amptopia

The Truth About Hope

rich — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:13:04 +0000

Post by: J Christine Feeley I’m a big fan of Seth Godin’s blogs, and this past weekend I became an even bigger fan having read his blog on “When you sell unlimited hope…”. Seth references the impact of over- promising a product or service; creating a key message based on hope versus truth. It’s a [...]

Is Your Social Media Campaign Falling Short?

rich — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:34:26 +0000

All media has a purpose and a function. Mass media is used to create awareness by reaching large masses. Direct media is used to compel recipients to respond to a specific “call to action”. The purpose is the same whether you’re company is targeting businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C). However, the purpose of social media [...]

Marketing’s Budget: First Line of Fire When It Comes to Budget Cuts

rich — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:23:16 +0000

You know it’s true. Marketing almost always sits in the most vulnerable position when it comes to budget cuts. The farther we get into the year, the more we begin to hear the hallway whispers, “Expense freezes or cuts are in the pipeline”. The marketing team immediately shifts into allocating as much of that budget [...]

Dump that Black Box for a Glass Box!

jcfeeley — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:20:58 +0000

Best Marketing Financial Practice #2: Set revenue objectives by tactic Best Marketing Financial Practice #3: Check & Balance before going out the door, add up revenue impact by tactic & compare to objective Let’s establish some definitions before diving into the “why” both of these Marketing Financial Practices are important. First, marketing will frequently define [...]

Best Marketing Financial Practice #1: Run the P X Q, Before Launching a Campaign

jcfeeley — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:38:02 +0000

Price X Quantity = Revenue; most of us learned this very basic formula in our businesses classes, and it should be the basis of every marketing plan we develop. When establishing a forecast of what “could be”, each element of the formula acts as a variable assumption as well as an objective. If our actual [...]

Are You Leveraging ALL Of Your Marketing Assets To Find New Revenue Opportunities? 8 Low Cost/No Cost Ideas

jcfeeley — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:53:55 +0000

Most companies are seeking creative ways to grow incremental revenue without increasing their expense budgets by a significant amount of money. This push to stretch our expense budgets to work harder may “feel” like a daunting challenge, but “we’ve been there, done that” and wanted to share some of the ideas we’ve effectively used to [...]

Marketers, Lets Show Our Friends In IT Some Love!

jcfeeley — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:00:37 +0000

By J. Christine Feeley In marketing’s haste to push that next great campaign out the door, I sometimes wonder if an IT department or an IT Helpdesk team often feels like they’re holding on to the tail of a kite when it comes to supporting marketing initiatives. No doubt “speed to market” can inadvertently cause [...]

Teaching Marketers Math

jcfeeley — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:23:23 +0000

Imagine half of a sports team who has been trained to only put numbers on the scoreboard. They have little interest in innovative plays or in new strategies, as they are only interested in tried and true scoring techniques. Now imagine the other half being trained in the art of the play. They think in [...]

Success Amplified

jcfeeley — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:38:49 +0000

Fellow small business peers are a valuable resource, allowing you to foresee operational challenges and how to gain revenue success. To encourage this discussion, amptopia has partnered with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to establish a monthly feature focused on small businesses or start-ups who have agreed to share their key learning experiences on [...]

Asking The Right Questions

jcfeeley — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:32:20 +0000

The Fournaise Marketing Group conducted an illuminating survey which shows a disconnect between what C-Suite executives expect from their Marketing leaders and what they receive. C-level executives want to see the financial support and data behind the marketing team’s plans and projections. Yet, marketing teams are often unable to provide such detail on their campaign [...]

Referral Requests

jcfeeley — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 16:25:10 +0000

The well-known Pareto Principle states approximately 80% of a business’ sales is due to 20% of the customers. Oft repeated, this principle emphasizes the importance of focusing on your active, satisfied customers to drive new traffic through your doors. Equipping your evangelists is both cost effective and radically more persuasive than traditional advertising. But word [...]

Is Your Advertising Making Cents?

jcfeeley — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:09:10 +0000

Advertising can feel like you are speaking into a deep, dark well—with only your own voice echoing back to you. Is anyone down there? Is anyone hearing your message? Is it worth the effort to keep talking? Tracking your advertising impact was profoundly more difficult before the advent of the Internet. Now you can determine [...]

A Marriage Vow Between Sales And Marketing

jcfeeley — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:30:14 +0000

If Marketing and Sales were to take a wedding vow to facilitate their collaborative alignment, I have to wonder if this is what it would look like? A Marriage Vow Between Sales And Marketing I, Marketing, take thee, Sales, to be my loyal and trusted Partner, for richer (meeting goals) and for poorer (missing goals). [...]

Taking Aim On Converting Prospects Into Clients

jcfeeley — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:30:21 +0000

Like a quiver and a bow, your sales and marketing tools are the ideal way to hit your target. With the proper skill, the sharpest tools, and a specific target, you can hit the bullseye every time. Transporting Your Message A bow is a simple tool that can deliver an arrow to a specific target, [...]

7 Reasons Why Two Is More Powerful Than One

jcfeeley — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:32:51 +0000

With social media driving most of the online “how-to’s”, the value of partnership marketing and sales is rarely discussed. That’s a disservice for many organizations that are actively seeking out creative ways to stretch their marketing budgets and accelerate their sales. Social media can help achieve the same objectives, but partnership marketing and sales can [...]

The Importance of Marketing

jcfeeley — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:30:50 +0000

Imagine a car without wheels. A train without a track. An airplane without wings. These stunted, impossible traveling mechanisms are perfect examples of a company without an actionable marketing plan. Not an Option If you don’t have a marketing plan, you have no way to gauge success or determine your best path towards your goal. [...]

Making Marketing Fun and Profitable

jcfeeley — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:30:04 +0000

A fun workplace is a profitable workplace. Excitement drives productivity while joy on the job rewards it. Implement a few of these fun ideas to keep your staff active and engaged. Start with a Bang Start the sales process with immediate buy-in. Your sales and marketing team should be included in the annual marketing planning [...]

Crafting a Marketing Plan: Best Practices

jcfeeley — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 14:00:09 +0000

Every business should have a marketing plan but many companies actually have a marketing wish list. Without accurate and attainable revenue numbers and an actionable plan to reach your marketing goals, your multi-paged plan is more of a suggestion than a road map. Invite Everyone on the Band Wagon The creation of your business’ marketing [...]

Five Low- or No- Cost Revenue Drivers for Small Business (Part 2)

jcfeeley — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:00:14 +0000

This is a continuation of our previous blog post on five low- or no-cost revenue drivers that small businesses can do. 3. Reevaluate Costs Lowering your price is considered one of the top ways to increase revenue and encourage sales. But surprisingly, raising your price can have a similar effect. If the increase isn’t too [...]

Five Low- or No- Cost Revenue Drivers for Small Business (Part 1)

jcfeeley — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:00:31 +0000

Driving new revenue and keeping sales results high is a constant challenge. Consider these five simple, low-cost or no-cost revenue drivers to increase sales and plump up the bottom line. 1. Keep in Touch It’s a busy world. Customers need to be reminded of your presence and your offerings. And they need to be reminded [...]

Encouraging Team Work: Eliminating Animosity

jcfeeley — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:00:15 +0000

It is human nature to place blame when something goes wrong. But when your sales expectations fall short, the first reaction shouldn’t be finger pointing. Prevent excessive blame finding and witch hunts by modeling a commitment to team work. Employees are less likely to hide unflattering reports if they feel as if the news bearer [...]

What CFOs are Saying About Marketing (MASB CFO survey)

jcfeeley — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:00:55 +0000

The 2010 CFO Marketing with Accountability and Standards Board (MASB) survey of Fortune 50, 100, 500 & 1000 companies revealed some interesting expectations of marketing from the financial side of the table. When it comes to brand value, it can be hard to measure, the CFOs said. The best approach involves transparency and mutual understanding. [...]

Why Your Sales Team Needs Content Marketing Support

jcfeeley — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:16:15 +0000

It used to be much easier for marketing and sales to simply get the word out. Whether it was networking, cold calling, trade shows or passing sales brochures, sales teams could better control the information given to their prospects. But with so much news, information and entertainment driven by online conversations, the old “broadcast” or [...]

The 4 Steps to More Effective Marketing Plans

jcfeeley — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:00:46 +0000

In our prior post, we discussed how creating a successful sales and marketing plan requires both front-end and back-end accountability. We then described the different elements of front-end accountability. In this blog, we’re covering the back-end accountability elements that complete a tight, closed-loop sales and marketing plan. The first element of back-end accountability is daily [...]

Reduce the Hidden Risks of Your Marketing Plan

jcfeeley — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:00:45 +0000

When a marketing plan flops, the tendency is to point fingers. But if you can shift to a financial-based marketing approach, you’ll help put an end to the blame game by adding transparency — and reducing hidden risks. Don’t panic. There’s no need to splurge on expensive, new management software. But you will need to [...]