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Infusionsoft Review – Email Marketing 2.0

Jason — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:41:20 +0000

Infusionsoft Review

Thanks for checking out my Infusionsoft Review. If you’re looking for the official Infusionsoft site, check the links below:

About two years ago, I started getting into email marketing. There was iContact, ConstantContact and aWeber. Then there was Infusionsoft.

Now, Infusionsoft has always been like this older, bigger brother who doesn’t say much but is intimidating just to look at let alone comprehend…

Then my business grew. I started looking at customer relationship management applications. My assistant told me I needed a merchant gateway. I needed affiliate programs set up…

Guess what? Aweber doesn’t have all that stuff. But Infusionsoft does.

So, let’s get started with our Infusionsoft Review…

Infusionsoft Review – What Is It?

At its core, Infusionsoft is a four things:

Shopping cart
Affiliate management system
A highly sophisticated email marketing system
Customer relationship management software

When you think about it, all of the pieces share components… Customers have emails and names (CRM). You market to customers (Email marketing). Customers buy stuff (Shopping cart). Other people can make commissions when sending you traffic (Affiliate).

Almost every other service out there is split up. You have one company who does email marketing. Another who does affiliate stuff. And so on.

So lets take a look at the components.

Infusionsoft Review – The Components

Let’s start with the Infusionsoft shopping cart. Basically, a shopping cart is where you customers buy stuff. All you need to do to set on up is upload some images and write some descriptions. The magic of the credit card processor and everything works after your initial setup. The cart also SEO’s well – something we like a lot around here!

Infusionsoft also has some built in functionality for upsells/downsells in the sales process too. For those of you into ecommerce, you know how much money you can make off of those!

The affiliate program is a solid, no frills management app. Infusionsoft really excels at it actually. If you want to manage too many more than 30 or 40 products, it might get a little difficult to move around, but if that’s you, you’ve probably got a high-dollar system in place for management.

Infusionsoft’s real claim to fame – email marketing. If your business is focused on email marketing and you’re a little more experienced, this is the way to go. Email marketing + CRM = Lots of sales. Think about all the data segmentation you can do!

Infusionsoft Review – Advantages

Infusionsoft is an awesome application. I recommend it to any who is serious about making money online. Their email marketing and affiliate management programs rock. I’m a data junkie so CRM is very cool. And the shopping cart… Well, there’s not much to say about it. It’s a shopping cart!

Infusionsoft Review – Disadvantages

I do have to say, if you’re ‘testing the waters’ or not serious about building a business online, stick to Aweber and 1shoppingcart.

Aweber is pretty good email marketing software, and 1shoppingcart will do affiliate marketing and ecommerce stuff. Those two will be fine for you until you decide to step it up a notch.

When you do, Infusionsoft is the way to go.

Infusionsoft Review – The Verdict

Like I said, if you’re serious about building a business – Infusionsoft is right for you. If you’re just ‘playing’ or ‘trying,’ stick to Aweber..

Click here for Infusionsoft

Why You Should Use Twitter and Become a “ChirpMarketer”

Ritu — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:31:49 +0000

ChirpMarketing

a form of marketing that is used to convey short messages that are highly centralized, can create impact and grab target market’s attention without them having to spend substantial amount of time looking at the marketing message.

ChirpMarketer

any person or business who uses Twitter or other similar services to create brand awareness with short, enticing messages that call for action

Marketing on Twitter therefore is ChirpMarketing and anyone using Twitter to market are ChirpMarketers.

Twitter as you all know is one of the best online communication tools out there. It helps you connect with other users and share your views and ideas. The key to any marketing strategy is to communicate, which can be through content, images, video or any other forms of marketing. Marketing thrives on communication and communication online thrives on Twitter to say the least. Twitter has emerged as one of the most influential marketing platform and this is the reason why we are seeing more and more companies diving into it.

The growth of Twitter has been nothing short of a miracle. Although the service itself has yet to see any form of revenue, more and more businesses are implementing Twitter into their marketing strategy. If you are a business and you don’t exist on twitter yet, you are losing a good share of your target market. Movies, retail products, services you name it and you will find businesses related to these on Twitter. There is a reason these businesses have taken the leap and embraced “chirpmarketing.” Communication is the key to building a presence and an influential presence can do good to your business in many ways.

Lets quick take a look at why your business should exist on twitter,

Communication - Marketing thrives on communication. Twitter gives you a platform to send messages that are short yet effective. The 140 character limitation to some might be a pain but to effective marketers this is a blessing. If you can convey your message within 140 characters your consumers are most likely to pay attention to you rather than a sales copy that takes almost 30 minutes to read.
Branding - If you exist on Twitter, you exist on the web. Period. Twitter can tremendously help in creating brand through community participation.
Humanization - Twitter gives you a platform which helps you participate actively as an individual community member rather than a business as a whole. Think about it, how many businesses actually can and do share “what they are doing?” not very many. Twitter’s foundation is based on that very question that allows you to participate without being tied to marketing itself.
Customer Service – Lately I have been more inclined to use twitter search rather than google when I am looking for customer service for a particular business. Whether it is an airline ticket that I bought or problem with my hosting service, I am tempted to “@” them on twitter rather than call and wait for hours.
Trust - Social Media presence is built on “trust factor” and the same rule applies on twitter as well. Twitter gives you a platform that hosts millions of active users where you can gain presence within a short amount of time and build the trust factor. By the way, I recently bought a DELL computer although I am more inclined towards HP simply by seeing DELL’s active participation on Twitter, and of course recommendation from other Twitter users. Marketing isn’t simply about selling products, it is about influencing and Twitter helps you influence the market not through your business profile alone but through the community itself.

Let us quick take a look at a graph that shows the growth of Twitter since its launch in 2006,

You can clearly see from the image above that twitter has enjoyed a steady growth. I can almost guarantee that by the end of 2009 we will be seeing more and more businesses dropping off of Facebook and using twitter more aggressively as a marketing tool.

Are you chirping yet?

Social Media – Utilize Not Manipulate

Ritu — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:29:38 +0000

Social Media isn’t as hard as people make it to be and then again it isn’t as easy either. Its one of those things that can either be utilized or manipulated. Most bloggers and businesses do not utilize the power of social media to their benefit. They actually manipulate it to the point where it doesn’t do them any good. of course at first it might generate a spike of traffic to their blog/site and might shoot their revenue up a little high but in the long run its not manipulation that works. Remember abuse isn’t something that is tolerated by anyone and same goes to true when it comes to community. It only takes so long before people realize that you are not utilizing but manipulating a system.

If you look at the image above, the top half you will see four critical elements that defines Social Media. Without applying these four elements social media is nothing but a waste of time both for you and for the community itself. Whatever platform you decide and for whatever reason you decide to use social media, these four elements are critical.

Active participation is necessary
If you aren’t providing value to the community that you belong to, you lose your voice
Social Media is built on helping each other out. Lend a helping hand first and then receive in return
Remember the golden rule of social media – community comes first.

The first half applies to social media in general. The second half however is more concentrated towards what you want to achieve from being part of a community. The four elements in the second half of the image will help you get the most out from a social media campaign.

Not all social media platforms serve the same purpose. Research before you choose a platform to be active on.
Whatever platform you choose, make sure you show interest and generate interest from other community members
Do not forget the humanization in social media. Be yourself and participate as an individual and not as a marketing guy who keeps throwing product information and links
Create a presence. If you follow the top half of the image and the first three shown on the second half, in no time you will have a killer presence on social media.

Social media isn’t hard. It is just misunderstood and poor results from social media is nothing but poor execution.

CRM : The Key To Marketing Strategy

Ritu — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:49:39 +0000

CRM or Customer Relationship Management simply means the methodology or the process of building stronger relationships with existing customers. This can be helpful for any business specially in knowing their customer’s needs and behavior. Many businessmen take this for granted and stay under the impression that once they have served a customer, he or she, will stay with them. But this is where they go wrong. Then after a couple of years they open their old customer’s files and are left wondering where they suddenly disappeared. A customer can desert you on many grounds including you not caring enough for them or because of an unresolved complaint. In fact, these 2 are the biggest reasons for the customers to shift to competitor’s products.

Here’s why CRM success is important:

CRM Gives a 360 Degree View of The Customer

Statistics prove that: a. Repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers.b. Referrals by old customers are 107 % more than new customers. Maintaining existing customers is extremely crucial and its not secret now. 80% of marketing budget is allotted to CRM in most big companies. Every part of your organization which is related to the customer should be integrated. A 360 degree approach or the end-to-end customer management also takes into account the following things:

Executive management contact with key accounts
Customer support functions, such as a help-desk customers may call for technical support
Customer service functions, such as billing and accounts receivable

CRM Is a Mindset And a Philosophy

CRM is not a tool, although many aspects of the customer relationship can be automated using packaged or customized software solutions. In fact, CRM is just a part of the equation that includes changing business practices to focus more on customer needs and re-organizing databases so customer data is made available easily.

Implementing CRM Requires Patience

Most businesses start expecting results soon. But it is required that they understand that a CRM software solution can only give them an estimate as to how much time will it take to implement the change. The reality is that it takes much longer than estimated for the people to get used to the change. CRM cannot take place overnight.

CRM= Customer Analysis

Any marketing strategy which loses out on the “CRM” aspect is sure to be a failure in today’s business world. Customer is the GOD for the company. It is important to carry out a detailed analysis to find out the buying habits and the reasons of their decision making. For eg. – You may find out that a particular group of customers is interested in buying a set of products. Then when you get a new customer with the same buying characteristics, you can try to up-sell something that goes along with it as well.

CRM For Optimizing The Timing of The Sales

When going into depth, CRM can actually help you customize the sales cycle for the individual customers so that you have the best chance of completing the sale. The customized sales cycle is flexible to meet the needs and motivations of the individual customer and is based on tracking the results of similar customers in the past.

CRM For Future Customers

Holding back the rights of CRM can be very dangerous for a company’s existence. UPS went through a low phase during 1997 because of a strike. Their major customers were forced to shift to the competitors. Ay this point, UPS only had one thing in mind “Win back the customers or die”. After successfully clearing off the strike, UPS sent an apology letter to all the customers accompanied with personal phone calls expressing their apology for the inconvenience caused to them. This helped them gain 87% profits following the year strike took place. So until and unless the existing customers are made happy, new ones will also not stick.

It is quite clear the role that CRM carries with itself. A company’s future depends on the way it deals with its customers. The customer should never be in a situation where he/she is left wondering “Why did the owner not call or send an apology for the inconvenience caused by him?” A well designed CRM can cut down the costs in long run by more than 50%. This can further help the businessman to identify potential sales opportunities. Suggestions and comments are welcome!