by on September 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

Search Engine Marketing Increasing Traffic For Your Company

by Matt Genna

Imagine getting into your car, backing out of your drive way, but not being able to drive to your destination because the road is blocked off. What do you do? You now have little to no options but tons of frustration; this is what it would be like if there were no search engines available.

In this case, the car symbolizes a person’s idea or need, while the road symbolizes a search engine. Search engines help people navigate the World Wide Web efficiently, bringing the most relevant results to the user based on what they were looking for. Luckily, we are privileged enough to use such a tool in our daily lives as long as you have access to an internet connection.

Many times a company or business will find themselves wondering why their website isn’t at the top of the list when searching vaguely for the type of service or product they’re providing, and nine times out of ten it is because they haven’t properly done any research on Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Search Engine Marketing is a process of internet marketing that uses paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion to help increase a websites visibility in a search engine result page.

It has been said that 93% of the users who use search engines will not look past the second page of the search results that they will acquire. This is why many companies and businesses care about where their website will land after searching for a specific market that they dabble in within a search engine. But it isn’t always the top results being the first to be clicked on, search engines also could help you generate traffic to your website through the advertisements being shown on the search engine results page or through sponsored link pages based on keywords in the users search, this is known as Contextual Advertising. Contextual Advertising is the process in which marketers will place ads on various websites that are similar to their products or services, mainly to catch the user’s eye that is browsing the other website, but is interested in the same topic. For example, if a user is viewing a website pertaining to sports memorabilia, and an ad pops up relating to a sale on baseball cards, this is Contextual Advertising. Companies use this method all the time, and search engines realize how valuable of an asset this is and will charge the company for the amount of times that a user will click on any of these advertisements; this is what is known as Paid Inclusion or Pay Per Click. This is a better way of marketing in my opinion because you will only be paying for something that will show results, while increasing your ranking on search engines due to the traffic that is being generated through all these types of outlets.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing Campaign, Marketing Consulting, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
by on August 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

Generating Quality Leads With BMI Elite

by Matt Genna

After just a little over a year and a half of being established, BMI Elite has been raising the bar in every aspect of online marketing.  Specializing in Direct Mail/Postal Verification, E-mail Marketing, SMS Mobile Messaging, and Search Engine Optimization, you could say we’re as well rounded as a beach ball. However, one of our greatest specialties is Lead Generation.

Often when inquiring for quality leads for your company, the process can be as painful as pulling teeth. This is why most companies in search of quality leads spend endless hours on the phone with other companies, researching backgrounds and feedback from past consumers. In this article we will take an in-depth look at how the professionals at BMI Elite are different from other lead generation companies.

In today’s marketing world, companies use “Lead Generation” to find people (businesses/consumers) with qualified interests in certain types of products or services. Although there are many companies dealing with Lead Generation, quite a few are limited to only a couple of verticals in which to generate leads, as well as not being able to truly promise quality leads. With BMI, that’s anything but the case.

BMI Elite has the ability to access any type of verticals you may want to explore. Using their fine-tuned tactics, they have managed to generate quality leads in a diverse range of verticals. Let’s take a look at Debt Settlement, for instance. The debt vertical provides consumers seeking help for their outstanding amounts of debt with a new hope of life after debt, not only by allowing the BMI team to link them to trusted debt settlement agencies who can help, but letting them know not every company is out to just make a quick buck.

But wait, how do you know the generated leads are quality? Funny you should ask, because the Lead Generation team at BMI Elite is constantly call verifying each lead. This means a real person talks to each potential lead on the phone, making sure each lead is qualified before we send their information to you. But how do we know each lead is truly call verified? For those of you who are still skeptical of the promises the team at BMI guarantees, BMI provides you with recordings of the calls. This means you will physically hear each lead personally express their interest in whatever the topic may be.

At BMI Elite, we take pride in our work, as well as our reputation for being easy to work with and reliable. It’s all about quality over quantity, and with the examples demonstrated here, you can see how BMI lives up our clients’ expectations. It all boils down to hard work and care for our customers; clients return to BMI knowing that they will never have to worry about the quality of our product and service.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, BMI Elite Events, BMI Elite News, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
by on August 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

How Mobile Marketing Can Drive Auto Sales

Auto dealerships and car salesmen are starting to recognize the advantages of mobile marketing. For the most part, mobile advertisements are seen by individuals who are driving, walking, or taking public transportation. This is the perfect audience for any automobile advertisement because most of these individuals have busy lives that obligate them to constant movement. People on the move are always thinking of ways to save time and make their lives more convenient. People who are walking and taking public transportation will think about driving every so often. A person who is already driving may think about purchasing a new or bigger vehicle. An automobile ad will entice the individuals in these situations.

The term mobile marketing can be misinterpreted by some people if it is not properly defined. Several types of advertising methods are classified in this way. For example, a billboard mounted on the back of a large vehicle is a mobile ad medium. Trade-show marketing is another form of mobile marketing since the vendor needs to travel from place to place in order to promote their product or service and gain new customers. Using a mobile device to transmit advertising messages is the newest form of mobile marketing. This method attracts individuals and companies because of its low cost and far-reaching capabilities.

Individuals who sell cars are constantly looking for inexpensive ways to promote themselves. When they are ready to advertise, they may choose to advertise online in order to gain exposure through a mobile device. Smart-phones, PDA devices, tablet PCs and the like are internet-ready, which provides another means of exposure for online marketing campaigns. It also gives the user easy access to directions if they choose to visit the site where the vehicle is being sold. This type of marketing allows the advertiser to give their potential buyers lots of options and a good amount of information at a low price.

If the person chooses to advertise directly through a mobile device, text message marketing will allow them to do so. This is a powerful marketing method because it offers quick message delivery to a targeted audience. When a person reads a text message that interests them, they will either take immediate action or save the message for a later date. They will not need to connect to the internet to retrieve the information. A car dealer can use this method to offer a discount to anyone who responds to the text. They can place a numeric or alpha-numeric code in the text and treat this code as a coupon.

Potential buyers are more inclined to respond to digital marketing messages. Since digital marketing is personal, it allows an individual to make their decision in private. When a person makes their own decision without being influenced by anyone else, it gives them a sense of power. They feel like a smart buyer because they made a purchase on their own time without being pressured. Receiving a personal marketing text message also makes the person feel as if the offer is exclusive or limited to a certain number of people. A good exclusive offer will almost always strike the interest of potential consumers.

Arousing interest is good, but bringing customers through the door and making sales is the goal of every auto salesperson. It is the same for an individual trying to sell a vehicle. They may need to face several individuals before they come across a serious interested buyer. In order to separate the serious people from the indecisive ones, these advertisers need to use lead generation methods that will deter the people who are unsure. They should be honest about what they are offering and should offer as much information as possible. Misleading and vague advertisements will attract everyone. Using clear straightforward language will let the people know what they are in for before they arrive to a site to see a vehicle.

With SMS (Short Message Service) or text messaging, the number of characters used in one text is limited. On average, about 160 letters or characters can be sent through one message. In this case, it is imperative for a person advertising an automobile to keep their message short and to the point. If they do not, they will go over their character limit and raise their marketing cost. They can also make themselves look unprofessional since going over the character limit seems inattentive. Instead of risking their reputation, a person can send a video message or a picture message through a mobile device.

If an auto seller wants to send a video or picture of their automobile through a mobile device, it needs to be sent by way of MMS (Multimedia Message Service). This service works the same way text messaging works. It allows the advertiser to show an actual photo or video of their vehicle or dealership to their potential buyers. The individual on the receiving end needs to have a mobile device that is capable of receiving full color pictures and short video messages. An advertiser should only use this method if they have permission from the person on the receiving end. Multimedia messages can be costly, which is why one should use this method responsibly.

Before an individual decides to send a mobile text, they should consider the risks. An unwanted text can turn a person off and cause them to complain. It can also be viewed as an invasion of privacy since a mobile device is primarily reserved for personal use. Digital marketing should only be used in connection with relationships established through lead generation. This will prevent avoidable lawsuits and other issues from coming up. An advertiser that is careful will keep his or her reputation from being tarnished.

When used properly, mobile marketing can drive auto sales in a positive direction. Small and convenient gadgets with internet connectivity enhance online marketing efforts. Text messages give auto sellers the ability to offer promotional codes, while video and picture messages allow potential customers to see the condition of the vehicle. If the auto seller provides straightforward honest information, the potential buyer can make an informed decision–and possibly an offer–before they ever see the vehicle in person. Mobile marketing benefits the advertiser and the receiver by combining a time-saving promotional method with a convenient personal device.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing, SMS Mobile Messaging Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
by on August 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

Nine Essential Tools for Hotel Marketing Online

Online marketing for hotels is the way to reduce costs while increasing visitors and profit. Reducing rates to attract guests and spending on printed brochures are things of the past. More people look online for holiday and business travel because it saves them time and gives them all the information they need to make a decision. They can access several sites at one time and compare prices and features. Online marketing is a complicated business, but there are nine essential tools for hotel marketing online. The first tool a hotel needs is the right kind of website.

1. The most important thing a website needs to be is easy to use. It should be very clear how a visitor can get the information they want and this information should be one or two clicks away. The most important elements on the site such as booking information should be on the home page towards the top. Most people spend less than a second looking at a page before they click away. The home page must have something that attracts visitors to remain on the page.

2. It is also important to be one of the top three search results seen on the first page of a search engine. These results get 79 percent of the clicks. To achieve this, the site needs to have the right kind of search engine optimization (SEO). Sometimes advertisements on search engine pages look like search results and appear at the top of the page. Organic search results are not advertisements but are genuine search results, and 86 percent of people click on those and not the advertisements.

So, how do you get a high ranking with organic search results?

Google has software called spiders that analyze websites, “crawling” those sites to find keyword search terms which Google then uses to rank the site. The more keywords it finds, the higher the rank. If the site has links in Flash animation, spiders will not be able to read those, so they will not help search results.

3. Building links with other sites connected with the hotel business such as tourist attractions, restaurants, museums, public transport and airlines will make the hotel site look important in the eyes of search engines. The larger the network of links, the more often spiders will come across the hotel site. Using blogs on related sites to link back to the hotel website is also an effective technique to get a high search engine rank.

4. The website should have direct feedback from guests. Reviews and guest comments should be easy to access either by scrolling down or by a clearly marked button. 41 percent of people looking for holidays online and 50 percent of business travelers plan according to reviews.

If a negative review appears on the site, there are several ways to handle it. If positive reviews have already answered the negative review or if it is the only negative review among many positive reviews, the best option is to ignore it.

If posting a response is considered by the hotel marketing team to be the right thing to do, the facts of the situation should be ascertained first. The response should not be in any way sarcastic or angry. It should appease the dissatisfied customer, without admitting any wrongdoing. This may or may not help the dissatisfied customer, but it will go a long way as good public relations for new customers. They will see that you aim to make their experience as positive as possible. If the facts are not correct, this will give a chance to correct them. Compensation can be offered which will also give a big boost to positive PR.

5. The website should reflect what customers need to know and give it in an irresistible way. Video Search Engine Optimization is one of the best ways to do this, both on the site and on video online communities.

6. Digital marketing includes television, internet, radio, social media and mobile. Hotels should tailor online marketing for mobile devices as potential customers will research hotels on their mobile more and more often in the future. If the website is mobile-friendly it will reach more customers. Research shows that interest in apps for travel is lessening, and more companies are investing in mobile websites.

7. Leads for potential customers can be generated for several reasons including e-newsletter list and acquiring guests. Lead generation can come from advertising, but organic search engine results and referrals from satisfied customers are the most productive.

8. Online marketing should include as many formats as possible to get and hold customers for return visits. Offer a newsletter, articles, PDFs with tourist, hotel and local information, press releases, videos and social media updates.

All of the information on these and the home page should be constantly updated to be the latest information including seasonal promotions, local festivals and entertainment. This is a strategy to get visitors to return to the website.

9. Social media networks are the place where people get reviews and independent travel blogs from friends, family and travel sites. A hotel needs a presence on the main social media sites to be brought to the notice of people looking for hotel information.

Today, with Google+, users can rate a website much like they do on social media networks. However, on Google the site must have a publicly accessible user profile and not be an artificial profile as is possible on social media networks. To take advantage of this, hotel websites should give only relevant information and not be overly promotional. Sales-speak will no longer get the attention required. Only valuable content will be profitable.

Marketing hotels online is essential for success in the business. If the hotel has a large marketing staff and budget, they will be able to get the hotel into the travel public’s eye online. If the hotel is small, it is better to outsource internet marketing to experts. The cost will be more than doing-it-yourself, but the return on investment (ROI), repeat business and referrals will be increased a hundred fold and well worth the expense.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SMS Mobile Messaging, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
by on August 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

Boosting the Life of Your Auto Dealer Email Marketing Campaign

If your email marketing campaign doesn’t seem to be giving you the results that you had hoped for, it’s time to reevaluate what you are doing. An auto dealer certainly can make money keeping in touch with their customers via email, but only if it is done right. Here are some things that you can do in order to boost the effectiveness of your online marketing and lead generation strategy.

Listen to Your Readers

Give your readers the option of opting out of your newsletter if they don’t want to continue reading. This keeps you from annoying your customers, which won’t be good for the future of your auto dealership. Word of mouth is an important factor to successful sales. If you come across as pushy, you will develop a bad reputation, which can dramatically hurt your conversions.

It is also more than worth it to allow your readers to select preferences about the types of messages that they receive. This is extremely valuable, because it means that you will only be sending messages to the people who actually want to hear them. When every message that a customer receives matches their preferences, it means that they will be much more likely to open every one of them. They see the newsletter as useful to them, which is exactly the position that you want to find yourself in.

Get to the Point

Evaluate your messages in order to make sure that they get the message across without asking for too much of your reader’s time. The message should be straightforward, consistent, and easy to skim through. If you overload your reader with too much information, whether it is advice or promotions, you will most likely lose their attention. Your readers have other things to do, and other things to worry about. Cloud their minds and they will resent you for it. Most readers have a ton of mail in their inbox, and are just looking for an excuse to delete any of it.

Give Readers a Reason to Read

If you want your readers to stay subscribed, they need a reason to keep reading you. This means that every email should contain information that is in some way helpful to them. Yes, you can’t forget to ask for the reader to commit to something, but this shouldn’t be the only purpose of the email. Don’t treat email marketing like an advertising catalog. Users already know how to shop on the internet, and they will do so when they are ready. The content should also be unique. Unique doesn’t mean “not plagiarized.” It means that the information can’t be easily found elsewhere. Your newsletter isn’t “free” in your reader’s opinion. It takes up their time. If they don’t receive anything in exchange for that time, they will stop reading.

Have an Accurate Mailing List

Every message that you send should go to somebody who has already indicated that they are interested in something you are providing them. You should have accurate information on them so that you know your message won’t immediately trigger as spam. Every message should be highly targeted toward the reader based on facts they have provided to you and general demographic data.

The size of your mailing list is not as important as the quality of your readership. It doesn’t matter how many people are subscribed to your newsletter if nobody is opening their emails. The goal is to improve the reputation of your car dealership using digital marketing. Encourage readers to sign up from your website. Don’t bother to purchase email lists. You will only be sending your message to people who don’t want to hear it. If enough people mark your messages as spam, they will start getting blocked even from customers who want to hear from you.

In addition to recruiting readers from your website, offer signup sheets at the dealership. Offer them to customers who chose not to buy a car, and even to those who did. You will want to target these types of customers differently, of course, but they are both invaluable contacts to have. Be sure to use a high quality list management system so that you can be sure you are sending the right messages to the right people.

Include Advertising in Standard Emails

If highly targeted emails have a high conversion rate, imagine how effective a personal email can be at sending a marketing message. If an employee is sending a routine email to a customer or a business contact, there is absolutely no reason that this shouldn’t also be seen as a marketing opportunity. These are the most personalized messages that a person can receive. The recipient has likely met the employee at some point, so they are much more likely to open the email and read it. This is the perfect opportunity to include some marketing messages in the header and footer.

Hire a Third Party Email System

It is usually a bad idea to try to handle your lists on your own. It is enough work to run an auto dealership. It takes a great deal of time to properly manage an email list. While this is an important part of a successful email marketing campaign, it is much more cost effective to let an expert handle the majority of the management. You may want to compose the messages yourself, but it isn’t typically worth your time to continually check the quality of your list, the statistical data on your reader’s demographics, what they click on, and what they don’t. Third party experts can do all of this much more efficiently, as well as checking to see if your messages are ending up in the spam folder, and what you can do in order to resolve this problem.

Check out the Competition

Email lists are free. Sign up for the newsletters offered by your competition. This is an excellent way to take a look at what your competitors are doing better than you and what they aren’t. It’s not always a good idea to use this information in order to copy your competition, but the information is highly valuable, regardless. It can also give you clues about what you could be doing differently.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
by on August 4, 2011 Leave a Comment

Using Lead Generation to Grow Your Online Travel Business

An online travel business is relatively easy to set up and it can be a great online income generator. Whether you are a large travel company or a small travel agency or travel agent, you need to be able to generate leads for your business. Below are several ideas for travel business lead generation.

Offer Free Trips

Even if you are a small outfit, you can offer free trips. This can be a great incentive to create leads. One strategy in this regard is to offer existing customers a free trip if they get a certain number of customers to sign up for one of the trips you offer. Simply structure this so that you will make more from these new leads than the trip you are offering costs. You will turn a profit and in the process get access to a whole new set of leads that can be profitable in the short term as well as long term.

Use Videos

Video is fast becoming the most accessed form of internet communication and information. People are visiting YouTube and other video sites to find information more and more often rather than they are using other avenues. You can make this work for your online travel business. Create lush and inviting videos of tropical getaways, informational videos about the history of a certain travel destination and great places to visit there, and fun videos of all kinds. People want to be entertained when watching a video, not merely marketed to. So think in terms of making videos that are fun and intriguing to watch. This will tend to win you channel subscribers rather than casual viewers. These subscribers can turn into customers.

Use Travel Blogs to Build Email Lists

Blogs are easy and inexpensive to set up and you can use this method to generate email lists. Create interesting blogs that describe various travel destinations, give travel advice, feature firsthand accounts of travel experiences, and so on. The more interesting the content you provide on such a blog, the better. As is the case with the videos, people will begin to read your blog and in this way you will bring interested travelers to your site. You can create an opt-in box in which these people can enter their information and start building a targeted email list in this way.

Get Reviews and Referrals from Travelers

Reviews and referrals are like gold as regards internet marketing. When people read unbiased reviews that are favorable from real people, they tend to be very convinced that the service you are offering is worthwhile and delivers what it promises. You can just ask customers that have already taken trips you’ve offered to write a review and place some of these reviews on your website or blog.

Use Follow up Marketing

Follow up marketing is attempting to reach people after they have already ignored you several times. There are some interesting general statistics here. It appears that about 80% of potential customers do not even pay attention to marketing efforts by a particular advertiser until after the fifth attempt. This means that following up on leads is a very good idea. This applies to online travel businesses as much as any other business.

Your best bet here is to automate the process of follow ups or it can easily become too time consuming. Referrals are along the same lines, but they are even more focused in that the customer can actually put you in touch with people they know. As mentioned above you can use things like online contests and other incentives to give people a reason to bring you new customers.

Use Social Networking

You’ve heard it before – it pays to use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. It’s true. Sites like this can generate a lot of leads and interest in your business. A travel business can post stunning photos or videos of travel destinations on their Facebook page and can also announce things like contests for the best description of a trip to a certain destination. Social networking should just be a commonplace of any online business and travel businesses are a great example of this.

Advertise off the Internet

You don’t have to limit your lead generation strictly to the internet. You can advertise in newspapers, or even radio and television if you have the funds. The easy and inexpensive way to do this is obviously through small classified ads, perhaps in free entertainment newspapers. Offer deals and contests in these ads and direct the user to your website or feeder sites such as blogs or articles posted on article directories.

Offer Memberships

You should think in terms not only of generating leads, but in getting actual members. Offering membership discounts and incentives works very well with the travel business. Travelers are often repeat travelers. They may vacation in a certain destination each year or may frequently travel to a particular locality for business. Thus if they sign on to your travel service, perhaps for a yearly fee, you can offer them all kinds of perks for members. Remember that memberships are not about making your customer feel like he or she is signing a contract but rather is becoming part of a community and feeling at home. You should think of it as a way of getting to know a customer better and letting them get to know you.

Don’t Forget Customers You Already Have

If a customer has already used your online travel business, they can be considered an especially valuable contact. So in this sense, they are some of the best leads you have. If someone has already bought one of your trips, try offering them further trips or services. This could either be to the same destination or to a new one, or simply be added items like auto rental deals or flight discounts. By targeting your existing customers along with new ones you will stimulate the customer base you already have while adding new prospects which will in turn become existing customers who can then be marketed to in a similar way.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
by on August 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

Tips and Tricks Using Email Marketing to Build Your Car Dealer Brand Online

Email marketing is one of the most cost effective methods of online marketing and lead generation. If you want to promote your car dealership using email marketing; however, it is important to realize how digital marketing is different from traditional media. It is much more personal, conversational, and targeted. If you fail to realize this, you can hurt your chances of success. Here are some tips to get the most out of an email marketing campaign.

Get Permission

The first thing that you should do is ask for permission before spamming your audience with pitches about the latest cars to hit the lot. (You shouldn’t spam them at all, but we’ll get back to that later.) If you fail to ask for permission before sending an email, you will risk losing potential customers, and damage your reputation in the long term. It is easier than ever for customers to mark a message as spam. Once you have been flagged, it becomes especially difficult to recover, and most of your audience will no longer be receiving your messages in the first place.

The good news is that it is not hard to get permission. Offer the customer the chance to receive a small benefit such as a discount on the next car that they buy from you, as long as they agree to receive email messages from you. In many cases they will also agree to provide you with information about their preferences, which will make it easier to target them specifically.

Be Viral

Encourage customers who have worked with you to refer their friends. Ask them if they would like to receive regular updates about new promotions and tips. Fill the newsletter with genuinely helpful information, and people will want to share the information. If you include a “subscribe” button in the email, it will be easy to start building a dialogue with potential customers. If you do it right, the list will grow on its own, with very little traditional “marketing” efforts.

Think Long Term

Bizarre as it may sound to some marketers, the goal of each email shouldn’t be to sell a car. Don’t misunderstand this. At the end of the email you should always encourage your reader to visit your dealership for one reason or another, but most of the content of the message should provide some other helpful insight for your customers. The goal of email marketing is to build a long lasting relationship with your customer so that when they think about buying a car, or hear that one of their friends wants to buy one, your name will be the first one that comes to mind.

It is also very important to stay fresh in your customer’s mind. Obviously you shouldn’t flood their inbox with more information than they can possibly use, but if you are sending out a message less than once a month, odds are they have forgotten you exist.

Keep the Reader Interested

Tell stories instead of trying to advertise. Most people don’t get home from work and turn to the nearest infomercial. In fact, most people are so saturated by advertising that they tune it out. Viewers can see the same commercial multiple times before they even notice it exists. If your emails don’t spark the reader’s interest, it is hardly worth the effort. It is much better to imply the expertise, trustworthiness, and low cost of your cars than it is to come right out and say it. Prove that you are an expert in your subject rather than saying that you are one. You should be writing the type of email that people want to share with their friends.

Design Principles

Sometimes it is better to use plain text than to use too many images or animations. Some email filters will be more likely to consider these messages spam. It is often a good idea to ask the customers before they sign up for a newsletter if they would prefer to receive plain text or multimedia messages. Either way, animations or audio usually scare readers off. A basic image and some attractive coloration are all that is necessary.

Experience has shown most experts that the call to action should be next to an image, rather than underneath it. Readers will often disregard anything displayed below an image, possibly considering it to be a caption rather than anything noteworthy. It has also proven advantageous to use buttons rather than hyperlinks, because they attract more attention and it is more clear what they mean. There is no point in “tricking” a user to visit your site. You only want them to visit your site if they want to visit it, otherwise they will almost certainly not buy anything.

Rather than directing all readers to your home page, it is also advantageous to direct them to specific pages that are relevant to the content in the email.

Know When to Quit

Beyond a certain point, if emails are not converting it is likely that they never will. The exact point at which you should stop sending messages is something that you will need to use your own data in order to determine. The important thing is to avoid beating a dead horse. If a reader has received a certain number of emails and not clicked on a single link to your site, it’s best to cut off the messages so that they don’t start to become a nuisance.

Know What You Want

Your email marketing campaign should have a very clear goal, and that goal might be different for different types of customers. Some customers may have subscribed to your emails after buying a car from you. Others may have done so after discovering your website, and still others may have had an email referred to them. You wouldn’t want to try to sell a car to somebody who subscribed immediately after buying a car, but there are other ways that you can take advantage of that customer relationship. Know what you want.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
by on July 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

How to Use Mobile Marketing for College Lead Generation

We live in a world where nothing stands still; everything is in perpetual motion and change. This applies to education too. Some years ago every young man and woman ready to get a college education was lured in with a nice building and great athletic options. Things have changed now, people are looking for more, and they want more for their dollar and their time. Everybody is in contact with one another, news flies from cell phone to cell phone and computer to computer. We live in the era of communication where nothing remains secret or lost for long.

Selling your Product to Young Adults

Young and old people use their cell phones like computers. They are internet capable and it is possible to surf the web with them. This is something that did not happen a few years ago, today 90% of all young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years old spend many hours per day looking at their phone’s screen. Chatting back and forth with their friends or surfing the web. This means that they are not being bombarded with advertisement on their computers only, it is happening on their phones too. Online marketing and digital marketing are the only way to sell today.

Mobile marketing has grown at the speed of light in the past two years. This revolution is the consequence of the phones we are using today. They are small computers which are on us every moment of every day. A small but intense advertisement campaign can bring to you not hundreds, but thousands of leads for your product and sales. The power of mobile marketing is an untapped gold mine which should be taken advantage of by colleges and universities all over the country. Today it is possible to reach thousands with the touch of a button or the ring of a phone. This is where the mobile marketing magic lies.

How to Use Mobile Marketing

To use mobile marketing for college lead generation is not hard but it is tricky. In the first place you need to have advertisement that is catchy and that will force the boys and girls to open their phones and to look at your message. This is the hardest part, getting them to answer and pay attention to your digital marketing. Young men and women today live on the fast lane and it is hard to get, and keep their attention or focus for more than a minute because they process information faster than their phones and computers do. But once you have them, they will be your best weapon and advertisement campaign. They will bounce your message from one corner of the world to the other.

Some infrastructure will be necessary to answer the leads your mobile marketing campaign generates but it will be well worthwhile. Many young men and women today do not have time to sit at home and watch television or even go to a college to get information about enrollment procedures and documentation. They are busy with their cars and their jobs and their dreams. So if they will not come to the college, it is necessary to bring college to them through digital marketing and online marketing campaigns. All this can be done through their telephones, while they are on the move.

Where to Start

It is a well known fact that people today do not go out to get information or to ask questions. This applies to buying insurance, cars, refrigerators and yes, colleges. The first thing people do today when they need information they go online and search for it. If you are a young man or woman searching for a college close to home or anywhere else, the first thing you will try is the internet. Whether they do it with their phone or their computer, this will be their first step. This is the only chance you will have to grab them and recruit them for your school. In a few hours or days they will be gone, someone else will have interested them in their college and you will have lost them.

It is time that colleges all over the United States start spending their money on online, digital and mobile campaigns to bring those kids to their doors. This is the way things are sold today; the days of the recruiter going from town to town are gone, people do not have the time to sit and listen to what you have to offer, even if it is a great education. Colleges that want to bring students to their doors have to design strong campaigns that will, in a few minutes say everything the school has to offer and also give them the option to ask questions and comment on their needs. It is necessary to answer their questions and doubts without interrupting them or taking them away from their activities. If you do, or try to do it, they will lose interest in your proposition.

Communication is the Key

This remote communication will have to be done through their mobile phones or their computers. This young generation communicates through their phones, they do not talk or visit each other, they chat and they text. It will have to be the colleges that reach out to them because they are in fact the most interested parties. The young men and women who want to go to college in any given year have approximately 6,000 options in the United States to pick from. That is a lot of colleges to choose from so it is necessary to have an edge over those around you, it is necessary to make the technological jump and contact your college leads by phone and online. College lead generation is harder every year as universities and college all over open online classes and carriers for those who prefer not to enroll for regular classes.

Technology will help colleges all over the United States to overcome this communication breach. Online marketing has been king for some time now but mobile marketing is catching up in great strides. Not everyone carries a computer with him or her all day, but at least 80% of the people in the United States have cell phones and out of these, most of them, are internet capable. That is itself is an amazing amount of leads and possible students for any college anywhere. This includes the parents of your potential students too. It is not necessary for you to reach the child, if you get through to the parents they will probably text and send your mobile marketing campaign advertisement to their children’s phones and they will make them communicate with you.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, SMS Mobile Messaging Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
by on July 20, 2011 Leave a Comment

The Importance of Online Lead Generation to the Growth of the Hospitality and Travel Industries

Hospitality and travel are two of the hardest hit industries during the Great Recession. Signs of economic growth have led many businesses to implement strategies that will find the business on the right side of the economic recovery. One bright spot for the hospitality and travel industries is the use of online lead generation techniques. This form of online marketing is not a new concept, but may not receive the high level of attention necessary. Consumers are willing to travel and enjoy a good vacation. Having the right tools in place will lead those travel-friendly consumers to the best deals.

What is Online Lead Generation?

Online lead generation typically refers to the way businesses create prospective consumers’ interest in a product or service over the Internet. Leads are used for generating a list for electronic newsletters, reward programs and list building for marketing campaigns.

Generally, there are two types of leads – sales and marketing – often generated from an advertised offer that gathers contact and/or demographic information. Sales leads may focus on the demographic information such as income and age of prospective consumers. Marketing leads target rand-specific information to determine consumer likes and dislikes.

Within the hospitality industry, online lead generations might update on a weekly basis. The information can help those in the hospitality industry identify trends and solicit business for new events. This may drive demand for hotel rooms and also increase revenues for food and beverages. This type of information is valuable for resorts, hotels and bed and breakfast locations.

The travel industry may benefit from online lead generation techniques by attracting more visitors to websites. Prominence and savvy use of digital marketing tools can give prospective consumers more reasons to choose one online travel site over another.

How Online Lead Generation Contributes to Growth in Hospitality and Travel

Both the hospitality and travel industries have experienced drastic changes over the past 20 years. Sophisticated travelers have raised the bar with the ease of online booking and price comparison. The expectation is that those who wish to maintain customer loyalty will have to cater to the changing needs.

Improving communication with current and prospective customers is essential to ensuring loyalty and lifetime value. An effective online lead generation system should integrate seamlessly into regular business operations. This will prevent the appearance of intrusion in customers’ daily lives and build the confidence of employees.

Communications is one part, yet if influences every other aspect of an online lead generation system. The hospitality and travel industries have a better chance of growth with innovative techniques. Reservations for vacationers, business conferences and organization conventions will increase as more people become aware of what these industries have to offer.

Generating leads is easy, but maintaining lists and increasing revenues depend on other parts of an integrated system. Based on the information gathered through the leads, hospitality and travel companies can develop customer retention programs – offering discounts and travel packages suitable to customers’ taste.

Visibility is also key to growing the hospitality and travel industries. Visible advertisements make the businesses accessible to prospective consumers when strategically placed in the right places. Understanding behavior patterns of consumers, including where they go to look for services is important. Besides visibility, businesses should dominate the presence of competitors. Consumers like options and leads are generated by standing out.

There are numerous online lead generation strategies. Hospitality and travel businesses should identify which have proven most effective in producing qualified leads. Typically, qualifying leads generate from the targeted audience.

Characteristics of a Good Online Lead Generation Program

A good online lead generation program should have several characteristics to promote the growth of the hospitality and travel industries.

Having the ability to customized lead generation approaches is essential to any business. The travel and tourism industries cater to people of all cultures, backgrounds and tastes. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work for a business located in the Caribbean the same as one located in Alaska. Identifying the target audience and customizing online lead generation tactics should align with online goals. This also requires knowledge of public relations, marketing and advertising related to the industries.

Another characteristic is the ability to build travel packages that include hotel accommodations and local attractions. These are based on the information gathered from the leads, prompting more consumers to buy from a particular business that offers what they want.

The online lead generation program should also include online marketing strategies for the travel industry. Email and lead generation is important for hospitality businesses. These features can align with travel programs for online bookings. Digital strategies and e-marketing can work well for businesses such as airlines, hotels and resorts.

Interactive travel advertising tools on websites can improve the booking experience of consumers and prospective consumers. The online lead generation program should do more than collect information; it should also give information to consumers free of charge. Podcasts on company websites can provide consumers with an overview of vacation destinations and travel tips.

Customer Service Will Never Go Out of Style

There is a correlation between industry growth and customer service. Businesses that are customer focused will develop strategic goals that center on customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer is a loyal customer. A loyal customer can add to the bottom line. Therefore, online lead generation techniques should include plans for creating a positive experience for today’s consumers.

Online lead generation can become a win-win situation for the consumer and the industries. Cultivating relationships with consumers to attract their attention towards materializes in how consumers are treated after the business gains their attention.

Effective use of online marketing tools is essential in order to compete in a global economy. However, the basics of good customer service should never be lost. Consumers want a positive, user-friendly experience online. However, solid customer service and interaction is just as important. It is important that the hospitality and travel industries deliver on quality customer service. A loyal customer will return for their next travel needs. However, an unhappy customer will not return and tell other people about the negative experience.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
by on July 12, 2011 Leave a Comment

Nine Effective Tactics for Boosting your Education Lead Generation

Education portals and websites are always looking for quality leads. Since enrolling in an educational program is a relatively big decision, when you look at actual conversion rates from educational leads it tends to be fairly low. This makes it especially important for websites that advertise education – i.e. link to colleges that offer various types of programs – to get good, targeted leads.

While there is no magic formula for this, the tips and tactics below can help with boosting your high quality education lead generation.

1. Use a Lead Generation Provider

Lead generation for educational purposes is big business. There are provider companies from which a company can buy leads. These are often lists of email addresses or even telephone numbers. Sometimes these companies claim to have the best quality lists. But this may or may not be the case. The lists of leads need to be tested and you need to get an idea of how high quality they actually are. You can run tests for several different lead providers and see which lists seem to get the most clicks and enrollments.

2. Target Older Demographics

When you think of education leads, you may be thinking in terms of younger demographics such as the 18 to 24 year old range. However, statistics suggest that the older students returning to get advanced or second degrees are a large and growing demographic as regards educational internet traffic. These individuals are often somewhat more serious and focused about the subject of returning to school and are thus often better leads to target.

How do you target these individuals? That depends on the type of marketing you are doing. In some of the techniques mentioned below you will see that there are a number of ways to target these individuals. If you are simply buying leads from a provider, you can just request those types of leads from them.

This does not mean not to also cultivate younger – for instance high school to college aged – leads. The best strategy is probably to try a range of age groups. This is just to say that you should not neglect the older demographics since they are a becoming a recognized source of not only clicks but enrollments.

3. Email Marketing

Email marketing can work with educational leads if you have the right lists. This is something you may want to begin by going to a lead generation provider for. Get lists in a variety of demographics, possibly from several lead providers. Once you have some email lists that you feel are high quality, you need to test them out by allocating a certain amount of your time to emailing people from each one and seeing how each performs. Chances are they will not all convert the same. You need to continue with the process of testing until you find lists that appear to be fairly hot. Weed out poor lists early so that you don’t waste a lot of your company’s time and marketing resources on them. Once you have the hottest lists you can find, email these extensively.

4. Optimize for Search Engines

With the principles we’ve already discussed, optimize your marketing efforts accordingly. You want the most interest specific keywords. Things like “get a technician degree” are targeted and will tend to generate traffic that is relatively focused. These phrases will tend to work better than phrases like “Grants for education.” This will generate traffic that is too broad based.

You can also target various demographics in your search engine optimization efforts. With good keyword usage you can reach various age groups such as the younger and older ones mentioned above, and generate leads for certain types of educational programs. Once the keyword research is done you can begin a campaign with different types of key phrases and see which ones do well.

5. Display Advertising on Reputable Education Sites

Display advertising works fairly well with educational marketing as long as they are displayed on the right types of sites. It appears that the general reputability of the site is the decisive factor here. For instance a large site like Yahoo Education will tend to generate very good leads. The same sort of advertising on less well known education sites may or may not show much promise and are something you will have to simply test. And putting display ads on relatively irrelevant sites such as gaming sites or career blogs is likely to have poor results.

6. Target the East Coast

It may sound a bit strange, but the east coast of the US tends to be a better region than other parts of the country for educational leads. So this is something you may want to incorporate into your lead generation and marketing efforts. Cities like New York, Boston, or Washington D.C. are educational hotbeds and people are looking for education in these areas, or at least using the internet to do so, in some of the highest concentrations. So simply tailor a certain portion of your lead buying or generation accordingly, for instance with keywords or with the types on sites on which you place advertising.

7. Use Affiliates

Affiliate marketing can be used with reasonable success in educational lead generation. You may want to begin by finding a few leads and paying them on a cost per click, cost per lead, or cost per action basis and see if these leads seem to convert by actually enrolling. Again, just test this out and gauge the results for yourself.

8. Use Social Networking

Social networking like FaceBook and Twitter is a great way to target specific demographics in your educational lead generation. These sites have utilities that allow you to find the types of people you would most like to reach.

9. Test and Retest

As is hopefully clear, testing and seeing how leads perform is the name of the game in educational internet marketing. You need to find weed out useless leads so that you can get ones that may actually make a decision as large as enrolling in a particular educational program. This means you must test and retest lead generation sources and keep refining them. The main goal of all this is to get leads that not only click but actually apply to or enroll in the programs that you site advertises.

Filed Under: BMI Elite Blog, Digital Advertising, Digital Branding, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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