The Times, They Are A' Changin': New Marketing Budgets

A really great article from Research Brief shows interesting trends for marketing budgets planned for 2011.  It's looking good for marketing next year -- at least half of businesses polled plan to increase their advertising budgets.  For the second year in a row, email marketing and social media marketing are expected to be the top targets for increased spending.  Here are the highlights from Strongmail's late November survey:

• 93% of businesses plan to increase or maintain marketing spend in 2010
• 41% of business cite lack of resources/staff as primary email marketing challenge in 2011; 41% data integration; 36% email deliverability
• 52% of businesses cite increasing subscriber engagement as top 2011 email marketing initiative; 49% improving segmentation/targeting; 43% integrating email and social media
• 65% of businesses plan to increase marketing budget for email; 57% social media; 41% search
• 71% of businesses plan to integrate email and social media in 2010

These numbers are very encouraging, indicating that email and social media marketing are still king in the marketing arena.  Another interesting stat claims respondents name lack of resources or staff to be the biggest marketing challenge in 2011 -- this opens up the job market for talented direct marketing individuals.

Strong goals for 2011 seem to be increasing subscriber engagement, improving segmentation and targeting, and integrating social media and email.  Social media may be the new kid on the block, but it's here to stay -- and interestingly enough, it's not knocking email marketing off its throne, either.  Business leaders know the two will have to play well together in 2011 for fully effective marketing.

You can read the survey and accompanying article in their entirety here on Mediapost.

Low-Lying Fruit: Is Your Business Harvesting?

In the advertising and marketing world, you hear the phrase "low-lying fruit" pretty frequently. It refers to your existing client base, the people you know use your products or services, the ones you have in your company records as customers. All too often, when we are searching for the elusive bounty that is "profitable sales", we walk right past the low-lying fruit and go out of our way to struggle and strain to pick the one or two big apples off the top of the tree. We neglect the easy stuff because it's easy--heck, anybody can pick that fruit. But if we keep treating existing customers that way--walking right past in search of bigger, juicier fruit--anybody will pick that fruit, right off your tree.


If you want to be successful in your market, you simply must go out of your way to keep your customers happy and coming back for more. If you don't, someone else will come along and shake them out of your tree. Asking your existing customers to come back by offering them "thank you" gifts (like a coupon or a free month of service) will not only keep them happy, it will help you create referral business. Better yet, offer referral incentives to your current clients--"refer a friend, get a gift card." It helps retain and grow your current clients, builds brand awareness with potential new clients, and better yet, turns your customer base into a sales force you could never hope to compete with.


Feed, water, and nurture your customer tree, harvest the low-lying fruit, plant new trees from your existing fruit, and pretty soon, you'll have an orchard full of happy, profitable customers.
For information on how Red Crow Marketing and CORE can help you harvest your customers, email us today.