Finding Your Marketing Assets

November 30, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Marketing List Broker 

Sometimes the only way to find your marketing assets is by defining your marketing liabilities and then turn your liabilities into assets.

When you write your annual marketing plan for 2010 you’ll need to set some marketing objectives in measurable terms, like your conversion ratios for converting Website visitors into sales. You need to determine your return on investment and define acceptable conversion rates. Find the assets that can be improved

  • Look at declining sales revenues from your sales people
  • Look for ways to improve inquiries from customers with better follow-up
  • Look for up-selling and cross-selling opportunities and ways to increase the dollar sales amount
  • Look at closing ratio’s of sales staff per appointments/sales and ways to improve them.
  • Look at past customers and ways to follow-up with in-actives
  • Look at acquiring new prospects by analyzing the profiles of you top 10% clients and clone the best demographic criteria like age, where they are from and past buying habits

These are your marketing assets that can be improved in measurable terms using ratio’s to determine your progress.

With analysis you can spot the lowest hanging fruit and the best opportunities for example you could improve your Website conversion with better copy, a headline, an offer with a time limitation. With testimonials and guarantees, The only way to know for sure is by testing one of these elements at a time and study the ratio’s.

You improve you sales conversion with better training and closer supervision of the lowest sales performers. You improve customer follow-up of  inactive customers with better systems for more touch points by mail, email or phone follow-up.

The articulation of your uniqueness in your marketing efforts will help you to improve the ratio’s of your current marketing assets.

Knowing how to promote a successful Webinar or online seminar is one
of the best ways to generate highly qualified sales leads or educate and up sell existing customers. You not only send e-mail invitation to current customers asking for referrals but you also invite prospective customers through targeted e-mail lists.

When you write your marketing plan be sure to:

Define objectives
It sounds obvious, but you really need to think about what you are trying to do with a Webinar, so that you can measure your success and ROI after the fact. Is your marketing objective;

  • To acquire leads and bring in new sales?
  • To educate existing customers on a new product/service?
  • To obtain research or feedback on an existing offer?

If you are looking to acquire leads, one effective approach is to focus on third party opt-in email list rentals. If you are increasing awareness of a new product or doing research among existing customers, then conducting a permission-based internal email campaign could be the most efficient use of your resources. Free demonstration and trial use: 2009 Inc. 500 Winner Discover Why MegaMeeting.com was voted The #1 Video & Web Conferencing Company on the 2009 Inc 500 List!

Please feel free to call or emial if you have specific questions with finding your marketing assets.

Sincerely,

Tim Little, Owner                                                                                                Marketinglistbroker.com

E-mail Lists and Retention Efforts

November 27, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Email Lists 

The most expensive part of your direct marketing e-mail budget is spent on retention efforts (acquiring new prospects). In fact, in June Forester Research determined that 70% of our budget is spend on retention efforts.

This is shocking, when understanding basic direct marketing math that most marketers can spend up to 10 times more money finding new prospects than taking care of the customers that they already have.

Acquisition efforts by e-mail efforts can be a strong tool for lead generation. You need to maximize your marketing budget dollars by treating you email acquisition lists the same way you would with direct mail or cold calling leads.

Testing narrow segments of your or e-mail marketing lists will allow you to match up buying cycles, age or other demographic information used for micro-targeting your more focused e-mail lists.

You will get better results when you bring in a Web or profile data by bringing in niche targeted content like teenagers purchasing video games online from e-bay. A list where someone has opted-in to receive a special report or newsletter from a Website online.

Marketing today is about creating relationships rather than the hard sell or jumping straight into the offer, this will avoid the obvious mistakes sales people make when cold-calling prospects. Another mistake is not telling the prospect the source of the e-mail, if they have opted in to a newsletter or purchased something in the past they would be better prospects than buying a list cold without building the relationship.

Identify the source of the e-mail for you can personalize your message. For example; it was great to meet you at the trade show you attended or the Website that you logged on to. A new recipient would get a totally different e-mail than someone dropping their card into a box during the trade show. If this prospect met someone in your organization the message would be more personalized and warmer than just an e-mail opt-in from a niche Website.

Knowing how to promote a successful Webinar or online seminar is one
of the best ways to generate highly qualified sales leads or educate and up sell existing customers. You not only send e-mail invitation to current customers asking for referrals but you also invite prospective customers through targeted e-mail lists.

When you write your marketing plan be sure to:

Define objectives
It sounds obvious, but you really need to think about what you are trying to do with a Webinar, so that you can measure your success and ROI after the fact. Is your marketing objective;

  • To acquire leads and bring in new sales?
  • To educate existing customers on a new product/service?
  • To obtain research or feedback on an existing offer?

If you are looking to acquire leads,

Click Here for list inquiry!>

one effective approach is to focus on third party opt-in email list rentals. If you are increasing awareness of a new product or doing research among existing customers, then conducting a permission-based internal email campaign could be the most efficient use of your resources. Free demonstration and trial use: 2009 Inc. 500 Winner Discover Why MegaMeeting.com was voted The #1 Video & Web Conferencing Company on the 2009 Inc 500 List!

The Money Is In The List

November 25, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Marketing Lists 

Close List Selection and Analysis

Is the first step to ensuring a successful direct response program both online and off.

The money is in the list and in this sense the internet has not changed this fact. Today, it is much less expensive to collect and test different offers with the speed of the Internet. This is the same way publishers have sold magazine subscriptions and books since the beginning of the century.

The only difference today is that the Internet has made it much faster and cheaper to compile permission based opt-in lists online.

Even a great product at a reduced price would be useless if it is presented to the wrong prospects. You must target your prospect to generate traffic for your product by Web site or mail.

Most lists fall into two categories compiled lists or direct response lists. Compiled lists are phone directories annual membership rosters, and manufacturing directories.

Response lists are just as they imply they have responded and purchased a targeted product or service recently, because of this fact they are most likely to purchase a similar item again.

Response lists are common for magazine subscriptions or lists of prospects that have purchased life insurance or indexed annuities recently.

Standard Rates and Data Services (SRDS) are directories of response lists. They will include quantities and descriptions of each list for sale.

Direct Marketing Strategy:

The offer is often referred to as the deal.

This is what people get for there money. Whether you’re planning a direct marketing strategy, evaluating a campaign or writing an ad much of the work revolves around three important elements. The offer the list and the creative and these elements work together or separately to make your direct marketing promotion work.

The offer is the product or service being sold and includes any warranties, guarantees, features, and price and credit terms. The offer could also be the actions someone needs to take to place an order like a shopping cart or form on a Web site or reply card in a bulk mailing.

Offers separate general advertising from direct response. General advertising often excludes the critical information that should always be included in direct response advertising.

Direct response puts all the necessary information together in an offer and tells the reader exactly how to respond. People expect offers in direct response advertising. You must give the prospective customer a reason to respond like limited offer or special bonus, since the purchase is impulsive in nature.

The offer is often referred to as the deal. This is what people get for there money. Whether you’re planning a direct marketing strategy, evaluating a campaign or writing an ad much of the work revolves around three important elements. The offer the list and the creative and these elements work together or separately to make your direct marketing promotion work.

The offer is the product or service being sold and includes any warranties, guarantees, features, and price and credit terms. The offer could also be the actions someone needs to take to place an order like.Who’s the leader in your market?

The Interactive Book of Lists is the #1 source for fresh content and unique insights on Leading Companies in local markets. Learn how you can elevate your sales prospecting, business research and marketing to the next level. Your marketing plan SWOT analysis will define your unique selling proposition and your competitors unmet customer needs, gaps and weaknesses. This will be your source to analyze weaknesses with a strategic plan that will gain market share with a unique competitive advantage.

The data sheet and a free 30 day trail:

.6 million registered users
9.1 million unique visitors per month
61.1% Male
38.9% Female
Median age: 47
College educated: 87%
Average HHI: $92,780
User portfolio value average: $500,000+

Over the past 30 days:

49% influence purchasing decisions at their company
63% are in top or middle management
83% read business news online
80% shopped online
74% made a purchase online
*Source for “over the past 30 days”: Nielsen @Plan, Spring ’09

The Interactive Book of Lists is a digital, searchable compilation of the print edition of the Book of Lists; a powerful regionalized business intelligence tool that outlines companies who are leaders in their categories of business.

bizjournals is the online media division of American City Business Journals. It operates the Web sites for each of the company’s 40 print business journals and separate online only site with local business news and information for Los Angeles.

bizjournals’ 3.6 million registered users rely on the site for updated news and information on their local communities.

New! Interactive Book of Lists. Find the business leaders in your local market. Access local business info, search profiles, receive alerts & more.

View the Interactive Book of Lists tutorial video

* Gain insight on your competition by accessing the Interactive Book of Lists’ enhanced Company Profiles. Access fresh company data, contact information and news UPDATED 24/7 by our professional research team.
* Receive customized alerts around the clock on opportunistic companies and competitive updates to your business
* Grow your professional network with qualified leads and contacts. Export contacts into CRM platforms such as Outlook, Salesforce, Thunderbird & Mac Address Book

Before List Selection Define Competitive Advantage

November 24, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Marketing Lists 

The first and most critical step before writing your 2010 marketing plan and looking at strategic database strategy is to define your competitive advantage in the eyes of your customer base.

This could be the difference between a 25-50% increase in your sales or marketing response rate during the first 90 days of 2010.

The competitive advantage for my marketing plan and the ultimate marketing system. That’s what sets my system apart from everything else out there. So, that’s why a marketing manager can go with confidence in approaching prospects because he’s got something different and unique.

These are profits going to the bottom line because we didn’t increase the money spent to create those results. We didn’t have to do more advertising. We didn’t have to hire more people.

We’re freeing up capital because we’re better allocating the scarce resource and that’s so important, because it is the number one step and the first step in the marketing system because it is essentially the elevator sales pitch.

It’s the compelling selling reason that that company is in business. It is what sets that company apart, what makes that company unique from all of the competition, and it’s so important because with so many different kinds of businesses in the same business.

Find something that will differentiate you from the competition, and the reason you have to do that is because if people don’t perceive a reason that’s different to do business with you, then they’re only going to shop price, and they’re only going to go to the lowest price seller, and they’re only going to watch for the ads that give them the lowest price.

The first step is we met with the owner/president and staff to get their perspective of why your customers purchase your product rather then the competition, and you have a complete questionnaire that goes through what questions you should ask.

The next thing you do is call or email or survey customers, and in your survey questions you need to have to get the customers’ perspective of what might be unique.

From this information you determine your competitive advantage and then this becomes your mantra, your direct marketing headline in e-mail, mail or sales call.

A good example of a company using their competitive advantage is Domino’s Pizza, the dramatic impact for that company because they came out and they looked at all the competition and they surveyed customers, and they talked to prospects, and they asked what’s most important to them. At the time speed was becoming and was a void in the industry. No one was delivering a pizza fast.
For free consultation or email at

So, they did. They said, “We’ll get it to you in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.”Dominos Pizza, the dramatic impact for that company because they came out and they looked at all the competition and they surveyed customers, and they talked to prospects, and they asked what’s most important to them, and at that time speed was becoming and was a void in the industry. No one was delivering a pizza fast. So, they did. They said, “We’ll get it to you in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.

For free consultation or email at timglittle@charter.net

Click Here for list inquiry!>

Write A Marketing Plan

November 18, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Marketing Plans 

Anyone that has been successful at growing their business will tell you that you must have a written plan to succeed and grow. The annual marketing plan will help you to establish goals, set objectives and define your position and Unique Selling Proposition.

The written marketing plan will set goals, objectives and direct marketing strategy for capturing marketing share from your competition.

* Define why your customers should buy from you and not your competition?
* Survey staff and ask them why they think is unique about your business and why customers buy from you.
* Research your competitors and discover their weakness and strength and adjust position your USP for their obvious flaws
* Survey a random sample of 100 of your past or present customers and ask why they most like about you, ask them to describe your strongest benefits.

Your marketing plan is something you can take to the bank in more ways than one. With 2010 quickly approaching now is the time to write your annual marketing plan with marketing staff.

Marketing List Broker can help you with strategic strategy for gaining marketing share from competition without spending more money on advertising.Palo Alto and Marketing Plan Pro Software is one of the few American, award winning developers left and they offer free sample downloads and a 90 day money back guarantee. I used their 6.1 version for over 5 years and loved it because it’s fast, easy and saved many of my past clients and employers a lot of money.

What’s great is Marketing Plan pro, version 11.0 is light years ahead of the older version that I used because it allows you to develop a sustainable marketing advantage and helps you identify and:

  • Define your ideal customer by analyzing your core customers
  • Helps you to articulate your marketing message without copy writers
  • Get started in 30 minutes or less
  • It will help you through the critical analysis stages
  • Increase productivity and cut your marketing planning in half
  • Allow the software to do the hard work for you guaranteed

What’s great about Marketing Plan Pro is that it is recommended by all of the experts like Forbes, Business Week and Entrepreneur magazine to name a few see reviews…Free sample downloads and Video demonstrations….

Break into the top 10% of marketers next year with an articulated and sustainable unique advantage over your competition.

For free consultation or email at timglittle@charter.net

Lead Generation

November 17, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Marketing Lists 

Define Your Target Market

Your direct mail campaign needs to go to the people most likely to purchase them, and your mailing lists need to be chosen carefully. Do you know your market or target audience? Define your market and target your business niche.

When possible, you should be able to segment households by income level, businesses by size, and workers by job type, education, and many other factors.

The Standard Rates and Date Services directory includes over 12,000 detailed pages of list information and this is only the beginning of your list search.

The first step in the list process:
· Widen your list selection to include everyone in your list universe and than begin narrowing your search to specific traits.

· Define your target market by researching your customer database and find desirable characteristics and include income, age, gender, zip codes, states, and purchasing behavior.

· Decide if you need a compiled list or a response list. Response lists describe people that have responded to a recent mailing or offer by credit card or internet.

· Response lists are consumers that have purchased by direct mail recently and because of this, they are more likely to purchase again magazine subscribers are a good example. Anyone that has made a purchase by credit card are very responsive to direct mail. When purchasing response lists, look at Recentcy – when they purchased. Frequency- How many times the prospect purchased from owner. Unit Sale – purchase amount and source-origin of the name.

· Business lists-The bulk of business mailing involves complied lists and these lists are sorted by Standard Industrial Classification or specific manufacturing or service industry codes. An advertiser will mail by a cross section of SIC codes, company characteristics and geographic areas. Segmentation can further narrow your target. Age of business, sales volume, type of business by SIC and ownership is it private or public, headquarters or branch office and credit Dun @ Bradstreet credit rating.

· Whenever possible, always test at least 4 new lists during any large mailing. Purchase a minimum of 5,000 nth or (random select from the entire database). Key-coding and tracking lists will determine your best performers and the most profitable opportunities. A little known secret Make it known to your list manager that you would like to purchase a test list and if it performs well you will roll-out a much larger mailing depending on the response. The list manager will be more likely to give you the very best names in the database as far as regency, frequency and unit of purchase since he wants you to come back to buy the larger list.

· Always CASS lists to verify correct zip codes and to ensure addressing problems are checked and corrected (NCOA) National Change of Address your list to ensure that your entire mailing is deliverable. Your mailer may outsource these services to correct addresses that have moved. These are services that will improve your response and detect delivery problems before your campaign is mailed.
Contact Information

Timothy Little – Marketing Consultant with over 15 years of successful direct mail and database marketing experience!

Service Description

* We will customize and write a strategic marketing plan based on your competitive edge and Unique Selling Proposition
* The Free marketing audit is focused on your hidden assets can be done by phone or fact to face.
* The marketing audit will save you between $10,000 – 100,000 in advertising costs
* We will help you to discover your assets and grow your business in several ways Guaranteed.
* Develop selling skills to increase sales

Click Here for list inquiry!>

Marketing plan development with a focus on your unique selling proposition including market needs, demographics, analysis, strategy, break-even analysis and marketing budget. I have innovative database techniques to increase response rates with testing and analysis.

Telephone: Call 313 268-9951

Email address: Tim G. Little

Welcome To Tim Little’s Marketing Lists

November 15, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Marketing Lists 

Welcome to Tim G. Little’s Marketing List Broker Web site.

While the economy had a devastating effect on the direct marketing industry this year, reports based on online surveys of business to business marketers found that nearly 40% plan to increase spending next year.

The biggest gains for 2010 will be online, while many marketers will spend more money on a lower-cost, more measurable medium. Direct marketing and events spending will rise. Online services with the largest projected gains will be Web site development, email marketing, list purchasing, online video, and podcasts.

You must understand your customer base with direct response testing and analyze to find out how they want to receive their information. Next, develop a marketing plan and program that will maximize that communicative source with testing and analysis.

Customer acquisition was cited as the top marketing goal for 2010 and marketers will use a diverse group of campaigns to attract new customers.

Getting back to the basics using highly targeted direct mail to break through all of the clutter maybe a good thing to test.

Getting smarter about measuring return on investment and employing methods that make marketing more effective would be a good start.

Wasting money running after social media and non-measurable advertising opportunities can waste time and focus. Develop methods that are measurable and productive expense projects makes much more sense in today’s very competitive marketing environment.
For free consultation or email at timglittle@charter.net