Question

Topic: E-Marketing

New Company/ Marketing Hurdles

Posted by Anonymous on 5/15/2006 at 12:43 PM ET 250 Points
Hello!

First time poster here. I must say that this is the most unique and useful site I have seen on the subject bar none! :)

Ok, I have a long/involved question here, but it's been eating away at my sanity as I cannot get these thoughts out of my mind and dwell on anything else until I get pointed in the right direction.

So here is my situation:

I started a company that teaches loan officers how to market to real estate agents. There is a massive need for this type of information in the market as rates are going up, and loan officers are dying because the easy business has gone away.

My website is www.averagejoelo.com and the products I sell are truly unique. I own just about every last one of my competitors products, and I can say with no reservation that this product is unique, and those that use it get very excited.

I opened this website in January and have been growing (now have 700 members to my opt in newsletter) but I am at a crossroads of how to proceed with getting an influx of new business.

I went ahead and quit my dayjob to devote 100% of my time to this business. I market to mortgage brokers all across the country. After spending 10's of thousands out of my own pocket in product development and marketing, I need to see some quick turnaround business soon.

Unfortunately, this is a new direction for me, and I am hearing very conflicting information from different sources. Here are my ideas:

I need more traffic (averaging 80 visitors per day)

I have contemplated bulk email with a very non-sales approach. I can purchase 255,000 email addresses of mortgage brokers and create a 4 part email campaign. I keep hearing to stay away from this approach, but my approach would be to provide valuable and USEFUL information (I hold free EDUCATIONAL conference calls each week that seem to convert a high percentage of prospects into clients).

Press releases are a new direction for me as well, but they are expensive to have done on a consistent basis

PPC --- I am using Google Adwords and Overture as well as Miva. Very mediocre results right now.

SEO --- I am not sure if this is something I should do myself or pay for.

Telemarketing--- I priced out some telemarketing services on GURU.com, but I'm not sure how well this approach would work in this market.

Hire a copywriter to create ads and webcopy

I would like to increase conversion on my website as well.

There you have it. With these thoughts in mind, and bearing in mind that funds are very limited, should I hire someone to handle these? Since I know my market well, as far as from a customer perspective, I know what their issues and concerns are, but would I still be better paying someone to create ads and sales copy for me?

So there you have it. Those are my ideas. Any suggestions from looking at my site? I need+ to see some quick turnaround, but I'm not sure about using bulk email (blacklisted as spammer?) or telemarketing, or even paying for SEO and PPC management. I am a very quick study in anything that pertains to marketing, but how do you know who to believe when all of the supposedly big names in marketing are contradicting each other? lol

Thank you in advance for your help. I'm new to internet marketing and open to ideas and constructive criticism. Don't hold back on my site www.averagejoelo.com, as I'm sure it needs some help too... :)
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted on 5/15/2006 at 1:36 PM Author
    Thank you for your response! Very helpful.

    It's funny that you mentioned the conference call, as I just spoke to the company working my website, and asked if they could make the conference call more prominent.

    We are going to dedicate a full page to the site that not only shows the schedule for the calls, but also provides recorded samples of previous phone calls.

    Another feature on the front page we are thinking of adding, is an "Ask the Expert" box, where the loan officer can type in his/her most pressing question and get a response within 24 hours.

    With PPC, I have received only 24 clicks in the 40 days I've had the campaign active. I have 4 different ads running. Now on MIVA I am getting about 100-120 clicks per month with just 1 ad, but I have a feeling that most of those clicks are click fraud based on what I have heard from others who have used MIVA, but I'm not too worried as my average click is only costing me about .10.

    I will admit though that I'm still learning with the whole PPC thing, and I kkeep hearing about different books etc that I should purchase, but not sure which one as no one can seem to agree what is and what is not outdated. lol

    I attempted a mass email campaign back in january, and with my tracking software I found that over 40% of it was opened. The results were medicre then as well though, since it was a 1 time campaign, and I made a lot of elementary mistakes. My headline though, was great and as I mentioned over 40% were opened.

    I work with loan officers only, and have a very laser targeted niche. I suppose I do need to work on adding some form of grabber, but out of 80 visitors per day, only about 30 are unique visitors and I think that my average of 5-6 new sign-ups for my newsletter seems to be well above average. My problem is in getting new traffic, and I'm not too sure what direction to go.

    I do like your idea about marketing to a corporate level, but the problem I have there, is that it is very easy for a company to just purchase 1 of my products, and make copies to send to their entire organization for free. I know this sounds like paranoia, but believe me, I've seen it happen so many times, I have avoided this approach completely. If there's a way to do it, without falling victim to this act, I would definately move forward.

    Thanks again for the insight! I needed to hear others input to get my brain straight. :)
  • Posted on 5/15/2006 at 2:29 PM Member
    The decision to jump into this full time must have been a hard one, but you can see why it's necessary - building a successful web-based business is multifaceted. You have done a good job laying out all the challenges and options. My intent always is to focus. So here goes...

    You want to get your target to your site and have them engage with it.

    a) Getting them there - from online
    My impression of your targets is they are either on the phone or on proprietary loan systems all day, not surfing the Web. Your PPC results seem to bear this out. I'd stop all online advertising and focus on SEO.

    b) Getting them there - from offline
    Your e-mail program has promise, altho I'm not sure about the need for "four parts." What is the data on open rates over the sequence? I'd try to get them there in one or two touches (make an offer if you have to).

    Also, if you can swing some budget to TRIAL a direct mail program to compare effectiveness against e-mail, that could provide good learning. You have some great resources/tools on the site - show some of those in the DM piece.

    c) Engaging on the site - presentation
    Your home page seems to message about training. But I don't think that is your value proposition at all. It is giving the brokers the tools to win business - very different - I would rewrite most of the introductory copy to reflect that. And by the way, who are you? You have created a very engaging persona, but nowhere can I find your name (other than "I"). Makes it just that more real for visitors.

    d) Engaging on the site - content
    As I said above, I think your tools are your best content. Those would be prominent on my home page (minus the pricing). I would think this would really raise engagement (and repeat visits) right off the home page. And, you could reference (new) tools in your e-newsletter, which readers could click thru to.

    One last thing,,,since you've been a broker, you probably know the targets' needs well, but don't miss the opportunity to get (frequent) feedback online or from the e-newsletter audience.

    As I said, I am focusing, so I didn't cover everything you asked about. Hope it was helpful. Best of luck.



  • Posted by wnelson on 5/15/2006 at 2:55 PM Accepted
    A. Joe,

    Phew, my head is spinning from reviewing your website! as Ron (rbauman) said, it's a lot like an infomercial! And I'm not really sure what I would be paying $500 to buy! Long on claims, a barrage of testimonials, and links that send me all over the place. What you are short on is features and benefits. And the benefits are very key to the equation. And keep in mind that in reviewing your website, people are judging the caliber of your program. They see a slick-sales infomercial approach to your website, what impression do you think they will have of your "marketing program" you are asking them to buy? I'm not a loan officer, but I believe most of them don't want a reputation as an infomercial emcee!

    You say that your conference calls yield a high conversion rate. I suspect that this is because you are projecting sincerity, a willingness to help and educate, a low pressure approach....just what they are looking for in marketing their business. A truth about sales: People buy most times because they see themselves in the sales approach. Additionally, I suspect because you have been a loan officer, you explain the system well enough that they can picture themselves doing it and it working. They see the features and benefits of the approach and can taste success.

    In your question, I believe you are working on the wrong end of the problem. Marketing starts with "Strategy." And strategy starts with analysis of market and customers, their needs, what influences them in terms of images and words, and where they get information about your kind of product/service. Also, what are the segments of customers - categorized by needs? Then, you look at your competition and where their offering misses the needs of the competition. Finally, you look at your company, its core competencies, and how you can position these to meet the needs better than your competition. Next, you set directions - strategic actions, a position statement, product/service definitions, and branding. Within branding, you need to concentrate on the image of you that you portray in your website, newsletter, conference calls, and eMails. Never break brand in anything you do if you want to have a positive image formed in the minds of prospects and clients!

    After the strategy piece, THEN you plan the right marketing activities to communicate your brand, your product/service benefits, why the prospects should buy from you. These include eMail campaigns, website offerings, newsletters, conference calls, tradeshow participation, white papers, networking, direct sales, telemarketing, etc. The key is to plan the right mix based on their effectiveness for their cost. And to attach measurements to each to measure effectiveness so you can take action to improve if you see the goals aren't being met. For instance, you are hearing conflicting stories about eMail campaigns....well, some could be considered SPAM if your aim is to beg for an order. If, however, the desired action is to get them to your website for a closer look or to sign up for your (value-added) newsletter, then this could be seen as valuable and NOT SPAM. And isn't that in accordance to your brand anyway? You are there to add value and help grow the client's business, not to further your own. Oh, and in the process, you further your own as your further theirs. No snake oil there!

    What I'm talking about is an integrated approach to marketing based on setting strategy, planning, monitoring the results, and taking corrective actions to get back on track if you stray off path.

    With respect to SOE, yes, there is both art and science to selecting the right keywords to maximize the click-through rate and maximize conversion. A lot of the conversion rate has to do with the landing page. Selecting the right keywords are critical because being in the top 3 is key to maximizing your business (click through times conversion). Additionally, there are ways to effectively manage your PPC budget so that you spend what you want to spend and gain the results you want to gain. Sounds like you have two issues: Your keywords aren't very effective so you are getting low placement/low click-through, and you are getting low conversions because your landing page isn't optimized as well. Again, an integrated marketing approach takes these things into account.

    For some more detail on marketing, click on my name and on the profile page, the link to my website is listed. I have a page dedicated to marketing with a great deal of detail. If you would like to have more discussions on integrated marketing efforts, I'd be glad to talk with you off-forum.

    I hope this helps.

    Wayde
  • Posted by ReadCopy on 5/15/2006 at 4:09 PM Member
    Seems like you are looking at all the right things and I know that the guys here will give you some great advice, I think the problem here is that you will end up with a huge list of stuff and it will look at daunting as the original problem! I know, because we have all been there.

    We could all provide some advice to you....

    ONLINE:
    o Invest in a good email list
    o Use SEO to improve your natural search
    o Link Building improves your natural search ranking too
    o Use partners to get on their emails too to help spread the word
    o Get a usability report done for your website to ensure that its working in the best way
    o Web Copywriting - ensure that your copy is well written
    o PPC - concentrate on why your not converting
    o Affiliate - look into a good affiliate network for your business

    OFFLINE:
    o Develop your proposition
    o Develop your marketing plan
    o Research your competitors and customers
    o Get some some PR and Editorial
    o Look into Advertorials in specialist press
    o Try some Direct Marketing, see if you get a better response offline!
    o Use PR
    o Use Telesales team to generate leads for you
    o Think about hospitality
    o Develop that offline collateral (leaflets, brochures etc)

    We can all provide you with a list of things to do and to look at. BUT my honest advice would be to post a project here(https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/pfh_addco.asp), that would allow one of the 'approved' consultants from here to work with you on a one to one basis and provide the VERY best advice for your situation.


    You have a lot to do and to achieve, if you are serious about this been a success (and I think you are) seriously consider posting a project.

    Good Luck
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(E-Marketing)