Marketing Resources: Pricing

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  Where Does Google Make Its Money? Top 20 Google AdWords Keyword Categories

  by Vahe Habeshian

  Pricing

  The insurance category fetches the highest cost-per-click (CPC) rates in Google AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: nearly $50 per click, according to new keyword research data from search marketing software provider WordStream Inc. more
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  How Coupons Discount Your Brand

  Pricing

  "The recession has caused lots of companies to panic," writes Laura Ries at Ries' Pieces. "And when companies panic, they print coupons and throw up sale signs. Look in your mailbox, your email inbox or your newspaper and you will see what I mean. Everybody is having a sale." There's only ... more
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  Five Reasons Your Advertising Shouldn't Lead With Price

  Pricing

  Especially in this economy, small businesses are tripping over themselves to tell customers about their low, low prices. But in an article at MarketingProfs, Dan Hill argues strenuously against price-leading campaigns and gives reasons like these: It is not a sustainable long-term strategy. "One of the key advantages of a sale ... more
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  Low-Cost Ways to Boost App Sales

  Pricing

  We've mentioned that you can draw traffic to paid mobile applications by creating a free "lite" version. Once users deem it useful, they may be happy to pay for the full version. But what's a company to do if it can't afford to create a whole new version of an existing app—with ... more
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  How to Use Twitter to Boost Buzz, Sales and Engagement

  Pricing

  In September, UNIQLO UK launched Lucky Counter, a piece of marketing genius that compelled users to Tweet about the company's products. Each time they did, the products got more appealing. How? Lucky Counter featured a diverse, limited array of UNIQLO products and prices. Click on one, and you'd be invited to Tweet ... more
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  How to Get SaaS Pricing Right

  Pricing

  Setting SaaS [software as a service] pricing is an important but daunting task for most early stage start-ups, especially when they don't have a track record. The first task in selling SaaS, writes Bob Warfield in a recent post on Enterprise Irregulars, is getting anyone to pay anything for your ... more
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  Baby, Please Don't Go

  Pricing

  When people click on your unsubscribe button, there's a good chance it takes them to a preference page where they can confirm the unsubscribe request, or adjust their subscription to a topic and frequency they prefer. But what about including an offer that tempts them to stay? In a post at ... more
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  Guaranteed to Make You Smile

  Pricing

  "Recently," writes Mark Riffey at the Business is Personal blog, "you've seen a number of major car companies offer to buy your car back if you lose your job—and that's after they make several months of payments for you." In the case of one Hyundai dealership—located in an economically depressed area—the ... more
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  Is Success on This Menu?

  Pricing

  The next time you dine out, take a close look at the menu—even if you already know what you want to order. The reason? Restaurants have learned a thing or two about convincing their customers to spend more money on certain dishes. "The use of menu engineers and consultants is exploding in ... more
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  Hurry Up or You'll Be Sorry!

  Pricing

  Some companies seem addicted to email campaigns that shout breathless, time-sensitive offers. Each week, it seems, they tell subscribers about special deals that simply can't be missed—only to make a similar offer the following week. In a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog, Mark Brownlow provides a screenshot with 19 emails ... more
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  Don't Let This One Get Away!

  Pricing

  One notable effect of the economic downturn is the marked increase in consumer frugality. Marketers near and far are in hot pursuit of savvy pricing strategies that prod wary customers into buying. Well, here's a tactic that some researchers say is worth a try: "steadily decreasing discounting" or SDD. In a recent ... more
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  Let's Move It, People!

  Pricing

  It's a question that haunts B2B product retailers when sales are down: "How do we move this excess inventory?" Cutting prices, offering two-for-one deals, or announcing blow-out sales to regular clients may go only so far in a downturn. Well, take heart. In a recent post at What Works for Business, ... more
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  That's Mine! My Name's on It!

  Pricing

  Let's say you sell trendy furniture for family-friendly prices. What's the best way to push product and spread brand awareness? Well, you could try developing and offering: A showroom. Pros: People see products in context, and they can buy them right then and there! Cons: You don't reach potential buyers who aren't ... more
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  Bah, Humbug to the Downturn!

  Pricing

  Few companies have been spared the ravages of the recession, but some strategies seem to be working to help small businesses stay afloat. In a recent article at Inc., Elizabeth Wasserman suggests tactics that small retailers might employ to add some ho-ho-ho to the late-holiday sales season—and boost results in the ... more
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  Worth Every Penny

  Pricing

  Why would anyone drive a BMW or shop at Nordstrom when, for a fraction of the price, they could drive a Volkswagen or shop at JC Penney? "[P]eople make trade-offs in their spending," writes Dale Furtwengler in his book Pricing for Profit. "They'll pay as little as possible for things ... more
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  Over Before It Starts

  Pricing

  Those of us who check multiple email accounts throughout the day can hardly imagine a world in which people don't read messages as soon as they receive them. But in a post at the Retail Email blog, Chad White reports on a Pivotal Veracity study that found email recipients in August ... more
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  Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

  Pricing

  "Here's the scoop," writes Greg Verdino in a post at his blog. "I drive a Nissan Altima and I've been reasonably happy with it. It's neither the best car I've ever owned nor the worst, but I'm not a car guy so if it gets me from point A to ... more
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  Risky Business

  Pricing

  "Having an offer for your products or services that is truly risk-free might be just the ticket you need to really make a difference in your email marketing campaigns," says Janine Popick in a post at her Vertical Response blog. She points to retailers like these that generate customer loyalty and ... more
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  Free Shipping!

  Pricing

  Free shipping offers can cost your company a bundle, but they may produce ROI that makes them worth the expenditure. As you explore your options, you will probably be interested in a whitepaper from Experian CheetahMail that examines questions like these: Are more companies deploying free-shipping emails? ... more
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  Stay Tough, Stay Trendy

  Pricing

  Want to boost search results? Try benchmarking based on the latest trends, says Performics' Michael Kahn in a Chief Marketer article. An analysis by Performics of data from more than 200 paid-search programs uncovered some important shifts this past spring within many actively managed search campaigns; they could signal the ... more
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  Would You Like a Tattoo With That?

  Pricing

  "Hoping to keep its 119 rooms filled," writes Hugo Martín at the Los Angeles Times, "Hotel Erwin on Venice Beach is offering an unusual promotion for its countercultural clientele: an Ink and Stay package that includes $100 toward a tattoo and a bottle of tequila to numb the pain." The ... more
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  Try an Event-Driven Email

  Pricing

  In a post at the Email Wars blog, Dylan Boyd praises a recent message from Banana Republic. The minimalist email used simple text on an all-black background to announce an online sale that took place on 09.09.09. The copy read like this: "9 Hours Only! 20% off our favorite styles ... more
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  Frugal Consumers to Keep Retail Sales Flat

  Pricing

  Frugal consumers are choosing to put more of their money into their savings accounts rather than into retailers’ cash registers, which translates into a glum forecast for retailers. more
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  Stand Up to Stand Out

  Pricing

  According to Madison Riley and Brooks Kitchel of Kurt Salmon Associates, retailers often respond to sluggish sales by slashing prices and hoping to beat the competition on value. But there's a problem. "Contrary to the common practice of deep discounting in troubled times," they argue, "competing on compelling products is ... more
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  Tried-and-True or Just Plain Blah?

  Pricing

  Everywhere we look, ever since we can remember, we see that price ending: .99. But does using this just-below-a-round-number pricing system always produce optimum results for merchants? Might other pricing options produce better results? Some researchers recently took a fresh look at pricing, and their results suggest it may be time ... more

Pricing: See all 40 items

Pricing articles by the best and brightest in the field

• Seven Reasons Why Leading With Price Will Kill Your Advertising, Your Branded Offers—and Your Companyby Dan Hill
  Leading with price in your messaging suggests your brand has nothing else to say or show for itself. And that's not good for a host of reasons. more
• Bambi vs. Godzilla: How to Work With Very Big Clientsby Matthew Stibbe
  Who said small firms can do business only with other small firms? If you can get your foot in the door, working for Fortune 500 companies is the smart way to grow a profitable marketing firm. This is how one small company found ways to turn its small size into ... more
• 59 Proven Ways to Electrify Your Offer and Make More Salesby Dean Rieck
  If you're using direct marketing to sell your products and services, then you know that it's all about making an offer. But are you testing your offers to find out what work best? There are hundreds of offers and thousands, perhaps millions, of offer variations you can test. However, some ... more
• What Online Content Will People Pay For?by Miles Galliford
  Since the Internet began, some 40 years ago, most of its content has been free to access. Today, that is still the case. However, paid content is one of the fastest-growing areas of Internet business, generating more than $15 billion in revenues in 2009 in the US alone. With so ... more
• How to Ruin Your Brand, Your Business, and Your Career: The 13 Worst Marketing Mistakes, Part 1by M. P. Friedman
  This article originally addressed the seven worst marketing mistakes. But seven wasn't nearly enough. The list grew until it reached unlucky 13. Here are the first four. more
• The Value of SaaS Isn't Just Lower Costby Peter A. Cohen
  Build a value proposition for your SaaS solution that's supported by multiple legs, because there's danger in relying on a single strategic advantage over your competitors. In other words, it's hard to sit on a one-legged stool. more
• Retail Price and the Impact of Commodity-Price Inflationby Joy Joseph
  In the past year, the most fundamental of the 4 Ps of marketing (price) has rapidly risen to prominence. In a way, that is an inevitable outcome of the recent media focus on macro factors that determine the economics of demand and supply—inflation, employment, and income, to name a few. Not surprisingly, ... more
• The Tao of Green Marketingby Irv Weinberg, Carolyn Parrs
  Consumers have begun to suffer from "green fatigue." It's not hard to understand why when you can buy organic gummy bears and free-range beef jerky nestled between the six-packs and the rolling paper in a convenience store. For your green message to be heard and translated into sales, you have to ... more
• Six Smart Tactics for Dealing With the Economic Downturnby Michael Barr
  This is no time for business as usual. To keep the customer and win the sale, a marketer has to outsmart the competition. But how do you motivate your customers to spend their marginal purchasing dollars on your product instead of the competition's? more
• Endurance Training: Five Brand-Building Exercisesby Kimberly Smith
  When the slow season strikes, devote some energy to pumping up your brand. These five exercises will show you where to start to best position yourself for the inevitable upturn. more
• Benchmarking: A Best-Practice for Improving Marketing Performance (Part 2)by Laura Patterson
  Knowing what to improve and by how much is vital to establishing realistic performance targets and metrics. This two-part article discusses how to use benchmarking to assess your organization's performance and to understand what changes to make. Part 1 defined benchmarking and explored its value. This second and final part identifies marketing ... more
• How Packaging Your Offering Enhances Your Brandby Anthony Cirillo
  Is your company packaging experiences? Are they sought—or are they sold? And, drilling the concept down one more level: have you ever looked at yourself and considered the package that you offer and the experience you provide? In the current downturn, where layoffs loom large, those with the better shot at ... more
• The Five Simple Rules of Green Marketingby Jacquelyn A. Ottman
  A strong commitment to environmental sustainability in product design and manufacturing can yield significant opportunities to grow your business, to innovate, and to build brand equity. In fact, if you don't manage your business with respect to environmental and social sustainability, your business may not be sustained! more
• How Social Media Is Changing the 4Ps of Marketing: Stories from Real Companiesby Mack Collier
  Anyone who has taken Marketing 101 knows the 4 Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. But what you may not know is that some companies - including these four - are turning these Ps over completely to customers. (Graphic: David Armano.) more
• The 'Freemium' Business Model: Not Quite a Slam-Dunkby Nilofer Merchant
  Can you make money by giving away your product? Absolutely—and companies like Adobe (PDF Reader) and Macromedia (Shockwave Player) have proven it. With Web 2.0, consumers have gotten a lot of things at no cost due to various monetization practices—and that's good. But should you give away your product? That's another ... more
• The Five (Wrongheaded) Complaints Against Advertisingby Jerry Kirkpatrick
  The complaints against advertising are seemingly endless, limited only by the creativity of its critics. But advertising is fundamentally benevolent, the author says. Advertising is a communication technique that attempts to influence the behavior of others—no more nor less so than the techniques used by parents, journalists, teachers, and politicians. more
• Basics of Strategic and Tactical Pricingby Joy Joseph
  As one of the 4 Ps of marketing, pricing is the most direct way of communicating value to customers. It has the most direct impact on bottom-line performance. At the same time, price as a marketing instrument is tricky. Here's the basics of pricing from both a strategic and tactical ... more
• Starbucks at the Crossroads: Disruption Junctionby Paul Paetz
  Most marketers have heard by now of the kerfuffle about an internal memo, leaked through a popular Starbucks fan blogsite, penned by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. The blogosphere is abuzz with the come-to-Jesus nature of Schultz's revelation that Starbucks may have lost its mystique. So what's next for the ... more
• Marketing Challenge: Gross Sales vs. Gross Profitby Hank Stroll
  This week: Do you compensate a sales team on gross sales or gross profit for services? See if you agree with our experts. Coming up: Hate meetings? How can you make them productive? Add your two pesos. more
• Stunningly Awful Software Evaluations—A Strategy of Foolish Hope?by Peter Cohan
  Practicing these eight simple strategies will help reduce your quarterly revenues, delay deals, and consume resources foolishly. But making a few changes may move you from being a "victim of momentum" to achieving your numbers predictably. more
• Three Sales Leadership Challenges That Prevent Sales Force Successby Jeff Thull
  There are many challenges in leading a winning sales team, but research has identified 3 key challenges that sales managers most commonly face. How are you currently approaching these situations? Are you getting the results you are looking for? more
• Bad Things Happen to Brands When Companies Run out of Ideasby Tom Asacker
  Make no mistake about it: When companies run out of ideas, bad things happen to brands. Instead of differentiating their offerings with meaningful value-added features, like healthier and more flavorful products, time-saving recipes and packaging, or even emotive, associative value, marketers end up resorting to price cuts and special promotions. Instead ... more
• 'Value' Does Not Equal Low Priceby Edward Hellenbeck
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• Five Vital Points for Choosing a Lead-Generation Solutionby Christopher Doran
  B2B marketers who are recognizing the limitations of today's email-marketing and Web-analytics applications for generating qualified sales leads are switching to lead-generation solutions to ensure a continuous stream of qualified leads. Keep these five points in mind to ensure that you make a purchase that meets the needs of your ... more
• High Tech Marketing/Business Model Boot Camp: Blue Plate Special, a la Carte, or All You Can Eat (Part 5)by Nilofer Merchant
  Do you remember a time when most restaurant meals were the sit down, full-service, dessert-included variety? Even if all you wanted was a cup of soup or a simple salad, you were offered the blue plate special with everything at one price. Then the culinary folks came up with small ... more

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Pricing case studies, deconstructing real life examples and illustrating lessons learned.

• Lessons From Martin Guitars: Three Ways to Survive a DownturnC. F. Martin & Co.
  CASE STUDY: C. F. Martin & Co. survived the Civil War, the Great Depression, and both World Wars. Inspired by its past, the guitar maker thrived in 2009. more
• How a Diving Equipment Retailer Leveraged Targeted Web Site Promotions to Lift Revenue, ConversionsDivers Direct
  CASE STUDY: Senior management at scuba-supply outfit Divers Direct weren't convinced they needed to run promotions or offer discounts to increase Web sales. A test using Sitebrand's personalization platform quickly changed that perception. more
• How a University Embraced Social Media and Scored Millions in YouTube ViewsCarnegie Mellon University
  How does a university up its visibility with an increasingly wired target market of both students of alumni? By orchestrating a Web 2.0-focused Web site redesign that set the foundation for an ongoing social media campaign. more
• How a Web-based Company Increased Leads 90%—and Sales 23%—via PPC-Visitor Profiling, Landing Page PersonalizationCompany: Continental Warranty
  Continental Warranty used pay-per-click ads to generate leads by providing free quotes for extended-warranty coverage. But lead volume had plateaued. So it began to profile its web visitors, then direct them to microsites matching their profiles—and nearly doubled leads. more
• How MyFax Upped Customer Engagement, Achieved a 79% NetPromoter ScoreMyFax
  Internt fax service provider MyFax wanted to tap into the power of word-of-mouth referrals by improving the customer experience and maintaining highly personalized customer interactions. But as an online company, it faced the issue of how to individually engage customers to ensure long-term relationships. Here's what it did. more
• How a Small-Business Consultant Leveraged a High-Profile TV Commercial to Generate New Traffic and Win New BusinessLocalZing
  As a tiny Florida player in the field of advertising for small businesses, Karl Long knew he should consider unconventional ways to promote his company. Taking a cue from a competitor, Long launched a campaign that upped traffic to his blog 500%, raised his Google profile, and led to new business. more
• How an Online Software Biz Doubled Its Sales Leads, Increased Site Traffic 75%Makana Solutions
  Makana Solutions needed an inexpensive way to reach the elusive small business market. Rather than chase small businesses, it hired an online "inbound marketing system" to help small businesses find Makana. The results: Web site traffic climbed 75%, and sales leads have doubled. more
• How a Software Firm's Soft-Sell, Educational Webcasts Helped Double SalesSoftrax Corp.
  Softrax Corp.'s enterprise software automates a company's entire revenue cycle. With the advantages of automation not always apparent to potential customers, Softrax based its marketing strategy on educating the market, while competitors relied mostly on advertising. Webcasts featuring government and industry experts—with only an indirect connection to Softrax apparent—formed the core of the new strategy, and within four years helped double revenues. more
• How a Manufacturer's Sales Team Found the Secret to Efficiently Service a Low-Tech Customer BaseFabcon
  The manufacturing sector is more traditional than most. Many of its customers aren't high tech—some don't even have Internet access. Fabcon, a Minnesota builder of precast wall panels, struggled with marrying its desire for high-tech operational efficiency and its need to service customers in the method that they preferred. more
• How an ISP Used Online Chat to Lower Customer Service Costs and Achieve an 80% Customer Satisfaction RateEarthlink, Inc.
  Earthlink, one of the country's smaller Internet service providers, serves just over 5 million customers. To differentiate itself, it has decided to provide superior customer service. An early adopter of chat technology, it has sought to actively offer efficient online customer service via chat—both shifting customer support away from the less-efficient phone channel and increasing customer satisfaction while dramatically reducing expenses. more
• How a Nonprofit Used Member Resources to Increase Brand Awareness Across Multiple MarketsOregon Sports Authority
  The nonprofit Oregon Sports Authority (OSA) was striving to bring new sporting events, teams, and tourist dollars to the state. It also wanted to become the official sports resource for state residents. An overhaul of its promotions and more compelling communication of its brand were the ambitious goals that the four-employee nonprofit set for itself--and achieved, with a little help from a capable member base, which included the likes of Nike. more
• How a Web Services Firm Used 'Fanatical' Customer Care to Increase Sales 60% Year Over YearRackspace
  With Web hosting fast becoming a commodity, Web hosting firm Rackspace realized it needed to stand out from the pack. Its founders decided they would stake a claim to "fanatical" commitment to customer service. Rackspace wove the concept into its very business structure, even trademarking the term "Fanatical Support." And it worked: Revenues grew more than 60% from 2005 to 2006, and the number of employees more than doubled. more
• How a Software Company Became a Marketing Partner By Adding Mobile DataSalesTrac, Inc.
  When the clients of SalesTrac, Inc., were looking for more in-depth consumer insight to determine the effectiveness of their promotional events, SalesTrac seized the opportunity to provide increased value through an all-in-one system that added survey management and real-time reporting of consumer feedback to its services. Check out the results. more
• How an Insurance Company Web Site Achieved Significant Increases in Click-Throughs and ConversionsAmerican International Underwriters (AIU)
  By dynamically changing content on its start page to targeted segments of site visitors, along with testing the placement of additional product offerings within the transaction funnel, American International Underwriters upped the conversion rates of several of its products. more
• How a Nonprofit Moved Toward a For-Profit Marketing Model to Advance Its Nonprofit MissionMuseum of Science, Boston
  For more than a century, Boston's Museum of Science has depended on government grants and donors to finance its stated goal of encouraging "interest in and further understanding of science and technology and their importance for individuals and for society." The Museum attracts about 1.6 million visitors a year, including more than 50,000 members who visit regularly. Corporate branding and marketing for fundraising purposes hadn't been given much thought, but in 2001, as the U.S. stock market collapsed and the global economy slowed, the Museum found itself stretched for donors. It realized it was time to start marketing itself. Pioneering any major change naturally involves its share of challenges; this study reveals how one very traditional organization was able to make the transition. more
• How a Technology Services Company's Online Marketing Campaign Generated a 30-Times ROIBearingPoint, Inc.
  BearingPoint, a global provider of management and technology services, had won a major contract to implement a complicated voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) system for a financial company and wanted to leverage off that success. But it was competing with larger telecommunications brands to educate potential new customers about the new technology. By using multiple channels to get potential customers to visit its Web site and fill out a "BearingPoint VoIP Readiness Assessment Tool," the company was able to educate customers, gain sales leads, and often accelerate the typical nine-month period it took to close a large sale. more
• How a Long-Running Tool Infomercial Has Kept Sales and ROI Strong for Six YearsProfessional Tool Manufacturing
  How do you sell a niche product with a limited potential audience? Try an in depth-television infomercial. Professional Tool Manufacturing's infomercial for Drill Doctor, a drill-bit sharpening machine, is one of the longest-running infomercials in TV history. It has consistently driven retail sales—more than two million Drill Doctors have been sold—while substantially saving advertising costs. Professional Tool Manufacturing and its direct response television (DRTV) agency Atomic Direct created an award-winning infomercial by avoiding the traditional yell-and-sell approach and instead honing in on communicating the benefits of drill-bit sharpening to a sophisticated, do-it-yourself audience. more
• A Nonprofit Crafts a Compelling DM Strategy and Exceeds Its Conference Goals by 25 PercentThe Points of Light Foundation
  The Points of Light Foundation's annual event had grown moribund, and the house list stagnant, says Chief Creative Director Todd Potochnik. But he and his team were able to boost attendance from the previous year's conference by more than 25% and garner an 85% "satisfactory or above" approval rating from attendees. more
• How an Online Retailer Grew Revenue 161% Year over YearSideways Wine Club
  The Sideways Wine Club, launched in April 2005, improved sales 161% year over year through July 2006, despite the fact that most online wine marketers experience an average visitor-to-buyer conversion rate of about 0.0085, or 0.85%, much lower than most other online retailers' conversion rates. The company's founder, Dave Chambers, knew he could improve sales even more dramatically, if he could improve those miserable conversion rates. more
• How a Small Specialty Software Company Got on Fortune 100 Companies' Radar ScreensNovinity Corporation
  A software company in rural Montana was able to acquire major pharmaceutical company accounts and increase tradeshow traffic 300% by developing and promoting the educational content that its target industry craved... more

Pricing: See all 20 case studies

Pricing online seminar broadcasts from the best minds in marketing

• Small Business Series: How to Set Prices the Smart WayBroadcast on Aug 17, 2007
• Using Pricing Strategy to Create Competitive Advantage in B2B Markets—It's Time to Change the GameBroadcast on Aug 17, 2006
• Managing Customers As Long Term InvestmentsBroadcast on Sep 29, 2005
• CFO vs. CMO Smackdown: How to Win the Budget BattlesBroadcast on Aug 4, 2005
• Writing a Marketing Plan for Entrepreneurs and Small Business: From Blank Page to PresentationBroadcast on Jun 9, 2005

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Pricing Take 10 Webcasts—tactical marketing know-how in just 10 minutes from subject matter experts

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Pricing marketing downloads for the busy professional

• Paid Search Advertising Template
  If you're a little intimidated by the prospect of Paid Search Advertising, seriously, join the crowd. Here it is though -- a guiding light through the complex waters of Paid Search Advertising. We assembled a 30-page template to make learning and implementing a successful paid search advertising campaign for your firm as easy as possible.
• Competitive Analysis Template
  A thorough competitive analysis is a critical component of a solid marketing plan. It is an exercise that will provide you with valuable insights to guide the development of your business strategy. This 20-page template will make the project quick and easy, and you can end up with a leg up on your compeition.

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