To: Our Valued Clients
From: Sara Mannix, Mannix Marketing, Inc.
Happy Holidays! I am so grateful that you have trusted us with your business. As we head into a tough first quarter and most likely a tough 2009 economically, I’m struck by the importance of the sayings “practice what you preach” and “knowledge is power .”
"Practice What You Preach" ... We are!
For years, we have preached redesigns, seo, public relations (pr), and online advertising, but as our business grew, we ignored these principals for our own business because word-of-mouth advertising was so successful for us. However, as we look forward to a tough 2009, we are increasing our ad budget and reinvesting in what we believe in...
We are working on new designs for LakeGeorge.com, Saratoga.com, Albany.com, Adirondack.net and MannixMarketing.com. We're also adding more content, pouring our efforts into internet marketing strategies, distributing press releases and cross promoting our sites through display advertising. In order to accomplish all of this and maintain the same quality service for you, our client, we have added to our staff and have sent our employees to four vital industry conferences to help them grow as professionals. In fact, we've grown so much, we've outgrown our current office! We will be moving into a new office location after the new year (watch for more details on this next month).
"Knowledge Is Power" In Internet Marketing
In a tough economy, we must be wise with our advertising dollars and with our business expenditures. Knowing that this is going to be a tough year, how do we win the battle and still come out ahead? By taking advantage of the most cost effective means to market our businesses:
- Email Marketing:
With my background in Mail Order, my first instinct is to say “Mail your Buyers, Mail your Buyers and Mail your Buyers some more!” This means that your most cost effective means of making money is to connect with your current clientele. How do you do this cost effectively? Email. Email offers, Email tips, Email reasons to use your business. Unsure how to get started? We can help! With just one meeting, we can help you develop a strong, 12-month plan for your e-marketing strategy. Contact Jennifer McDonald, E-Mail Marketing Specialist (Guru): 743-9424 or jenniferm@mannixmarketing.com.
PS - We are practicing what we preach! We are emailing over 30,000 subscribers each month to encourage them to visit the region, and we are writing you, our clients, as well.
- Public Relations (P.R.)
Nothing compares to free publicity! How do you capture the editor’s attention? How do you get the news out to the right outlets? How do you make it “viral” or catchy? Contact Destiny Malone, our Online P.R. Specialist, for advice on promoting your newsworthy events: 743-9424 or destiny@mannixmarketing.com.
PS - We are practicing what we preach! Anytime we have something newsworthy to announce, we write and distribute a press release to the local media (including Albany.com/broadcast and Saratoga.com/broadcast) as well as promoting it through our online press room.
- Now Really IS The Time For A Redesign:
Yes, it’s a catch 22 - you can’t afford the money needed for a redesign, but you can't afford not to! So many of our clients still have sites that I designed in 96-2002, and times have changed so dramatically. Even a site that is a few years old could be missing out on technology and design changes that can convert more of your site “browsers” into buyers. A redesign is an investment that I believe in most cases will be paid back 300% in the first year (this is SOOOO much better than the stock market). Contact Chris Archibee for details on how you can make your site more appealing to visitors: 743-9424 or chris@mannixmarketing.com.
PS - We are practicing what we preach! Can you believe it? After so many years, even Mannix Marketing is going to have a new website. Plus, we have recently redesigned our city guides Albany.com and Saratoga.com - and we're currently working on new designs for Adirondack.net and LakeGeorge.com.
- Web Advertising Works:
Mannix Marketing offers you four types of advertising: Directory Listings, Display Advertising, E-newsletter Ads and Search Engine Marketing. If you're looking for some extra exposure, we might have just what you're looking for...
- Directory Listing:
This is the equivalent to the Yellow Pages - but your listing appears online in our city guides. We offer three levels of directory advertising: Gold, Diamond and Titanium. Many of you are already listed, but I want to remind you that for every one visitor that the Gold level advertiser receives, the Diamond receives two visitors, and the Titanium receives three visitors… so if you want to receive more visits from potential customers, upgrade!
- Display Advertising:
This is the equivalent of advertising in a newspaper - but with much more potential exposure. You pay for a custom designed ad on one of our city guides to capture all the traffic we receive and drive even more traffic to your site. Best of all, the display advertising we offer is 100% trackable so you can evaluate its worth.
- Email Newsletters:
This is the equivalent of advertising in a magazine publication - but your ad success is measurable with our link tracking capabilities. Pay for a custom designed ad to appear in one of our newsletters, which are sent every month to thousands of subscribers and businesses who have requested information on the region.
- Search Engine Marketing:
“We get you found on the web” has been our slogan since 1996. Mannix Marketing was chosen for the second time this year as one of the Top 30 SEO Companies worldwide by TopSEOs.com. Whether you want to place in the top of the search engines for your target keywords or appear in Google's featured ad listings, we can create a search engine marketing campaign that works for you, including search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising.
PS - We are practicing what we preach! Mannix Marketing has a Titanium listing on all of our city guides in addition to compelling display ads on our sites and cross promotion through email newsletter ads. PLUS we have a competitive search engine marketing campaign that has landed our sites at the top of the search engines for many targeted keywords.
- Advertising Must Be Sustainable:
My background in advertising says it’s better to have a super small ad run 20 times than a large ad run twice. That’s because in traditional media, you need SEVEN touches to convert someone into a buyer. That means someone must see or hear your ad 7 times before they are likely to act on it.
Traditional media is expensive compared to web advertising! In radio or print, they recommend a budget of over 30k per year to “make a difference”. Radio sales reps have told me secretly they felt guilty for selling $5000 worth of advertising because they knew it wasn’t enough advertising to have an impact… Boy is the web different! For a few hundred dollars you can advertise every single day of the year and be seen hundreds of thousands of times.
Why did Mannix Marketing invest in city sites? Why did we put 10+ people and over $30,000 into Albany.com, Saratoga.com, LakeGeorge.com and Adirondack.net to develop these sites to their full potential? Because knowledge is power, and we know these sites are the most cost effective means of advertising for local businesses. These are advertising dollars well spent... ads you can afford to sustain year round.
We know that we can help any business because our network of sites reach 500,000 to 1 million visitors per month! Mannix Marketing has grown over 300% in the past 3 years by investing heavily in ourselves as a company. Could your business use a boost? It's time to invest in yourself!
We want to help. Contact Valleri James at 935-3209 or valleri@mannixmarketing.com to learn how to grow your business on a tight budget.
Please send your feedback. I want to hear from you! Email me directly: sara@mannixmarketing.com.
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