Hi ,
We have been doing a lot of traveling and speaking with different organizations lately, and a
theme that has come up frequently is "how do we get prospects to understand how great our offering is?"
This is great question. The short answer is: build relationships with your prospects and
nurture those contacts through an articulate process that will serve to educate them and allow you to build credibility. The long answer? It begins
with the articles in this newsletter:
We hope you find these articles helpful and informative. If you have any questions on the topics
raised in these articles, or if you have suggestions for an article, story, theme, or idea for the newsletter, please contact
us.
Enjoy!
Matthew Parente
**************************************************
"Don't simply chase every shiny new object; instead enter into each experiment with clear
business goals and a well-defined learning agenda. Just don't let all the goal-setting and talk of accountability paralyze you to the point of
inaction."
Greg Verdino
Chief Strategy Officer
Crayon
**************************************************
Turning Decision Makers into Customers
What do G.E., Amazon.com, ESPN, and Microsoft have in common with your business? Every one of these companies, yours included, has to convince
decision makers that their offerings are trustworthy. Every one of these companies is trying to convince their prospective customers (and current
ones!) that their offerings are more credible than than the competitions'.
How can you beat your competition at the credibility game? We're glad you asked. Read our latest FREE article, Turning Decision Makers into
Customers: Bridging the Credibility Gap, to learn how you can earn the trust of the marketplace and become the standard your competition will be
measured against.
Click here to read article >>
**************************************************
Is "viral" the same as "word of mouth?"
The answer is no, according to Seth Godin, who wrote on his blog:
Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and
a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that's it. It amplifies the
marketing action and then fades, usually quickly. A lousy flight on
United Airlines is word of mouth. A great meal at Momofuku is word of
mouth.
Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something
and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five
or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus
spreading through a population. The marketer doesn't have to actually
do anything else. (They can help by making it easier for the word to
spread, but in the classic examples, the marketer is out of the loop.)
The Mona Lisa is an ideavirus. Read more >>
**************************************************
The Impact of Social Technologies on Sales, Support, Marketing, and
Branding
Guy Kawasaki recently interviewed Josh Bernoff, who recently published Groundswell: Winning in a
World Transformed by Social Technologies with Charlene Li. Josh is a Vice President, principal analyst at Forrester Research. In this
interview, he discusses the impact of social technologies on sales, support, marketing, and branding. Read the interview >>
**************************************************
Online Ads Go Stale Quickly
Clients and prospects alike frequently ask us where they can buy a lists of email
addresses so they can step up their email marketing efforts. While this sounds like a great idea on the face of it, buying or renting email lists is
usually a bad idea. Open and click-through rates from rented or purchased lists are generally very low and in most instances, your organization
probably doesn't have a relationship with those who will be receiving the message (why is this important? See Turning Decision Makers into Customers, above).
There are at least two solid alternatives, however. The first is to build your own list. The
second is to sponsor or purchase advertising in a highly relevant, existing email newsletter. This second option will turbo-charge your exposure,
put you in front of the exact demographic you are looking for, and will likely deliver results quickly. Yet, there's new information that suggests
that you should first think about how much time you're willing to invest in this tactic.
According to research conducted by MarketingSherpa, ads in email newsletters garnered less and
less attention with each delivery. By the third exposure, the ads received virtually no attention. This even occurred with ads that were considered
highly relevant to the content within the newsletter. The best remedy? Change up the layout, style, content, and position of the ad
frequently.
To learn more, read the excerpt of MarketingSherpa's Email Marketing Benchmarks
2008. Download the PDF here
>>
**************************************************
Creating Sustainable Economies
Aperio Marketing is proud to be a partner with the Green Technology Alliance and
joining them in their mission is to build sustainable economies. We believe the only way to accomplish this mission is to create an alliance
that provides the support, resources and venues that build and grow both existing technologies and emerging technologies in the Green IT space. Simply
put: We strive to help build businesses that are green, sustainable and contribute to the economy here in Austin and beyond.
To help us, you can take one easy action: Sign up for the GTA newsletter. In it, you will
discover ways to:
- Grow or launch a green technology.
- Find resources and organizations in Austin.
- Locate resources for your specific technology.
- Learn more about the green and sustainable economies movement.
- Read Austin Green Community news.
- Find an event around Austin.
Sign up today for the GTA newsletter >>
Discover your marketing elements.
