CRM / Call Center Topics

Evaluating CRM software

Discover resources for evaluating CRM software and find expert advice on how to research CRM software in this topic section. Find out how to evaluate CRM products using CRM software research and get expert insight into the advantages and disadvantages of CRM software and specific products. Find CRM software news and checklists for evaluating CRM applications, comparisons between SAP CRM, Oracle CRM, Siebel and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Get tips on how to select the right CRM system and advice for selecting the right call center technology. Access screencast demonstrations of various CRM products including Oracle, Siebel, Microsoft and Salesforce.com. Use these resources to help you make the right choice for CRM technology.

Market Share

What Does Market Share Mean?
The percentage of an industry or market's total sales that is earned by a particular company over a specified time period. Market share is calculated by taking the company's sales over the period and dividing it by the total sales of the industry over the same period. This metric is used to give a general idea of the size of a company to its market and its competitors.

Investopedia explains Market Share
Investors look at market share increases and decreases carefully because they can be a sign of the relative competitiveness of the company's products or services. As the total market for a product or service grows, a company that is maintaining its market share is growing revenues at the same rate as the total market. A company that is growing its market share will be growing its revenues faster than its competitors.

Market share increases can allow a company to achieve greater scale in its operations and improve profitability. Companies are always looking to expand their share of the market, in addition to trying to grow the size of the total market by appealing to larger demographics, lowering prices, or through advertising. This calculation is sometimes done over specific countries such as Canada market share or US market share.

Investors can obtain market share data from various independent sources (such as trade groups and regulatory bodies), and often from the company itself, although some industries are harder to measure with accuracy than others. 

 

Market Economy

What Does Market Economy Mean?

An economic system in which economic decisions and the pricing of goods and services are guided solely by the aggregate interactions of a country's citizens and businesses and there is little government intervention or central planning. This is the opposite of a centrally planned economy, in which government decisions drive most aspects of a country's economic activity. 

Investopedia explains Market Economy

Market economies work on the assumption that market forces, such as supply and demand, are the best determinants of what is right for a nation's well-being. These economies rarely engage in government interventions such as price fixing, license quotas and industry subsidizations.

While most developed nations today could be classified as having mixed economies, they are often said to have market economies because they allow market forces to drive most of their activities, typically engaging in government intervention only to the extent that it is needed to provide stability. Although the market economy is clearly the system of choice in today's global marketplace, there is significant debate regarding the amount of government intervention considered optimal for efficient economic operations

Marketings Article

If someone says that he does not like getting free samples or stuff; do not believe him. According to me, owing free stuff and discounted products is a loveable activity and an enjoyable opportunity that most of us will never be willing to miss. There are plenty of ways to get free products and normally most the people opt their own ways to get these products or stuff. Now the rest of the article is intended to provide some more ideas to the existing users of free products and definitely to those who haven’t yet tried free products or stuff.

Suggestion 1:

Grocery shop is always found to be a good place to find free stuff for the surfers. Distributing free samples is a common way to make any product popular and grosser’s use this way of advertisement very well. Most of the readers had been going through this activity; those who haven’t are suggested to try this option and will find it a useful one. Coupons based purchase is an extra but a affable activity for most of the customers; an option available at almost every grocery shop. 

Suggestion 2:

An intelligent search to find free stuff and free samples must include newly opened stores in the area, especially by the businesses that provide the services like tanning, haircuts and waxing etc. Usually these service providers invite the customers to try them for free and endow their 100% effort in their introductory meeting. Good thing about them is that for the offer days, the services are either free or available at very low prices. If you reside in a big city, you find dozens of newly opened stores with different discount and free offers. Do not miss the chance; take a fancy to these offers where ever you find them.

Suggestion 3:

Another great source of finding free samples or stuff offers is internet.  You can easily find through websites. Often you may get things 100% free from the people who get some replacement things and want someone to pick them up to vacate the space occupied by them. It is a surprising statement to see what turns up; see you local listings.

Suggestion 4:

Companies do not mind in distributing free products among the customers who are likely to purchase these products in future. The benefit that you get from using this free product is the product reliability. If you want to check the product of a specific company then it is recommended that without any hesitation contact that company directly and ask about any available offer. And if you are a volunteer of finding the companies that distribute free stuff then do not stop reading, just continue…

Suggestion 5:

Google as we all know is a great search engine that facilitates you to access the companies that offer free stuff; just write in the required words in the text box and press search. You will find thousands even millions of results but remember; the precise search requires precise description. As perfect the keywords are; as perfect the results will be. For instance, just type free samples or stuff companies, you will see what good results Google brings for you.

Article By:    Kanwal

Introduction to Marketing Research

Market research and marketing research are often confused. 'Market' research is simply research into a specific market. It is a very narrow concept. 'Marketing' research is much broader. It not only includes 'market' research, but also areas such as research into new products, or modes of distribution such as via the Internet. Here are a couple of definitions:

"Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information - information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications."

The Marketing research Process.

Marketing research is gathered using a systematic approach. An example of one follows:

1. Define the problem. Never conduct research for things that you would 'like' to know. Make sure that you really 'need' to know something. The problem then becomes the focus of the research. For example, why are sales falling in New Zealand?

2. How will you collect the data that you will analyze to solve your problem? Do we conduct a telephone survey, or do we arrange a focus group? The methods of data collection will be discussed in more detail later.

3. Select a sampling method. Do we us a random sample, stratified sample, or cluster sample?

4. How will we analyze any data collected? What software will we use? What degree of accuracy is required?

5. Decide upon a budget and a timeframe.

6. Go back and speak to the managers or clients requesting the research. Make sure that you agree on the problem! If you gain approval, then move on to step seven. 7. Go ahead and collect the data.

8. Conduct the analysis of the data.

9. Check for errors. It is not uncommon to find errors in sampling, data collection method, or analytic mistakes.

10. Write your final report. This will contain charts, tables, and diagrams that will communicate the results of the research, and hopefully lead to a solution to your problem. Watch out for errors in interpretation.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing is the practice of marketing or advertising your web site through search engines, like Google, Yahoo or MSN. Search engine marketing (SEM) may consist of one or more of the following components:

• Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) -

 Search engine optimization is the practice of applying techniques to maximize your ranking in organic, or natural search results. Organic search results are the rankings of Web pages returned by a search engine when you search for a specific word or phrase - a "keyword" or "keyword phrase".

• Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)-

 Ads you place for your website with a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo. You bid the amount you are willing to pay per click. The more you bid, the higher your ad will appear in the search engine results. Google AdWords has implemented an additional factor in where your ads rank that is based on the relevancy or importance that Google places on your site, which is very difficult to manipulate.

You can also use pay per click advertising to your advantage on your own site. For example, you can make money with Google AdSense and other similar programs.

• Pay For Inclusion (PFI) - In addition to search engines, like Google, Yahoo and MSN search, numerous directories also exist on the web. These directories may be general in nature or related to a specific topic. You can get free listings in some online directories,  but most directories now charge for a listing. Verizon's SuperPages is an example of a PFI directory. Another example of a major directory is again, Yahoo. Yahoo Directory, which is separate from Yahoo search, is described in Yahoo's own words as: Subject-based directory listing websites in a wide range of topics, from arts, entertainment, and society and culture, to science, education, and health.

Why is Search Engine Marketing Important?

You may or may not decide to make search engine marketing part of your marketing and advertising strategy. If you don't have a Web site for your business and don't plan to ever have one, you certainly wouldn't need search engine marketing. However, in today's business climate, nearly all business are expected to have a website and most do.

Search engine marketing is used as a way to get traffic to your website, which in turn should ideally lead to getting new customers and adding to your home business revenues. Compared to other means of marketing and advertising, search engine marketing can be very cost effective. For example, you could implement some search engine optimization techniques on your own. Organic search rankings are free, so if you can move yourself up in the rankings, your traffic should increase, which, in turn, should increase your home business revenues. Similarly, Pay Per Click Advertising can be very inexpensive. Since you can set limits on how much you'll pay per click and how much you'll pay per day, it's fairly easy to keep your costs in line. Likewise, some Web directories - like DMOZ - allow free listings, and others can cost as little as $30 per year.

How do I Measure SEM Effectiveness?

How you measure the effectiveness of your search engine marketing program depends on what your objectives were when you started. If your intent was merely to increase the number of visitors to your Web site, you would determine if your SEM efforts were successful by comparing your Web traffic statistics before and after you implemented search engine marketing.

Be patient though, search engine marketing efforts may take considerable time to boost your traffic. Although you can instantly get your PPC ads running, if you are aiming at improving traffic through SEO, it can be several months before you see solid results - especially through Google. Likewise, if you request a directory listing from DMOZ, your listing may not appear for 6 months to a year. DMOZ is staffed by volunteers and, because DMOZ listings can have a positive affect on your organic search rankings, it is arguably the most popular and valuable free Web directory listing to get.

In addition to site traffic, you need to track your conversion rates. For example, if, as a result of your search engine marketing efforts, your traffic doubles from 250 to 500 visitors per month, how many new customers did you acquire from the additional 250 visitors to your site. Do you now have twice as many customers as you did before? Probably not. If you picked up 5 customers your conversion rate would be 2 percent of the new traffic (5 divided by 250) and 1 percent (5 of 500) overall.

Find ways to increase the number of visitors to your website, and then find ways to increase the conversion rates of those visitors, and you'll know exactly what it takes to make your search engine marketing program successful.

Search Engine Marketing is Just One Piece of the Puzzle

Search engine marketing (SEM) is just one of the many tools available to home businesses when it comes to online marketing. See the Online Marketing Guide for additional ideas for promoting your business online.

Email Marketing

Definition:

 

Email marketing is a process of soliciting business prospects via email. It is essentially the same as Direct Mail except that instead of sending mail through the postal service, messages are sent electronically via email.

How Email Marketing Can Create Problems

Many consumers consider email marketing messages to be "spam". As a result, if not conducted carefully, email marketing messages and campaigns can have a negative effect on a company's brand or image. The primary reason this occurred is that too many business and spammers rely on purchased email contact lists from less than reputable list providers. Instead of sending out thousands of email messages to an untargeted lists, small and home businesses have better success sending email newlsetters to their customers and selected prospects. Additionally, regulations make it mandatory for email marketers to provide the ability for message recipients to easily opt out of the mailing list.

How Email Marketing Compares to Direct Mail

Many business have replaced or supplemented their direct mail marketing efforts with email marketing campaigns. Email marketing campaigns are less expensive and easier to track than direct mail marketing campaigns.
Email marketing campaigns may be targeted to either a consumer or business market (or both).

Also Known As: e-mail marketing

 

Alternate Spellings: e-mail marketing

 

Examples:

I restrict my email marketing efforts to my monthly email newsletter, which I only send to those who request it.