# 1: Seventy percent of consumers perform a Google search before making a purchase.

#2: Only 14 percent of people believe in the branded message blasted out by companies, whereas 80 percent of these people would believe a stranger’s opinion (Are you paying attention to social, digital and other media?)

#3: Content marketing has become the No. 1 tool of savvy marketers. It includes design, creation and publication of original content on the Web, regular online updates, e-newsletters, e-postcards, regular blog posts, timely case studies, original white papers, videos and photos to demonstrate a company’s services and products.

#4: People remember 10 percent of what they hear, 20 percent of what they read, and 80 percent of what they see and do. Marketing should be visual.

#5: There are more than 800 million active Facebook users and about 50 percent of them log onto Facebook in any given day. Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other websites. Dismissing Facebook as a fad is a mistake.

#6: Mobile Internet users will outnumber desktop Web users worldwide by 2014.Nearly half of social media users already access their accounts on mobile devices such as I-phones, I-pads, tablets and other mobile devices. Mobile is the way to go. Are your websites and e-campaigns ready for mobile devices?

#7: According to industry reports, 44 percent of small-business decision-makers use social media. Businesses are rapidly moving towards social and digital media.

#8: A mere 0.4 second increase in load time results in a site traffic reduction of 5 to 9 percent, according to Yahoo. Forty-seven percent of visitors expect Web pages to load in 2 seconds or less. How quickly do your Web pages load?

If you have read the stats above, you should also pay attention to the following:

E-Mail Marketing: If your e-mail content is irrelevant and not personalized to your target audience, you will create more enemies than clients and it will result in a higher unsubscribe rate and potential spam complaints. Segment your database and customize the content.

Multi-Browser World: Compatibility with all major browsers is a must. More browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari, for example) on more devices have dramatic impact on your website’s reach, performance, brand, look and feel.

One truth that I’ve observed is that top companies usually are the ones that remain on the cutting edge of technology, easily integrating the latest trends and capabilities into their marketing plans. Be ready to adopt new technology, no matter how larger or small your business is!.

(Upendra Mishra is the managing partner at The Mishra Group, a Waltham, Mass.-based integrated marketing firm that specializes in combining traditional, online and social media marketing for business-to-business clients.)

The biggest challenge of today’s CEOs and Chief Marketing Officers, however, is where to start? Which medium to choose? How to allocate the marketing budget to an almost overwhelmingly diverse array of marketing channels? Where to get the best return on marketing dollars? And most importantly, what is the most cost-effective marketing medium?

The answer obviously lies in the major goal we want to accomplish from the campaign. Is the goal boosting brand awareness, response-driven marketing or launching a new product or service? The message and the medium should be tweaked accordingly. For a generic campaign, however, an integrated approach must be executed, combining referral marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization, events, public relations initiatives and selected advertising. And every opportunity must be used to maximize each marketing component and enhance cross-media communications.

Of all these tools, content marketing seems to be the most cost-effective. It includes design, creation and publication of original content on the Web, regular online updates, e-newsletters, e-postcard, regular blog posts, timely case studies, original white papers, videos and photos to demonstrate a company’s services and products. Direct mail, traditional advertising and traditional PR should not be ignored and must be seamlessly integrated into the overall campaign. Keeping up with shifting trends and changing technology is key.

(Upendra Mishra is the managing partner at The Mishra Group, a Waltham, Mass.-based integrated marketing firm that specializes in combining traditional, online and social media marketing for business-to-business clients.)

1. GOAL: Set your goals. Know exactly what you want to accomplish. Is the marketing campaign about making your target audience aware of your products and services? Is it to set up face-to-face meeting with prospects, and if yes, how many? Is it about new business development? What’s the revenue goal? Or, is it just a simple PR campaign?

2. BUDGET: Once goals are set, decide how much money you want to spend on marketing during the next 12 months. Our clients always ask us how much money they should be spending on marketing. Well, it depends. We recommend between two and five percent of their annual revenue.

3. PLAN: With goals and budget set, the next step is to create a preliminary marketing and business development plan. It must be an integrated plan, combining both traditional and online marketing tools and strategies: e-mails, direct mail, website and content marketing, traditional PR and media relations, social media, targeted advertising, monitoring, events and workshops.

4. TEAM: The next step is to assemble a team or hire a firm with the necessary skill set: copy writing, graphic and digital design, online and content marketing, event marketing, data base management, social media, search engine optimization, business development and sales and marketing project management.

5. FINAL PLAN: After the marketing team is on board, tweak the marketing plan and strategies, adjust the budget and refocus the goal and objectives.

6. RESPONSIBILITY: With each team member assigned to their respective roles and responsibilities, they must communicate with each other and be held accountable. There should be a proper process of checks and balances so that nothing falls through the cracks.

7. MARKETING MAP: A marketing map should be laid out for the entire 12-month period, with exact tasks, dates and deadlines set for each marketing task. A discipline to stick to deadlines can make or break the plan.

8. TRACKING: Once you start to execute the marketing plan, your team must track the results. New tools and technology easily let you monitor basic information such as traffic to your website, open rates of e-mail campaigns, media coverage and more. If you’re not accomplishing your goals within six months, it’s time to review the plan and the process, and then adjust accordingly.

(Upendra Mishra is the managing partner at The Mishra Group, a Waltham, MA-based integrated marketing firm that specializes in integrating traditional, online and social media marketing for Business-to-Business clients.)

Here are 11 strategies to increase your e-mail open rate and make your e-mail marketing more effective:

1. Make your content relevant and useful to your audience. If you’re targeting law firms to pitch your services, your content should be focused on the needs of law firms and not physicians or accountants.

2. If you keep sending irrelevant content, many of your target audience will start unsubscribing from your list, and even worse may flag you as a spammer. If a sizable number of recipients mark you as spammer, all of your future e-campaigns may be in big trouble.

3. Make sure your e-mail has an “unsubscribe” button so that those who don’t want to receive your e-mails can safely unsubscribe from your distribution list. This is important and shows that you care about their privacy.

4. Keep the basic branding image, colors, logos and format similar for all campaigns. You should have some flexibility, but don’t change them completely each time. Be consistent.

5. Organize your e-mail database by audience, industry or sector. This way you can communicate with each target audience separately, increasing your open rate because your target is receiving relevant information aligned with their interests.

6. Unless you’re in the news business, don’t send out daily e-mails. Based on your needs, content and audience, you should determine the frequency of e-mails.

7. More and more people are now using mobile devices such as Blackberry, I-phones, I-pads and smart phones to read e-mails. Make sure your design is tailored for all of these mobile devices.

8. Use a Uniform Resource Locator link, known as URL, at the top of your e-mail. This is helpful to those who are unable to read your e-mail in the format it was sent, letting them click on the link and read it directly on the web.

9. Use e-mails to educate your audience and provide information that is helpful to them. Be subtle in promoting yourself or your business.

10. Name of the sender and subject lines are very important in any e-campaign. Many people open, delete and read e-mails based on who sent it to them and what’s in the subject line. Make sure you come up with a short, relevant and catchy subject line.

11. Most e-mail tools now provide options to integrate your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Make sure to use them so that you can update all communications channels with the click of just one button.

(Upendra Mishra is the managing partner at The Mishra Group, a Waltham, MA-based integrated marketing firm that specializes in integrating traditional, online and social media marketing for Business-to-Business clients.)

A sustained and well-crafted marketing campaign to this referral group, also known as Referral or Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOM), has the potential to double your revenue in less than two years. However, you must design and execute a precise referral or WOM marketing strategy. And digital marketing tools, including social media, can make your WOM more effective.

Here are a few tips for your WOM and referral marketing plan:

• Make a database of all your happy clients of the past 10 years. Add your all social and business contacts who has ever referred you a business or provided you a business lead in the past.

• Create a direct and consistent communications channels with them. It could be through a phone call, a quarterly e-newsletter, an e-postcard or print postcard, telling them about your recent successful projects, growth and achievements on a regular basis.

• Leverage social media such as Linkedin and Facebook to promote your brand and provide regular updates.

• Take at least two of your referral sources out to lunch, dinner, golf or whatever you deem fit each month. Thank them for their past business. Tell them how your firm has grown, how you have added new services or products, entered new markets, or received awards. They may not be aware of your new services and they may be using someone else.

• Ask them for new business. How many times we have missed great sales, leads or business opportunities because we have not explicitly asked that we want their or their friend’s business. If you don’t ask, you will not get.

• Referral works only when your delivery of goods and services are far better than you had promised. In other words, integrity is the mother of all marketing. Go the extra mile in delivering your services.

• In addition, for referrals to be highly effective, you must be perceived as a leader or at least a credible player in the market place. You may want to have articles about your firms or projects in targeted publications from time-to-time, speak at industry events and be visible and recognizable in the marketplace.

• In today’s instant information age, any person who has been referred to you will visit your website first and then make the phone call you have been waiting for. Websites have become more than the first handshakes these days. Your website must be easy to find (pay attention to search engines), be updated frequently, look professional and sleek, deliver optimal user experience, and ensure consistency in message, brand and image.

If you follow these steps, your referral marketing plan will build upon itself. You will start seeing results in less than six months. Happy marketing!

Before we talk about an effective marketing strategy, here is a quiz for you: Given the two factors responsible for the success or failure of a project, what percentage would you attribute to “people” and what percentage to the “system?” The answer may surprise you: It takes 93 percent system and only seven percent people in order to maximize the success of any project, and that’s why creating a process that integrates all marketing elements is crucial.

With the changing marketing landscape and new marketing channels, most small-to-mid-size firms lack in-house expertise in graphic design, digital marketing, social media, public relations, web design and content management, direct marketing and event and database management. They go to multiple vendors for their expertise, and thus end up spending a lot of time and money and still feeling like not much has been accomplished. This multi-vendor approach dilutes the brand and the message because there is no consistency. The key to marketing success is to find someone who can integrate all of these essential services.

On the strategy side, the market has changed as well. An article in the print edition of your local newspaper or magazine might have been more effective a few years ago. Not anymore. Today, an obscure blogger or an online edition of a niche publication can have a more dramatic impact on your visibility and may even force your local newspaper, TV station or magazine to do an article on you or your company.

Social media and digital marketing have added a totally new dynamic. About 70 percent of consumers perform a Google search before making a purchase. Traditional advertising, which is a one-way communications channel to promote brands and services, is no longer effective. Only 14 percent of people believe in the branded message blasted out by these companies, whereas 80 percent of these people would believe a stranger’s opinion. This is where the right use of social media can make a big difference in the bottom line of any company.

Here are a few points to ponder as you begin to implement your 2011 marketing strategy:

• If you have not already created a marketing system or process, create one. Use the latest technology to increase efficiency, save time and cut costs. Technology has made marketing more efficient and fun.
• Make a 12-month budget and marketing plan. Set your goals. Know your targets and zero in on them. Stay focused.
• Given so many business-to-business (B2B) marketing mediums today, how and where do you get the most attention of your target audience? In fact, just getting their attention is no longer enough. How do you engage them?
• You have a message and a medium, but what is the right time to deliver your message?
• Track your target, efforts and results and change your course accordingly. Technology allows you to do this easily and effectively.
• Educate your target audience about your products and services and why they should buy from you and not from your competition.
• Develop a key message that captures the essence of your overall marketing and branding strategies.
• Integrate this core message into every form of communication: news, advertising, direct marketing, social media, online and website initiatives, and other outlets.
• My columns on marketing are published every first and third Wednesdays in BostonSF. If you have a marketing question, please email to Upendra at: UMishra@MishraGroup.com.

(Upendra Mishra is the managing partner of the Mishra Group, a Waltham, MA-based integrated marketing firm that specializes in integrating traditional, online and social media marketing for Business-to-Business clients.)

Newspapers, magazines, television, radio and advertising are not the only message delivery channels any more. You can create your own message delivery and branding systems through your dynamic website, e-newsletters and e-cards. And most of these tools are almost free.

In short, technology has not only reduced marketing costs, but has also made marketing more effective and fun. Now, you can track your target and their response, and change the marketing course in an instance if it’s not working.

But what is the key is to finding out what marketing tool or strategy would give you optimum results: print or online advertising, search engine optimization (SEO) or Google Adsense, targeted ads on Facebook or Linkedin, e-newsletters or e-cards, public or media relations, newspaper or magazine articles, banner or button ads, hosting your own networking event or sponsoring an event or event a direct print mail?

Once you select one tool or a combination of several, the next challenge is the message or content. Content is the king. Everything getting out of your office should be consistent and have a succinct, concise and to-the-point message. And lastly, what is your target? This is where database becomes the most critical element of marketing. If your database is properly organized and tagged, marketing is going to be fun and enjoyable.