Clarity Quest Marketing » All Posts

May 8 – Ann Arbor SPARK Presents Return on Marketing Investment Roundtable

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:34:58 +0000

Ann Arbor SPARK will hold a marketing roundtable discussion this Tuesday, May 8 entitled “Return on Marketing Investment.” The roundtable will be held live and via a webcast and will teach attendees about simple ROI metrics, and provide a panel to answer questions and provide a range of insight. Panelists include Bud Gibson – Creator of EMU’s Integrated/SEO Marketing Program, Jeff Ewald – Founder of Optimization Group – a measurement and analytics company for marketing and marketing communications, and Eric Jacobson – CFO of Amplifinity, Inc. – a company that helps track Word of Mouth campaigns and provides performance metrics. The roundtable will be streamed from 5:40-7PM by Magic Coast, and will be held live at SPARK Central (330 East Liberty, Lower Level, Ann Arbor, MI 48104) from 5-7PM, with registration and networking before the discussion. For more information and to register for free, click here.

Learn more about upcoming MI marketing and networking events from a Michigan marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

The Best Time to Send Emails

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:05:54 +0000

Here’s a link to great infographic by Pure360 on the best times to send email blasts.

http://emailmarketing.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83452a5d869e2015434cf6844970c-pi

Note the best time for B2B offers is 5-7pm when folks are working late. We’ll be testing this theory over the next few months and will post results here on this blog.

How to Incorporate Interactive and Telemarketing Efforts into your Campaign

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:13:09 +0000

Though telemarketing and interactive marketing are often overlooked in the creation of marketing campaigns, if used correctly they can be extremely viable marketing tactics that will help your campaign become more successful. Implementing telemarketing and interactive marketing efforts into your overall campaign can engage your target market and generate new business, better conversation, and increased revenue. The following tips will help your company learn to successful utilize telemarketing and interactive marketing efforts to enhance your marketing strategy.

1. Build a valuable target market list: In order to conduct telemarketing efforts that engage and entice customers, ensure that the customers you call will be interested in your business’s services. Create a list of existing customers, as well as those whose demographics match current customers, or the current customers of similar businesses. Having a list particular to your business is an extremely valuable resource that will help ensure the success of your telemarketing campaign.

2. Coordinate Telemarketing with Online Marketing Programs: Create engaging calling programs that go hand in hand with your online marketing efforts. Create an email marketing campaign and social media campaign that parallels your telemarketing efforts. You can also use telemarketing to do some preliminary research about customer needs, wants, and pain points before launching your interactive campaigns. This is a great way for customers to better recall your business, and have a personal, one-on-one dialogue with your company that may lead to improved attitudes and opinions about your business. By developing a more personable connection.

3. Make Interactive Marketing Fun: Rather than spamming potential clients with banner and pop up ads, create fun and unique tactics that will break through the clutter and lead to more and longer page views. For example, implement online games that will engage visitors on your site and persuade them to spend more time looking around. Create quizzes and surveys that will entertain visitors, while also helping your company learn more about its market so it can better advertise to them. Conduct contests on your website and social media pages that will give visitors a reason to come to the site, and make them feel more apart of the company.

4. Create Visually Appealing Interactive Marketing: Ensure that all of your interactive marketing efforts pull potential customers to your site, rather than pushing them away. Intrigue them with visually appealing and educational infographics to display information, rather than bombarding them with long lists of data. Create aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate graphic design for your website, mobile, and software applications that will draw in your target market. Integrate video into your interactive marketing efforts to attract more visitors and persuade them to stay on your site longer.

For telemarketing and interactive marketing advice and services, contact a Michigan marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

Clarity Quest Launches Website for UNIVAL

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:50:59 +0000

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new website for Ann Arbor-based UNIVAL, Inc. UNIVAL provides integrated healthcare services and technology to large health care insurance companies, health plan organizations and other major employers nationwide.

PRSA CT Valley Chapter Presents “Tell Your Story Through Video”

admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:59:58 +0000

The Public Relations Society of America Connecticut Valley Chapter will hold a special event Thursday, May 3 “Tell Your Story Through Video.” The program will help entrepreneurs learn how to best create and promote compelling video content for your business. Video gurus Lon Seidman, Co-founder and CEO of LocalOnlineNews.tv and Anna Save, Co-founder and Editorial Director of LocalOnlineNews.tv will speak about their experiences using video to tell stories. Seidman has managed several political campaigns, and Sava is an Emmy-award winning Connecticut journalist with an MA in Film and Video Production from American University. There will be an opportunity for guests to network with one another before the program begins. This event will take place at Hartford Foundation for Public Giving (10 Columbus Boulevard, 8th Floor/Hartford, CT 06106) beginning at 8:30AM. The cost to attend is $5 for nonprofits, $10 for members and students, and $15 for nonmembers. For more information and to register click here.

Learn more about upcoming CT marketing and business events from a CT marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

Brand Re-engineering for B2B Companies

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:34:45 +0000

Though some may argue that brand refreshes are not critical to effective B2B marketing, in reality re-engineering your B2B brand can exponentially increase in success in the marketplace. Creating a strong B2B brand is essential in order to rise amongst the widespread clutter and competition to which many B2B companies fall prey. Just like traditional consumers, business buyers have emotional and psychological triggers that can be tapped into with a re-branding of your company. With a strong brand, your business can gain the loyalty and trust of its target marketing and develop a consumer base that is willing to pay more for your services. Branding can be a critical part of your marketing strategy to help your B2B company expand its consumer base and become more successful.

1. Be specific: Amongst all of the B2B clutter, creating a brand that appeals to a specific target market will help you best reach your client base: the most valuable B2B companies are those that reach out to a specific market and are positioned as more unique than competitors. For example, rather than branding yourself as an “online marketing service”, focus on a niche such as, “creative-minded small and mid sized business owners.” This specification will serve as a navigation tool for your target market to most easily find your services.

2. Brand your company by benefit: Make a list of the functional and psychological benefits your company serves and use the top benefits into its brand image. Consider not only what your company does, but also how can it make a client feel. For example, a web site design service may offer templates, design tips, and an on-call technical engineer, live chat and can make clients feel creative, calm, and in control.

3. Provide valuable content: Unlike traditional prospects, B2B customers tend to conduct a more extensive informational search than other consumers. Over 80% of B2B buyers start the buying process by researching online. Therefore, your company must provide in depth background into its benefits, and continually update its potential market with useful content exemplifying its expertise. For example, create YouTube videos and blogs that offer insight into your industry, interview experts in the industry and post the transcripts, develop an email marketing campaign with daily tips.

4. Give your brand a voice: Successful B2B companies need to develop a voice that fits with its values and attitudes it wants to be associated with. Decide if you want your company to be professional, formal, informal, etc. Great brands reflect the culture and personality of the company. Corporations who will be working with your company want to feel like they have a personal connection with your business and can trust it. Business buyers may be more skeptical than traditional consumers, and need to know that they can rely upon your company to provide its services quickly, efficiently, and consistently. Make an effort to attend local networking events, and take advantage of any speaking opportunities, panel discussions, or other industry events as another way to create a more personable and credible brand name. Creating a voice for your brand that reflects these benefits will lead to your customers’ loyalty, and your success.

Get more marketing advice from a Michigan marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

April 25 – LA2M to Host Lunch Event, Covering Live Events with Social Media

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:08:09 +0000

LA2M will hold a special lunch event at Conor O’Neils next Wednesday, April 25 from 11:45-1 PM entitled, “Covering Live Events with Social Media.” Richard Retyi, a public relations and social media expert will be providing insight into how to develop and execute events utilizing social media channels. This tactics will help marketers learn to generate buzz for events before, during, and after their occurrence. Retyi currently serves as the social media director for the Ann Arbor digital marketing agency’s, Fluency Media. He also helps manage social media channels for Chevrolet at the agency Big Fuel, and previously worked as assistant director for athletic media relations at The University of Michigan. Retyi will be happy to discuss online marketing strategies with attendees, and provide valuable advice about taking advantage of social media’s ever growing presence. Learn more about this event at LA2M.org.

Learn more about upcoming MI marketing and networking events from a Michigan marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

How to Build and Maintain Brand Loyalty

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:10:22 +0000

Establishing a tradition of loyalty amongst your consumers will help guarantee your company’s success now – and in years to come. It is critical that your company focus on building and maintaining this loyalty so it establishes a devoted customer base that will consistently buy from your business, refer your business to friends and family, and ensure your business’s continued profitability. The following tactics will help your company learn the basics in brand loyalty so it can continue to thrive in today’s economy.

1. Loyalty Rewards Programs: Creating financial incentives for your customers to keep coming back is essential to the maintenance of their brand loyalty. Develop a loyalty reward program that will make frequent customers feel appreciated, both personally and financially. For example, offer a free service or rebate if a customer spends a certain amount of money, give coupons or discounts of increasing value to customers as they hit certain monetary targets, or start a frequent customer points program where points can translate into coupons for use on your company’s services.

2. Improve Customer Service: Customer service is one aspect of any business that can always be improved upon. Making customer service a priority in your business plan is critical to the creation and maintenance of loyal consumers. To improve upon customer service, send surveys to current customers to glean valuable feedback on your company. Take both positive and negatives comments into consideration and revise your business plan to adapt to consumer desires. Always send apology letters when a consumer has a negative experience with your company, and consider offering coupons and discounts as consolation. Also, ensure that your company is consistently reliable, trustworthy, friendly, and communicates well with its customers.

3. Communicate: As is true in any relationship, communication is the key to developing brand loyalty amongst your consumers. Make your customers feel a part of your business by updating them with internal and external business happenings via weekly e-newsletters and frequent blog posts. Remember that whenever emailing, mailing, or calling customers, always refer to them by name to make them feel special. Further, create an ongoing two-way conversation with consumers using social media to make them feel appreciated, respected, and noticed.

Get more marketing advice from a CT marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

May 3/4 – AMT-CT to Hold Marketing Planning Boot Camp

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:57:49 +0000

Mark you calendars for May 3^rd and 4^th because the American Marketing Association of Connecticut (AMA-CT) will be holding a new professional development opportunity – “Marketing Planning Boot Camp”. This event, to be held in Hartford, Connecticut, will split participants into small groups where they will be given a case study company in need of a new marketing plan. A marketing plan development expert will oversee each group’s creation of an effective, unique, high quality marketing strategy. Participants will leave this two-day boot camp with extensive knowledge about how to develop, execute, and measure highly intricate and successful marketing plans, including how to create a situation analysis, competitor analysis, marketing objectives, target marketing, positioning, mix marketing approaches, and action plans. This event is intended for marketing professionals, business managers, and entrepreneurs with a basic understanding of marketing. This boot camp will be held at the UCONN School of Business (Graduate Business Learning Center, 100 Constitution Plaza, Hartford, CT 06103) on May 3 and 4. Register now before space is full here.

Find out about more CT marketing and business events from a CT marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

April 24 – A2Y Chamber Presents Seminar On Developing Business Strategies

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:34:10 +0000

The Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber will hold seminar on Tuesday, April 24 from 3-5PM entitled Six Disciplines: Strategy x Execution=Total Performance Excellence. This seminar will help employees learn to craft a long-term business strategy to help further develop their company. The LEAD institute will teach participants how to create a measurable vision and goal for their company, and then develop a strategy that aligns with the company’s missions, values, and leadership. Attendees will leave with a breadth of insight in strategic business planning they can use to help their companies reach their highest goals and achieve their most hoped for visions. Register online for this event here.

Find out about more Michigan business events from a Michigan marketing company. Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.