This concept is similar to visitors to your website “opting in” to your mailing list so they can receive a free tip, gift or other valuable offer.  On Facebook, visitors opt in by clicking the “Like” button at the top of your Facebook Page.

So let’s look at how the Like Gate helps you do this.

With a Like Gate, you can set up your Facebook Page to display one thing for people who haven’t clicked “Like”…

…and completely different content for people who have already clicked the “Like” button.

The important thing is that you remember you need to encourage Facebook users to “Like” your Page.  Not only do you need to tell the user to “Like” your Page, but you also need to tell them why they should be liking it.  Highlight your offer with colorful graphics and emphasize benefits.

The greater the incentive, the greater the conversion.

But that’s just the beginning.

Facebook Pages offer you flexibility that’s virtually unlimited. From a simple Facebook Page…

• You can add people to your email Autoresponder so you can send them regular messages by email.

• You can require them to enter their mailing address so you can send them postcards, greeting cards, brochures, offers, or any other communication through the mail.

• You can ask for their phone number so you can have your call center contact them or even send out a voice broadcast.

• You can even collect their mobile number and add them to a text message campaign.

Just remember that you need to make it worth their while to give you that information.  Make an irresistible offer that compels your visitors to take immediate action.

There are literally hundreds of strategies you can use to grow your list with Facebook Pages – you just need to make sure you set them up the right way. Join us for our next Facebook Pages webinar where we’ll show you everything you need to do to set up your Facebook Pages for maximum effectiveness.  Register here ==> http://breakthroughperformancemarketing.com/event/facebookpages

Perhaps you’ve been victimized by liars, scammers and frauds claiming they were your customer and you “ripped them off”, when in actuality you’ve never even heard of them.

Or maybe you’ve had a customer or two who’ve published bad reviews about your company on the web because they had one bad experience with your business.

How much business do you think that’s costing you?

Consumers use online search engines extensively to find local businesses.  The more positive reports there are of doing business with your company, the more likely a consumer will be to choose you.

Unfortunately, the opposite also applies.

Breakthrough Performance Marketing’s proven Reputation Repair System works to directly  counteract the effects of negative reviews published about your business.  At the same time, we employ tactics designed to get your customers to rave about your business all over the internet.

Once we begin implementation, results can be seen in as little as a week, and our ongoing strategic services ensure you experience lasting effects.

Give us a call today at (334) 625-9430 for a simple, quick Reputation Assessment.

(334) 625-9430

The most popular business directory type of site at the present time is Google Places.  In your Google Places listing, you are able to include photos, coupons, videos, etc. to interact more with your prospects .  Your customers are also able to leave reviews; in fact, we encourage you to request that they do so!

Google Places listings are displayed at or near the top of search engine results on Google.  Here’s an example:

But Google Places is only one of the directories you want to work with in branding your business online.

We’ll work with you to identify phone directories, business listings, industry directories and other internet properties that you should regularly monitor to manage your reputation and improve your search engine positioning.

We will assist you with evaluating the potential of placing ads on:

• Search Engine Results Pages
• Social Media Sites
• Targeted Websites
• Targeted Mailing Lists
• Online Classified Ad Sites

All of these properties have the potential to drive large numbers of tightly-targeted traffic to your websites and offers.  It’s important that you monitor conversion rates very closely and modify your ads to improve the results as often as necessary.

Our team is ready to assist you with copy, placement, location selection, testing, and any other aspect of online advertising where you require professional support.

There are thousands of content sharing sites on the internet, and our team conducts regular testing to stay abreast of what’s working right now.    We can create your content for you or simply distribute content created by you and your employees.  Either way, our content marketing strategies look for opportunities in:

• Article sharing sites where you publish your content and other website owners are granted permission to republish your content on their own properties — with proper attribution to you, of course.
• Guide publishing sites where you can submit longer pieces of content to provide detailed how-to information of in-depth analysis of a particular topic.
• Audio sharing sites like podcast directories, which allow you to share audio recordings and get found by people searching for your information.
• Video publishing sites such as Youtube, where you can demonstrate your expertise with product demonstrations, entertain your audience with interesting presentations, and educate your market on how to be a good customer for you.
• Photo sharing sites that give your prospects an opportunity to learn more about you and your company through engaging photos.
• Other sites that give you the opportunity to share content like slide shows, software, tools and any other resource that would be helpful to your prospect.

Sharing as much content as possible builds good will in your marketplace and affords you multiple opportunities to open a conversation with your prospective customer.

Landing pages might ask people to sign up for your mailing list, enter a contest, complete a purchase, join a membership site, or any other action you would like.  The most important factor is that you remove all other options.  They can do as you ask or leave.

Our landing page solutions provide:

• Keyword rich domain names to aid search engine optimization
• Separate landing pages for each product or service you want to promote online
• Integration of subscription-type landing pages with your Lead Management System
• On-page Search Engine Optimization factors including optimized tags, images, and anchor text
• Landing page copywriting
• Powerful call-to-action copy and buttons
• Hosting for your web pages
• Ongoing maintenance of your pages
• Continuous testing and improvement

Landing pages should be implemented as part of your overall marketing strategy.

The problem for most business owners is that they do not have a customizable website and adding a blog would be more time, effort and energy than they could ever afford to invest…until now.

Our blogging solutions are focused on helping you build relationships, demonstrate expertise, and support the needs of your target market on a regular basis.  We provide support for:

• Blog Design and Creation
• Blog Optimization
• Blog Content Creation
• Blog Content Distribution
• Blog Promotion
• Comment Management

You only need do the parts your comfortable with and enjoy doing; our blog management teams will handle the rest to give you the most traffic and leads possible.

Our solutions include:

• Lead Capture Systems. We’ll help you publish pages where prospects can give you their contact information, develop incentives to share with website visitors, set up point-of-sale subscription systems, and manage the collected data in a state-of-the-art database management system.
• Customer Management Systems.  The people who have already done business with you should also receive regular marketing messages from your company, so we’ll verify your customer follow-up system is in place and optimized.
• Referral Management Systems. We’ll work with you to decide which referral methods you would like to employ and assist you with implementing them for maximum effectiveness.
• Joint Venture Brokering. When your assessment is complete and you feel certain that you can handle a major influx of traffic, we can facilitate finding and securing partners for co-branded or cross-promotion mailings.
• Email Campaign Creation. If you need support in developing messages to send to your prospects and clients, or with writing your newsletters, our team of professional writers is ready to assist you.
• Email Campaign Licensing. Several of our email marketing campaigns have proven to be highly profitable, and we have special licensing available that allows you to customize them for your use.
• Email Campaign Management. We can manage the entire email marketing strategy, a single campaign, or anything in between, whether we write the messages or you do.
• List Segmentation. One of our most valuable services is setting up your system so that you know which of your subscribers and clients is interested in each product or service offering because it means you can send messages based on their specific interests.

As we discussed before, all of the Marketing Channels can be traversed by 3 Marketing Communication Vehicles:

• Offline Marketing
• Internet Marketing
• Mobile Marketing

Actually, there are more than 3, but each method of communicating your marketing message fits into one of these categories.  If you look at the Channels and Vehicles, and realize that your marketing strategy should include campaigns for both prospects and existing customers, you will see that you actually have 30 marketing opportunities in your business.

And each of these opportunities has multiple tactics you can employ to reach out to your clients and prospects.  Again, the more opportunities you create for a sale, the less likely you are to face hardship when one of your marketing systems loses effectiveness.

Traditional/Offline Marketing

Contrary to popular belief, offline marketing is NOT dead.  It has changed, however.

A large percentage of the population uses online search engines to research and comparison shop before making a buying decision.  Also, many consumers are now looking to their mobile devices while they’re on the go to find  a local provider of the item or service they’re looking for.  The trend toward using technology to locate information about local businesses has led us to focus more of our efforts in the online and mobile marketplaces.

However, there are some very specific offline tactics you can employ to really stand out from your competition.

For example, you can send your customer a hand-written greeting card on their birthday.   This practice solidifies your company in their mind as the #1 resource for the products and services you offer because it shows you care about them.

To reach those prospects who still use the yellow pages, your ad should contain a headline, a list of benefits the prospect can expect by choosing your company, and a very clear call to action, instead of just a logo and your contact information.

If you use direct mail postcards, try using over-sized, brightly-colored cards that don’t fit in a nice neat little stack.  Your postcard should stick out and force them to handle it.  Postcards should always contain a direct call to action and a method to track the source of the lead.

We need to take a close look at your current offline marketing activities to assess their effectiveness.  Are you getting the number of leads you need?  Are your leads converting at an acceptable rate?  What other campaigns have you tried or wanted to try?  These are just a few of the key indicators that should be reviewed.

Our focus in working with you is to evaluate what you’re doing now, explore every available marketing avenue, and be sure your online and mobile marketing systems integrate seamlessly with any offline marketing you currently do or would like to try.

Internet Marketing

Keep in mind, when it comes to establishing your company brand on the internet, it is essential that you know graphic design, have solid programming skill, and thoroughly understand marketing on the internet.

A graphic design artist who offers website design services usually cares about one thing and one thing only:  seeing their masterpiece on the world wide web. The friend or relative who has been hearing all about the internet marketing craze and just bought a new website design program has never put together an internet marketing campaign or website. As for the programmer turned designer, they typically don’t have a clue about marketing.

Establishing an internet presence requires specific expertise.  We will build your online marketing strategy by customizing our Online Marketing Blueprint to meet your needs.

Breakthrough Performance Marketing brings to the table a vast network of resources with design, programming, and marketing skills to make the best of your Marketplace presence.  You can find out more about the Solutions we provide in the sidebar.

Mobile Marketing

Using this form of marketing will enable your business to reach customers much more quickly and easily.    It allows you the opportunity to effectively target your customers when you wish to make any sort of announcement, as well as keeping them informed of any new products or services you have.   Plus it allows you to make them offers that they will find enticing and cause them to want to make a purchase from you.

Today you can connect with your customers’ mobile devices in a variety of ways.  Technology makes this very simple to do, even if you have  a large number of customers.  We will likely find that many of your clients prefer to communicate with you via mobile technologies.

Similar to Online/Internet Marketing, putting together a mobile strategy and implementing all of the pieces that are needed can be challenging and costly if you don’t have the necessary experience.  We’ll develop a  mobile marketing strategy with you only if that is where your customers and prospects can be reached.  We can use our Mobile Marketing Blueprint as a starting point to implementing your custom solution.

See what we can accomplish together here ==> Mobile Marketing Solutions

Direct Marketing

Every time there is direct 1-to-1 communication between your business and your client with the goal being to create an opportunity for a sale, you are doing direct marketing.  This includes instruments like postcard marketing, telemarketing, direct mail pieces, email marketing and mobile text messages.

Postcards and direct mail sales letters can be excellent lead generators and sales tools, but they are often used incorrectly.  Anything you send to your client or prospect must be used as a managed direct response mail piece rather than a branding item or an untracked mailing.  It’s important that you know and can measure the responses to each card or letter.

Telemarketing, when done right, is one of the more expensive options for marketing your products and services, however it is the best option for some markets.  If you offer very high-end items, for example, your customers are more likely to respond positively to a personal phone call than to a mailing.  Also, when a client has already invested a large sum with your business, the personal touch of a phone call frequently generates better conversions.

Email marketing remains one of the best ways to close sales online because you are able to build relationships with people over time.  This enables you to promote regularly and to offer additional products or services, even after someone has made a purchase.  And email marketing is much more cost-effective than direct mail marketing if your clients and prospects are part of the demographic who use email.

Mobile text messaging has become much more popular because the percentage of people who read and respond to messages on their mobile devices is very high.  We can look closely at the demographics and communication habits of your clients and prospects to determine the best mobile marketing strategy for your business – if there is one.

Your company’s 1-to-1 marketing activities are the ones which will more often lead immediately into an offer.  It’s important that you look at multiple strategies so you’re not at risk if one particular system stops producing.

Referral Systems

If you’re not currently asking your clients, vendors and partners for referrals, you are missing out on a major marketing asset.  Referral Marketing is incredibly powerful because it greatly minimizes the first barrier to making a sale:  lack of trust.

When a friend or loved-one makes a recommendation for a specific product, service or company, the human tendency is to give that suggestion more weight in our consideration because we feel the people who care about us would not point us in the wrong direction.  This word-of-mouth promotion is immensely leverageable!

The key to successful referral marketing is to provide top-notch products and services to your customers and then ASK THEM FOR THE REFERRAL.  We need to implement multiple referral tools into your existing marketing plan so that it becomes part of your everyday marketing activities.

One idea to consider is offering a premium to everyone who gives you the names and contact information of 3 people who might be interested in your product or service.  You might also be able to trade referrals with a provider who shares your market.

Online, referral strategies are sometimes called “Tell A Friend” or “Share”.  We have some highly effective tell-a-friend strategies that you can implement in minutes – for both online and mobile devices.    The most important thing to remember is that you need to give people a reason for sharing your link with the people they know.

Regardless of the tactics you use, word of mouth advertising remains one of the best ways to generate new highly-qualified leads for your business.

Strategic Alliances

Strategic Alliances allow you to leverage other people’s assets.

A Strategic Alliance, sometimes called a joint venture, is an agreement between two or more businesses to work together on a project for a set period of time with an agreed upon benefit for each participant. A solid Strategic Alliance will increase your chances of beating your competition, increasing your profits, saving time and money, getting valuable referrals, and increasing your market share.

The types of joint venture deals you create are limited only by your creativity.  Look for possible partnership opportunities within your current customer base, with your vendors, and with complementary businesses.  The general idea is to find individuals and organizations who also market to your target audience so that you can share promotions, endorsements, or resources.

One area that most business owners overlook is the potential for profitable Strategic Alliances with the competition.  As an example, you could propose to a competitor who is close to you geographically that you share the expense of packaging materials, saving both of you time and money.  You could also do this with local delivery expenses where one crew delivers for both businesses, and neither business has a crew sitting around doing nothing for a good portion of the day – again, saving you and your alliance partner time and money.

It’s very easy to find Strategic Alliance partners online because many of the key players use search engine advertising, so you’ll see the immediately when you search for words and phrases your prospects might use when they’re looking for products and services.  On fantastic use for this is to cross-promote a product with a company that offers a service – or vice versa.  The two should work together to fully meet your customer’s need.

Again, the possibilities are endless.

Media Optimization

All of your advertising – ads placed on television, on radio, in a newspaper, in a magazine, in the yellow pages, on websites, etc. – needs to be optimized and synchronized.  You want to have a specific objective to accomplish with the media and use each member of the media for its specific strength.

Television and radio are outstanding for building brand recognition on a large scale, but (with the exception of infomercials) they lack the direct response capacity that we look for in Performance Marketing.  Similarly, newspaper ads lack the ability to target your audience, so thoroughly assess the publication’s reach and demographics before committing to an advertising spend.

If you do any advertising in magazines or yellow pages, you want to be sure you’re targeting the right audience and that your ads to stand out from the rest.  There needs to be a direct call to action and a component that will draw the reader’s eye to focus on your ad.  In our experience, tiny ads have a negative ROI, so proceed with caution.

Display advertising at events, shows, conventions, etc. must also be bold and eye-catching to stand out from the crowd.  This is your opportunity to connect with prospective customers, so focus on your market’s biggest challenges, needs and desires.  Also be sure that anyone staffing trade show booths is well-versed in your USP.

Online and mobile ads are unique in that it’s possible to target them to be displayed to the exact prospective customers you’re looking for.  Not only can you place ads on specific sites frequented by the people in your market, but several sites also allow you to narrow it down to specific demographics and psychographics.  With mobile, you can even display an ad based on a person’s proximity to your business.  We’ll work together to profile your ideal customer and target that exact person to receive your online ads.

Regardless of what media outlets you use for promotion, you must learn to create synergy if you’re going to maximize your marketing advertising investments.  All of your marketing pieces should work together to solidify your brand and your USP in the minds of your prospects.

Community Relations

Community Relations marketing is image marketing tied together with results marketing.

A lot of business owners say, “I just need to work on my branding. I need to work on my image. I need to get my name out there. I’ve got to do more and get my company profile out there.”  Then they spend a fortune in brand advertising that gets them nowhere.

A better approach might be to do some things that get you out in the community and build your image without spending $40,000 a month in public relations.

One thing you can do is leverage your donations.  It’s likely you receive regular requests to contribute to one cause or another.  So, for example, if one of the associations asking you to donate has a customer base that could benefit from your products or services, you could simply say, “We’d be happy to donate. In exchange, we’d appreciate you including our coupon in your next mailing to your members.”

On a larger scale, your company could take on a community improvement project, such as revamping a park or replacing outdated computer equipment at a school.  Projects of this size generate publicity almost immediately and give us the opportunity to reinforce your USP throughout the entire community.

Then, we want to educate and teach. Educate the community about the characteristics that make you unique in the market.  The more you teach, the more they will come to know you, and the more they come to know you, the less resistance there is when it comes time to make a buying decision.

Interacting with your community online is now easier than it’s ever been.  Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have made it very easy to find and connect with the people who can most benefit from what you have to offer.  We’ll establish an online presence with the goal being to make your company the go-to resource in your market.

Press releases are a very effective education instrument, and they cost very little to nothing.  Here we’ll want to take a look at your business and, if there are unique products or unique approaches that we could announce to the press, we want to keep doing that until we see brand recognition take hold in the community.

Continue to Leverageable Marketing Vehicles