Customer Acquisition

This is a guest post by Lilach Bullock.

Internet marketing and internet marketers have many issues, but this is the most common one – cost of customer acquisition. In this post we are going to explore costs and how as an internet marketer you can use your list to give you better results including better customer retention.

We are going to start with a little  maths. $C is the cost of acquiring a customer and $R is the revenue generated from that customer.

In order to acquire a customer you have to spend money and/or time: advertising, blogging, social media, sales copy, affiliate commissions, customer support, and so on.

If $R is greater than $C then you have a successful online business. As part of this series I will be sharing with you multiple ways in which you can cheaply advertise your offer AND how you can capitalise on the traffic you do bring to your website.

You could jump in and start pumping prospective customers towards your website and offer, but what happens if that prospect checks out what you’re offering and decides to leave? You would have just spent hundreds (possibly more) of dollars getting that prospect to come and check out your offer only to have them leave — for good.

What if you were able to keep that prospect around for a while? What if you could make the most out of every single prospect that visits your website? What if you could increase the efficiency of your marketing? You can do just that!

Not every prospect that you bring to your website will buy from you today, but many that do not buy today will eventually buy from you one day in the near future. So, why not try and make the most out of the money you have already spent to get those prospects to your website…? Why not try and capture them as future (and highly targeted) leads?

This is where a “list” comes into the picture. In marketing, a list is a collection of prospect (or customer) names and contact information. The offline world has been utilizing the list for decades upon decades! And you can tap into the same power online…

When you have a list of prospective customers, then, you can solicit this targeted list of interested people anytime you have something new to offer. Does this mean you should contact them every single day? No. But, having a list of proven prospects is by far cheaper and more reliable than going out and finding new leads (and faster — just click a button).

All you would have to do is send one email out, and you would have the potential of hundreds or thousands of sales. But this is not possible IF you do not prepare yourself in the beginning.

What you need to do is create a sales funnel before you begin sending prospects to your website

“What’s a sales funnel?”, you ask. Well, look at it this way: A sales funnel is no different than an oil funnel. An oil funnel allows you to pour a large continuous stream of oil into a small area…

A sales funnel is no different!

A sales funnel is a marketing process in which you take a multitude of prospects from multiple sources and you funnel them into one small area — your offer.

Sales funnels can get complicated really fast, but the image to the above is a basic and simple sales funnel. In fact, I could talk all day about different sales funnel techniques, but I won’t do that today. Today I just want to introduce you to the concept, and get you rolling with just a basic sales funnel. This way you can prepare yourself and get ready to capture those leads which you will be generating from the techniques on this blog.

The squeeze page captures your prospects. This is where you promise to give the prospect something (usually for free) and in return the prospect gives you their name and contact information so you can send them their free gift.

It is comprised of a headline, sub-head, bullet points of benefits, and an email capture form. The headline gets the prospects attention and the bullets sell the benefits of this free giveaway. The email capture form collects the personal information for each prospect AND the free gift can only be received once the prospect enters that data and hits submit.

You can then redirect them to your sales letter, or you can choose to have them check out their free gift first. Either way, the next step to the funnel is the follow-up.

The follow-up is there for those that have signed up for your email list, but have yet to buy from the sales letter. Some people will have to visit the sales letter a couple of times before they buy from you.

The follow-up will continue the sales process of getting the prospect to visit the sales letter.

Once the prospect gets to the sales letter, then, it’s the sales letter’s job to convert them into a buyer. Once this happens and the sale is made the sales funnel has been completed.

Now that buyer will always be on your list, so, the next time you have a similar offer available you can just email your list again, and those that have bought from you in the past will buy from you again. Why is this? Because it’s a proven fact that it’s easier (and cheaper) to retain a paying customer than finding a new one. Customers always feel safer giving their money to people they have already done business with.

Over to you – do you know your cost of customer acquisition and how do you retain your customers? If you are an experienced internet marketer share some words of wisdom here.

Photo Credit: las – initially via Compfight

Mozy Online Backup

With the advent of “The Cloud” most of the files I deal with on a daily basis never exist on my computer. Whether it’s Google Docs, Dropbox or Apple’s iCloud there are a multitude of places to store your files but relying on one back up solution can leave you vulnerable.

That’s why I have started using Mozy Online Backup. Mozy is a great backup solution that is 100% automatic. You always have the most recent versions of your files in a safe online environment that you can access from anywhere. Unlike some other online backup and storage options your information is always encrypted during the backup process and while stored in the Mozy data centres.

Mozy uses SSL encryption, the same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process. You choose Mozy’s encryption key using either 448-bit Blowfish or manage your own key using military-grade 256-bit AES to secure your data during storage. For even further peace of mind Mozy Online Backup is backed by EMC with over £8 billion of revenue, EMC stores and protects more information for the Fortune 500 than any other company.

They’ve not done too badly with their latest marketing efforts either, with this entertaining video campaign. In terms of viral video it does a great job of emphasising the importance of backing up, which is not normally a very exciting subject to discuss.

Different Business Idea

Orange could never be accused of being an ordinary business. And now they are looking for something else that’s different, your business idea.

If you are the lucky entrepreneur you will receive £200,000 worth of funding from Orange, including business planning advice, telecoms support, marketing consultancy, investment capital and legal advice to help turn your idea into a business success.

With the economy lagging and more and more people out of work the Different Business Competition from Orange offers encouragement to those looking to start their own business.

Even for those that don’t win this could be the spark that lights the fire of genius hidden in a budding entrepreneur, that could be you.

Take Control of Your Future

Starting your own business is a sure way to take control of your work life and future, to be able to do the things you love. It’s the key reason I took the step to self-employment this year.

Finding a gap in the market isn’t difficult either, it just takes some creative thinking and a bit of hard work. Think about the problems people face, or even an issue you have in day to day life. And if you are passionate about it, then work on a creative solution that you could take to market.

Cat’s Eyes and Paper Clips are two famous examples of inventions that are simple but have solved a problem for millions of people.

The entries will be judged by some of the most successful business leaders in the UK. Your different business idea will need to have a clear strategy, but most of all you’ll need to demonstrate the drive and vision that will make it happen.

Give It A Go

Everyone reading this should at least give it a go, and if it’s not for you let friends and colleagues know about the competition so they don’t miss out on the opportunity to change their lives.

You can find out more on how to Win Your Business idea some funding on Orange’s Different Business Competition web site, along with an entry guide and registration form.

Sponsored Post

Field of Dreams: Build It and They Will Come

Businesses spend much of their time trying to attract customers to their web site. Not giving much thought to what will happen when they get there.

Often spending thousands of pounds (dollars) on design, paying little attention to the user experience or content.

A “Field of Dreams” attitude still exists amongst many business men and women when it comes to the web. Rational, intelligent people loose all sense of business acumen when it comes to transferring their skills to the online world.

The thought of technology somehow clouds their judgement. Suddenly they make irrational decisions, expect disproportionate returns and wonder why their new creation is not an overnight success.

In reality there are few overnight successes online, or true garage start-ups; Amazon spent 7 years in the red posting losses of millions of dollars each year until it finally made a profit in 2002.

Mark Zuckerberg may have been a student when he came up with the idea of Facebook, but he was a intelligent enough to get a place in Harvard University.

Even Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar was no slouch when it came to business, a computer science graduate, formerly working as a programmer for an Apple subsidiary and starting his e-commerce software company in the early 90′s.

The same principals apply online as they do offline, and are clearly outlined in this beautiful infographic from Inbound Marketing experts Impact Branding and Design:

Facebook Page QR Code

They are appearing everywhere, on buildings, in magazines, on buses and trains. QR Codes are a growing phenomena. They can bridge the gap between off-line and online, enhancing user experience.

There are not the best looking marketing devices, but the alternatives NFC – Near Field Communication, are technical to implement and limited to a few mobile handsets. Digimarc, another alternate, uses information hidden in an image and was originally invented as a digital watermark. The issue with Digimarc, how to easily tell people they should scan the image.

QR Codes on the other hand are supported by many free applications available on most smartphones. People are starting to recognise them and know what to do when they see them, QR Codes are also easy to create, best of all they are free.

We have been starting to use QR Codes more readily now, they allow for an improved customer experience. One of the most popular uses has been on the back of products linking to video tasting notes. You could also us QR Codes as an easy, off-line way, to take users to your Facebook page or to Twitter, just make sure there is enough reward for the effort.

Here is a video tutorial showing how you can create your own QR Codes for free and even get statistics so you can track their usage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg__XOrWaZ4

Conway Stewart Fountain Pen

I am a big advocate of “doing the work”, tools and applications are secondary. Having the latest gadget or using the hottest application in Social Media are not as important as engaging in the conversation or sharing valuable content.

Unless that is, they improve performance, effectiveness or efficiency.

My priority is always effectiveness over efficiency. Some may see this as pure semantics, but it really matters. It can be efficient to have a tool that automatically sends Tweets all day long, but this is not necessarily effective, if it is not implemented in the right way for the right purpose.

After this comes focus, a tool that allows me to better focus on the work at hand will improve my performance in that task many times over. If I am not distracted by issues with the tool my output increases.

So what follows are the Tools and Applications that have served me well in 2011.

Mac OSX

What I was going to put here was the device I use, my MacBook, but that wouldn’t have been wholly true. It’s the operating system that has made a difference not the hardware. Yes the hardware is really good looking, but good looks don’t get you everything in life! I’ve been a hardcore Windows user for years, seeing Macs as a toy for designers, if you wanted to do any “real” work you needed a PC. Aside from that, a comparative Windows based computer costs a lot less.

When I was convinced to give Mac’s a go I couldn’t believe what I had been missing, and not in terms of functionality. I must have made that price difference up in saved computer start up time alone. This is without the time saved through better work-flow, easier program installation, task switching and numerous other efficiencies that come with Mac OSX. Yes it takes some getting used to, but I kick myself for holding out so long and those wasted hours on locked up programs, slow to load software, virus avoidance tactics just to name a few.

The bonus is that if you really need Windows for testing or compatability issues, then you can run it on the Mac using a simple program called VMWare Fusion. This allows you to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same machine, you can even share files between them. Whenever I have to do some testing in Windows, I fire up the virtual operating system and I get a reminder of why I made the switch.

iPad

“Apple Fan Boy Alert!” I hear you cry, but no please bear with me. This device has allows me to work from virtually anywhere, it’s ultra-portable and instant on. In my work there is hardly a function I cannot perform using the iPad. It is the perfect note taking, presentation and reading tool.

Even if there are programs I cannot run on the iPad itself, if it is really urgent I can alwasy access my desktop with Citrix’s GoToMyPC.

In meetings tasks are set, notes centralised and follow-ups added to my calendar before the meeting is over. I have the world at my finger tips, should I require some data and I can share information without needing to print reams of A4. I can carry all my reference books with me and make use of downtime whilst waiting for appointments or commuting. With every update the operating system improves, adding even more functionality based around ease of use and improved work-flow.

Yes, there are alternates in the market place, as yet none have got close to the iPads usability.

Hootsuite

I use Twitter a lot! For personal use and business. In all I have overall responsibility for around 14 Twitter accounts and 10 Facebook pages, along with assisting all the individuals that need to manage these individual accounts. Frankly this would not be possible without a tool like Hootsuite. For me it is the ultimate Social Media client application as it gives a company complete control. None of the employees need to have direct access to the platforms, access can be granted or rescinded centrally directly through Hootsuite.

Employees have their own Hootsuite accounts and can be invited to join and manage the social platforms pertaining to their area of responsibility. Usage can be tracked, tasks assigned and messages scheduled alongside all of the in-depth reporting and research that Hootsuite is able to provide.

As a bonus Hootsuite provide free mobile applications that work across multiple devices, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android, allowing total flexibility.

Google Reader

Google Reader is my central repository for everything pertaining to subjects that I need to monitor or have an interest in. I have written in the past about how I use Googel Reader so I won’t go into depth here. Suffice to say that I save hours scouring the web for information by having it all delivered to me as it is published. From Google Reader I can reshare or use that information, using a number of other tools listed below. Google Reader is one of the ways I manage to stay in touch with the fast moving online industry and hopefully stay one foot ahead of the competition.

Reeder for iPad

Where Google Reader is my repository the Reeder App is my reading application. Reeder presents all of the content in Google Reader to me is an easy to digest format, I can skim through hundreds of articles in a matter of minutes on my iPad. I will read and share pertinent ones, saving longer articles for later. Reeder integrates with many other useful applications like Instapaper, but I use the email functionality most, sending articles to BufferApp, Twitter or Evernote.

BufferApp

This would win my nomination for Social Media Tool of 2011. See my previous articles for an indepth view of how I use BufferApp, but the ease of use it offers and the ability to schedule Tweets means I can send updates at optimum times. I am no longer forced to think about timings or concerned about flooding other peoples time-lines. I do ensure I read everything I send to the BufferApp and that it will appeal to the people that follow me, in some way, so that it doesn’t become an automated stream of articles. In addition to interacting throughout the day, this puts my content curation into a time slot during my work day giving it focus and making it more effective.

Evernote

Evernote is my note taking tool of choice, I am writing the draft version of this post in Evernote right now. It centralises my notes, bookmarks and article clippings. It’s accessible from anywhere and works across multiple devices, including the iPad and iPhone. Currently I have 1500 notes in Evernote, including audio and images, all of which are only a search away. Yes I do use a notebook and pen from time to time but these notes will then be photographed and uploaded to Evernote to be accessed from anywhere.

Instapaper

I use Instapaper as a “to read later” tool, rather than permannent storage. Again it is multi-platform, including mobile, and it allows me to carry around articles of interest that I didn’t have time to read when I first found them. It stores tha articles in The Cloud but they synchronise with your devise for offline reading, perfect for a time filler in between meetings or when waiting in a queue.

Dropbox

If it doesn’t fit anywhere else I can always rely on Dropbox, it’s like my second hard drive. Presentations, videos, PDF’s, spreadsheets, whatever it is you might need when you are not at your desk, storing it in Dropbox allows instant access when you’re out of the office. One cool feature is that you can “favourite” documents before you leave the office, this means you don’t need an Internet connection to access the files. I do this as force of habit now, ensuring that all the possible documents I might need in a meeting are available on my iPad.

Kindle

I love books, read my book picks of 2011 to see a selection of what I have been reading this year. Amazon’s Kindle App has meant I never need to choose what books to take with me on a trip, now that I have every reference book I may need to hand anytime. Over the course of the year more and more books are being made available in Kindle format at the same time they are released in paper form and many back catalogue ones are catching up.

The Stand by Stephen King as an example has now finally made it to Kindle, even Ray Bradbury who is openly anti-technology is allowing his Fahrenheit 451 to be available electronically shortly.

The only downside to the free Kindle App, is the amount of money it has cost me. Buying a book is no longer a decision, but an impulse; please can I ask for a “do you really need this right now?” prompt after I’ve hit the 1-click to buy button?

There are many more applications and tools I use from my 1935 Conway Stewart fountain pen to tChess pro for iPad, but the ones above have saved me time and made some of the more monotonous tasks a pleasure.

Feel free to add your picks below.

Market Domination Starts Here

When Amazon first started selling online it was in the price game, but it had a strategy.

You’re probably well aware, but if price is your only USP then your business is going to be short lived.

As competition pushes prices down, margins are squeezed, until profit is squashed, and you go out of business.

In For The Long Haul

Where price can work is short-term, where there is minimal competion. You avoid price wars long enough to build a customer base. At the same time you invest heavily in the customer experience to ensure that as many of those hard won customers remain loyal. You diversify your product range, expanding rapidly to encompass as much of the your sector as you can online, before your offline competition has time to react.

Amazon employed this strategy, flawlessly in the early on. I always remember the day that Amazon posted it’s first profit in January 2002. The naysayers chant to Amazons rise was always that “they weren’t profitable”. But this is just the short-term business mind; Amazon were, and still are, in for the long haul. Short-term profit was never the goal, market domination is!

What Do You Do When The Tables Are Turned?

Whilst you have been busy expanding your retail base, protecting all corners of “traditional” online commerce and satisfying the hell out of customers. Until it even gets to the point where they pay for free delivey and the pleasure of being even more loyal, Amazon Prime. Along come the “tech boys” selling their digital assets, non-physical stock, that doesn’t require a distribution network and warehousing the size of a small town.

If You’re Amazon You Look For A Way To Own It

This time they are playing catch-up.

Instead of trying to compete head on, they go for precision targeting. Amazon are not interested in buidling an iPad killer. No, they are plenty happy enough for the iPad to dominate it’s market as long as people are reading products bought from their store on it. iBooks didn’t stand a chance. Apple had all the opportunity they were going to get, but Amazon made the Kindle application so accesible that Apple couldn’t hide from it. Now there is even a web based version, to get over any restrictions impose on the installed iPad application.

Market Domination!

So now you have millions of people with libraries of Kindle e-books they have purchased. A commitment any book lover knows, you never want to part with your library, even if you never open that favourite book again. You up the game producing ever chepaer e-readers, now consumers can afford to own an iPad and a Kindle, afterall the Kindle device is the better reading experience.

For those that want a bit more you produce a colour version cheap enough to appeal to the many, but it will also play video and audio. These are two growing digital delivery products that Amazon hasn’t been as fast to conquer. Kindle Fire changes that; they provie you a cheap enough tablet that its an easy buy. In return you silenty agree to buy from Amazon for the foreseable future.

Hang on, isn’t that the same agreement you signed up for with Amazon Prime for physical products?

Amazon Have Made The Perfect Play

This isn’t to do with devices, this is about market ownership.

Amazon is a Bengal Tiger marking it’s territory; defining it’s space to ensure that Apple doesn’t encroach too far. But not so much that it puts at risk valuable revenue; no, it wants to let Apple have the hardware space.

Amazon’s interest lies in being the number one supplier of digital assets as well as physical ones online.

How hard can it be?

Short-termism in Business really frustrates me. I have been quite used to the fact that many wrongly see that what I do for a living as cheap and simple. Well, so is riding a bike, but did you take part in the Tour de France this year?

Online gets such bad PR inside Business because we all know a nephew out of college who can put a web site together. Or that guy in the warehouse that has a really cool Facebook page.

And, e-commerce, isn’t that IT’s responsibility? Not only that, Business, like a toddler, wants it all now!

Online is Part of your Business

Online is no different to any other part of your business, it should be part of your overall plan, your long term strategy. You didn’t go into business to make a quick profit, I hope! You went into business because you had a dream, with a long term aim of solving a problem, providing a solution. Where you, and your customers were both winners.

Social Media should also be part of that long term view. Not a quick fix, tick box job.

Effective Social Media

When implemented effectively Social Media can provide a fantastic experience for staff and customers. It can lead to interactions that were just not cost effective before. Just don’t expect instant results.

An investment is required in time. Time to find which platforms work best for your company. In how to use them efficiently and there is a cost in monitoring what is going on.

You may not need a custom Facebook application or a heavy duty tool such as Radian6. Using Twitter via mobile does not mean your whole company needs to be equipped with iPhones. Just as videos for YouTube don’t require a film crew. But even using the most straight forward of equipment takes time to learn to use it well.

People Need Training

Invest in staff training, at least find an internal champion, one who can ideally mentor as well. Just because staff can use Facebook it doesn’t mean they are ready to represent your company online. If you do want to speed things up, hire an experienced consultant to help plan your strategy and get training programs in place.

Engagement has it’s Rewards

The engagement and conversation will still take time to mature, whatever your companies size and whoever you hire. In fact the larger your company the more difficult it can be to get started. As once you start engaging online the flood gates are open and you’ll be expected to respond.

But respond well and the returns will show; not obvious at first, usually seen as an increased reach in your monitoring tools. Engage effectively and you will start to see monetary returns if your are selling a product or service. You may even see reduced costs and increased customer satisfaction by providing customer support through Social Media.

One of the most noticeable benefits can be increased staff interaction with customers, leading to a more satisfied workforce.

Give the online side of your business the time it deserves to succeed, especially Social Media. Don’t treat it as a stand alone function, but as an asset, and you’ll be glad you invested in it.

Amazon Warehouse

In today’s online world it’s all about being personal and getting social. This means one to one interaction with your customers, clients and prospects.

Time and again we have seen businesses that really care, like Zappos for example, win through with unlikely e-commerce models because of their ability to engage with customers.

The original online business dream was of a Virtual Business Lifestyle; a fully automated business that took care of itself whilst you relaxed on the beach. If these two ideals clash, and social interaction is the one that produces a more sustainable long-term business, why do businesses large and small think they can still automate it all?

It’s all down to the data

To some extent you can automate large parts of your online business. If your data collection is rich enough and your algorithms robust enough, presenting logical offers and information to visitors can, technically, be easy.

When you have the business intelligence of someone like Amazon making offers at the right time, to the right people it can be very effective. No wonder that Tesco are looking to copy this model using their loyalty program, “Clubcard”, as the basis for it.

They are likely to produce an amazingly intelligent web site. With years worth of learning’s to be gleaned from Amazon and other e-commerce giants.

Could they go one better though?

Keeping it personal

It’s okay to automate in this way, and it can be of tremendous value to the end consumer, but personal interaction is still required.

In my view before Tesco runs off and starts marketing to customers it thinks it knows, it could gain a bigger advantage by engaging with them. As I highlighted in an earlier post, Tesco seem to be very reluctant to engage in the Social Space, yet have an enormous resource, in terms of local staff, that would make them a star in this arena.

They could easily become the Zappos of the UK. Certainly their in-store customer service is excellent; extend this online and they could be the first offline Brand to seriously trouble Amazon.

All they need to do is get social.