Lead Generation in the Face of the Death of Sales Calls

Lead Generation in the Face of the Death of Sales Calls | Asterisk Creative | Southeast Branding and Marketing AgencyA recent study showed that nearly 90% of consumers no longer answer their phones. This is particularly true if they don’t recognize the number calling. Arguably, the increase in telemarketing and spam robocalls led us here. So if the unsolicited sales call is dead, how is lead generation supposed to happen for a business?

Many attribute success to inbound marketing. This is generating leads by marketing in a way that leads consumers to reach out to you. In order to be successful, businesses need to expand their prospecting, marketing, and communications strategies to reach their audiences through the channels the audiences prefer. More and more, this is moving toward digital marketing, especially through various social media outlets. Businesses lead potential customers to contact them through Facebook ads, boosted posts, and sponsored Instagram posts, for example. By leading clients to reach out – whether through phone call, direct message, or email – the sales close rate dramatically improves.

Let the team at Asterisk Creative help. We’re skilled in merging the many aspects of social media, email marketing, website design, branding, and public relations to reach our clients’ lead generation goals. Contact us today!

Email Marketing + SEO = A Winning Combination

Email Marketing + SEO = A Winning Combination | Asterisk CreativeAs most business owners and marketers know, tying your marketing efforts together makes for a successful overall strategy. An old adage said that consumers needed to see a marketing message three times to remember it. In recent years, as digital marketing has grown and attention spans have lessened, that adage has changed to be that consumers need to see a message seven to 10 times. This is part of why email marketing and SEO make such a great combination!

For starters, email subscribers tend to be more engaged with a company than the average website visitor. Since your email newsletters should contain links to your website, those that receive your emails and click your links are more likely to be engaged with your website. This equates to higher numbers of site visits, lower bounce rates for pages visited, etc. More website engagement signals to the search engines that your website content should be seen more. In turn, this potentially increases your organic rankings.

In addition, most email providers such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, iContact, and others offer links to each of your email newsletters. Adding a “newsletter archive” page to your site can benefit you in multiple ways. Site visitors can see what your email blasts are like before subscribing. This increases your chances of gaining subscribers that actually WANT to receive and engage with your emails. On top of that, each time you add your latest newsletter link to your newsletter archive page, the search engines potentially see that as an update to the page. With fresh website content being a premium for search engine indexing, these updates count as updated/new content. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of keeping your site ranking well in the organic results.

Are you ready to take your email marketing and search engine optimization further? Asterisk Creative can help! Give us a shout and let’s get the ball rolling!

A CAN-SPAM Primer for Email Marketing

CAN-SPAM Primer for Email MarketingIf you use email marketing for your business, you need to know the CAN-SPAM law inside and out. This federal law breaks down what is allowed and what isn’t when it comes to email marketing.

Here are a few main components of the law, straight from the government’s website:

  • Your header information must be accurate. Your “From,” “To,” and “Reply-To,” information must be correct and identify the person or business who sent the message. This includes the originating domain name and email address.
  • You should not use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect what the email is about. You should not put anything in a headline that’s sole purpose is to get someone to click the link, but then the email isn’t what the headline promised.
  • Let your subscribers know the message is an ad. There’s nothing specific about HOW you should do this within the law. However, you must disclose in a clearly visible way that your message is an advertisement.
  • You must include your physical addresss in the email message. This can be your current street address, a P.O. Box you’ve registered with the USPS, or a private mailbox you’ve rented through a facility like the UPS Store or those types of locations. But it absolutely HAS to be an address currently associated with your business.
  • You must tell recipients how to stop receiving emails from you. Your email must include an explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting emails from you in the future. It must be easily understandable and easy for the recipient to execute. One option is an opt-out link within the email. Another option is instructions on emailing a specific address and what to include in that message.
  • You must remove opt-outs quickly. Opt-out requests must be removed from your subscriber list within 10 business days. You cannot charge to remove people from your list. You also cannot require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on a website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
  • Responsibility lies with you for the law being followed by your blasts, even if you have a company doing your email blasts for you. Both your company (the company being promoted in the message) and the company you hired that actually sends the message can be held legally responsible.

Breaking any part of this federal law opens your company to the risk of a fine of up to $40,654. That’s not a fee many of our clients could survive. So if you need help staying on top of email marketing laws and best practices, give Asterisk Creative a shout!