocent feature which allows users to post information about their birthday. While it is always fun to have your profile page decorated in glitter fonts and animated balloons (think back to the glory days of MySpace profile customization) this information will allow Twitter and advertisers to be even more effective at targeting certain audiences. Millennials watch out!

    There has also been a lot of discussion about the rise of mobile as the primary platform that people are engaging the web with. And Twitter is no exception–especially considering the fact that the idea of the 140 characters comes from old sms and text message constraints. The fact that people are on their phones when accessing Twitter has not been lost on marketers. A new method of marketing based on geo-targeted ads has emerged in the wake of this transition to mobile. This, combined with the other previously mentioned tactics, provides the opportunity to create a qualified inbound funnel on Twitter that consists almost exclusively of leads generated from within a hyper targeted demographic.

    Once again, Twitter is aware of the lead generating potential that it possesses. So much that they have taken steps to forego the lead generation process entirely by introducing a “buy-button”. While this feature has been met with mixed results, it should be interesting to see if the Twitterverse responds favorably to this new feature. Perhaps the biggest hurdle will be convincing users that the same place they look up the latest Kardashian gossip, immerse themselves in teen-angst and watch for the next political gaff can also be a safe and convenient marketplace.

  • What is Cool? Understanding Millennials

    If you happen to follow us on twitter, then you may have seen the article we recently published called “Cracking the Millennial Code“. While this piece was more oriented towards the issues that Millennials face in their attempt to reshape today’s business culture, it failed to address a popular topic of conversation within the marketing industry–namely that of the Millennial as consumer.

    Why is this topic so important in marketing? Because as Pew reports, the Millennial generation is projected to outnumber the Baby Boom generation by the end of this year. Baby Boomers, who have traditionally been the bread and butter of marketing efforts because of their numbers and generally homogeneous consumer behavior, will soon be replaced by a larger, more diverse and technologically driven generation that by all standards has none.

    Who are they?

    This raises some questions about how marketers should respond to this unruly rabble (of which your author is proudly a member). This conversation, however, did not begin with the onset of social media, or the projected exit of the Baby Boomers from the marketplace. In fact, this generation has been on marketer’s minds for some time–particularly how to mold them into predictable consumers.

    Regardless of their overwhelming numbers, extreme diversity and disparate consuming trends, one thing remains constant: we love to consume. I turn to a Frontline report that aired in early 2001, a period that most would look back on as the twilight of our naivete towards the global community that we have become accustomed to through new media. The segment, titled “The Merchants of Cool” explored the ways that marketers addressed and informed the now dubbed “Millennial” generation’s internal discourse over the question, “what is cool?”

    This conversation, along with the increasingly rapid proliferation of personal technology, has come to the post-modern conclusion that “new” and “cool” are synonymous–just look at the queues outside of your local Apple store next time there is a product launch. What is more interesting is the role that social media has played in magnifying the disparities between early adopters of new products or technologies and the general consumer. This constant tension of trying to stay with the curve, and knowing exactly what it takes to do so, has created a generation whose self worth is quantified by their ability to consume (and qualified by an ever attentive global audience).

    A Trend of Consumption 

    This is an activity that has informed a lot of our existence since the beginning. We were born during a period of relative stability and prosperity, and it shows. In fact, at the time of this report to-be-Millennial teens spent an estimated $105 billion dollars, and influenced their parents to spend an additional $49 billion dollars.  Forbes now estimates that this same generation will be spending roughly $200 billion dollars a year (which if we compare to the earlier figures and adjust for inflation shows that the rate of consumption for millennials (in dollars) has not changed since their teens).

    This revelation is interesting, especially when you consider the fact that nominal wage growth has yet to exceed pre-recession levels, let alone that of 2001. What this means is that the millennial generation puts a high premium on their ability to spend money, far above that of financial stability or independence. It should come as no surprise then that 36% of millennials live at home and the same percentage  receive some sort of financial support from their parents.

    This raises two questions. How long will this trend of spending and consumption last, and how can businesses responsibly manage this enormous consumer base? Hopefully with sustained economic recovery the former will resolve itself as more millennials gain employment with sustainable incomes. The latter, however, appears to simply be a matter of being in the right place, at the right time with a new message that speaks to the sensibilities of this highly dynamic generation.