This week will be hectic. Next week I am off site all week during a 2014 client strategy and planning meeting, this week I am assisting another client with ‘on-boarding” two salespeople that are remote from the main business office! Everything needs to be lined up and organized for a successful experience.

This step is normally a very weak link with many organizations and yet it is a Critical Success Factor as well. I wanted to share my thoughts with our community.

For our clients we build an On Boarding process into two steps.

Step One: Depending upon the client’s maturity, size and complexity of offering, we will create a 3 to 5 week on boarding plan that is extremely detailed. Each week lists a variety of learning experiences and validation points to ensure knowledge has been exchanged and understood.

The first week’s Goal: Learn Company Purpose, Message, Materials and Services, this includes a check list and over two pages of training actions. Each week has homework assigned.

The second weeks: Goal: Learn to Sell Company Offerings, first it is important to learn, the second week is about learning to sell. The new salesperson will hear others sell, watch videos. and they are beginning to sell me on their knowledge of the company and offerings.

The third week Goal is: Is Getting Out of the Nest. However before they are actively selling, the salesperson must sell the President, the CFO or others in the company using the corporate PPT or other sales tools. HINT: Generally we never pass anyone the first time they attempt this exercise.

Each week has a series of events, designed to build upon the previous weeks learning experience. Each box must be dated/signed and as a Sales Manager: “Inspect what you expect” is never more important.

Step Two: We recommend you build a closely monitored tracking plan along with a carefully thought through plan of action to get the salesperson engaged with the proper activity immediately. This plan maybe designed for 30 to 60 days. I like to recommend a clear set of goals defined for the first 90 days; these may include pipeline values, face to face meetings, presentations, etc…. Make the goals reachable, but monitor each salesperson’s plan and actions to exceed them.

Questions? Just ask. You can always check out our Online Sales Management Tool Kit for other tools to improve the performance of your sales team as well as our On Boarding Template. http://www.acumenmgmt.com/DVDSalesMgmtToolKit

Pay attention to the details and so will your sales team.

It’s hard to put a price on customer loyalty, but thanks to technology and flexible pricing models, some marketers are trying. The trick is determining what’s a fair price.

Advancing technologies are enabling marketers to price products and services based on intricate detail, such as product shelf life, individual consumer behavior, demand and proximity, according to a recent story in The Curve Report.

With new flex pricing models, the story states, “Prices shift based on a wide range of variables, from external factors like expiration date and stock market fluctuations to personal data such as proximity and social clout. And while shopping history−based loyalty programs have helped consumers score deals for decades, expect these programs to gain new dimensions.”

The topic is not necessarily new. In fact, a blog item I wrote more than a year ago addressed practices by some companies that priced offers based on the consumer’s profile. The risk, I noted then, was of being misinterpreted as unfair.

That still applies. Historically, most organizations looked at price as a default promotional tool –when all else fails, you can sell products by cutting the price. But now data enables us to use price as a strategic lever to get the right customer to make purchases. It can literally be used at the customer level as a way to promote selective trial of products or to recognize specific behaviors.

But there is a risk, and that is of under-defining the data. Some consumers may behave as if they are not price sensitive, but in certain categories they may be hyper price sensitive. If they are overlooked for certain promotions, they may feel the brand is not offering a fair opportunity across the board.

However, if we use the data as a way to define the full spectrum of consumer preferences and activity, across categories and channels, price can be used to ensure customers are introduced to the right products and services in the right way. A shopper may pay top price for mangoes, for instance, but balk at expensive goat cheese. She may be willing to spend more on a Friday than on a Monday, or less in an urban store than a suburban store. Add mobile and online channels, and the variables multiply.

We certainly should be prepared, because some consumers might soon demand to know their price. According to the Curve Report story, it tested several new flex pricing models and as many as 76 percent of 18- to 49-year-olds were interested in at least one of them. Two-thirds (66 percent) said they’d prefer pricing that is flexible rather than fixed.

So instead of seeing price as the last line of defense in a fluid marketing environment, think of it as one more strategic arrow in your quiver. Just be sure it hits the target, fair and square.

Are management issues keeping your integrated marketing campaigns from working?

Today’s multichannel marketplace requires marketing campaigns that cross channels and platforms with ease. The messages that attract prospects and engage customers need to be targeted and consistent. Ideally, they move people from observation to active engagement in the buying process. The need for integrated marketing is established. Why is it almost impossible to find examples of companies doing it well?

Integrated marketing campaigns are starting in the wrong place.

The best marketing fails without processes, systems, and service to support it. Marketing teams try to connect the dots between advertising, email, direct mail, social, mobile, and every other channel or platform with the company’s presence. Herding cats is easier because every touchpoint has unique characteristics that have to be accommodated to work.

Designing a successful integrated marketing campaign requires in-depth knowledge of how everything works. Marketers tend to be department and channel specialists. Marketing integration requires general practitioners that are channel agnostic and seek interdepartmental cooperation. One person doesn’t have to know it all. A team approach works well if it includes members that have the required knowledge and the willingness to cooperate with each other.

Customer experience determines relationship quality and drives long-term success. Experiences begin with marketing and end with consumption. Every component has to revolve around the customer. A good experience encourages people to come back for more. Marketing has to start with consumption and work backwards to create successful integrated campaigns. This requires participation from customer service, product development (or merchandising), IT, and public relations. Simply put, marketing teams need to include representation from other departments. Integrated marketing begins with departmental integration.

Speaking of herding cats…

If the idea of interdepartmental meetings makes you cringe, rest assured that you are not alone. Most companies have an established pattern of departmental sibling rivalry. Before the marketplace expanded into a multitude of channels, in-fighting slowed growth. Now, it derails both growth and profitability. Everyone in the company has to work together to create better customer experiences at lower costs. Internal “us against them” attitudes have to become “our company against the world” challenges.

Before planning the next integrated marketing campaign, seek some interdepartmental cooperation. Advance planning will help keep your meetings productive. Here are some do’s and don’ts to get you started:

Do start at the top. The executive team has to lead by example. If the leaders of the company are adversaries, how can anyone expect the employees to work together?

Don’t let past issues interfere with current objectives. Instead of rehashing old issues, create an environment where people work together to resolve them. Pointing fingers don’t solve problems.

Do mend fences. Be the first to reach across the aisle and offer peace. When someone starts, it is easier for others to follow.

Don’t let hurts or slights fester. Changing behavior isn’t easy. When people fall back into old patterns, address it immediately. Lingering issues spoil future opportunities.

Do focus on the future. Keep everyone looking at where the company is going instead of wallowing in the past. If necessary, bring in outside help to get over unresolved issues.

Don’t forget to celebrate. Small wins lead to bigger ones. Celebrate when things start falling into place and people will work harder to make it happen more often.

If you want to discuss how this applies to your business, please email me at dellis@wilsonellisconsulting.com.

This year LinkedIn released new company page analytics to help marketers and business owners better understand their page engagement. LinkedIn’s new analytics allows companies to understand how their posts are performing, identify trends and learn more about their followers.

LinkedIn added a new tab to their company pages labeled “Analytics” that provides in-depth metrics about company pages, much improved from their previous analytics. We’ve provided an explanation of what these analytics mean and how you can use the data to improve your marketing and content.

Individual post data

The first section of the Analytics shows the most recent posts on your company page. For each post, the table shows the date it was posted, the audience it was shared with, if it was sponsored, the number of impressions, clicks and interactions, followers acquired and percentage of engagement. “Followers Acquired” only populates if you run a paid ad campaign and reports how many followers you gained from the campaign.

For marketers, the most important data in this table is the number of clicks, interactions and engagement percentage. Interactions include any time a follower liked, shared or commented on a post, which shows how followers are engaging with your content and what type of content they like. From this you can adjust your future content to include more of the types of posts that tend to be shared and clicked on.

Reach

The next graph on the Analytics tab shows the number of total impressions your posts have on a daily basis. It also shows the number of unique people that saw your company updates. By hovering over the graph, you can see the date of the peaks and troughs. Comparing this to what your post was that day can reveal which posts are most interesting for your followers. Don’t forget you can also change the date range to see posts from further back.

Engagement

Engagement is one of the most important data metrics to track and analyze. The engagement graph on LinkedIn measures the number of clicks, likes, comments, shares and engagement percentage for your posts over a specified date range. It can also track how many followers you acquired if you run a paid ad campaign.

For marketers, one of the most important columns is engagement percentage. By looking at your top posts with the highest of percentage of engagement, you can get a good idea of which posts are the most popular and are more likely to be shared—allowing your to tweak the content your share moving forward.

Follower demographics

In the Followers section of the analytics, you can see a breakdown of who is following your company by seniority, industry, company size, function, and employee. This information is important because you can target your posts to certain demographics. By understanding who your audience is, you can create more relevant content that will relate to your audience.

Follower trends

The follower trends graph allows you to see how the number of followers of your page has changed over time. Most companies will see a steady increase in followers as they begin to post consistent, engaging content. LinkedIn also allows you to compare your company to its competitors to provide a benchmark and goal for your marketing. Analyze the graph to see if there was a specific date that significantly increased your followers and see what content inspired this action.

Tips for improving your LinkedIn company analytics

Here are a few tips to improve your company’s metrics:

- Post engaging content at least once per day
- Include photos or videos to increase engagement
- Encourage employees to share your company updates—they are your best endorsers!
- Target some of your posts to a specific audience

With over 3 million business pages, LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks for companies. It’s important for marketers to understand the analytics in order to improve content and increase engagement and followers. By continuing to improve your company page, LinkedIn can become a powerful lead generation tool.

Content marketing has always been important — even in the days of traditional media. You had 30 seconds or 8 linear inches to make your case and build your brand identity. But, can you really optimize ROI with content marketing?

Well, the answer is a little complex. First, there are important differences between traditional media and social networking. In the days of social media, you have tremendous opportunity to influence users (don’t forget, this also includes B2B users) they can’t live without your brand, between a blog and various social platforms. And, with user-generated content and the amplification that happens when users engage with your brand, social networks are excellent channels to spread your message and build brand identity.

But, differences between traditional media and social networking make your content marketing strategy VERY different. Developing a content marketing strategy, especially one that converts visitors, is challenging. Today, I’d like to share some use cases of firms who optimize ROI with content marketing.

Content marketing cases

Talenti gelato

I spoke with an account exec from Fallon and she shared some social media strategy insights from Talenti gelato — a gelato completing as #3 in the premium ice cream market with the big boys, like Ben & Jerry’s. Fallon uses primarily social media and guerilla marketing (sampling at events and other places where their target market gathers) as a low-cost strategy that’s been very successful.

Through Facebook and other social platforms, Fallon shares recipes, pics of the product, and images of their bicycle-riding team handing out gelato pops to hot consumers. Apps invite users to spin a wheel to see which brand to eat today.

Pepsi

In 2010, Pepsi decided NOT to spend on Super Bowl ads. Instead, they took their money and invited community leaders to suggest ideas that would help improve people’s lives. The project, called the Pepsi Refresh Project, donated $20 million in small amounts from $5000 to $250,000. Campaigns with the most votes won the money. Competition for the funds brought increased attention to Pepsi when individual projects posted on their Facebook walls and Tweeted out pleas for votes. While Pepsi later abandoned the Pepsi Refresh Project in favor of traditional Super Bowl advertising, they retained the social media component – this time asking folks to vote for their favorite TV commercial. Consumer-generated content has huge viral potential and makes a great addition to your content marketing strategy.

California Tortilla

A few years ago, I heard the head of California Tortilla’s social media at an event. She uses a down-home strategy to drive her social media strategy and creates content that is truly authentic. She shares behind-the-scenes images and details of what’s going on in the firm, as well as inviting her social network to suggest new menu items and give feedback on their new logo. Meanwhile, she’s just folks to her social networks, who think of her as a friend — not someone from the company.

Disney

A few years ago I did an ethnography of the Disney forum — a place where folks share information, insights, and offer support for other folks. While the forum was part of the Disney website, it was unmoderated and appeared free from Disney company posts. Folks shared insights — like Fast Passes (where to get them, how to use them, and which ones to get first thing). Folks also shared information about which car rental places often offered handicap accessible vans. One user offered support for a family traveling with small children to let them know how to survive the ordeal.

Optimize ROI

Now, the question remains — do these content marketing strategies optimize ROI? And, I think the answer is an equivocal YES.

In the case of Talenti, their primarily social media strategy made them #3 in the premium ice cream market, which is quite a feat.

Pepsi saw their sales drop more than the drop in sales for all carbonated beverages. It’s hard to say whether that was a function of the forgone Super Bowl advertising or part of a larger trend. They DO believe the project was a good investment in the future of Pepsi.

California Tortilla definitely believes their content marketing on Facebook optimizes the ROI of the business and allowed it to grow.

Disney never really used the results of my ethnography. They later deleted the forum. It’s unclear what motivated this move, but I think it was a serious mistake. A good-natured rivalry on the forums both encouraged more visits to the park and validated those who visited the park frequently. I think the forum also encouraged folks to visit who might not have otherwise.

Need help?

We’re here for you. Whether you need a complete social media marketing strategy or some consulting to optimize your existing social media marketing, we can fill your digital marketing funnel. We can help you do your own social media marketing better or do it for you with our community managers, strategists, and account executives. You can request a FREE introductory meeting or sign up for my email newsletter to learn more about social media marketing.

Drawing from Columbus Day and the celebration of his multiple voyages to the New World, we were inspired to pay tribute to all of the innovative ideas that have paved the way for the new world of marketing that we live in today.

Here are three comparisons we found between today’s digital marketers and the journey of Christopher Columbus.

1) Narrow mindsets will lead to a lack of innovation

Columbus was inspired to tackle multiple expeditions around the world in his quest for knowledge of the Earth and its inhabitants. Comparing this to marketing may seem like a bit of a stretch, but it goes back to the principle of the idea. Columbus thought about things in terms of possibility, and as innovative marketers, the same thought applies. For example, the Internet has only been used by the mass public for less than 20 years. As a result, marketing has transformed from traditional print to digitally focused. There is always something new to be discovered in the world of marketing. Marketers will almost always be working with the future in mind, and like Columbus, refuse to be stuck in traditional mindsets.

2) If at first you don’t succeed, try again…and then again

Columbus first approached King John II of Portugal to acquire financial backing for his projected voyage, but the king rejected the request. Even though digital marketer’s requests may not be left up to the mercy of a king, there are still many hoops necessary to jump, or pitch through to get campaigns approved and launched. Unfortunately, innovative ideas may often be rejected due to either improbability of success or fear of failure. However, it is innovative marketing tactics that have progressed the digital age so rapidly. Even if your pitch or campaign fails the first time or multiple times, learn from each experience and grow and adapt your new tactics from your resulting insights.

3) Patience can be bitter, but its payoffs can be sweet

Two days before the Columbus voyage reached the new world, the crew exhausted their patience and wanted to return home. Columbus then reminded them that their hard work would reap benefits and that they had come too far to give up. It is imperative to practice patience when running new marketing campaigns, even with the mounting pressure of proving ROI and an increase in leads or conversions. If you abandon a campaign too early, not only will you lose the future benefits of its success, but also the time and budget that encompassed the overall process.

So what’s next big thing to discover in the world of digital marketing?

According to the 2013 marketing study by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, the most effective B2B content marketers plan to “tailor content to specific profiles/personas much more frequently.”

This means that the most innovative, effective marketers are looking for solutions that will consistently allow them to provide relevant content to each of their audience personas.

The next big thing to discover in marketing is content personalization on your website. 72% of marketers see the importance of online personalization but aren’t sure how to integrate it into their existing campaigns.

Take the next step to discover the potential increase in site engagement, conversions and ROI that content personalization can accomplish for your unique brand.

What is one of the best parts about marketing and sharing content online? This content has the potential to go viral, and you have a chance at free publicity and reaching others that you wouldn’t normally have reached.

While that sounds great, it’s a lot easier said than done. You may find yourself wondering why the awesome content that you are creating aren’t getting as many shares as you would have hoped. Obviously, having solid content that is worth sharing is important, but there is more to it than that. We’ve provided a few tips that you can follow in order to get a kick-start on getting your content shared. Keep reading to get the ball rolling!

Draw Them in With Your Visuals

There’s a reason you keep hearing that people are drawn to visual content online. Time after time, it’s been proven that people interact most with posts that include great visuals, so go ahead and add big, high quality photographs, infographics, and other visuals to your work. Pull quotes from your content that users can easily pin, tweet, or share, and combine just the right amount of text and graphics so that it draws your audience in and they know what the content has in store for them. If something is able to catch your audience’s eyes, they’ll assume that it will catch their friends’ eyes as well.

Encourage Feedback

Any time that you share something, encourage feedback from your fans on what they liked about what you shared, what they think you could do differently or anything else they would add. Not only will this encourage more buzz and conversation centered on you and your topic, but also it will make your viewers feel like they have helped you and been a part of your thought process, as if they have a stake in your brand. This makes it much more likely that they will want to share the things that you generate in the future with their own audiences.

Volunteer to Write Guest Blogs

A great way to gain more than just your usual audience, is by creating blogs and content in more than one place. Reach out to other companies, create alliances and offer to produce a guest blog here and there. This will be a great chance to network with other brands and create connections that can lead to more helping and shares in the future, and, as we said earlier, it will get your information out to even more customers, giving the potential for even more people to share it.

Show Appreciation

So, someone has interacted with your content… your job with them must be done right? Wrong. Marketing online is about more than getting one share or like. Instead, it’s about fostering long-term relationships with your audience. One share is great, but developing a relationship with your audience members that compels them to share even more of your content is even better. You’d be surprised how far a simple, well thought out comment or thank you goes with someone who has chosen to interact with your brand. It provides them with the incentive for more and more interaction. Another great way to show appreciation? Check out their web site or profile to see if you can share anything of theirs and return the favor.

Remember, all of these items are important, but don’t ever sacrifice the quality of your work. Whatever information you put out there should be correct, helpful, and consistent with your brand voice. That, along with the previous tips will give your content a great shot at reaching all types of people.

Do you have any useful strategies that have worked for you? Feel free to let us know in the comments!

The value of social login is enormous: Facebook Login alone converts at 80 percent or higher for many high quality apps, according to a study. We have discussed in the past how businesses can optimize for ROI with social login, but it’s just as important to understand and implement social login best practices so your business can remain compliant with social network policies and provide the best user experience possible.

In this blog post, we’ll go over three ways your business can get the most from your social login implementation.

1. Give social login prominent placement on your site or in your app.

This may seem like an obvious best practice, but it’s important to remember that if users are not aware of the option to use social login, then they won’t use it. In terms of placement, most users are trained to look at the top right section of a page to register or sign-in. Naturally, this is an ideal location to display your social login buttons.

2. Capture data in a permission-based manner and communicate clearly how you plan to use the data.

Protect users’ rights to data privacy by being completely transparent and clear with just how their information will be used before prompting social login. By being upfront and honest about your data usage practices, you can establish trust with users that translates to positive brand perception and loyalty.

3. Don’t ask for more data than you need.

As a general rule of thumb, we recommend that businesses implementing social login refrain from asking consumers to share more information than is necessary for login. Requesting too many permissions at the outset may discourage user trust and prevent first-time users from registering. Furthermore, businesses can request more data from users after the initial registration process, as it becomes more relevant to the user’s experience with the site or app.

Additional Social Login Resources

To help businesses build trust with users and adhere to its privacy policies, Facebook released a checklist detailing its login best practices and policies.

By implementing a social login dialog with multiple social network options, businesses are able to offer consumers the convenience of signing in with their social profiles while providing choices around which social network accounts to associate with their site experience. We’re working closely with Facebook to optimize Facebook Login, with some apps experiencing a conversion rate of up to 90% and greater.

With all the demands on our schedule made by our professional and personal lives, it is usually tempting to grant a lesser priority to Social networking as a business activity.

For Start-up entrepreneurs, there is just too much work to do at home and office with a limited number of resources that it is difficult to set aside extra time for socializing. A dilemma that many start-ups face today is, “How do we find time for Social Media?”

This idea could be amiss because by doing this, you are curtailing your odds for success by not consistently widening your social circles.

When was the last time you updated your followers about your new venture? Umm.. You do not remember? Well, as an entrepreneur ready to take on the world, being too busy for such things could prove fatal for your business. Agreed that Social media can be as time-consuming as a full-time job but you can always find smarter ways to handle it faster. Here are some tips on how to stay afloat:

Planning and Scheduling using a host of Tools

Incorporate automation! Using tools to help you save time so you can get back to the other things that you need to do. There are a lot of free tools that can help to be more productive.

Buffer

Buffer helps you to automatically schedule Twitter updates with just a click. It has lots of features to help you improve your social media presence across a whole bunch of networks. All you need to do is add Tweets and retweets to your Buffer account and they will automatically get spaced out for you.

So it is a great tool for people who don’t have time to spend all day updating their social profiles.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another scheduling tool that helps you save time. Even though you don’t have time to plan each tweet individually, its auto-schedule feature chooses a time to schedule tweets based on when your tweets perform the best.

As an extension in the Google Chrome or Firefox browsers, it automatically schedules content that you want to share. You can also create a Twitter list if you are looking to stay connected with a specific audience for the time being.

Learn to Prioritize

Customize and filter your feeds using Slim. Slim is another app for busy people that sorts through your social networks and discovers important updates from your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn so you can save time and never miss out on important updates. You can also customize your feeds by filtering it with specific keywords.

Not all social networks are worthwhile for everyone. You must first figure out what gives you more value, what is most effective for you. Be selective and save your time wisely. Then focus on building a healthy relation with a handful of people.

You can also read blogs that are important to you using the RSS reader. RSS reader keeps you updated with the latest blog content and news that are relevant to you.

Invest in a Smartphone

The convenience of smartphone applications can save a lot of time, especially if you often spend a majority of your time on the road. You can always be accessible to connect with your customers on the go. It’s a perfect tool to keep your business going no matter where you are.

Twitter

Twitter the best platform to accessible all the time!

@sampad Happy to yap about my startup :) Give me your phone# in a pvt. Or would you prefer an email conversation?

— Gurpreet Singh (@gnurpreet) August 9, 2013

If you are attending a business conference, you can or curate content from there while engaging other attendees. Most conferences have their own hashtag, so people can follow the conversation, even if they are not present at the conference. The Twitter app is available on all mobile devices.

It takes a minute to post pictures, create vine videos, connect instantly and update your followers with the latest updates using a smart phone. You can use time that would be wasted otherwise.

Will be Attending Google India Conference tomorrow In Chennai ..Any Tweeps planing to appear?

— PrithviRaj (@Prithvirules) July 18, 2012

Facebook

Facebook also has a Page Manager smart phone application that will help you manage your Facebook Pages on the go. The app allows admins to update their pages with text, photos, links, etc. from your mobile device. You can also create new Pages and events in your smart phone app.

Furthermore, you can see minute details about your reach, engaged users, post clicks, link clicks, stories created, people talking about, likes, comments and shares for the given post.

Foursquare

Foursquare helps you quickly determine where the best networking is taking place. It is a perfect way to publicize events to a wider audience. Always check in while you are attending industry events like, Tweet-ups, conferences and conventions. It gives you a great opportunity for networking.

Instagram

Use Instagram for your business to tell a story to your followers using cool pictures. Take a moment to display your products in a visually appealing way and people will love to look at it! You can instantly capture behind the scenes and share it with your audience. Trust me, it wont take much time!

Linkedin, Instagram, Google Plus, etc. also have mobile apps so you can access them anywhere.

Have a schedule in place and STICK TO IT

When life gets busy, all you need is a social media schedule and a structure to keep you on track so that you don’t get distracted. You can set regular schedule such as twice every day. Then do a weekly check of your social media activities for reflecting upon strategy. See whether you are going in the right direction make improvements. This will help you to be more focused and productive in the online space.

You can also hire a free-lance social media executive to help with your online presence. And if you are handling it yourself, make sure you read up online on how to do it. Don’t waste time in trial or error.

As an entrepreneur, Social Networking can be a little time consuming but you cannot afford to miss out on the potential that social media offers. Once you try the above solutions, lack of time, will no longer be an excuse. All it requires is a slight shift in attitude, JUST BE SOCIAL and take out sometime and I’m sure you will be glad you did.

Recently a reader asked me if she could “steal” my “Humor In Writing” image to use on her blog, because she liked it so much. I said yes, of course, because I’m nice like that. But I also said, hey – I made it myself using MS Office, my wheezy old desktop here at Chateau StMoo, and my WordPress site.

Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can (assuming you have equipment similar to mine.) It’s easy to make your own. Of course the quality isn’t excellent, but it’s a quick and dirty way to get the job done when you’re in a hurry and can’t afford the proper thing.

Disclaimer: don’t think this means you don’t need good, professional help with design, especially for important things like your branding, website, etc.!

Here’s what I do…bear in mind that the functions may vary a bit depending on which versions of the software you’re using, but you should be able to find equivalents quite easily.

1.Decide what words to feature. OK, a no-brainer, but be sure to know what it is you’re promoting, and what words will resonate with your readers/customers.

2.Open a new document in MS Word. Probably best to select the landscape format rather than the default portrait.

3.Type in the word or words of your logo or other visual. Make sure there aren’t too many words: the fewer the better.

4.Select and deploy “center” and also select a font size of about 14 or more.

5.Scroll through all the type/font styles available on your MS Word or word processing programme.

6.Choose one you like, that makes your text look good.

7.Choose a color you like. If you have a laser printer you can be fairly subtle in your choice, but if you use an inkjet version bear in mind that the printed colors aren’t very bright. I have an inkjet printer and I find anywhere within the red-purple-bright blue range works OK, but other colors are too dull.

8.Raise the size of the font as much as you can. To make more space on the page, change the margins to as low as they will go. The bigger the original image, the sharper it will look when it’s shrunk down and produced to its final size.

9.Print the page out. Scan the page and save it.

10.Get it up on the screen. Right click it and select “open with” – then “Microsoft Office Picture Manager.”

11.Select “edit picture.” Using the menu in the sidebar you can now crop and/or resize the image as you want. If the color looks a bit wishy-washy, select “brightness and contrast” then adjust “midtone” until it looks better and brighter.

12.Save your final edit as a JPG. Then you can upload it to your WordPress blog as you would any other JPG image. Voila!

Marketing is an investment in your business. Creating an inbound marketing plan and implementing the plan consistently can increase your visibility and strengthen your expert reputation. The following marketing mistakes can cause potential customers to question your expertise and move on to evaluating your competitor, hurting your small business and having a negative impact on your success.

Top 10 Marketing Mistakes

1. Not paying attention to details

How people perceive your business is based on what image you project regularly. Whether it is online or off, not reviewing your marketing materials for typos, grammatical errors or other issues that detract from the professionalism projected by your business sends a negative message. If you don’t care to project the best image for your business, what makes a potential client think you will deliver above and beyond when providing services to them? Always have another pair of eyes look at your materials before you publish, both online and in print.

2. Not understanding your customers needs

Do you really know what your potential customers need and want? Do you understand their challenges and can clearly describe how you are the best person to help them? Before you create your marketing plan, you need to define the characteristics of your ideal client, what they desperately need that you can fill and then provide the solution better than anyone else. The more you know about your customers and what keeps them up at night, the more effective your marketing efforts will be. Study your best customers and why they chose your business. Get to know your ideal client intimately so you can produce the results they are looking for.

3. Not staying true to your brand

Your brand is the promise you make to your customers and customers know immediately when there is a disconnect between what you have promised and what they receive. If your marketing activities deviate from the voice and reputation your brand has already established, you run the risk of confusing, disappointing or angering your customers and prospects. Ensure that all of your marketing stays true to your message and the promise of your brand.

4. Not adhering to email marketing best practices

How many unsolicited email newsletters do you get? When I get a real estate agent’s newsletter from Austin, Texas, I know I was added manually! The worse thing you can do to your brand’s reputation is to send unwanted emails “just because you met them at a networking event”.

One of the most powerful resources for marketing your business is your in-house email list full of customers and prospects that are interested in what you have. Use a reputable email service provider (MailChimp, Constant Contact, aWeber, etc) to build your list. Then use email marketing to keep you in touch with your prospects and customers. Ensure you understand email best practices and avoid critical mistakes that can get your small business blacklisted.

5. Believing in and hiring the SEO “expert” that will get your business on page 1 of Google

There’s no magic bullet. There’s no expert that can guarantee first page results. If it sounds too good to be true, most likely it is. Don’t be the victim of SEO and digital marketing scams that prey on small business owners.

Find someone you can trust and can educate you on what will work for your business. It takes time for your business to appear in the search engine results, but be patient and persistent. Implementing a solid content marketing and SEO strategy will have the greatest impact on your business.

6. Using your business name or having no picture of you in your social media personal profiles

People want to connect with you, the person, not your business. If you want to connect with me, please create personal profiles with your name and picture. I want to see who you are, understand what we may have in common and begin to build the “know, like and trust” relationship with you.

In addition to being frustrating, creating personal profiles with your business name and logo violate the terms of service across the board. Facebook has specific terms regarding personal profiles. LinkedIn specifically states to “Use your real name on your profile” and don’t “Upload a profile image that is not your likeness or a head-shot photo. Google+ has a specific policy for Profile Names. In order to participate in Google’s Authorship Program, you have to have a personal Google+ profile with a head shot profile picture.

Promote your business using Facebook Business Pages, Google+ Business Pages and LinkedIn Company Pages. They are designed to promote your products and services and allow those interested in your business, but maybe not you personally, to follow you.

7. Not seeking professional help when creating your brand identity

I’m all for small business owners being in control of their marketing efforts but when it comes to laying the foundation for a consistent online brand, you may want to think twice about creating your own brand, website or social media strategy without professional help.

It is far more cost-effective to create your brand identity right the first time and not waste time creating visibility only to have to start over because your brand isn’t working. Hiring professionals for those areas that require a unique skill – design, development and user experience – can help you get it right the first time.

8. Not reviewing your online reputation regularly

If your business is the type to garner online reviews, you must be aware of what is written about you. Once someone searches for your category and sees what has been published, you either will or won’t be contacted by the potential customer.

As a business owner, you need to do regular searches on your business name and address any issues you may find. Conduct multiple searches including web, images and blogs. If your online reviews look anything like the ones for the company below, you need help.

No business will ever please 100% of their customers and unfortunately, when someone is unhappy, they are more likely to go online and write a bad review. Ask your happy customers to contribute a good review and provide them links to your preferred review pages. Get a few on Google (5 reviews displays the stars), Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Facebook if you have a local business page and any industry specific review site.

9. Spreading yourself too thin

Every business would love to be active on every single social network but for most of us, we have limited resources. Taking on too many social media platforms can backfire. You need to be present and engage with your followers and if you aren’t there when your fans are, you risk social media suicide. Select those social networks that are critical to connecting with your target audience and be there 100%. Once you are able to expand, then add more to your plan.

10. Believing that marketing is an expense, not an investment

If you have the mindset that everything you do in marketing is an expense, ready to cut when things aren’t working just right, then you are setting your business up to fail. Marketing is a process that requires a regular, consistent investment to increase your visibility and demonstrate your expertise. If you stop marketing to cut costs, your marketing efforts, and ultimately your business, will fail.

There are other marketing mistakes that occur within a particular marketing activity, such as poor landing pages, not using effective calls to action or lousy headlines, but these 10 mistakes can take your business out of the competition.

What marketing mistakes have you seen frequently that should be addressed?

In the following post you’re going to get a crash course in the how to market your blog effectively. Whether you’re just starting a blog or you’ve been blogging a while you’ll find this valuable.

You can either market your blog the wrong way, or the write way – a lot of people end up marketing their blog the wrong way because they just don’t know how, and I totally understand why, I did the same thing when I first started.

The truth is, that there is a process that you can go through that will help you get results and ultimately become successful but you need to stop and take a step back from the situation and realise that there are things that you might not be doing as well as you could be doing them.

It’s easy to stop and think that this blogging thing isn’t working and there’s just no way to get traffic to your blog or even make any money from your blog.

I’ve been there, thought the same thing and come to a shocking realisation.

Nothing is impossible

There is always another way to get traffic, a new tactic to help you get more shares, a new idea for a great piece of content for you to create.

If you feel defeated, then it’s not time to retreat, it’s time to regroup, then pick up your sword and shield again and head back out to the battlefield.

Are you ready to start getting real results?

Let’s do it!

Know where you’re going

I speak to all too many people that try hard, put a lot of effort into their blog but still don’t have a goal in mind or any sort of targets.

The problem is that if you don’t know where you’re going it’s VERY difficult to get there.

If you take a look at the success of people who planned things out and set goals of where they wanted to be in maybe 1, 2 or even 5 years’ time and compare their success to those that just “went with the flow” you would notice a HUGE difference.

The truth is planning and setting goals really works. Once you start planning your brain will subconsciously work out ways to help you get where you want to be, it won’t guarantee success but it will get you a damn sight closer to where you want to be.

So if you bring this back to your blog, what this translates to is what you want visitors to do, what the end goal is for them.

This could be buying a product, signing up to a mailing list or purchasing a product through an affiliate link for example.

So think about your visitors, who are they? What are they interested in? What problems can you solve for them?

Write great content

Content is what blogging is all about and it will be your most powerful marketing tool but what’s important to remember is that there is a strong correlation between the quality of content and success.

Sure, there is more to this content marketing thing than just clicking publish, but you have to build on a solid foundation otherwise your content just won’t go anywhere.

So before you start to expect links and shares you need to ask yourself – does my content deserve links, shares and traffic?

If the answer is no, don’t worry because I’m going to help you out with that right now.

I think about it like this: when I read a post, what would I want it to be?

I’ve distilled this down into a framework that I like to call ‘TADUE’:

• Timely (or Evergreen)
• Actionable
• Detailed
• Unique
• Engaging

In addition there are some questions that we need to ask ourselves:

• Is the title compelling?
• Is the content compelling?
• Will your post solve a problem your audience has?
• Does the post add value?
• Do you have a unique angle?
• Does the post encourage engagement?
• Have you checked any facts in the post?
• Does your post include rich media content (video or images)?
• Does this post deserve to be shared and linked to?

We could go on for hours and come up with more questions but these questions along with the ‘TADUE’ framework will make the world of difference.

On a side note: I’d recommend you check out Jon Morrow’s post about power words – this will help you become a better writer.

Types of content

There is so much more than you can do instead of just a straight forward blog post and by varying the types of content you publish you will provide a much better experience for your readers.

Here are a few examples of different types of blog posts you can try:

• eBooks
• List posts
• How to posts
• Industry roundups
• Case studies
• Interviews with industry experts
• Ultimate guides
• Industry predictions
• Infographics
• Video tutorials

Your content doesn’t just have to exist as static blog posts, you could also think about repurposing your content and allowing your users to download it by offering it as an incentive to join your mailing list or by using a social content locking plugin like WP Sharely. Here are a few ideas:

• Images
• Templates
• eBooks
• Podcasts
• Newsletters

You can also think about the different file formats that you can use to use in your mailing list, here are a few examples:

• Google docs
• Word
• Excel/CSV
• Powerpoint
• PDF
• Kindle

You would be surprised how quickly you can put an awesome template together in something like Google docs and it’s something that I will be doing much more in future.

On a side note: if there are any blogging related templates that you would like to see me create, feel free to drop me an email: adam[at]bloggingwizard.com and I’ll see what I can do for you!

Putting great content in front of your target audience

When I started my first blog I had no audience, no traffic and nobody sharing my content – so I put a plan into action and that plan was to map out the influencers in my market and tap into their existing audience base to grow my own.

It turned out to be even easier than I thought because when you help people out by sharing their content and linking to them, good things happen to you.

The worst way to start off is to publish blog posts with the expectation that people should just share your content, read your site and link out to you – it just doesn’t work that way.

Its givers gain.

So start off by sharing other people’s content, linking out to them and most importantly – tell them about it!

Sometimes when you link to people and tell them about it, they’ll share your content or even link to it themselves.

Then you’re instantly exposed to their established audience.

Awesome right?

There’s a few more steps that you can add to this mix too…

Contributing to other blogs

In most niches there are a number of blogs that are usually open to contributions, so when you have built up the content on your blog and have some really great content you should approach the people behind these blogs and ask if you can contribute.

This will instantly get your name out and can be very powerful if you contribute to the right sites.

In most cases you’ll also get a link to your blog and some referral traffic too but that’s not the main reason you should do this, even though a lot of people just contribute to other blogs just to get a link.

You should do this because it makes you more visible and it gets your face out there.

The more you contribute, the more content you write (providing it’s all great content) and the more successful you and your blog will be.

To give you a head start with this, I’d recommend you check out my post on making blogger outreach work for you and my post on sourcing blogs you can contribute to.

Online communities

There are an insane amount of online communities that you can take part in, these include the likes of forums but there’s also some great communities on social media sites, e.g:

• Google+ Communities
• Facebook Groups
• LinkedIn Groups

I have to admit that I never really took much notice of LinkedIn groups until one of my readers shared a blog post there and sent me over 1300+ visits.

I had LinkedIn groups on my list to get involved in more, but it’s one of those things that I just never had time for – as you’d imagine, I’ve bumped this up my list.

Don’t forget about social media communities, they’re easy to contribute to and are a great way to connect with like-minded people.

Just don’t abuse them and fire links into them, if you’re going to use them to promote your content then think about it and try and develop a discussion around the topic of your blog post.

Asking questions will get you better results, won’t hurt your reputation and would take you only a few minutes longer than dropping in a link.

Get social

For some people, social media can be a difficult nut to crack, but I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be difficult and I’ll show you how to make it easy:

What social networks do you focus on?

Lately I’ve become a big fan of Google+ and there are some great reasons why:

There’s also a high correlation between Google+1’s and higher search rankings along with how helpful Google Authorship means that Google+ is something that you need to focus on.

And not to mention where Google +1’s came in this year’s SearchMetrics study:

Source – SearchMetrics Ranking Factors – Ranking Correlation 2013 Study.

So from this it seems Google+, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter are going to be the main ones and while they do correlate to higher search rankings they’re also all very good at referring traffic.

LinkedIn is another big player too, but can often be a more difficult site to get traction with, but when you do get results they will be great.

While thinking about the effect on your search rankings and potential traffic referrals are both important things to think about you also need to think about where your audience hangs out online, I can’t give you the answer because it depends on exactly who you are targeting.

I generally don’t like stereotypes but sometimes in marketing they are a necessity – chances are you’ll find that Google+ is home to the more tech savvy and LinkedIn is more focussed on business for example but that’s not to say that there’s no cross over, because there is.

So think about your audience demographics, their interests and where they hang out online and focus your efforts there but don’t leave other sites out completely because it’s worth keeping a balance here and investing some of your time in all of the major social networks but just investing a bit more time in the one that’s getting you the most results.

When I first started Blogging Wizard I focused too much on certain social networks and pretty much left out particular social networks entirely (apart from the occasional update), one of them being Facebook and while I detest Facebook I do wish I’d built up a stronger presence there.

A few other things to remember:

• Niche social bookmarking – you shouldn’t just focus on mainstream social network sites, because more often than not you can actually get some great results by using niche social bookmarking sites such as Inbound.org, BizSugar and Blokube – there are a lot more than this and they exist in a lot of different niche’s but don’t forget about them because the results you’ll get from these sites can be great.

• Make it easy for people to share your content and find your social media profiles – don’t you just hate it when you try to share a great piece of content but it’s way more difficult than it should be? Or what about when you want to follow someone on Twitter or Google+ but they make it extremely difficult? This doesn’t help anyone, so make your content easily sharable and make your profiles accessible. If you’re using WordPress then check out my post on social sharing plugins here.

• Triberr is awesome and if you’re a regular reader you’ll know that I talk about it a lot, the reason I talk about it so much is because it can be instrumental in putting your blog on the map.

• Make things easy on yourself – juggling a bunch of different social media accounts can be time consuming, so invest some time into finding a great social media management tool and you will find that time consuming tasks take less time and you can focus more time on other things. One of the tools that I use is Social Oomph, it does so much that while being a pro user for months now I still feel like I’m only scratching the surface.

• Tag people and companies you mention in social media updates – I always recommend that you tell people if you mention them in a blog post and it’s important that you let them know on social media too, a great way of doing this is tagging them in posts on Google+ or Twitter. Make sure you check out Kapil’s post on raising eyebrows with perfectly constructed Google+ posts here.

Yes, email marketing still works

I see more and more people saying that email marketing is dead and I admit that it’s not as good as it once was, but it still works.

You may think there’s no point in putting a mailing list sign up form on your blog when you first start, but when you think about how over 70% of people that visit your site will never return, it’s actually really important to start now.

So start off with the right foot forward:

1. Pick an auto responder/mailing list service

There are a bunch of good mailing list providers on the market, I use Aweber (find out why here).

You may want to use a free service like Mail Chimp, but be warned that they don’t allow affiliate marketing so if you’re thinking about using that at some point, Mail Chimp won’t be right for you.

There are also some other limitations on the free account such as no auto responder which can put a crimp in your style a bit.

Once you have picked an auto responder service then get yourself a welcome message setup and if you have some time, plan out an auto responder series.

2. Add an opt-in form to your blog

If you’re using WordPress then this is easy because there are a lot of different mailing list plugins that you can use.

Right now I’m using Hybrid Connect which is easy to use, comes with a lot of templates, allows you to split test your opt-in forms and add them in a number of different areas on your blog. Before you do anything, read my review of Hybrid Connect here.

3. Create a compelling offer

There are loads of blogs, including marketing blogs that don’t offer a very compelling offer – it usually ends up being something like ‘sign up for updates, it’s free’.

If you haven’t put together something you can offer your readers in exchange for signing up then you should make sure you’re at least offering blog updates so that you will at least be capturing some email addresses.

Downloadable PDF’s are usually the most popular type of content to giveaway but you could also try some form of template or even a bundle of PDF reports or eBook’s along with some templates.

That’s what Crazy Egg do and I found that offer compelling, so I signed up:

Note: The book you get (written by Kathryn Aragon) is awesome by the way.

4. Split test and become a winner

Split testing is powerful and you’d be surprised just how much changing something minor on an opt-in form can seriously improve your conversions.

A great example is how Neil Patel removed one form field and improved his conversions by 26% on NeilPatel.com.

Most mailing list plugins have this feature built in, even mailing list services such as Aweber have the ability to do this too so it’s not very time consuming but most importantly you need to keep track of the changes that you’re making, only test between very small changes and ensure that you send a good amount of traffic through to the opt-in – the more the better.

Summary

You have now got a lot of different things to think about and to help you market your blog the write way, but above all else, remember:

It’s easy to be disheartened when you have put your heart and soul into a blog that just isn’t getting results but you haven’t failed – you have just found out how not to market your blog.

Like Thomas Edison said; “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.

Now it’s time to make things work and even if that doesn’t get the results that you want, you’re still learning, you’re still progressing and that’s the important thing.

There are times when I’ve tried things that haven’t worked out, in fact it’s happened a lot, but I’d rather make the mistake and learn from it, that way I know that I can make sure it doesn’t happen again and I can use that mistake to help me succeed with the next idea.

Nothing is out of reach.

What difficulties have you faced with marketing your blog and how have you overcome them?

I’d love to hear more in the comments below.

Photo credit: ntr23 via photopin cc

In the complex arena of social networking, LinkedIn is the often misunderstood giant. The network currently has more than 200 million users, with two more joining every second. With 2.7 million business pages, it’s the biggest professional social network in the world.

Which makes it all the more shocking that so many professionals aren’t using LinkedIn effectively.

Seeing results on LinkedIn doesn’t have to be difficult—but because the network doesn’t follow the same rules as Facebook or Twitter, it’s easy to do the wrong things. Is your small business making these common LinkedIn mistakes?

1. You’re Not Using it at All

LinkedIn is only for people who are looking for jobs, or companies who are looking for talent. Right? Actually, that’s not the case. This business-oriented social network has evolved far beyond its 2003 origins (yes, it’s really a decade old) to a dynamic hub for all types of businesses—and consumers.

According to current data from Wishpond:

• 87 percent of LinkedIn users trust product-related information on the site, and 49 percent trust word-of-mouth brand suggestions
• 77 percent of users research products or services on LinkedIn
• 83 percent of B2B marketers and 51 percent of B2C marketers use LinkedIn
• 60 percent of LinkedIn users have clicked through ads on the site

Your potential customers are using LinkedIn. Why aren’t you?

2. Your Profile is 10 Words Long

If you’ve set up a LinkedIn account and only filled out your business name and contact information, you’re not just wasting an opportunity—you could be harming your reputation. If users see skimpy profiles with minimal information, they’re not inclined to trust that company.

The good news is that you only have to fill out a profile once. If you haven’t done it yet, set aside a few hours to flesh out your LinkedIn profile with a keyword-rich company description and your business accomplishments.

3. You’re Not Sharing Content

LinkedIn may not be the place to talk about what you’re making for dinner or post pictures of your vacation to Cancun, but it’s still a social network—which means it’s all about sharing. Providing your LinkedIn connections with valuable content is a great way to increase interest in your company and generate new business leads.

What should you share on your LinkedIn feed? Post links to your best business blog posts, and any white papers or articles your company produces. You can also share links to articles or papers you’ve found from thought leaders in your industry—which can help you make better connections on LinkedIn.

4. You Don’t Belong to Any Groups

There are more than 1.5 million LinkedIn groups, and 81 percent of users belong to at least one of them. LinkedIn groups can help you build out your connections. They’ll also give you access to resources, tips, and advice for improving your business strategies across the board.

Not sure which groups to join? Look for industry groups that relate to your business itself, and your biggest customer market segments. In most cases, you’ll find the most valuable connections there.

Image via Shutterstock

In the following post you’re going to learn just how easy it is to track the opens and clicks of the emails that using a number of both free and paid tools. I’m also going to give you a bit of insight into the processes that we use here at UK Linkology.

One of the difficulties of tracking the success of a blogger outreach campaign is knowing what is happening with your emails – are they getting responses? Are links in your emails being clicked? Are these even getting a response?

There are a number of blogger outreach tools that I’m including below that have been long time favourites of mine but there are a few fresh faces that I’ve been testing recently and myself and the team here have been having some great success with on our campaigns.

Email tracking tools

Signals

This is a great tool that I’ve been testing recently from the team at Hubspot – as you’d expect you can connect this to Hubspot but it’s also compatible with Gmail and Outlook. The paid version will also give you added Salesforce integration.

Get Signals will help you track the opens and clicks of your emails, the interface is clean and gives you all the information you need to know which include notifications, times, locations and numbers of views.

I also suspect that signals is pulling in Gravatar data for the images of the people behind the email addresses too.

Signals is free to use for up to 200 notifications per month and you can expand that to unlimited for 10$ per month/per team member.

Yesware

Now, I do prefer the Signals interface but Yesware gives you a lot of bang for your buck as you get a system for managing email templates built in along with support for team collaboration and detailed reporting.

Another thing I love is the reminders section, although there are standalone systems like Followupthen.com that you could use instead.

There’s also Salesforce integration too if you need it along with support for a number of other awesome CRM’s such as SugarCRM and Highrise. Premium plans start from $5 per month but you can start off with the free version to get a feel for it.

Banana Tag

Banana Tag is a system that I do need to spend some more time investigating but the set of features does make it look like a very attractive tool for tracking your emails.

It’s got the usual tracking options along with notifications, analytics and the ability to sync with your CRYM.

Banana Tag supports Gmail and Outlook as you’d expect but what really stands out to me is the ability to track emails with other clients – even mobile emails too!

The free account does seem somewhat limited with 5 email tags per day and no reporting but for $5 you can step that up to 100 email tags and your reports amongst some other benefits.

There is also a new team option that does look very useful with integration of Google Analytics – well worth a look.

Effective processes and a bit of perspective

Despite how incredible all of these tools are, I always find myself missing particular pieces of data that would be incredibly useful to know. One of which is the response rate to the number of emails sent for each template.

Now, I know there are tools that will do this, but the problem that I find that we keep having is the reliance on a huge number of different tools which just makes things more complex than they need to be.

That’s why I can never drag myself away from using BuzzStream to manage outreach campaigns, it tells us what we need to know to optimise our campaigns, which templates are performing, which ones aren’t and it keeps everything organised.

Now I understand I’m coming off point a bit here but I want to talk quickly about how we tackle blogger outreach here.

We start off using Inkybee to find blogs, I know that BuzzStream is great for link prospecting too but I just prefer the data that InkyBee brings back which is focused more around audience size, blog activity and engagement. It’s this type of data that we need to look at rather than just looking at the usual SEO metrics because the real truth is that there is more to a link than just the SEO benefit, something Joe Pack talks about here.

InkyBee can help you manage relationships and a good portion of the outreach process, but once we have our list of bloggers we then export it to an Excel document, add filters and cut out blogs below our quality metrics.

We then import everything back into BuzzStream, which will also pull in most of the contact details so we can contact these blogs easily without much hunting around for contact details.

The next step is to start contacting bloggers, now I personally prefer using the BuzzBar because you have everything you need; from the contact info, history and other bits and pieces on the right hand side to the outreach module at the bottom of the screen allowing you to easily access email templates. There’s also site metrics and buttons allowing you to easily cycle through sites across the top.

We don’t just look at site metrics such as domain authority – we look at other quality signals too. After all, there’s more to a site than just Domain Authority or Page Rank, but it services as a benchmark.

Note: For some insight into some of the quality signals that we look at, I recommend checking out this post I wrote for Search Engine Journal a while back.

Once we’ve found a site that meets our quality guidelines we’ll load up a template, personalise it as much as possible and fire it over to the webmaster.

We’re not fans of just blasting dirty and generic emails, some people may be fine with having 0.2% conversion rates, but we’re not.

It’s important to remember that real people engage with real people, and while most people apply this type of thinking to social media, it has a huge impact on blogger outreach campaigns, something I talk about in a lot more depth here.

Another thing to remember is that sometimes just emailing isn’t enough, that’s why we support our blogger outreach campaigns with Tweets, blog comments and other tactics – try going the extra mile and see what happens.

How do you approach your outreach campaigns? We’d love to hear more in the comments below.

Many b-to-b CMOs find themselves in a tricky position. The evolution of the buyer’s journey means that many CMOs and their teams are taking on an expanded scope of responsibilities to reach empowered buyers who are conducting their own research before talking to sales. At the same time, marketing is still struggling to prove its value in many organizations, which typically focus on sales and product management.

As Jay Gaines, vice president and group director at SiriusDecisions, explained in a recent webcast, the only solution for CMOs is to lead a high-performance marketing function. Here’s our earlier post describing Jay’s take on what high-performance marketing isn’t.

Now, the top five characteristics of true high-performance marketing:

Marketing is competent. “Marketing teams cannot expect to drive positive change in the organization unless they are competent in the areas where they are most needed,” Jay said. It’s important to consider both skills and processes. For example, many marketing leaders are too heavily focused on creating strong alignment with sales in the end-to-end lead management process before marketing is able to deliver real leads. Asking sales to start following up on all leads delivered by marketing (or mandating follow-up via a service-level agreement) is a huge mistake if marketing isn’t ready to create and deliver the correct quality of leads.

Marketing is credible. Most CMOs know that both metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are vital. But is each being used for its intended purpose? Jay encouraged marketing leaders to emphasize KPIs, which indicate the health of the business. Metrics can diagnose causes and project likely trends, but they do not clearly communicate progress toward strategic goals. Also, CMOs must pick their battles wisely. Often, attempting to take too much credit in areas like lead attribution from events results in skepticism about any business contribution that marketing reports.

Marketing is accountable.  Earlier this year, Jay called on CMOs to draw inspiration from our Summit keynote speaker, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and “share the terror”. The acceptance of risk and responsibility for actual revenue numbers – a burden that has increased for CMOs in the era of empowered buyers – is a core requirement of high-performance marketing.

Marketing is strategic. To be considered an equal to other senior-level executives, CMOs must act decisively rather than reactively, and use insights and facts to champion their plans. “Don’t ask sales what they need for more leads,” Jay said. “Say you’ve given thought to lead generation and have ideas for how to balance quality and quantity.”

Marketing is integrated. Product management and sales benefit from strong inherent integration with one another. Marketing is not so lucky. “That will always be the case unless marketing is driving better integration and alignment across product management and development, marketing and sales,” Jay warned. CMOs and their teams must also build integration on another front: bridging gaps between offerings and customers.

- See more at: http://www.siriusdecisions.com/blog/the-top-five-characteristics-of-high-performance-marketing/#sthash.jU04jjih.dpuf

Marketing. The colouring in department or an integral function in achieving your business and revenue goals?

More than ever, marketing should have a permanent seat at the board room table. Is your marketing department contributing what they should to your business growth goals? Here are 5 key indicators of a high performance marketing team.

The evolution of the buyer’s journey, whereby newly empowered buyers conduct their own research before talking to a sales person, means that marketing teams are taking on an expanded scope of responsibilities.

This is a real challenge for many marketing teams that are used to operating solely at the top of the funnel, generating awareness. In many firms this activity is far away from where the real action is – generating sales and revenue – meaning marketing teams often struggle to demonstrate value.

SiriusDecisions’ Jay Gaines recently published a great article: The Top 5 Characteristics of “high performance” marketing. It’s an interesting view as it casts a harsh light on the challenges many business leaders and heads of marketing face. Inspired by Jay, here is our take on the top 5 characteristics of high performance marketing:

1. Having a Lead Generation Process

Jay states that marketing teams cannot expect to drive positive change in an organisation unless they are competent in the areas where they are most needed. He highlights the need to consider competence in both skills and processes in order to achieve this. He argues that many marketing leaders ask sales to start following up on all leads delivered by marketing in an attempt to align their efforts with the sales teams goals. A huge mistake when marketing isn’t ready to create and deliver the correct quality of leads.

This means that marketing need to take the time to:

1. Develop a defined set of processes with targeted tactics that attracts high quality traffic to your website
2. Plan a process that converts site visitors in new contacts
3. Develop a lead scoring system to score the quality of these contacts
4. Nurture these contacts to get them to a point where they are ready to talk to sales

Equally, managers need to technology with the capabilities needed to do this, and identify individuals with relevant skills or external partners who understand how to build this lead generation ecosystem.

2. Aligning Marketing KPI’s to Strategic Business Goals

Jay encourages marketing leaders to emphasize KPIs, which indicate the overall health of the business. Metrics can diagnose causes and project likely trends, but they do not clearly communicate progress toward strategic goals.

Digital technology such as marketing automation software gives marketing an unprecedented opportunity to explicitly measure and analyse the key results of their campaigns. Providing full transparent, factual reporting to other departments on marketings contribution to the businesses strategic business growth goals provides a genuinely solid platform for building credibility.

3. Accepting Responsibility for Revenue

The acceptance of risk and responsibility for actual revenue numbers – a burden that has increased for CMOs in the era of empowered buyers – is a core requirement of high-performance marketing.

Data is now easily available for marketers to show every individual tactics impact on revenue. For example, if your marketing automation platform is linked to your CRM, you can easily compare the cost per sale from LinkedIn vs the cost per sale from PPC. Armed with this information, the marketing team need to build a clear plan, (what we call “funnel maths”) which tells them amount of traffic and leads they need to generate in order to hit the business and revenue goals. This means at the very least understanding conversion rates from visitor to contact, contact to qualified lead, qualified lead to customer. This data is what should inform the marketing functions budget, telling them exactly how much marketing needs to be done in order to meet those goals.

4. Decision Over Reaction

To be considered an equal to other senior-level executives, heads of marketing and business leaders must act decisively rather than reactively, using insights and facts to champion their plans. “Don’t ask sales what they need for more leads,” Jay says. “Say you’ve given thought to lead generation and have ideas for how to balance quality and quantity.”

Leaders must give marketing a seat at the board room table, but marketers need to act like business leaders in order to achieve this status. Marketing is increasingly directly linked to revenue generation – being responsible for over 60% of your buyer’s journey (Source: CEB). To NOT take an approach to your marketing that is inextricably linked to business strategy is asking for trouble.

5. Integration with Product Development

Product management and sales benefit from strong inherent integration with one another. Marketing is not so lucky. “That will always be the case unless marketing is driving better integration and alignment across product management and development, marketing and sales,” Jay warned. CMOs and their teams must also build integration on another front: bridging gaps between offerings and customers.

Aligning your marketing messaging to your buyers needs is one thing, but developing your business offering to suit the buyers needs is where the real success starts. Marketing analytics provides invaluable insights into what the market responds well to. Ensuring this information is communicated to product development and sales teams is a key responsibility, as well as a sure fire way to ensure the marketing function is positioned as a leading business function. It is marketings job to step up and be the internal champion of the buyer.

For more information on how well your marketing is functioning download our free ebook on measuring marketing ROI:

I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that it was ultimately the power of thought that solidified Mark Tewksbury’s Gold medal win at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona – or for that matter, the National Synchronized Swimming Team’s four Olympic medals. But I was, and was left remarkably inspired.

I recently met Mark at a leadership workshop. He along with Debbie Muir – who worked with Mark prior to his Gold Olympic win and led the National swimming team to the four Olympics medals – wrote “The Great Traits of Champions”. This is a book that identifies the fundamental traits of achievers, leaders and ultimately their legacies.

Athletes have a tremendous amount of discipline, training and physicality that carry them through to championships. But what we often underestimate is the level of mental training that it takes for these athletes to achieve their goals. The mental roadblocks they work to remove are ultimately what make some champions stand out from the rest.

It’s really no different in life – and business. How many times have we heard ‘Choose your thoughts wisely’ or ‘You are what you think’ or ‘Focus on your successes, not your failures’? But have we actually put that advice to practice?

Debbie did, as she coached the synchronized swimming team and Mark, and that made all the difference. It wasn’t until Mark began affirmation exercises, for a consecutive ten weeks prior to the Olympics in 1992, that he truly believed in his own strength, removed all self doubt and self induced limitations and brought his beliefs to life. What Mark did in ten weeks is change the way he thought about himself in order to win the Gold medal for Canada, and break a world record!

Our thoughts and what we believe about ourselves can either cage or unlock our potential as individuals. But they also unlock the potential of our teams in how we lead them. What I learned from Mark and Debbie is the importance we must put on awareness – awareness of what runs through our head, and how we can use our thoughts to drive action, whether for ourselves or for our teams.

Leaders must create an environment where great things can happen. It’s easy to fall into a pattern where you spend most of your time focused on what is not going well. Yes, time should be spent on that too, but being consistently focused on the negative leads to a decline in the energy and productivity of our teams and the individuals themselves. We need to spend more time focused on what is going right, and we must celebrate even our smallest achievements. Sounds familiar? There is more to it…

When coaching the Synchronized Swimming team, Debbie turned 20 seconds of synchronized brilliance into a 3-minute gold medal performance. She explains how her team was struggling during practice but during her video reviews she found an absolutely perfect 20 seconds of their performance. Rather than improving the remaining 2 minutes and 40 seconds she focused on “the 20 seconds of brilliance” and how to build on it. This type of thinking shifts our awareness, keeps us thinking positively and creates synergy for our teams to deliver at the highest level.

Recognition is an often forgotten trait of great leadership. Praise fuels our energy. “You have no right to be a leader if someone who works for you doesn’t know where they stand,” Jack Welch said in his gruff way. So let’s make it a habit to applaud the contribution of the individuals who have impacted the greater success of the team. Let’s not spend 95% of our time telling the people around us what is wrong, or what can be better. Focus on what they are doing well, find those moments of brilliance in every day, and increase them until they fill our days and the experiences of our customers.

I have already attempted to alter my own behavior – in the office, with my kids and on the ice. I’ve previously mentioned that I coach my son’s hockey team. We are now spending much more time focused on what the kids do extremely well. Also, at ING DIRECT, we are prioritizing for our leaders the requirement to ensure recognition becomes as important to our success as the customer experience, hitting the numbers, etc.

I was inspired by Mark Tewksbury and Debbie Muir. I made a few changes, which I am already observing the benefits of. What will you do to shift the power in your thoughts?

For many B2B organizations, there is renewed energy towards growth. Hesitant during the long crawl of the recession, companies are once again setting more ambitious growth goals. What makes this point in time different is buyers are no longer as they were just five years ago. Understanding buyers in the new digital age takes on new meaning for how companies must adapt and achieve growth.

Leaving Dark Age

Best practices for buyer persona development are making significant advances. Losing the constraints brought on by narrow functional contexts found in product marketing, content marketing, and campaign management. Leading the way are firms integrating buyer insights and buyer personas into enterprise-wide customer-centric capabilities. This represents, from my point of view as a creator, a return back to the roots of buyer persona development. Providing the pillars on which new advancements can rest upon.

Balancing Art and Process

Both the process and the art of buyer persona development are becoming more advanced. The most particular is the recognition buyer personas hold the most value when they are research-based. Several of the notable best practices evolving can be summarized as follows:

• Cross-functional stakeholders involved. In a return to the roots of buyer persona development, B2B firms focused on best practices are taking a participatory approach. As digital touchpoints expand, needs for cross-functional participation is growing. Executive leaders are sponsoring initiatives with an explicit call for enterprise-wide understanding.
• Investing in true standardized qualitative research techniques. The best practicing firms are realizing the value of using techniques, which help to reveal deep and profound buyer insights. Many redo buyer persona efforts are a result of precious time and dollars wasted in win/loss interview approaches not ideally suited for insight gathering. Seeing the value of field-based observations, on-site interviewing, contextual inquiry, digital ethnography, and field ethnographic techniques.
• Expanding beyond the buyer’s journey. Firms, who have been successful with buyer personas, have moved beyond simplistic and generic views related to the buyer’s journey. Realizing expanded views related to buying scenarios, decision flows, and narratives provide the insights needed to understand buyer challenges and goals.
• Going deeper than intelligence. Best practicing firms have begun to distinguish traditional product marketing and sales intelligence from deep buyer insights. Using creative means of story building, resulting from the qualitative research techniques mentioned above, to tell the story of buyers to the enterprise. More importantly, learning to do so beyond status quo intelligence related to buying, such as buying criteria, to a focus on empathetic relations with buyers.
• Focused on attributes of buyer goals. Core to buyer persona development is the understanding of goals. Best practicing firms are focusing efforts on filling the gap, which exist in buyers fulfilling goals. Moving beyond limited insights offered from traditional product marketing and sales views on features, benefits, initiatives, and priorities.
• Placed buyer personas within insights research and decision context. Executives, seeking guidance on important decisions to propel growth, are adopting buyer insights research as a means to help them make choices. Refocusing buyer insights research and buyer persona initiatives away from functional and tactical specific focus to decision-guidance specific initiatives.

Best practices for buyer persona development have become more advanced as the above indicate. As I have engaged in conversations helping people regarding how to gain buyer insights, I have noticed a significant shift. This shift has to do with the unsettling realization the hype about buyer personas, found most often in the content marketing buzz, is not producing the expected results. The reasons are many but can be traced to inadequate research as well as placement in a product-focused or campaign only context.

Getting The Most Value

To get the most value, best practicing B2B companies are committing to research-based buyer personas with a purpose towards gaining deep insights about their customers and prospects. Expanding well beyond product status quo understanding to focusing on the story and narratives of buyers. Doing so by adopting qualitative research techniques, which enable deep insights and informed decision-making.

In September, the CSO Insights 2013 Sales Compensation & Performance Management Report was published. This infographic shows the impact of sales team engagement as reported by the 950 companies that participated in the study.

This post originally appeared on Inbound Sales, a new section of Inbound Hub. You can view the original article here. 

"Another cold call? Really?"

This is something I say daily. I typically get 25 cold calls a day. In the span of a few weeks, a single sales rep will contact me four or five times. Surprisingly, they always leave the same exact voicemail message.

It essentially sounds like this: "Hey, Mark. This is John from XYZ Company. We help companies streamline their sales process and decrease sales cycles by a factor of 40%. Are you free at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow?"

I get this message over and over again. It’s painful. I cringe at the thought of the armies of salespeople out there who are trained to contact leads this way. Newsflash, guys: Old-school cold calls and elevator pitches do not work! Instead of cold calling, start an inbound sales approach by prospecting your inbound leads.

4 Keys to Successful Inbound Lead Prospecting

I’d like to share four tactics we use at HubSpot to successfully prospect inbound leads, because these leads present a big opportunity. If you contact an inbound lead with an old, scripted cold call, you're throwing your advantage out the window. Inbound leads are further down the sales funnel. The buyer’s specific interests and context is the right starting point -- not the generic elevator pitch.

1) Do Your Research

Before you contact an inbound lead, a few additional cycles of investment in researching a lead upfront is well worth your time. Most salespeople are pretty good about reviewing a lead's website to learn about their company’s value proposition, news, and leadership team. However, many salespeople overlook two important areas:

Social Media

Social channels give you better context about who your contact is and what's going on right now in their life and in their company.

What is your contact’s role? How long have they been at the company? Did they come up through marketing? Product? Finance? Who is their boss? Who is their VP? Do they know anyone at your company? Do they know your cousin?

Follow your lead and their company on Twitter. Subscribe to the company blog. Track what your contact is talking about on social media (and what their company is talking about).

Lead Intelligence

Knowing a lot about your prospect gives you detailed context about their interest in your company. How did the lead get to your website? Did they find you from a Google search? If so, what did they search for? Did they find you from another website, an email, or a tweet?

It's also important to know what content they engaged with on your site, what pages on the site they view, and if they checked out content and pricing information.

2) Use Monitoring Technology

If you're about to engage in a number of prospecting cycles with a lead, it's mission-critical to make sure you know if and when a lead actually engages with your prospecting.

Just because they're not calling or emailing you back does not mean you're not piquing their interest. Your prospecting monitoring tools should:

• Notify you the moment a lead engages with a prospecting email you sent them (I personally use the Signals notification tool).
• Notify you the moment a lead revisits your website.
• Notify you the moment a lead mentions you, your competitor, or an industry keyword on social media. 

3) Work the Company, Not Just the Contact

Many salespeople make the mistake of only calling the contact on the lead. The problem with this is the contact is often not the decision-maker. However, someone -- usually a decision-maker -- instructed this contact to do the research.

This inbound lead signals to us that something is going on strategically at the company that is aligned with your value proposition. In some cases, many people may be involved in this research. Here's what a sample engagement strategy may look like.

Contact Lead's Boss First

If your lead is an associate, look up the VP for that department and place a call. Let the executive know that people in their department have been making inquiries with your company on topic XYZ.

Call Prospect With Their Context, Not Your Elevator Pitch

Use lead intelligence and offer specific ways to help. This builds trust and fosters a trusted advisor relationship. It might sound like this: "Hey, Joe. I saw you downloaded HubSpot’s “How to Master Facebook Marketing" ebook. I visited your company’s Facebook profile and have two tips on how you can improve it. I will email them to you now. Let me know if you would like to discuss."

Build on Prospecting Calls With Each Attempt

When you reach out to the lead for a second time, build off of your last attempt. Just because they are not calling you back does not mean they are not listening. Every message is an opportunity to add value for them.

A good follow-up from the soundbite above may be: "Hey, Joe. This is Mark from HubSpot again. I actually found a customer of ours in your industry that succeeded with Facebook marketing. I will send a summary of their strategy and results. Let me know if you want to discuss.”

Use "Always-Be-Helping" Approach

Answer their questions. Don’t hold back information. Once you have their trust, don’t qualify them unless they're a decision-maker. Instead, ask them who requested that they conduct this research and why. Also, ask what is on their executives’ minds. If you truly have your contact's trust, they will help you help them.

Let Lead Know You Contacted VP

Ask them if it's okay to keep the VP in the loop. As you nurture the relationship with the influencer, this gives you the opportunity to keep the decision maker updated and invite them to join.

4) Add Science to Your Prospecting Calls

Whether your sales team is 2,000 people or just 2, you will eventually amass a number of prospecting attempts -- some that succeed and some that don't. Track these attempts. Analyze the results. Iterate your strategy based on this data. Every buyer context is different. Set yourself up to master your own.

What are some of your best practices when it comes to prospecting? Let us know some of your tips and tricks in the comments below!

One of the things I enjoy most about working for AG Salesworks is that we’re a people-first company. I know it sounds hokey, but it’s true. If we didn’t take care of the things that make us go, then we would have folded up shop long ago.

It takes a unique level of toughness to cold call throughout an entire day with a smile. Don’t get me wrong – there are going to be days when you feel a bit beaten up. If you can maintain that positive energy even when that not-so-positive prospect tells you where to stick it, then I feel it’s safe to say you’ve won. This is a mindset that we instill with all of our new hires when they come on board. It’s important for them to know that this job is not going to be a breeze on certain days, but with the appropriate mindset they will overcome the tough days… and believe me, there will be tough days. If it were easy, every sales guy/gal would include it in their daily routine… but they don’t… because it isn’t.

I’ve recently made a move into a new job here at AG. Within the new role I’ve become more focused on helping the managers and directors with the challenges they face day-to-day. As much as I’ve liked it so far, I’ve found myself trying my best to remain connected to the true heartbeat of the organization: the business development reps that make AG go every day. Luckily for me, this is something I gravitate towards, but from my experience it’s been typical in other organizations I’ve worked for to see managers disappear from the scene. It’s definitely understandable since technically they are not directly involved with their former employees’ development any longer, but when taking on a larger role I feel it is still your responsibility to keep your finger on the pulse of the organization by remaining in regular contact with the people in the trenches.

I was speaking with my COO this morning and he had an interesting spin on how we should look at the organization as a whole. He said that managers should always approach their job with the best interest of their employees in mind. Meanwhile the employees should have the best interest of the clients in mind. They really are interchangeable. This has been the mantra of AG since I started here back in ’04.

Now I realize this is Operational Management 101, but it is clearly not obvious enough for many companies. If you’re spending all of your time working out issues with your customers and not enough time on your employees, you’re most likely never fully going to work out issues with your customers.

The baseball playoffs just wrapped up and Paul Hennessey, EVP, BayGroup International (a Corporate Visions Company), mourns the recent loss of his Oakland A’s to the Detroit Tigers and recalls the famous quote “There’s no crying in baseball!” from the movie  “A League of Their Own.” Tom Hanks’ advice, as a coach of a women’s professional baseball team, isn’t just for baseball fans or players. Sales leaders and their teams may feel just as frustrated as they negotiate b2b sales in a challenging environment.

Paul offers three best practices to help sales teams shift from lamenting about the environment, to creating positive results:

1. Focus your sales force on broadening the discussion of value;
2. Coach your team to exchange rather than concede value; and
3. Embed a simple coaching process.

Read Paul’s entry on the Demand Gen Report blog for the details.

Dismantling the Sales Machine, by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon and Nicholas Toman in this month’s Harvard Business Review is a well-timed and well-aimed shot at what has become entrenched “wisdom” in selling today. If you’re in sales management, you should get your hands on the entire article. I would first like to summarize the main points of the article, and then give my own commentary.

The title is a bit misleading. The “machine” they urge to be dismantled is not the sales organization; far from it: sales today is even more important than ever. The machine that should be dismantled is the current sales process. The authors’ first point is that the current fixation on process discipline is broken, and is causing all kinds of woes such as lower margins, longer sales cycles, and less reliable forecasts. The reason is that buyers are engaging suppliers much later in their own process, so that they already have defined their needs and identified available solutions. What remains is a competitive process in which suppliers have little room to do anything but respond as quickly as possible with the lowest possible price. So in order to compete, managers stress strict compliance with sales process and discipline, to give the sales force a chance to respond faster and more efficiently than the competition.

Second, the only way to rise above this squeeze is to change the game by challenging the customers’ thinking and offering unexpected solutions, and this can only be done early in the sales cycle. The emphasis has to go from efficiency of response to the effectiveness of demand creation. While efficiency is best promoted by flowing the shortest distance between two points, there is no one best way to proceed through the sales cycle, so there is a premium on individual judgment and creativity in finding ways to shape the customer’s thinking about the situation.

The hard part, of course, is moving from the first point to the second, and this where sales management has to radically change its approach, in several ways. At the risk of oversimplification, they are:

• First, managers need to learn to let go and become facilitators and coaches instead of enforcers, because salespeople who are smart and adaptable sales reps who have the confidence to challenge their customers will not submit to tight command and control.
• Because insight-based sales require a longer-term focus, managers need to focus on long-term measurable results rather than a short-term focus on activity, and add value by helping reps think creatively about ways to change their customers’ thinking.
• Measurements have to focus on outputs rather than inputs.
• Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is no longer enough. Sales forces have to hire for IQ, critical thinking skills and judgment. Their own research shows that only 17% of current sales reps have the competencies needed to succeed.
• The climate and incentives also have to change. These types of sales reps are not as “coin-operated” as transactional reps; they will thrive in a climate that provides the intrinsic motivations of autonomy and more meaningful purpose.

Commentary

First of all, I agree with and applaud the general theme of the message. I applaud the emphasis on judgment, critical thinking and creativity on the part of reps. In my more than two decades of sales training, invariably the members of the sales force who stand out are those who go beyond the confines of their job description and see themselves as business problem solvers for their customers.[1] Unfortunately, they haven’t always had the support of their management in their efforts, so the fact that an influential publication such as the HBR gave them a forum for these ideas gives me encouragement that—just maybe—life will become easier for these top salespeople, and by extension better for their customers.

At the same time, I don’t agree that sale processes need to go away. In fact, the authors themselves say, ”Our data do not suggest that process and structure are always bad.” (As in their past writings, they set up a strawman that helps them emphasize their points.) Process should not go away, but it does need to be modified. Sales organizations tend to begin with a general, loosely structured set of activities that emerge from successful sales efforts. When these are used as guidelines they are immensely helpful in disseminating effective practices and bringing up the general level of performance. But good processes go bad because they tend to be evolve into tools for management convenience than for sales effectiveness. They gradually shift their focus toward activities and precise inputs because they are easier to measure and track than more vague outputs and customer agreements. Eventually they become ends in themselves rather than a means to an end, particularly when they are housed in those shrines called CRM systems.

But I digress…the article actually advocates its own “new” process, which differs from the old bad process in two ways. First, the sales funnel should be “customer-verified”, meaning that progress in the sales cycle is tracked by meaningful steps taken by the customer, such as running a pilot application or agreeing that status quo is untenable. Second, process activities need to be front-loaded, so that more work is done early to create the right kind of demand, not simply to respond to it when it’s too late to do anything about it.

Finally, I enjoy it when a new publication comes out from this trio of writers, because they actually do a great job of eating their own dog food. Their entire approach to selling is to provide disruptive insights, and I predict this article will toss a few bombs into more than a few boardrooms. Regardless of whether you agree entirely with what they write, they always make you think, and that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

 

Webinar content is as important as demographics when qualifying leads. As discussed in my previous blog, webinars are a tactic – it’s the content that determines where the webinar falls in the B2B marketing lead gen funnel. The webinar content will therefore tell you what stage the buyer is in and what they are interest in.  It will dictate which webinar registrants are simply contact acquisitions and which ones are truly sales ready.  Knowing the difference will improve the quality of leads you send to sales and build the sales team’s trust in your marketing leads.

For example, thought leadership or best practice webinar content types are great for contact acquisition, but do not generate sales-ready leads as these content types do not indicate shopping behavior.  Attendance at a webinar product demo or competitive comparison review however would definitely indicate shopping behavior and readiness for sales follow up.

Not only does content type indicate buying stage but it can tell you a lot more about the individual’s interests and needs.  Using webinar content to determine this information is especially helpful if your product offers multiple solutions or you target several different audiences.

I’ll use my own webinar program to illustrate what I mean…

The product I market offers multiple solutions, two of which are our main focus (eLearning and marketing webinars).  I use a monthly best practice solution webinar focused on each solution at the top of my funnel. I spend most of my budget driving registration to these webinars and I do NOT send these registrations to sales. I consider them contact acquisition. However, these webinars are super valuable to me because they tell me one extremely important thing about the folks that register: they are exactly the people I need to reach about my product.  If contacts attend a webinar on eLearning best practices, for example, that tells me that they are either interested in starting an eLearning program or already have one in place.

Now, if I were to hold a webinar about general web conferencing that encompassed a generic overview of best practices for all the possible solutions web conferencing offers, I would not be any closer to understanding how the webinar registrants use web conferencing or what solution they are interested in. This is a false start and I would have nowhere to go with these contacts from this point. Additionally, my registrations would be low because, in today’s digital age, no one has time to weed through irrelevant information to get at what they need.

However, since I’ve used the content of my webinars to determine solution of interest (regardless of title I might add – because titles do not tell the entire story), I ask each separate group to attend a demo of my product based on the solution they showed interest in. The demo webinars are geared toward each specific solution so that we are only showing off the product as it relates to the audience’s specific interest. If a contact attends one of these webinars we understand that they are at least interested in seeing what our product has to offer and may be shopping.  I definitely send these leads to sales, and sales knows exactly how to craft the conversation because the content of the webinar tells them the solution of interest.

After this step we then ask registrants from the upper-funnel webinars to attend a competitive comparison webinar.  If the contacts sign up for this webinar, the comparative nature of the content tells me they are most definitely shopping and comparing their options.  I happily send these leads to sales with confidence.

It’s all about relevancy and delivering what individuals need at the right time.

Can you think of ways to use webinar content to qualify your leads and send valuable information to sales at the same time?

For additional articles on webinar best practices, visit my blog here.

According to business writer Robert Shaw in his 1991 book, Computer Aided Marketing & Selling, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is “a model for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support.”

But how is it that overall, the rank and file haven’t fully embraced CRM systems?

According to Mike Williams, VP of Operations at Point N Time Software, “it mostly comes down to one thing—CRM systems are complex and often hard to use. Many times, they’re little more than a bureaucratic tool.” I happen to agree with him.

Point N Time Software is the maker of an app called Meeting Mapper, recently selected by Salesforce for their Mobile App Showcase at Dreamforce ‘13. In an interview last month, I asked Williams why companies would choose to incorporate an app like this with their CRM system, particularly when they are already difficult to use, and because it would mean also having to learn how to use the app as well as continuing to struggle with the CRM system.

“As you say, a CRM system is far from simple,” says Williams. “First of all, the challenges of a complex system require sufficient training in order for those who use it to comprehend and deal with the system effectively. One of the ways an intuitive app can help is that it encourages the user to outline the meetings (e.g. goals and objectives), document meeting attendees and document the important information that comes from the meeting. Then you can back into any  mistakes from this point.

“You also have to consider the initial issue of the expensive costs incurred with the implementation of a CRM system. Then, the additional expense that comes from the computer hardware, software and personnel that is needed to maintain it can also cause a certain amount of negativity within a company. Beyond that, the issues are considerable:

1. Companies often have inadequate focus on objectives.
2. Even when CRM systems have been implemented, hard times often cause companies to lose sight of goals.
3. Insufficient resources as a result of initial exorbitant costs usually result in organizations tightening budgets for the next phase.
4. Failure to utilize necessary resources on hand can result in system failure.
5. Inappropriate metrics can cause issues with a CRM system. Specific goals require specific metrics. Choosing the wrong methods of measurement can cause a system to work inadequately.”

Many companies have found that combining a CRM system with an effective sales meeting app allows for the full value of a CRM system by populating it with data that counts. “The data entered into CRM systems like Salesforce via a powerful app allows companies to reduce the cost of their sales pursuits,” says Williams. “This is accomplished by using the data to mentor more junior sales reps and to coach all sales reps.  By using an intuitive app and the sales intelligence it provides, it becomes readily apparent which deals to kill, thus saving money on deals that will never close.”

Tips for Choosing the Best Sales Meeting App

Considering all the issues, I asked Mike Williams to give me some solid tips as to how best to make use of a CRM system and how to choose the best accompanying app:

1. Companies need to keep in mind that the business needs are the most important.
2. Problems arise when companies gain needed technology only to discover it doesn’t solve their main problems. A company should always analyze their business problems first and then find the appropriate CRM solution, not the other way around.
3. A company should never forget that a CRM system is based on the customer— employees must never lose customer focus.  It’s essential for companies to make consistent efforts to focus their team on the customer; first, last and always.
4. CRM systems usually give off slow returns. Companies have to be patient and not lose sight of their goals when results aren’t immediate. So long as a company stays focused on their strategy and follows through with the entire process, they’ll be making solid use of their system and can reap great financial rewards as a result.
5. Whatever app a company chooses, always make sure it works for all platforms—iPads, phones, computers, etc. Make certain it’s an intuitive app for planning, running and concluding successful business meetings. The best of them will be built by sales pros for sales pros.
6. Sales meeting apps should be used in a way that allows users and managers to gain insights into their sales pursuits.
7. The data entered should be actionable. For example, the roles and stances of each individual in every meeting should be easily defined.  Based on data like this, sales tactics and strategies can be formed.
8. Apps should provide an easy to use interface. For example, when using our system with Salesforce, it allows data to be automatically populated in the appropriate objects.
9. I think it’s fair to say that the typical sales rep that has an average of 10 sales meetings a week. A well-designed app will save them multiple hours a week in data entry alone.
10. Focus on the people you are meeting, not your gadgets!

Think Before You Buy

From my years of working with sales reps, account managers and the systems we all used, I know for a fact that the best applications have the potential to transform the way businesses operate for all users, customers and employees. But there are a few questions worth asking yourself before you take the dive into buying an app to use with your CRM system:

1. Does the app bring people together by offering real and relevant business value?
2. Does it provide options for collaboration?
3. Does it allow for connections between every facet of your business?
4. Does it prompt people to engage?
5. Does it intuitively compliment your CRM system with appropriate functionality?

These and other points like those made by Mike Williams should all be kept in mind before moving forward with plans to take the next step. I can’t begin to describe how bad my own experiences have been when owners refused to think things through and wound up with expensive systems in place that just didn’t meet the needs of anyone involved. It’s the sort of thing that causes endless frustration for those who are forced to try and “make the system work.”

You can’t make something work that isn’t right for your business. And the best way to know what’s right is to ask questions, know your companies needs from all perspectives and make everyone on your team a part of the selection process. That sort of collaboration will pay dividends when it comes to system implementation.

Have you done your CRM/Sales App homework? If not, perhaps you should start today…

Sales Training Article: The Importance of Internal Selling

John Holland, Chief Content Officer, CustomerCentric Selling® - The Sales Training Company

Image courtesy of JSCreationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As sellers become competent they realize that to do their jobs, beyond selling to prospects and customers they also have selling that needs to be done within their organizations. Rather than hoping a buyer will choose to spend money, sellers may instead be hoping someone in their management team will provide something needed to realize favorable outcomes in account situations. It could be support, resources, terms, conditions, pricing concessions, etc.

After sales executives attend CCS® public sales training workshops to evaluate our process, I'm been surprised more than a few times by people that wanted to move forward. They'd just spent 3+ days being shown techniques to ask buyers questions because most people don't want to be told what to do. With all that behind them, many say: "I'm going to tell the CEO/CFO we need to do this." My suggestion is that they try to determine what benefits implementing sales process can be realized and relate potential value before asking for funding.

Competent sellers often get sloppy when "selling" within their organizations by just telling what they want. A potentially better way is to start by supplying background information and gaining agreement that the points raised are valid. It allows the person you're talking with to evaluate the impact/value of granting your request and can empower them to do so.

As competing sellers vie for budget/funding with prospects, so it is that sellers compete for internal resources. Those that express their needs in ways that show how revenue can be impacted will have a better chance of getting what they want. In doing so, they also arm managers to explain/defend their decisions to give you resources.

Help the person making the decision realize what's at stake and the potential benefit of agreeing to your request.

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Need some help with your sales performance? Take a look at the sales training workshops available to you and improve sales performance.

Read more sales training articles from CustomerCentric Selling® - The Sales Training Company.

When I began my career as an entry level salesperson for a major oil company I was required to debrief every single sales call. Back then I dictated everything into a recording device. It was then transcribed and circulated to the sales and management team.

The debrief is a skill that surprisingly few people practice.

The reason I know this is because while operating my mainstream, brick and mortar landscape business I had to teach this practice to nearly every new team member. Naturally, I also made it one of our standard business practices.

Debriefs Give You and Your Customer Confidence

These days there is no excuse for not taking a moment to record what happened that worked, and that didn’t.

You can use mobile apps such as Dragon Dictation, dictate or write an email to yourself, or simply write down your notes and send them to Dropbox or wherever in the cloud you like to store your content using the Genius Scan app.

Ideally, you should be saving this information into your Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) to build a history of your interactions with every customer, and the projects you are executing for them.

If you just invested an hour or more with your customer, doesn’t it make sense to take a few minutes to capture the most relevant outcomes?

Part of our landscape sales process was to take a few minutes after our meetings with prospective buyers to compare our respective understandings. Invariably, we had the same understanding. This gave us confidence for successfully moving forward.

In my work now as a professional speaker I share my assessment of our collaborative efforts with my clients.

They loved getting this unsolicited and honest feedback. More often than not they too respond that their analysis from audience evaluations was congruent with it.

Congruency builds confidence and closes deals, but it won’t just come to you. You have to actively find it and capture it in writing. .

Most important is to WRITE DOWN your immediate thoughts while the experience is fresh in your mind. Fortunately, my plane ride to the next destination is an ideal time for doing this.

This is the single most important tactic for refining your sales process, especially if things did not work out as planned, but also to capture what worked out well. You may not forget what didn’t work, but you will easily forget those little things that can make your work with future customers even better.

Write it down and use it to refine process.

How a Customer Debrief Works To Build Trust

It’s simple. Just ask yourself (or with your team) what worked – and what didn’t.

#1 – Start by writing down the first thing that comes to mind. Give it some thought, but don’t overanalyze.

#2 – Keep writing. This will liberate your thoughts as you relive the experience. If hindsight is 20/20, then this is a great way to capture new insights.

#3- Jot down trigger words. You will discover there are certain words or phrases your prospective buyers repeatedly use. When writing them put them in quotes to indicate they are the exact words they used.

When you next communicate with them after that, use these exact words. They will resonate, and instantly communicate that you understand them in a meaningful way.

Listen, understand, and acknowledge. I’s a surefire way to build trust.

In a world where so many are just scratching the surface, the ones that go deeper will win the trust and loyalty of their prospective buyers.

Should your sales and marketing teams be debriefing and learning from their interactions with customers?

Jeff is also the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley 2013)

Photo Credit

According to projections by Gerhard Gschwandtner (CEO of SellingPower magazine) and others, we’re going to need to employ far fewer sales people by the end of the current decade – and the trend is already kicking in.

From the demand side, there are many explanations for this trend – amongst them the modern, digitally-savvy prospect’s understandable tendency to delay wanting to engage with a sales person until far later in their buying decision process, and the rise of “self-service” B2B sales models.

Traditional behaviours are increasingly irrelevant

And from the supply-side, despite the fact that the one thing that a bad sales person typically can sell is themselves, profiling tools are making it a lot easier to recognise the common characteristics of top performing sales people and to avoid hiring duffers – If only we knew what to look for, because that has changed.

The changes in buying behaviour – as evidenced by the research that led to the publication of The Challenger Sale – also mean that traditional “relationship” or “solution” sales behaviours are becoming increasingly ineffective, irrelevant and downright irritating to the modern buyer.

Riding the downward curve

Whether you agree with the size and scale of the downsizing – Gschwandtner controversially predicted that, of the 18 million salespeople currently in the United States, fewer than 3 million will be needed by 2020 – there’s clearly a fundamental change underway.

Whatever the slope of the curve, we’re clearly going to need fewer out-and-out B2B sales people. We manifestly need far fewer of the old-fashioned ogres, and the sooner we flush them out, the better. But there’s an obvious consequence: we need the remaining members of the sales species to be far smarter.

We need a new level of sales intelligence

The modern sales person can’t rely on a sales script, or a rigid sales process. They have to be smart enough to able to listen, react and adapt to what’s going on around them whilst still keeping control of the sales conversation. They need to be able to add value to every customer interaction, and to help the prospect see things from a fresh perspective.

After every conversation, we want every qualified prospect to feel that they learned something useful from the discussion, and that they want to learn more. By the way, we’ve still got a long way to go: a recent Forrester study revealed that only 1 in 8 meetings with a sales person were rated “valuable” by the prospect.

Intellectual intelligence is necessary but not sufficient

Some level of raw intellectual intelligence is obviously necessary, as is a strong sense of “always be learning” curiosity on the part of the sales person. But that of itself is not enough.

We need our sales people to be emotionally intelligent – they must be able to “tune in” to the prospect and to establish rapport with them…

We need our sales people to demonstrate digital intelligence – they must be able to master the new rules of web-based information gathering…

We need our sales people to demonstrate cognitive intelligence – they must have the ability to reason, and to uncover the patterns in the information they are absorbing…

…and we need our sales people to be socially intelligent – they must be able to actively participate in social media and not just use it as a research tool

Training isn’t enough

Some of these forms of intelligence can be clearly taught, but some of them are innate. Some of the old school battle-wagons are simply going to be unconvertible – and the kindest thing to do for them would be to help them recognize and confront the issue. It may be time for a new career.

Is this person smart enough to work for us?

I think that some of the key questions that interviewers probably need to ask themselves when evaluating potential new sales hires are:

Is this person smart enough to work for us? If they aren’t likely to measurably move the average intelligence of your sales force up a few notches, they probably aren’t good enough to join them

Is this person smart enough to have their prospects believe that every interaction has been worthwhile? If not, and if you care about your brand, they probably aren’t good enough to represent you

Does this person visibly demonstrate a balance of intellectual, emotional cognitive and digital intelligence – and yet still have the potential to develop further? I guess you know the answer to this one

In a world of fewer, smarter sales people…

We’re heading towards a world of fewer, smarter sales people. How many of your existing sales people are going to be able to shape up? And if they are not, are you prepared to wait for your sales numbers to fall into irreversible decline before you do something about it?

Social Media Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that collects and delivers the top social media news first thing every morning. You can sign up to receive Social Media Insights here or at the bottom of this post.

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According to the 2013 TCS Global Trend Study, only three business functions actively monitor social media dialogue to inform their work:

• 69% Marketing
• 58% Sales
• 49% Customer Service 

There are numerous other business functions that could be doing a better job of leveraging social media. For example, only 27% of professionals who work in Research & Development and 37% who work in Product Management are actively listening to conversations on social media.  (TCS) 

In Other News ...

Instagram announced plans to launch an app for the Windows Phone in the "coming weeks." (The Verge) 

At one point on August 3, Twitter processed 143,199 tweets per second — a new record. Chatter on the social network peaked during an airing of Castle in the Sky, an anime film that aired in Japan. (Mashable) 

Twitter's content is being integrated with Airtel Digital TV in India. Similar to recent partnerships in the U.S., users will be able to view tweets related to live programming. (CNET) 

Twitter is now more important to teens than Facebook, according to a survey conducted by Piper Jaffray, an investment bank. (Piper Jaffray) 

36% of people who have joined Twitter say they no longer actually use the service, and 7% have closed their account. (Reuters) 

According to KISSmetrics, photos on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs achieve 53% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more click-throughs. (KISSmetrics) 

Join the conversation about this story »

Pinterest users follow an average of 9.3 retailers, while Pinterest shoppers in the USA are also spending on average between $140-$180 per order, compared to the $60-$80 Facebook and Twitter shoppers are spending.

The business case for investing in Pinterest is well past the tipping point. With over 70m global users, Pinterest is now the third most popular social network, and there are claims that Pinterest, in many cases, drives more sales than Facebook.

So what can your business do to engage with this rich seam of potential customers?

The key advantages of Pinterest

Pinterest is by its very nature a visual medium. Everything you post is an image and therefore an immediate way to grab the attention. Be bold, bright and colourful at all times.

Pinterest is extraordinarily sticky,  users spend more than an hour and a half on the site every month, sharing and resharing content. It’s a site that's very easy to get lost in, so retaining the user’s interest is key. Therefore the more varied and interesting your content is the better.

Pinterest is basically a viral marketing machine. Over 80% of content consists of repins. Users actively promote your brand for you. In fact 70% of brand engagement on Pinterest is generated by users themselves, not brands.

New Pinterest features to help your business

Pinterest has rolled out three new features over the last few months to help businesses use Pinterest effectively and drive sales.

Rich Pins

Pinterest are improving pins by automatically including updated details. For instance, reviews of films, ingredients for recipes and, more importantly for ecommerce, price and availability of products. 

 

Getting started is a fairly easy process of prepping your own website with meta tags, testing out your rich pins and applying to upload them on Pinterest. 

This is well worth doing as pins with prices attract 36% more likes than those without.

Pinterest price alerts

Pinterest debuted price alerts in August. If the user has an unpurchased product pinned to their board and it becomes cheaper, Pinterest automatically sends an email informing them.

The user doesn’t have to do anything, and notifications will be grouped together in as few emails as possible to avoid clutter. 

This is a simple, and effortless way to drive sales to your store. Email open rates are four times higher for triggered emails rather than newsletters. You just need to do lots of competitor analysis to take advantage of it.

Promoting pins 

As of this month, Pinterest is trialling promoted pins.

Working much like regular pins, these will have a special promoted label.

Pinterest has promised to keep these tasteful and transparent with clear ‘promoted’ labelling, and relevant to the user.

Facebook led the way with promoted posts on users’ walls, and Twitter rolled them out on timelines last year.

Cadbury has recently seen great success with its promoted Facebook ads so it’s highly likely Pinterest’s trial will be a success, especially coupled with Pinterest users’ higher than average spend and engagement.

Check out this post for recent examples of brands who are nailing Pinterest, highlighting how you can improve boards, pin items in an attactive, relevant way and therefore drive more sales to your ecommerce site.

For more advice on how to use Pinterest, read our Pinterest for Business Best Practice Guide.