Category — Freebie Friday

We’ve all heard a lot about social networking; joined LinkedIn, commented on forums, or started to use Twitter.  But, can you actually get leads from all of this?  Or is it just a giant time waster?

Today’s Freebie Friday is a new case study from Marketing Sherpa.  It spells out how one marketer uses LinkedIn to raise awareness of their products, qualifies leads he gets, and shares marketing materials (without being pushy and obnoxious). Find out how LinkedIn is different from other networks and lead generation tools and how to tailor your marketing to get more (and better) leads from it.

Hurry to read  this (free access ends after August 5th)

Generate more leads with LinkedIn.

Want to know more about SEO (search engine optimization)?

If you don’t already know, it’s the science (and art) of making your Web site more appealing to search engines. Find the search terms that best describes what your customers are looking for, optimize your site to fit those terms, and you’ll rank higher when people search for products or services like yours. The easier it is to find you, the more traffic, leads, and customers you’ll get.

Today’s Freebie Friday offers some help. It’s an e-book by Dan Theis, with help on mapping out a keyword strategy, optimizing the way your site is constructed, and measuring results.

Update: The 2009 Edition is now live.
Get your copy here.

Each year, the editors of Marketing Sherpa ask their readers to share stories of what worked (or didn’t) in the past year. Hundreds of marketers send in reports about their campaigns. This year, topics cover the gamut from old school direct mail and advertising to Web 2.0 social networks, paid search, and mobile marketing.

There are tips on personalizing email campaigns, doubling open and click-through rates, whether social networking can really build your business, and when to start a blog.

Plus, real results of campaigns for lead generation, landing page tests, metrics, customer service, and b-to-b marketing.

Get the full Marketing Sherpa Wisdom 2009 report

Today’s Freebie Friday is a book written in 1923. While some of the references are a bit quaint and the brands long-gone, the information inside is as true now as it was then.

Even back then, there was a raging argument over whether copy should be long or short, because ‘people don’t read.’

In fact, this book is the basis for modern direct marketing (which is the basis for measurable internet marketing).

Should you say you’re the best in the world?

Does claiming the lowest prices in existence drive more sales?

Is it a good idea to focus on a specific group, or is it better to talk to as many people as possible?

To find out, <scientific-advertising>download your free copy of Scientific Advertising.

It’s the last Friday of the month, so it’s time for Freebie Friday. This month’s edition will tackle the difficult (and ongoing) problem of estimating email response rates. If you check the Q&A on LinkedIn, Marketing Professionals or other business forums, you’ll see lots of questions about response rates. What open rate will I get? How many people will click on my link? What will my conversion rate be?

They’re tough questions, and you’ll see lots of answers (including mine) saying that “it depends.” Not that I (and my fellow responders) don’t want to be helpful, it’s just that the results you will get depend on lots of different factors (list you use, what you want people to do, what they get for doing it, the words and design you use, even time of day). Too many options for a one size-fits-all answer.

However, there are some things that will help. Each year MailerMailer analyzes thousands of marketing emails and puts out a report with detailed statistics on open rates by industry, click-through rates, time of day and lots more.

A few highlights from 2008:

Open Rates
General Small Business: 16.49%
Education/Training: 15.76% (largest gain over 2007, when it was 13.76%)
Government: 25.6%
Nonprofit/Trade Association: 14.6%

Click Rates
Religious/Spiritual: 6.66%
Real Estate: 6.35%
Transportation/Travel: 4.65%

Click Rate by Format
Text: 3.24%
HTML: 2.83%

Opens by Subject Line Length
Under 35 characters: 19.64%
Over 35 characters: 14.83%

Get the full report at MailerMailer Report