If you work in a medium size or large organization then chances are that you would have heard the phrase ‘marketing communications’. It is the department that deals in handling all communications for the company. Depending on the kind of company and the industry they are in, this department is sometimes called the corporate communications or the product marketing division at times.

Marketing communications is nothing but the science and art of communicating information that the company wants to divulge to the public. The information could be related to the marketing of a product, talk about a new product launch or community initiatives taken by the company. The whole exercise is called a science and an art because though there are set rules and patterns to the manner in which communication should be drafted, the ability to communicate effectively is an art that only some can master. Even as just communicating may seem an easy task since that is what we do every day in our normal lives, there is a science behind what to communicate to whom and in what tone and manner. The process becomes more complex when the market to which one is communicating is an evolved market.

To give you an example of the underlying concepts of marketing communications let us consider the example of the promotional emails that we receive almost everyday. Any person who has some technology background will tell you that the communication is filled with embedded action scripts, flash, cookies and a lot of technological techniques to decipher your movement through the Internet. These are the best practices that are being used in marketing communications today.

These technological wonders enable the marketing professionals to track the navigation of the user through the sites. It registers whether you open the email or not and the activities that you undertake once you have reached the landing page. It measures the amount of time that you spend one each page, the links that you click on and therefore the products and options that you are interested in.

This information is then delivered to the marketing department where it is analyzed and a specific customized communication is created for the user. This tracking and monitoring has enabled marketing programs to become more result oriented and measurable. And it is now becoming a significant tool to justify marketing spends and link the increase in sales to marketing efforts directly.

Source by Ken Snow

Wondering How Many Seminar Registrations You Can Reasonably Expect for Your Promotional Efforts? Here’s What to Expect … and How to Increase Conversion

By Jenny Hamby, the Seminar Marketing Pro™

Certified Guerrilla Marketer and Direct-Response Copywriter

Have you fallen for the myth that your seminar-marketing campaign is a total failure if your response rate is less than 2 percent?

Well, guess what … it’s not uncommon to have a response rate of less than 1% when promoting a seminar. The higher your registration fee and the longer your event lasts, the lower response rate you’ll probably get.

The easiest and most economical way to boost your conversion rate is to focus on highly qualified prospects. Here’s an example.

For an introductory inventory management seminar, I sent a preliminary brochure to all segments of the client’s internal database that we suspected would have an interest in attending the event. The response rate was 1.32%, which soundly beat the client’s control.

When marketing the successive classes (there were 7 in all), we sent direct-mail solicitations only to people who had attended one or more of the previous classes or who had requested information about the events. (The class was promoted to other audiences via an organizational catalog, newsletters and press releases.) This was a safe and sound approach, because it made the most sense for prospects to take the courses sequentially; each course built upon the knowledge of the previous seminars.

The response rates on the successive classes were over 80% … because we focused our efforts on the most qualified prospects. Best of all, the client’s mailing costs plummeted to less than $100 per seminar.

To increase your own response rates, start by targeting qualified segments of your internal database, such as people who have attended related seminars in the past. Also consider establishing joint ventures with companies that already have a relationship with your audience, as well as renting mailing lists of people who have attended similar types of events.

Source by Jenny Hamby

Mobile marketing is marketing, which is in vogue across the world. This marketing form is mainly incorporated by means of the mobile phones in order to offer info, promote or advertise certain products or services. It spells a great worth to the product because of its ability to reach the right person at a right place and at a right time. Thus mobile marketing acts as an apt mode of promotion and permits the customers to get the right selection whenever they have the requirement. Thus businesses reap great benefit from it by getting the access to the hordes of targeted customers. The mobile phones have turned out to be one of the most essential accessories of your lives. Now, one can’t just think of leaving home without carrying one’s mobile. It is the communication gadget that assists you to stay connected throughout with family, friends and acquaintances. You can have correspondence with your near and dear ones by means of e-mails, text messages and hence wherever you are, the world is always with you. Therefore, it is just impossible to do without the small device called cell phone as otherwise you will be shattered as an entity in a far away islet.

When a device, as useful as mobile gets associated with the contemporary marketing techniques, then the consequences ought to be fantastic. Then it becomes a versatile gizmo-keeping people very much in touch and at the same time fulfilling all their requirements at the right time and the right place. Hence, mobile marketing enhances the rate of both convenience and affordability. Mobile marketing always performs the right thing at the right place. It has a limitless approach in rendering the right set of action to promote a business. The mobile marketing through the mobile devices will be reliable and also be a dependable method to introduce your product or service to your target audience. It makes the person inform about the details of the product and also reaches countless hands. This makes it perfect for the mobile marketing companies to promote their new product or services.

By mobile SMS marketing one will be able to send more messages about the new product or service that would help the customer to make a decision. Sending mass alerts to such targeted audience will help the customers to understand more about their products and go forward to buy the product. This method of campaign keeps the customers informed about the happening within a short period of time. The mobile marketing is also effective tool to be used as a reminder for the customer who wishes to buy a product or use a service. The mobile marketing does boost your business and makes you reach more customers in short period of time within your budget.

Source by Harjeet

Nowadays, people choose medical practitioners based on their perceptions rather than relying on endorsements from local authorities and so on.  It has become increasingly important for doctors to market their medical practices in order to build their brand, reach out to new patients, and increase business from current patients.

No matter how great of a doctor you are, your skills will mean little if no one knows you are out there.  Some doctors are reluctant to embrace marketing strategy because they think that being a great doctor is all you need to do in order to find new patients and keep your current ones.  However, the truth is that visibility is incredibly important in this competitive marketplace.  The only way to achieve visibility is through launching a medical marketing campaign.  Here are the 5 Ps of medical marketing.

1. Product

The product of a medical practice is the service you are offering your patients.  For example, if you are a cosmetic surgeon, your product is the cosmetic operations and treatments you offer.  The atmosphere of your practice is also important.  It is crucial to make a very good first impression so when patients come to your practice, you must ensure that the atmosphere of your practice is relaxing, comforting, and friendly.  Make sure that your practice is clean, well-maintained, and well-lit.  The colors of your décor and the lighting can make a massive difference in the way patients perceive your practice.  Although the most important aspect of your product is providing excellent cosmetic operations and treatments, you have to give the overall impression that your practice is ideal for your target market.

1. Price

The price of your products is not only what you charge for your services – it is also defined by the perceived value of your services.  The expectations of your customers will depend on the price you charge.  For example, if you go to a five-star restaurant, you expect to receive top level service and food.  If you service you receive at the five-star restaurant is comparable to the service you would receive at a fast food restaurant, and the food is mediocre at best, you will be disappointed and feel that you did not receive the perceived value of the product.  This will probably lead you to tell everyone you know to avoid the restaurant.  Likewise, people will spread the word that your practice should be avoided if you do not live up to the perceived value of your product.  On the other hand, when your service matches its price, you will get a lot of word-of-mouth referrals.  This provides you with free viral marketing benefits for your practice.

1. Place

The place of your medical practice is where it is located.  The location of your practice is essential to your success.  Factors such as its visibility and whether or not there is public transport that takes patients there will make a big difference in how many new patients you can attract on a consistent basis.  If there are any logistical challenges that get in the way of patients arriving at your practice, try to eliminate them if possible.  If your practice is far away and hard to get to for the majority of your target market, you may want to consider relocating, unless you offer such highly specialized services that people would be willing to travel far to receive them.

1. Position

Your position in your market is defined by the competitive advantages you offer.  What makes your practice unique and stand out from the rest?  You must define your unique position in your market in order to develop an effective marketing plan.  Your perception of your practice may be very different from how your patients perceive it.  Determine how your patients perceive your medical practice in comparison to competing medical practices by doing surveys and providing them with feedback cards.

1. Promotion

Although many people mistakenly believe that medical marketing is solely about promotion, the truth is that promotion should be the very last step in your marketing campaign.  In order to promote your practice successfully, you have to plan extensively.  The first 4 Ps are very important and must come first because they help you determine your competitive advantage and which areas of your practice you need to change or improve.  Promotion of your medical practice involves a combination of PR, advertising, and direct marketing.  Promotion requires a lot of resources so it is very important to plan carefully in order to ensure that you get a high ROI on your medical marketing campaign.

Once you define what the 5 Ps of your medical practice are, you need to find a professional medical marketing firm that can help you put your plan into action and build a highly successful medical marketing campaign.  There are several medical marketing firms to choose from so your best bet is to narrow down your choices and compare them based on the results of their previous campaigns.  Results must be measurable so you can be sure that the firm will be able to live up to their promises.

Source by johnwhites

The term Digital Marketing is gaining popularity gradually.Till date it is not a very well defined term.Digital Marketing is a broad term that encompasses marketing tools like search engine optimization,pay per click and banner advertising.But this will be a narrow definition of the term.

Digital Marketing also includes blogging,RSS,SMS,email,podcasting,voice broadcast,fax broadcast,instant messaging,wireless text messaging,social bookmarking and video streams.It never includes traditional methods like print media,TV, radio or billboard.

It is because those mediums do not give the opportunity to count the number of people who had seen or heard or read an advertisement.In traditional forms even if you get some response it takes time to get feedback from the customers.Moreover those forms do not allow you to reach global audience at a time.

With Digital Marketing it has become easier to communicate with the audience and track the viewer or listener or reader statistics.Change in the technological field has enabled you to interact with the client immediately.It mainly concentrates on Internet marketing strategies.

Internet has grown a strong communication vehicle over the years and it has been recognized as a powerful marketing medium as well.Digital Marketing allows you to examine the success of a campaign on the basis of some factors like what the audience is viewing,how often are they viewing and for how long are they viewing the campaign.You can also track the response rate or number of purchase made and so on.

But it is important to remember that Digital Marketing encompasses a number of marketing tools and all of them can not provide the same kind of reports.Different tools are effective in different ways and it is also important to note that a number of new technologies are evolving now and then.

With instant messaging you can converse with the clients.Webcasting also gives the same opportunity.If you want to chat with the clients you can go for email and social networking sites.And if you have podcast in your website it is just like having a small radio station of your own.

Digital Marketing can be considered as a combination of “push” and “pull” marketing techniques that helps to execute the marketing campaigns.Push is when you get in touch with a consumer and encourage them to buy your product and service.You can send SMS on the mobile phones of your customer or send them emails.Detailed tracking and reporting is possible in Push marketing.It also offers high return on investment.

On the other hand pull is when the customers take the initiative to find you on the web world with the help of Digital Marketing.When the customers know about your website they can easily contact you. The customers establish a link with your company through podcasts,streaming video and so on.In Pull marketing there is no restriction regarding the type or size of the content.Since the customers find you,you don’t need to use any technology to send your message to them.

Digital Marketing can boost your business in a great way.

Source by Steve McMains