How to calculate the lifetime value of your customer by Drew McLellan December 12th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Business owner/leader stuff, Sales, Strategy What is your customer worth to you? Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way. I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions. I’m hopeful that as you ponder my question — it will give you some ideas for making 2012 a break out year for your organization. What’s a customer worth? The truth is, most business owners have no idea what a customer is worth to their business. Why does this matter? How do you figure out the lifetime value of a customer? You need to know this number. Not sure how to calculate the lifetime value? Once you know that….you know what you can do to earn a customer. Lifetime value of a customer infographic Stock photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com
A Deep Dive Into Facebook Advertising - Learn How To Make It Work For Your Business! As a savvy internet user you might think no one clicks on Facebook ads. Wrong. Facebook is on track to make over $4 billion in revenue this year from advertising. How do you get them to click your ads? Many marketers who have tried Facebook ads, especially in their early days, decided that Facebook advertising doesn’t work. If you’re totally new to Facebook, start with this Facebook Marketing Guide. In this guide, you’ll learn which businesses are the best fit for Facebook ads and how to run successful campaigns. You can learn more and create your first ad at Facebook.com/advertising. How Do Facebook Ads Work? Facebook ads now come in several varieties. Facebook ads are targeted to users based on their location, demographic, and profile information. Facebook’s most important ad targeting options Users then see your ads in the sidebar on Facebook.com. This guide will walk you through the best practices for creating CPC ads that drive traffic to your website. Who Should Advertise on Facebook?
9 SaaS Subscription-Billing Solutions Subscription business models are becoming increasingly popular on the web. Amazon Prime may be the best example of a successful, ecommerce-related subscription. But there are many others. We’ve addressed Amazon Prime here previously, in “Amazon Prime: 5 Million Members, 20 Percent Growth.” For merchants interested in launching their own subscription programs, here are nine subscription-solution providers for small and enterprise-scale companies. Chargify Chargify provides a SaaS billing solution for online companies. SaaSy SaaSy provides a customizable, hosted subscription order page that can match the look and feel of a company’s existing website design. Zuora Zuora’s Z-Billing 2.0 is an enterprise-level product that supports virtually any customer subscription model, provides customer metrics, tax automation and compliance, and multi-currency support. Monexa Monexa allows for a good deal of customization. Aria Recurly This provider offers a payment gateway designed for subscriptions.
How to price something by Jason Fried of 37signals Lately I’ve been spending some time with local entrepreneurs who are looking for business advice. Inevitably, the topic of pricing comes up. “How do I know how much to charge?” There are lots of answers. You can make up a number and see if it works. The good news about pricing is that you can guess, be wrong, but still be right enough to build a great sustainable business. However, you are not allowed to ask people: “What would you pay for this?” And these are the questions I hear people asking over and over. The only answers that matter are dollars spent. So put a price on it and put it up for sale. You can dig into the why’s more deeply over time, but you have to start somewhere.
Marketing Legends Hall of Fame – Meet the Greatest Marketing Gurus — michaelhaupt.com Who are the most influential people in the world of marketing, ever? Here’s the largest collection of Marketing Greats ever assembled online, with their Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles where such things exist so you can follow and learn from the greats. Skip To: “The giants of direct marketing need no introduction. These great innovators in the direct and digital marketing industry have one thing in common: Each and every one of them – in their own way – changed the game, carving a path for generations of marketers to follow.” — From the November 30, 2009 Issue of Direct Marketing News I’ve studied marketing for over 20 years, by going directly to the marketing greats. Classical Marketing Add a Missing Entry | Top of Page Copywriting Gary Bencivenga, One of the world’s most respected copywriters: Official Site, LinkedInRobert W. Online/Digital Marketing Branding Social Marketing Guerrilla Marketing Other Noteworthy Additions
54 Quotes from Startup Leaders on How to Improve Conversions Large and small companies alike invest a lot of time and money working on improving their conversion rates. And as we all know, there are countless “experts” and websites all trying to sell you their advice on how to improve conversions. In this blog post, I'm going to take a different spin on this conversion topic... I surveyed 54 companies and asked each of them one question: "What is the one thing that you did that had the strongest positive impact on conversions?" 54 companies below share with us what has worked for them. Backblaze "Backblaze is an online backup service where we backup all data on laptops/desktops for $5/month. To do this, our homepage previously had "Download" or "Start Backing Up" as the call-to-action. However, we found that after people downloaded the application, many people seemed to lose the file and not run the installer...or to run the installer but not enter an email/password, thus not creating an account and backing up data. Before After BeCouply BetterDoctor 1.
Learn How To Increase Your Conversions From These 5 Consumer Psychology Studies Understanding how the mind operates is an essential part of marketing and conversions, and always has been. Today, we are fortunate to have benefited from professional psychological research studies that can give us a much better understanding of how people work, rather than using blind guesses and hunches. People are very sensitive to taking all sorts of queues that affect their outlook on your product or service. With this knowledge in hand (backed by real research), you will be able to prime people for positive actions, and increase your conversions in a consistent manner by tapping into the psyche of your potential customers. What you’ll be learning today largely fits into 3 distinct categories: Why people who feel “connected” with your brand are better customers.Why personalization & follow-up information are critical in getting people to take action.How your price points effect conversions (and customer’s perceived value of your products). The best part? 1. That’s right, the 4th option.
Pricing Pages in Web Design: Getting Users to Sign Up What is are the first thing a visitor will look at before signing up for a paid service? The pricing of course. Can they afford it? Pricing pages can sell a service, or scare people away. Pricing Pages in Web Design Shopify Shopify has a well-designed and bright pricing page that uses a lot of great techniques that likely turn into high conversion rates. Featured and "Most Popular" plan is highlighted visually, and uses the term "Most Popular" for social influence." Wufoo Wufoo's pricing page matches their overall brand and style with quirky typography and a colorful design. A quick and short list of primary features making decision making simple.On this page, the plans are listed from most expensive to free. Freckle Freckle really emphasizes the little risk involved, which can be a great influencing factor to get more visitors to sign up, and then turn into paying customers later. CobbleStone CobbleStone is a service that offers website solutions for churches and such organizations. SipGate
Drip Marketing: Build Relationships Little by Little, Drop by Drop Before consumers buy from you, they must know, like, and trust you. Moving along that continuum takes time and patience. In today’s snug economic times, earning enough trust to get someone to crack open their wallet or company checkbook is no small feat. That’s why we’re such big proponents of the drip marketing strategy. To sustain a drip strategy with the goal of moving someone along the know/like/trust continuum, you need to mindful of the following. Plan carefully Drop marketing is not really a "by the seat of your pants" sort of tactic. information, contact, and relationship building. Know how to respond to "What's in it for me?" No consumer is going to let you keep buzzing about if you don’t offer something of value. Have 110% consistency Your ultimate goal is that consumers trust you. Remember that a little is a lot The goal is to be a regular presence, so customers don’t forget you. Don’t broadcast Drip marketing is not a stage for you from which to shout out all your messages.