Lead Generation Tips

As they say, In the Internet world “The Cats Don’t Bark “. Visitors come in the site and look for specific things and browse there for few minutes and they jump off. Conversion needs to happen in those few minutes of stay. So what are the tips for conversion :

1. Build a nice landing page with specific product or service information that you have advertised

2. Make sure the page looks authentic and in sync with the overall website framework.

3. Whatever deal you are offering has to be visible and highlighted

4. Open a chat session on the page and lead them to their choice

5. Make the shopping cart and checkout process very simple

6. Keep some contest and let them register to win it.

7. Provide all the post sales support thru emails and tracking

Ofcourse a person buys only those things that he/she intends to buy. The process of buying and conversion is more of giving credibility and service.

Mobile: Can we deliver value and still make profit ?!

The world is becoming so connected and as experts envision, if the Internet was the killer application in the nineties, it is definitely the mobile phone for the current era. So many big players like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are investing huge sums into research on mobile technology. If e-mail was the killer application for the internet, the one for mobile phones has always been voice. There have been so many technology and content players trying to serve data but very few have struck gold. So far, the only way companies are making money is through value-added services like caller tunes and so on, but at a very high cost.

The challenge is whether you will be able to deliver services on mobiles the Google way- free of cost to the end user and still making a profitable business. Of course, the mobile doesn’t have much of a real estate when compared to that of a computer monitor. But if you can get it there, there is nothing like it!

One day when I was about to start for shopping, I wanted to find out the best deals in town. I just went ahead and started browsing the news paper for an advertisement on some apparel offers, which I had seen a few days back. I had to go through newspapers at least 5 or 6 days old for over half an hour to find the advertisement with the details of the offer, address and other info.

1. Firstly, what if there was a small code in every advertisement or some smart tag where in I just punch the code of an interesting advertisement in my mobile (non-camera mobile) and message it to a toll-free/local number and I get the vital details of that offer back in my mobile immediately? In case I have a camera mobile, I just take a picture of the smart tag in the advertisement and message it to get all the relevant details like type of offer, address, phone number, etc. So, whenever I come across an advert in newspapers or hoardings or the TV or Internet, I needn’t remember a thing. I just take a pic or send the message and I get the necessary info permanently stored for my future use.

2. Practically speaking, very few people will actually go and do whatever was there in the previous point. There is a good chance that I see it and I miss the code or I am not in a position to note it at that time. What if I had a search engine, which just searches and lists advertisements and offers? When clicked, it takes me to the original seller. And if necessary, I can send the details to my mobile or email it or bookmark it over or save it in some form for future reference. This way, we can maintain the service for free and charge the seller for every potential inquiry or click. After browsing for couple of hours, the closest thing I could find was http://www.ixigo.com/ which is a similar search engine for offers but only on travel business. These people list the deals & offers and the rest of transaction is done in the actual airlines website (say a jetairways.com or spicejet.com). So there is zero liability.

3. If the same search engine is available on mobile phones, it is the best someone can get. I go out for shopping to a ‘X’ showroom and find that I don’t like anything. Once I come out, I am not left with much choice. If I had a search engine on my mobile, which is simple and intuitive, I can probably search for offers around that area and then check them out. It just becomes a point of right information at the right time to make it profitable for all the stake holders.

This is just a rough idea. But if we can find out the loopholes and build a business model out of this, it could turn out to be a success story.

One company which is doing something similar to this is mginger.com . Mginger sends targeted advertisements based on the profile of the user. Mginger adds value by:

• furnishing users with offers relating to the choice he/she has given.
• paying the users for receiving those ads by sharing a part of its profit.

Even here, it is more of a “push” model and there is lot of scope in this space if we can make it a two-way communication!

Lets us wait and see what the future looks like…

Multiple Revenue Streams using Multi-Channel approach

In the times of Economic Recession, Revenue generation could be tough for many companies and undoubtedly for start-ups. A good way to look at operational excellence is to offer more for same cost.

Case in point is Cleartrip.com . This portal started off with Online air travel business model and then later on added Hotel booking to its portfolio. Now they have announced to offer Online Train Ticketing with a nice interface to the back end data from IRCTC. Clearly they are headed in the right direction of making Online travel easy for customers by adopting a Multi Channel approach. It would be a great idea if they could also add another offering of Bus Ticketing,..they could think of acquiring someone like Redbus.in or someone in that space. This will surely make their portfolio comprehensive for prospective travellers.

Similar multi channel services could be attempted by many such service providers. At RevenueMantra we have pioneered to get this going from day 1.

Where is the Intellectual Property ?

What is your IP ? is a typical question asked by any investor or VC to a startup venture.

If you are a platform provider, then it is imperative to have a solid IP of your own. Be it Amazon or Ebay or Cleartrip all of them come with some great back end technology and a neat looking GUI in the front.

But oflate there are many ventures (even some funded by VCs) who are just using some other’s technology to bring faster service to market. Though there is nothing wrong with the strategy but there is no differentiated value one offers. Also as the market changes, you are not able to deliver your customer’s expectations.

At the end of the day, a business thrives because it solves a business problem or a consumer pain. In the internet era most of it is done through the medium of technology. If the technology is outsourced then what you are doing is just Sales. For doing just Sales, you don’t expect valuation.

This is getting very common with Ad Networks. Companies like Right Media are lending their Ad exchange to prospective businesses for running an exchange service. Though it is great for Right Media but I wonder the value provided by the business which runs the service. And why should a VC invest, if it is not their IP ?

Mobile Advertising

With the announcement of 3G service in several countries, Mobile Advertising is poised to grow exponentially. This medium is expected to have a larger penetration in emerging markets, even more than internet penetration.

All Mobile Carriers, Portals, Games Content, SMS providers, Mobile Social Networking and  Application providers will be able to participate as Publishers and earn a lot of money by monetizing their traffic.

Advertisers get to target their message to a widespread consumer audience and assess its performance.They will be able to use the formats of Text, Image, Video, SMS,..etc to comeout with their creatives.

Technologically there is a challenge of rendering Ad images to various types of Handsets, Screen sizes, form Factors, etc , so that the Image is legible. Also there is a challenge of tracking performance of Ads and providing various Pay-Per-Action methods.

The opportunity is big and some companies have already announced their plans to be in this space such as RevenueMantra.com, Mkhoj.com, ZestAds etc…

This crisis is Unprecedented!!!

As the Dow hit 8600 today, there was panic all over despite a Fed rate cut of 0.5%.

Is there an opportunity to make money ? Absolutely,..It is very hard to stomach the loss but Generals dont backout from a war,..they fight it hard. If you cut your loss and miss the bottom opportunity, you miss the bus squarely. So guys watchout for the bottom prices,..there is a crisis and there is a great opportunity.

Now Ebay is hurt by Slow US economy

Ebay announced to simplify thier operation to become more nimble. Ebay has announced to cut jobs by 10% which is about 1000 employee reductions.

The ongoing Credit crisis and Wall St turmoil is affecting businesses in the main st. Silicon Valley was so far not affected by this but a slowing economy gets everyone down. Investors are concerned that the US housing lump, rising commodity and fuel costs and credit crunch have  started affecting the already slowing business of Ebay. Ebay is all set to keep its cost structure in control and offer value deals for the holiday season quarter to attract more of the traditional shopping time in the US.

Post bailout package, the market is still under panic and has not seen any move in the positive direction. So it will be clear in a few days, how the markets will play out and easing of credit through the banking system is felt.

Ecommerce in India

Ecommerce in India is a much talked about topic nowadays. As the world looks into the growth story of India and its huge consumption opportunity, India is building the basic infrastructure required for supporting a huge population. Organised retail has just begun to happen and one sees a lot of Malls and different formats of Retail stores and chains offering variety of products.

Natural extention to this is Ecommerce, buying and selling. The internet penetration is slower than the mobile phone penetration, but the behaviour is going through a cultural and mindset change from buyer’s perspective. Some of the areas where buying on the Internet is quite evident is travel sector ie air, train, bus ticketing. Shopping engines have just started offering Price comparison features but they are surely in an early stage of this market development. There are lots of business model to catch up in various categories of products to be sold.

But there are certain areas to be addressed in ecommerce business :

1. logistics - Shipping has to be efficient and priced on transaction volumes.

2. Whole Sale - Drop Shipping business models have to be established

3. Returns - Return policies have to be very customer friendly

4. Payment Gateways - Price of these transactions have to be minimum and PayPal and Checkout type of models have to be adopted

5. Marketing - Affiliate marketing and various other Online marketing methods to be adopted

Once the above areas gets addressed,  one could see a big Industry emerging here. The likes of Ebay, Amazon, 1800flowers, petmeds, etc will eventually be taking shape in India as well.

Online traffic and Marketing

Well its true that good content drives traffic. But just by having good content one doesn’t get huge customer visits. To increase traffic one needs to look into the following aspect of Online Marketing efforts.

1. SEO - Your website, pages, content, all have to be aligned to the rules of Search Engine crawls. The challenge is to direct people, searching on keywords related to your business, to your website. The idea is to produce result so that your product/service information lands in the first few pages of search. SEO is mandatory for any organic lead generation and it is one of the cheapest way of aquiring customers.

2. SEM - Search Engine Marketing

This is about using Adwords of Google and defining Keywords and bidding price for them. Its amazing how Google has a command in this area. Its easy but it is  monotonous work to keep redefining your keywords and optimizing your campaigns. This costs money and it surely produces results. Google has a quality scoring method for your keywords and it is important to follow the guidelines of the Master.

3. Ad Networks/Affiliate Marketing

Ad Networks  play an important role of displaying your Ads in their Publisher network. This creates visibility and drives a lot of traffic to your site. Some of them even offer performance oriented service termed as pay per action. The actions are primarily impression, clicls, lead and sale. The good part of these networks are that it is Self Service and completely non intrusive.

4. Viral Marketing

Important aspect of online business is spreading your word virally. This requires your prospects  to talk and refer your links to others in their community. Social Networks are a success by adopting a Viral method. Viral marketing is done through blogs and forums thereby communication is constant with the communities.

5. PR

Last but not the least, PR plays a huge role in communicating with your customers. PR is a non advertising approach to communications. This is done through Events, Seminars, Road Shows, Newsletters etc.

If all the above areas are well addressed in your marketing effort then there is a good chance of hitting the right chord with your customers. Finally your product/service sells because of its use or need, Marketing is a tool to communicate about it.

Next Generation Digital Media Company

Hi,

This is RevenueMantra Digital Media.

We are one of the pioneering digital media companies providing a Multi-Channel Advertising Network platform. Currently we are live with Internet, Mobile and Print channels.

Why Multi Channel ?

We believe that offering multiple mediums for Advertisers is a way forward to get maximum ROI. Also it is an easy way of collaborating with known affiliations between Advertisers and Publishers

What is the Business Pain ?

We see a lot of established and emerging businesses trying to reach out to their prospective customers globally. Often they come up with out of the box ways to promote their products and services. The challenge is how do they do it in the Online Marketing space. How it can be more performing than mere following the brick and mortar approach of media placement.

Our Solution

We intend to drive more leads and sale for Advertisers. We let all forms of Text Ads, Display Ads, Coupons, Deals, SMS to appear in a Publisher’s channel. We encourage Publishers to create their Hotspots for Advertisers to bid. We make this whole process on a self service basis and thus making it completely non intrusive for both Advertisers and Publishers.

Role of Technology

Technology is an enabler. As we try to solve the problems of customer pains and also try to keep the solution simple, the technology challenge becomes very complex. RevenueMantra uses appropriate technology to give us a competitive advantage to differentiate in the market place.

Where are we based ?

We are based in Mumbai. But in the internet age who cares?

Watch this blog for more information on Digital Media.