One thing that always catches our attention is the way the Aberdeen Group uses a unique classification system to tell just what types of businesses are using some of the most important business techniques in the market today.

When they perform research they look at marketers that they determine are best-in-class, average and laggards. The classifications are self-explanatory. What isn’t obvious is how you would classify your business. Remember this is when no one else is looking or listening. Ok, back to our subject matter for this post.

Aberdeen did a study recently that examined retail marketing efforts called, The State of Customer Centric Retailing: The Best Practices Guide for Higher Sales, Customer Retention and Satisfaction. Now, since we are a software as a service company delivering marketing functions to help in these very same areas we were curious how the various types of companies faired in these areas.

First look at the chart below.

Look at the percentage of best in class companies using a multi channel marketing application as compared to the average and laggard classifications. There are close to 50% of these companies opting to do marketing through a service that helps them manage the process. Maybe they are best in class for a reason?

Now look at what happens when these companies are asked whether they plan to implement some form of multi channel marketing application in the next 24 months.

What is happening is that those who are average as compared to their competitors are seeing this strategy as a way to get out of their current average status. 50% of the average businesses plan to engage in this activity. Being average is not where they want to be so they are taking the necessary steps to improve.

Why do you think that is? Is it because it is the ‘cool’ thing to do or is the right way to market a retail business? History shows that the best companies over the long haul are much less concerned with being cool than being effective.

Are you struggling today? Does your business need something to go from average to best in class? Maybe it’s time to follow the leaders in your industry and learn how to use tools like the Dealer Ignition suite to get your business to the next level.

Call us at 888-344-6483 today for more information.

On one hand we talk to brand marketers who use smaller independent brokers and agents, which are most often retail shop owners, to represent and sell their product to the consumer, the end user. On the other hand, we have those independent dealers themselves who are looking for new and innovative ways to help their customers and to make them want to come back for more.

So we often talk about techniques to accomplish sales goals etc. What we haven’t asked our readers to do much is to take a look at themselves and determine just what kind of Internet user they are. Why do this? Well, when someone like an SMB (small and medium business) owner truly sees how they view and use the Internet themselves it will help to better understand how they do or don’t use the medium for their own business.

The American City Business Journals has released a study as reported by MediaPost that examines different “profiles” of SMB Internet users. Take a look at the following types of Internet users and try to see just where you fit. This information uses descriptions directly from MediaPost but has been edited.

Interactors are the most heavily engaged with the Internet, spending 2.5 hours per week, the highest amount of time of all the segments. This group, a small group of business owners (15% of the survey population, accounting for 24% of sales) are mostly well-educated men and tend to run larger companies compared to any other SMB segment. Highly engaged with technology they have armed their employees with wireless devices, and are more inclined to make purchases over the Internet.

Interactors use the Internet for reading general and business news, researching and purchasing products and services, staying connected with colleagues and collecting information about competitors.

Investors show moderate engagement with the Internet and are most inclined to use it to access general and business news and manage their investment accounts, but are less active in the social networks realm. These owners have the highest net worth and the largest investment portfolios of all segments.

Demographically, the Investors group consists primarily of men who average 53.6 years old, have completed degrees in higher education and the highest household incomes. Similar to Interactors, they are highly involved with the local community.

Transactors are the largest segment of Internet sellers and sell 50% of their products and services over the Internet, compared to 41% for all other SMB owners.

Tansactors run well established companies and have are found in urban and/or suburban areas that skew toward the Northeast.

Viewers consume more music, entertainment news and sports, own the smallest companies, with an average of 21 employees and work the fewest hours of 51.7 hours per week. They also spend the fewest hours on the Internet, 2.1 hours per week, spending their hours on blogs, YouTube and HDTV.

Commentators work the longest hours at 55.2 hours per week, and represent a higher percentage of women and minority owned businesses than the other segment. Commentators spend the most time working on their own blogs or posting responses to others, work out of the office the most, but use the Internet the least to buy or sell businesses and services.

So where do you fit? The truth is that whatever group you fit under regarding your own Internet usage will likely determine how you apply Internet marketing strategies to your own business. If your view of the Internet and its importance to business is not in line with today’s business thinking maybe it’s time to get someone to help you understand just what opportunity exists in Internet marketing.

Not an easy call to make for anyone but if you want to grow today and in the years ahead you will need to have your online marketing “ducks in a row” or else you may be surfing the web from the unemployment line.

The chart below from Marketing Sherpa shows that of the companies talked to for this survey over 50% of the respondents are integrating social media with other online and offline marketing tactics.

Not surprisingly there are still 16% of the companies using social media that don’t do any integration with online or offline techniques. To be perfectly frank (it is my name after all ) it seems almost impossible to not integrate social media into online and offline efforts. Here are just a few extremely fundamental thoughts on how to do that.

Utilize landing pages – Landing pages from search marketing ads are a perfect place to put icons to encourage the searcher to join your company on Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else you are active. Think of it as a secondary conversion. Even of the searcher doesn’t buy or convert completely, if they decide to follow you in other ways then it means there is some level of interest. These leads can be cultivated in a different manner and given special attention since they, in effect, took two actions (clicked on your search ad AND engaged in social media) so they are indicating some interest. Take advantage of that.

E-mail campaign integration – Every piece of e-mail you send to a customer or a prospect should have your social media efforts promoted prominently. People are getting very accustomed to seeing Twitter and Facebook icons on materials. In fact, you may look like you are behind the curve if you are not showing this effort.

Business cards – While you may not want to go get new cards printed up you should do it and make sure your cards show that you are on Facebook, Twitter or wherever. Every time you hand out a card that is another chance to bring your customer or prospect to another way of engaging with your company. Engagement leads to trust which can lead to more business.

So what other simple things are you doing to ensure that your social media efforts are not an island unto themselves? Tell us here so we can learn together.

Some of are probably thinking “Sure there is. It’s the time that I have to spend less money and save for the busy season.” If this is how you are thinking I would suggest that you consider things differently. Why? Because more aggressive and savvy marketers are realizing that the “off season” is when you build the relationship with customers so that when it becomes “in season” they won’t look to any other competitor to make their purchase. If you are trying to win a customer from a competitor who has worked to keep their customer year-round your chances of success start at slim and quickly move to none.

Here’s an example. Imagine there are two ski shops in Winter Town, USA. Obviously the ski season should be the busy season and for years the shops went into hibernation for the warm months. As soon as there was the hint of chill in the air they reached out to their customers in earnest to try to secure their business for the upcoming season. This is how it has always been done.

This begs the question “Although these stores went into hibernation, did their customers’ interest in their winter sports go into hibernation as well? No likely. People who are passionate about a particular activity or sport never tire of consuming information about that passion regardless of the season. In fact, in the “off-season” they are as likely if not more so to find any information or content related to their passion so they can stay as close to it even though it’s not something they can do right then and there. Why do you think the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL have year round channels for their sports even when it is the off season? Because the fans never tire of their passion.

So back to our ski shops in Winter Town. It’s June 3 and one of the shop owners is heading out of own for the summer to re-charge their batteries and be refreshed for the start of the busy season. The other shop owner has decided to take a week long “working vacation” to plan for something different this year. She wants to keep in touch with their customer base through the off-season using e-mail marketing for newsletters and previews of the new season’s products. They can even get some research done for making better decisions on what keywords and key phrases to use in the paid search campaigns as a result of their interactions with customers.

Fast forward to the END of the busy season. Our vacationing shop owner is wondering why his stores sales are down 25% for the year. He’s also wondering how he can afford to take the summer off like he does every other year.

As for the shop owner who took advantage of the tools available and capitalized on the fact that his customers never stop shopping so why should he stop marketing? Well, you guessed it, her sales were up 25% year over year. Now she can hire that marketing specialist to be in touch with her customers year round and deepen their commitment to her store.

Sure, we made this story up but we also know that it is not far from the truth that is being played out all over every industry and vertical that has peak seasons. For those who feel that their customers don’t think about their next purchase around their passion until it’s “that time of year” you are going to be taken to the cleaners by the competition that knows better.

Are you communicating with your customers through e-mail and newsletters and website updates / promotions throughout the entire year? If not you should be. Call us at Dealer Ignition to learn how we make it easy for you to stay in touch with your customers so they can spend their hard earned money with your business.

Things may still be rocky but it is important to see just what people are turning to for relief. Smart money appears to be on marketing and advertising, particularly online, according to new study released recently by FedEx. Here is a chart to give you a real picture of just where businesses are going to help their operations grow.

These are interesting findings (to download the study’s fact sheet click here) especially considering the source. We always caution readers to consider the source of any research materials because they can be more self-serving than informative.

In this case, since FedEx owns and operates many FedExOffice locations around the country (formerly FedEx Kinko’s) you would anticipate some bias toward printed material rather than their online counterparts. Well, that does occur in other parts of the study but the gist of the findings is that online is where the opportunity lives for the SMB. Online spending is essentially remaining the same year over year while newsletters and direct mail have dropped considerably. Of note, the only category that increased was the use of social media which is online marketing’s first cousin and has a very symbiotic relationship with online marketing approaches as a whole.

So what are you doing? Are you in agreement with these findings or are you seeing something different? Whether you are a dealer or a manufacturer it is getting harder and harder to ignore the online channel due to it’s reach, measurability, flexibility and growth potential. Where do you stand today?

Not exactly breaking news, right? There are still, however, many companies that STILL sit on the sidelines with regard to this opportunity to generate more sales. We don’t understand that so we try to continue to provide more evidence that getting involved in search marketing is good and if you are already doing it then there are more opportunities to improve as well.

One of the reasons that many companies have gotten away from paid search is the hype and hoopla surrounding social media. You’ve heard it all before: it’s cheap, it’s easy and it’s the way to go. Well, when the reality of it being not so cheap, being far from easy and that there are many other ways to go comes home to roost, the result is the classic ‘deer in the headlights’ reaction by businesses.

Razorfish’s Outlook Report tells us something that all marketers need to be aware of regarding search marketing that is likely to be overlooked or never even considered; search is a great place for research that will direct other marketing efforts. The data your business gets through search can reveal some things that need to change in other places as well. It could expose ‘dead spots’ on your web site where visitor’s bail out because your site isn’t doing the job.

There is so much more to explore with this idea and we will in the future but for now you need to ask yourself the question, “Is my business truly taking full advantage of search marketing? Are there even more ways that search can benefit my bottom line?

Give us a call if you would like to discuss just how search marketing can help your business grow.

We went to The List to get some additional information about their marketing budget.

We discovered that they spend $45 million a year in advertising. They are supporting their dealers with national advertising. But upon deeper analysis, we realized that nearly $34 million was in national magazine advertising. So 77% of the total budget is being spent in National Magazine ads.

The web was $501,000, or roughly 1.1% of the total marketing budget!

So it really surprised me to see this graph today:

I hear brands say we advertise in magazines nationally to uphold the brand and for our dealers. I understand that. Supporting them with the visibility and presence. But that presence and visibility is now online.

Ignoring a 117% increase in your customers attention to the web is not supporting dealers. The dealers’s customers, the brand’s customers are online and the customer will be online more then they read a magazine. Spending 1.1% of your advertising budget online and 77% in magazines is missing the customers.

Plus with many new online advertising targeting features customers can learn about the brand, its products and dealers all in the same interaction.

So if you want to support dealers get online, include them and target customers together.

Your thoughts?

In any dealer/brand/manufacturer advertising relationship only three options exist for the online marketing and advertising of brands and services at the local level. They are either done completely by the local retailer, completely by the brand or the responsibility is shared. Each has their pitfalls and the best solutions often occur when cooperation rules the day thus keeping control issues to a minimum. Here’s a quick look at the pros and cons of each. Please remember that which side of the aisle you sit on (dealer or manufacturer/brand) may skew how you view these so please comment if you feel differently. Also, this list is by no means all inclusive so please let us know your take.

Retailer only

Pros: “Lives” the local market (presumably), understands the nuances of their customers, controls the interaction and presentation of the brand at the store level, has relationships that close deals

Cons: Cash flow for marketing / advertising investment is uneven, can wield too much ‘power’ in purchasing decision, controls the presentation of the brand at the store level (this could be a con if you are a brand), is spread too thin to have true knowledge of online marketing thus doesn’t engage as effectively

Brand/Manufacturer only

Pros: Is the true expert in telling their brands story, can make pricing decisions that respond to market conditions, can produce new customer centric offerings that further enhance the brand, often has ‘deeper pockets’ for consistent online marketing and advertising

Cons: Doesn’t always trust the dealer to represent their brand prominently, if communication with dealers is sub-par then systems break down quickly, has to manage many dealers and decide best use of existing co-op or MDF monies, sees big picture but has little perception of street level brand perception, doesn’t ‘live’ a market so treats all the same

Retailers and Brands together

Pros: Combined knowledge of local markets and brand strengths makes customer experience better, more can be done with combined funds, relationships are stronger if the chemistry is right, less ‘he said, she said’ on failures and more celebration of combined successes

Cons: Could turn into a power struggle unless the right guidelines and systems are in place, working more closely could reveal true incompatibilities, unless true understanding of each role is established then there could be uneven expectations on either side

So there is no one real good, obvious, clear-cut winner in how the online marketing and advertising relationship between dealers and brands should look. Each situation will dictate what is best suited for success. We can say, however, that regardless of which option is prevalent there needs to be a conduit between dealer and retailer that is more than just a signed piece of paper and some phone calls if there is to be real online marketing space in the local market for brands and local dealers alike.

We have a way to get there so give us a call to learn how to make the local marketing and advertising efforts of brands and dealers alike sing.

Google is always experimenting and testing new ways to make these ads more effective and part of our job here at Dealer Ignition is to keep our customers informed of just what Google is up to that could eventually help their business.

We found a post over at SearchEngineLand that is pretty commonplace these days because it tells of an experiment that Google is running now. Google is allowing some advertisers to put their phone numbers in their AdWords ads and still have their allotment of characters available to tell their marketing message.

Here is a sample of what we are talking about (we added the highlighting).

SearchEngine Land followed up with Google to see just what they were up to and “The Goog’s” response is as follows:

We’re currently testing a feature with a small number of advertisers in which a phone number can be included within the ad to help them more effectively engage with customers who prefer to connect over the phone.

Google also offers a “click to call” feature for mobile users but these two efforts do not appear to be related.

So the question begs, what are you doing to take advantage of the online traffic looking for your products and services? Are you always on top of the latest offerings from Google? If you responded with the usual “I don’t have the time!” just let us do that for you. In this new world marketing order of today information is power and advantage.

So why is this important? Well, it’s not so much the fact that the budgets are going up. Quite honestly whether your budget stays flat or even decreases isn’t the important thing. The real important issue is where are you putting your marketing dollars, regardless of the amount. Back to the increases first.

Among those companies planning marketing budget increases this year:

30% expect to boost budgets between 1% and 15%

13% of respondents plan budget increases of between 16% and 30%.

Others responded:

Forty-one percent of executives surveyed said they would keep marketing budgets flat this year,

Only 15% said they plan to decrease them.

Additional data round these increases said that the executives surveyed were interested in supporting specific areas of their business. Gartner’s press release tells us a little more:

For those companies planning an increase in budgets, sales programs to support the direct sales force as well as programs supporting positioning and external communications are key priorities. Following those are customer segmentation, strategic marketing, management of marketing efforts and sales programs to support indirect sales.

Now, what areas are going to get these increases?

22% of respondents said events will receive the highest portion of spending,

16% said advertising would get the lion’s share

11% said direct marketing was the big winner

So while there is no direct mention of online spending do you really think that these programs would NOT include an online element? I would say that it has gotten to the point where there is no longer a need to differentiate between traditional and online marketing because they are both just as important in any overall marketing program.

So with this renewed vigor in the high tech sector to get out into the marketplace, what are you doing to support your sales efforts? How are you supporting your channel partners? What programs have you put in place to increase marketing efficiency and grow the bottom line?