Dissension Within The Ranks - Ask.com

There is said to be dissension within the ranks of Ask.com, with Barry Diller - Ask.com's CEO believing that Ask.com needs better high profile advertising while Jim Safka who used to run Match.com and ran the famous campaign featuring Dr. Phil McGraw stands for his premise that it would be more beneficial for Ask.com to develop the core search engine as well as creating flashy features that will differentiate it from the other big players in the search market like Google and Yahoo.

This disagreement among executives causes a confusion of company direction from budgeting for infrastructure and staff direction. It has been said in a New York Times article that there was always a clash about everything from how much to spend on engineers and servers to the design of their logos to the scripts of their commercials.

This is very dangerous for a company. If there is no unison in terms of goals and direction then the company is only heading towards a downward spiral.

Organizing To Launch A Lead-Generating Campaign

Before launching any lead generation campaign, make sure all involved teams are on board and on the same page. The goals should be clearly defined and applicable to the different parties. The strategies should be in place to effectively be geared toward this similar goal

To start off, the campaign flow should be outlined carefully. Where does the process start and how will it end? How will you define its success or failure?

- Correlate the promotional material, collateral to be used with the goals

If the goal is to increase leads online, then the promotional material will be correlated to this goal. Most if not all efforts will then be concentrated online. You can start with search engine optimization (to enhance sign ups via the website), email campaigns, online linking campaigns and even search engine marketing if you've got enough money to play with

- Identify different response mechanisms

How do you want people to respond to your campaigns? Will there be a hotline number or d you want to course all campaign responses through your website or maybe a particular email address? These should be outlined carefully so your teams will be well-prepared to entertaian in-coming prospects and follow through on possible sales.

- Define the marketing message in line with the goal

Position the goal of your messages in the collateral in such a way that it will not be drowned by other content. Make this the focus of the entire piece. This should be the same for all pieces and for all campaigns if you're doing multiple campaigns at the same time

- Ensure that the user makes the most of your campaign

For the campaign to be effective, the user has to enjoy the experience. The campaign should be targeted enough to be appreciated by the right market. The flow of the campaign from ad to landing experience to response acceptance should be smooth and directed towards the goal.

Once these steps are properly outlined, the campaign should be able to push through without a hitch. These are macro perspectives of any campaign and not designed to sweat the small stuff. But once these are in place, the details will fit perfectly like pieces in a puzzle.