|
| Frequently Asked Questions |
FAQ's
Read on to find out
more about the cost of running an OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO Performance Marketing
™ campaign. OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO believes strongly in providing high
quality and targeted marketing to our users. Remember that it's not how much
you spend that's so important, but rather how much return you get on your
investment (ROI)! CPC (Cost per Click) search results listings
should be a very effective part of your overall marketing plan. Consider that
80% of print advertising does not work or at best yields a 2 to 1 ROI (return
on investment) Online advertisers who track performance say that they received
the highest return on investment (ROI) from search results listings. Take
advantage of the one advertising medium that gives you the highest ROI (Return
On Investment) , credibility and advertiser satisfaction.
| Performance Marketing™ Campaign Costs |
| 1. How much will my marketing
cost? |
OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO's Performance
Marketing ™ offers
substantial
savings over Cost-Per-Click (CPC) search engines (Overture average
pay-per-click advertising is .70 cents). The cost of your campaign depends on
how much you have decided to invest in marketing, and knowing your marketing
goals. What are your specific goals? How many new customers do you need to fill
your trips, as an example?
|
KNOW YOUR WEB SITE'S CONVERSION RATE
What
percentage of unique visitors to your web site actually make a purchase? For
instance, a web site that makes 1 sale for every 100 visitors has a conversion
rate of 1%.
Although the quality of visitors you get from
OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO may be higher than what you normally get through other
marketing means, knowing your CR (conversion rate) will give you a "baseline"
to help determine your ROI (return on investment - one time sale). What is your
average sale? Lets say it is $200. You spent $20 to get a return of $200
that's' a 10 to 1 ROI (return on your advertising investment). [The minimum
acceptable marketing return is 2 to 1] If you are not doubling your money, it's
a poor investment.
EXAMPLE:
Let's say your conversion rate is
1%. Based on this, you need 100
click-throughs on your
link to make 1 sale. That's an investment of 20 cents/click or $20. Figure out
whether or not your profit margin is sufficiently high enough to justify the
cost. If so, are you willing to spend even more to get your link displayed
longer in the search results and possibly generate more
click-throughs and
sales? Will the additional sales justify the extra cost?
COST OF ACQUIRING A NEW CUSTOMER
What you
are calculating is the cost of acquiring a "new" customer. Once you have that
new customer how many times will he/she come back and buy again? What is their
TLV (total life value), how many times will they spend $200 in the future?
|
THE CLIENT VALUE FORMULA: |
|
$200 |
X |
40% |
= |
$80 |
X |
2 |
= |
$160 |
X |
6 years |
= |
$960 |
|
Average Sale |
|
GPM
gross
profit margin |
|
Profit per Sale |
|
Sales per year |
|
Profit per year |
|
Client Life |
|
Total Value of Client |
|
Acquiring 1 customer cost you $20 and your TLV (Total
Life Value) return will be $960. Your ROI (return on Investment) is 48 to 1
TLV. |
- Set your limits: Choose how much you are going to
budget per day and per month. You can choose a daily budget as low as $5
dollars ($5 X 30 days = $150 a month) or as high as you want. See question 5 for more information on selecting your daily
budget.
- Be smart: First, don't budget more than you can
afford. Second, if you are unsure what to budget per day or month to acquire a
new customer, we help you by giving you cost estimates, specific to your
campaign, during the sign up process. Finally, we suggest you start off with a
reasonable budget.
|
FORMULAS FOR YOUR MARKETING BUDGET
For start-ups & young growing companies with
little or no customers ... there is no formula. Because whatever % you come up
with would be meaningless. i.e. 5% of nothing = nothing. Even with successful
established companies, this varies greatly ... but there are formulas.
There are industries that spend only 3% of
revenue to generate clients (but they tend to be well established, have lots of
customers and old fashioned.) I know other industries that spend 25-30% of
Revenues back on marketing ... and also are very established, but have a low
COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and a high GPM (gross profit margin)
The "norm" most companies work from is the
"8-10-12% Rule" for established companies, which means:
- Reinvest 8% of "gross profits" (not
revenue) into all marketing for marginal growth
- 10% for average growth
- 12% for aggressive growth
|
|
Grow from what works: Once you know what works, you
can start to build more campaigns to attract new customers.
Additional information and specific
Click-Through
Cost-Per-Click (CPC), Cost-Per-Email (CPE), Performance
Listings™ and Performance Ads™ can be found in the account
activation screens. You must have at lease one trip listed and be logged-in to
access this information.
| 2. What else affects the cost of my
marketing? |
There are also a couple of other factors to
consider:
- Keywords: Choosing the right keywords ensures
that you attract only your potential customers and only pay for
click-throughs that are
likely to bring you a good ROI (return on investment). Using keyword and topic
matching helps you manage your costs by limiting your listings to the most
relevant searches.
- Targeting: Targeting your listing to your
specific market ensures that you are competing in the right market looking for
your service. Effective targeting is accomplished through trip titles that
interest a potential customer, keywords an individual thinks of when they think
of your service and great description text.
| 3. Am I charged for emails from my
listing? |
OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO does allow the potential customer to email
you. This service is not offered by search engines. They can request a brochure
or specific information about a trip. You then have opened up the channel of
communication and obtained their valuable email address, which gives you
permission to contact them. OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO has delivered you a "hot lead"
that is even more targeted that from your own web site. Because of the priority
of this hot lead it is important to respond as soon as possible to their
request. It has been proven, companies that respond quickly are perceived as
service oriented and usually get the sale.
The cost for hot email leads is more because you have
received their personal email address.
| 4. How can I be in the top position
every time? |
OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO
Performance Marketing
™ basic listing does not rank listings on cost. There is no way to
reserve top placement in the Performance Marketing ™ program. This
approach results in an easy to manage and cost effective campaign that allows
for fair competition, regardless of your budget. You can't be outbid. Listings
are evenly rotated. NOTE: We don't even show the price of your service to
encourage the potential customer to
click-through to your
web site where you have more trip details, availability and accurate
prices.
BUT, you may reserve top placement or top 3 listings
with our Performance Listings™ program. These listings
appear above the Performance Marketing ™ listings and are evenly
rotated within OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO. search results, when the page reloads the top
3 listings change position.
| 5. How do I choose my daily
budget? |
You will need to decide on your daily budget.
In the "activate my account" process, you will see a daily budget field to
choose an amount from. Choosing the recommended amount ensures maximum
marketing exposure evenly throughout each day. However, you can lower this
amount or even raise it if you want to make sure you get every possible
click-through.
When deciding on a daily budget, you may want to
consider:
- Marketing exposure for one day
If your CR
(conversion rate) is 1% and you need 100 click-throughs to get 1 new customer
that's $20 @ 20 cents/click. If you want to get 3 new customers a day we would
recommend $60 a day, and if you only want to spend $20, we'll show your
listings less frequently than if you'd chosen $60. This keeps you to your
budget, but you will only be exposed to getting 1 new customer per day as an
example.
- Ensures that you do not spend your entire month's
marketing budget in one day
Without a daily budget you could easily
run through your entire marketing budget in one day and be left with no
marketing for the rest of the month.
- Sets a limit on your monthly spending
We will
never charge you more than your monthly pre-determined budget (daily budget x
30 days average in the month).
| Performance Marketing ™ Billing information |
| 1. When does my marketing start
accruing costs? |
Your Performance Marketing ™
listings don't begin running and accruing costs until you activate your
account, and set a starting date. When you are ready to activate your account,
log-on to your account and submit your billing information. Your listings will
then appear on OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO almost immediately.
| 2. What are my payment options?
|
OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO offers three payment plans for you to
choose from so you can find the one that best fits your needs.
-
Peak Season Marketing Plan
This automatic
plan ensures uninterrupted service during your season with minimum account
management. You authorize your credit card or EFT (electronic funds transfer)
to be charged a specific fixed amount when you have 5 days of funds left in
your account. You will be notified by email when your account is
charged.
-
Fixed Monthly Budget Plan
You set a maximum
monthly budget that you want to invest in marketing. If your balance reaches
$0.00 before the end of the month, your listing will be taken off-line until
the next month. At the beginning of the month your account will be charged the
amount you select to invest. You will be notified by email when your marketing
has stopped.
-
Pre-Paid Plan
You choose when to add money to
your marketing account. When your account is depleted, your listings will be
taken off-line until you add more money to your account. You may pay by check,
credit card or EFT (electronic funds transfer). You will be notified by email
when your marketing has stopped.
We currently accept checks, MasterCard and
Visa credit cards or Electronic Funds Transfer. If you are paying in a non-USD
currency, you can use Visa, MasterCard with those logos.
We do accept
payment by check for your monthly budget in advance for the "Fixed Monthly
Budget Plan" marketing program, but there is a minimum dollar amount required
of $50 per month.
| 3. Does
OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO offer credit terms to customers? |
There are no credit terms for billing or
monthly invoicing all accounts are pre-paid. Typically, these companies will
have an established monthly marketing campaign they have committed to in
advance for their marketing program.
We bill on the 1st of each month, or when your account was
activated depending on your program.
You pay only for
click-throughs or
emails you've actually received. We bill your dollar limit -- $60 - $1000,
determined by your pre-paid Performance Marketing ™ budget.
When you pay in advance you have a credit in your account.
As you receive click-throughs that credit
amount is reduced, if you do not spend all of your credit it remains in your
account. Any balance that is over 90 days old will be refunded.
If you desire other terms or invoicing, we are happy to
review all such requests.
OUR GUARANTEE
You will only pay for results. Results is defined as
click-throughs Cost-Per-Click (CPC), and emails Cost-Per-Email (CPE) from our
listing service. OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO filters search result click-throughs and
removes robot traffic, repeated clicks by the same IP within a 2-hour period,
clicks on results over 2-hours old, IP addresses of suspicious origin and
clicks from OUTDOORTRIPS.INFO staff testing functions of the service. Other
forms such as CPM-priced (Cost Per Impression) performance are defined in the
program.
You only pay if you get RESULTS.
 GET
LISTED TODAY!
Advantages to Web Site Owners |
Tips for Boosting Your
Marketing Success
Member
Log-On | Advertise With
Us | Performance
Marketing™ | Performance Advantage™ |
Performance
Tracking™ | FAQ's
Home
| Contact Us |
Site Map
Performance Listings™ is a ServiceMark
of OutdoorTrips.Info Marketing and Solutions Group Inc.
Hosted by:
Confluence Internet Services™ - Copyright© 2003
All Rights Reserved by OutdoorTrips.Info Marketing and Solutions Group Inc.
privacy policy
- this site is not affiliated with Adventure Sports Online or Outdoor
Mind.
|
MEMBER LOG ON