Lead Acquisition Cost can be  a painful topic to many business owners for one of 2 reasons. Firstly they may not know, or secondly, they may be all too aware of the expense involved,  just getting the phone to ring!

It’s pretty easy to do some ‘quick and dirty’ maths that will either cheer you up – or make you take a long hard look at the ‘front end’ performance of your business.

Try this simple exercise for yourself.

Add up all the annual costs associated with your advertising and sales, divide by 12, then divide that number  by the number of enquiries you get in a month.  The figure differs wildly from one business sector to another of course, and is only a rough measure of performance – but it’s still probably higher than you imagined.

That’s the first part of the problem, figuring out roughly how much it costs to get the phone to ring!

Logically the next stage of the process should aim to figure out how many of those expensive leads get converted into paying customers,  So take the monthly cost figure from above and divide it by the number of customers coverted from the leads – Now thats going to produce a much larger figure, because unless we’re selling tenners for nine quid,  we are not going to convert every incoming lead!

These are the ‘Vital Statistics’ of any business that relies on sales – and that means pretty much every business!

Armed with these numbers, Lead Acqusition Cost and Customer Acquisition Cost , we can make informed decisions about how to change, improve or cancel the various strategies that make up our business plans.

Recently I’ve dealt with two business owners, in completely different service sectors, in different parts of the country – both were deeply shocked at the results produced by the simple maths exercise above. Each of them had Lead Acqusition Costs well in excess of £200. For whatever reason, this cost analysis had either eluded them, or gotten out of hand over the years. The simple fact was that every time the phone rang with a potential new client – it cost over £200. Once things are explained in that simple, matter-of-fact way, it’s easy to explain the benefits of new technology to people!

Both these owners have now reduced their dependence on conventional advertising, have simple, measurable  systems in place to measure where leads come from. Most importantly, they’ve increased the number of leads they get, whilst at the same time reducing the Lead Acquisition Cost by a factor of 5.

It’s easy to get sucked into the delusional world of Yellow Pages, Colour Pages, Directory adverts and other ‘Brand’ advertising’ – it’s a profitable game, for the ad companies.  I’m also pretty sure that some of their salesmen prey on the insecurities of business owners, making them fear that if they aren’t in ‘it’ , then their competitors will make off with all the trade.

But wait a minute! They’re probably telling the same tale to your competitors too!

All I’m suggesting is that you make up your own mind and base your decisions on FACTS, not FEAR.

If you want to reduce your ‘vital statistics’ give me a call or email me using the form below.

Here are six simple tips to help you either get started or get ahead with E-marketing:  Our recent in-house survey shows that of  the 9,222 registered businesses in East Yorkshire and  North Humberside that employ less than 50 people – only 32% have a web presence that allows contact by e-mail.

On the other side of the coin, around 80% of UK adults will use the web for research or to make a purchase this year.Are you missing a huge opportunity?

1. Use your Company Database
Do you have an up to date list of your customers, leads and prospects? If you do, what percentage of your contacts have an e-mail address? Building your e-mail list from people you know or have dealt with adds value to your marketing. Updating your database should be your first priority.

2. Start Website Data Collection
How hard is your website working for you? do you have a mechanism in place to collect e-mail addresses from visitors or do you simply allow them to browse and click away?

3. Use E-Brochures and Catalogues
Do you have an electronic version of your brochure or other sales material? With an e-brochure you can kill two marketing birds with one stone! Firstly you can ask for an e-mail address when an enquiry is received and then you can deliver that information virtually instantly as an e-mail attachment.

4. Install and use Auto Responders
Everyone has heard of them but how many companies are actually using them? Autoresponders allow you to reply automatically to e-mail requests and can even deliver your brochure or catalogue automatically as an attachment. They can be programmed to send just one message (single autoresponder), or a series of pre-written messages in a dated sequence (sequential autoresponder)

5. Start a Newsletter
A regular newsletter provides a great opportunity to keep your name in front of customers, prospects and leads. It doesn’t have to be complex or particularly large. The secret of success is to give your readers some content of value that relates to your product or service offering. It can be managed in house or outsourced and can even be pre-written and inserted into an auto responder series so that you never forget to send it out on time!

6. Learn to read your Website Statistics
Statistics on the web have always been a source of confusion, many web designer even use them to confuse their customers! Stats are important, especially if you’ve invested time and money in marketing online. You want to know how well your strategy has performed and in particular what the return has been. This is where E-marketing scores heavily over conventional techniques. It can be measured in real-time and altered ‘on the fly’.

Email marketing: the features
Our email marketing service contains a full set of features designed to help you manage every aspect of your  email marketing outreach.  Here’s a quick overview of some of these noteworthy features:

There are 3 main sections built into the system Audience, Campaigns and Response

Audience
The audiences feature helps you import, store, manage and grow your permission lists. You’ll be able to:

•    Create unlimited audience groups for organization and targeting
•    Search & segment your  audience based on demographic, response data and more
•    Customize your database using standard fields and wildcards you create from scratch
•    Create personalised signup screens and confirmation emails to help grow your list
•    Import large lists easily and automatically clean them for duplicates and errors
•    Easily move members  and reorganize audience groups as you go
•    Export your audience lists and data at any time

Campaigns
Our campaign features  help you create stylish email campaigns and send them using our sophisticated delivery network. You’ll be able to:

•    Create stylish html campaigns without using html, or upload your own freestyle campaigns
•    Personalise your emails with first names and more
•    Prepare html and text versions, and deliver the right one automatically
•    Rate your campaign for problematic content before you send
•    Include our send-to-afriend feature with every email
•    Control your own ‘from’ names and addresses
•    Let recipients manage their preferences at any time
•    Send your campaigns at any time, or schedule a future delivery

Response
Our response section gives you easy access to your results, in real time. You’ll be able to:

•    See real-time totals for emails received, opened, clicked, forwarded, signed up and more (and details
•    for who did what, and when)
•    View response details for entire campaigns and for individual recipients
•    Have bounces (hard and soft) and opt-out requests handled for you automatically
•    Store your past campaigns and results in your online archive, and easily link to past campaigns from your website
•    Create an instant, side – by- side comparison of multiple campaigns and their results
•    Get assistance on delivery-related matters whenever you need it

More on the way
We add new features (and refine the ones we’ve got) every month. So the above list continues to grow to meet your evolving email marketing needs.

Email marketing: an introduction:
Email has become a critical part of any firm’s communications and marketing plan. It can help retain customers, keep members informed, increase sales, fill seats, raise brand visibility and help you grow your business. Email is faster and more affordable than traditional print mail, and, by some measures, it offers the best return on investment of any marketing medium*.
It’s possible email might even wax your car or take the dog for a walk. It wouldn’t surprise us. But to work, email has to be done well. Content needs to be clear and compelling. Graphics need to be visually appealing. Campaigns need to be personalized and relevant. Delivery needs to be timely and accurate. And results need to be thoroughly tracked and applied to future mailings.

And that’s where we come in: We make it easy for you to …

Manage your audience lists…
You can easily organize your recipients into groups, or use our advanced search-and-segment feature to find (and send to) people based on their interests, their geography, their past response and more. Your customizable signup screens let new people sign up from any spot on your website, and your customizable database lets you collect and store as much information as you like.
Utilize industry best practices…
Whether it’s following the rules of permission marketing, handling opt-out requests quickly, interpreting bounces or making sure you’re sending a well constructed email every time, our service can help make sure you’re on board with the latest industry trends and best practices that will increase your delivery rates and improve your results.
Create and send stylish email campaigns…
Create stylish email campaigns using our intuitive click-and-build screens, or upload your finished html campaigns. Either way, we’ll help you prepare and preview your campaigns, proof them for problematic content, and send quickly and accurately every time. And your past campaigns are stored for easy access and linking later.
Deliver with success every time…
Our world-class delivery network ensures high delivery rates through our personalized sendoff, ISP relationships, and delivery policies that can be fine-tuned down to the individual mailing if necessary. Our engine handles every aspect of delivery for you, and our industry know-how helps ensure the highest delivery rates possible, every time.
Track your results in real time…
You’ll see who opened your campaign, clicked on every link, forwarded your campaign to friends or signed up to get your future emails. You’ll find out who bounced (definitely didn’t get your email) and be able to follow up with them. This is just part of our real-time response tracking that lets you know just about everything that happens to your campaign, as it happens. And because we store your results over time, you’ll be able to learn from past efforts to make your future emails enjoy even greater success.
________________________________________________
*Direct Marketing Association Response Rate Study, October 2003