220 Marketing Group » Offline Marketing

How to Maximize your ROI with Referral Marketing

Suzette H. — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 16:57:43 +0000

Referral Marketing is Key to the Success of Your Business

As an Advanced Marketing Specialist, many clients ask me, “How do I get more leads?” You may get a few leads from Pay-Per-Click, Social Media, or Retargeting Campaigns, but the results cannot compare to the constant flow of business you could achieve by partnering with another professional in the industry. Additionally, leads from a referral source are much higher quality than those generated through other marketing tactics.

Why is Referral Marketing Important?

You have more control over your target audience. Once you establish a relationship with a Referral Partner, they already know the services you offer and what type of clientele you work with.
You don’t have to sell so hard. Your referral partner has already done most of the work for you. Usually, leads will trust the opinion of your referral partner. All you need to do is provide the excellent service they’ve heard all about.
You can close more business. A lead from a referral partner is the warmest lead you could get so the chance of closing the sale increases.
Numbers tell it all. Based on a survey taken from NAR’s 2017 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 52% of buyers found their agent from a referral from a friend or family member. 64% of sellers used a referral or the same agent. 88% of buyers and 85% of sellers would use their agent again or recommend their agent to others. Only 9% of buyers and 4% of sellers found their agent through searching online.

Who can be a Referral Partner?

A referral partner can be anyone who may benefit from sending a referral to you.

Industry Professional that you can also refer business to that is not a direct competitor
A previous client
Friends and Family

Why aren’t more businesses taking advantage of Referral Marketing?

Everyone looks for ways to get leads quickly, so they often invest more into advertising to get in front of more people. It’s easy to get lost in the world of advertising. While PPC can provide the quick leads you are looking for; it often requires a more extensive budget to achieve your desired ROI. Running paid advertisements can have their advantages, but before you invest in constructing your home, you must start with a strong foundation.

The other reason more businesses don’t take advantage of referrals is that they simply don’t take the time to ask. Reach out to family and friends, make it part of your closing script, and reach out to industry professionals. Do not pass up the opportunity to generate new leads and more business because you don’t ask. And the best part about it is, IT’S FREE!

How can you find more Referral Partners?

Create a List

The easiest way to start your list is to think about friends and family who can refer business to you. Next, look at your database and start writing a list of your most recently closed clients whom you went above and beyond for. Lastly, think of anyone you may know in related industries that could benefit from a partnership. If you do not know any industry professionals, use the internet!

LinkedIn is an excellent source to find Referral Partners in a non-invasive way. The sole purpose of LinkedIn is for networking with other professionals. Take advantage of this opportunity! LinkedIn offers a great search system in which you can use filters to find specific industry professionals in your area.

Turn back time and think about how people used to find businesses: Yellow Pages, Newspaper, Phone Directories. Fast forward to today, and we have the world wide web where Google is the go-to source of information.

Create a pitch

The pitch will make or break the new relationship you are about to embark on. This is your first impression so make sure to include the benefits of your mutual relationship. If you are reaching out to past clients, an incentive can be a Starbucks gift card for any deal that closes or a discount for a future purchase, if applicable. However, if your service was exceptional, you may not need an incentive.

If you are pitching B2B, your pitch will be very different. If you have a website with 220 Marketing, make sure you show them the full benefit of having their name or listing on your site as well as your monthly newsletter.

Reach Out

Phone Call – Call your friends and family and talk to them about your business. Ask them to keep you in mind anytime they come across someone in need of your services.

Email Blast – Email the most recent clients you’ve worked with and remind them of the great experience they had with you. If you offer a Referral Rewards program, don’t forget to include that in your email. Every 220 Marketing website consists of a lead capture for referrals so be sure to include that link.

Social Media Ad – Create a post with your referral incentive and boost it so that you get the best reach possible.

Connect on LinkedIn – Look for connections using their advanced search. If you find a second connection, first reach out to the connection you both have in common and ask them to introduce you. Make it easy for your connection by drafting a template they can send to the professional you are looking to connect with. Include the link to your Preferred Professionals Success Center on your website to show tangible results.

While Referral Marketing may not be the quickest way to generate leads, it is the best way to generate the highest quality leads for less money. If you are unsure if Referral Marketing is right for you, ask yourself these 3 questions:

Do I care about quality leads?
Do I care about my brand?
Do I care about building relationships?

If you answered yes to any of the above, start thinking about the value of your business and make sure that everyone else knows it by spreading the word.

Speak with a Marketing Consultant today to learn more about how Referral Marketing can bring success to your business!

The post How to Maximize your ROI with Referral Marketing appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.

The Benefits of Landing Pages

220 — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:51:01 +0000

by Kyle O’Hare

The goal of your online marketing efforts is to convert site visitors into customers. Landing pages are an absolute must for achieving the best conversion rates and getting the most out of your marketing investments.

Your website is an all-encompassing resource that offers information on your company and the various products and services that you offer. While this information is important, your visitors are not directed to just one specific location which can lead to more browsing and fewer conversions.

Landing pages increase conversions by targeting specific audiences and encouraging them to complete an action, such as filling out a lead-capture form. Traffic from an e-blast with a promotional offer, or a pay-per-click campaign highlighting a specific product or service, should always be directed to a landing page rather than your homepage. The landing page should provide information directly related to the offer or product being promoted and be free of distractions, allowing you to convert more visitors into quality leads.

How a Landing Page Works

Let’s say you are running a pay-per-click campaign promoting FHA loans to first-time home buyers. Information on FHA loans is abundant so to encourage users to click your ad, you are offering free FHA mortgage consultations to first-time home buyers. Your landing page should highlight the benefits of FHA loans for first-time homebuyers and provide a lead-capture form where visitors can submit their information to receive their free consultation. If your ad directs users to your homepage, they can become discouraged and leave your site if they do not immediately see information on your offer. Sending visitors to your homepage almost always results in lost leads.

Landing Pages Offer Many Benefits

In addition to increased lead generation and conversion, landing pages offer several other benefits. If you are running multiple pay-per-click campaigns, having unique landing pages allows you to determine which of your ads is generating the most traffic, converting at the highest rate, and offering the highest return on your investment. Similarly, if you are running ads for the same product in various locations such as pay-per-click and social media ad campaigns, you can determine which source is generating the largest number of quality leads. Demographic information collected through your landing pages lets you see what types of visitors are converting at the highest rate, allowing you to adjust or refocus your campaign toward specific visitors. The insight that landing pages can offer into your marketing efforts is endless.

Landing pages are one of the most valuable tools you have in online marketing. Don’t throw away leads by not taking advantage of all that they offer. Contact us today at 619-758-9696 x2 or service@my220.com to schedule a marketing appointment to learn more about landing pages and how they can help you convert more visitors into leads!

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Critical Checklist for Integrated Marketing

220 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:11:29 +0000

Having a successful inbound marketing strategy requires having many different avenues out there to get peoples information. From Blogging to social media and email campaigns, there is so much to keep track of that most people don’t have a cohesive plan that fits all aspects together into one place. Because there is so much going on, it would be beneficial to your overall marketing strategy to integrate all of your campaigns into one place.
Publicizing the same campaign through several different channels will not only give you exposure to more potential clients, it will provide a way for you to give a boost to the powerful promotion you already have going. Here are 8 tips to give your marketing campaigns the enhancement it needs while integrating tactics you are already using

1. Email and Social Media

Because most lead generation campaigns collect email addresses, email campaigns are one of the strongest tools available to any person running a marketing campaign. With new developments, it is now

possible to build upon the already powerful database with email addresses, and reach even more potential clients than those on your list. This can be done through Social Media.

Adding Social Media share icons to the emails that you are already sending out will help promote the work you are doing on your social media sites with minimal effort. Adding icons for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc to your email footer will provide a way for people to join your networks with the click of the button. Additionally, it’s crucial to make sure you are advertising all of your social media sites on anything that contains your business name. Add a “join our community” bar on your website or other social media sites.

2. Email and Blogging/Social Media/PPC

All of the time that you spent writing that amazing new eBook will go to waste if no one reads it. Posting an excerpt from the book with a call to action to download the full book on the same day you are

Creating a dedicated PPC campaign promoting your new product or offer will help drive traffic and increase the number of people who respond to your offer. emailing the book will make sure the eBook is shared. Including links to download the book on your social media sites will also make your information more accessible.

3. Email…and Other Email
Many people combine all of their email efforts into one category even though the objective is very different. Some people you are in contact with are on weekly or monthly schedules to receive the same email as several others, while some people receive targeted emails from you about specific information you know is relevant to them. Most of the time, several different people may be managing each of these campaigns which means there is no common thread and your email tactics may be a big mess.

Integrating your email efforts will result in a well-oiled machine. Creating a master email campaign tracker will ease the headache you may face when trying to combine everything. If multiple people are sending out emails, you can share this spreadsheet as a Google document to make sure everyone is on the same page and schedule. This will help ensure the same clients aren’t getting bombarded with multiple emails in a short period of time.

Taking this a step further, you can separate your databases based on demographics and behaviors so that you can send the most relevant emails to each client.

4. Social Media and Blogging

Social Media and Blogging are a match made in heaven. Social media icons are a great way to share the information you are putting on your blog with others in your social media family. Blog posts also make it easier to post unique content on your social media sites every day as you can post a preview of your blog, and link users to go check out the full article.

Adding “share” or “+1” codes on each blog post will make it easier for your readers to share your information. It’s also worth looking into automated applications that will automatically post your blog posts to your social media sites.

5. SEO and Blogging

Blogging is a great way to fuel your Search Engine Optimization results, but just blogging isn’t going to cut it.

Matching your blogging content to the keywords your website is ranking high for will help push you up even further. If you are trying to gain rank with a certain term, make sure your blog content reflects the terms you are trying to improve upon. For example, if you are a real estate agent and all of your SEO focus on your site is going towards “first-time homebuyers” you should have phrases in your blog that target this as well. Offering a series of tips for first-time homebuyers with a new blog to cover each bullet point will help you accomplish this.

6. Online and Offline Events and Social Media

Using social media during live online and offline events can make any meeting more enjoyable. If you are hosting an online webinar or in office conference, integrating social media into the meeting can create buzz before and after your meeting.

If you create a hashtag for your event, you can have people send in questions or feedback via Twitter while your conference is in progress. Make sure people know about the hashtag so they can participate in the meeting and during a post-event meeting.

7. Mobile and Everything

People rely on their phone so much right now, every business needs to adapt to this in order to be successful. Making sure your site is mobile friendly is one very important marketing aspect so that you can ensure your site is accessible to everyone who wants to see it.

If your website is already mobile friendly, it is really easy to take your mobile marketing to the next level. Creating QR codes that go to a dedicated landing page for your campaign is a great idea. You can put these codes on flyers or other marketing pieces to send people to a place where they can access your promotion. You can also offer incentives through Foursquare and Facebook for clients who check in at your place of business.

8. Analytics and Everything

Analytics isn’t its own stand-alone campaign that you have to put out there, but it is a very important aspect of your marketing campaign. Analytics should be integrated into every marketing avenue you have going because it can give you a good read on what sites are giving you the most traffic. This information can tell you how certain campaigns are doing and how each campaign is helping each other.

When integrating a tracking device, you should find a product that tracts all aspects and gives you a clear idea of what is driving traffic to your site and providing your customers. It’s very important to regularly track the information and pay attention to what is providing you the best results so that you can focus your energy on the most successful campaigns.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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5 Core Benefits of Well-Defined Marketing Personal

220 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:48:42 +0000

Do you know the important characteristics of your customers such as how much money they make per year and how they shop? While these may seem like trivial facts, they may help you better understand who you are marketing to and how to adapt your marketing plan to meet those factors. This information will help you better understand what offers your clients will respond to so that your marketing efforts are targeted in the areas that will yield the most results. Knowing the personas of your clients helps you understand their needs and wants so you can be a fit for what they are looking for.

If you are struggling to come up with marketing campaigns that really get the attention you are looking for from your customers, doing a little research and creating personas for your key demographic will be well worth the time and investment you put into it. Here are six benefits to building personas for your customers and how to use them to your advantage.

1. An understanding of customer needs/interests: When trying to buy the perfect gift for a loved one, you can picture them in your mind while you’re shopping. Thinking about what they do for fun and what interests them helps you narrow down your search and figure out what to buy. Customer personas work in the same way in that they give you an idea of what your customers need and want, and help you get on a more personal level with them. By knowing the problems your customers have, you will be better able to find solutions for them. Have a lot of clients who purchased homes at the top of the market and are struggling with high interest rates? Offer a special incentive to refinance so that you can help them.

2. Knowledge of Where Customers Spend Time: Once you’ve gathered a basic background of your customers, it will be easier to figure out what social networks they utilize, where they go for their information and how they delegate their time spent online.

Knowing where customers spend time online will let you know where you should put most of your efforts. If your client base spends the most time on reading emails and never really got hooked on Facebook, you know that your time would be spent putting together email newsletters instead of posting on your wall.

3. Better Quality Leads: So now that you have your personas identified what interests your clients, how they communicate online, and what they need, how is this going to help you? Now that you know how to cater to your customers and where you will be able to reach them, you will be able to get better quality leads resulting in a higher conversion rate. Use this information to change the content in your campaigns whether they be through email marketing or pay per click. When you better understand what your customers want, you will be able to get higher quality leads and in return better customers who will be loyal and spread positive feedback about your company.

4. Consistency Across Your Business: Personas will help you better understand what your different target groups are and be able to identify them without a problem when discussing marketing strategies with your coworkers. When everyone is clear on what group you are talking about, you will have more productive brainstorming sessions and be able to provide a consistent message to each group. This will also help your sales or recruitment team better understand what points to mention when trying to bring new customers on, and how to modify their pitch for each target group without fumbling for words. This will also help them answer questions that may be brought up during a sales pitch. If a salesperson makes the potential customer feel that your company will be there to answer any question they have and that you understand their needs, you will have a better chance of closing the deal.

5. Better Product Development: If you know what your clients are looking for to begin with, it makes it a lot easier to develop a product that will feed their needs from the start. Personas will help you identify what aspects your business is missing, and how you can better fill the voids that exist. If you build products that will grow and transition right alongside your client, they will stick with you and help your company grow. Use the information you gather for your personas to suggest ideas to the people in charge of development so they can implement it in their design process.

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Incorporating QR Codes into Your Marketing Plan

220 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:24:22 +0000

A QR code, which stands for Quick Response, is a two-dimensional code that can easily be scanned by smartphones to automatically generate text, photos, videos, music, and URLs. QR codes provide marketers an easy and mobile-friendly way to direct people to their website and other online resources.

QR codes are a way for your company to provide consumers with detailed information about your products/services without taking up a lot of space.

The following sources can be used to generate your own QR codes:

Kaywa – This website provides an easy QR code generator for a URL, text, phone number, or SMS. Select your preferences and click “Generate.” Save the code to use elsewhere or grab the HTML code to embed it online.

iCandy – This website allows you to not only generate a QR code, it allows you to track scans and look at the analytics for your QR code as well.

Stickybits – This website makes it simple to create stickers for your QR codes.

There are tons of websites out there to generate your own barcodes for free. Try doing a quick Google search for “QR code generator”

How to Incorporate QR Codes into your Marketing Plan:

Below are a few ways for you to implement QR codes into your marketing plan.

Business Cards – QR codes should be placed on business cards to help new and existing contacts to find your business faster. You can direct traffic to an online resume, Facebook business page, or your website.

Offline Marketing Materials – QR codes should be placed on any offline marketing materials provided by your business such as flyers, brochures, handouts, envelopes, bills, and countless other materials. Use QR codes on these resources to direct viewers to a particular how-to video, follow your business on Facebook or Twitter, or point them to a landing page promoting a particular campaign.

Incentives – One of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your business is a giveaway. Reward those who scan a particular QR code by providing a coupon or a discount. Provide your scanners with a small reward to thank them for their patronage.

In House- Place QR codes in the waiting area of your office and in storefront windows. You can use QR codes in your office to encourage Facebook check-ins.

Although QR codes are certainly growing in popularity it is important to remember that QR codes are still foreign to some people. Never assume your customers know how to use a QR code.

Has your business started to use QR codes?

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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