Stephen D. Gross

So what is all the magic about the number 37?

Very simply stated, the number 37, in our opinion, is the root of success for almost all sales and marketing.  Every web designer, content writer, and marketing guru should know and understand the power of this number!

Ok, so what the heck is the magic in 37?  Did it originate from some super-duper magic show in Las Vegas?  HA!  Not really.

It really should be shown as 3-7.  These two numbers are somewhat separate in terms of how they perform their magic.  You probably use these numbers everyday without knowing it.

Had enough?  Give up yet?

The first explanation concerns the use of getting the buyers attention and making them sticky.  In other words, getting them to return to your website.  So here are the forms of magic:

You have no more than 3 seconds to gain the customer’s attention on your website, page, content, offering, and/or pricing.  Additionally, you have no more than 7 seconds to verify their decision to commit their attention and gain their trust. That’s right, you only have a maximum of 10 seconds to gain their attention and prove they made the right decision to commit their time.

Secondly, during these economic times and under non-emergency conditions, its takes an average of 3 visits to your website, etc. to get the customer to believe in your offering.  It may take as many as 7 visits for the customer to take the action you want them to take.

The “Marketing 37″ concept has been applied, in many different forms, throughout marketing history.  No the magic is not in pasting this number throughout your website (duh).  The real magic is using and applying these two “Marketing 37″ concepts to drastically increase your conversion ratio.  Understanding the need to grab the customers attention, get them coming back, and having them apply the actions you desire is really what the magic is all about.

What is your conversion ratios?  Leave a comment.

Visit Brookstone Marketing Group for more information

Are you a Twitter for business user?

Mashable, one the worlds largest Blogs, wrote this blog to assist people and business understand and perhaps capitalize on the the latest addition to the Twitter family of tools.

Twitter’s new Lists feature is all the rage right now. There are probably already millions of lists, and that number is growing by the minute (or second). So what are people using all these lists for? Are people creating lists just for the sake of creating lists? Savvy individuals are looking for ways to use lists to further their personal/professional agendas, and while we are all still learning how to harness the power of this new feature, here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing.

Read more…

Provide by Brookstone Marketing Group

OK I admit not everyone has been fortunate enough to study for and receive an MBA.   A Master of Business Administration is a master’s degree in business administration for short.

Guess what?  That’s not what we are talking about!!!

MBA = Marketing + Branding + Acquisition

These three little words that are arguably the root of all online success in today’s online marketing environment.  Why, do you ask?

Marketing is a “social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others. (Wikipedia)

Branding or a Brand is a name or trademark connected with a product or producer.^[1] Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as “cultural accessories and personal philosophies. (Wikipedia)

Acquisition or to Acquire, gain, usually by one’s own exertions; to get as one’s own, as, to acquire a title, riches, knowledge, skill, good or bad habits. (Wikipedia)

So why is an MBA strategy important on the Internet?  Basically, the Internet is beginning to reach the mature stage from an Internet marketers perspective.  The bell curve of the guru marketer with their secret sauce mentality is reaching its peak in terms of their performance value.

Consumers and online searchers alike are beginning to demand a much more professional look and feel in terms of the presentation, creative quality and content than has ever existed before.

The online marketer together with the associated content writers, graphic artists, developers and sales dept’s must all work together in a cohesive fashion in order to gain optimum control and accountability over what is quickly becoming the main-stay in research and purchasing activity.

The small business owner and manager is falling farther behind.  The opportunity to capitalize on Internet marketing and the tremendous low cost advantages to Market & Brand their business and Acquire new customers won’t last forever.  Did you know the Internet is quickly running out of addresses?

To learn more visit Brookstone Marketing Group.

In a recent report posted by Neilson their research shows a surge in consumer confidence with online search and buying trends.

The Nielson survey shows that 9 out of every 10 (90%) Internet consumers trust word of mouth or people they know for recommendations of an impending purchase.

The report also shows that 70% trust online opinion (Social Marketing, etc.)

However tied with online opinion is websites or business with strong branding coming in at 70%.  Online Brand confidence has rose from 48% to 70% in just two years.  Thank you Social Marketing with Branding!

Content in articles, press release etc comes in a close 4th with 69%.  However it is unclear whether this statistic includes offline content as well.

Traditional forms of advertising, TV, Newspaper, Magazines, Billboards, and Radio fall into the ranking of 6-10.  Their percent of confidence falls between 55-62%.

Search engine result ads, online banner ads, online video sales ads, and phone text ads fall to the bottom of the barrel.  Their percent range is 24-41%

All of this is great news for firms who are active in Social Media Marketing and Branding.  Unfortunately these 2 opportunities for growth are normally far beyond the reach of the small business owner.  The need for quality online marketing firms to reach out to the small business community to provide these services has come of age.  However the greater need for the small business owner is one of education and conversion from traditional advertising into the online marketing arena.

Vistit BrookstoneMarketingGroup.com today!

The questions surrounding how to apply and what to say when using Social Media Marketing are growing exponentially. Many would see this as a signal of failure for people to understand in general the whole concept of community participation, branding and Internet sales.  However, I see it as a very strong indication of how the new phenomena of social marketing is gathering its well-deserved attention.

It has been recorded in history that any major change in society and/or business may take as long as 7-10 years to fully be understood and mature.  Over 50% of the US population continued to ride horses for an estimated 15 years after the first car was deemed road worthy — not to mention the fact that the roads weren’t fully modernized for over 30 years.

Social Media Marketing has only been in real world existence for roughly 1-2 years and we are already experiencing a tidal wave of small business interest.

The idea of having a real-time method to brand your business and at the same time promote a special event or product launch is not an easy concept to mentally digest. We are all accustomed to traditional means of separating sales from marketing and marketing from advertising.

A branding or marketing campaign will take at least 3 months to get any meaningful data right? Wrong!  The Internet allows a business the opportunity to bundle Sales, Marketing and Advertising in a cohesive fashion.  This cohesion tremendously advances the time element of the campaign and permits almost real-time feedback.  The best advantage is the low cost of entry into the marketplace.

The single biggest issue, for this new way of marketing and advertising, going forward is trying to tear down the linear thinking process involved with traditional marketing.  Thinking outside the box will provide the small business owner the opportunity to vastly broaden their scope of potential customer base.  Instead of thinking of directly targeting people who ride bicycles, if you sell bicycles, a business owner might begin a social media campaign centered on low impact ways of exercising or maybe even how to get to work without spending money on gas.

The real advantages with using Social Media Marketing aren’t found with identifying one target market and hammering on it until its dead.  The answer is to apply both horizontal and vertical approaches to marketing penetration and use the information gained to further advance the growth of your business.

Visit our website for more information: Brookstone Marketing Group

Success starts with a beginning!

One of the most common questions we receive from prospects is how to use the Internet to get new customer leads flowing without exhausting their valuable time. The answer is very simple; let the Internet perform the heavy lifting by setting up an online automated lead capture campaign.

A lot of the prospect hesitancy apparent with this approach is the “need for greed” or “control everything” old style of sales tactics. The need to have ones hands in everything worked a lot better when the Internet wasn’t yet mature and money was flowing like a fire hoes.

In today’s competitive environment the ultimate goal is make every possible use of your available time.  Outsourcing the common daily and weekly tasks associated with lead nurturing not only frees up valuable time but actually increases closing ratios by as much as 4-10 times.

An automated lead capture campaign is the beginning of this valuable sales funnel tool.  Our email drip marketing campaigns are designed to use the leads obtained from online marketing and nurture them into a future customer buying decision.  No muss, no fuss.  You are free to run your business or take some vacation time…

It really is as simple as it sounds.  Devote as little as 1 hour per month with the Brookstone team and let our system do the rest. The best part comes when your website jingles, your phone rings, and your door swings with new customers.

Our online campaigns are designed to combine the tremendous powers of the Internet with your existing or new website, online sales page, telephone, and many other forms of traditional advertising.  Our sales representatives are ready to assist you today to determine the right campaign to rapidly increase your sales leads.

Visit Brookstone Marketing Group for help today!